The Covenant between the Church of England and British Methodism now in place looks forward to a closer relationship between the two churches. An empirical study, carried out in the late spring of 2003, indicates differences in patterns of belief among the working clergy and ministers of both churches which might help or hinder further moves…

The IMS Learning Design specification (LD) was introduced as an answer to the shortcomings of existing learning technology specifications. The main difference with existing specifications is that LD is an abstract, conceptual model that is able to express various pedagogical approaches whereby content can be adapted to personal needs and…

In this article, the author shares some of the lessons he has learned from experimentation with various strategies to enhance student learning. He contends that all effective classroom strategies begin with the students and must be consistent, yet flexible. Each day should provide opportunities for students to debrief about where they are in terms…

Teachers can build on students' familiarity with and respect for the Harry Potter books to create source-based vocabulary lessons. The idea is to work with the Latin roots that J. K. Rowling uses to create original names for places, people, and magical charms and then to extend students' knowledge through exploration of additional English words…

"Animals" is a three-part lesson plan for young learners with a zoo animal theme. The first lesson is full of activities to describe animals, with Simon Says, guessing games, and learning stations. The second lesson is about desert animals, but other types of animals could be chosen depending on student interest. This lesson teaches…

To keep students motivated, the author outlines several principles for developing listening comprehension lessons. When learners focus on a clear learning objective, retention improves. Other recommendations include keeping the same topic and objective for several activities and selecting relevant, authentic material with a clear layout and…

Replacement performance role plays are a different type of role play. Rather than memorizing or writing a dialogue, this activity asks learners to listen and consider other possible responses. Students decide which character will be replaced and what they will do differently. Even shy learners or ones with lower proficiency levels can be involved…

This article describes a technology integration course planning assignment that was developed to enhance preservice teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). This assignment required preservice teachers work with peers to integrate various technological tools (e.g., graphing calculators, web-based mathematics applets, etc) in a…

This handbook describes Teacher Workshop. Teacher Workshop is founded on the idea that learning to teach is a great deal like learning to write. That is, learners need to be fully engaged in the process and learn the skills along the way as they are ready for them. Also like writing, the skills of teaching are developed over time with instruction,…

Written by experienced language educator Paula Patrick, this 96-page book offers detailed guidelines to help new classroom teachers gain confidence and direction as they begin their teaching careers. In addition to step-by-step strategies for everything from classroom organization to navigating Back-to-School Night, the book includes sample lesson…

The author describes how he used to teach a unit on food webs and ecosystems using actual food webs as models. However, the models used by the author tend to be either too simplistic or too complicated for his students. A few years ago, he solved these problems by making up his own food web, complete with invented plants and animals. The model has…

People are more likely to associate Einstein with complex scientific theories and mathematical calculations than with education theory. In fact, Einstein's own experiences of schooling and his reflections on the meaning of life and the significance of education are profound and oddly relevant to the situation that pertains in England today. It is…

This study investigates the effectiveness of deductive and guided inductive approaches for teaching grammar in college French classrooms. Forty-seven second-semester French students were taught eight grammatical structures: four with a deductive instructional approach and four with a guided inductive instructional approach. A quasi-experimental…

The implementation of Geographic Information Science (GIScience) applications and discussion of GIScience-related themes are useful for teaching fundamental geographic and technological concepts. As one of the newest geographic information tools available on the World Wide Web, Google Earth has considerable potential to enhance methods for…

The assessment of student writing is an essential task for writing teachers, and yet many graduate programs do not require students to take a course in assessment or evaluation, and courses on teaching writing often devote only a limited amount of time to the discussion of assessment. Furthermore, teachers frequently need to prepare their students…