The varied chapters of this book seek to capture the complexities of teaching and learning in today's schools, and they share an interest in exploring the influences of knowledge construction in the moment and over time. Teaching and learning are human processes, interrelated and dynamic. We assembled this collection to unpack what it means to teach and to learn, teasing out some of the implications and challenges of such complicated educational processes that are often misconstrued as causal or linear. As educators currently residing in the United States, we find this a particularly pressing agenda, given the current focus on common core standards and reducing teaching and learning to conceptual and pedagogical step-by-step procedures. Our primary concern in putting together this book was to provide a conceptual and political foundation from which to construct and defend understandings and practices of teaching and learning that embody the complexity of educational endeavors and relationships. The isolation of teaching from learning, and the othering of both teachers and students, one from the other, suggests that knowledge is synonymous with information. This book challenges such assumptions. The project underlying this text can be seen as a means of rethinking how teachers' and students’ perspectives of practice and curriculum influence what learning opportunities are provided to students. Chapters written by established and new thinkers in the field of education demonstrate the ways in which teachers reformulate relationships between teaching and learning in school settings. Our second objective is to examine local constructions of knowledge over time and how those constructions are consequential for teacher and student learning. By examining patterns of practice and processes of knowledge construction in elementary, secondary, and undergraduate classrooms, the authors of these chapters lay a foundation for examining commonalities and differences in the construction of knowledge and practices across educational levels, disciplines, and in-school and outof-school settings.

This book explores the interdependence of health and education, and how optimising this important relationship provides the foundation for achieving improved life outcomes from birth into adulthood. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, it draws on bio-medical, epidemiological, educational, psychological and economic evidence to demonstrate the benefits of the reflexive, positive associations between good health and educational attainment over the life course. In this, it offers readers insights into the complex nature of the nexus between health and education and how this relationship influences development. Health and Education Interdependence: Thriving from Birth to Adulthood is essential reading for education and health researchers and policymakers, teachers and public health and health promotion practitioners, as well as students studying in these fields.

This volume asserts that international and intercultural experiences are powerful vehicles for first-year college students to learn the perspectives and skills necessary to function interdependently in a rapidly changing and complex world. This thesis is developed through an in-depth case study of efforts to provide such learning opportunities in a project called the First-Year Intercultural Experience at Hartwick College, a 4-year liberal arts and sciences institution in Oneonta, New York. The focus is on one of the courses, "Europe in Transition," which included an off-campus component in Germany and France. Fifteen first-year students participated. Findings from the case study show the usefulness of working with young undergraduates and the importance of student-centered approaches to learning and teaching. The chapters are: (1) "The Context of Undergraduate Intercultural Education in the 21st Century"; (2) "An Overview of Hartwick College"; (3) "An Administrator's Perspective: The Development of the First-Year Intercultural Experience" (David Bachner); (4) "An Economics Professor's Perspective: Educational and Personal Considerations" (Laurence Malone); (5) "A Foreign Language Professor's Perspective: Educational and Personal Considerations" (Mary Snider); (6) "Student Perspectives: Learning Interdependence in an International Setting"; (7) "Evaluations of the First-Year Intercultural Experience"; and (8) "Five Conclusions about Learning Interdependence through the First-Year Intercultural Experience." An appendix contains sample syllabi and course descriptions for some other intercultural learning experiences. (Contains 91 references.) (SLD)

Advocates a far-reaching change in the relations between college and university professors and their students, between the learned and the learning.

Cooperative learning is widely endorsed as a pedagogical practice that promotes student learning. Recently, the research focus has moved to the role of teachers’ discourse during cooperative learning and its effects on the quality of group discussions and the learning achieved. However, although the benefits of cooperative learning are well documented, implementing this pedagogical practice in classrooms is a challenge that many teachers have difficulties accomplishing. Difficulties may occur because teachers often do not have a clear understanding of the basic tenets of cooperative learning and the research and theoretical perspectives that have informed this practice and how they translate into practical applications that can be used in their classrooms. In effect, what do teachers need to do to affect the benefits widely documented in research? A reluctance to embrace cooperative learning may also be due to the challenge it poses to teachers’ control of the learning process, the demands it places on classroom organisational changes, and the personal commitments teachers need to make to sustain their efforts. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the key role teachers need to play in embedding cooperative learning into the curricula to foster open communication and engagement among teachers and students, promote cooperative investigation and problem-solving, and provide students with emotionally and intellectually stimulating learning environments may be another contributing factor. The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom provides readers with a comprehensive overview of these issues with clear guidelines on how teachers can embed cooperative learning into their classroom curricula to obtain the benefits widely attributed to this pedagogical practice. It does so by using language that is appropriate for both novice and experienced educators. The volume provides: an overview of the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of cooperative learning pedagogy; outlines how specific small group experiences can promote thinking and learning; discusses the key role teachers play in promoting student discourse; and, demonstrates how interaction style among students and teachers is crucial in facilitating discussion and learning. The collection of chapters includes many practical illustrations, drawn from the contributors’ own research of how teachers can use cooperative learning pedagogy to facilitate thinking and learning among students across different educational settings.

This volume offers a synthesis of what is known about very large and very small common-pool resources. Individuals using commons at the global or local level may find themselves in a similar situation. At an international level, states cannot appeal to authoritative hierarchies to enforce agreements they make to cooperate with one another. In some small-scale settings, participants may be just as helpless in calling on distant public officials to monitor and enforce their agreements. Scholars have independently discovered self-organizing regimes which rely on implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and procedures rather than the command and control of a central authority. The contributors discuss the possibilities and dangers of scaling up and scaling down. They explore the impact of the number of actors and the degree of heterogeneity among actors on the likelihood of cooperative behaviour.

"Describes the life cycle of the giant saguaro cactus, with an emphasis on its role as a home for other desert dwellers."--Title page verso.

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection

A collection of papers that explore bilingual children coping with two language systems.