Often students have a difficult time when asked to use critical thinking skills to solve a problem. Perhaps students have a difficult time adjusting because teachers frequently tell them exactly what to do and how to do it. When asked to use critical thinking skills, students may suddenly become confused and discouraged because the teacher no…

Using social media can create a rich learning environment that crosses all content areas. The key to creating this environment is for instructors and designers to match appropriate social media software with the intended learning outcome. This article describes an instructional design strategy that helps educators create learning activities that…

A growing number of 2 year olds are now attending early childhood education (ECE) services nationally and internationally. However, New Zealand has been slow to address the specialist provision and needs for high quality ECE for 2 year olds. The current survey of 248 New Zealand ECE services examined the effect of this lacuna on practice and…

This article develops a conceptual framework for exploring the role and consequences of evaluation at the local level of school governance. It also provides a frame of reference for the articles in this special issue on the role of evaluation in local school governance in Sweden. It consists of key concepts, three models of decentralised…

This study was conducted with the aim of identifying to study the relationship between personality factors and organizational commitment among a group of Iranian primary school principals. The sample included all the 108 primary school principals of Ardabil, a northern city of Iran. The study drew on a descriptive correlational research design.…

This study provides details of the closing of an urban charter school and the developments that took place over time. The primary focus of this research was to understand the reasons for the closing of an urban charter school, based on the passion of the founder and staff. The study examined Senge's (2000) five learning disciplines and how…

The federal prison system provides a number of opportunities for inmates to further their education. These prospects can be made available at the prison and can include, college correspondence, the formal classroom, or at the inmate's cell in the special housing unit (SHU). While it is common for inmates to receive a more appropriate education at…

The purpose of this re-examination is to further study the effectiveness of a 5-year plan to turnaround failing schools. The original study, published in 2013, utilized 16 urban schools to investigate the role of climate and leadership in the transformation process. The authors asserted that utilizing academic gains as the single indicator in…

Boundary crossing competence is needed to tackle complex problems and should therefore be facilitated in education. The Regional Learning Environment, a typical service learning environment practiced in Dutch life sciences education, offers students ample opportunities to develop boundary crossing competence through multi-stakeholder…

In 2013 the Vermont legislature enacted Act 77 mandating that students in grades 7-12 develop personalized learning plans (PLPs) to guide them toward high school graduation using proficiency based requirements. In a qualitative self-study the authors document the implementation of a personal learning framework integrating PLPs into a humanities…

This article demonstrates a step-by-step teaching method using a poem, a play, and a short essay to help students support each other and take responsibility for learning.

With impending natural and unnatural disasters, it has become increasingly difficult to study such events with quantifiable measures or formulaic methods that we learn in research methods courses. In 2005, I joined the ranks of those who immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita stepped in to assist the evacuees in their recovery efforts. It…

This article examines some of the challenges experienced by students living in and near the Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya who were making the transition from secondary school to university programs. The students were enrolled in courses offered by two Kenyan and two Canadian universities that were partners in the Borderless Higher…

The status of Black males in schools and society continues to be concerning, as Black males appear to fall behind other groups in almost every arena, particularly educationally, socially, and professionally. Yet despite their social standing, Black male administrators are often placed in, and have taken on, the charge to serve in high need schools…

This study examined variables in three domains (personal, parent support, and peer support) for their relationships with the resilience of academically gifted students in the Chinese cultural and educational environment. The participants were 484 academically gifted students in two highly competitive secondary schools (so-called "key"…