Caucusing, as a social justice activity, is traditionally implemented to provide an insider space for marginalized persons to share experiences and build a space for belonging and safety by excluding those who hold privileged identities. Within a particular event that combines privileged and oppressed, experiences are uneven, with insiders…

In 2011, PayPal co-founder Peter Theil introduced the first Thiel Foundation Fellows--students who agreed to drop out of college to do scientific research, start a tech company, or work in a social movement. Although this may have been seen as a radical and daring idea at the time, 400 people applied for 24 scholarship awards of $100,000 apiece.…

Starting from the contribution on the "ten principles of effective pedagogy" by James and Pollard, we critically reflect on some of the principles and assess whether these principles can be grounded in the wider European research literature that has accumulated internationally. We conclude that these principles can be supported and…

Problems of introducing students to innovational approaches to learning and an approach to solving those problems are discussed. The authors stress that students' definitions of classroom and school reality are powerful factors in the negotiation of educational change. If innovation is introduced in classrooms via lecture alone, the result is that…

Provides one teacher's personal account of an ongoing learning process in a sixth-grade classroom, and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of allowing for diverse interpretations, perspectives, and points of view designed to aid student learning. The dynamic relationship between student initiative and unpredictability that can result in…

Discusses creativity in terms of imagination and knowledge. Considers how students have a need to create. Explores how creativity helps young adults "get through the darkness." Notes ways to use writing to foster creativity. Addresses ideas such as the magic of the unknown and the place of knowledge. (SG)

Presents results of a study of student attitudes toward United States history 10-week minicourses. Course titles include America's West, Roaring Twenties and Desperate Thirties, Nuclear Age, and Popular American Image. Concludes that minicourses allow students to choose among a variety of offerings and to determine which subjects are relevant and…

Notes the growing interest in optimizing students' literacy development through the integration of multiple sign systems as vehicles for learning. Suggests that the most important contribution that the endless categories of signs offer to the teaching and learning of literacy is the idea that the multiple communication modalities of sign systems…

If the modern conservatorium is to prosper in a rapidly changing cultural and economic landscape, it will need to provide a learning experience that produces multi-skilled and adaptable graduates who are self-monitoring and self-directing. By implication, teaching practices that have dominated in the past will need to be re-thought, and…

Student involvement in the area of curriculum criticism would provide a more comprehensive view of curricular and educational needs. Curriculum criticism is premised on an analogy between the curriculum (as a set of materials offering experience to its recipients) and the work of art in any medium. The curriculum critic attempts to portray the…

Suggests that substitute teachers be eliminated and that schools establish a pool of well-qualified, talented "guest teachers" to replace them. (FL)

Described is the change in teaching style--from open and unstructured to rigid and traditional--undergone by a teacher who found his students did not like or understand freedom in the classroom. (KC)

Presents the comments of two elementary students as supportive of daily physical education. (SJL)

Presents in "journal entry" form, one year of teaching in particular that stands out as the year the author shifted from teaching facts to teaching children. Concludes that preparing students to perform well on standardized tests does not have to be separate from good teaching and authentic learning. (SG)

An instructor teaching a summer semester of freshman composition collected data for a descriptive study from five students in the class. Of the five students, one was Caucasian, and the other four were Hispanic; all had children. A central value of the study was its potential for demonstrating the benefits of teaching composition through…