The purpose of this study was to investigate how learning materials based on Science Magic activities affect student attitudes to science. A quasi-experimental design was conducted to explore the combination of Science Magic with the 5E Instructional Model to develop learning materials for teaching a science unit about friction. The participants…

The central purpose of this paper is to highlight the research in a context where inclusive education is recognised within current global challenges in education. We aim to present different teaching practices and perceptions of teachers from rural schools regarding attention to diversity, before and during a collaborative action that reinforces…

Empowering settings are important places for people to develop leadership skills in order to enact social change. Yet, due to socio-cultural constructions of childhood in the US, especially constructions around working class and working poor children of Color, they are often not seen as capable or competent change agents, or in need of being in…

After years of using Rube Goldberg-inspired projects to teach concepts of simple machines, the author sought a comparable project to reinforce electricity lessons in his ninth-grade Science and Technology course. The Friendship Detector gives students a chance to design, test, and build a complex circuit with multiple switches and battery-powered…

In Geoff Edgers's biography of the Beatles, "Who Were the Beatles?", young readers learn of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison's youth and growth as musicians, the band's formation, and their contributions to music in popular culture. "General Music Today" columnist, Cardany provides music teachers with related music…

This book describes a model of innovative creative teaching and curriculum change that successfully engaged the students in creative learning and earned the secondary schools involved the Creative Partnerships award of Schools of Creativity status. It is based on an independent two-year research study in the two schools. It describes: (1) the…

The best corporations know that innovative thinking is the only competitive advantage that cannot be outsourced. The best schools are those that create cultures of imagination. Now in paperback, "Imagination First" introduces a wide-variety of individuals who make a habit of imaginative thinking and creative action, offering a set of universal…

This is a revision of the first title in Jossey-Bass' Online Teaching & Learning series. This series helps higher education professionals improve the practice of online teaching and learning by providing concise, practical resources focused on particular areas or issues they might confront in this new learning environment. This revision includes…

Creativity matters. A shared vocabulary and lens for creativity helps teachers and students know what it means to "be creative" and where to start. J. P. Guilford's FFOE model of divergent thinking from the 1950s offers four dimensions to describe creativity: (1) Fluency; (2) Flexibility; (3) Originality; and (4) Elaboration. FFOE makes time spent…

Effective teachers are often creative ones, yet an examination of creative teaching is largely invisible in the North American creativity literature. Even within education there is little about teachers' own creative practice. Nonetheless, there are benefits to studying creative teachers: in education it can explicate ways of enhancing teachers'…

What does it mean to engage in strengths-based (SB) approaches from a social justice perspective? In this paper we explore the accounts of educators who work with youth experiencing social and educational barriers to describe what it might mean to engage in SB practices from a social justice perspective. Using data generated from interviews, we…

The teaching of English grammar to second language learners is usually a tedious, stressful and time consuming activity and even after all the effort, students have generally found these lessons boring and confusing. As such, innovative language instructors have been trying different approaches to the teaching of grammar in their classrooms. Using…

The article describes a collaborative action research in a preschool in Reykjavik. The participants were two preschool teachers who collaborated with researchers at the University of Iceland. The project was set up as a professional development course for the teachers. Emphasis was placed on continuity in children's education, integration of play…

This paper addresses perspectives of creative teaching and learning strategies in the new learning context of mobile technology, particularly for novice learners. The discussion presented here is framed by two case studies and uses an ethnographical approach, informed by participant observation to consider the experiences of users of mobile…

What "is" mathematics? What does it mean to "do" mathematics? The answers to these two questions critically influence the ways in which learners respond to a mathematical problem. On the other hand, if they see questions as having only one correct answer and as needing to be solved in one particular way, they will be prone to…