At the risk of seeming to make exaggerated claims for visual methodologies, what I set out to do is lay bare some of the key elements of working with the visual as a set of methodologies and practices. In particular, I address educational research in South Africa at a time when questions of the social responsibility of the academic researcher…

The purpose of this practice brief is to provide schools, districts, and states with background knowledge about best practices for older students who struggle to read. It focuses on the reading skills that adolescents need to more fully access content-area curricula and, in turn, secure a productive future. The authors define adolescent reading as…

Poland subscribes to an abstinence-only model of reproductive health education called "Education for Life in the Family." The aim of this study was to determine if the perceptions of adolescent mothers could be used to improve delivery of the Polish model of education. This study was conducted using focus group interviews with fourteen…

This article presents the findings from classroom based research into the use of SMART Boards (interactive whiteboards) with kindergarten children. SMART Boards have been used successfully over the past 8 years at Abbotsleigh Junior School as innovative ways to enhance teaching and learning and facilitate assessment in primary Science. Key…

This study employs the Excel function to design dynamic visual activities for factors and multiples word problem learning. A teaching experiment was carried out eight times in 4 weeks on three fifth grade students. The result showed that after using multiple-linked representations activities, students made greater progress in understanding target…

In the mathematics education literature, there is currently a debate about the mechanisms by which group discussion can contribute to mathematical learning and under what conditions this learning is likely to occur. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by illustrating three learning opportunities that group discussions can create. In…

This article reports that several colleges and universities like Purdue University are mining data they have about students to try to improve retention. The institutions analyze years' worth of data on which students did well and which did poorly, and what variables--whether they be SAT scores, financial-aid status, or attendance at the dining…

The purpose of the study was to examine the ecologies of two teachers and the extent that each teacher's agenda aligned with instructional activities and assessments for each unit of instruction. Data were collected in four ways: (1) videotaped record of each lesson, (2) live observation field notes and expanded field notes from the videotape, (3)…

Practice posters, with pictures and captions, are useful for controlled practice of vocabulary and structures in an EFL context. The author has found many advantages of using posters with beginners in a high school setting. Student led review gets students active, increases autonomy and improves confidence. The use of small groups is effective…

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are pervasive elements of most modern technical software and represent a convenient tool for student instruction. For example, GUIs are used for [chemical] process design software (e.g., CHEMCAD, PRO/II and ASPEN) typically encountered in the senior capstone course. Drag and drop aspects of GUIs are challenging for…

This study investigated the impact of the use of computer technology on the enactment of "inquiry" in a sixth grade science classroom. Participants were 42 students (38% female) enrolled in two sections of the classroom and taught by a technology-enthusiast instructor. Data were collected over the course of 4 months during which several "inquiry"…

Introduction: This project tested visual schedules and social stories in a physical education setting in order to increase the physical activity of developmentally disabled students. Method: This cohort study design involved 17 physical education teachers in a training course with an initial survey and 7-month post-survey. The initial survey…

This research investigated the extent and nature of the informational support that enables young children to understand pictures as symbols. Two experiments were conducted using an object-retrieval task. The first experiment varied the amount (complete and no instructions) and kind of information (intended function of the symbol and…

The communication of information and ideas is an important and challenging part of any researcher's brief. No matter how learned the argument, if the delivery is muddled or inaudible, the visual aids unclear and the supporting material unavailable then the presentation, and the research, will fail to reach its audience. How much more challenging…

This article addresses the need for systematic and replicable research methods for the examination of student learning using so called interactive whiteboard technologies. As a basis for these methods a model is developed of the cognitive concomitants evident in students' use of these technologies. While interactive whiteboards are shared spaces,…