This paper will report on a case study that was conducted involving Grade 10 learners who were exposed to a high-tech rapid-prototyping environment of a Fabrication Laboratory as part of a FabKids experience. This project must be viewed in the context of a global shortage of key skills placing a higher priority on the initiation and development of…

When children are struggling in school, underlying causes often include physical or behavioral health problems, poverty, abuse, and/or neglect. Children's poor physical health status has been linked to deficits in memory and reading ability. Children with behavioral problems are much more likely than others to have lower grades, miss school, be…

Achievement motivation is something that all members of the school community want to support in students, however few may recognize that it is influenced by culture. The very meaning of "achievement" is culturally variable, and the motives that students have for achieving may be quite different, depending upon their cultural background.…

Chaffey College, a three campus college with approximately 20,000 students located California's Inland Empire, has become the destination of many community college practitioners from around the country. The reason why? Over the past ten years, the college has become nationally-known as an institution with a "risk tolerant change-oriented…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

The National Center on Scaling up Effective Schools (NCSU) is a five-year project working to develop, implement, and test new processes to scale up effective practices in high schools that districts will be able to apply within the context of their own unique goals and circumstances. This report describes the activities and findings of the first…

Since traditional principal preparation programs were scrutinized for inadequately training 21st century principals, alternative principal programs were designed to prepare principals to improve the US educational system and student achievement. One particular innovative program, the Daly Leadership Program, was collaboratively developed between…

Two grade 5 classes (11-12-year-olds) were introduced through an inquiry-based pedagogy to scientific ideas and concepts within a 3D game-like multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). This article explores how a particular set of strategies and conditions might encourage and sustain the use of the MUVE, Quest Atlantis (QA), as a problem-based…

In 1996, faculty at Sitting Bull College (SBC, Fort Yates, North Dakota) developed its Environmental Science (ENS) Program, basing it on the scientific method and techniques students would need for employment in environmental technician positions with local and tribal agencies. Over the course of 15 years, this employment-based training evolved…

To solve two enduring problems in education--unacceptably large variation in learning opportunities for students across classrooms and little continuing improvement in the quality of instruction--the authors propose a system that centers on the creation of shared instructional products that guide classroom teaching. By examining systems outside…

This paper presents three models of cross-disciplinary collaboration. The authors argue this mode of education coupled with traditional college-based courses better prepares students for the demands of an increasingly complex and ambiguous work place. The paper details the benefits of this educational approach and suggests ways schools can…

With the ceaseless development of new and more advanced technologies, along with their growing influence and control over business and commerce, it is no surprise that the educational community is struggling to come up with programs to educate students to adequately handle these developments. Textbooks are becoming a thing of the past, for…

Significant limitations have emerged in America's science training pipeline, including inaccessibility, inflexibility, financial limitations, and lack of diversity. We present three effective programs that collectively address these challenges. The programs are grounded in rigorous science and integrate through diverse disciplines across…

Recent calls to close the rigour-relevance gap in business school education have suggested incorporating principles and ideas from action learning in small business management education. In this paper we discuss how business simulation exercises can be used as a platform to trigger students' learning by providing them with a platform where they…

The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham hosted the fifth annual conference in the "Innovative Language Teaching at University" series. Under the heading "Enhancing participation and collaboration" the conference, organised by Cecilia Goria, Oranna Speicher and Sascha Stollhans, took…