Too often, looking at middle school math classrooms through the eyes of the students reveals a monotonous routine with no clear application to life outside of school. In this article, the author suggests a few strategies for putting the life back into middle school mathematics: (1) mix it up by changing the physical environment and classwork…

The competencies achieved, the quantity and distribution of the time employed, and the activities carried out by the student are fundamental elements of the future European Higher Education Area. The present study explores, in a specific course, the current level of some indicators of such elements and their validity. The results highlight the…

Classroom participation is an important and frequently used pedagogical strategy. This paper examines how awarding students with course currency, bills that are redeemable for bonus points at the end of the term, affects class participation and students' understanding of the material. The research uses surveys and data analysis to examine the…

When learning about a phenomenon, one must directly experience it in order to fully understand it (Kolb, 1984). So how may an instructor of introductory organizational communication ensure that students "directly experience the phenomenon" of organizing? The author describes an activity he developed to enable students to share a direct experience…

Most systems development projects incorporate some sort of life cycle approach in their development. Whether the development methodology involves a traditional life cycle, prototyping, rapid application development, or some other approach, the first step usually involves a system investigation, which includes problem identification, feasibility…

Robots provide teachers with opportunities to teach multidimensional thinking and critical thinking skills. In this article, the author presents a classroom activity wherein students are required to design a firefighting robot. This activity aims to demonstrate the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the robotics technology.

This preliminary study investigated the effects of a novel educational electronic book (e-book) developed by the authors to further kindergarteners' emergent literacy skills within a "paired-learning" versus "individual learning" context. Of the 72 children randomly chosen from three kindergartens in a low SES township in the country where the…

Undergraduates presented original research in classroom poster sessions open to students, faculty, and friends. We assessed the reaction of the students to the experience and their reported change in their interest in presenting at conferences. Students enjoyed the poster session experience and indicated they preferred this method over other…

A six-week long intervention that introduced second graders to poetry writing is described in this article, ending in a classroom "poetry cafe" culminating event. This article details the established classroom "writing workshop" structure and environment and the perceptions and observations of how students responded to the instruction. Four poetry…

"What starts out long but gets shorter then longer each day?" Shadows! This student's clever riddle was an opportunity to investigate how the Sun's daily position in the sky influences shadow length. Thus began a mini-lesson which was created to help third-grade students understand that a shadow occurs when an opaque object blocks light (Shapiro…

With a shift of focus from teaching to learning in higher education, teachers often look for strategies to involve students actively in the learning process, especially since numerous studies have demonstrated that a student's active involvement in the learning process enhances learning. Active learning has resulted in positive learning outcomes.…

Online auctions are dominated by eBay, which started bringing together buyers and sellers in 1995. eBay product listings can easily be used in business communication courses to better understand online sales messages. One great advantage is that the vast majority of nearly 15 million listings a day are written and assembled by everyday consumers…

This paper reports on a study of classroom interaction as a multi-party and multi-activity phenomenon. On the basis of video-recorded lessons in secondary education schools in the Netherlands, observational records were made of the behaviour of individual students throughout lessons. The main argument in this paper is that when students engage in…

High school teacher John Golden provides a variety of literature, film scenes, and classroom activities to introduce literary, cinematic, and theatrical elements. He shows students how to move beyond basic comparisons as students learn to analyze the techniques and changes film directors choose when translating literature to the screen. (Contains…

Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated September 15th through October 15th, is a great opportunity to kick off a whole year of cultural discovery. This article presents 25 great ideas for Hispanic heritage. These 25 fresh ideas--from Aztec math to Carnaval masks--are easy to put together, and they offer students the chance to celebrate their own…