Tara Carlsen wanted to help at-risk students learn without relying on stale, clinical teaching methods. Instead of trying to find solutions in the classroom, the mathematics teacher transplanted failing students from an alternative high school to a horse ranch. There, she encouraged them to reach for the reins, and she witnessed dramatic results.

Students who could not relate to their peers or teachers could relate to horses-and suddenly their futures looked a whole lot brighter. Carlsen and her students proceeded to take an inspiring journey, learning the basics of horsemanship through equine-assisted learning-a therapeutic approach to interpersonal development using horse-related activities.

After learning the basics, the students taught peers with special needs what they'd learned, drawing upon their own struggles and triumphs to help them achieve success. Punctuated with humor, heartbreak, and hard-won triumph, "Reaching for the Reins" chronicles the struggles and successes of these students over five years.

Socio-scientific issues (SSI) are open-ended, multifaceted social issues with conceptual links to science. They are challenging to negotiate and resolve, and they create ideal contexts for bridging school science and the lived experience of students. This book presents the latest findings from the innovative practice and systematic investigation of science education in the context of socio-scientific issues. Socio-scientific Issues in the Classroom: Teaching, Learning and Research focuses on how SSI can be productively incorporated into science classrooms and what SSI-based education can accomplish regarding student learning, practices and interest. It covers numerous topics that address key themes for contemporary science education including scientific literacy, goals for science teaching and learning, situated learning as a theoretical perspective for science education, and science for citizenship. It presents a wide range of classroom-based research projects that offer new insights for SSI-based education. Authored by leading researchers from eight countries across four continents, this book is an important compendium of syntheses and insights for veteran researchers, teachers and curriculum designers eager to advance the SSI agenda.

This set of 62 volumes, originally published between 1951 and 1999, amalgamates a wide breadth of literature on Special Educational Needs, with a particular focus on inclusivity, class management and curriculum theory. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of Education and those undertaking teaching qualifications.

This book synthesizes theoretical perspectives, empirical evidence and practical strategies for improving teacher education in chemistry. Many chemistry lessons involve mindless "cookbook" activities where students and teachers follow recipes, memorise formulae and recall facts without understanding how and why knowledge in chemistry works. Capitalising on traditionally disparate areas of research, the book investigates how to make chemistry education more meaningful for both students and teachers. It provides an example of how theory and practice in chemistry education can be bridged. It reflects on the nature of knowledge in chemistry by referring to theoretical perspectives from philosophy of chemistry. It draws on empirical evidence from research on teacher education, and illustrates concrete strategies and resources that can be used by teacher educators. The book describes the design and implementation of an innovative teacher education project to show the impact of an intervention on pre-service teachers. The book shows how, by making use of visual representations and analogies, the project makes some fairly abstract and complex ideas accessible to pre-service teachers.

The importance of integrating the teaching and learning of language and culture has been widely recognised and emphasized. However, how to teach English as an International Language (EIL) and cultures in an integrative way in non-native English speaking countries remains problematic and has largely failed to enable language learners to meet local and global communication demands. Developing students' intercultural competence is one of the key missions of teaching cultures. This book examines a range of well-established models and paradigms from both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries. Exploring questions of why, what, and how to best teach cultures, the authors propose an integrated model to suit non-native English contexts in the Asia Pacific. The chapters deal with other critical issues such as the relationship between language and power, the importance of power relations in communication, the relationship between teaching cultures and national interests, and balancing tradition and change in the era of globalisation. The book will be valuable to academics and students of foreign language education, particularly those teaching English as an international language in non-native English countries.

