The Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus is a touring maths lab--in and of itself, a good thing. When children enter it, they find particular pieces of apparatus captioned with particular challenges--which is perhaps not such a good thing. Students are faced with an apparatus that can do only one thing, and so are not encouraged to look again at…

This article explores the role of action learning in a national programme of research and development. The aim of the programme was to improve provision for disabled learners in the learning and skills sector by supporting providers in implementing the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (2002). Practitioners worked on a wide range…

The article deals with a particular aspect of the competencies-based approach in the curricula of basic and secondary education: the role of complex situations in learning. What should their role be so that education systems gain both in effectiveness and equity? Many research outcomes have shown that it is important to stress first and foremost…

The field of social studies is unique and complex. It is challenged by the differing perspectives related to the definition, goals, content, and purpose of social studies. Contemporary Social Studies: An Essential Reader discusses the contemporary issues surrounding social studies education today. Contemporary Social Studies: An Essential Reader…

In an increasingly competitive economy, the capacity for self-motivation, problem-solving skills and an ability to think critically are core graduate attributes. However, the capacity to create an educational environment that develops and harnesses such skills is a distinct challenge as resources become increasingly restricted. Geographical Skills…

Instructors teaching students about social inequality, especially sexism and racism, often face some degree of student resistance. Opposition is particularly strong when students are from a white, middle to upper class background. As Haddad and Lieberman (2002) remark, "Students from privileged backgrounds lack personal experience with structures…

A challenge for teacher educators in special education is to impact the beliefs and attitudes of preservice teachers in ways that cultivate or strengthen dispositions and inform practice. This study investigated the impact of service-learning experiences on the development of professional dispositions by undergraduate students in two preservice…

With the large number of students with autism entering the educational system, the need for empirically supported treatment (EST) in the classroom and special education teachers with training in autism and ESTs is necessary now more than ever. This paper describes a collaborative model between 2 universities aimed at providing teacher-candidate…

The outcomes of a two-pronged "real-world" learning project, which aimed to expand the views of pre-service teachers about learning, pedagogy and diversity, will be discussed in this paper. Seventy-two fourth-year and 22 first-year students, enrolled in a Bachelor of Education degree in Queensland, Australia, were engaged in community…

While opportunities for online learning are increasing in K-12 education, few teacher education programs include courses on online teaching and learning. Using Garrison and Anderson's (2003) "Community of Inquiry" framework, this qualitative study explored the educational experiences of pre-service teachers in an experiential online course…

This paper describes and assesses the development of an online solution for the experiential support of distance learning by teachers. Three hundred and forty-eight randomly selected K-12 teachers participated in this pilot study using the online learning environment designed in this research. Teachers' products, surveys, and interviews were…

What features of the physical environment in video game arcades lead kids to be so engaged? How can analysis of arcade space inform language arts teachers' decisions about designing classroom environments? This article presents an analysis of physical space in video game arcades and participants' positions therein to suggest how language arts…

The importance of business relevance in academia coupled with an increasingly challenging job market magnifies the importance for students to be better prepared for the marketplace. Client-based projects have been lauded for helping students gain the soft skills employers look for in entry-level employees, but little research supports this…

Time, and our experiences of it, warrants attention in "place"' pedagogies in outdoor education. Place typically involves the experience of a geographical location, a locale for interacting socially and/or with nature, and the subjective meanings we attach over time to the experience. Place, however, cannot be severed from the concept…

Previous research in our Action Learning Program demonstrated that although undergraduates preferred the Action Learning mode to the traditional lecture and discussion mode of instruction, they missed the familiar structure of the more traditional pedagogy. Consequently increased structure was implemented in both an undergraduate and graduate…