Middle Grades Research: Exemplary Studies Linking Theory to Practice is the first and only book to present what is perhaps the most thoroughly scrutinized group of studies focusing on middle grades education issues ever assembled. Each research project undertaken by the contributing authors herein resulted in the publication of a scholarly paper. As a collection, the ten studies featured in this book are the creme de la creme of submissions to the ""Middle Grades Research Journal"" between August 2006 and December 2008. They are the ten highest peer reviewed manuscripts examined by members of the MGRJ Review Board - each having undergone careful 'blinded' examination by three or more experts in the sub-specialty area addressed by the research study conducted. In addition, each study serves to exemplify how sound, practical research findings can be linked to classroom practice in middle grades classrooms. ""Middle Grades Research: Exemplary Studies Linking Theory to Practice"" is a must read for university professors and a useful tool for middle grades educators across all subject areas and school settings. Professors who teach middle grades courses, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, will find the book to be a superb supplemental / accelerated readings text. Every college-level middle grades education course should make this book an integral part of class discussions. The book is also an excellent professional development study group resource for middle grades principals and classroom teachers across all subject areas. School level 'Professional Learning Communities' (PLCs) will find that Dr. Hough's book stimulates scholarly thought, promotes discussion, and demonstrates how educational theory can and should impact teaching and learning.

This book explores important questions about the relationship between professional practice and learning, and implications of this for how we understand professional expertise. Focusing on work accomplished through partnerships between practitioners and parents with young children, the book explores how connectedness in action is a fluid, evolving accomplishment, with four essential dimensions: times, spaces, bodies, and things. Within a broader sociomaterial perspective, the analysis draws on practice theory and philosophy, bringing different schools of thought into productive contact, including the work of Schatzki, Gherardi, and recent developments in cultural historical activity theory. The book takes a bold view, suggesting practices and learning are entwined but distinctive phenomena. A clear and novel framework is developed, based on this idea. The argument goes further by demonstrating how new, coproductive relationships between professionals and clients can intensify the pedagogic nature of professional work, and showing how professionals can support others' learning when the knowledge they are working with, and sense of what is to be learned, are uncertain, incomplete, and fragile.

In today's climate of accountability and standards, increasing attention is focused on teacher "quality," with less emphasis on what teachers actually do to interest and engage students in learning. This path-breaking volume addresses this research problem with a clear definition and a content-specific analysis of the most essential teaching moment-the instructional explanation-for vital new perspectives on educational method and process.

Rich in examples from science, mathematics, and the humanities, Instructional Explanations in the Disciplines explores a variety of interactive contexts for teaching and learning, which may be collaborative between teachers, students, and others, performed in non-classroom settings, or assisted by technology. The book's subject-matter-specific framework reveals key elements in the process, such as carefully examining the question to be answered, making connections with what is already known, and developing examples conducive to further understanding.

Instructional Explanations in the Disciplines is a valuable addition to the education library, giving researchers new methods of unpacking educational process as few books before it.

Despite the considerable, growing interest in online education, most studies have focused only on the students' perspective. Merely a handful of studies have attempted to address the teachers' perspectives and little has been published on the online teaching experience itself. Expectations and Demands in Online Teaching: Practical Experiences offers a better understanding of how teachers experience the online environment by exploring various dimensions of online teaching, including class preparation, process effectiveness and quality, and technology utilization. The book assists educational institution administrators supporting online education improve their understanding of how teachers experience online teaching, and of the issues these teachers face in their teaching.

The roles that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business support of democracy play in American higher education are infrequently discussed, though very important. There are many ethical issues that concern both corporate interests as well as higher education, linking the two more than many would think. It is necessary to understand the environment, inter-organizational relationships, and documents holistically to observe the rich history, pluralistic American societal issues, and relevant milestones between corporate America and higher education. Partnership Motives and Ethics in Corporate Investment in Higher Education provides comprehensive documentation of business and corporate entanglements with higher education. This work discusses the historic journey of funding from business and U.S. corporate engagement in American higher education. Covering topics such as academy-business relationships, philanthropic partnerships, and transactional partnerships, this work is essential for professors, executives, managers, faculty, fundraisers, leaders in higher education, researchers, students, and academicians with interests in CSR, business ethics, and higher education.

