Teachers increasingly are being charged to conduct research on teaching and learning in their classes. Action research is an instrument that teachers can use for their particular classroom to meet this charge. While traditional research provides effective guidelines for teaching and learning, its generalized format does not take into consideration the multitude of variables that affect individual classrooms and students. Action research enables the teacher to improve the learning of the students in their particular context; this, in turn, improves the professional practice of the teacher. The uniqueness of the model presented in this book is that this model is guided by specific constructivist principles. These principles are then transformed into learning strategies and applied to the action research cycle. Each stage of the action research process also is steered by prompts emanating from the constructivist philosophy. The prompts provide questions that the teacher can use to examine current practices and consider new approaches. The blending of constructivism and action research enables the teacher to create a new cognitive framework for understanding and enhancing student learning . This book provides a guide for combining two important traditions resulting in a research platform which creates new knowledge about both students and teachers.

A volume in International Advances in Education: Global Initiatives for Equity and Social Justice Series Editors: Elinor L. Brown, University of Kentucky, Rhonda Craven, University of Western Sydney, and George McLean, Catholic Universities of America. International Advances in Education: Global Initiatives for Equity and Social Justice is an international research monograph series of scholarly works that primarily focus on empowering students (children, adolescents, and young adults) from diverse current circumstances and historic beliefs and traditions to become non-exploited/non-exploitive contributing members of the global community. The series draws on the research and innovative practices of investigators, academics, and community organizers around the globe that have contributed to the evidence base for developing sound educational policies, practices, and programs that optimize all students' potential. Each volume includes multidisciplinary theory, research, and practices that provide an enriched understanding of the drivers of human potential via education to assist others in exploring, adapting, and replicating innovative strategies that enable ALL students to realize their full potential. This volume provides the reader with promising policies and practices that promote social justice and educational opportunity for the many displaced populations (migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, and immigrants) around the globe. The volume is divided into four sections that offer: (1) insights into the educational integration of displaced children in industrialized nations, (2) methods of creating pedagogies of harmony within school environments, (3) ways to nurture school success by acknowledging and respecting the cultural traditions of newcomers, and finally (4) strategies to forge pathways to educational equity. Overall, this volume contributes to the body of knowledge on equitable educational opportunities for displaced youth and will be a valuable resource for all who seek to enable the displaced a place at the political, economic, and social table of civil society.

The pursuit of higher education has become increasingly popular among students of many different backgrounds and cultures. As these students embark on higher learning, it is imperative for educators and universities to be culturally sensitive to their differing individualities. Student Culture and Identity in Higher Education is an essential reference publication including the latest scholarly research on the impact that gender, nationality, and language have on educational systems. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics and perspectives such as internationalization, intercultural competency, and gender equity, this book is ideally designed for students, researchers, and educators seeking current research on the cultural issues students encounter while seeking higher education.

P rez and Cort s examine how undocumented Latino community college students cope with the challenges created by their legal status. They find that students experience feelings of shame, anger, despair, marginalization, and uncertainty stemming from discrimination, anti-immigrant sentiment, fear of deportation, and systemic barriers (e.g., ineligibility for financial aid). Despite moments of despair and an uncertain future, rather than become dejected, students reframe their circumstances in positive terms. Findings also highlight the importance of student advocates on campus, as well as the need to educate college personnel. The conclusion discusses the socioemotional implications of students' ongoing legal marginality, and makes suggestions for institutional practices.

This book explains why virtually all children can achieve proficiency or higher. And it gives you the tools to do it. The notion that schools are Waiting for Superman or Wonder Woman to rescue them is at best a fantasy and at its worst, damaging to schools and school systems that advance this type of flawed thinking. This is why in this book the reader will be encouraged to embrace the concept that only through building effective teams (collective instructional leadership) will schools begin to realize their stated goal educate all students. It may take a village to raise children but it takes collective instructional leadership to educate them. This book takes great care to ask the questions that policymakers, educators, parents, students and the larger community want answered. For example, below are just some of the questions examined: .Can you handle the truth? .Why is team leadership needed? .How do campuses improve their team dynamics? .What methods do high performing nations use to excel? .What strategies really work in high poverty schools? .Where do American schools rank on the rigor scale? .What is trust and how is it developed? .What are campus learning disabilities? .How do beliefs about human capacity affect student achievement levels? .What methods motivate students to work hard? .What do we really mean when we say, All children can learn ? The Pyramid Approach was designed by Dr. George Woodrow, Jr. for use by educators. The Pyramid is research-based. It aligns theory with professional practice. In addition, it strives to take what we know and provide a practical framework to effectively apply that same knowledge in ways that promotes student achievement. The Pyramid Approach calls attention to the need for a systematic framework that recognizes the interconnectedness among research methods."

This is the first comprehensive study of the impact of girls' education on their construction of their gender identity. The author shows that women play an important but subordinate role in Singapore, be it in the economic, political or social sphere, and the government's support for equal opportunities for girls is based on pragmatic economic considerations and not on adherence to any dogma or theory. This gender ideology that is reflected in the education policies and curricula for schoolgirls emphasized patriarchal values and upheld traditional feminine virtues such as gentleness, docility and submissiveness. At the same time education and curricular policies encouraged girls to study the 'hard' sciences, like the boys. All these have resulted in the construction of a dual role for women in both the economic and domestic spheres. The study also shows that for many years, education for girls had entrapped them in constructing a gender identity that upheld a patriarchal social structure. However, since the turn of the century, this construct has unraveled as the provision of modern education, especially in science and technology and the opportunities for employment have enabled women to become independent in many senses of the word, and this has brought about changes in society's gender ideology. The Construction of Femininity in a Postcolonial State: Girls' Education in Singapore is an important book for any collection on gender and education. Educationists and the general public would find this study an enlightening read because it raises awareness about the importance of the role of education in the construction of gender identities.

