Authentic engagement is a choice students make every day to bring themselves to their learning, work, and relationships--rather than simply go through the motions of school. It means sharing experiences; asking questions; trying new things; making mistakes; and allowing themselves to be seen, heard, and cared for. It's an active choice that can…

In this commentary, we explore tensions between engaging students in authentic disciplinary mathematical activity and insights from critical theorists who analyze equity in mathematics education. The tensions arise as engaging students in authentic mathematical activity usually involve having students adopt the language and norms of another…

This study explores the experiences of STEM teachers who participated in professional development (PD) workshops focused on supporting the use of a socioscientific issues (SSI)/socioTransformative constructivism (sTc) framework as an avenue to incorporate SSI into lessons and empower students to become agents of change outside the classroom. The…

This study explores the relationship between perceived authenticity and cognitive engagement within authentic learning environments, a topic that has garnered increasing attention in educational research and practice. While previous studies have linked authenticity and engagement to improved academic outcomes, there remains a gap in understanding…

Early teens face distinctive challenges. They are entering adolescence with new and more intense social and academic pressures. They are beginning to ask big questions and seek deeper meaning in all aspects of their lives--including what they're learning at school. Unfortunately, for many students at this unique developmental stage, classroom…

Contribution: The experiences of three students in a co-curricular project-based design experience are explored. The objective is to characterize authentic and inauthentic (performative) forms of engagement and its potential impact on learning within an authentic experience. We consider these cases in supporting an argument for extensive…

This article presents a teaching case study of a semester-long progression of engaged learning activities in an introductory American politics course. The method enhances a traditional democratic participation assignment with authentic social network engagement. Students in the course selected democratic actions from a menu. Actions involved…

This study examined the impact of remix journaling as a new media literacy practice on undergraduate students' engagement and ownership of learning. Using arts-based pedagogy combined with new media literacies, this study chronicles students' perspectives on knowledge-building, expression, and social agency through remix journaling. Findings…

The current monument guide teaching has proven to have many challenges, as the learning effectiveness may be reduced by external interference in the real guide activities, and online approaches may cause the problem of insufficient interaction. This study integrated role-playing and multi-dimensional scaffolding theories to develop a remote…

Authenticity is critical to meaningful civic learning, from understanding history and exploring current issues to discovering how government works and engaging with diverse forms of civic participation. This article explores authenticity in student-led civics through three dimensions: (1) being authentically connected to the self (culturally…

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to identify effective teaching strategies to bridge the gap between theory-based and practical-based approaches to teaching a history curriculum. Methods: A qualitative exploratory case study was used. Twenty educators who taught history in K-12 classrooms participated in the study. Semi-structured…

This literature review explores the effectiveness of self-regulated learning (SRL) practices in public school classrooms as a means of improving student engagement, motivation, and academic success. Data was gathered from a collection of peer-reviewed articles on varying topics as they relate to self-regulated learning and student engagement,…

An asset-based perspective on math education means starting with what students already know instead of focusing on what is missing. This approach elevates student thinking and reasoning skills. In this way, educators acknowledge that all students bring prior experiences, strengths, talents, and resources to the learning process and can contribute…

Personalized learning (PL) is not new, but it has morphed and re-emerged as an approach that might re-engage today's students in the classroom and better prepare them for college and careers in the 21st century. Amid this re-emergence of personalization is the implementation of new technologies in the classroom. While technology may offer…

The discourse on preparing job-ready graduates has led to calls for more authentic methods of teaching and learning that allow higher education students to enhance their employability. The literature identifies authentic approaches to teaching as those that situate learning in contexts that correspond to the 'real world'. However, little is known…