Peer assisted learning (PAL) is one method of teaching which involves peers, or people from similar social groups, in reciprocal learning where one peer educates another and in return learns through the teaching experience. There have been many reported benefits of PAL programs. PAL has a long history of use in healthcare education; however, for…

This article reports the findings of a demonstrator project to evaluate how effectively Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) could support problem-based learning. The project designed, created and evaluated eight scenarios within "Second Life" (SL) for undergraduate courses in health care management and paramedic training. Evaluation was…

In Taiwan, English was only officially taught at the secondary and tertiary levels before 2001. Since 2001, English courses have been formally incorporated into the curriculum in primary schools. Research on teaching and assessing English in primary school education is relatively new compared with research on other levels of education in Taiwan.…

The growing interest in the higher education sector in publishing pedagogical research has led to a focus on professional development for staff who wish to engage in this endeavour. This paper describes and evaluates a specific programme designed to help university staff to prepare and submit a high-quality paper to a peer-reviewed journal.…

This article describes a case study that is part of a broader research project in which schools set up processes of school improvement inspired by the proposals put forward by students. The project furthers the initiatives of the student voice movement and seeks to implement more participative pedagogical models. This as a whole represents a novel…

In order to meet the challenges of the international competitive environment, Taiwan's Ministry of Education (MOE) is promoting institutes of higher education to establish degree-based Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes with the goals of enhancing students' English proficiency and attracting more international students. In…

Child Trends conducted a random assignment evaluation of the Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors program, one of the largest programs in the United States working with low-income Latino parents of children ages zero to five. Since it began in 2007, the program has served over 30,000 parents/families in 34 states. The evaluation study examined the…

Younger adults are more likely to smoke and less likely to seek treatment than older smokers. They are also frequent users of communication technology. In the current study, we conducted focus groups to obtain feedback about preferences for a text message-based smoking cessation program from potential users. Participants ("N" = 21, "M" age = 25.6…

The Forest School movement, an important part of education in Scandinavia, has gained momentum in the UK in recent years. Within the context of declining access to, and engagement with, the natural environment Forest Schools can provide invaluable life experiences for our children. In 2012 the University of Northampton investigated opportunities…

Objective: The purpose of the study was to discover whether tomato consumption in elementary- and middle-school students could be increased through a school lunch programme developed by agricultural high-school students acting as peer educators. Design: The high-school lunch programme included the process of growing tomatoes and providing a…

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) integrates the teaching of basic skills and technical content in order to accelerate basic skills students' transition into and through a college-level occupational field of study. The study reported on here represents the final phase of a multi-year evaluation of the I-BEST model that began…

Following a hugely successful pilot in Scotland in 2009-10, the joint Higher Education Academy (HEA) and National Union of Students (NUS) Student-Led Teaching Awards (SLTA) initiative has gone from strength to strength. SLTAs are a positive method of raising the profile of teaching and celebrating best practice. In just three years they have…

This article presents the findings of a large scale study that tested a comprehensive model of predictors of three manifestations of sustainability: continuation, institutionalization, and duration. Based on the literature the predictors were arrayed in four groups: variables pertaining to the project, the auspice organization, the community, and…

Despite the critical importance of in-service education programs (INSETs) for teachers' on-going professional development, educators often report problems concerning many INSETs. However, due to lack of systematic evaluation studies of INSETs in especially language education field, specific problems in these courses cannot be diagnosed, and they…

In this paper we describe a "Train the Tutor" programme (TtT) for developing the metacognitive skills, facilitator skills, and tutor skills of students in a problem based learning (PBL) context. The purpose of the programme was to train 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students in psychology to become effective PBL tutors for…