The landscape of education is dynamically evolving with the infusion of technology into classrooms, but it is not just math or science disciplines that are getting a digital makeover. Social studies education has entered a transformative phase as well. The "Computer Science for Social Studies" project, funded by the National Science…

Teachers value students' close reading of and text-based writing about diverse texts while eliciting their awareness of the world, privilege, and power. Carefully selected literature coupled with primary sources can bridge the classroom and society. To engage modern students in America's racialized past and present, this article guides teachers to…

The importance of engaging students with complex societal challenges has led to the adoption of various interdisciplinary teaching and learning practices in both K-12 and higher education. However, interdisciplinary learning is one of the most complex domains of contemporary educational practice, and, despite its significance, remains…

Context-based STEM learning has been proven to be useful as interdisciplinary storylines to regulate the flow and sequencing of lessons to obtain expected outcomes. This case study pilot project aims to contextualise scientific learning to local culture. Student groups sampled from two schools in distinct social backgrounds, reflected varied…

This study examines the ties of sixth-grade teachers to their interdisciplinary team colleagues and explores the dimensions of their efficacy beliefs for their own and their colleagues' teaching. Teachers (n = 238; 83% female, 88% White) from 26 middle schools completed surveys about the relational aspects of ties to team colleagues, the…

To promote rich discourse around scientific and engineering practices, teachers may turn to engineering design-based science curricula; however, this has discursive demands which have yet to be examined in a unit focused on integration of engineering and science. To investigate these discursive demands, we expand on the definition of discourse to…

Robots and robot technology have been used widely across disciplines at the postsecondary level, but have not gained traction at the secondary (K-12) level. In higher education, for example, mechanical engineers design the kinematics of a robot, the electrical engineers determine electrical needs, and the industrial and systems engineers determine…

Pre-service teachers (PSTs) often struggle to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) content effectively due to lack of training on how to plan a STEM lesson in meaningful ways as well as which subjects to integrate. This dilemma often results in an avoidance of STEM methodology altogether. This paper describes a productive…

While the International Baccalaureate's Middle Years Programme (MYP) is growing in popularity in Australia and across the globe, few studies have examined the benefits and challenges of this IB programme for supporting student learning. Using a qualitative case study design of three Australian schools that formerly offered the MYP, we investigated…

This case study explored how a social studies teacher and a TESOL teacher collaborated to teach an eighth-grade civics and economics course in a diverse classroom with Latinx emergent bilingual students. The researcher employed a theoretical framework of culturally and linguistically relevant citizenship education (CLRCE), which includes five…

Art and artistic activities that play a significant role in the lives of both children and adults are an important requirement for all individuals. Cultures develop, expand, and enrich through artistic activities, which are important for the development of visual literacy, especially in social studies. The present study aims to determine the…

Although one of key ideas behind the introduction of STEM (or STEAM) as a unifying concept, is to emphasize the interdisciplinary character of many real world problems, there is a non-trivial educational challenge in exceeding existing subject boundaries and implementing multidisciplinary activities into the classroom. The present case study…

This paper reports on a transdisciplinary approach to science with a Year 4/5 class incorporating citizen science through the Birds in Backyards project. This transdisciplinary approach created opportunities for student engagement through science, mathematics, design and technology, humanities and social sciences (HASS), arts and English, while…

Southern United States folk music is rich in not only sound, but in voices of the past. Folk songs were created by working class individuals who described aspects of their life in connection with societal issues and events. Folk songs, now digitally archived, can serve as primary historical sources that can be used to enhance the secondary social…

This article describes the design of a social studies unit about the Johnstown Flood of 1889 with a particular emphasis on how specific unit resources engaged middle school students in learning about the geographical and historical context of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We also report on how the resources supported the teaching and learning of the…