This action research project investigated the effects of negotiating curriculum on the affective attitudes of boys in my Year 8 English class towards studying English at high school. The ensuing unit involved developing autobiographical narratives to create, share and critique the students' life-stories, undertaking learning activities that were…

The authors chronicle the experiences of undergraduates, both white and of color, learning about whiteness in a first-year seminar. Over a three-year period, they collected students' reflection papers written in conjunction with a self-interview assignment and analyzed them qualitatively. Findings revealed that the new learning first-year students…

Two decades after I left teaching primary school for a university career, I observed students and teachers in a mainstream primary school in Hong Kong. There were three main student communities within the school. Those who were labeled extremely low achievers were taught in a small class of not more than 12; these students were taught a curriculum…

This study examined the subjective experience of academic disengagement. Flow theory, which describes an intense form of engagement, structured writing-to-learn activities undergraduates applied in major and liberal arts courses. Results suggest that writing to learn can transform academic anxiety and boredom by facilitating concentration,…

Teachers' written reflections on their work, which report on a change in their practice, were the object of this research. Taking teachers' articulation of their plans and actions in teacher journals as our source, this study's aim is twofold: (1) to describe how teacher reflect in a self-initiated and non-framed way on their own practice, and (2)…

Recently, attempts have been made to use Weblogs and other personal webpublishing technologies to support individual and social reflection in higher education. Weblogs can be highly individual and reflective in nature, and students' experiences and perceptions of the technology and practice are of primary importance in furthering educational use.…

In this paper, I offer my own counterstory of matriculating through a teacher education program as an African American student on a predominately White campus as a reference point for thinking through how racism operates through teacher education's dominant discourse and practice of teacher reflection. It is an important story to tell primarily…

Students at two sites in China and one site in Korea engaged in Collaborative Reasoning, an approach to discussion that requires self-management, free participation, and critical thinking. The discontinuity between the usual adult-dominated discourse of Chinese and Korean homes and classrooms and the expected discourse of Collaborative Reasoning…

The role of social support in child welfare policy and practice continues to engender widespread debate. Yet the moral and philosophical underpinnings of this topical area have received less attention in the literature. This is of concern, not least because academic debates on the "politics of identity" have a significant contribution to make to…

As university lecturers select and sequence materials for their teaching, a linear structure emerges by default. Such a structure is made explicit within PowerPoint presentations and may even be amplified as PowerPoint invites the lecturer to reduce content to a bulleted format. Such linear sequences have been related to passive, surface…

This document presents the proceedings of the 20th Annual Research Forum held June 25, 2015, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 21 action research papers: (1) History Lives! The Use of Simulations in a High School Social Studies Classroom (Lydia Adkins); (2) Using Francophone Music in the High…

This microethnographic case study focuses on patterns of interpretation and decision making of undergraduate preservice teachers as they participated in observations, co-teaching, and teaching in elementary schools in northern Mexico. At the core, this study explores the deeply embedded assumptions preservice teachers may bring to new…

This highly readable text demystifies the qualitative research process--and helps readers conceptualize their own studies--by organizing the different research paradigms and traditions into coherent clusters. Real-world examples and firsthand perspectives illustrate the research process; instructive exercises and activities build on each other so…

This essay examines the impact of WAC/WID methodology and technology in an Education Capstone Course for Childhood Education majors at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY. Written discourse and ePortfolio development of students enrolled in the writing-intensive capstone course is examined within the framework of Veronica Boix Mansilla's (2004) work…

Given the importance of reflection in educators' practice, school leaders should be able to both facilitate teacher reflection and model reflective practice. This action research study examined whether or not emerging school leaders demonstrate the ability to reflect on daily practice and decision-making. Data from three classes of prospective…