Digital tools and applications are an intricate part of many classroom communities. In the field of education, there is a need to continually monitor the digital landscape and keep up to date on the tools and applications that are available to classroom teachers and K-12 students. Understanding the ever-changing digital landscape and its impact on teaching and learning is critical to using digital tools and applications effectively and in ways that enhance students' opportunities to learn. Next Generation Digital Tools and Applications for Teaching and Learning Enhancement is a critical scholarly publication that explores digital tools and applications for the PreK-12 classroom and how digital technology can enhance the preparation of teachers. Featuring a wide range of topics including education equity, social media, and teacher education, this book is essential for educators, academicians, curriculum designers, educational software developers, IT specialists, library specialists, researchers, and practitioners.

Education in the 21st century is shifting focus from accessing and sharing information to designing active and collaborative learning environments which foster student engagement and critical thinking skills. Active learning features a hands-on, activity-based teaching approach during which students synthesize information and take joy in new discovery. The Handbook of Research on Learner-Centered Pedagogy in Teacher Education and Professional Development presents a comprehensive look into the methodologies and strategies necessary to establish classroom climates in which students feel free to question their preconceptions and express opinions. Featuring chapters from international researchers, this book is ideal for administrators, teachers, policy makers, and students of education.

In the first book of its kind, two of Sicily's leading historians and lecturers outline strategies and resources available in English for professors and other instructors wishing to introduce students to the world's most conquered island. Sicily boasts a cosmopolitan heritage, yielding lessons perfectly suited to our complex times. This guide is not only for educators. It's useful for anybody seeking sources of accurate information about Sicily, a place which over the centuries has been politically connected to Asia and Africa as well as Europe. The authors consider Sicilian Studies as a multifaceted field in itself, not merely a specialized niche within the broad field of Italian Studies. Most of the text consists of succinct descriptions or reviews of books and (in a few cases) articles useful to those seeking to learn about Sicily. The book includes a lengthy chapter setting forth the history of Sicily, along with numerous maps and a 3000 year timeline. This makes it very useful even for teachers who may be unfamiliar with Sicily yet interested in teaching about it. In addition to a consideration of how to teach about Sicilian history, archeology, literature and even cuisine and the Sicilian language, this book offers candid, practical suggestions for those planning study tours or courses in Sicily. This guide is more than a blueprint. It presents a pragmatic concept of what this field can be. This is based on experience. Over the years, the authors have advised professors on how to formulate such courses, and they have occasionally presented lectures to university students. The point of view, as well as the advice, is impartial, unbiased, because the authors are not beholden to any specific academic publisher or institution. Never before have so many works about Sicily covering the island's lengthy history in English been described in a single volume. Chapters are dedicated to foundational principles, historiographical concepts and the history of Sicily, followed by the consideration of works on ancient, medieval and modern Sicily, special topics (women's studies, genealogy, the Mafia), the Sicilian language, the arts (art, film, literature, music), culinary topics and, finally, study tours. At 250 pages, it is fairly concise, with no space wasted, yet highly informative. This guide makes it possible to teach a course related to Sicily even if your institution lacks an Italian Studies department. Its publication was long overdue.

The majority of South African principals believe that subject heads and Heads of Departments should be in charge of curriculum and teaching monitoring. Due to this impression, curricular management by principals does not support teaching and learning. According to the KZN department of education's study from 2015 on curriculum management and delivery plan, principals now spend more time on administrative responsibilities and learner discipline than on topics related to instructional leadership. This book emphasizes how major social and economic development in rural areas is necessary in order to achieve actual quality education. Until then, the educational options available in rural areas will restrict people's ability to live long, productive lives and to learn and experience freedom, dignity, and self-respect. Contributors are: Bongani Thulani Gamede, Samantha Govender, Nontobeko Prudence Khumalo, Azwidohwi Kutame, Mncedisi Christian Maphalala, Rachel Gugu Mkhasibe, Dumisani Wilfred Mncube, Ramashego Shila Mphahlele, Fikile Mthethwa, Edmore Mutekwe, Nokuthula Hierso Ndaba, Thandiwe Nonkululeko Ngema, Phiwokuhle Bongiwe Ngubane, Sindile Ngubane and Dumisani Nzima.

Concept mapping has often been acknowledged as an efficient instrument for aiding students in learning new information. Examining the impact this tool provides in STEM fields can help to create more effective teaching methods. Advanced Concept Maps in STEM Education: Emerging Research and Opportunities highlights both the history and recent innovations of concept maps in learning environments. Featuring extensive coverage of relevant topics including object maps, verbal maps, and spatial maps, this publication is ideal for educators, academicians, students, professionals, and researchers interested in discovering new perspectives on the impact of concept mapping in educational settings.

