The author's secondary school mathematics students have often reported to her that quadratic relations are one of the most conceptually challenging aspects of the high school curriculum. From her own classroom experiences there seemed to be several aspects to the students' challenges. Many students, even in their early secondary education, have difficulty with basic multiplication table fact retrieval. Difficulty retrieving multiplication facts directly influences students' ability to engage...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Semantics, Secondary School Mathematics, Memory, Multiplication, Cognitive...
Mathematics is like a language, although technically it is not a natural or informal human language, but a formal, that is, artificially constructed language. Importantly, educators use their natural everyday language to teach the formal language of mathematics. At times, however, instructors encounter problems when the technical words they use, as formal parts of mathematics, conflict with an everyday understanding or use of the same word, or related words. This article discusses this problem,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Symbols (Mathematics), Artificial Languages, Vocabulary, Mathematics, Mathematics...
This research focuses on teacher instructional and curricular practices in gifted students' experiences in Islamic schools in the United States. Surveys were administered at private, full-time Islamic elementary schools to determine the extent to which differentiation practices for meeting the needs of gifted students and the integration of Islamic values were employed. Findings suggest that Islamic schools in the United States have limited programs for gifted students. A majority of teachers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Academically Gifted, Individualized Instruction, Teaching...
Early childhood teachers are faced with many more choices and decisions regarding the development of their curriculum than ever before. The development of state standards for young children in prekindergarten (pre-K) programs not only provides guidance but also places demands on content that must be addressed. Finding the time to plan creative activities that will meet the diverse range of children's interests and abilities, as well as meet state learning standards, is a challenge for teachers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, State Standards, Creative Activities, Young Children, Story Reading, Emergent...
This study investigated whether providing students with the choice of chat versus threaded discussion boards for online discourse is an effective instructional strategy in terms of student learning and satisfaction. The sample was teacher education students enrolled in face-to-face (FTF) and online sections of one undergraduate foundations course. Both sections required participation in online text-based discussion. Comparison groups included course format (FTF vs. online), discussion format...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Computer Mediated Communication, Student Attitudes, Academic...
The following paper is based on a review of 68 referred journal articles that focused on introducing technology to preservice teachers. Ten key strategies emerged from this review, including delivering a single technology course; offering mini-workshops; integrating technology in all courses; modeling how to use technology; using multimedia; collaboration among preservice teachers, mentor teachers and faculty; practicing technology in the field; focusing on education faculty; focusing on mentor...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Statistical Analysis, Technology Integration, Program Descriptions, Journal Articles,...
The original study upon which this article is based began with a seemingly simple question that had origins in the author's own experiences as a high school teacher. Why do some teachers talk too much when they are teaching, and what can a teacher education program do to address this problem? When informed, then transformed, by available research in the area, the question becomes more accurate and useful for teachers and teachers educators. How can a teacher education program enable teacher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Participation, Interaction, Teacher Education Programs, Teacher...
This five month qualitative study explored, over time and across literacy events, the ways in which a second grade teacher, Ms. Wilson, and her students built a shared frame of reference, or shared mental context, for viewing reading. Data sources included: field notes, video and audiotaped records, artifacts, and teacher and student interviews. Analysis was informed by Mercer's (2000) notions of context and continuity and considered the ways in which students and teacher drew upon contextual...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Discourse Analysis, Teaching Methods, Interviews, Classroom Techniques, Student...
Teachers can modify their instructional strategies with minimal training and effort, and this can result in increases in their students' self-efficacy. Self-efficacy judgments are based on four sources of information: an individual's own past performance, vicarious experiences of observing the performances of others, verbal persuasion that one possesses certain capabilities, and physiological states. Individuals use these four sources of information to judge their capability to complete future...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Self Efficacy, Mathematics Skills, Teaching Methods, Prior...
