Largely because of its behaviorist roots and despite several progressive education movements, external control has been the primary motivation technique used by educators since the dawn of formal schooling in the United States. Decades of recent research, however, has led to a paradigm shift of sorts, suggesting that by challenging their mental…

Students who have dropped out of high school--and those at risk of doing so--are at greater risk of lifelong poverty, involvement with the criminal justice system, dependence on government welfare programs, and even premature death. In the last few years, however, the problems at high schools have compounded, as pandemic-era school closures led to…

Student voice initiatives like surveys, student councils, and classes focused on leadership and agency all provide youth a way to share their opinions about school-based issues and take action to rectify them to some degree. But the way each initiative is leveraged, the experiences of the young people and educators involved, and the initiatives'…

Aim: Initially, this paper delves into the connection between Irish society and Project-Based Learning (PBL) and curriculum, exploring how this connection has influenced the evolution of Digital Spaces (DS). It positions the origins of the Transition Year Program (TYP) in Ireland within the context of societal and political changes that are…

Most high school and collegiate athletic teams attend some type of camp to prepare for their upcoming season. This article provides a 30-day challenge to help high school and college dance teams to improve their overall physical fitness while they prepare for summer camp. The ideas can also be modified to meet the needs of other athletic teams.

By crafting a dramatic script about struggling high school readers that I then shared with real students in my Reading classes, I applied Arts-based education research (ABER) methods. Through the writing, presentation, collection, and reflection on student feedback, as well as during the script rewriting process, I was allowed to engage in a…

In this paper, we consider the issues involved in creating appropriate problems for a popular mathematics competition, and how such problems differ from problems typically encountered in a classroom. We discuss the differences and similarities in school curricula versus the generally agreed upon topics encountered in international competitions.…

Society is accustomed to advancing the meritocratic ethos that sends the children of affluent and professional families on to four-year liberal arts colleges while leaving behind others who are fully capable but who come from low-income or working-class families or from families of color. Such students often feel that a liberal arts college…

Gaming the system, a behavior in which learners exploit a system's properties to make progress while avoiding learning, has frequently been shown to be associated with lower learning. However, when we applied a previously validated gaming detector across conditions in experiments with an algebra tutor, the detected gaming was not associated with…

Programming ability is the core ability of this era and can be obtained and improved through practice. In this paper, an Automated Programming Assessment system based on Mastery learning and Peer competition (APAMP) was proposed and developed. APAMP allows students to practice repeatedly by providing immediate feedback after their programs are…

While many teachers enter the profession with the goal of creating a classroom in which both the students and the teacher are energized by the joy of learning, they often encounter obstacles to realizing this vision. In this article, Can Viva Zhao describes the creation and development of an anatomy class designed and led by students. In the…

Over the past few years, leaders and educators at East Hartford High School in East Hartford, Connecticut, have sought out and tested ways to ensure that each of their 1,700 students have opportunities to form meaningful relationships with adults, engage in rigorous instruction, and receive tailored support. They have prioritized initiatives aimed…

Many high schools, two-year colleges, and universities offer a conceptual physics course for non-science students who have to take a basic science course. The students often enter the course unmotivated and may eventually withdraw. So, how do we make the course interesting enough for these students to gain the knowledge we desire and, more…

Career and Technical Education (CTE) Emerging Health Professional (EHP) programs are primarily populated by female students in the U.S. The development and testing of innovative educational models such as serious simulation games have been suggested for greater internalization of hand hygiene best practices behaviors for EHP students, but 50% of…

This article addresses the issues faced by the young Aboriginal students in urban and rural settings, which hinder their achievement in mathematics and science. An effort is made to reveal the techniques and programs that address the under-representation of young Aboriginal students in these subjects at secondary and post-secondary levels.…