Achieving College Dreams: How a University-Charter District Partnership Created an Early College High School tells the story of a remarkable 10-year collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley and Aspire Public Schools to develop and nurture the California College Preparatory Academy. Bridging the two cultures-artfully described as "Pac-Man (the charter district) meets chess (the university)"-the school serves as an exemplar in providing low-income and first-generation college youth with an excellent and equitable education. Framed by a longitudinal lens, findings from community-engaged scholarship, and a diversity of voices from students to superintendents, this book charts the journey from the initial decision to open a school to the high school graduation of its first two classes. The book captures struggle, improvement, and success as it takes readers inside the workings of the partnership, the development of the school, and the spillover of effects across district and university. Confronting the challenge of interweaving rigor and support, its authors explore such critical ingredients as teacher-student advisories; school transition; the home-school divide; building a supportive college-preparatory culture; teaching with depth, relational power, and equity; the forging of an academic identity; and scaling up. At a time of sharply unequal schools, glaring disparities in college readiness, and heightened expectations, Achieving College Dreams uniquely extends the knowledge base about how to better prepare underserved students for college eligibility and success. The book also calls for universities to step up to the plate as partners with districts to ensure both excellence and equity in secondary education for all children.

The intricacies of providing quality education for school-age children can best be realized through collaboration between practitioners. This same ideology has infiltrated education preparation programs, encouraging the emphasis on collaborative methodologies of program design, development, implementation, and evaluation. This context presents a huge challenge for many education preparation programs, but one that has been partially realized in some states through large-scale reform models. Collaborative Models and Frameworks for Inclusive Educator Preparation Programs provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in collaborative strategies in educator preparation programs and addresses the impact on accreditation and changes in policies as a result of large-scale collaborative models. Covering topics such as education reforms, social justice, teacher education, and literacy instruction, this reference work is ideal for teachers, instructional designers, administrators, curriculum developers, policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, and students.

This volume draws on findings from the Canada-China Nature Notes Reciprocal Learning Program to explore cross-cultural exchanges in science education in and outside of the classroom. Under the collaborative reciprocity perspective, cross-cultural learning needs to go beyond simple comparison in practices, values, and results and moves to a paradigm that emphasizes a two-way learning process in the context of acting together. Through collaborative work between the international teams and partner schools, the program described in this book shows how collaborative efforts between the two sister schools worked to raise awareness about Chinese farming culture and extend students' outdoor learning experiences. In this book, educators from across the research team share their insights and reflect on the cross-cultural collaborative process and how it impacted the learning experiences of themselves and their students.

The field of curriculum inquiry has grown rapidly over the last four decades resulting in many new forms of curriculum inquiry to be used as tools to answer unique curriculum-related research questions. There are few texts available that include concise descriptions and elements of curriculum inquiry methodologies and directed at enabling researchers to wisely choose a form of curriculum inquiry most appropriate for their study. Conceptual Analyses of Curriculum Inquiry Methodologies presents chapters that are each devoted to a particular form of inquiry, with a conceptual analysis of the methodology, its purpose(s), its utilization, structure, and organization, all written by scholars with firsthand experience with the form of inquiry. These experts also take the liberty of citing examples of published studies that have utilized the methodology, share the types of relevant data collection instruments and forms of data produced, and also share research questions that can be answered via their form of inquiry. Covering topics such as quantitative methods of inquiry, glocalization, and educational criticism, this is an essential text for curriculum designers, doctoral students, doctoral researchers, university faculty, professors, researchers, and academicians.

A volume in Research in Curriculum and Instruction Series Editor: O. L. Davis, Jr. The University of Texas at Austin In many elementary classrooms, social studies has taken a back seat to English Language Arts and Mathematics in the wake of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top This volume is not another hand-wringing lament. On the contrary, the elementary educators who have contributed to this volume have a positive set of stories to tell about how social studies can play a central role in the elementary classroom, how teachers can integrate social studies knowledge and skills throughout the school day, and how this learning can carry over into children's homes and communities. The seven case studies in this book, one at each elementary grade level, highlight exemplary teachers in whose classrooms social studies is alive and well in this age of accountability. At the end of each case study, each teacher provides advice for elementary teachers of social studies. Our hope is that elementary teachers and prospective teachers, elementary principals, social studies supervisors, staff developers, and professors of elementary social studies methods who study the stories that we tell can be empowered to return social studies to its rightful place in the curriculum.