Children must be involved and interested in order to learn. Children who come to kindergarten with background knowledge gained from enjoyable trips with their parents, when they explored the world around them, are usually more curious about their world and experience more success in school. Good teachers connect new information in their curriculum…

This article presents several activities that permit students to determine the index of refraction of transparent solids and liquids using simple equipment without the need for geometrical relationships, special lighting or optical instruments. Graphical analysis of the measured data is shown to be a useful method for determining the index of…

This article describes cereal box design, an interdisciplinary graphics activity. The cereal box design activity is intriguing both for its simplicity and the resourcefulness that it can generate in young people. It lends itself to a variety of curriculums. It covers both consumerism and Design for the Environment (DfE) concepts broadly and in…

This article presents a sample activity to introduce students to geologic processes while opening up and expanding their curiosity about the world around them. This exercise is targeted towards younger students, but could serve as a short introductory activity for further schoolyard mapping activities for older students. In this activity, students…

This paper initiates an investigation of the college students' MI (multiple intelligences) distribution in English class. The participants are a group of Chinese sophomores from different majors: city planning, tourism, software engineering, financial administration and arts of English. With a view to make the investigation more specified in…

This paper explores ways in which Western literature can be taught to Non-western students. This paper demonstrates that non-western values do not have to be overcome but rather Western values can be highlighted and reinforced to deal with literary complexity. Values and ideals such as freedom, self-identity, religion, feminism, and equality are…

Knowledge of group dynamics and leadership activities is a component of the CORE Standards for the Master's degree curriculum in Rehabilitation Counseling. A group experience is often included as a learning activity in rehabilitation counselor education curricula as an instructional method of imparting knowledge of group dynamics. Group experience…

This article draws from a larger study based in South Texas that examines the professional and personal narratives of 63 Latina/o preservice educators preparing to teach in bilingual classrooms. Using qualitative methods, we collected data where participants' voices and opinions regarding U.S. immigration issues were documented during classroom…

Paralleling the accelerating pace of educational change in the last two decades has been the development of a professional learning community (PLC) in schools. Characterised by teacher collaboration and a spirit of enquiry, the PLC represents a response to change and an opportunity to benefit teachers, students and schools, using an approach most…

This action research project investigated the effects of negotiating curriculum on the affective attitudes of boys in my Year 8 English class towards studying English at high school. The ensuing unit involved developing autobiographical narratives to create, share and critique the students' life-stories, undertaking learning activities that were…

Recognising and nurturing giftedness in young children presents an important challenge to educators. This study sets out to identify and support gifted children through the provision of a rich learning environment in the Nursery (Kindergarten) setting. Practitioners in the Nursery aimed to provide cognitively challenging activities appropriate to…

To test whether epistemically unproblematic ways of thinking and talking about science could be transformed during preservice teacher training, we designed a system of learning activities based on a set of "heuristics for progressive disciplinary discourse" (HPDD). The HPDD outline six design principles of learning environments where the aim is to…

Discourse on e-learning propagated myths that generated overstatements regarding the effects of technologies on learning. No pedagogical approach could ever meet such overexpectations. The subsequent disappointment actually paves the way for research targeting more realistic goals. As the myths are fading away, learning technologies might take a…

Prior research has revealed that non-music specialist trainee primary school teachers lack confidence in teaching music in spite of changes to teacher training and the introduction of music in the National Curriculum in England. The current study investigated the effects on non-music specialist trainee primary teachers' confidence to teach music…

The implementation of standards and high-stakes testing has increased the pressure on classroom teachers to cover content in what seems like an ever-shrinking period of time. What if there was a way to help students pay better attention and remember more of their learning that could also reduce teacher stress? This article describes one way to…