This article details an activity intended for use in a course with a unit on effective listening, including listening courses, public speaking, and interpersonal communication. Students will explain the importance of effective and active listening for a target audience by producing an infomercial for a product or service which they design.

The authors review the research on children's imagination and fantasy as they relate to children's socio-emotional and cognitive development and link those findings to children's academic and classroom competence. Specifically, children who are imaginative and/or fantasy prone tend to have better coping skills and the ability to regulate their…

Many people have seen "The Kiss" (1907-08), an iconic artwork by Austrian Symbolist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), but know little about its background. Since its creation, the sensual subject matter and lush golden patterns have been this culture's example of romantic love. The painting exemplifies Klimt's brand of Art Nouveau. Acceptance often eluded…

The key idea is that 50 minutes of teacher talk with passive student listening is relatively ineffective in developing student learning. Teachers can create silences for productive active student learning. Students can also change from passive listeners to active talker-discussers of their learning. Ideas are given about how to overcome silences…

This paper examines how Northern Thai (Muang) children are socialized into the discourses and practices of respect in school, a process that indexically links Standard Thai to images of polite and respectful Thai citizenship. Focusing on the socialization of politeness particles, the paper examines how cultural models of conduct are taken up,…

In this article, the author describes a class project wherein preschoolers gained an enriched experience learning art history through engaging in various activities: (1) listening to a storybook; (2) viewing images; (3) doing movement; and (4) producing a masterpiece. The author describes how the children painted their interpretation of Mona Lisa…

Learning about the water situation in other regions of the world and the devastating effects of floods on drinking water helps students study science while learning about global water quality. This article provides science activities focused on developing cultural awareness and understanding how local water resources are integrally linked to the…

We examine teachers' classroom activities with the spreadsheet, focusing especially on episodes marked by improvisation and uncertainty. The framework is based on Saxe's cultural approach to cognitive development. The study considers two teachers, one positively disposed towards classroom use of technology, and the other not, both of them…

Background: There has been a lack of research on exploring how beliefs about language learning (BALLs) and out-of-class language-learning activities are related. BALLs and out-of-class language-learning activities play an important role in influencing the learning behaviours of learners and learning outcomes. Findings of this study provide useful…

As educators interested in pedagogical uses of technology, we utilize the internet to improve students' knowledge and awareness of the world beyond our own national borders. Web-based technologies offer us resources for our courses and can play an important role in promoting a more active style of learning from our students. Yet when teaching…

A crucial element of the logic of the scientific method is the Control of Variables Strategy (CVS), in which conclusions about causal relations are enabled by manipulating a focal variable of interest while holding all other variables constant. Understanding CVS in elementary grades generally is poor, but can be improved with systematic…

This fourth book in the Mathematics Recovery series equips teachers with detailed pedagogical knowledge and resources for teaching number to 7 to 11-year olds. Drawing on extensive programs of research, curriculum development, and teacher development, the book offers a coherent, up-to-date approach emphasizing computational fluency and the…

In this paper, we measure the impact of interactive technology on student satisfaction and find support for the hypothesis that students who find a class is more interesting because of the use of interactive technology will be more satisfied with the course. The results also support the hypothesis that if students like the course, they will be…

Twitter, Google Docs and their cousins shrink the spaces between cultures even as they expand the reach of a typical classroom. How can a teacher use them to promote social justice? In Sarah Brown Wessling's English class, students are about to give Little Red Riding Hood a makeover. For weeks, her students at Johnston High School in Johnston,…

Faculty teaching courses at the higher education level employ a wide variety of strategies on the first day of class. Little research has been conducted on the efficacy of these practices. This study examines the first-day practices of instructors of higher education classes who have been recognized as outstanding practitioners by their respective…