The goal of this study was to explore the processes of group role formation in online class settings. Qualitative analysis was used to code chat logs and discussion threads in six undergraduate Family and Consumer Sciences online courses that required online group projects. Four themes related to the process of group role formation emerged:…

What does it take to be an effective online educator? Can those who teach successfully face-to-face be equally effective online? This article details a descriptive qualitative research study of students' perspectives regarding qualities of exceptional online educators. Participants described interactions they had with online teachers they…

Based on a three-semester design-based research study examining learning and teaching in a web-conferencing environment, this article identifies types of synchronous collaboration competencies and reveals their influence on learning processes. Four levels of online collaborative competencies were observed--operational, interactional, managerial,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of student-community engagement in ensuring relevance of higher education to civil, social, economic and moral issues. It reviews the literature around three inter-related themes: calls for higher education institutions to engage with their communities; the kinds of attributes university…

Drawing upon a review of relevant literature, this paper provides an overview of the treatment of classroom management in teacher education and teaching around the world. Six approaches to classroom management are distinguished: classroom management approaches that focus on external control of behaviour, on internal control, on classroom ecology,…

Teachers can profit from a solid knowledge base that can function as a frame of reference to help them organize their thinking. However, theoretical knowledge is easily "washed out" during the first confrontations with practice. For this reason, several Dutch university-based teacher education programs use a realistic approach to teacher…

In the United States, an increasing number of new teachers are being prepared through alternative, or early entry, routes into teaching. These new forms of teacher preparation raise important questions about how and in what ways candidates are being prepared, particularly in key areas such as classroom management. To shed light upon these…

This qualitative study focused on the experiences and perceptions of 12 teacher candidates as they completed a six-week rural internship experience. The main objectives of the study were to: (a) describe the learning experiences of teacher candidates as they live and teach in rural communities; (b) examine how teaching and living in rural…

In our paper, we examine how classroom management is taught in teacher education in Israel. Three questions are addressed: (1) What is the structure of programs for classroom management (site, timing, duration, number of courses, mandatory/optional)? (2) How is classroom management conceived (technical/pedagogical, individual/systemic)? (3) Does…

The main objective of this research was to validate the effectiveness of Wikideas and Creativity Connector tools to stimulate the generation of ideas and originality by university students organized into groups according to their indexes of creativity and affinity. Another goal of the study was to evaluate the classroom climate created by these…

In a regional young-earth creationist museum, objects are presented as if they speak for themselves, purportedly embodying proof that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, that humans have lived on earth throughout its history, and that dinosaurs and humans lived simultaneously. In public lectures, tours, and displays, museum associates…

This article presents a supplement to Coelho's excellent article concerning the definition of force by first defining mass and then momentum. Replacing force with the concept of a field is also briefly noted.

Galileo's telescopic discoveries of 1609-1612 provided a crucial, although not conclusive, confirmation of the Copernican hypothesis of the earth's motion. In Galileo's approach, the Copernican Revolution required that the geokinetic hypothesis be supported not only with new theoretical arguments but also with new observational evidence; that it…

Many authors have discussed the question "why" we should use the history of mathematics to mathematics education. For example, Fauvel ("For Learn Math," 11(2): 3-6, 1991) mentions at least fifteen arguments for applying the history of mathematics in teaching and learning mathematics. Knowing "how" to introduce history into mathematics lessons is a…

The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of gender and gender pairing on students' learning performances and knowledge elaboration processes in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). A sample of ninety-six secondary school students, participated in a two-week experiment. Students were randomly paired and asked to solve…