Describes an activity in which students gather information on a field trip to South Stradbroke Island in Australia and conduct a symposium on whether it would be suitable to build a resort on the island. Students role-play the viewpoints of various special interest groups that would be involved in the controversy. (Author/WRM)

Describes an initiative at the University of Missouri-Columbia to design and implement a technology infrastructure and associated enterprises in a college of education. Outlines technology priorities (improve teaching, develop new media, create learning environments, increase information exchange); presents technology, facility, organizational,…

Discusses the importance of teaching geography, focusing on the multiple perspectives associated with a physical place. Provides suggestions for exploring these perspectives at the primary, intermediate, and high school levels in a geography-centered social studies classroom. (CMK)

The language of school reform is rooted predominantly in the technological perspective. Reviews technological, psychological, ideological, and sociological (descriptive and prescriptive) perspectives and elaborates on the technological, highlighting the need for competitive education, especially in math and science; efficient programs (physical…

Examines strategies used by non-Native scholars who write or teach about American-Indian religious traditions. The current trend--an apologetic stance emphasizing contrasting "representative" Native and European voices--unwittingly reinforces stereotypes and appropriation of idealized Native images. In contrast, approaching the subject…

Describes three approaches (folk festivals, origin learning centers, and local/global inquiry) that help elementary students address issues of diversity, global studies, and social constructivism; these approaches grew out of a collaborative project between a local school district and a university called the Children's Center for Global…

Illustrates how the transformation approach can be used to enhance the social studies curriculum. Describes a project where elementary students analyze primary documents and firsthand accounts of a shared, class experience in order to help them understand the role that cultural perspective plays in the recording of history. (CMK)

Several years ago the author attended a week-long orientation for a new job she was taking as an English teacher in an affluent suburb of Chicago. On the first day, the school's director of student activities led all of the new teachers in an "icebreaker," wherein they were taught how to juggle. However, the author could not juggle. When it was…

The Murray River, lying at the heart of Australia's largest catchment, is used extensively in outdoor education programs in south-eastern Australia. Since European settlement the river's ecological health has declined considerably due to activities such as damming for irrigation and clearing of native vegetation. Colonial notions of how the river…

Objectives: The present research was designed to study empathy in high-risk parents for child physical abuse. The main objective was to study if high-risk mothers and fathers, compared to low-risk mothers and fathers, presented more Personal distress, less Perspective-taking, less Empathic concern and a deficit in dispositional empathy toward…

Examines the history of educational administration in the USA during the Progressive era (1890-1940). Using Callahan's Education and the Cult of Efficiency as a starting point, examines school district-based administrative practices that offered viable alternatives to the business-oriented, "scientific management" reforms that tended to…

The understanding of expert knowledge as shared, distributed and contextualised has gained ground. The case description in this article focuses on developing expert knowledge in a situation in which both knowledge needs and the definition of expertise fields changed radically in the public sector within a social crisis. The article examines an…

In this article, the author invites students to reflect on the characteristics of their own teachers. The author contends that this reflection can be a methodological process and model toward a better understanding of what identifies teachers as professionals. To "constructively reflect" on teacher professionalism, it is imperative that…

This document presents the proceedings of the 17th Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2012, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included herein are the following 25 action research papers: (1) "Reading and Writing": A Study Comparing the Strengths of Peer Review and Visible Author Writing Strategies (Elizabeth Behar); (2)…

Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit…