For many students, project-based learning (PBL) can be more engaging than more traditional instructional approaches. Over the past 15 years, Anna Saavedra and Amie Rapaport studied seven inquiry-based approaches. Their research shows that PBL has a positive effect on students' achievement and development of important soft skills. Schools can…

Many articles in this issue consider how school-community partnerships are sustained over time. We ask a related but distinct question: What models of school-community partnerships sustain a teacher as they engage with different partners over their teaching career? For partnerships to feel meaningful to students, they must address issues with…

This exploratory evaluation of Oklahoma SBAE students' perceived knowledge, experience, interest to learn more, and motivation to pursue a career in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Career Pathway (The National Council for Agricultural Education, 2015) areas while engaging the Agricultural Career Experience (AgCE) curricular…

Background: Designed in 2012 with a first implementation in 2013, NE STEM 4U is a professional development program for post-secondary students/undergraduates, and serves as a source of outreach, content knowledge generation, and STEM literacy for youth in grades kindergarten through 8th grade (ages 5-14). The model empowers post-secondary students…

Active Learning is becoming a standard method of delivering instruction in mathematics courses across the country. Researchers, administrators, policy makers, and instructors all need access to valid means of measuring practices used in the classroom. Drawing on the Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey, the Student Postsecondary…

Recently, the institutionalized transformation of frontal instruction classrooms into active learning spaces to foster the concept of (inter-)active learning has gained increasing attention. To investigate the impact of elements of active learning on learning reception of students in an advanced small sized MSc STEM course (<25 students), a…

This paper describes two instructors' efforts to more authentically engage students in a preservice leadership program's course called Program Planning and Evaluation by using a project-based learning approach. Markham, Larmer, and Ravitz (2003) describe project-based learning (PjBL) as "a systematic teaching method that engages students in…

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of evaluation findings at the culmination of the Collaborative Regional Education (CORE) i3 2013 grant, including implementation and impact results from the local and national study phases. The goal of CORE is to have a positive impact on students' college and work readiness outcomes by…

Project Engage (PE) was a 16-month teaching enhancement program offered at a large doctoral-granting university. Participants in this pilot program were full time faculty members who redesigned large enrollment introductory university courses to improve student engagement. To support their redesign projects, participants first received feedback…

Student response systems, or "clickers," have been presented as a way of solving student engagement problems, particularly in large-enrollment classes. These devices provide real-time feedback to instructors, allowing them to understand what students are thinking and how well they comprehend material. As clickers become more common, it…

This paper examines the effects of hands-on learning in an undergraduate circuits class that is taught to non-majors; i.e., students outside of electrical and computing engineering. The course, ECE3710, is taught in a blended format facilitated by the video lectures prepared for two Massive Open Online Courses developed for the Coursera Platform.…

Purpose: Milwaukee has very high rates of risky sexual behavior and low rates of academic achievement among adolescents. Milwaukee school representatives partnered with researchers to create and implement an innovative project-based learning (PBL) high school health curriculum to engage students in school. This health education program, Project…

In this paper, the author described how a model of teaching critical thinking couples with the development of learning objects may help respond to broader calls for critical thinking both as a central goal in education and as a key aspect in the ecology of 21st century e-learning environment. The model developed by the Canadian Critical Thinking…

American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an external evaluation of Vermont's Ed-Tech Program from January 2010-June 2011. The purpose of the evaluation was to provide feedback on the implementation and outcomes of the competitive grant programs that were active during this time. The findings of the evaluation are intended to help VTDOE…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…