Communication in society today is characterised by rapidly changing and emergent forms of meaning-making in a context of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. The need to teach these new literacy practices referred to as multiliteracies, is now embedded within systemic policies in Australia. This research paper is a response to these imperatives, releasing key findings of a critical ethnographic study concerning interactions between pedagogy and access to multiliteracies among culturally...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Ethnography, Literacy, Cultural Pluralism, Global Approach,...
Group work is a widely used learning approach in higher education where it is seen as encouraging the development of collaborative skills and attitudes while producing an assessable product. Group assignments can, however, create dilemmas and tensions for both staff and students. Students often seek academic intervention in the form of support and dispute arbitration; and the types of interventions employed to deal with issues arising during and after group work, and the effectiveness of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Intervention, Assignments, Cooperative Learning, Higher Education,...
Adolescents and young adults are likely to be sexually active and interested in sexual ethics. In order to tap into this interest and assist in their intellectual development, a sexual ethics continuum teaching strategy was developed during four semesters with six sections of two different college courses. A total of 52 behaviors of interest to students were identified and rated by students as ethically ideal, ethically allowed, or ethically forbidden. A combination of quantitative and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Educational Strategies, Adolescents, Young Adults, College...
Every teacher is a messenger. The message that a teacher communicates and portrays is acquired formally and informally through systematic study, and environmental and socialization processes. While formal study happens consciously within a particular period of time, experiential learning that impinges on the development of the message happens all the time. It is a pervasive force with a long incubation period. No matter how the effects of environmental processes are suppressed and ignored,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Beginning Teachers, Speech Communication, Secondary Education, Teacher Student...
Middle school teachers, like all educators around the nation, are encountering classrooms comprised of an unprecedented number of students from various cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Due to the influx of immigrants entering the U.S. educational system, the number of students who speak a native language other than English has grown dramatically and will account for about 40% of the school-age population by 2040. The reality of a multicultural, multilingual student population dictates...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Student Needs, Middle School Students, Teacher Effectiveness,...
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that dynamic assessment based instruction increases children's learning by using a quasi-experimental research design in Korea. In this study, dynamic assessment is defined as a measurement method of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as well as the qualitative and quantitative diagnostic information for individual children. In addition, dynamic assessment based instruction is defined as a teaching method using the diagnostic information types in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods, Research Design, Experimental Groups, Data...
This paper explains the current reforms in basic and higher education in the Philippines. Specifically, internal and external enablers in the educational environment were reviewed as justifications of the reforms both at the national level as well at the individual teacher. The reforms were treated in the light of four perspectives in the measurement of quality namely; the reputational view, the resources view, the outcomes view and the value-added view. (Contains 4 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Educational Environment, Educational Change,...
In the opening years of the 21st Century it would appear that a new development model has emerged supported by multilateral assistance groups such as the UN Group, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and various NGOs. This paper will: (a) briefly sketch the emergence of the major concepts and proposed actions which form the new model for development; (b) analyze the strategic implications for national and local educational change; and, (c) critique both the general model, and in particular,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Nongovernmental Organizations, Educational Change,...
Critics of Invitational Education and other self-concept approaches to learning have long argued that there is a lack of empirical data to support the claims that approaches to student instruction based on self-concept theory are central to effective learning. Ellis (2001) examines a number of these analyses where self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy are derided as antecedents to successful learning. However, by examining the empirical research on classroom management, all of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Self Efficacy, Teacher Student Relationship, Classroom Techniques, Educational...
A group of middle school science teachers and a university researcher recount some of their experiences as they individually and collectively worked toward improving their everyday assessment practices to better support student learning.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Science Teachers, Science Instruction, Formative Evaluation, Educational Strategies,...
As the field of education moves forward in the area of assessment, researchers have yet to come to a conclusion about definitions of commonly used terms. Without a consensus on the use of fundamental terms, it is difficult to engage in meaningful discourse within the field of assessment, as well as to conduct research on and communicate about best assessment practices. For this article, we reviewed journal articles, position papers, thought pieces, and classroom assessment textbooks, focusing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Performance Tests, Formative Evaluation, Performance Based Assessment, Teacher Made...
