The aim of this paper is to present some good practices for integrating Intercultural Education in History class. The activities presented in the article are developed during the ICTime course in Seixal, Portugal.

We introduce Lesson Play as an imaginary interaction between teacher and students presented in a form of a dialogue or play. We suggest that lesson plays are a valuable professional development tool in preparing for teaching that can be juxtaposed with, or used as a replacement for, traditional lesson planning. The article begins with an…

The controversial and complicated nature of the "N" word is examined in a multicultural classroom project. Utilizing both old and new literature, pop culture, historical lenses, and contemporary interpretations, the word proves extremely relevant in today's language arts classroom. By examining students' perceptions and experiences as well as the…

Through the qualitative interviews of five implementers of primary school mathematics curriculum, this study addresses the ways in which mathematics lessons are evaluated. Results show that each evaluator recognizes different aspects of a "good lesson," however, among all criteria, the design of the lesson plan, realization of the lesson…

In this article, the author discusses how she developed an innovative, interdisciplinary unit in eighth-grade English that links with the history teacher's Civil War studies. When constructing lesson plans, the author needed to rely on her sympathetic connection with students. To determine the best way to help students learn, the author had to ask…

The law of conservation of mass can be counterintuitive for most students because they often think the mass of a substance is related to its physical state. As a result, students may hold a number of alternative conceptions related to this concept, including, for example, the believe that gas has no mass, that solids have greater mass than fluids,…

Middle school students make great learning gains when they participate in lessons that invite them to practice their developing scientific reasoning skills; however, designing developmentally appropriate, clear, and structured lessons about scientific thinking and reasoning can be difficult. This challenge can be met through lessons that teach…

We discuss the results of a study aimed at shedding light on the influence that the sharing of professional teaching experiences may have on teachers' professional learning. The focus is on the uses that participants make of their notes about their lesson planning experience in an in-service blended learning course, and the mediation strategies…

Curriculum materials are crucial tools with which teachers engage students in science as inquiry. In order to use curriculum materials effectively, however, teachers must develop a robust capacity for pedagogical design, or the ability to mobilize a variety of personal and curricular resources to promote student learning. The purpose of this study…

Today's society is characterized by a plurality of cultures in such a way that a person will often interact and interrelate with new cultures. The situation becomes even more complicated when one has to adapt to a new culture for a short period of time (travel or study visit) or a long period of time (new work place, emigration etc.). Any…

The Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) is the assessment tool that Virginia uses to measure the progress of students with significant cognitive disabilities on the state's Aligned Standards of Learning (ASOL). The VAAP was developed in order to comply with No Child Left Behind's (2001) requirement of educational accountability for all…

My NASA Data (Chambers et al. 2008) is a teaching tool available on NASA's website that offers microsets of real data in an easily accessible, user-friendly format. In this article, the authors describe a lesson plan based on an activity from My NASA Data, in which students explore parts of the United States where they would want to live if they…

While many high school students confess a desire to develop personal money management skills, statistics tracking the average Canadian's personal debt underscore the need to ensure the youth have the tools they need for financial success. What would it take to motivate teens to learn more about how they spend and manage their money? The authors…

In this article, the author suggests a framework for developing lesson ideas involving variation. This idea was demonstrated by Rebecca Davey at a conference bringing together teachers from the seven schools participating in the TI-"n"spire pilot research project overseen by Alison Clark-Wilson of the University of Chichester. It uses information…

The Task Types and Mathematics Learning project is investigating the opportunities and constraints that teachers experience when using particular types of mathematics tasks. Some assumptions underlying this aspect of the project are: (1) that teachers seeking a balanced curriculum choose to use a mix of types of tasks; (2) open-ended questions…