A volume in Literacy, Language, and Learning Series Editor Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt, Our goal in writing this book was to validate teachers for strong efforts in their life's work. We often observe teachers' frustrations with what they perceive to be a multitude of different ""hot topics"" in education that they must attend to now, but which they expect to come and go, like the last ""hot topics."" So, we wanted to help readers see similarities between many of these ""hot topics""-differentiation, multiple intelligences, culturally responsive teaching, ""brain-friendly"" strategies, authentic assessment, and ethical classroom management- which we feel are not ""flashes in the pan."" And we trust that serious practitioners will not oversimplify the findings of neuroscientists and their application to education. Reading studies and books by scientists, a number of which are user-friendly, can help ensure that teachers separate the hype from credible information. We have seen this professionally judicious approach in the work of graduate students (Kolinski, 2007) in adopting ""brain-friendly"" strategies. We have intentionally packed both theoretical/research-based and practical information in this book because professional educators want to know why they should use certain approaches, models, and strategies. In turn, as professionals, we should be able to explain why we teach the way we do-not to justify, but to educate others about our knowledge-based, reflective, decision-making processes and the impact on student learning. Thus, it is important to read Chapter 1 because it lays a foundation. Each succeeding chapter (2-6) has unique and compelling twists and turns-chock full of ideas to use or to adapt. It is possible to gain lots of ideas, processes, and strategies from reading and implementing (or adapting) even one of the unit chapters, or a part of it. While some of the units are explicitly about literacy, others focus on content using reading, writing, speaking, and listening as critical in the learning process. Thus, literacy skills are reinforced and strengthened. Additionally, some of our colleagues and public school partners have given us feedback that they wanted to implement some of the units and activities themselves. So, feel free to use this book for self-exploration and professional development.

Community colleges have experienced a dramatic shift in focus and direction over the past 25 years. The impact of federal policy that emphasizes employment over education and the increased pressure for community colleges to meet the needs of local industries has led experts to ask whether or not contemporary community colleges are best serving their students.

As a bridge between public K-12 schools and higher education, community colleges were designed as a gateway for groups of students who would otherwise be excluded from higher education, most notably poorer and minority students. Ideally, this education sector should be a democratizing force in American society. Yet community colleges continue to struggle with their mission, and a variety of factors make it increasingly difficult to meet it.

The articles in this special issue of the ANNALS examine the role of community colleges and how they respond to an emerging set of challenges. Three basic themes are threaded throughout the journal: recent changes in federal policy and how it affects community colleges; societal factors that have contributed to the movement of community colleges away from their traditional academic mission; and how well specific community college practices serve the academic and employment needs of their students.

All of the authors agree that community colleges are, overall, increasingly responsive to the industry and business sector rather than to the students enrolled in their courses.

Scholars, community college leaders, and policymakers will find these insights a valuable resource as the effort to define and meet the goals of community colleges continue.

Web-based offerings in manu academic disciplines are redefining the educational landscape. In this book, Reinaldo Canton assesses the importance of learner activity in computer programmed instruction. This research explores the practical relation between the learner's behavior and the method of delivery of lesson content. Programmed Instruction in Online Learning is a timely and important book as online instruction becomes increasingly predominant in the education environment.

Educational technologies are becoming commonplace entities in classrooms as they provide more options and support for teachers and students. However, many teachers are finding these technologies difficult to use due to a lack of training and instruction on how to effectively apply them to the classroom. TPACK: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is an authoritative reference source for the latest research on the integration of technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge in the contexts of K-12 education. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as pedagogical strategies, blended learning, and technology integration, this publication is an ideal resource for educators, instructional designers, administrators, academicians, and teacher education programs seeking current findings on the implementation of technology in instructional design.

The hinge-factor to improving student learning is right before our eyes in the classroom, and yet big budget reforms continue to look outside of the classroom. The hinge-factor is ofeedback.oe The new cognitive feedback definition improves upon the old behaviorism one, offering new techniques and new strategies for teachers to use in classrooms. All teachers employ what they perceive to be feedback strategies, but most need to revisit the what, why, and how about feedback and the latest buzzword u formative assessment. Feedback is information communicated about an action, event, or process that relates back to the original source or goal. In the classroom, timely feedback can be any information that a learner receives as a consequence of performance that can be used to make improvements. Research and practice show that what is critical about feedback is: Not who gives it but who receives it. That it needs to be timely. Teachers need to learn basic techniques to efficiently turn curriculum statements into just-right learning targets so students can learn efficient progress monitoring with the help of the teacher. Students are adept at self-reporting and can learn strategies to track their own performances when instruction is deliberate. Learning to use a new definition of feedback, the hinge factor, teachers will find gains in classrooms without making other structural changes that are costly and political. Administrators can learn techniques to support teachers using the research during supervision.

