Background/Context: Schools have attempted to address stratification in black and Latino students' access to higher education through extensive reform initiatives, including those focused on social supports. A crucial focus has been missing from these efforts, essential to improving the effectiveness of support mechanisms and understanding why…

The purpose of this study is to describe learning that occurred among participants who engaged in a short-term education abroad program using a modified situated learning theoretical framework. In situated learning theory, experience becomes activity and takes on a dynamic relation to learning. For the study, I selected a specific case to examine…

The federal government and private foundations for education have established postsecondary credential completion as a national imperative. Washington State's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model was developed to increase the rate at which basic skills students advance to and succeed in college-level occupational programs,…

From 2005 to 2008 the international research and development project iCamp carried out a series of targeted educational interventions into existing teaching and studying practices within a cluster of European universities. These interventions were meant to establish educational experiences that would correspond with key features of international,…

This study reports middle school astronomy classes that implemented photographs and classroom response systems (CRSs) in a discussion-oriented pedagogy with a curriculum unit for the topics of "day-night" and "cause of seasons." In the new pedagogy, a teacher presented conceptual questions with photographs, her 6th grade…

In recent years, educators and students are increasingly employing online collaboration applications such as Google Docs[TM] and PBWorks[TM] for group projects and assignments. Yet, the effectiveness of these emerging technologies has not been rigorously examined. Anchoring upon and informed by the existing literature, two design…

Teachers as well as students often have difficulty formulating good research questions because not all questions lend themselves to scientific investigation. The following is a guide for high-school and college life-science teachers to help students define question types central to biological field studies. The mayfly nymph was selected as the…

In response to recent articles and ideas for experiential learning activities in human geography, this paper outlines a particular approach to learning about the body, difference, mobility and geographic space through experience. The Corporeal Marker Project designed and implemented by the authors provides a spatial experience of difference for…

School-based response to intervention (RTI) teams must gather, organize, chart, and interpret essential instructional information to make effective adjustments to meet the academic needs of struggling learners. Quantified data such as student proficiency scores, rate of progress trends, and achievement gap results provide the foundation for making…

This paper attempts to describe the relationship between the embodied practice of fieldwork and the written articulation of this experience. Starting from Valerie Hey's conceptualization of "rapport" as form of "intersubjective synergy", a moment of recognition of similarity within difference--similar in structure to Laclau and Moufffe's…

This study centers on the experiences of students and religious study faculty in the high school division of "CDS," a successful Kindergarten through Twelfth grade Jewish day school that defines itself as a "community" institution. The school affirms a high-profile commitment to including "the widest spectrum of Jewish practice and belief" in its…

This study presents a mobile exploration activity that guides elementary students to learn during a social science activity with digital support from mobile devices and wireless communications. The students are situated in both the real world and the virtual world to extend their learning experiences. The learning activities between the field and…

An exploratory study using qualitative methodology was undertaken with recent MSW graduates (N=12) from 2 graduate social work programs to identify and describe the students' emotional reactions to experiences in field education. Significant and interrelated themes emerged including the subjective and unique definitions of emotionally charged…

Australia has no Christian universities or Christian liberal arts colleges other than Australian Catholic University, which has six campuses in five cities. This paper examines one long-term attempt to set up such an institution, which ended in the project being abandoned for lack of progress. Some likely reasons for failure are identified in the…

This research contributes to efforts in assessment studies related to science and technology interventions. The work presented in this thesis focuses on understanding the effects of policies that influence science and technology interventions, and determining the impact of science and technology interventions themselves. Chapter 1 explores how…