This study explores how political discussions among diverse youth can support students' open-minded political engagement. For this study, we collaborated with two teachers to adapt and enact instruction aimed at supporting students' discussion of controversial issues across political, geographic, and cultural boundaries. During an instructional…

This study investigates ideas about the messages of the Holocaust understood by middle school students in Jewish day schools. Findings explore the conceptualizations students have of the Holocaust as a particular Jewish experience, and in what ways they apply its lessons both particularly and universally. Students in two North American Jewish day…

Mathematics curricula are often the primary resource used in the teaching and learning of mathematics--in particular, they represent mathematical knowledge for teachers and students. Yet, there seems to be a discrepancy between the curricular materials written for teachers and students (e.g., more variety in the semiotic choices in text provided…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the learning cycle-5 Es model "Bybee" in the development of problem-solving skills and academic achievement in Geography subject in the ninth graders in Jordan. The study consists of 60 students from the University Education Directorate in Amman in the second semester for the…

As our world has continued to become more dependent on digital communication and collaboration, online learning environments have become more sophisticated. Demand for online and/or hybrid learning materials has increased, not only in higher education arenas, but in elementary and secondary schools, as well. This study describes the development…

Science process skills have provided a valuable chance for everyone to construct their own knowledge by means of scientific inquiry. If students are to understand what science is and how it actually works, then they should necessarily make use of their science process skills as well as scientific content knowledge compulsory to be learned in any…

Nonfiction texts demand critical literacy, as evidenced by these teachers' experience teaching Phillip Hoose's "Claudette Colvin: Twice toward Justice" with ninth graders. In addition to selecting high-quality nonfiction, the authors are committed to high impact teaching of those texts. For the authors that means supporting students'…

Teaching design to middle and high school students can be challenging. One of the first procedures in teaching design is to help students gather information that will be useful in the design phase. An early stage of engineering design as described by Lewis (2005), calls for the designer to establish the state of the art of the problem. During this…

Researchers at AAAS and BSCS have developed a six-week unit that aims to help middle school students learn important chemistry ideas that can be used to explain growth and repair in animals and plants. By integrating core physical and life science ideas and engaging students in the science practices of modeling and constructing explanations, the…

The acquisition of scientific knowledge is fraught with difficulties and challenges for the learner. The very nature of some scientific domains contributes to the learning difficulties students' experience. Phenomena in these domains are composed of multiple organization levels featuring complicated interactions within and across these levels.…

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

This article promotes the online use of primary documents from Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) collections by high school students conducting historical inquiry into a major historic event in Canada's past. It outlines a unit of seven history lessons that the author wrote for the "Learning Centre" at…

The Department of Commerce in its highway safety conference made this pronouncement: "The problem of safety is closely linked with health, thrift, and many other elements which taken together make up the great problem of developing a finer citizenship. Educational leaders of the country are now endeavoring to weld together the essential elements…

Units of work represent an effort on the part of the school to relate subject matter and the development of skills in the organization of children's learning about important interests, topics, or problems. The units are made by teachers with their children and are designed to fit the situation in which they are to be used. There is no single…