In this study, the authors determined the individual learner characteristics of educators enrolled in online courses that influenced social presence (affective social communication). Findings reveal that the number of online courses taken, followed by computer-mediated communication proficiency, are significant predictors of social presence. Recommendations for the effective use of online learning recognize that instructors must deliberately structure interaction patterns to overcome the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Special Education Teachers, Teacher Education, Participant...
Research suggests that the majority of U.S. undergraduate students have engaged in some form of misconduct while completing their academic work, despite knowing that such behaviour is ethically or morally wrong. U.S.-based studies have also identified myriad personal and institutional factors associated with academic misconduct. Implicit in some of these factors are several institutional strategies that may be implemented to support academic integrity: revisiting the values and goals of higher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Undergraduate Students, Integrity, Cheating,...
Harriet Bishop (HB) Elementary School opened in 1996 with an articulated educational model developed collaboratively by the teachers, parents, and the administration. The model includes a mission, set of beliefs, and rationale for the instructional design. While nearly every school district or school has a formal mission, the statements articulated for HB are taken seriously. To support the mission, the students learn through an integrated curriculum using strategies such as differentiated...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Integrated Curriculum, Instructional Design, Academically Gifted, Student Interests,...
In this article, we discuss the theory of successful intelligence as a basis for identifying gifted children, teaching such children, and assessing their achievement. First, we briefly review the theory of successful intelligence. Then, we describe how to teach and assess for successful intelligence. Next, we discuss and answer potential objections to teaching for successful intelligence. Then, we present some data based on teaching for successful intelligence. Finally, we draw some...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Intelligence, Gifted, Ability Identification, Teaching Methods, Cognitive Style,...
"Andragogy," a term European adult educators have been using as a parallel to pedagogy, is defined as the art and science of helping adults learn. Learners, as characterized in the andragogical model, are self-directed; enter educational programs with a great diversity of experience; become ready to learn when they experience a need to know or do something; are life-centered, task-centered, or problem-centered; and are motivated by internal self-esteem, recognition, better quality of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Andragogy, Adult Learning, Adult Students, Teaching Methods, Student Motivation,...
To define what is special about the education of students with severe disabilities, this article provides a snapshot of research-based practices that are relevant to the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) focus on accountability. The NCLB requirement to assess all students in reading, math, and science is contrasted to the functional approach typical of skill acquisition research for this population. The concept of adequate yearly progress is addressed by reviewing the types of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Federal Legislation, Educational Improvement, Accountability,...
This article focuses on the process of promoting academic achievement for second-language learners by imaginatively connecting expository comprehension. The goals of this article are: (1) to increase understanding of instructional strategies among teachers at all levels that impact on reading comprehension in the content areas for second language speakers of English; (2) to provide curiosity and insight into the development of comprehensive instructional programs for linguistically and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Reading Comprehension, English (Second Language), Content...
Service-learning is a wide-spread educational strategy in K-16 education. Currently 64% of all public schools and 83% of public high schools have community service. Researchers have proclaimed the many benefits of service learning in terms of student empowerment, but does it have the power to create a counter-hegemony that provides an alternative worldview to transform society? In this literature review, the author examines the effectiveness and limitations of service-learning practices and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Student Empowerment, Multicultural Education, Citizenship...
The co-authors have been co-Principal Investigators on two large-scale National Science Foundation-funded teacher enhancement projects for the past eight years. One of the projects focused on middle and high schools and the second focused on the elementary school. The design of each was different, reflecting the differing natures of the educational programs at each level, but the importance of including technology education was common to both. In both projects, instructional strategies...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Educational Technology, Technology Education, Integrated...
Initiatives to integrate engineering design within the field of technology education are increasingly evident. The National Science Foundation has encouraged and funded opportunities for technology educators and engineers to work collaboratively. However, perspectives regarding the role engineering should play within the discipline of technology education vary considerably. Implementing an engineering design focus within technology education has significant ramifications. As such, it is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Educational Philosophy, Technology Education, Design...
