Purdue University's commitments as a public land grant institution that purposefully integrates education, research, and service has enabled the university to develop as a site of innovation and impact at scale, making strategic investments and taking bold risks that produce benefits within wider social, political, and economic systems. We present…

Background: A growing number of educators have started exploring student-centered approaches to improve students' learning and satisfaction with courses and programs. While prior research shows a positive impact of such strategies on student learning, further exploration of the perceptions of traditional, lecture-based and other more inquiry-based…

Innovation has been an important aspect of economic and scientific success in the United States for decades. Hobday, Coffey, Saalfeld, and Colwell (2011) suggested that, in order to produce innovative ideas, one must have a design-thinking mentality. This article provides the readers with an example of brainstorming techniques that have been…

Engineering education has been slow to adopt research-based educational innovations. Few prior works on such adoption have investigated the combined classroom experiences of instructors and students when such innovations are being implemented. Therefore, this work focuses on the lived experiences of an instructor and her students when adopting an…

It has been documented that Facebook is the most popular social networking site among students. Given that most students are already users of Facebook, implementing it into the curriculum provides an easy way for students to actively participate in class activities. This paper explores the idea that the use of Facebook Groups to complement…

In this commentary, James W. Fraser, a noted historian of education, cites examples from several teacher education programs at more than 30 universities partnering with the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships in various ways. Additionally, Fraser reviews decades of challenges to traditional teacher preparation, looks at some current reforms, and…

In this paper, we compare an introductory statistics course taught using a flipped classroom approach to the same course taught using a traditional lecture based approach. In the lecture course, students listened to lecture, took notes, and completed homework assignments. In the flipped course, students read relatively simple chapters and answered…

Traditional lectures have come under increasing criticism as research indicates lectures may be less effective in achieving learning outcomes than other teaching methods. Student engagement and success can potentially be improved by changing traditional lectures to instructional methods using active learning techniques. Active learning refers to…

This article describes a classroom in Fort Wayne, Indiana designed to help children discover that learning can be fun. (BB)

A calculus-based introductory physics course, which is based on the Matter and Interactions curriculum of Chabay and Sherwood (2002), has been taught at Purdue University. Characteristic of this course is its emphasis on modeling. Therefore, I would like to investigate the effects of modeling-based instruction and interactive engagement on…

The Internet has become a powerful force in transforming organizations in both private and public sectors, including public education. Some educational reformers now view virtual schools, in which the majority of course content is delivered online, as a viable alternative and innovative means of educating K-12 students. As of September 2007, 42…

The "Educational Media and Technology Yearbook" is dedicated to theoretical, empirical and practical approaches to educational media development. All chapters are invited and selected based on a variety of strategies to determine current trends and issues in the field. The 2009 edition will highlight innovative Trends and Issues in…

In 1988 Saint Mary's College received a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc. to create a program to improve the quality of science education in the local public and private schools. As part of applying that grant we created one-week summer work-shops for elementary and middle school teachers (K-8) based on guided inquiry methods of education. Each…

A study investigated instructional administrative practices in workplace English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs and lessons learned in their implementation, with special attention given to innovative practice and its context. Data were drawn from a survey of 22 workplace literacy programs with culturally diverse populations in a variety of…