The book suggests that culturally responsive and sustaining education should be the guiding principle in our schools, and that community partnerships be developed in a similar light. Although many of the chapters focus on specific content or places, a transdisciplinary problem and project-based experiential critical pedagogy is an ultimate goal.…

Introduction: Virtual worlds (VWs) are immersive three-dimensional environments, accessible simultaneously to multiple users, and described as shared, simulated spaces, whose inhabitants represented as avatars. VWs enable freedom of expression. Using VWs in educational contexts requires a shift from teacher-centered instruction to facilitation of…

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) STEM Center for Education and Outreach addresses an urgent Navy and national need for more young people to pursue careers in STEM fields through world-wide outreach to 17,000 students and 900 teachers per year. To achieve this mission, the STEM Center has developed a hands-on and inquiry-based methodology to…

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) STEM Center for Education and Outreach addresses an urgent Navy and national need for more young people to pursue careers in STEM fields through world-wide outreach to 17,000 students and 900 teachers per year. To achieve this mission, the STEM Center has developed a hands-on and inquiry-based methodology to…

The challenges of the 21st century place inquiry as a necessary pedagogical orientation to educate young people for the future. In Singapore, inquiry-based learning is a core feature in social studies and the humanities subjects (geography and history) and has been extended recently to curriculum in the arts. Its centrality in the education system…

This paper draws from research on individual and organizational learning to explore the opportunities for creating new models of schooling and to explain why many reform efforts end up producing incremental rather than radical changes. To do so, the study documents the evolution of two organizations that have worked to launch new, alternative…

Competency-based pathways (CBP) have the potential to open new opportunities for students to learn and demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways that are grounded in application and relevant to their career goals. This brief argues that states can and should leverage CTE when considering how to move K-12 education toward a system marked by…

Preparing students to be engaged, productive citizens is one of the foundational purposes of public education in the United States. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Horace Mann--to name a few--all espoused free, universal public education as the key element that was necessary to maintain the integrity of the American republic over time. Public…

This paper introduces Living Scenes, and intergenerational programme of learning which has been in operation in selected schools in Ireland for the last thirteen years. An overview of the programme is followed by a description of the hidden curriculum and the transmission of arbitrary culture in an educational context. This is followed by an…

This study examined the extent to which students fully embrace sloyd activities. Sloyd is a form of adventurous education in Sweden where school students take more control of the content and methods of learning as part of their weekly education. Hands on activities are often part of the adventure and it sometimes takes place outdoors. The study…

This paper documents the findings of a case study of one K-10 urban expeditionary learning (EL) school. Drawing on theoretical perspectives consistent with the sociocultural theory, data were collected from a variety of sources that included a survey, interviews, field notes from classroom observations and other school activities. Thematic…

Outdoors opens up endless possibilities. Every place and space people experience offers an opportunity to learn. Accepted educational research first theorized by social scientist and author, Howard Gardner, shows that learners have nine multiple intelligences--visual, logical, intrapersonal, musical, body-kinesthetic, linguistic, interpersonal,…

Approaches to classroom instruction have evolved considerably over the past 50 years. This progress has been spurred by the development of several learning principles and methods of instruction, including active learning, student-centered learning, collaborative learning, experiential learning, and problem-based learning. In the present paper, we…

This study evaluates the effects of an interdisciplinary standards-based school garden-based education program on student learning. The objective of the program is to help students learn to be self-directed learners, community contributors, complex thinkers, quality producers, effective communicators, and effective/ethical users of technology. For…

Environmental education researchers argue that pre-service teachers have a limited understanding of education for sustainability. The research described in this article applies a phenomenographic approach to investigating variations in how a representative cohort of 30 pre-service teachers, at various stages of completing an education degree at a…