High dropout rates continue to be a silent epidemic afflicting the nation's schools. Although some measurable progress is being made in some school districts and states to raise high school graduation rates, and federal, state, and local policies and practices are changing to meet the dropout challenge, the nation's progress is too slow and the…

Students' ability to participate in scientific discourse and to appropriately use empirical evidence to support beliefs or conclusions has been consistently stated as a core goal of science education. In the present study, we analyzed the quality of scientific reasoning in elementary school science classrooms, using the Evidence-Based Reasoning…

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of an educational computer video game in teaching and learning. Cultural-historical activity theory is used heuristically to explore the social and cultural interactions during game play. It is argued that knowledge construction occurs when video games function as a tool to mediate learning rather…

There has been much concern in the higher education sector recently about the well-being and the safety of slightly more than 200,000 international students studying in higher education in Australia. In recognition of the economic and socio-cultural value of the international student cohort, as well as the significant challenge and risk of…

One goal of project-based science is to promote the development of scientific discourse communities in classrooms. Holding rich high school scientific discussions is challenging, especially when the demands of content and norms of high school science pose challenges to their enactment. There is little research on how high school teachers enact…

This article presents the results of a collaborative self-study in which five teacher educators explored the role of emotions in college teaching. We come from diverse backgrounds of race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, while our students are largely White, female, Christian and heterosexual. Our study was guided by a social…

This study analyzed the factors that affect student participation in discussion forum under the two main purposes. The first purpose was to examine the relationship between the students' individual demographics and categories of students' participation level (inactive, moderate, and active) in discussion forum of an online course. The second…

In this quasi-experimental case study, we compared five sections of a basic undergraduate technology course. Within an asynchronous web forum, pre-service teachers wrote short critiques of websites designed by their classmates. This peer feedback was provided anonymously by students in two classes (n = 35) whereas providers and recipients of peer…

This article describes the Virtual Intercultural Team Tool (VITT) and discusses its processes and benefits. VIIT is a virtual platform designed with the aim of assisting European project teams to improve intercultural communication and build on their cultural diversity for effective implementation of their projects. It is a process-focused tool,…

The purpose of this study was to explore how three struggling, sixth grade readers experienced an after-school program designed to increase their affective and cognitive reading performance. Research in the areas of vocabulary acquisition, reading strategy development, discussion of text, time spent reading, engagement, and reader self-perception…

Early identification and intervention for students at risk for reading failure is essential to establish the foundational skills necessary for students to become skilled readers. The focus on evidence-based practices and data-driven decision making leads educators to consider additional instructional approaches, such as formative assessment (FA)…

The debates surrounding the effectiveness of teaching social work online highlight the challenges of adequately preparing students for face-to-face practice by way of web-based technologies. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to briefly describe how a particular School of Social Work when designing its part-time undergraduate degree…

The experiences of Chinese learners on two e-learning programmes in China were investigated, focusing particularly on the formation of learning communities. Data were collected using a range of instruments to access the learners' perspectives in depth and detail. Archer's account of reflexivity as the mediating power between structure and agency…

This article shares the results of a 3-year study of the use of threaded discussion groups within intact eighth-grade classrooms in a middle school in Southern California. Using mixed-methods data collection and analysis, it addresses questions about how technology may be used effectively to create engaged writers and how student access to…

Carefully designed questions for classroom discussions can guide students in making judgments and understanding the processes of logical thought. Effective questioning, however, depends on the teacher's awareness of the forms and classifications of inquiries. Any question is made up of two parts: the process stimulus (which indicates the process…