Teaching a course on religions of the world is challenging, especially considering the cogent critiques of that paradigm and the history of its construction. In our courses and text, we have employed a strategy comparing different representations of a single religion to help students develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Within this…

Curiosity and interest are at the core of human inquiry. However, controversies remain about how best to conceptualize these constructs. I propose to derive definitions by attending to the common core of typical usages of the two terms. Using this approach, curiosity can be defined as a psychological state that includes three components:…

Rising political polarization and the spread of disinformation have highlighted the need to re-assess and broaden existing approaches to civic education. Though video games have been presented as tools that could capitalize on youth's interest-driven engagement with technology to support situated modes of civic learning, their actual contributions…

This article explores the relation between curiosity and interest by examining how in-the-moment experiences of curiosity and of interest emerge out of exploratory behavior observed in infancy and early childhood. As experiential states, there is little to distinguish curiosity and interest. Descriptions of developing interests that refer to…

In 1973, Harriet Williams published in "Quest" on volunteer bias (self-selection bias) in kinesiology research. Williams' evidence-based commentary included a discussion on sex differences in volunteerism. More recently, some exercise and sports scientists (ESS) have suggested "investigator" bias explains the lower proportion…

The paper brings together a range of debates on the left that address TVET's future in current context. At the heart of these debates rest two issues. The first addresses competing views of capital and the second focuses on the contradiction between the interests of capital and workers. The paper argues that capital is not all of a piece and that…

Design and content of classroom activities are crucial to foreign/second (L2) language learners' motivation, be they children or adults. Lifeworld relevance and learner autonomy are two important aspects in building motivational L2 curricula for adults (e.g.), but such considerations rarely filter through to primary school learners due to…

In a world in which individuals are judged on the basis of performance, parents can be lured into believing that their worth is measured by their child's achievements. Parenting is not a competition. This outdated mechanistic model fails to appreciate the unrepeatable, precious uniqueness of every child and every parent. Nothing is more important…

For some time now, the arts education community has designed for broader outcomes for youth. These programs intentionally foster not only youth achievements within the arts or academics, but also youth and community thriving--through outcomes such as youth civic engagement, occupational identities, and wellness. In this report, the authors seek to…

People often confuse personalization with individualization. They assume that the more distinct and separate learning is for each individual, the more personalized it will be. This type of thinking leads to a belief that teachers should learn only what they want to and when and where it's convenient. This article explains that author Paul France…

In this discussion paper we look at questions that adults have about numbers. Many of their questions are not about pure mathematics, but about personal, cultural or societal issues. We discuss how to connect mathematical topics with things people are interested in, based on theoretic knowledge from the field of science communication. We focus on…

University students and instructors constantly correlate their personal interests with generally accepted interests and corporate norms. The process of assimilating organizational norms is not always characterized by the optimum dynamics and focus among all the students and even instructors. Students' and instructors' personal interests often do…

We observed three children with autism spectrum disorder during structured play dates in which play partners displayed interest or disinterest in the toys with which they were playing. We then taught subjects to identify play partners' preferences and to make appropriate toy offers using a multiple-exemplar training package consisting of rules,…

This paper proposes a synthesis of the science of learning into a "model" teachers can follow and apply right away in their classrooms. Recent studies in neuroscience show that that our brains appear to actively and purposefully forget most of what we learn--continually clearing out old and unneeded memories to allow us to focus on more…

In this policy brief, we use the case of California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) to provide policy makers and educators guidance on how to involve the public in goal setting and resource distribution decisions. We provide clarity around who is and is not participating, why, and what broader lessons we can draw for implementing federal…