Schools need to develop critical thinkers who are learning collaboratively alongside their peers and teachers. With the support of their community, nonacademic values need to be stressed outside the classroom, where students actively engage in social activities to develop their community and increase the value in their education. Combining these…

In educational gerontology, non-formal education emerges as a possibility for lifelong learning because it is more flexible and less bureaucratic than formal education. In this context, agile culture offers a potential strategy to enhance non-formal education. While there are four manifestos for agile culture in education, their application in…

This article discusses a partnership with two different civic education organizations to study three different student-centered discussion designs. In one study, the authors worked with the Close Up Foundation. Close Up is a non-profit that annually brings 20,000 high school and middle school students from all 50 states and U.S. territories to…

The author presents a child-centered approach to teaching, developed through longtime connections with colleagues, which concentrates on the children and provides them time to make their own connections, to learn, to think, and to develop at their own pace with the support of their classmates. Two examples of how mathematics interlaced into…

This article discusses Experience First, Formalize Later (EFFL), an approach to teaching and learning that empowers students to build strong conceptual understanding of concepts, redefining how students experience mathematics class, and ultimately leading to more equitable learning opportunities. Traditional lecture-based models for mathematics…

Many music theory courses make use of a textbook with an accompanying anthology of musical examples. Some anthologies include recorded examples, and some do not. Many books address the topics of eighteenth-century theory with exercises for the student to complete at the end of each chapter. This article proposes a music theory pedagogy that honors…

In this article, we describe student-centered routines that prepare students for success on ambitious text-based writing assignments. Based on research showing the important role that peer collaboration and classroom discussion play in developing students' thinking, these routines support students to 'try out' their ideas, learn from the…

Current educational systems are making shifts from teacher-centered to learner-centered environments. This shift creates space for more involvement from students in their own instructional and assessment processes that sets them up for success in a method that allows them control of their achievement. Teachers have to assess and reflect on their…

This article shares rationales for group dissertations and offers practical descriptions of how they transpire in one Doctor of Education (EdD) program. Drawing on program experiences and data, it considers how group dissertations promote leadership learning and EdD program proposes using Archbald's criteria of developmental efficacy, intellectual…

Tertiary institutions are migrating away from didactic and teacher-centred approaches, and instead, pivoting to lesson designs that encourage hands-on learning and student engagement. However, this practice is often "try and see", with few frameworks providing evidence-based approaches for practical application that demonstrates how…

Theoretical foundations are fundamental to research in health and physical education. They reflect historical and cultural ideas and values. In this article, we seek to introduce the philosophy of "Bildung" from the Nordic-German cultural region to an English-speaking audience as one theoretical foundation for student-centered teaching.…

The authors explain that the commonly held concept of project-based learning (PBL) as a student investigating a topic or creating something individually (a passion project) is only part of the PBL story. Projects in which students collaborate and do something to make a difference in their community are also a way to structure PBL and build agency.…

A team-based learning activity is presented that was created to support a university-level course with an integrative theme of environmental sustainability. Students in a General Education "Environmental Biology" course were asked to relate academic concepts to real-world scenarios by creating a hypothetical ecoresort on an island that…

More than fifty years ago, an idea took hold in Georgia. Eventually called the Foxfire Approach, its main idea is centered around a view of a democratic classroom. Following a general sense of John Dewey's pragmatism, Eliot Wigginton invested his energy and skills into his English classroom to propel students to choose worthwhile activities. This…

Faculty in higher education are challenged to change their instructional approaches in outmoded, stagnant learning spaces to meet the needs of 21st century learners. Traditional learning spaces on most college campuses consist of locked, rowed seating and desks designed to maximize room capacity and accommodate large numbers of students. The…