Using data from the reading component of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (N = 113,050), the effects of gender and curricular track for nine sub-scores of reading achievement were investigated. Only students indicating that they did not receive additional programming support were included in the analysis. Gender accounted for less than one per cent of variance in reading achievement. Gender differences for each curricular track were in the close-to-zero and small range. The results...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Reading Achievement, Foreign Countries, Gender Differences, Males,...
Successful experiences teaching science early on can impact teachers' continued teaching of science; therefore, field-based teaching experiences are critical to preservice teacher education in science. Such field experiences may be subject to constraints, however, such as limited time, which prevent preservice teachers from experiencing this early success. In this paper, the author describes an existing field-based teaching experience and her personal experiences implementing an innovative...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Elementary...
Although the phrase "holistic approach" is increasingly used in reference to vocational education and training (VET) in Australia, there appears to be a paucity of literature which extensively conceptualises or details its practical application. Existing references to an "holistic approach" appear indicative of an integrated model seen as a vehicle for the achievement of a broad range of vocational and social capital outcomes, particularly in Indigenous contexts. This paper...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Constructivism (Learning), Curriculum Development, Community Needs, Holistic...
Widely appealing, the phrase "teaching for social justice" masks contested definitions, which, if left unaddressed, can undermine efforts to translate concern for social justice into practice. Yet there is little research recording and analyzing what teachers are actually saying and doing when teaching for social justice. The study described in this article--interviews with 20 veteran high school English and social studies teachers committed to teaching for social justice--aims to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Social Justice, Secondary School Teachers, Teaching Methods,...
In this article, the author discusses the cultures of exceptional adolescent and teenage students within three dimensions: resistance to inclusive classroom, post-structural qualitative research on language as a discourse system or formation, and how the method or strategy of having students and teachers trans-identify. When students articulate expressions of and resistance to the dominant power relations of both school and society, they may begin to see or read those power relations as not...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Qualitative Research, Group Activities, Power Structure,...
The purpose of this article is to review the components of the high-activity skills progression (HASP) and to provide examples of its implementation. HASP is a game-skills teaching strategy that uses small-group instruction in order to promote opportunities for students to engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). It is designed to help physical educators teach skills in a developmentally appropriate progression, while keeping students actively engaged, in an effort to achieve...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Small Group Instruction, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Physical Education...
This article addresses the many ways in which schools can provide physical activity opportunities for students by taking advantage of hours that students might otherwise spend waiting for school to begin or playing computer games after school has ended. The article presents creative strategies for engaging students in activities that are inexpensive--such as activity prompts, intramurals, and facility sharing--as well as ideas that require more effort and community collaboration, such as the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Buses, Physical Activities, Games, Physical Activity Level, Educational...
Negative stress in physical education can reduce a student's enjoyment of physical activity and destroy the individual's desire to be a lifelong mover. The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of stress in physical education. Stress is defined as a substantial imbalance between the demand of a situation and the individual's capability to respond, when the consequences are important to the individual. The stress process consists of four stages: (1) a demand (which can be physical,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Depression (Psychology), Student Evaluation,...
In this research, the authors began by identifying 30 K-12, college, university, and community educators who they considered to be doing anti-racist, critical multicultural work. They then chose 10 of these educators to interview in depth about their journeys to developing identities as anti-racist critical multicultural educators. The authors also wanted to find out how they had actively developed strategies to reshape their cultural scripts when necessary to meet their anti-racist critical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multicultural Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Discourse Analysis,...
Anyone who works with new teachers must let them know that they should not have to make a choice between bringing up test scores or promoting lifelong learning. Mentor teachers must show beginning teachers how to be "passionate teachers," which the author defines as living a life as a reflective educator, making it a priority to build positive relationships with students, creating a classroom community in which students share responsibility for their own learning and the learning of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Occupational Aspiration, Teaching (Occupation), Needs Assessment, Scores, Lifelong...
