This paper provides an introduction to Universal Instructional Design (UID), an adaptation of the architectural concept of universal design (UD), and discusses the benefits of this model as an inclusive approach to higher education. UD originated in the field of architecture as a proactive means of responding to legislated architectural…

"Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" from the American Association of School Librarians provides a superb set of standards for learners in K-12 and beyond. The main categories are (1) inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge; (2) draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new…

When Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) opened its doors to students in August 1997, a commitment to graduating "ecologically literate" students had already been established. Faculty from across disciplines were courted to advance this endeavour. FGCU requires all undergraduates to complete a course on sustainable development, called…

Educational undertakings are subject to disjunctures at three separate stages: in the creation of curricular programmes, in the implementation of these curricula in practice and in their effects on students. These disjunctures are the result of complex "leaps" between ends and means, and between ideal and real. This article proposes a response in…

Objective: The authors describe a pilot physician-manager curriculum designed to address the learning needs of psychiatric residents in administrative psychiatry and health systems. Methods: The pilot curriculum includes a junior and a senior toolkit of four workshops each. The junior toolkit introduces postgraduate-year two (PGY-2) residents to…

"The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success," a five-volume series, is designed to assist educators who are interested in launching a first-year seminar or revamping an existing program. Each volume examines a different aspect of first-year seminar design or…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of a walkthrough protocol combined with reflective practice had the capacity to influence the sample school's objectives of building staff capacity, strengthening instructional delivery in classrooms, and improving student learning. This study's primary focus is to examine the…

Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity's most pressing current and future challenges. The United States' position in the global economy is declining, in part because U.S. workers lack fundamental knowledge in these fields. To address the critical issues of U.S.…

There is evidence in the literature (Komives, Lucas, & McMahon, 2007, Cavico & Mujtaba,2010; NACE, 2010; Garvin and Datar, 2008) suggesting that employers expect that business school graduates who they consider for employment possess foundational leadership content knowledge combined with some application experience. This study was…

In spring 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) began planning a pilot of an application for the Apple iPad, "HMH Fuse: Algebra 1," which was then in development. The application was to be piloted in four California school districts during the 2010-2011 school year. HMH contracted with Empirical Education Inc. to conduct a one-year…

The extent to which the goals and contents of (compulsory) education should to be regulated has been a complicated balancing act in the Netherlands. Against a background of a long-standing statutory tradition of freedom of education, governmental decisions about "what knowledge is of most worth" have been delicate. The purpose of the…

The Portuguese curriculum has recently moved away from a focus on individual subject disciplines towards the development of cross-disciplinary competencies for civic life, including the development of statistical literacy in application to everyday problems. Students are encouraged to draw on their own interests to collect and organize data sets…

We transformed our first-year curriculum in biology with a new course, Biological Inquiry, in which greater than 50% of all incoming, first-year students enroll. The course replaced a traditional, content-driven course that relied on outdated approaches to teaching and learning. We diversified pedagogical practices by adopting guided inquiry in…

There are many key players in a functional school-university partnership. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into the establishment of roles within a school-university partnership charged with creating educational reform. Specific details are provided about three key change agents (the Wizard, the Warrior, and the Wagoner) who…

Web users in the 21st century are no longer only passive consumers. On a contrary, they are active contributors willing to obtain, share and evolve information. In this paper we report our experience regarding the implementation of Web 2.0 concept in several Computer Ethics related courses jointly conducted at two Universities. These courses have…