e-Portfolios are a form of authentic assessment with formative functions that include showcasing and sharing learning artifacts, documenting reflective learning processes, connecting learning across various stages and enabling frequent feedback for improvements. This paper examines how e-portfolios take up these formative roles to support…

This column discusses resources and science topics related to students in grades preK to 2. This month's issue provides an activity on documentation panels to encourage students to reflect on their actions and thought processes. Young students benefit enormously from visual aids. Documentation panels--chronological arrangements of photos, student…

Arts-based practices, although familiar in some areas of educational research have the capacity to surprise and to shock: they hold promise but also pose risks. In this essay we introduce arts-based research practices and in particular cut-up and collage. We invite readers to reflect on our experiences of arts-based educational research activities…

Assessment and evaluation practices within honors programs have attracted considerable attention within the honors academic community, e.g., the spring/summer 2006 volume of the "Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council." Calls for carefully created and constructed assessment activities within honors programs have met with mixed…

The course the author describes here, WRTC 426: Rhetorical "Ethos" and Personal Disclosures: Explorations in Trauma Writing and Writing as Healing, asks students to explore the "writing as healing" movement in English studies and beyond in order to evaluate the efficacy of claims that writing personal narratives can heal…

The literature on culturally responsive pedagogy suggests an interaction between teachers' biases and subsequent encounters with students. To gain perspective on these (un)conscious biases, teacher candidates are encouraged to (re)consider their assumptions about "the other" through reflection. This article presents findings from a study…

Children with intellectual disabilities spend more time in the health-care system than mainstream children. Parents have to learn how to navigate the system by coordinating appointments, understanding the referral process, knowing what services are available, and advocating for those services. This places an incredible amount of responsibility on…

How Extension fosters social change and innovation can be improved through the use of theory-based educational models. Educational models can serve as foundations for the conceptual designs of educational interventions. I describe, using examples from my own work, one such model: the awareness, solidarity, and action model. This three-part model…

The purpose of this research was to examine the experiences of four pre-service teachers (PSTs) implementing differentiated instruction (DI) using action research. During a practicum, the participants recorded data about their use of DI and took part in collaborative reflective discussions with a professor. The data were analysed inductively. It…

Schön's concept of "reflection in action", particularly when interpreted from a sociocultural perspective, is often used as frame with which to consider the relationship between theoretical and tacit knowledge in the work of teachers. This paper presents an alternative interpretative frame for Schön which makes use of the ideas of…

Practitioner inquiry provides a powerful tool for improving practice and addressing critical issues in classrooms, schools, and broader communities. However, it also raises unique ethical challenges that often go unrecognized and unresolved. Structured Ethical Reflection (SER) provides teacher researchers with a process for identifying core values…

This article explores the value of using embedding to extend the notion of first exposure learning in flipped classroom practices. It describes a preclass assignment for a meeting and negotiation skills course, in which students are instructed to observe an authentic business meeting, interview participants of the meeting, photograph the…

Consultation has been found to improve teaching effectiveness, have benefits on teaching effectiveness for both young and older faculty members, and have persistent benefits beyond the consultation process. In light of the prevalent use of consultation in educational development, this qualitative study explored how educational developers…

This article is a reflection on a pilot study representing an important phase of the author's PhD research. The study was carried out to test the suitability of research tools for a project aimed at developing the communicative competence of foreign language learners (FFLs). The main project was designed using an elearning design model known as…

This pilot project investigated the benefits derived from teacher education candidates' sharing videos of their teaching for interactive review through web-based technology. Results indicate that candidates were able to move beyond the initial discomfort of watching themselves teach to reflecting on ways they could improve their practice. [Paper…