Instructional Leadership faculty at the University of South Alabama redesigned their program's curricula between 2004 and 2006 to include new standards for instructional leaders. Seven of eleven public school superintendents in the University's service area signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the College of Education to plan, implement, and…

This paper examines the current stage of development of blended learning in higher education in China, South Korea and Japan, with a comparison to the city state of Singapore. It is noted that blended learning and e-learning are introduced at institutes of higher learning in these countries with varying degrees of success. A review of existing…

In order to design two distinct engineering qualification levels for an existing University of Technology programme, empirical evidence based on the current diploma is necessary to illuminate the nature of and the relationship between the "contextual" and "conceptual" elements underpinning a multidisciplinary engineering…

This paper focuses on the design of a serious game for the teaching and assessment of generic competences, placing particular emphasis on the competences assessment aspect. Taking into account important aspects of competence assessment such as context, feedback and transparency, among other aspects, and using the University of Deusto's Generic…

Present-day students are expected to be lifelong learners throughout their working life. Higher education must therefore prepare students to self-direct their learning beyond formal education, in real-life working settings. This can be achieved in so-called hybrid learning configurations in which working and learning are integrated. In such a…

As information literacy programs become more robust, finding methods of reaching students beyond the traditional undergraduate has become a priority for many institutions. At Duquesne University, efforts have been made to reach adult learners in an accelerated program targeted to nontraditional students, much of which is provided online. This…

The term "scaffolding" is often used loosely to describe a broad range of interventions or devices for learners and in many instances the actual nature of the scaffold is unclear. In the true sense, for "scaffolding" to take place the activity needs to be for the learner's own intentions, i.e. a task that he or she sets…

Teaching students with moderate and severe intellectual disability who are early readers or nonreaders to engage with grade-level text is challenging. For this reason, purposeful thought must be given to promoting text accessibility and teaching text comprehension. Whenever possible, text should be used as it is originally written without…

In November 2008, the National Council of Teachers of English published "The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies" (21CL); its objectives include using technology, producing and analyzing multimedia texts, accessing and evaluating complex research sources, building relationships to enable collaboration, considering the diversity of a global…

A large percentage of students with disabilities are being educated in the general education environment for a majority of the academic day. Many educators have chosen co-teaching as the most appropriate method of educational service delivery to meet the needs of this population of students. To ensure the success of this delivery method,…

"I didn't know that was bullying." Brianna turns to the author, her eyes wide. "I'd never thought of it that way." The author glances around the room and asks the 23 other students, "Quick show of hands: How many of us had thought of that as bullying before?" About five students raise their hands. "How many of us…

Educational policies and initiatives continually influence the instruction in classrooms across the nation. At the time of this study, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was in its first full year of implementation in schools across the country. Using ethnographic methods (Foley, 1990; Heath, 1983; McLaren, 1986) and a critical theory…

This article presents a humanistic dialogue between the authors that focuses on mapping place and identity in academic development. The authors chose this format in order to capture some of the important work that conversation among intellectual peers can do--work that forms the basis of much learning at conferences and in the corridors and…

The Princeton Teaching Initiative at Princeton University is an all-volunteer group formed to teach for-credit college courses in the New Jersey state prison system. The courses are coordinated with the Mercer County Community College (MCCC), which accredits the courses and maintains the students' transcripts. Volunteer professors, postdoctoral…

In order to understand the complex workings of the three branches of American government, young citizens need early exposure in the elementary years to hands-on lessons that include real life examples and opportunities for students to apply what they have learned. To that end, the authors designed a five-day, inquiry-based unit for fourth grade…