Universal Design for Learning in Pre-K to Grade 12 Classrooms: A Systematic Review of Research

Some researchers have characterized Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a promising framework to provide diverse students with access to the general education curriculum, but to what extent and how have UDL-based interventions fulfilled that promise? The purpose of this review was to analyze studies that investigated impacts of UDL-based instruction on academic and social outcomes for pre-K to grade 12 students. For the 13 studies that qualified for our review, we analyzed how researchers applied UDL principles as well as outcomes and efficacy of UDL-based interventions. Results of this analysis suggest that overall, UDL-based instruction has the potential to increase engagement and access to general education curriculum for students with disabilities, and improve students’ academic and social outcomes. However, we found mixed results; the efficacy of UDL-based interventions varied considerably within and across many studies, with effect sizes ranging from small to large. In addition, we found that although authors noted that their interventions were UDL-based, there was considerable variance in how authors reported connections between specific UDL guidelines and components of their interventions.     

The Value of Applied Research: Retrieval Practice Improves Classroom Learning and Recommendations from a Teacher, a Principal, and a Scientist

Over the course of a 5-year applied research project with more than 1,400 middle school students, evidence from a number of studies revealed that retrieval practice in authentic classroom settings improves long-term learning (Agarwal et al. 2009; McDaniel et al., Journal of Educational Psychology 103:399–414, 2011; McDaniel et al. 2012; Roediger et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 17:382–395, 2011a). Retrieval practice, or the use of quizzes and exams to engage and enhance retrieval processes, has been widely established as an effective strategy for facilitating learning in laboratory settings (e.g., Roediger et al. 2011c). In this article, we review recent findings from applied research that demonstrate that retrieval practice enhances long-term classroom learning, delayed quizzes are particularly potent for retention, quizzes benefit students’ transfer to novel quiz items, and quizzes with feedback improve students’ learning and metacognitive awareness. In addition to generating evidence to support retrieval-based learning, these applied research studies also enhanced the professional development of the teachers, administrators, and scientists involved in the project. In this article, it is our hope that by sharing what we have learned from a variety of perspectives, applied scientific research in K-12 classrooms will continue to be explored and generated at local, state, and national levels, improving student learning and educational decision-making.     

Teaching Behavior and Student Learning Outcomes in Dutch Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

In this article I described the means of identifying teaching behaviors that have cognitive and affective learning effects on students who are taking a course in mathematics. This study was conducted on 50 mathematics teachers who were teaching in the eighth grade. I obtained the data on teaching behaviors through direct systematic observation. Multiple regression was used as the method of analysis. For the cognitive domain, the results showed that effective teaching behaviors are: (a) high-level questions put to a large group of students; (b) probing, followed by a correct student response; (c) teacher waiting after asking a question; (d) successful redirecting; and (e) all forms of positive acknowledgement. Effective teaching behaviors in the affective domain are: (a) all forms of teacher lecture/explanations; (b) probing, followed by correct student response; and (c) all forms of positive acknowledgement. More teaching behaviors have a positive effect on mathematical knowledge than have a positive effect on students’ attitude toward mathematics.     

Science and Language Integration in Elementary Classrooms: Instructional Enactments and Student Learning Outcomes

Research in Science Education - While some students will pursue careers in science, all will engage with multimodal science-based texts. The effective use of language skills is essential to support...     

Systematic Review: Flipped Classrooms in the Performance of Undergraduate Science Students

Journal of Science Education and Technology - The sciences are a complex and especially demanding area of study for undergraduate students, particularly in the earlier years, which are a critical...     

Schools as Clinics: Learning About Practice in Practice

The Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut is committed to the intentionality of interweaving course work and practice in its 5-year teacher preparation program, the Integrated Bachelor's and Master's program. It offers a wide range of field experiences to teacher candidates. Teacher candidates enter the program at the beginning of their junior year and complete the program after they finish their 5th-year postgraduate master's degree studies. This article describes the program requirements and experiences. In essence, it intends to provide an illustration of the interwoven teacher education curriculum as promoted by Darling-Hammond and other scholars.     

