Advanced Technological Education is distinct from typical National Science Foundation programs in that it is essentially a training--not research--program, and most grantees are located at technical and two-year colleges. This article presents empirical data on the status of research in the program, discusses the program's role in supporting NSF's…

The College of Lake County Regional Photonics Initiative project was motivated in part by the hiring of out-of-state technicians for local Photonics industry positions. Fifteen high paying employment opportunities during the recent recession could not be filled from the locally available workforce. Research on the current demand and future growth…

In this Reflection on Practice we propose a triple nexus of research, public engagement and teaching that could provide a new pathway for academic developers to enable greater engagement in learning and teaching issues from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics. We argue that the public engagement activities demanded…

In the 1960s, the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) developed a programming language called LOGO. Underpinning this invention was a profound new philosophy of how learners learn. This paper reviews research in the area and asks how one notion in particular, that of a microworld, may be used by secondary school educators to build powerful…

This special issue of "Advances in Engineering Education" explores recent developments in P-12 Engineering Education. It includes papers devoted to research and practice, and reports some of the most exciting work in the field today. In our Call of Papers, we solicited two types of papers: Research papers and Practice papers. The former…

There is increasing interest in collaborative arrangements between schools and community scientists to enhance student engagement with learning. We describe research in which we identify a wide range of such collaborations in Australia, and investigate through interviews with community participants their perspectives on the purposes of…

The theme of this issue of "Education in Science" focuses on what delegates could "take away" from the Reading 2011 ASE Annual Conference and includes ideas and information about science education research. There were a variety of presentations, ranging from reporting about action research projects where the success of interventions was described…

In the continuing debate about American competitiveness in the global economy, politicians and educators alike have pointed not to students' test scores, but to their creativity and ingenuity, as models for the rest of the world. Teaching creativity has been a hot-button topic this fall, from the National Academy of Education's annual meeting in…

The research dimension of higher education programmes is usually discussed in association with doctoral studies. Against a background of scarce literature investigating research in a Master's degree, this article aims to analyse the place of research in Master's qualifications, first, as envisaged by official European and national documents acting…

The implementation of "research-based" mathematics curricula is increasingly becoming a central element of mathematics education reform policies. Given the recent focus on grounding mathematics curriculum policies in research, it is important to understand precisely what it means for a curriculum to be research-based. Using the Curriculum Research…

Educational robotics activities are gaining in popularity. Though some research data suggest that educational robotics can be an effective approach in teaching mathematics, science, and engineering, research is needed to generate the best practices and strategies for designing these learning environments. Existing robotics activities typically do…

Engineering education directly supports the nation's capacity for economic growth, infrastructure renewal, and security, as well as environmental and human health. Numerous reports have recommended federal support to advance our understanding of how students learn, how faculty teach, and how teaching and learning are assessed. The U.S. National…

In 1991, the Peacock Hill Working Group provided the field of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) a roadmap for improving the quality of services provided to students with EBD. The working group considered issues at every level of the educational system, from the classroom to federal policy. Although many strides have been made in the past 20…

Explores the use of free sort methodology to compare BSCS student and teacher understanding of the BSCS conceptual framework. Results support the idea that teachers who have better understanding of the BSCS conceptual framework, as shown by their sort patterns, may impart this understanding more effectively to students. (CS)

Reports that teachers exhibit a stable degree of persistence in utilizing selected elementary and secondary NSF science curricula in the western United States. Differences between teachers trained in the NSF curricula and a control sample indicate that elementary workshop participants tended to utilize NSF-sponsored curricula longer than did…