This book presents research on the effects and effectiveness of ICT applications in lifelong learning in relation to digital competences of educators. It sketches recent and future evolutions in higher education, explores whether universities have adjusted policies and business models in line with the rapid development of ICT technologies, and analyses whether the adjustments made are merely cosmetic or truly future-proof. The book specifically deals with such topics as digital competencies of teaching staff, the development and implementation of MOOCs and other E-learning tools, virtual classrooms, online tutoring, and collaborative learning. It presents case studies of innovative master's programmes, projects and methods, and processes of standardization and validation used in various countries as illustrations. The book explains the rapid transition of the knowledge society to the "society of global competence" and shows the necessity of an active implementation of innovative forms and effective methods of education, and above all, distance learning at all levels of education.

This pioneering volume provides a thorough understanding of children’s spirituality from a holistic development perspective and explores the ways early childhood educators can nurture spirituality in the secular classroom. Making a critical distinction between spirituality and religion, this book draws on conceptual and empirical research, as well as authentic classroom vignettes to explore how theory translates into practice. Inviting readers to examine how their beliefs inform their practices, Children’s Spirituality in Early Childhood Education offers a purposeful window into supporting children’s learning and development with a focus on their souls, making it important reading for teachers, teacher candidates, researchers, and teacher educators in the field of early childhood education.

In today's modernized world, digital technology has taken the forefront in all aspects of society, including education. Students have access to numerous electronic devices, which has made online learning materials highly accessible. These technological impacts have blurred the distinction between formal and informal language learning methods. Informally learned English has lost proficiency when assessing student performance. Sizable research is necessary to study and understand the informal methods of language learning using technology. Enhancements and Limitations to ICT-Based Informal Language Learning: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the implementation of technological opportunities within informal language teaching methods along with the drawbacks that limit its efficiency. While highlighting topics such as acculturation, student perception, and autonomous applications, this publication explores how learners perform ICT-based activities beyond the classroom and assesses the linguistic gains generated by informal ICT uses. This book is ideally designed for teachers, IT consultants, educational software developers, researchers, policymakers, and academic professionals seeking current research on technological techniques within second language learning and teaching.

Assessing Competencies for Social and Emotional Learning explores the conceptualization, development, and application of assessments of competencies and contextual factors related to social and emotional learning (SEL). As programs designed to teach students social and emotional competencies are being adopted at an ever-increasing rate, new measurements are needed to understand their impact on student attitudes, behaviors, and academic performance. This book integrates standards of fairness, reliability, and validity, and lessons learned from personality and attitude assessment to facilitate the principled development and use of SEL assessments. Education professionals, assessment developers, and researchers will be better prepared to systematically develop and evaluate measures of social and emotional competencies.

This book discusses approaches to organizational learning from a materialist point of view. Inspired by research into Police Firearms training, features of expansive learning inform the development of perspectives on training which challenge traditional modes of research and delivery. The book critically reviews a range of approaches to expansive learning and organizational research, establishing the bases and limitations of an Expansive Learning Index whose aim is to support collaborative provision in the context of work-based research. Reflecting on this process, it stresses the strangeness and mobility of workplace learning and develops a philosophical pragmatics for professional development. Approaches to knowledge and enquiry which place language and subjectivity at the heart of development are challenged by a more pragmatic approach to expansive learning: its consequences for training, research, and professional development lead to a discussion of the need for immanent forms of professional ethics.

