A valuable supplement to student evaluations of teaching (SETs) is the mid-semester feedback (MSF) technique, an intervention that can facilitate meaningful improvement of the teaching and learning experience. Scheduling time for an MSF enables a systematic, formative evaluation of instruction on a specific student population in a given semester.…

Cognitive gains in science content linked to single zoo visits are well evidenced; zoos are unique educational settings. Not only do they foster learning about the natural world, but they also help young people to connect with wildlife (Jensen, 2014; Pearson et al., 2014). Even out-of-classroom experiences of short duration can evoke strong…

The management of product development teams is a challenging task, especially when success hinges on the ability to guide technical and nontechnical personnel through an effective decision-making process. The "Tale of Two Rocks" exercise illustrates how differing motivations and beliefs about new technologies can affect the decisions…

In thinking about teens and online risks, school librarians need to know researchers generally agree that, despite the popular image of pedophiles and criminals lurking online waiting to harm innocent young people, in reality social media use is only about as risky as most everyday social interactions in the offline world (Agosto and Abbas 2013).…

The goal of the Family Science Night (FSN) described in this article was to involve culturally and linguistically diverse families in school life so that students would be more vocal, successful, and interactive in science class. The project would also demonstrate to the students that their teacher valued their input in the classroom. The setting…

In this article Anne Roche describes some of the different types of story problems defined in the Cognitively Guided Instruction professional development program. Teachers will find the table reproduced on page 32 to be very helpful in designing word problems. Roche then gives some suggestions for improving the way division stories are used in the…

This educational case, in two parts (A and B), requires students to assume the role of a business consultant and to use Excel to develop a profit-planning or a cost-volume-profit (CVP) model for a package-delivery company opportunity currently being evaluated by a client. The name of the proposed business is Pack-and-Go, which would provide an…

The purpose of this article is to re-conceptualize the role of the monolingual teacher in mainstream K-12 classrooms in the United States who work with students who are mostly multilingual and transnational. The proposed role for monolingual teachers is to incorporate at least some of the resources available in students' native languages, even if…

Learning takes place mostly through communication. This is why teachers employ different types of interaction in the classroom in order to provide a varied environment for the students. Apart from the commonly used Student-Teacher-Talk or Teacher-Student-Talk, presentations or lectures may offer advantages with regard to the promotion of…

Student attitudes can have a positive or negative effect on learning. According to Duschl, Schweingruber, and Shouse, "[students'] goals for science learning, their beliefs about their ability to do science, and the value they assign to science learning are likely to influence their cognitive engagement in science tasks" (2007, p. 195). Therefore,…

In an effort to introduce students to a relatively new genre and allow them to evaluate it in the context of how they had been taught in the past, the author created an assignment about graphic novels and literacy that guided students through four short papers, forming a longer research paper for a final project. The students would begin with a…

Content analysis is a valuable research tool for social scientists that unfortunately can prove challenging to teach to undergraduate students. Published classroom exercises designed to teach content analysis have thus far been predominantly envisioned as lengthy projects for upper-level courses. A brief and engaging exercise may be more…

This article provides an example of a social studies lesson from Turkish educational context in order to facilitate comparison with examples of social studies lessons from other parts of the world. This lesson was recorded in a 7th grade class at a middle school in one of the metropolitan neighborhoods in Istanbul. According to the current…

The concept of critical thinking was featured in taxonomies a few decades ago. Critical thinking is a complex process that requires higher levels of cognitive skills in the processing of information. The teachers' perceptions of critical thinking among students influence their behaviors in the classroom. It has been found that teachers perceive…

This article draws on a recently completed study in which preservice teachers identify aspects of their initial teacher education that act as hindrances or aids to developing reflectivity. It articulates the concept that reflection must be seen not as something to be done or acquired but rather as a disposition or way of being. Also identified are…