The book suggests that culturally responsive and sustaining education should be the guiding principle in our schools, and that community partnerships be developed in a similar light. Although many of the chapters focus on specific content or places, a transdisciplinary problem and project-based experiential critical pedagogy is an ultimate goal.…

Introduction: Virtual worlds (VWs) are immersive three-dimensional environments, accessible simultaneously to multiple users, and described as shared, simulated spaces, whose inhabitants represented as avatars. VWs enable freedom of expression. Using VWs in educational contexts requires a shift from teacher-centered instruction to facilitation of…

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) STEM Center for Education and Outreach addresses an urgent Navy and national need for more young people to pursue careers in STEM fields through world-wide outreach to 17,000 students and 900 teachers per year. To achieve this mission, the STEM Center has developed a hands-on and inquiry-based methodology to…

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) STEM Center for Education and Outreach addresses an urgent Navy and national need for more young people to pursue careers in STEM fields through world-wide outreach to 17,000 students and 900 teachers per year. To achieve this mission, the STEM Center has developed a hands-on and inquiry-based methodology to…

The challenges of the 21st century place inquiry as a necessary pedagogical orientation to educate young people for the future. In Singapore, inquiry-based learning is a core feature in social studies and the humanities subjects (geography and history) and has been extended recently to curriculum in the arts. Its centrality in the education system…

This paper draws from research on individual and organizational learning to explore the opportunities for creating new models of schooling and to explain why many reform efforts end up producing incremental rather than radical changes. To do so, the study documents the evolution of two organizations that have worked to launch new, alternative…

Competency-based pathways (CBP) have the potential to open new opportunities for students to learn and demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways that are grounded in application and relevant to their career goals. This brief argues that states can and should leverage CTE when considering how to move K-12 education toward a system marked by…

Preparing students to be engaged, productive citizens is one of the foundational purposes of public education in the United States. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Horace Mann--to name a few--all espoused free, universal public education as the key element that was necessary to maintain the integrity of the American republic over time. Public…

Grounded in the theoretical approaches of experiential learning and inquiry-based learning, adventure learning (AL) is a hybrid distance education approach that seeks to transform the experiences of students by having learners explore real-world issues and pursue answers to their own questions in an authentic, anchor-based environment. In this…

Raises the notion of service learning, which is defined as a method of helping students develop their own learning through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experience. Explores the use of science as the curriculum and service learning as the methodology to reach students and improve science instruction. (KHR)

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) describes a learning environment in which problems drive the learning; that is, learning begins with a problem to be solved and the problem is posed in such a way that students need to gain new knowledge before they can solve it. This ERIC Digest discusses many aspects of PBL including a brief history, implementing…

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) describes a learning environment in which problems drive the learning; that is, learning begins with a problem to be solved and the problem is posed in such a way that students need to gain new knowledge before they can solve it. This ERIC Digest discusses many aspects of PBL including PBL and problem solving, PBL and…

An interview with Margo Mastropieri, special-education-teacher educator, discusses science instruction for students with learning disabilities in inclusive settings. The value of activity-based approaches to science instruction for these students is emphasized. Ways of adapting both textbook-based approaches and activity-based approaches are…

Presents activities to help students gain understanding about auditory perception. Describes demonstrations that cover topics, such as sound localization, wave cancellation, frequency/pitch variation, and the influence of media on sound propagation. (CMK)

Moving active learning forward calls for a focus on learners' actorship, not program activities, and requires distinguishing between active learning and active teaching. Experiential education offers an alternative to didactic approaches, not a more attractive form of it. Accepting traditional principles and procedures of…