We often hear that a key purpose of schooling is to prepare students for informed and active citizenship. But what does this look like in practice? How do teachers pursue this goal amid other pressing priorities, including student mastery of both academic content and social-emotional competencies? "Students Taking Action Together," based…

This lesson plan describes the application of a photo essay technique for landscape interpretation in an interdisciplinary instructor-led international field course. This lesson is, in practice, a field-based exercise or learning activity that asks students to engage in three foundational approaches to place-based landscape reading:…

Jeff Zwiers, an educational researcher at Stanford University, has spent the last 15 years analyzing classroom conversations to see how they can be better used and improved in classroom settings. Teachers who have worked with him report significant growth in students' engagement, content learning, language, creativity, and sense of agency. Jeff…

This document is a self-paced training packet developed for a pilot project at the University of Houston-University Park to teach architecture faculty members to do their own online searching. The training begins with general topics such as the kinds of searches that can be done most effectively online; the selection of appropriate databases to…

First-year university students are a diverse group of individuals with various abilities and needs. Failure of the university and its teaching faculty to meet the needs of first-year students may result in abandonment of the pursuit of a degree. This project informs instructors about the practices that strengthen a learning-centred approach and…

Nine syllabi for courses on research and evaluation in higher education are reviewed. The syllabi fall into four areas: general research design and methods, program evaluation, naturalistic inquiry, and institutional self-study. A course on research design and methods at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, focuses on three basic modes…

There is an increasing focus across all educational sectors to ensure that learning objectives are aligned with learning activities and assessments. An attractive approach previously published is that of curriculum alignment projects. This paper discusses the use of the fun and famous "Elephant's Toothpaste" experiment as a customizable…

Teaching and learning about food and agriculture in an effective, engaging manner is enriched through the use of web mapping tools and spatial data. These tools, enabled by the advent of cloud-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, bring problem solving, critical thinking, and spatial analysis to every classroom instructor and…

New research points to the future of education as online, student-centered, collaborative, and community-based--all largely absent from today's educational landscape. This timely guide shows middle, high school, and college students how to undertake research to address challenges in their curriculum and communities. The approach is deliberately…

The personal coat-of-arms speech provides students with specific directions in constructing a speech of introduction and has been used with success at Illinois State University, Daley College (Chicago), St. Xavier University (Chicago), and Ohio State University. The personal coat-of-arms speech gives students concrete experience on which to draw…

The procedure of a physical chemistry experiment for university students must be designed in a way that the accuracy and precision of the measurements is properly maintained. However, in many cases, that requires costly and sophisticated equipment not readily available in developing countries. A simple, low-cost experiment to determine isobaric…

This newly revised text, "Teaching English Learners in Inclusive Classrooms," updates and expands upon issues of great concern to those working with students who are English learners as well as having special learning challenges. Given the unacceptable school drop-out rates of these students, this book provides practical tools and…

The purpose of this study was to determine students' perceptions of team-building activities within a university Latin dance course. Students (N = 30) completed an evaluation of the team-building activities and wrote reflective essays about their experiences in the course. The course consisted of twenty 90-minute classes. In the third class…

In a world with an ever-increasing population, diminishing natural resources, and greater levels of consumption, sustainability has emerged as a critical concept and it encompasses everything from international policy to lifestyle changes to "green" technologies. While various aspects of sustainability have been adopted by schools and…

A handbook for instructors with the University Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst is presented. The program is part of the university's English Department. A new six-credit university writing requirement consists of a three-credit freshman writing requirement and a three-credit junior year writing requirement, both of…