In the last two decades, there have been various calls for reform in teacher education programs to address the needs of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and students with disabilities. Consequently, many teacher education preparation programs are reviewing and redesigning their programs to meet the needs of the…

Teacher education in universities is under pressure. In many new education policies there is a renewed focus on teacher quality, and therefore quality initial teacher education. In some countries this renewed focus has led to a resurgence of "alternative approaches" to teacher education such as Teach for America / Australia. One of the…

This article describes instructional theory that supports post-industrial education and training systems--ones that are customized and learner-centered, in which student progress is based on learning rather than time. The author discusses the importance of problem-based instruction (PBI), identifies some problems with PBI, overviews an…

Cherbourg State School is approximately 300 km northwest of Brisbane. It is situated in an Aboriginal community at Cherbourg with approximately 250 students. At the Cherbourg State School, the aim was to generate good academic outcomes for all students from kindergarten to Year 7 and to nurture a strong and positive sense of what it means to be…

The General Educational Development program, or GED, is undergoing the biggest revamping in its 69-year history, driven by mounting recognition that young adults' future success depends on getting more than a high-school-level education. Potent forces have converged to stoke the GED's redesign. A labor market that increasingly seeks some…

The National High School Center's "Eight Elements of High School Improvement: A Mapping Framework" provides a cohesive high school improvement framework comprised of eight elements and related indicators of effectiveness. These indicators of effectiveness allow states, districts, and schools to identify strengths and weaknesses of their current…

Emergent technologies offer opportunities to understand concepts in deeper, often different, and more meaningful ways. However, this growth in understanding will occur only if teachers learn to use these technologies in effective ways. The federal initiative Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) was launched in 1999 to address this…

This paper describes the redesign of a faculty development program at a large public university that transitioned from weekly face-to-face meetings to a version that reduced seat time by half. Focus is on course development activities in which individual faculty began designing and developing their online courses. Survey data was collected and…

Project-based learning is one of the main successful student-centered pedagogies broadly used in computing science courses. However, this approach can be insufficient when dealing with practical subjects that implicitly require many deliverables and a great deal of feedback and organizational resources. In this paper, a worked e-portfolio is…

This article describes a collaborative self-study implemented to improve and refine three teacher educators' instructional practices to better assist their teacher candidates in developing culturally responsive pedagogy and becoming reflective practitioners. The self-study is situated in three theoretical frameworks: Banks's (2005) framework for…

There is no doubt that the American economy is in the midst of a major restructuring. While the consequences are not yet fully apparent, two powerful implications for higher education have become clear. First, because solutions to the nation's problems will require a highly educated work force, the demands on colleges can only increase. Second,…

In a competitive workforce it is not just having the right qualification or technical skills that will land an individual a job; it could very well be their interpersonal skills. How someone communicates is often the first impression an employer has of a possible worker. Yet, it is precisely communication skills that employers feel applicants are…

Brown Medical School developed a comprehensive curriculum in which enriched aging content increased from 22 to 80 hours in preclerkship courses and was also added for clerkships, residencies, and nongeriatrician physicians. Innovative evaluation strategies are also described. Highlights include "treasure hunts" in the anatomy laboratory, a…

As political accountability and economic reality increasingly influence higher education, many leadership preparation programs are seeking cost effective instructional delivery systems that yield highly effective results. Simultaneously, large numbers of graduate students are seeking quality leadership preparation programs that provide both…

It is evident that the more people believe, the more they can conquer. This is true especially in moving instructors and students into the world of online and blended learning environments. There are a number of things to consider when moving courses to an online learning format. In this article, the author writes about the lessons learned at…