Exploring online learning through the lens of synchronous and asynchronous instructional methods can be beneficial to the online instructor and to the course designer. Understanding the underlying theoretical foundation is essential to justify both types of instructional pedagogies. Learning theory as it applies to online environments encompasses myriad techniques and practices. Exploring Online Learning Through Synchronous and Asynchronous Instructional Methods is an essential scholarly book that provides relevant and detailed research on the applications of synchronous and asynchronous instructional pedagogies and discusses why they are critical to the design and implementation of contemporary online courses. Featuring an array of topics such as student engagement, adaptive learning, and online instruction, this book is ideal for online instructors, instructional designers, curriculum developers, course designers, academicians, administrators, e-learning professionals, researchers, and students.

This book brings together renowned scholars and new voices to challenge current practices in ELT materials design in order to work towards optimal learning conditions. It proposes ideas and principles to improve second language task design through novel resources such as drama, poetry, literature and online resources; and it maps out a number of unusual connections between theory and practice in the field of ELT materials development. The first section of the book discusses how innovative task-writing ideas can stretch materials beyond the current quality to make them more original and inspiring; the second part examines how different arts and technologies can drive innovation in coursebooks; the third section describes how teachers and learners can participate in materials writing and negotiate ways to personalize learning.

First published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

As English gains prominence as the language of higher education across the world, many institutions and lecturers are becoming increasingly concerned with the implications of this trend for the quality of university teaching and learning. With an innovative approach in both theme and scope, this book addresses four major competencies that are essential to ensure the effectiveness of English-medium higher education: creativity, critical thinking, autonomy and motivation. It offers an integrated perspective, both theoretical and practical, which defines these competences from different angles within ELT and Applied Linguistics, while also exploring their points of contact and applications to classroom routines. This approach is intended to provide practical guidance and inspiration, in the form of pedagogical proposals, examples of teaching practice and cutting-edge research by scholars and university teachers from all over the world. To that end, a leading specialist in the field introduces each of the four competencies, explaining concepts accessibly and synthetically, exposing false myths, presenting an updated state of the art, and opening windows for future studies. These introductions are followed by practitioner chapters written by teachers and scholars from different cultures and university contexts, who reflect on their experience and/or research and share effective procedures and suggestions for the university class with English as a vehicle for instruction.

In today's public schools, teachers are often discouraged by the restrictions placed on them by the education system: federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind, excessive emphasis on standardized testing, pre-packaged curricula, inadequate funding, overcrowded classrooms, cultural incongruence, and social injustices. Teachers feel thwarted from meeting the unique needs of each student, and students continue to fall between the cracks in the system. This book encourages educators to teach boldly, using wisdom and courage to do what they know is best for their students despite the obstacles. A collection of letters from leading educators and scholars to practicing and future teachers, Teach Boldly! offers advice, encouragement, and inspiration in the form of bold, innovative ideas to ignite teachers' passion for their work in the midst of a range of discouraging situations. The book can be used as a resource for practicing teachers or as a textbook in teacher education programs. It is relevant to courses in foundations of education, curriculum studies, issues in education, education policy, critical pedagogy, ethics in education, school reform, and educational leadership.

This book provides a descriptive, progressive narrative on the flipped classroom including its history, connection to theory, structure, and strategies for implementation. Important questions to consider when evaluating the purpose and effectiveness of flipping are answered. The book also highlights case studies of flipped higher education classrooms within five different subject areas. Each case study is similarly structured to highlight the reasons behind flipping, principles guiding flipped instructions, strategies used, and lessons learned. An appendix that contains lesson plans, course schedules, and descriptions of specific activities is also included.

