This article shares lessons from committed and inspirational educators from across the country with whom the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) worked in 2020. Their experiences reinforce that nonpartisan teaching about democracy is possible (i.e., not teaching who to vote for, but rather how the system…

Discussion is a well-known tool for promoting reading comprehension in secondary-level English classes for students at all levels of reading skill, especially when the discussion promotes argumentation. However, researchers know little about how struggling readers use discussion, mainly because low-track English classes have tended to focus on…

Discussion-based classes are a defining characteristic of honors curricula (National Collegiate Honors Council). Of the 177 institutions to describe their curriculum in the "Official Online Guide to Honors Colleges and Programs," 50% promote their classes as "discussion" or "discussion-based." The descriptions include…

Arts integration is relevant in the context of the increased demand for creative thinkers in a global economy. However, reaching across disciplinary boundaries is less common in higher education. Arts integration is one way that a literature class can "trespass" onto the dramatic arts. This paper reports on a study of integrating the…

Multiple states set coursework in content area literacy as a requirement for secondary teacher licensure. This paper discusses the author's Content Area Reading and Writing course at the University of Louisville, designed for secondary preservice teachers who are in a range of disciplines: secondary English, science, mathematics, foreign language,…

A year-long collaborative action research project used networked technologies to connect researchers at a university-based online professional development program and a group of practitioner researchers based in a range of schools and educational agencies in several countries. They studied the process and effects of online professional development…