A concept map is a graphical tool to activate and elaborate on prior knowledge, to support problem solving, promote conceptual thinking and understanding, and to organize and memorize knowledge. The aim of this study is to determine if the use of concept mapping (CM) in a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum enhances the PBL process. The paper…

Often the school is left as an institution seemingly ethically neutral, leaving untouched questions about whether the school itself is a site of injustice toward both educators and children. Springing from his well-known "Building an Ethical School", Robert J. Starratt now looks more closely at the educational leader's responsibility to ensure…

As States and districts implement educator evaluation systems that include measures of student growth, one of the challenges they face is identifying measures for non-tested grades and subjects. Using student learning objectives (SLOs) is one promising approach to addressing this challenge. This brief describes the key elements and challenges of…

Managing liquidity--a college or university's ability to access cash quickly or to easily convert assets to cash--is an increasingly crucial component of enterprise risk management. Liquidity risks lurk around nearly every corner--in the endowment portfolio, the debt portfolio, and in working-capital management. It also influences students'…

This article explores secondary school transitions from a comparative perspective. It focuses on a stage at which a major institutional transition takes place in two different educational systems. Over the years a number of international studies have explored different learning environments and their impact on student educational outcomes. Much of…

The Common Core State Standards and the attendant assessments being developed by state consortia create a tremendous opportunity and simultaneous challenge for state boards of education. Many of the issues apply to all boards, even those in states that have not adopted the standards or assessments. Boards will need to think carefully about the…

Building on the social reproduction theory of Pierre Bourdieu, this study examines the impact of school context and institutional agency on shaping urban students' access to social and cultural capital resources, which are selectively valued and rewarded by the education system, in two schools across two high-poverty, intensely segregated urban…

This article presents a deductive content analysis of the grade 6 specific and general objectives in the writing curricula across Canada's 10 provinces and two of its three territories. The analysis uses Ivanic's six discourses of writing and learning to write: skills discourse, creativity discourse, process discourse, genre discourse, social…

Many historically Black business schools have taken a proactive stance during this period of economic uncertainty. Dr. Jessica Bailey, president of the HBCU Business Deans' Roundtable, which includes 52 of the 104 historically Black business schools, thinks the institutions are "expanding their missions" to place more emphasis on globalization,…

Because pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) includes teachers' understanding of how students learn, or fail to learn, specific subject matter, the development of PCK is an important goal to focus on in professional development programs. The research literature clearly indicates the complex nature of PCK as a form of teachers' professional…

Two articles dealing with different dimensions of student learning are discussed for their contemporary relevance. The first, "Culturally mixed groups on international campuses: An opportunity for intercultural learning" by Simone Volet and Grace Ang (1998), examines the factors that encourage students to gravitate towards co-nationals rather than…

In this article, we discuss findings from multi-level ethnography conducted in a secondary school located in Madrid (Spain). The study focuses on the variety of institutional, family and peer-based factors that contribute to the construction of students' socio-academic trajectories. In particular, we attempt to understand the role these social…

I examine the impact of prenatal total suspended particulate (TSP) exposure on educational outcomes using county-level variation in the timing and severity of the industrial recession of the early 1980s as a shock to ambient TSPs (similar to Chay and Greenstone 2003b). I then instrument for pollution levels using county-level changes in relative…

This research documents the creation, implementation, and evaluation of a novel chemistry curriculum. The curriculum allowed students to create theories situated in a variety of cultures while they investigated chemical phenomena central to all civilizations; it was a way of synthesizing chemistry, the history and nature of science, inquiry, and…

Over the past decade there has been a major move to position "thinking" (however thinking is defined and enacted) as a more explicit outcome within the curriculum of many nations, with implications for teachers' professional development, assessment, and examination requirements. This paper analyses approaches to this challenge taken by…