This paper will compare the uses of selected formal and informal assessments of English language learners (ELLs) in the Language Experience class [TRANSLANGEXP7(&8)-008] at Kimball Middle School, Illinois School District U-46, Elgin, Illinois, during school year 2007- 2008. See figure 1 (page 14) for a graphic display of these assessments…

This article directly responds to issues impacting on the social and academic outcomes of Indigenous students that were identified in the recent review of Aboriginal Education conducted by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (NSW DET) in partnership with New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (NSW AECG). Not…

This article reports on the incorporation of visual material as a tool for learning sociology and discusses a poster assignment introduced as a means of assessment in an academic context committed to innovative learning strategies and to teaching and learning enhancement. The article draws on an evaluation of using the poster assignment to assess…

Under the principles of the scholarship of teaching and learning and action research this study sought to examine how an instructor created and facilitated engagement in his students. The research was primarily undertaken to further define the middle range theory of mutual engagement. Theoretical sampling was used to analyze approximately 100…

Science courses with hands-on investigative labs are a typical part of the general education requirements at virtually all colleges and universities. In these courses, labs that satisfy a curricular requirement for "lab experience" are important because they provide the essence of the scientific experience--that is, they give students…

This study examined the subjective experience of academic disengagement. Flow theory, which describes an intense form of engagement, structured writing-to-learn activities undergraduates applied in major and liberal arts courses. Results suggest that writing to learn can transform academic anxiety and boredom by facilitating concentration,…

This paper is about how the transformatory pedagogical practice of popular/liberatory education can be further articulated within geography. It is based on the experiences of a third-year undergraduate course, "Autonomous Geographies", in which the author developed some of the core values of popular education, namely engaging with…

Perhaps educators shy away from serious consideration of "fun" because the term is typically associated with the kinds of activities found on the playground rather than in the classroom. According to the first, third, and fifth-graders involved in this study however, different definitions of fun can be applied in different contexts and these…

In this article, the authors investigated the teacher practices that middle school students attend to when appraising their classroom's mastery goal structure. After students rated each item on the mastery goal structure scale, they wrote what their teacher did or said that led them to make that choice. Students' responses to the open-ended…

One of the most effective ways to help students integrate classroom knowledge they have gained in an Organizational Communication class is for students to put that knowledge literally "to work" through analysis of an actual organization. However, unlimited entry into a "real" organization's communication systems is sometimes limited and often…

This article presents the author's response to Joseph Reimer's essay titled, "Beyond More Jews Doing Jewish: Clarifying the Goals of Informal Jewish Education." The author considers herself as the embodiment of an informal Jewish education practitioner now responding to Reimer's educational theory about the work she has spent her adult life…

Feature films, and selected clips from them, can be extremely useful tools in social work education. The widespread use and comparative low cost of videotape and now digital videodisks (DVD) have made thousands of feature films easily available to educators, students, and the general public. This article describes how clips from feature films can…

Contemporary perspectives in psychology and education characterize ideal students as rational and in control of their thinking and actions. The good student is often described as intentional, cognitive, metacognitive, critical, and reflective. I begin with a brief history of control and rationality to establish how "The Tradition" is deeply rooted…

This article is derived from a larger study of the Family Learning Network (FLN) which evaluated the effectiveness of school and community agency partnerships in enhancing student engagement. In particular it describes how photo elicitation methodology was used with 8 year old primary school children in three schools to discuss their views of the…

In higher education in the United States, teaching and research in the fields of language and literature are in a desperate condition. Laboring on the age-old axiom "publish-or-perish," thousands of professors, lecturers, and graduate students are busy producing dissertations, books, essays, and reviews. Over the past five decades, their…