The authors review the research on children's imagination and fantasy as they relate to children's socio-emotional and cognitive development and link those findings to children's academic and classroom competence. Specifically, children who are imaginative and/or fantasy prone tend to have better coping skills and the ability to regulate their…

The aim of this article is to provide insight into ways that a domain-specific model for reflection can support student teachers in reflecting on teaching experiences. According to the literature, the quality of reflection fundamentally depends on the conceptual repertoire that practitioners bring to bear on the situation. This process is referred…

Instructional designers working in international settings are often interested in reports on how particular courses or programs have been implemented in other contexts; doing so either confirms or extends their own experiences. In the hope that such information can benefit the larger design community, this article specifically shows how contextual…

Pursuing a line of inquiry suggested by Crookall, Martin, Saunders, and Coote, the author applied, within the framework of design science, an optimal-design approach to incorporate into a computer-assisted simulation two innovative social choice processes: the multiple period double auction and continuous voting. Expectations that the…

When social studies students have a role in the processes of designing assignments, constructing rubrics, and conducting assessments, they participate in authentic democratic principles relative to their own learning. When given voice, choice, and ownership in their education, social studies students gain opportunities to strengthen their depth of…

Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii) has students from over 70 countries attending classes. One of BYU-Hawaii's current aims is to increase the effectiveness of course instruction and help students take more responsibility for their own learning as they look to increase distance education offerings to students in different countries.…

In an attempt to engage students' higher-order thinking skills, we developed a documentary filmmaking project for our introduction to theology course. By documenting certain aspects of the theology of John Wesley and John Henry Newman (God, creation, revelation, Jesus, the church), students were able to delve deeply into these themes, better…

In this article, the author describes the approach she used to teach American government to high school seniors. Beginning with a court procedure unit, the central strategy she used for this unit was a murder mystery that peaked the students' curiosity and encouraged them to think like scientists and lawyers. The court procedure lesson uses a…

Based on a critical re-analysis of cognitive load theory (CLT), Schnotz and Kurschner identified the need for research on more sensitive ways of assessing learner characteristics, both prior to and during instruction, in order to understand learning processes and outcomes. One emergent theme of the papers in this special issue is that the "same"…

Teaching a specialized law course to students who are not in law school is a refreshing venture for most instructors. It often provides the instructor with an opportunity to teach in an area of specific research interest that is much more focused than the general business law or legal environment of business course. Accordingly, for those…

One of the main difficulties during the design of collaborative learning activities is adequate group formation. In any type of collaboration, group formation plays a critical role in the learners' acceptance of group activities, as well as the success of the collaborative learning process. Nevertheless, to propose both an effective and…

A model of curriculum development that enables students of architecture in the developing nation of Taiwan to draw on their own life experiences in formulating their own architectural education is proposed. Such an ideology recognizes that while education certainly includes the acquisition of the technical skills needed to ply one's trade, its…

Reflection is an important yet often-neglected aspect of management performance. This article proposes that management educators take advantage of the contemplative classroom learning process by modeling and teaching reflective practice. A framework for conceptualizing reflective learning is presented. Reflection can result in deeper learning not…

The process through which teachers transform the curriculum over time is best explained by incremental change theories. Teachers will tinker at the margins of the curriculum, effecting incremental change, until they begin to feel comfortable with the dissolution of disciplinary boundaries, and they are willing to cede control of some curricular…

Once taught almost exclusively in seminaries, spirituality is now finding its way into the curricula of professional training for health and welfare workers. How this should occur, particularly within the context of the secular university, raises many questions and may require different approaches to those used to teach spirituality to theological…