As schools move from more traditional educational curricula and systems to practices more innovative and relevant to 21st-century learning, it is necessary to understand the actions and attributes that are effective for creating innovative learning environments. This study explored how 21st-century learning environments and practices are…

Our urban school systems struggle because so many of their students live in poverty, but they also struggle because they were designed a hundred years ago, for an industrial society. In an increasing number of cities, they are being replaced by 21st century systems, in which the central administration does not operate all schools and employ all…

The promise of personalized learning excites many educators, and schools are wondering how best to introduce it and how they know when they have achieved it. Rather than thinking of personalized learning as an "it" (i.e., a program that is either present or not), we might think of it as an approach to teaching and learning that has many…

In Yucatec Maya middle schools in the Yucatán, math scores are low and drop out rates are high. Although addressing larger social and economic causes may ameliorate these issues, improving math instruction may be a more immediate, feasible approach. This ethnographic, mixed-methods study explores community approaches to problem-solving relevant to…

By the late 1990s, the evangelical discourse had displaced any sense that online education could be something other than a means of totalizing reform. The opposition between technology and tradition cut off a line of development through which conventional modes of education could be embodied in technology. Online education's adoption as a…

This article investigates 100 years of articles in "English Journal" (1912-2012) that focus on teaching with or about communication technologies and media. Through a systematic analysis of 787 articles, many examples were found of methods that engage students in composing new media, not just analyzing it, and graphical representations of…

Creating the conditions for effective teacher collaboration has been seen as a critical component of the work that leaders have been engaged in at Stonefields School since it opened in 2011. Acknowledgement that collaboration can be an opportunity, but also be challenging at times, has informed elements of ongoing professional learning. One of…

This article outlines strategies for using thinking routines in the general music classroom to foster deeper learning. Based on the Artful Thinking program, a model developed by Harvard's Project Zero in collaboration with Traverse City [Michigan] Area Public Schools, thinking routines were developed to draw students into a more meaningful…

The aim of this paper is to analyse how the Dalcroze method was introduced to Spain and became known there, more specifically in the Catalonia of the "Noucentisme" movement, and why it made the greatest impact and was more widely disseminated in this particular region of Spain. Following a summary of Dalcroze's contributions to music…

Eileen Hulme, Ben Thomas, and Hal DeLaRosby argue for the importance of creativity as a learning outcome and challenge higher education to produce students capable of becoming the innovative leaders the twenty-first-century economy requires.

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. If a mere picture is worth a thousand words, how much more are "moving pictures" or videos worth? The author poses this not merely as a rhetorical question, but because she wishes to make a case for using videos in the traditional case study method. She recommends four main approaches of…

In this article, I.M. Robottom directs the attention of the reader to key terms that describe "environmental education"--terms that seem to embrace the various facets that emerge in discourse about environment education. Robottom argues that the characteristics of "Education for the Environment" must distinguish environmental…

At least as far back as the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 there has been an ongoing desire on the part of politicians, policy-makers and the public in the U.S., to obtain greater economic returns on the federal investment in publicly funded university research. Today among policy-makers there is an apparent belief that a capital shortage…

This hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions examines innovations in college affordability. After an opening statement by Honorable Tom Harkin (Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions), the following senators provide statements: (1) Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski, a U.S. Senator from the State of…

Family involvement in the education of children and youth is recognized throughout research and practice as critical to the success of children in schools. This involvement has been described as impactful across population and ability groups. This chapter examines contemporary literature and practice as it relates to the engagement of parents of…