For almost as long as there have been institutions dedicated to the preparation of new teachers, the endeavor has come in for criticism. Teacher education has long struggled both to professionalize and to fully integrate itself into mainstream academia. At the core of this struggle was a perception that there was no body of specialized knowledge…

Working in an Intercultural School is one of the most inspiring, motivating challenges an educator can be given in any given society, but that was especially true for Greece at the beginning of the last decade, since it was only in 1996 that the term Intercultural Education was introduced. Partly due to chance, and partly due to personal and…

This paper describes the Integrated Core (IC), the University of Utah's version of integrated curricula. We begin with a rationale for the IC, providing a background on the unique student demographics, and University-wide requirements that propelled our design. Our IC focuses specifically on active living, sustainability, and social justice as…

This study indicates that the state-mandated high-stakes social studies assessments in four states do not require students to demonstrate that they have met the cognitive demands articulated in the state-mandated learning standards. Further, the assessments do not allow students to demonstrate the critical thinking skills required by the…

During the last fifteen years a quiet pedagogical revolution has taken place in colleges, universities, and community colleges across the United States and increasingly around the world. Often flying under the name "contemplative pedagogy," it offers to its practitioners a wide range of educational methods that support the development of…

This article is a brief account of the use of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956) by staff of the Law School Admission Council in the 1990 development of redesigned specifications for the Reading Comprehension section of the Law School Admission Test. Summary item statistics for the…

Multicultural education and global learning have long been acknowledged by higher education professionals to be necessary in advancing student development. Both of these agendas overlap in significant ways and can be characterized as two sides of the same coin. Notwithstanding, there has been a historical divide, even a tension between these two…

What is meant by "knowledge" in vocational education qualifications and who decides? These are significant questions in a context where "skill" is the prevailing discourse. This paper reports on a research project, undertaken in 2010-2011, which investigated the role of national stakeholders in defining knowledge in vocational…

The author provides a general model to incentivize student involvement in an economics course on an ongoing basis. Rather than presenting students with a discrete number of diverse experiments to illustrate different economic concepts, he opts for the adoption of a single experiment that lives for the duration of the semester. This approach…

This article argues that the Seven Solutions in the US, and the Research Excellence Framework in the UK, manifest the vice of epistemic insensibility. Section I provides an overview of Aristotle's analysis of moral vice in people. Section II applies Aristotle's analysis to epistemic vice, developing an account of epistemic insensibility. In so…

Diverse college campuses have been conclusively associated with a variety of positive outcomes for all students. However, we still know very little empirically about how student diversity directly impacts the core task of the university: classroom learning. While students vary based on race along a broad spectrum of experiences and backgrounds, we…

Anyone involved in education gets a sense that, as teachers gain experience, they begin to lose the idealism they once had. The idealism found in preservice teachers (wanting to change the world and affect lives) is soon altered by the reality of the profession. The purpose of this study was to determine the philosophical beliefs that preservice…

In 2000, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) adopted Closing the Gaps by 2015: The Texas Higher Education Plan. This new master plan set goals for Texas higher education in participation, success, research, and excellence. The plan acknowledged a shortfall related to projected demographic shifts in both the number of degrees and…

The purpose of this study is to determine whether pre-service teachers have an aim to perform outdoor education activities within the scope of science and technology course; by which factors this aim is affected, through The Theory of Planned Behaviour and the opinions of pre-service teachers. Accordingly, the study was designed as mixed research…

The purpose of the Common Core State Standards is to prepare students to succeed in college and career pursuits. To that end, the Common Core calls on teachers to focus on deepening students' understanding of what they're learning, enhancing their problem-solving skills, and improving their ability to communicate ideas. At the same time, states…