This paper documents the results of a mixed method study of teachers who participated in a survey and focus groups in a K-12 southwestern suburban school district during the 2011-2012 school year. The mixed method design contains elements of both qualitative and quantitative approaches, permitting the authors to collect qualitative and…

"The NMC Horizon Report" series is the most visible outcome of the New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Project, an ongoing research effort established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe. This…

This brief provides an overview of the Instructional Improvement System (IIS) models for State education agencies in Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island, along IIS goals in the following areas: (1) Standards and Curriculum; (2) Instructional Practices; (3) Assessment and Growth; (4) Learner Profiles; (5) Data…

Starting from the assertion that traditional and reform mathematics pedagogy constitute two distinct figured worlds of teaching and learning, the authors explore the initiation of prospective teachers into the figured world of reform mathematics pedagogy. To become successful teachers in reform-oriented classrooms, prospective teachers must learn…

In this self-study, the author focuses on ways of embracing and managing a central dilemma of student teaching supervision: balancing assistance with assessment. Drawing on his practice as a field supervisor, the author chronicles conversations with student teachers over a 2-year period in the context of two distinct teacher education programs.…

International assessment data paints a complex picture of the engagement and achievement of New Zealand students in science. New Zealand was second only to Finland in the top achievers group in PISA 2006, but it also has one of the widest spreads in student achievement, particularly in relation to Mori and Pasifika students. Thus, the challenges…

This leadership framework, based on practices employed by some the nation's most successful principals, can be used to diagnose and address school needs. The framework is excerpted from "Breakthrough Principals" © 2016 by Jean Desravines, Jaime Aquino, Benjamin Fenton, and New Leaders, published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand. The…

Inter-group peer evaluation through wikis was implemented as a method for senior capstone design teams to improve writing and the critical evaluation of data. Each group was evaluated by peers using a qualitative discussion and evaluated quantitatively by instructors. Students had an increased interest in contributing to online knowledge centers,…

Background: Given the increasing presence of aborigines in Taiwan higher education, especially in nursing institutes, the retention and adaptation of aboriginal students is a critical issue for research. Understanding the adjustment and transformation process of aboriginal nursing freshmen is very important for improving their learning, but very…

This dissertation is an exploratory study of teacher risk taking. The risk-taking literature in education and other types of organizations is lacking in studies exploring the concept of healthy risk taking and how that risk taking is related to other concepts such as organizational culture, innovation, and efficacy. The purpose of this study was…

This study investigates the relationship between the use of graphing calculators employed as Type II technology and student achievement, as determined by assessing students' problem solving skills associated with the concept of function, at the college algebra and pre-calculus level. In addition, this study explores the integration of graphing…

What is the experience of expressing creativity for creative faculty teaching in the online environment? The literature regarding online learning covers topics relating to faculty and student satisfaction with distance learning, and faculty frustrations with the increased time required of online classes versus on-ground classes. Although the…

This dissertation researched and reported on how technology was used to facilitate and inform reflective teaching practices. It also identified the characteristics of benefits and barriers in using technology for teaching and reflection. The study, descriptive in nature, was designed to determine the reflective practices of instructors and how…

This study investigated whether the instruction of visual design principles had an influence on pre-service teachers' perception and analysis (interpretation) of visual materials. In addition, the relationships between pre-service teachers' visual intelligence and their perception and analysis (interpretation) of visual materials were also…

A series of experiments based on problem-solving and collaborative-learning pedagogies are described that encourage students to interpret results and draw conclusions from data. Different approaches including parallel library synthesis, solvent variation, and leaving group variation are used to study a nucleophilic aromatic substitution of…