Naturalists enrich our scientific understanding of biodiversity. However, just as countries have fallen behind on commitments to provide biodiversity conservation funding, so has the focus of life science stayed arm's length. The purpose of this article is to consider why biodiversity should be the center of life sciences education and how…

By asking questions, students can practice many cognitive processes, and these processes may reflect clues about their thinking skills. In order to understand students' cognitive levels in thinking, questions can be used as agents. Doing so, this study focuses on examining students' questions in terms of cognitive levels of Bloom's revised…

Although learner-centered instruction (LCI) is at the heart of many curriculum innovations in the world, its implementation has generally lacked the kind prominence it deserves. The current study explores how learning study can develop teachers' professional capabilities to practice LCI. Using interviews, lesson preparatory meetings, teachers'…

Teachers often desire meaningful classroom discussions, but frequently shy away from introducing controversial topics. An instructional activity "Where Do You Stand?" was developed and used regularly with the goal of engaging students in discussion around politicized and divisive issues. Over 3 years of use in a secondary social studies…

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates have been shown to be lower than cardiac arrest survival rates occurring in the hospital setting. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can significantly improve survival. PumpStart, a community service-learning program developed by medical students, was formed to increase education on…

The writing achievement of English learners (ELs) is often lower than that of other subgroups (Fry, 2007, 2008). To address this gap, a partnership was formed between university faculty and doctoral students and educators at an urban PK-8 school with a majority EL population. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as a guide, the team…

In this article an elementary literacy specialist reflects on the use of multigenre, multimodal texts to support the teaching of poetry. She explores the synergy between poetry and related informational, visual, and auditory texts to afford deeper insights into the poem and the poet, in this instance, the poem, "The Negro Speaks of…

The new "Common Core State Standards" (CCSS) (NGACBP & CCSSO, 2010) require teachers to prepare all learners, including adolescent English learners (ELs), to develop academic literacy practices. This article describes an instructional intervention in an urban public high school using the genre-based "Reading to Learn" (Rose…

Rosemary Barilla, a middle-grade language arts teacher, inspired by her own dedication to the arts, describes the ways she integrates the fine arts into her classroom program that is designed to teach reading and writing. Tina Boyer Brown, a founding teacher at The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts®), describes the school as a place where…

This qualitative case study presents the perceptions of Derrick, a Black urban adolescent male who enjoys reading but believes that inconsistent school discourses hinder his success and enjoyment as a reader. Findings show that Derrick's purposeful work while reading was limited and misunderstood because, among other factors, there was a pervasive…

A teacher and his mentor reflect on learning and teaching in secondary education and the enduring influence of an effective mentoring relationship.

This case study examined the role of one high school literacy coach in a large high school in the Midwest. Over six weeks, interviews and observations were conducted and artifacts collected to develop an in-depth understanding of the evolving role of the secondary school literacy coach. The findings revealed the challenges within a complex setting…

This case study analyzed the ways a native Spanish speaker of high-beginning English proficiency and his teacher negotiated an extended writing task in a tenth-grade mainstream humanities course. An "interactional histories" analysis demonstrated the teacher's pedagogical and conversational moves to adapt the academic task and the moves…