In 2 related studies framed by social constructivism theory, the authors explored a fine-grained analysis of adolescents' civic conceptual knowledge and skills and investigated them in relation to factors such as teachers' qualifications and students' classroom experiences. In Study 1 (with about 2,800 U.S. students), the authors identified 4…

Foreign Language Elementary Summer Camp is a fantastic way to spend part of the summer. For the past ten years in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the authors have offered a variety of foreign language elementary camps that meet daily for three hours for three to four weeks during July. Currently, they offer camps for Chinese, English Language Learners…

"An Inconvenient Truth" is an Academy Award-winning documentary about global warming presented by Al Gore. This documentary is appropriate for a lesson on fear appeals and the extended parallel process model (EPPM). The EPPM is concerned with the effects of perceived threat and efficacy on behavior change. Perceived threat is composed of an…

Throughout the last decade, companies have increased their investment in electronic commerce (EC) by developing and implementing Web-based applications on the Internet. This paper describes a class project to develop a customized computer website which is similar to Dell Computer Corporation's (Dell) website. The objective of this project is to…

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, where acquisition of English is the ultimate goal, one of the main tasks for the teacher is to provide students with language input and activities that best aid them in their learning process. As different researchers have reported, including poetry-based activities in the EFL classroom is…

One hears quite frequently how the arts continually suffer in the academic day. Many long-time technology education champions certainly know what this is all about; but there may be some ways to use technology education to bring the arts into the classroom. This article offers a series of activities and suggestions that will help students better…

Through globalization, the world is becoming smaller, placing responsibility on the educational system to prepare tolerant, culturally empathetic learners. In response to this rising demand, students from a U.S. Midwestern university and another from St. Petersburg, Russia, met on a video bridge and learned intercultural communications by…

Vocabulary instruction is addressed on two levels in this article: 1) the importance of direct teaching and 2) using the books of a popular children's series as examples to support these vocabulary lessons. Also addressed are specific methods of turning classrooms into places where vocabulary instruction is effective and enjoyable. Elements of…

The critical examination of language and the deconstruction of truth claims play an important role in how we build with diversity in our classrooms. We, as social work educators involved with playful postmodernism, recognize the significance of improvisation and playfulness in engaging the question: how is this examination and deconstruction done?…

For years, when the author taught about World War II, she used primary and secondary source readings, she presented Power Points, and had her students watch newsreels and other video clips. Today, her students interact with actual artifacts from history so that they can draw conclusions and gain understanding about what the soldiers' lives were…

Semiotic work is principled engagement in the making of meaning. The semiotic work of school-based learning entails interpretation and expression framed by the curriculum and the social practices of the classroom, and realized multimodally in diverse pedagogic interactions and activities. Micro-examination of the relationship between a teacher's…

The purpose of having fun in the English language arts (ELA) classroom is twofold: (1) build community; and (2) alleviate the monotony, drudgery, and anxiety that reading, speaking, and writing often produce, especially in struggling students and any and all who are future members of Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone Professional Organization of…

This article presents a classroom challenge involving an old railroad right-of-way. Using the knowledge gained via research into what others may have done with utilizing old rail lines, along with team creative efforts, students should begin generating ideas for how to use these land areas. The students might suggest the land areas be used for:…

This article presents and uses the notion of configuration of activity, which extends the Norbert Elias's original concept of social configuration based on the study and analysis of individual and collective activity. Although this concept embraces all types of social activities, in the present study the authors used it to describe and analyse…

In this article, the development of a master's-level course regarding girls' and women's issues in counseling is described. First, the pedagogical foundation for the course design is highlighted. Second, the learning goals for the course are outlined: (a) knowledge of counseling issues pertinent to girls and women in contemporary society, (b)…