Educational technologies, specifically computer and the Internet technologies, have apparently become powerful tools in the classroom as they change the way we teach and learn today. That is why pedagogies of school reform are now highly influenced by and built around the "constructivist" theories of learning, assuming the use of…

This article describes an exploration into improving the process and the outcome of learning in interactive teaching at the first-year university physics level, using what is becoming widely known as the "variation approach to learning." To explore this approach we chose an area of mechanics that is widely known to pose learning…

The date is September 9, 2005. This article is set in a rural Wisconsin community, a thousand miles north of New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina is about to make landfall. The four- and five- year- olds in Mrs. Olson's classroom have never experienced a hurricane or seen flood waters rise to cover the farms and houses they know, but they cannot…

In this article David Gabbard describes his first meeting with McLaren and his wife in 1989. Gabbard notes that although he had read some of McLaren's work, particularly some of his early collaborations with Henry Giroux, who had helped bring McLaren to Miami from Canada, no amount of reading, could have prepared him for meeting McLaren…

Australia has a long history of what has been pilloried as "cultural cringe", and of bemoaning its isolation from "overseas" developments. In recent years, the valuing of ideas and practices from elsewhere has been transformed under the rubric of "world best practice" within a global economy and culture, both in…

The paper addresses a model of entrepreneurial university embraced by American business schools as perceived by a Romanian Fulbright scholar. The purpose of this study was to highlight the practices pursued by the US entrepreneurial universities in their journey towards increasing performance excellence and strengthening the prestige of the…

The social work academic community is currently considering and critiquing the idea of evidence-based practice (EBP). Given the vital part that practicum education plays in the social work profession, understanding the views of field instructors on this subject is essential. The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University…

This study estimated separately the unique effects of three dimensions of good practice and the global effects of a composite measure of good practices on the cognitive development, orientations to learning, and educational aspirations of students during their first year of college. Analyses of longitudinal data from a representative sample of…

The author discusses the content in John Milton's "Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England" (1985) and provides parallelism to censorship practiced in higher education. Originally published in 1644, "Areopagitica" makes a powerful--and precocious--argument for freedom of speech…

Since Jonathan Kozol's 1991 publication of "Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools," East St. Louis, Illinois, District 189 has endured unswerving criticism and study. While Kozol's work made publicly known the horrible conditions of schools in the district, it did not bring immediate relief. In 1994, the state appointed a…

The authors consider the role that multiple literacies and new literacies might play in shaping preservice education. They review existing literature on multiple and new literacies in preservice education and examine in-school and out-of-school enactments of new and multiple literacies to answer the question, What can we do in preservice teacher…

Doubt has been increasingly perceived as a means of introducing education renewal, particularly within the context of dramatic social change and uncertainty. Nevertheless, little inquiry has been conducted with regard to the doubting process and the principal's role that influences its effectiveness. This lack of conceptualization is particularly…

In spite of the changes that 100 years of Americanization have produced, the American Samoa people overwhelmingly identify themselves with their culture. They are proud to be Samoan; they are committed to the "fa'a-Samoa" or the Samoan way of life. The desire to balance American ways with the unique values that make up the Samoan sense…

The paper discusses Iris Marion Young's idea of asymmetric reciprocity that rethinks typical understandings of gift giving. Iris Marion Young's proposals for asymmetric ethical relationships have important implications for democratic contexts that seek to take differences seriously. Imagining oneself in the place of the other or expecting from the…

Founded in 1995 and envisioned as a university that would prepare graduates to be active, engaged citizens, California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) developed a distinctive approach to civic engagement. Guided by an ambitious Vision Statement, CSUMB actualizes its civic engagement goals through an academic plan that mandates service…