Teachers, in Lindley's view, perform the equivalent of Prospero's rough magic in classrooms day in and day out. They do this, as Shakespeare's magician did, by combining their own stories--their own lives--with the art and craft of teaching. Lindley sets out to heighten the awareness of experienced and novice teachers alike by connecting concrete illustrations of the teaching/learning process with the teacher's inner world. Lindley emphasizes the practical in his discussion of what happens when teachers and students interact in real classrooms. He makes use of his own and others' school teaching, his long experience as a director of a teacher education program, and his training in Jungian psychoanalysis. In the process, he has created a book to re-energize the in-service teacher and to educate the pre-service teacher. Parents, administrators, indeed anyone interested not only in teaching but in communicating across generational and cultural gaps will find this book fascinating and useful.

This volume is the seventh in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series, and presents a collection of papers selected from those presented at the Sixth International Service-learning Research, hosted by Portland State University in Portland, Oregon in October 2006. The theme of the conference, which is also the title of this volume, was ""From Passion to Objectivity: International and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Service- Learning Research."" This theme was selected to showcase several important topics in contemporary servicelearning and community engagement research. Of key importance is the way in which the chapters selected for this volume reflect the evolution and maturation of research in the field of service-learning-moving from descriptive narratives of the passion for addressing social problems and inequities that was evident in much of the early research (and is still reflected today) to increasingly sophisticated research that draws on multiple methodologies, presents solid evidence, and offers the basis for replication and further exploration through future research.

This book looks at the sensible and meaningful role of self-review in creating sustainable improvement in all areas across secondary schools. It outlines a self-review approach focussed on key principles which ensure this approach is transparent, purposeful, does not negatively impact on workload, that does not use the same approach for all teams and that does actually result in clear ideas for school improvement. It discusses claims of effective self-review including that it challenges thinking, leads to improvement, incorporates a range of stakeholders, skills people up, and helps build professional communities. The book is full of examples and case studies so that the reader can transfer some of these ideas to their context, discuss them at meetings and help generate new ideas. It challenges the 'deep dive' approach as something that should be left to Ofsted and instead suggests that leaders should know daily what is happening in their schools, and instead work with staff to design self-review activities that are bespoke and fit for purpose. The main theme is around 'improve not prove', where stakeholders feel involved, valued and empowered to be change-makers at a range of scales. It examines how effective self-review can reduce workload and support improvements in wellbeing.

The information technology explosion in our global society is creating tremendous challenges and opportunities for educators as we help shape the next generation of information pioneers. But in these times of severe budget cuts, our challenges become even greater, and the necessity for success more critical. Current Issues in IT Education addresses the ongoing quest for teaching excellence in the midst of implementing teaching technologies and crossing disciplinary boundaries.

Teachers struggle every day to bring quality instruction to their students. Beset by lists of content standards and accompanying ""high-stakes"" accountability tests, many educators sense that both teaching and learning have been redirected in ways that are potentially impoverishing for those who teach and those who learn. Educators need a model that acknowledges the centrality of standards but also ensures that students truly understand content and can apply it in meaningful ways. For many educators, Understanding by Design addresses that need. Simultaneously, teachers find it increasingly difficult to ignore the diversity of the learners who populate their classrooms. Few teachers find their work effective or satisfying when they simply ""serve up"" a curriculum-even an elegant one-to students with no regard for their varied learning needs. For many educators, Differentiated Instruction offers a framework for addressing learner variance as a critical component of instructional planning. In this book the two models converge, providing readers fresh perspectives on two of the greatest contemporary challenges for educators: crafting powerful curriculum in a standards-dominated era and ensuring academic success for the full spectrum of learners. Each model strengthens the other. Understanding by Design is predominantly a curriculum design model that focuses on what we teach. Differentiated Instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach, and how we teach. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe show you how to use the principles of backward design and differentiation together to craft lesson plans that will teach essential knowledge and skills for the full spectrum of learners. Connecting content and kids in meaningful ways is what teachers strive to do every day. In tandem, UbD and DI help educators meet that goal by providing structures, tools, and guidance for developing curriculum and instruction that bring to students the best of what we know about effective teaching and learning.