The primary goal of instructional design is improving the quality of learning and instruction. Instructional designers have focused on a number of areas of critical concern and developed a variety of techniques to achieve this goal (Reigeluth, 1983, 1999). Critical areas of concern for those who plan, implement and manage instruction include (a) needs assessment (identifying gaps or deficiencies in knowledge and performance to be addressed in instruction); (b) task analysis (identifying the types of knowledge, skills and attitudes to be developed during instruction); (c) learner analysis (determining who the learners are, what they know, relevant differences, etc. ); (d) instructional strategies (developing strategies appropriate for the task and learners involved); and (e) assessment and evaluation (determining how to assess individual progress and evaluate programs). There are many books already in print that treat the general domain of instructional design, as well as texts that target each of these areas of concerns. Why then another book on these issues? There are several answers to this question. Many of the available books treat instruction as a formal process that proceeds according to specific and detailed instructional systems development models (see, for example, Dick, Carey & Carey, 2005). Indeed, the US military has created a series of handbooks specifying details of the various instructional development processes (see Department of Defense, 1999).

There is a growing need for knowledge and practical ideas about the preparation of teachers for English language learners (ELLs), a growing segment of the K-12 population in the United States. This book is for teachers, administrators, and teacher educators looking for innovative ways to prepare teachers for ELLs and will position teachers to empower these students. This volume will appeal mostly to those preparing teachers in contexts that have not have historically had large numbers of ELLs, but have had a high rate of recent growth (e.g., Midwestern U.S.). This work is the combination of teacher preparation and ELL issues. This volume is unique in tackling pre-service and in service teacher preparation. Additionally, the chapters collectively aim to go beyond merely equipping teachers to meet the needs of ELLs, but to reach a level of effectiveness with the outcome of equity. The book highlights the knowledge, skills, and beliefs of teachers about ELLs. Part I addresses teacher perceptions of, and beliefs about, ELLs and teacher preparation specifically addressing what they should know in terms of students' perspectives. Chapters attend to the experiences and beliefs of immigrant teachers about their roles, the role of service learning in teacher preparation, and the potential of understanding home literacy practices to change teacher beliefs about ELLs. Part II focuses on skills necessary to teach ELLs-writing skills teachers can draw on to inform their teaching practices, technological skills teachers need to develop, and skills related to focusing on the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and mathematics. Each chapter explicitly addresses implications for teacher education or professional development.

When the original Visible Learning published in 2008 it instantly became a publishing sensation. Interest in the book was unparalleled; it sold out in days and was described by the TES as revealing 'teaching's Holy Grail'. Now John Hattie returns to this ground-breaking work. The research underlying this book is now informed by more than 2,100 meta-analyses (more than double that of the original), drawn from more than 130,000 studies and involving more than 400 million students from all around the world. But this is more than just a new edition. This book is a sequel that highlights the major story, taking in the big picture to reflect on the implementation in schools of Visible Learning, how it has been understood - and at times misunderstood - and what future directions research should take. Visible Learning: The Sequel reiterates the author's desire to move beyond claiming "what works" to "what works best" by asking crucial questions such as: Why is the current 'grammar of schooling', so embedded in so many classrooms and can we improve it? Why is the learning curve for teachers after the first few years so flat? How can we develop teacher mind-frames to focus more on learning and listening? How can we incorporate research evidence as part of the discussions within schools? Areas covered include: * The evidence base and reactions to Visible Learning * The Visible Learning model * The intentional alignment of learning and teaching strategies * The influence of home, students, teachers, classrooms, schools, learning and curriculum on achievement * The impact of technology Building upon the success of original, this highly anticipated sequel expands Hattie's model of teaching and learning based on evidence of impact and is essential reading for anyone involved in the field of education either as a researcher, teacher, student, school leader, teacher trainer or policy maker.

