The students' lack of motivation is a usual problem. The students value more the obtention of the degree than the developing of competences and skills. In order to fight this, we developed a gamification's experience based on merits and leaderboards. The merits are linked to the attainment of skills and competences that students usually do not…

High-quality undergraduate student writing is a common and important objective for sociology programs while at the same time a continuous challenge. Programs often struggle to address writing adequately because of the difficulty of fully evaluating student writing and responding to any identified limitations, largely because of the impact on…

In an educational climate in which many teachers may feel the tension between achieving grade-level literacy standards and creating lifelong readers, interest can be a powerful mediator that impacts students' cognitive and affective experiences with reading. This practical article presents four research-based principles of reading…

Promoting self-explanation (i.e., generating explanations for oneself in an attempt to make sense of new information) is a recommended study strategy and instructional practice. A meta-analysis of the literature on prompting self-explanation to improve mathematics learning confirmed that prompted self-explanation leads to a small to moderate…

In late 2011, we created a Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) program focused on improving student performance in high-risk STEM courses. Our PALs are modeled after the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) program, which has been shown to provide long- and short-term benefits to both students (Chan & Bauer, 2015; Gosser, Kampeier, & Pratibha, 2010;…

In order to improve student achievement, school systems must provide new teachers with support to become effective teachers more quickly. Educators frequently use mentoring to support new teachers and reach the goals of improved classroom performance as well as teacher retention. The intention in this study was to provide insights into the…

This study analyses the functioning of a school as a social system in an atypical context with the purpose of generating propositions to tackle educational problems confronted by socially and economically disadvantaged groups attending these schools. Adopting the constructivist grounded theory, the analysis suggests that there is a kind of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore educator collaborative inquiry in the shared workspace in professional learning communities (PLCs). Specifically, this investigation was part of an ongoing investigation of well-established PLC collaborative interactions and self-directed learning of educators as part of the shared workspace as a…

The boundaries between subject disciplines in secondary education today make it difficult for students to see their subjects in context. However, examining the secondary curriculum in England shows that there are a wealth of opportunities for making links and helping to develop students' epistemic insight and scholarly thought. This article…

This chapter considers faculty evaluation and motivational and volitional issues. The focus is on the ways in which faculty evaluation influences not only faculty attitudes and beliefs but also willingness to engage in professional development and instructional improvement programs. Recommendations for effective practice that enhances motivation…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a multicomponent intervention on the length and quality of stories written by fifth graders who were academically and behaviorally struggling with particular problems during writing demands. Difficulties in text production are often prevalent at the beginning of middle/secondary education as…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means of raising the teaching profession are becoming more attractive in education systems seeking to improve school improvement processes and outcomes. The main intention is to increase the individual and collective capacity of teachers so as to support school-wide capacity for teaching and learning.…

Strengthening the connections between sign language and written language may improve reading skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing children. The main aim of the present study was to investigate whether computerized sign language-based literacy training improves reading skills in DHH signing children who are learning to read. Further,…

To enhance Aboriginal students' educational opportunities in sciences, culturally relevant science curriculum has been examined and practiced in Western Canadian science classrooms. This article shares some examples of inclusion of indigenous knowledge in science curricula and discusses the improvement and challenges of culturally relevant science…

Expectations for the role of research in educational improvement are high. Meeting these expectations requires productive relationships between researchers and practitioners. Few studies, however, have systematically explored the ways researchers can build stronger, more productive relationships with practitioners. This study seeks to identify…