高中研究性学习的实践与思考

本结合开展高中研究性学习的尝试，阐释了研究性学习的实质、特点和理念，介绍了普通高中开展研究性学习的程序设计和一般方法，分析了高中研究性学习中存在的错误认识和不当做法，从而为研究性学习的健康开展提供了有价值的参考。     

Fostering Learning Communities in Classrooms: A Case Study of Hong Kong Schools

Over the past few years, curriculum innovation has been regarded as an essential strategy for educational reform throughout the era of educational change. Because of the changing nature of the knowledge age, students need to develop ways of dealing with complex issues and problems that require different kinds of skills and knowledge they have ever learned. Given the advancement of information and communications technologies (ICT), a number of cases of building learning communities in classrooms have been developed in recent years. Realizing the impact of this new learning culture, six primary schools in Hong Kong participated in the implementation of building learning communities through science project works. During the project, students from different schools engaged in the discussion and knowledge construction using a computer mediated communication (CMC) platform called Knowledge Forum. The aim of this case study is to explore the role of ICT in building learning communities and the conditions are essential to building learning communities from the different ways that students and teachers experienced the processes of community and knowledge construction using Knowledge Forum. Through the analysis of the interviews of students and teachers, conditions that support learning community building were emerged in three major themes, namely, conceptions of learning, knowledge construction processes, and development of social processes. Les communautés d’apprentissage dans les classes: une étude de cas. Durant les années passées, l’innovation dans les curricula a été considérée comme une stratégie essentielle pour toute réforme éducative dans cette période de changement éducatif. A cause de la nature changeante des connaissances, les étudiants doivent développer des moyens de traiter les issues et les problèmes complexes qui requièrent des compétences et des savoirs qu’ils n’ont jamais eus. Etant donné l’avancement des technologies de l’information et de la communication (ICT-TIC), de nombreux cas de création de communautés d’apprentissage dans les classes ont été observés pendant les années récentes. Réalisant l’impact de cette nouvelle culture d’enseignement, 6 écoles primaires de Hong Kong ont participé À la mise en oeuvre de communautés d’apprentissage À l’occasion d’un projet en sciences. Pendant ce projet les élèves des différentes écoles se sont engagés dans la discussion et la construction du savoir en utilisant une plateforme de CMC appelé Forum de Savoir. Le but de cette étude de cas est d’explorer le rÔle des (ICT-TIC) dans la construction de ces communautés d’apprentissage et les

conditions essentielles pour les construire À partir de la facon dont maîtres et élèves ont expérimenté les processus impliqués dans ce Forum. GrÂce À l’analyse des interviews des élèves et des maîtres, les conditions qui supportent la construction de cette communauté sont apparues sous forme de 3 thèmes majeurs: les conceptions de l’apprentissage, la connaissance des processus de construction et le développement des processus sociaux. Lerngemeinschaften im Klassenzimmer: Eine Fallstudie. In den letzten Jahren ist die Curriculum-Erneuerung als eine wesentliche Strategie für Bildungsreformen in Zeiten des Wandels in der Erziehung betrachtet worden. Wegen der änderungen im Wissensalter müssen Studenten Handlungsweisen für den Umgang mit komplexen Sachverhalten und Problemen entwickeln, die andere Arten von Fähigkeiten und anderes Wissen erfordern, als sie jemals gelernt haben. Auf Grund der Fortschritte in den Informations- und kommunikationstechnologien (ICT) haben sich in den vergangenen Jahren eine Reihe von Lerngemeinschaften innerhalb von Schulungsräumen entwickelt. Unter dem Eindruck der Auswirkungen dieser neuen Lernkultur wurden sechs

Grundschulen von Hongkong durch wissenschaftliche Projektarbeiten in den Aufbau von Lerngemeinschaften mit einbezogen. Während der Projektarbeiten haben sich Studenten verschiedener anderer Schulen mit Hilfe einer Computer gestützen Kommunikationssoftware ,,Knowledge Forum’ (CMC) in die Diskussionen und Sacherarbeitungen beteiligt. Diese

Fallstudie soll die Rolle von ICT beim Aufbau von Lerngemeinschaften sowie die wesentlichen Bedingungen, die den Aufbau von Lerngemeinschaften fördern, erforschen. Dabei sollen auch die unterschiedlichen Wege, die Studenten und Lehrer bei der Arbeit mit Knowledge Forum eingeschlagen haben, untersucht werden. Durch die Analyse der Interviews von Studenten und Lehrern zeichneten sich drei Hauptthemen, die die Bildung von Lerngemeinschaften fördern, ab: die Lernkonzeption, der Wissensaufbau und die Entwicklung der sozialen Prozesse.     

