Current visions for the education of young people propose learning in meaningful contexts, relevant for citizens of a modern society. Inquiry-based teaching is one such approach in science education, but its potential can best be realised through constructive collaboration between teachers and across subjects. This chapter presents a case of…

The important but little understood problem that motivated this study was the lack of research on valid assessment methods to determine progress in higher-order learning in situations involving complex and ill-structured problems. Without a valid assessment method, little progress can occur in instructional design research with regard to designing…

For decades, educators have hoped to integrate geospatial tools into K-12 classrooms but struggled with barriers of time, technology, and curriculum alignment. The authors formed a design partnership with ninth-grade science and social studies teachers in an urban high school in order to conduct teacher professional development while also…

Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs)--also called Freshman Academies--have attracted national attention as a particularly intensive and promising approach for supporting a successful transition for high school freshmen. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. NGAs have four core structural…

Self-directed, inquiry-based learning opportunities focused on transdisciplinary real-world problem solving have been shown to foster creativity in learners. What tools might we provide classroom teachers to scaffold them and their students through this creative process? This study examines an online informal learning environment and the role the…