Making school meaningful is a widely accepted goal in education, yet "what" is considered meaningful, meaningful to "whom," and "why," leaves room for interrogation. This sequential explanatory mixed methods study aims to understand: (1) The extent to which students experience meaningful education at EL Education…

Background: Adolescents on the autism spectrum often experience challenges participating socially in inclusive education. The majority of school-based social supports focuses on social skills training, although research shows that students on the spectrum prefer activity-based social groups over social instructions. Thus, activity-based school…

Although education is framed as a future-oriented enterprise, we often fail to serve the diverse futurities of youth, particularly in formal learning environments. The cultural norms of formal learning environments are rooted in dominant ways of being and knowing and this shapes how learning environments and learning technologies can be designed.…

Virtual reality (VR) has evolved to include non-immersive to fully-immersive experiences for the classroom. This study seeks to understand the potential effects VR may offer, specifically characteristics associated with how a student experiences a VR intervention and the effects of using a VR device for learning. A group experimental design was…

Most previous research on residential outdoor environmental education (ROEE) programs has focused on the outcomes associated with student participation in these learning experiences. In contrast to these previous studies, this research takes an interpretivist approach to understand how work as a short-term instructor in a ROEE setting may also…

This article explores the possibilities of the use of eco-san in the school garden in the Nepalese community school, focusing on transformative pedagogical impacts on the social learning environment of the school. In particular, the use of urine as a fertilizer in the school garden through eco-san and linking pedagogical alignment to provide a…

The purpose of this research study was to determine how Community Based Instruction (CBI) affects the social skills of middle school students with moderate to severe disabilities. Community Based Instruction is instruction that takes place outside of the school campus and provides students with real life experiences that can help them become more…

Generalist practice social workers need to master group leadership and facilitation skills, and the best way to achieve this goal is through actual practice. An innovative teaching approach used to engage undergraduate social work majors in developing group facilitation skills is a "hands-on" service-learning experience leading social…

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. This presentation will use the results from two ongoing research projects to examine the relationship between adventure-based programming and social skill development in the lives of diverse youth. The first project is…

School systems often implement character education initiatives in reaction to a violent event. Following the school shootings that occurred in the 1990s, many school systems started to implement character education and violence prevention programs. Unfortunately, because the efforts were reactive, little thought was given to sustainability…

This paper shares the results of a study on the benefits which an experiential education program has on students in the K-12 range. The study was carried out at a bilingual North American-style college preparatory school located in Colombia, South America. Research was based on experiences obtained through the coordination and implementation of an…

In this paper we examine the effect an outdoor and experiential education program on the life effectiveness skills of its participants. A private boys school in Melbourne focused on the challenging time of year nine to implement a program they hoped would enable the boys to develop life effectiveness skills in the areas of time management, social…