Data from a recent study show that investing in science teachers' professional growth and teaching ability is a wise choice. However, the professional development must have the right content (the science discipline that teachers are actually teaching), at the right time (when they are assigned to teach that science discipline), and in a stable…

Abstract: Developing and nurturing empathy in medical trainees has been recognized as an essential element of medical education. Theater may be a unique instructional modality to increase empathy training. Methods: A multi-disciplinary team developed a theater workshop for first year medical students. Through the use of theater games, art images…

This article discusses the growth and current state of learning communities (LCs) in higher education. It reviews literature on the impact of LCs, highlighting a sample of single-institution studies and describing results from multi-institutional studies. LCs have been a growing movement aimed at educational reform for decades, and evidence…

Learning communities have increasingly become a mechanism for education reform in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. Recognizing that learning occurs both inside and outside the classroom, their emergence is partly a response to the critique that undergraduate education at American research universities lacks integrated and…

Tape Assisted Reading Programmes (TARPs), and more recently, other forms of audio recorded stories, have been used in New Zealand schools to help students with reading difficulties. Many claims are made about the positive effects of such programmes on general reading ability and progress. However, this paper, informed by research, states that such…

The Measures of Effective Teaching project has collected performance data using multiple indicators from over three thousand teachers across six urban districts. In the second year of the study, classes of students were randomly assigned to teachers in order to assess the impact of assignment bias on performance judgments. This article discusses…

While experiential learning has been increasingly explored and adopted by higher education institutions, few have researched the appropriate assessment methods that can be aligned with the learning outcomes of experiential learning. A literature review on the diverse forms of assessment currently used for community service types of experiential…

An external panel that includes several prominent critics of teacher education has been tapped to craft the performance standards for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), the new organization's leaders announced last week. Among the standards under consideration: how programs ensure that candidates know their content;…

The primary objective of this article is to see if and how attendance policy influences class attendance in undergraduate-level principles of macroeconomics classes. The second objective, which is related to the first, is to examine whether the nature of the attendance policy matters in terms of its impact on class attendance behavior. The results…

"Bella is a 5-year-old girl with autism who attends a reverse inclusive preschool class. She primarily uses gestures and a communication binder to communicate with others. In addition, she is not toilet trained even though her teachers and her parents have tried numerous attempts over a 3-year period to train her. Bella also has gastrointestinal…

The onset of selective mutism (SM) is usually between the ages of three and five years, when the children first go to preschool. However, these children are most commonly referred for treatment between the ages of six and 11, when they are entering the elementary school system. Early detection and early intervention is suggested for effective SM…

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative offers a unique opportunity to conduct large-scale, multisite, multilevel program evaluation in the context of a federal environment that places many requirements and constraints on how the grants are conducted and managed. Federal programs stress performance-based outcomes, valid and reliable…

This paper presents a reform initiative, the Supporting Montreal Schools Program (SMSP), created by the government of Quebec to assist 184 low socio-economic-status schools in Montreal implement seven reform strategies prescribed by the government. On a regular basis, the professional team of the SMSP engages in reflection and research with…

The six statewide research studies presented in this special issue use a variety of designs, instrumentation, and measures. Nevertheless, they can be integrated at the level of results to shed light on some important questions related to effective practice in the field of school counseling. In fact, one can argue that, when separate studies that…

British Columbia (BC) is a vast province in Canada made up of several distinct geographic areas. Most of the province's population lives in a few metropolitan areas, with the greater Vancouver area being the largest. British Columbians living outside these areas must travel significant distances to see specialists of any kind. Treacherous winter…