This paper is concerned with an innovative approach to teaching Chinese characters. Traditionally, pupils learn Chinese characters by repeatedly copying them until they can reproduce their form and pronunciation from memory. Most of the characters pupils are required to learn are selected on the basis of their frequency in adult written…

In this article, the author presents the biography of Maria Montessori, who pioneered early childhood education and introduced a new method of pedagogy. The innovations in education that Montessori introduced were enough to reserve a place for her in the history books. Montessori was ahead of her time in many aspects of her life. The decisions…

Understanding the potential or need for ICT support in education within developing countries, requires an in-depth needs assessment to comprehend, elaborate and set the desired priorities of rural schools. A Needs Assessment was conducted as part of an on-going comprehensive evaluation process of an ICT for development project, the Siyakhula…

The paper composes a framework for learning design, using Web 2.0 technologies in teacher training, transferring the advancement in technology to become an affordance in the teaching/learning process, based on Bloom's Extended Digital Taxonomy in order to enhance the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge of teachers. As a case study, it…

This system dynamics analysis draws on the literature to outline the factors commonly discussed as predictive of and, perhaps, causally related to problematic differences in academic achievement among students who vary in race, ethnicity, and social class. It first treats these as a wide-ranging set of exogenous variables, many of which interact…

This paper considers professional development in a context that is familiar and problematic to teaching teams in tertiary education everywhere, that of delivering online programmes with an ever-decreasing complement of staff. The Teaching Qualification Further Education (TQFE) teaching team at University of Dundee confronted the reality of reduced…

Having implemented and evaluated over 35 mlearning projects in a variety of contexts in higher education over the past 6 years the researcher is ready to share the untold secret: not all mlearning projects succeed! This article critiques three of the researcher's mlearning projects that can be classed as "failures" and compares them to successful…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of principals whose schools were granted innovation status in accordance with the "Colorado Innovation Schools Act of 2008" (CISA). The CISA created a statewide system that allowed individual schools and entire districts to increase autonomy and…

The internationally recognized "NMC Horizon Report" series and regional "NMC Technology Outlooks" are part of the NMC Horizon Project, a comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education around the globe. This volume, the "NMC…

California's approximately 500 continuation high schools are estimated to serve more than 115,000 California high school students each year--a number that approaches almost 10 percent of all high school students and as many as one of every seven high school seniors. Continuation schools are, however, more racially and ethnically concentrated than…

This paper explores the potential of Semantic Web technologies to support teaching and learning in a variety of higher education settings in which some form of case-based learning is the pedagogy of choice. It draws on the empirical work of a major three year research and development project in the United Kingdom: "Ensemble: Semantic…

Training professionals to design and produce interactive systems requires the use of well thought-out training scenarios. Indeed, it is essential to consider pedagogical forms whose objective is providing learners with field experience. It is also necessary to motivate learners to learn about subjects that sometimes seem distant from their…

Evaluating the impact of instructional innovations and coordinating instruction, assessment, and testing present complex tensions. Many evaluation and coordination efforts aim to address these tensions by using the coherence provided by modern cognitive science perspectives on domain-specific learning. This paper introduces an alternative…

With growing international interest in diversifying sites for pedagogical work within the doctorate, doctoral programmes of different kinds are being developed in different disciplinary, institutional and national settings. However, little is known about how the pedagogical work of these programmes is designed and enacted, and with what effects.…

Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) is a pedagogical innovation established in a technology-enhanced multimedia studio, emphasizing constructivist-oriented teaching and learning. In Taiwan, an increasing number of schools are adopting the TEAL notion to deliver courses. This study examines the impact of TEAL on both student performance and…