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the disparity between how educators view their use of technology and how students themselves perceive it

The rooms are part of a larger faculty development program intended to promote active learning techniques and cut down on lecturing

university is researching whether teaching at-risk students -- those withdrawing from or earning a D or F in a basic math course -- in the classrooms could improve academic outcomes and, eventually, graduation rates.

Pavlechko described the two spaces as “intake classrooms” -- faculty members who work in the development program are required to teach in them for two semesters. By the end of this academic year, the classrooms will have hosted 68 faculty members representing 29 of the university’s 48 departments and more than 3,500 students.

Studies are finding that the culture or climate of a school can have a marked impact on student performance.

school's performance never will improve until the school culture is one where people feel valued, safe, and share the goal of self-improvement

School culture, he says, is shared experiences both in and out of school, such as traditions and celebrations, a sense of community, of family and, team."

The studying that middle school and high school students do after the dismissal bell rings is either an unreasonable burden or a crucial activity that needs beefing up. Which is it? Do American students have too much homework or too little? Neither, I’d say. We ought to be asking a different question altogether. What should matter to parents and educators is this: How effectively do children’s after-school assignments advance learning?

The quantity of students’ homework is a lot less important than its quality. And evidence suggests that as of now, homework isn’t making the grade. Although surveys show that the amount of time our children spend on homework has risen over the last three decades, American students are mired in the middle of international academic rankings: 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math, according to results from the Program for International Student Assessment released last December.

“Spaced repetition” is one example of the kind of evidence-based techniques that researchers have found have a positive impact on learning. Here’s how it works: instead of concentrating the study of information in single blocks, as many homework assignments currently do — reading about, say, the Civil War one evening and Reconstruction the next — learners encounter the same material in briefer sessions spread over a longer period of time. With this approach, students are re-exposed to information about the Civil War and Reconstruction throughout the semester.

hat the education system must adjust to better accommodate the way students learn, a point that some teachers brought up in focus groups themselves

roughly 75 percent of 2,462 teachers surveyed said that the Internet and search engines had a “mostly positive” impact on student research skills. And they said such tools had made students more self-sufficient researchers.

But nearly 90 percent said that digital technologies were creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.”

“With the greater focus on distance learning, colleges’ expectations are increasing,” says Christine P. Mullins, executive director of the Instructional Technology Council. “They’re realizing that student services, like library services, student orientation, tutoring, and counseling are needed to provide a well-rounded education.”

Sixty four percent of colleges require faculty to take distance-education training programs, and among those that offer training, 59 percent require more than eight hours of it.

79 percent of colleges are creating their own online course content, which requires staff members with experience and knowledge of instructional design. Nineteen percent use content created by textbook publishers, and 2 percent contract or license materials from some other content provider.

Not only do they cheat, but they justify their behavior as business as usual’

However, ‘academics who once praised the Internet for giving students more access to information are now worried it is providing students with easy access to pre-written essays

However, where calculators make it easy for students and adults to make quick calculations, they are ‘becoming a mental crutch for students, rather than a tool that promotes higher order learning’

When it comes to motivating people to learn, disadvantaged urban adolescents are usually perceived as a hard sell. Yet, in a recent MetLife survey, 89 percent of the low-income students claimed I really want to learn applied to them. What is it about the school environment pedagogy, curriculum, climate, organization that encourages or discourages engagement in school activities? How do peers, family, and community affect adolescents attitudes towards learning? Engaging Schools reviews current research on what shapes adolescents school engagement and motivation to learn including new findings on students sense of belonging and looks at ways these can be used to reform urban high schools. This book discusses what changes hold the greatest promise for increasing students motivation to learn in these schools. It looks at various approaches to reform through different methods of instruction and assessment, adjustments in school size, vocational teaching, and other key areas. Examples of innovative schools, classrooms, and out-of-school programs that have proved successful in getting high school kids excited about learning are also included.