Interactive Student Centered Learning: A Cooperative Approach to Learning concentrates on Student Centered Learning (SCL) which encompasses Active Learning (AL), Cooperative Learning (COL), Collaborative Learning (COLL), and occasionally Constructivism Learning (CONS) teaching methodologies. This book delves into a review of the theories of learning, providing insight into current research regarding how students learn as well as a review of traditional, teacher-centered learning and teaching theories. This book also includes three interactive student centered learning segments; a review of the process, an instructional development process, and an organizational curriculum for educators to utilize an (I/SCL) program. The handbook in the appendices provides teachers with knowledge and information on how to develop an (ISCL) curriculum for teaching students effectively in almost all subjects at the secondary and college level.

The idea of life curriculum came as a result of looking back at my past in relation to my studies in curriculum. I learn by reconstructing my past in the present to influence my future, and students, indeed everyone, can as well do so. Constructing a curriculum of life is also a continuous process of building, renewing, refining, and adapting self-defining values, ideals, beliefs, ideas, ethics, and convictions to the growing changes in the environment. Students obtain different curricula from various environments. Through a methodic process of thoughtful deliberation, students can reconstruct and integrate the different curricular experiences of their lives. To help students achieve this, there is the need to broaden the conception of curriculum to include life experiences in a way that interweaves school and outside school curriculum in the classrooms. And this can transform curriculum into a process of constructing life.

This is a memoir in the form of adventures of an itinerant pathologist from medical college to cancer research and teaching. The book takes the reader from the streets of the old city of London and St. Bartholomew's Hospital to medical schools and research centers in several European countries, Africa, Canada and the USA. Although autobiographical the emphasis of the story is found in the biographical sketches of the many fascinating characters encountered in this journey. All of the events are true, and although some of the individuals identities have been protected most are named; indeed they are truly part of my journey. Attempts have been made to describe diseases, their operations and autopsies in non-technical language expressing the excitement of discoveries particularly in cancer research and experimental treatments. This is not a treatise or a textbook but the life story of those who have devoted years to following in the footsteps of disease. The book is directed to all who are intrigued by new adventures, travel and the desire to have a deeper appreciation of body, mind and spirit.

What role should students take in shaping their education, their university, and the wider society? These questions have assumed new importance in recent years as universities are reformed to become more competitive in the "global knowledge economy." With Denmark as the prism, this book shows how negotiations over student participation - influenced by demands for efficiency, flexibility, and student-centered education - reflect broader concerns about democracy and citizen participation in increasingly neoliberalised states. Combining anthropological and historical research, Gritt B. Nielsen develops a novel approach to the study of policy processes and opens a timely discussion about the kinds of future citizens who will emerge from current reforms.

In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion of interest in service-learning. Impact studies have demonstrated a wide range of interpersonal outcomes including a sense of efficacy, connection to community, appreciation for diverse populations, and interest in course work to name a few. Yet critics have recently argued that the developmental outcomes of service-learning do not sufficiently examine cognitive development. Further, it is not clear whether interpersonal outcomes interact with the intellectual outcomes attributed to the courses affiliated with the service. This groundbreaking book examines whether exposure to and immersion in a service-learning program is in any way related to cognitive development. The researcher identified traditionally-aged college students who were selected by service-learning faculty as demonstrating an exemplary commitment to, and engagement in, service-learning. This study utilized The Service Learning Model, developed by Delve, Mintz, and Stewart (1990), to examine, describe, and assess depth of engagement in service at two points in time. William Perry s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development (1970) was used to examine possible cognitive development. Results reveal a new pathway of deepening engagement in service. The growing body of research on college student participation in service-learning has documented the generally small, positive effects of service-learning on student development. A casual observer may attribute this effort to be successful, however, a closer examination of service-learning begs the question: Is a small, positive effect the type of learning we expect and are we accomplishing the learning objectives of the academy, not to mention, meeting community needs? The focus on what students are learning, rather than on how they learn best, leaves us with an unsettling uncertainty regarding the outcomes of service-learning. In order to focus on how students may learn best, this book focuses on an examination of individuals, as compared with groups, and of individuals that exhibit some of the outcomes that service-learning claims to promote. This book examines whether any students report that service-learning enriches their course of study resulting in the development of critical thinking skills (among other cognitive skills), in addition to interpersonal skills. This book shows that direct service experience involving an emotional or psychological (affective) connection with a community member or members receiving services prompts an assessment of the participants place in society. In responding to these emotions, students participated in service more frequently and with deeper engagement. Exposure to and immersion in direct service experiences, along with subsequent reflection prior to involvement in a service-learning program, are the mediating factors for the preparation of exemplars to initiate the interest necessary to develop cognitive skills. This book shows that interpersonal, affective development is the precursor for participants readiness for cognitive development in a service-learning program. A developmental scheme of engagement, student development interactions, recommendations for faculty for optimal development in service-learning, and recommendations for future practice are presented in this book that will be a valuable addition for all collections in education.

Net-Generation Student Motivation to Attend Community College explores the factors that affect student retention rates in community college by presenting net-generation (or millennial) students with the opportunity to tell their stories and give insight into why they chose and completed their respective community college programs. The author views community colleges through the lens of second-chance organizations, where motivation plays a crucial role in determining whether these students will select and, more importantly, complete a two-year program at these institutions. Embedded in theories of intrinsic motivation (Identity Development Theory), the institution of education (Choice Theory), and college student persistence (the Theory of Self-Efficacy), this book utilizes a mixed method approach to address the unique challenges faced by community colleges in retaining net-generation students. The study also presents a conceptual framework deemed the "Akili model," which emphasizes relationships, personal growth, and support systems to empower educational institutions with tools to keep students in college.