Computational thinking is accepted today as a collection of cognitive and social skills required for functioning in the 21st century. The paper presents a conceptual view at computational thinking that encompass concepts, problem-solving skills, application skills, and social skills. To impart those perceptions and skills the paper proposes the…

Education in Malaysia is transforming to increase students' ability and meet the needs of the industry. In Design and Technology subject, students apply the technology to develop a product capable of solving problems through a project-based learning approach. Therefore, this study aims to (a) identify problems in the implementation of design…

Project-based learning (PBL) holds promise for students in urban high schools by creating personalized, engaging, and relevant experiences that prepare students for post-secondary pathways. This exploratory study focused on understanding the implementation of PBL in an urban STEM high school that includes career pathways where students engage in…

Formal mentoring has been an effective approach to mitigate challenges facing underserved youth and contributes to observable improvements in behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being (Rhodes, 2008). Mentored youth appear to gain improvements in peer and parent relationships and school performance, while also engaging in lower levels of…

Inquiry-based practical work (IBPW) is one of the innovative instructional strategies in science education. Science teacher preparation programmes play a role in preparing preservice teachers to facilitate IBPW in classrooms located in different school settings, including multiple-deprived classrooms. The adverse conditions against the successful…

Statistics standards found in the Common Core (CCSSI 2010) and other state standards require considerable instructional time and focus for students to develop the depth and breadth of understanding necessary. In this article, the authors offer an approach to teaching a statistics unit that combines student choice with authentic and sustained…

Inquiry-based instruction is a student-centered approach to teaching that focuses on active learning (Barron and Darling-Hammond 2008) in which students engage with "tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving" (NCTM 2014). Specifically, such tasks encourage a variety of solution strategies and stimulate use of the NCTM Process…

The educational landscape around standards, assessment, professional development, and funding is changing at a rapid pace. This article asks how can education institutions--and educators--respond with a balance of urgency and coherence? How can education institutions temper the need for risk-taking and innovation with the responsibility to deliver…

This paper describes an action learning programme with China Unicom Broadband Limited (CUBO) to support its vision of transforming to become a world-leading broadband communications and information service provider. 64 Department directors and supervisors were invited to take part in the "China Unicom Broadband Online Phoenix Action Learning…

In this paper, we report on the implementation of a novel compute-to-learn pedagogy, which is based upon the theories of situated cognition and meaningful learning. The "compute-to-learn" pedagogy is designed to simulate an authentic research experience as part of the undergraduate curriculum, including project development, teamwork,…

Engineering education research has empirically validated the effectiveness of active learning over traditional instructional methods. However, the dissemination of education research into instructional practice has been slow. Faculty workshops for current and future instructors offer a solution to promote the widespread adoption of active learning…

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards calls upon social studies teachers to enhance the rigor of civics, economics, geography, history and the other social studies disciplines while building the critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills of students to help them become actively…

This article describes the implementation of high-altitude balloon (HAB) research into a variety of undergraduate atmospheric science classes as a means of increasing active student engagement in real-world, problem-solving events. Because high-altitude balloons are capable of reaching heights of 80,000-100,000 ft (24-30 km), they provide a…

This paper describes a flipped classroom approach followed to teach systems analysis, design and implementation at university level. The techniques employed are described. These techniques were underpinned by a theory of coherent practice: a pedagogy that provides a framework for the design of highly structured interventions to guide students in…

Despite years of implementing standards-based accountability systems, many teachers today lack the necessary preparation to develop standards-based instructional strategies and to inform decisions utilizing student assessments. The eMINTS ("Enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies") National Center at the…