The goal of this text is to help you navigate the complex landscape that is inquiry in the science classroom. We focus on inquiry teaching, its various forms and what factors influence its integration into a classroom. We invite you to develop and refine your definitions about scientific inquiry and explore how inquiry might be used to support the success of your students. The introduction will include various definitions of inquiry offered in the research literature accompanied by what we see as useful ways to conceptualize the broad practices that comprise inquiry in the classroom. Following the introduction the six sections of the book each explore factors that influence the use of inquiry in the classroom. Each section begins with one (or more) vignette--snippets of science classrooms. The authors discuss how this vignette demonstrates some aspect of the specific dimension that they are charged with discussing. Because inquiry is so multifaceted and its portrayals are often complex and nuanced, the discussion of the dimension is broken into separate essays-- each of which addresses the focal dimension in different ways.Following the essay, a broader discussion across the essays is offered to support your understanding of inquiry.

The language of science has many words and phrases whose meaning either changes in differing contexts or alters to reflect developments in a given discipline. This book presents the authors' theories on using 'conceptual profiles' to make the teaching of context-dependent meanings more effective. Developed over two decades, their theory begins with a recognition of the coexistence in the students' discourse of those alternative meanings, even in the case of scientific concepts such as molecule, where the dissonance between the classical and modern views of the same phenomenon is an accepted norm. What began as an alternative model of conceptual change has evolved to incorporate a sociocultural approach, by drawing on ideas such as situated cognition and Vygotsky's influential concept of culturally located learning. Also informed by pragmatist philosophy, the approach has grown into a well-rounded theory of teaching and learning scientific concepts. The authors have taken the opportunity in this book to develop their ideas further, anticipate and respond to criticisms-that of relativism, for example-and explain how their theory can be applied to analyze the teaching of core concepts in science such as heat and temperature, life and biological adaptation. They also report on the implementation of a research program that correlates the responsiveness of their methodology to all the main developments in the field of science education. This additional material will inform academic discussion, review, and further enhancement of their theory and research model.

The 5th edition of the prestigious AECT Handbook continues previous efforts to reach outside the traditional instructional design and technology community to the learning sciences and computer information systems communities toward developing a conceptualization of the field. However, given the pervasive and increasingly complex role technology now plays in education since the 1st edition of the Handbook in 1996, the editors have reorganized the research chapters in this edition to focus on the learning problems we are trying to solve with educational technologies, rather than to focus on the things we are using to solve those problems. Additionally, for the first time this edition of the Handbook reflects our field's growing understanding of the importance of design scholarship to inform practice by including design case chapters. These changes for this edition of the Handbook are intended to bring educational technology research into the broader framework of educational research by elaborating on the role instructional design and technology plays as a scholarly discipline in addressing education's increasingly complex issues. Provides comprehensive reviews of new developments in educational technology research and design practice. Includes concrete examples to guide future research and practice in the ways emerging technologies can be used to solve educational problems. Contains extensive references furnished to guide readers to the most recent research and design practice in the field of instructional design and technology.

Fuelled by social equity concerns, there have been vigorous debates on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals. There are further questions on the relative effectiveness of government and private schooling in delivering good learning outcomes for all. Within this debate, several empirical questions abound. Do students from poorer backgrounds achieve as well in private schools as their advantaged peers? What are the relative out-of-pocket costs of accessing private schooling compared to government schooling? Is fee-paying non-state provision 'affordable' to the poorest households? What is the nature of the education market at different levels? What are the relationships between different non-state actors and the state, and how should they conduct themselves? The chapters in this volume present new empirical evidence and conduct critical analysis on some of these questions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

Master current economic concepts with the most reader-friendly macroeconomics text available -- MACROECONOMICS FOR TODAY, 11E by national award-winning author Irvin Tucker. No matter what your current level of macroeconomic understanding, this edition provides an interesting writing style, unique presentation and visual learning system with helpful, colorful graphs that clarify important macroeconomic principles and effectively explain the latest developments. Rather than presenting a confusing array of macroeconomic analyses for you to memorize, this edition demonstrates how to apply basic macroeconomic principles in daily life and recognize macroeconomic concepts at work in today's news. You study the latest information on economic growth, federal deficits, monetary policy and other emerging developments in macroeconomics. Learning tools, road maps and corresponding interactive, digital MindTap resources with videos, tutorials and practice exercises immediately reinforce your understanding.