The project "Multimedia in science teaching: five years of research and teaching in Portugal" was successful in featuring the national research on multimedia in science education and in providing the community with a simple reference tool--a repository of open access scientific texts. The current work aims to describe the theoretical…

Low motivation to participate in traditional or team sports, apathy toward competitive environments, and a low rate of transfer of skills to lifetime activities and wellness can be barriers for student pursuits of lifelong fitness. Adding an outdoor component can be a solution for some of these problems, while still accomplishing the National…

To assist system administrators as they pursue their own teacher leadership initiatives, this profile from Leading Educators and the Aspen Institute details the steps Denver Public Schools (DPS) took to design and implement its Differentiated Roles pilot. Specifically, it examines the initiative's opportunities and challenges within the context of…

"Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform" is a revised, expanded, and updated version of the classic work by Jane L. David and Larry Cuban. It offers balanced analyses of 23 currently popular school reform strategies, from teacher performance pay and putting mayors in charge to turnaround schools and data-driven instruction.…

Literature circles or book clubs are small, heterogeneous groups of students who have chosen to read and discuss the same book together. The research on literature circles suggests that they hold great promise for increasing students' enjoyment of reading and honing their literacy skills. When evidence-based strategies are embedded into a…

In this article, the author illustrates how the Descriptive Process can assist teachers in shifting relationships with students because it requires both associative and reflective processes. Drawing on discussions from a teacher study group, she illustrates how associative processes can lead to a strengthening of connection with self. Similarly,…

One of the biggest challenges in the early weeks of the new school year is to keep learning interesting and the students engaged as routines and procedures are established and reinforced. How can a classroom teacher make the routines and procedures engaging and educational, while building a community of learners? The answer is simple... build a…

When reforming practices to help all students succeed, secondary school leaders face the unique challenge of aligning the efforts of educators from different disciplines. In addition, they know that few common measures capture student growth across these disciplines. If a school has a history of success, a deep examination of its practices may not…

"How It's Being Done" offers much-needed help to educators, providing detailed accounts of the ways in which unexpected schools--those with high-poverty and high-minority student populations--have dramatically boosted student achievement and diminished (and often eliminated) achievement gaps. "How It"s Being Done" builds on Karin Chenoweth's…

Many mentoring policies do not differentiate between novice special education teachers and their general education counterparts. Although novice special education teachers may benefit in part from general induction practices, their experience is limited when there is little attention given to their unique instructional needs. Policymakers can…

E-mentoring--the use of technology-based communication formats in which mentors and mentees interact--is emerging as a solution for supporting novice teachers, especially when they have limited access to in-building support. This Brief describes the possibilities of using e-mentoring with novice special education teachers.

Now more than ever, education leaders must focus strategically on educational technology professional development (ETPD) for teachers. Research evidence indicates that 30 hours of focused professional development is required to change teachers' professional practice. So despite positive opinions about the importance and efficacy of educational…

This document was developed to provide action steps that can be taken by teachers, parents, administrators, and students themselves to develop the personal, cognitive, and social dimensions of students. These advocates are identified in "The Holistic Learner Framework: A Culturally Responsive Approach to Accelerating the Achievement of Low…

This monograph seeks to inform faculty, staff, administrators, and students about the nature of and structure in doctoral programs that lead to doctoral student development. It is accomplished through succeeding chapters, focusing first on an overview of existing student development theory and then on the structure of doctoral education and its…

This paper reports on a case study investigating learning outcomes at the individual and organisational level of a cross-institutional innovation project based on the SOAP approach. SOAP integrates "S"chooling of teachers, "O"rganisational development of schools, "A"ction- and development-oriented research, and…