An "active learning" classroom design recognizes the importance of students becoming engaged in their own learning. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study compared student-reported data (n = 219) and used the "community of inquiry" framework to evaluate the impact of environmental features on students' experience. Students…

Background/Context: The problems that school district leaders identify and how they frame them have consequences--for both policy implementation and the ways that teachers respond. Although that is likely true in all community contexts (from rural to urban, inside and outside metropolitan centers), the influence of broader discourses associated…

Problem Statement: In formal educational environments, the quality of student listening affects learning considerably. Students who are uninterested in a lesson listen reluctantly, wanting time to pass quickly and the class to end as soon as possible. In such situations, students become passive and, though appearing to be listening, will not use…