Launched in 2009, the Aistear early years curriculum framework sought to complement and extend the primary school curriculum (PSC) at infant class level in the Republic of Ireland. While Aistear focuses on the development of attitudes, values and learning dispositions and is neither statutory nor inspected, the PSC centres on the acquisition of…

As a part of a huge intervention in teacher education programs in Pakistan the author had a firsthand experience of how the "habits of mind" hinder in changing the practices and cultures of teachers and institutions respectively. It has been a part of traditional teaching in Pakistan that only one text book is followed by teachers and…

These two qualitative descriptive case studies investigated supports and barriers to integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as an instructional methodology in language arts and social studies departments at an urban and a suburban high school in Wisconsin. Integrated Comprehensive Systems (ICS) implementation was determined through the…

Approximately one quarter of American students attend rural schools; however, the needs of these students are often overlooked in education policy despite well-documented limited financial resources and pervasive poverty. Relatively little is known about the experiences of gifted students in rural areas and even less about the teachers serving…

Many countries recognize the positive and effective results of improving science education through the introduction of reforms in the sciences curriculum. However, some important issues are generally neglected like, for example, the involvement of the teachers in the reform process. Taking the sciences curriculum reform under analysis and…

Early Childhood Education as a subject in primary schools in Nigeria was first noticed among the private primary schools in the 80s while the public primary schools did not incorporate it in their curriculum in Nigeria. Of recent, some state governments in Nigeria have just adopted and organized early childhood education unit into their primary…

Lab components of undergraduate science courses typically have students complete highly directed cookbook-like laboratory activities. These experiences rarely engage students in a meaningful manner and do not accurately convey what the work of science entails. With funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), we have created more…

This essay takes up the question of fostering independent student identities and universal student success by exploring Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the first-year composition classroom. To do so, the author first defines Universal Design for Learning and then attends briefly to contemporary English studies research on UDL. The author…

This paper reports the results of a survey on ethics education in initial teacher education in Canada. Using an online survey and an academic calendar analysis, data was collected on ethics course requirements, perceptions about ethics content, institutional factors mediating the implementation of ethics courses, and teaching and learning…

Research Goes to School (RGS) is a professional development program that focuses on high school teachers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. This collective case study examines RGS participants and their use of project-based learning (PBL) as they implemented curricular units that they developed at the RGS summer…

The Ministry of Education in Malawi introduced a life skills education program with the intention to empower children with appropriate information and skills to deal with social and health problems affecting the nation, including the fight against HIV infections. This study investigated factors affecting the teaching of the life skills education…

Many science educators know of the pedagogical benefits of inquiry- and research-based labs, yet numerous barriers to implementation exist. In this article we describe a faculty development workshop that explored interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations as potential mechanisms for overcoming barriers to curricular innovation.

Teachers' attitudes about school food environments and their readiness to implement school-based nutrition programs were investigated. A total of 1,436 primary-school teachers filled out a questionnaire on their demographic and professional characteristics and their attitudes, beliefs, and barriers for implementing health educational programs. The…

This mixed-method study investigated the language teachers' opinions on the inclusion of the principles of Participatory Approach in language classroom settings in Iran. Applying both quantitative and qualitative approaches of data collection procedures, the study explored the language teachers' attitude, on the perceived importance and use of the…

Urban physical education curriculum articles are sparsely published in major educational journals (Chepyator-Thomson et al., 2008; Culp, 2005). This leaves urban physical educators the daunting task to modify and prepare curriculum based on formal class training and educational workshops and to interpret journal articles to be applied to the urban…