Over the second half of the twentieth century, changes occurred in parent reports of their engagement in cognitive activities with their young children in the United States. This article argues that the growing trend of "parenting for cognitive development" in young children in the latter half of the twentieth century is associated with the…

The concept of "professional learning community" (PLC) has been suggested as a tool to improve teachers' professional competency and students' learning outcomes since the mid-1990s. In such a community, teachers can share their individual practices with the aim of searching for "good practice" based on the outcome of collective…

As netbook computers are becoming an attractive option for K-12 educators, they have the potential to be a more integral part of language learning. In this study 45 sixth graders in two classes used netbooks to learn English as a second language. Forty-four students in two other classes served as the control group who received traditional…

This study examined whether participation in collaborative learning activities during class meetings played a role in the students' academic learning and in their satisfaction with the course in general and with these activities in particular. The research demonstrated that group activities and class discussions are effective in fostering student…

This article describes what school social workers observed to be the quality components, or the "key ingredients," of the youth development activities they implement within their practice. The article reports on findings from twenty-eight interviews of school social workers. Eight quality components emerged from the data including: (1) giving…

In designing an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) course it is necessary that we consider several factors: students' objectives, needs, levels and interests, course and institution's goals, and availability of resources. In this paper it is strived to elucidate the differences between EGP (English for General purposes) and ESP (English for…

There is increasing concern over disengagement of teacher candidates during on-campus periods of pre-service programs due to the perceived disconnect between educational theory and practice. In response, teacher education has been called to engage candidates in praxis through authentic learning. In this paper, we bring together the fields of…

Virtual world platforms such as "Second Life" have been successfully used in educational contexts to motivate and engage learners. This article reports on an exploratory workshop involving a group of high school students using "Second Life" for an urban planning project. Young people are traditionally an under-represented demographic when it comes…

As robot technologies develop, many researchers have tried to use robots to support education. Studies have shown that robots can help students develop problem-solving abilities and learn computer programming, mathematics, and science. However, few studies discuss the use of robots to facilitate the teaching of second languages. We discuss whether…

Enrichment programs can provide various social and academic benefits for high-potential learners. However, students from low-income families receive fewer opportunities for academic enrichment than students from higher income backgrounds. This qualitative study examined the experiences and perceptions of high-potential students from low-income…

A significant volume of research demonstrates that out-of-school learning activities enhance student development in terms of cognitive, affective and social outcomes. However, there is also evidence that the opportunity to engage in these activities has been severely reduced in recent years. This paper explores the extent to which the provision of…

To develop reading fluency, a 13-week timed reading activity was integrated into a normal curriculum with the aim of improving students' reading rates. Participants were 84 college students divided into an experimental and a control group. The test instruments involved pretests and posttests on reading speed and comprehension. Students'…

Researchers in the educational field have investigated how a caring adult can best provide mentoring support to youth placed at risk and what functions a mentoring program should serve to promote healthy mentoring relationships. However, the perspective of mentors rarely has been sought to elicit their evaluation of a mentoring program or…

This paper compares students' perceptions of support provided in the acquisition of various thinking and team-building skills, resulting from the various activities, resources and technologies (ART) integrated into an upper level Distributed Computing (DC) course. The findings indicate that students perceived strong support for their acquisition…

In the United States, considerable financial and human resources have been devoted to breaking some large high schools into smaller learning communities (SLCs). This article reviews research that compares SLCs to comprehensive high schools on a variety of measures. Extant research neither supports nor refutes the promise of SLCs to improve…