In this time of high stakes testing, teachers' working with English Language Learners (ELLs) becomes a high-stakes teaching act. Nationally, mandated testing is increasing in the schools even as school demographics are changing. The growing numbers of language-minority students come with varying levels of English proficiency, from little or none to fluent bilingualism. Teachers find it difficult to bring all their native-English-speaking children along to an acceptable level of performance in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Literacy Education, Language of Instruction, Testing, Second...
Teacher preparation, now acknowledged for its impact on K-12 student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Darling-Hammond, Berry, & Thoreson, 2000), needs to be part of the discussions about ways to address emerging issues with testing and accountability. What then do teacher educators who work with those preparing to teach do to guide their students about their responsibilities with regard to high-stakes tests? How do they help teacher candidates learn to balance externally driven mandates...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Testing, High Stakes...
Increasingly, the viability of university programs to develop in school leaders the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to bring about reform are being questioned. This article uses case study methodology for looking at how an increasing emphasis on collaborative inquiry in one university's program influenced a school principal several years after that principal had completed his master's degree program in educational leadership. The principal explains his approach to accountability and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Instructional Leadership, Educational Improvement, Principals,...
Teachers strive to establish partnerships with parents to support student learning. Strong communication is fundamental to this partnership and to building a sense of community between home and school. In these changing times, teachers must continue to develop and expand their skills in order to maximize effective communication with parents. This article presents a range of communication opportunities available to teachers, including the emerging use of technology. Some of these practical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Teacher Cooperation, Educational Strategies, Parent Participation, Parent...
While the literature on parent involvement cites many examples of challenges to parent involvement and suggestions to overcome them, few models of extensive parent involvement in urban, public high schools have been described. The Boston Arts Academy is an example of a school in such a setting. It engages a vast majority of its parents in school-based activities through multiple entry points, a welcoming school environment, and frequent communication among staff and parents. By focusing on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationship, Educational Environment, Case...
Adolescents typically become less physically active as they progress through high school. This inactivity has led to some adolescents become unhealthy, overweight, and unmotivated to participate in physical activity. The purpose of this article is to present two interventions aimed at motivating physical education students to be more physically active. These interventions provide adolescents with information about how to maintain physical activity and find it more meaningful. (Contains 2...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Adolescents, High Schools, Intervention,...
Adults and children often encounter situations where they have to make judgments about "how much" or "how long" or "how many." The significance of estimation as an ordinary, everyday, and natural aspect of measurement needs to be conveyed to students through their mathematical experiences. Many students, however, tend to view estimation as a difficult technique where success is dependent upon how close the student's estimate is to the teacher's estimate rather than...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Measurement, Educational Strategies, Mathematics Education, Foreign...
This article presents an example of a versatile multi-solution problem that can be used right across the primary years. The basic problem is: "Noah saw 16 legs go past him into the Ark. How many creatures did he see?" Any even number can be used, although, 2 legs allows only one answer and with 16 legs there are already 14 different solutions, so teachers need to exercise caution in using large numbers. The teacher should encourage discussion around the interpretation of the problem...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Animals, Recreational Facilities, Primary Education, Foreign Countries, Problem...
For years, students have become frustrated with the task of learning to tell time, and teachers have become frustrated at not fully understanding why this task is such a difficult one . The concepts of time include point of time ("measured" or labelled by clocks, and calendars), and durations (measuring elapsed time)--abstract ideas about the nature of time as a flowing direction. Beyond that, most of the experiences with time in the school curriculum involve labelling,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Time, Foreign Countries, Primary Education, Teachers, Mathematics Education,...
Developing strategies for engaging mathematics activities is always a challenge. Teachers seek out new resources and online activities to excite students and support their learning. Mathematics through Movement offers an active learning strategy requiring few resources, and a bit of imagination, to achieve a variety of outcomes across mathematics domains. It is based on sound educational theory and a lifetime of experience in dance. This paper examines the beginnings of research into this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Activities, Learning Strategies, Active Learning, Foreign Countries,...