After 30 years of practicing, researching, and teaching project-based learning (PBL), Steven Wolk offers insight into what he has learned. He discusses what PBL is and responds to common misunderstandings about how it works. He describes how PBL units are structured, the role of direct instruction in PBL, how students learn content and skills…

Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to addressing this issue create an opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand what research can contribute to our ideas about effective climate change education. An academic database, EBSCO"host," was used to identify 959…

To examine the public's attitudes about the nature of teaching and learning and what they mean for educational policy, the author surveyed almost 3,000 individuals nationwide in 2015, weighting results by race, poverty, and education level. Results show: (1) There is a wide gap between the public's understanding of good educational practice and…

Argues that doing and learning science are not the same thing. Suggests strategies involving active learning of a nonpractical nature which encourage discussion of science by children working in small groups. Presents examples of less familiar practical alternatives. (JRH)

The challenge for education in today's knowledge age is developing students' capacity for sustained creative work with ideas. Although even the youngest students don't fear the abstract, working to improve ideas is an acquired disposition. Creative production is a progressive design process. Software is described in which students, as a community,…

Teachers using a constructivist approach to learning are not invisible, as Lawrence Baines and Gregory Stanley suggest in a December 2000 "Kappan" article. Rather, they are an integral part of an active, student-centered learning process. Assisted by teachers, learners select and transform information, construct hypotheses, and make decisions.…