A significant issue in gifted education is the possible need for mandatory pre-service programs or certifications for educators who work with students who are gifted and talented. It was the primary purpose of this dissertation study to examine the perceptions of three groups of participants (pre-service educators, in-service educators in regular…

Blended learning models of training and education are gaining in popularity and availability. While such models are appealing for variety of reasons, they are not without unique challenges and concerns. Practitioners face ethical decisions every day and blended training models create their own set of circumstances that could become problematic…

This research project examines classroom discussion in its relationship to reading as made visible through the practice of textual annotation. In order to develop a rich description of student reading/discussion processes, we targeted multiple undergraduate seminars at a liberal arts college as they encountered the first two Acts of Shakespeare's…

Virtual K-12 schools have rapidly become a popular choice for parents and students in the last decade. However, little research has been done on the instructional practices used in virtual courses. As reflected in the central research question, the purpose of this study was to explore how teachers provided instruction for Grade 7-10 students in…

Students' science achievement has been subject to scrutiny and criticism in the United States. The decline in rankings on standardized international assessments has been the focus of concern for educators, policy makers, parents and society at large. This study, designed as an action research, explored the factors contributing to the decrease in…

Empirical studies have found that participation in international service increases learners' intercultural competence, language skills, appreciation of cultural differences, and tolerance for ambiguity. While previous studies suggest that international service experience is potentially transformative in nature, the present study examined…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the language education desires [whether they be English as a second language (ESL), French as a second language (FSL), and/or heritage language classes] and needs of one segment of Ontario's ESL population, Arabic speakers, and to determine if those desires vary from the current language education…

This qualitative study was designed to examine the processes and practices that occurred before, during and after consolidation of the four elementary schools in the Great Local School district with the goal of developing a conceptual framework to be utilized by school districts that plan on implementing a school consolidation or reconfiguration.…

What do we do when we read in another language? How do we make sense of the lexical and syntactic structures on the page? This study's development and use of the Miscue Coding for Metacognitive Strategies (MCMS), a foreign language assessment tool, offers language students and instructors a holistic approach to considering these questions. In this…

Many MBA classes, such as those in accounting and finance, require students to examine securities filings to perform financial analyses of companies. Often, however, students are unaware of the vast amount of additional information that can be obtained from a company's securities filings and other public information. Much of this information…

The Stoneleigh Foundation of Philadelphia has historically focused its strategic investments on improving outcomes for youth involved or at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Stoneleigh began its support for youth courts by providing a fellowship award from 2009 to 2011 to public interest lawyer Gregory Volz to…

Times are tough for everyone, including public school districts. During the past decade, school districts have faced the dual challenges of tightening budgets and increasing fiscal responsibility and oversight. Many school districts have found a way to manage their assets, reduce staff requirements, increase accountability, and save money on…

This article explores the development of observation in scientific and everyday contexts. Fundamental to all scientific activity, expert observation is a complex practice that requires the coordination of disciplinary knowledge, theory, and habits of attention. On the surface, observation appears to be a simple skill. Consequently, children may be…

We study in this article mathematics teachers' "documentation work": looking for resources, selecting/designing mathematical tasks, planning their succession, managing available artifacts, etc. We consider that this documentation work is at the core of teachers' professional activity and professional development. We introduce a distinction between…

Through its analysis of birth plans, documents some women create to guide their birth attendants' actions during hospital births, this article reveals the rhetorical complexity of childbirth and analyzes women's attempts to harness birth plans as tools of resistance and self-education. Asserting that technologies can both silence and give voice,…