Teachers in today's classrooms struggle every day to design instructional interventions that would build students' reading skills and strategies in order to ensure their comprehension of complex texts. Text complexity can be determined in both qualitative and quantitative ways. In this article, the authors describe various innovative…

Personalized learning (PL) is spotlighted as a way to transform K-12 educational systems. PL customizes learning pace, instructional methods, and learning content to individual students. As much as PL sounds promising and complex, little guidance is available to educators and policymakers about how to effectively design PL. Five essential features…

The current study seeks to introduce a new pedagogical design for geo-informatics courses using an e-training support system. Laurillard's conversational approach based on conceptual representation for both instructor and learner was used to form the framework. As the current study specifically interested in training as a special form for…

Since the 1990s, federal programs for workforce training have aimed to transform the role of community colleges from narrow contract training to a broader role that encompasses strategic instructional program planning and innovation to support lifelong learning for a changing workforce and economic development (Jacobs & Teahen, 1996). Yet, to…

This paper reports the second stage of an action research study designed to improve the effectiveness of speaking classes through negotiating the lesson contents with students. The data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and observations as a way of eliciting students' views. The research, conducted in an English language teaching…

Various domains require practitioners to encounter and resolve ill-structured problems using collaborative problem-solving. As such, problem-solving is an essential skill that educators must emphasize to prepare learners for practice. One potential way to support problem-solving is through further investigation of instructional design methods that…

Are potential relationships among students' learning styles and effectiveness in online education moderated by subject matter for undergraduate students at a private higher education institution? This causal relationship correlational study evaluated the effects of subject matter as a moderating variable between students learning styles and…

It is now estimated that 1 in 88 children have autism. As children diagnosed with this disorder continues to increase, so does the demand for appropriate educational programs that meet the diverse needs of the students on the autism spectrum. Results of this basic qualitative study, which included 15 instructional designers who create online…

Blended learning is proliferating rapidly in higher education across the United States. However, this learning environment may pose new challenges to learners at moderately selective colleges who are normally found to be low in autonomy. This study used a quasi-experimental design to examine student learning achievement and satisfaction in two…

The goal of this study was to explore how exemplary teachers design learning activities that incorporate the use of technology. Teachers at three schools in a school district in Southern California were solicited for a survey regarding their use of technology in the classroom. Based on the surveys, high and low technology implementers were…

When students can self-select their group members, a common assumption is that students prefer to select friends from similar cultural backgrounds. However, when teachers randomize students in groups from different cultural backgrounds, students are "forced" to work together. The prime goal of this study is to understand the impact of…

Teachers are typically abstracted from the design process and not referred to as instructional designers. However, they are constantly designing instruction or adapting instructional materials on a daily basis. Teachers provide a unique perspective as instructional designers: instructional design, content experts, and instruction delivery. Thus,…

Supporting prospective teachers to enact high quality instruction requires transforming their methods preparation. This study follows three teachers through a practice-based elementary methods course. Weekly class sessions took place in an elementary school. The setting afforded opportunities for prospective teachers to engage in cycles of…

This commentary reflects on the contributions to learning analytics and theory by a paper that describes how multiple theoretical frameworks were woven together to inform the creation of a new, automated discourse analysis tool. The commentary highlights the contributions of the original paper, provides some alternative approaches, and touches on…

Project-Based Learning (PBL) serves as an instructional approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in the investigation of real-world problems to create meaningful and relevant educational experiences. The causal-comparative study compared 7th and 8th students who had utilized the PBL with a comparison group in…