Quality community-based art education programs for older adults over the age of 50 should exploit the broad range of interests and cognitive abilities of participants by utilizing adult education theory, brain research, and the best practices of adult art education programs. We consider a developing paradigm on the cognitive abilities of the…

This study examined the outcomes of interventions used to address attendance issues at a middle school located in the Southern United States. School-wide interventions were implemented to address absenteeism of all students and individual interventions were implemented to address absenteeism with targeted students. An explanation of each…

In this column, the authors discuss apps useful in developing mathematical reasoning. They place these into a theoretical framework, suggesting how they could be used in an instructional model such as the Algorithmic Instructional Technique (AIT) developed by Vasquez (2003). This model includes four stages: modeling, practice, transition, and…

Although mindfulness has become a mainstream methodology in mental health treatment, it is a relatively new approach with adolescents, and perhaps especially youth with sexual behavior problems. Nevertheless, clinical experience and several empirical studies are available to show the effectiveness of a systematic mindfulness- based methodology for…

The University of California-Merced's Core 1 has potential to foster genuine interdisciplinary thinking by asking students to conceptualize knowledge across fields of inquiry. Core 1 introduces students to the range of scholarly inquiry at the university all in the span of one semester-long, writing-intensive, integrated curriculum that encourages…

Service-learning is a transformational pedagogy with timely application to the teaching and learning of foreign languages. In our current climate of assessment outcomes, language study and the humanities more generally tend to be devalued and rendered invisible by utilitarian models of evaluation. Incorporating service-learning courses and…

Many parallels exist between quality coaches and quality classroom teachers--especially AP teachers, who often feel the pressure to produce positive test results. Having developed a series of techniques and strategies for building a team-oriented winning culture on the field, Jim Fornaciari writes about how he adapted those methods to work in the…

This article discusses the principles developed to assure the quality of international ranking practices for higher education, the so-called Berlin Principles, and the role given to them in the higher education community. While the principles are generally regarded as proper quality assurance principles, they are problematic both in their content…

The continued importance of university rankings has only served to fuel the growth of the "world-class" university movement. There is a growing impression that, in a globalised and interconnected world, no country can do without a world-class university. No country, that is, except Brazil. While Brazil has the resources necessary to…

In this article, the authors advocate the practice of reflection and reflective thinking skill development. More specifically, they offer definitions of reflection, identify reasons that may inhibit preservice teachers' reflection, and suggest practices that specifically encourage reflection on teaching among preservice and inservice…

The purpose of this article is to provide guidance on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts (CCSS-ELA). Toward this end, suggestions and cautions are provided that focus on understanding the vision, understanding the anchor and grade-level standards, and understanding the implications for instruction. In…

Students' learning goals demonstrate much stronger variety than traditional goal orientation models for classroom learning assume, especially when the educational context allows so. In this empirical study we will investigate the richness of students' goal orientation in a collaborative learning context. We do so with the help of a goal…

The social behavior of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder was evaluated weekly over 19 weeks of a social skills training program. Participants' vocalizations were coded as initiating, responding, or other (e.g., self-talk). Participants' interactions were coded as dyadic peer interactions, dyadic leader interactions,…

Over the past 4 years, rain barrel programming for residents has been implemented in both Northern Virginia and New Jersey as a method for educating the public about stormwater management and water conservation. Program participants demonstrated a significant increase in knowledge of water resource issues. Follow-up surveys showed 58% of New…

In this article, Clare Rees describes the interest of staff and children alike when their school added the newest and possibly coolest iPad "tablet computers" to the classroom. Everyone wanted to get their hands on them. But how were they going to use them as teaching and learning tools? How were they actually to be used in the…