This book presents an overview of education technology and its use in schools, with a primary emphasis on best practices of technology enhanced learning; how new technologies such as mobile, augmented and wearable technologies affect instructional design strategies; and the content curriculum development process. Providing insights into the future of education and the upcoming pedagogies that will be applied in schools, it helps educators and other stakeholders make innovations for the new generations of learners in the 21st century. The use of emerging technologies such as mobile and ubiquitous technologies, context-aware technology, augment-reality, and virtual reality is contributing to making education adaptive and smarter. With the ever-changing technologies, how to equip teachers with these digital skills and transform their teaching style is also important to ensure that school education is more individualised and customised for students. Offering a global perspective with integrated practical cases, this timely book is of interest to educators, teachers, and education policymakers. And although most of the authors are from the academia, it provides non-experts with a novel view of what future schools will be like with the help of technology.

This book is a synthesis of the complex interdependencies between user interface design of digital screen and learning process. It is analyzed the impact of digital revolution on learning, phases of digital textbooks use and development; specific features of educational system & learning environment; psycho-pedagogical characteristics of XXI students; user interface design topology; user interface design features of digital textbooks in accordance with human thinking paradigms; critical thinking of user interfaces and content (linear, systems, global and metasystems design approach). One special chapter describes innovative organizational forms of learning with digital textbooks. Metasystems learning design of digital textbooks will be of particular interest to the readers because this is an innovative approach of learning design, which proved the experimental data of the instructional dynamic and flexible strategy. It proved the practical application of didactical model of digital textbooks for chemistry and mathematics. The main benefits for reader refers on understanding the applicability of metasystems learning design for digital textbook use and development, in particular for STEM education. It takes more than analysis to help readers overcome the impact of user interface design of digital textbook on learning outcomes.

For the education system to remain responsive to the needs and demands of its multiple stakeholders it must embrace the innovation and research produced by contemporary technology. This book traverses a wide range of conceptual, disciplinary, methodological, national and sectoral boundaries to explore the challenge presented.

This is a book about an attempt to change the way math was taught in a particular classroom. Its title plays on our everyday usage of the terms theory and practice. In education, these terms are conventionally treated oppositionally-we have theories about what we should do and we have what teachers actually do do. In this way, theory stands prior, logically and chronologically, to practice; practice inevitably becoming theory's imperfect realization. We seek in this volume, however, to develop a different stance with regard to the relationship between the two. Taking the details of instructional practice as our principle object of study, we explore what role theories of learning might play in illuminating such practices. The book is about actual practices by which teaching is done and how contemporary theories of learning might help us understand those practices. It seeks to provide a foundation for future practice-based inquiry in education, by addressing the methodological question: How do we go about studying instructional practice in a principled way?

This book is devoted to the Metacognition arena. It highlights works that show relevant analysis, reviews, theoretical, and methodological proposals, as well as studies, approaches, applications, and tools that shape current state, define trends and inspire future research. As a result of the revision process fourteen manuscripts were accepted and organized into five parts as follows: * Conceptual: contains conceptual works oriented to: (1) review models of strategy instruction and tailor a hybrid strategy; (2) unveil second-order judgments and define a method to assess metacognitive judgments; (3) introduces a conceptual model to describe the metacognitive activity as an autopoietic system. * Framework: offers three works concerned with: (4) stimulate metacognitive skills and self-regulatory functions; (5) evaluate metacognitive skills and self-regulated learning at problem solving; (6) deal with executive management metacognition and strategic knowledge metacognition. * Studies: reports research related to: (7) uncover how metacognitive awareness of listening strategies bias listening proficiency; (8) unveil how metacognitive skills and motivation are achieved in science informal learning; (9) tackle stress at learning by means of coping strategies. * Approaches: focus on the following targets: (10) social metacognition to support collaborative problem solving; (11) metacognitive skills to be stimulated in computer supported collaborative learning; (12) metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences are essential for teaching practices. * Tools: promotes the use of intelligent tutoring systems such as: (13) BioWorld allows learners to practice medical diagnostic by providing virtual patient cases; (14) MetaHistoReasoning provides examples to learners and inquiries about the causes of historical events. This volume will be a source of interest for researchers, practitioners, professors, and postgraduate students aimed at updating their knowledge and finding targets for future work in the metacognition arena.