开放教育学生学习支持服务的实践与探索

对学生的学习支持服务是现代远程开放教育教学工作的核心内容 ,也是“人才培养模式改革和开放教育试点”能否取得成功的关键。本文就陕西广播电视大学在资源开发和学习支持策略两方面的实践与探索作一总结。     

对初中数学高效课堂的思考及实践

课堂教学,作为教师和学生活动的最中心环节和最基本的组织形式,是学生获取新知识、锻炼各种能力和提高综合技能的最主要途径。然而,在实际教学活动中由于师生及家长等诸多方面的原因,课堂效率并不高。为此,教师在实际教学中不断摸索,不断尝试在目标教学模式下的小组合作学习这一高效课堂教学方法,课堂教学效率的提高取得了一定的成效。     

高中自主学习的制度实现——上海育才中学"必修课程免修制"的实施

学校管理制度的改革与完善将为实现高中学生自主发展的目标提供实现的可能和保障.本文以上海市育才中学的"必修课免修制"为例,通过对免修制度相关档案的文本、教师问卷分析,师生访谈座谈的形式,研究了这一制度的实施情况及制度对学生自主学习与发展的效能,透析了高中段促进学生自主学习与发展的教学制度有效性.     

Teacher Professional Development and Student Literacy Growth: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This systematic review explores the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student reading achievement. The first part of the literature evaluates all available existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses of PD intervention studies. No quality reviews of PD and reading specifically (distinct from ‘attainment’) were found. There was a little overlap of studies in existing reviews. The second part of the systematic review focuses on the most recent intervention studies exploring PD and student reading achievement. The results of a meta-analysis of all high-quality studies are presented in the third part of the paper. This analysis showed no strong evidence of publication bias and an effect size for PD on student literacy of g = 0.225. This effect was moderated by the number of hours of PD whereby studies with fewer than 30 h of PD was significant for student reading outcomes (g = 0.367, p < 0.001) but more than 30 PD hours was not significant (g = 0.143, p > .05). Following a Weight of Evidence assessment, analysis showed that nearly all high-quality articles involved shorter PD. Weight of Evidence was a significant moderator, (g = 0.408, p < 0.001 for high-quality studies, g = 0.077, p > 0.5, n.s., for medium quality studies). Our review suggests that only high-quality studies of short teacher PD currently provide evidence of impact on student’s reading achievement.     

Implementing Engineering in Diverse Upper Elementary and Middle School Science Classrooms: Student Learning and Attitudes

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Recent reforms in education call for science teachers to incorporate STEM concepts into their curricula. This study explores the association among...     

The Benefits of Learning Social Welfare: Lessons from Student Perspectives

It is widely assumed that most entering MSW students exhibit a primary interest in individual clinical practice but minimal understanding of or interest in welfare policy knowledge. However, this assumption is mostly based on attitudes before and at the beginning of encountering social welfare courses. Using a mixed-methods approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods, we studied the impact of a social welfare history and policy course on MSW students' perspectives and interests. We found that the course impacted students' understanding of and approach to their professional roles as well as to their own lives as citizens. These findings hold implications for social work education curriculum designs as well as for future research in social work teaching and education.     

Safety in Science Classrooms: What Research and Best Practice Say

Turnaround leadership concerns the kind of leadership needed for turning around a persistently low-performing school to one that is performing acceptably as measured by student achievement according to state tests. I first treat this question in the narrow sense, i.e., as a strategy for targeting low-performing schools, and then place it in a larger context—namely, how such turnaround can be part of an overall approach to sustainable system change. The sequence I will consider moves from the school to the district to the system as a whole. My conclusion, which I state upfront, is that what looks like apparent success in turning around schools is actually quite superficial and indeed illusory.     

Learning and Teaching in Microcomputer Classrooms:

No abstract available for this article.     

中等职业学校学生社团活动开展的实践

中等职业学校社团活动对促进学生综合素质的全面提高具有重要意义。结合实践探索,可通过引导学生选择社团活动,充分发展学生个性特长,提高学生综合职业能力;合理设计社团活动,结合专业特点,激发学生对专业技能的学习热情;科学开展社团活动,丰富学生的业余生活,促进学生智能的多元化发展;有效评价社团活动,培养学生健康的心理,树立正确的人生观等方面展开。     

自主选择菜单式校本培训的探究和实践

自主选择菜单式校本培训是适合农村小学教师自主需要的学一种校本培训模式,其实施步骤为:学校制定培训目标菜单,教师个体确定专业发展计划,创设富有实效的培训机制,最后考核验收,最大限度地提高校本培训实效。