Preparing special educators for the highest-need schools remains an ongoing challenge in urban districts across the United States. One university's collaborative community-based immersive partnership model, with emphasis on service learning, has demonstrated promising levels of impact on candidates' preparation as preservice teachers learning how…

Among many challenges a math department at a post-secondary institution will most likely be faced with the optimization problem of how best to offer out-of-lecture learning support to several thousand first- and second-year university students enrolled in large math service courses within given spatial, scheduling, financial, technological, and…

In this paper, we provide an in-depth view of the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) program at Virginia Commonwealth University as a potential model for other large research universities who might wish to implement similar learner-centered initiatives in their first-year experience courses. Unlike graduate teaching assistants, whose primary…

The importance of leadership in organizations has increased and leadership training and development has advanced and peoples' performance. Institutions in higher education are investing heavily in advancement of leadership programs aimed at improving learners' leadership skills and scholars. To this day, many scholars in higher institutions…

This chapter focuses on religious institutions or the institutionalized church as an environment where older adults commonly engage as learners, primarily from a spiritual dimension but also within a secular context. It emphasizes the agency of older adults who learn in this specific cultural context in a range of modes for diverse purposes. While…

Meaningful academic relationships between adult master's students and their professors can both deepen students' learning and serve as a regenerating force for professors. This study employed grounded theory methods to explore the question, "What goes on in relational practice between master's students and professors?" I interviewed 10…

This study examined elder mentors' and students' roles, functions, and satisfaction with the Elder Mentorship program at the Graduate Center for Gerontology, University of Kentucky. The Elder Mentorship program matches gerontology doctoral students with older adults in the community. Parallel surveys were constructed to evaluate the program from…

Professional experience in initial teacher education continues to be a very challenging area in which to work in Australian universities, given the changing times in which we live and the multiplicity of political, professional, economic and pragmatic issues that surround professional placements. The past decades have seen myriad responses to…

In this self-study, a teacher educator and an experienced teacher analyze an unexpected shared opportunity to mentor pre-service elementary educators. Our partnership arose during a graduate course on literacy development for elementary students, serendipitously captured during an extended electronic conversation with the pre-service candidates.…

This discussion of classroom teachers serving as mentors of children draws from the literature on the origin of mentoring, the definition of mentoring, and the current theory on the characteristics and qualities that define an excellent mentor-mentee relationship. Parallels between the study of adult mentoring relationships and the teacher-child…

Seven college students at Florida State University recognized on campus for exemplary character and service were interviewed about how college student peer groups function both to inhibit and to encourage development of character and civic responsibility. Their responses are summarized, and strategies that institutions can use to promote moral and…

Project CIRCLE, a project conducted by the University of Texas Learning Technology Center in collaboration with the Austin Independent School District and the Eanes Independent School District, explored the use of network-based tools to help change teacher practices toward more student-directed and constructivist approaches to learning. Through…