"Collaborative video annotation" (CVA) allows multiple users to annotate video and create a discussion asynchronously. This dissertation investigates 14 small-group CVA discussions held on YouTube in a pre-service teacher education course. Fourteen groups of 6-12 pre-service teachers (141 total) participated. Five of these groups (48…

This study explored learning and teaching of online classes. Examining the relationship between undergraduate students' participation and their final grades in five selected courses in an online learning environment and exploring differences between the demographics characteristics of age, race, and gender to students' participation (total number…

A growing amount of research focuses on learning in group settings and more specifically on learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) settings. Studies on western students indicate that online collaboration enhances student learning achievement; however, few empirical studies have examined student satisfaction, performance, and…

Density has been reported as one of the most difficult concepts for secondary school students (e.g. Smith et al. 1997). Discussion about the difficulties of learning this concept has been largely focused on the complexity of the concept itself or student misconceptions. Few, if any, have investigated how the concept of density was constituted in…

This article discusses audience responses to a children's soap opera produced and broadcast in Kenya. It examines the evaluation process in relation to qualitative audience research within Cultural Studies. It challenges an Entertainment-Education model of media as vehicles for messages and links strongly with Communication for Social Change…

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education" identifies eight science and engineering practices for K-12 classrooms. These practices, along with core ideas and crosscutting concepts, define the nation's learning goals for science. An important advance from earlier standards (AAAS 1993, NRC 1996), these practices are clearly identified "not" as…

More than five million U.S. students are English language learners (ELLs), or 57% more than a decade ago. If that growth continues, sooner or later, all teachers will teach ELLs. But many teachers are unprepared for this challenge. They might presume that "good teaching" helps ELLs learn content (de Jong and Harper 2008) or that an English-only…

Graduate students entered our online classrooms with robust, but nonscientific, opinions on climate change. To expose students to critical analysis of media and emphasize the nature of science, we required them to access scientific reports and participate in mandatory peer discussions. An introductory survey probed incoming knowledge and opinions,…

The "Price Is Right" ("TPIR") provides a wealth of material for studying statistics at various levels of mathematical sophistication. The authors have used elements of this show to motivate students from undergraduate probability and statistics courses to graduate level executive management courses. The material consistently generates a high…

How can teacher educators provide relevant and important content in an educational environment that is rapidly evolving? TED.com is a website that provides content that meets these criteria in its mission of promoting "ideas that are worth spreading." Rather than ignoring the incredible access to the world's most innovative and dynamic speakers,…

Trade secrets can be a valuable company asset because of their potential to last forever. Unfortunately, along with such a significant benefit, there is also a significant risk--the risk that the trade secret can be lost in an instant if it is not sufficiently protected. Companies must be vigilant in protecting these secrets. However, the law is…

This article reports research that is contextualised within reforms of secondary education in Hong Kong and the reintroduction of Liberal Studies, which jointly emphasise the need for a learning environment that facilitates the practice of group work and the development of critical thinking. A study is described that explores the relevance of…

This study examines whether targeted mentoring can make a difference during the induction years. The effects of a mentoring intervention based on principles of instructional quality and effective professional development were studied. Learning to lead classroom discussions is a high-leverage practice related to effective teaching. Forty-two…

This study aimed to apply Speech to Text Recognition (STR) for individual oral presentations and group discussions of students in a synchronous cyber classroom. An experiment was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of applying STR on learning performance. Students' perceptions and behavioral intentions toward using STR were also investigated.…

This article describes an undergraduate Participatory Action Research (PAR) course in which students with and without intellectual disabilities collaborated as co-researchers in order to explore various aspects of the university experience. The article describes the university course as well as presents results of the students' PAR projects. The…