Central in this study is the relationship between the pedagogical approach and generic skill development in the first 10 weeks at university, students' perception of the fit between secondary and university education and first-year achievement. Information regarding the pedagogical approach and generic skill development was gathered through…

The purpose of the study was to identify the components of holistic school pedagogy as identified by a sample of Finnish secondary school teachers and students from two schools. Holistic pedagogy concerns the development of the whole student and acknowledges the cognitive, social, moral, emotional and spiritual dimensions of education. The data…

The number of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States has increased dramatically. Given this increase it is vital for teacher education programs at the pre-service level and professional learning programs at eh in-service level to address the needs of ELLs. This article presents a teacher preparation model--"a language-based…

This study examines a family literacy intervention conducted in two first-grade classrooms with culturally diverse student populations. In the treatment and control classrooms, six parents and a classroom teacher learned practices for building home-school partnerships. Data were analyzed to determine changes in home-literacy practices, increases…

The "PISA 2012 Technical Report" describes the methodology underlying the PISA 2012 survey, which tested 15-year-olds' competencies in mathematics, reading and science and, in some countries, problem solving and financial literacy. It examines the design and implementation of the project at a level of detail that allows researchers to…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of professors participating in an institution-wide effort to educate students for engaged citizenship at Drake University, a Midwestern private institution that explicitly claims to prepare students for citizenship as part of the university mission statement. The…

Disorientation problems influence student learning. To address this issue, this study uses an integrative approach to investigate the causes and consequences of disorientation problems so that a complete understanding can be obtained. Unlike previous empirical studies, which use statistical techniques, this study attempts to expose unexpected…

Most students think animals are more interesting than plants as a study topic believing that plants are inferior to animals because they are passive and unable to respond to external challenges, particularly biological invaders such as microorganisms and insect herbivores. The purpose of this study was to develop an inquiry-based learning unit,…

This article reports the development, validation and use of an instrument designed to provide teachers with feedback information, based on students' perceptions, about their classroom environments. The instrument was developed to provide teachers with feedback that they could use to reflect on their teaching practices and, in turn, guide the…

This article describes how using raw data and information from reliable assessments can inform teachers' decisions leading to improved instruction. The primary aim is to use a systems approach to provide evidence of what students know and how they demonstrate mastery. Such evidence can empower teachers to reach all students. The pedagogic…

This study explored the key drivers of student teachers' e-learning satisfaction. Three hundred and eighty-seven participants completed a survey questionnaire measuring their self-reported responses to six constructs (tutor quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, course delivery, facilitating conditions, and course satisfaction).…

This study, through multilevel analyses of the data of four English-speaking nations (i.e., Canada, England, New Zealand and the United States) from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 database, investigated the relationship between teachers' uses of various types of classroom assessments and their fourth-graders'…

Students often make errors when trying to solve qualitative or conceptual physics problems, and while many successful instructional interventions have been generated to prevent such errors, the process of deduction that students use when solving physics problems has not been thoroughly studied. In an effort to better understand that reasoning…

This paper reports on the forms of reasoning elicited as fourth grade students in a suburban district and sixth grade students in an urban district worked on similar tasks involving reasoning with the use of Cuisenaire rods. Analysis of the two data sets shows similarities in the reasoning used by both groups of students on specific tasks, and the…

The purpose of this bounded single-case study was to explore the understanding of the nature and process of science for undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The study investigated one professor's methodology to explicitly teach undergraduate students about the nature and process of science, and documented their…