Scholars and professional organizations have described participation in target language (TL) communities as one of the primary aims of language learning, but little work has been done to determine how students define those communities or envision their own involvement within them. This exploratory study drew on questionnaire and interview data to…

This article examines possibilities for addressing the need to relate learning in music to learning in other disciplines through developing a third space where students are invited to bring their own knowledge, imagination, and ideas to a music curriculum. The article explores the connections between third-space learning, composing, and arts…

The National Visual Arts Standards (NVAS) present ways for students in the United States to create, present, respond, and connect to the world of art and artmaking. This article focuses on the practices of one visual arts educator, Educator A, who taught in a state-sponsored specialist music high school, guided by the following question: "How…

In the United States it is estimated that over 3 million children and young people currently participate in youth soccer programs. This number has the potential to increase following a surge of interest in the U.S. Men's National Team World Cup performance in Brazil in 2014, and the U.S. Women's National Team World Cup win in Canada in 2015. This…

Physical educators generally understand the importance of the affective domain for student growth and development. However, many teachers struggle with assessing affective behaviors in a way that can be documented and reported. The five-step process outlined in this article can assist teachers in developing an effective way to assess the affective…

Governments and their policy decisions inevitably influence the pedagogical practices of teachers. There have been considerable curriculum changes and national reforms in Australia with the implementation of two very different national curricula documents in the early childhood sector in the last decade. The political landscape in Western…

This paper presents the Sichuan case study: Badi Primary School, a semi-agro-pastoral town primary school in Danba County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Section 1 introduces the context of the town and the school. This is done by analyzing discourses of education policy in the town and the school. Through this analysis…

Although scholars have examined the effects of global tests on national and regional educational governance, few researchers have studied their impact on education in the Arabian Gulf. This research fills the knowledge gap by studying the international spectacle of PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS results in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- two…

As physical education teachers, it is important to remain current with trends and continue to add fresh, innovative ideas to our lessons. This responsibility means that educators must continue to seek ways to better understand students and encourage a physically active lifestyle. This article provides strategies for embracing technology and the…

This study reports on the national standardization and validation of the Learning Behaviors Scale (LBS) for use in Trinidad and Tobago. The LBS is a teacher rating scale centering on observable behaviors relevant to identifying childhood approaches to classroom learning. Teachers observed a stratified sample of 900 students across the islands'…

A random sample of 1,313 grades 7-9 Chinese language arts teachers in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taipei were surveyed about their instructional writing practices. When asked about their college, inservice, and personal preparation, three out of four teachers indicated that they were poorly prepared to teach writing. They were slightly…

Overarching the Australian Early Childhood Education and Care sector currently are the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards and shape the practice of early childhood educators. Within these documents, the word LOVE is not mentioned as an important characteristic of effective teaching. This paper examines the notion of…

Learn about the Challenge Based Science Learning Project and its larger implications for the fields of Next Generation Science Learning and Open Educational Resources. The project involved 18 middle school teachers and five administrators from three U.S. school districts partnering with instructional coaches and learning sciences researchers from…

New research points to the future of education as online, student-centered, collaborative, and community-based--all largely absent from today's educational landscape. This timely guide shows middle, high school, and college students how to undertake research to address challenges in their curriculum and communities. The approach is deliberately…

The quality of national examination items plays an enormous role in identifying students' competencies mastery and their difficulties. This study aims to identify the difficult items in the Junior High School Mathematics National Examination, to find the factors that cause students' difficulty and to reveal the strategies that the teachers and the…