Building a strong and vibrant school community is a vital component of fostering an environment where students thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. The APPLE Schools (appleschools.ca) health promotion project identifies eight essential elements that provide a steady formula for cultivating this environment. Backed by world-class…

Physical educators may be hesitant to adopt cooperative learning in their classes because they are concerned that a focus on socioemotional learning may reduce motor skill development. However, cooperative learning can increase physical activity engagement and interpersonal skills. This article demonstrates what cooperative learning can look like…

The Reflective Interaction Observation Scale (RIOS™) was developed as a research tool to identify the extent to which a supervisory session demonstrates a reflective process grounded in infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) principles and practice. It is aligned with the competencies of the Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive,…

Faculty often report limited student engagement in their economics courses. This deficiency makes it challenging for educators to excite students about our field, a situation that could have ripple effects in terms of the number of students who graduate as economics majors. For students, the lack of classroom engagement makes it unappealing to…

Learning can happen anywhere but it often happens best when it occurs in connection with others. When the COVID-19 pandemic happened and caused many institutions to move all instruction to virtual modalities, many faculty and students expressed feelings of isolation and loneliness. In addition to that, anecdotal conversations with faculty and…

Purpose: To detail the revised Essential #1. Design/methodology/approach: This is a description and case study of Essential #1. Findings: This article includes the following elements: details of the rationale behind the revisions to the Essential; highlights of the specific changes to the Essential; and definitions of the key concepts related to…

Cooperative learning is associated with a variety of potential benefits to students, including better comprehension and retention, improved perceptions and attitudes, and increased openness to diversity. Yet, there is limited evidence or instruction on cooperative learning activities in asynchronous online classrooms, an increasingly common course…

As cultural diversity is increasingly celebrated in classrooms, multicultural learning in music education has become more essential and meaningful. Therefore, this article emphasizes the integration of Cantonese nursery rhymes into early childhood music classrooms by providing a detailed lesson plan and some teaching suggestions. This effort aims…

In this article, the authors describe a key change from the First Edition to the Second Edition of Essential 3 of the NAPDS Nine Essentials. In the original Essential 3, the concept of "reciprocal professional development" was emphasized to honor PL opportunities that are led by either school-based faculty personnel as well as…

Research confirms that critical thinking plays a fundamental role in decision making and problem solving, skills that are essential to function as successful adults in a complex world. Consequently, it has been a focus of educational research for decades. Faculty meetings and teacher training sessions repeatedly run sessions on ways that teachers…

Learning outcomes are an essential element in curriculum development because they describe what students should be able to do by the end of a course or program and they provide a roadmap for designing assessments. This article describes the development of competency-based learning outcomes for a one-semester undergraduate introductory human…

A lively conversation has arisen in recent years among theologians concerning ethnographic theology. While liberation theologians have scarcely participated in it, an emphasis on lived experience -- which ethnography aims to understand -- lies at the heart of theologies of liberation. This article addresses the question of employing ethnographic…

Teachers play a critical role in student learning, however effective teaching and learning cannot take place without established rules, procedures, and routines for the classroom. If your goal as a teacher is to help students understand classroom expectations and how to apply these expectations within different situations then just presenting the…

"Toward Self-Directed Learning in the Secondary Classroom" explores the challenges teachers have faced and continue to face in a pandemic and post-pandemic context while attempting to implement self-directed learning in the secondary classroom. Drawing on contemporary research from around the world as well as candid interviews with…

This is an educational psychology book that focuses on human development, the human being, teaching, and learning. It is appropriate for preservice teachers who are seeking to comprehend essential theories and concepts in educational psychology. It is also appropriate for practicing teachers who want to understand and apply these theories and…