Teaching is more effective when students are taught through research-based teaching approaches that have been found to be successful in producing the outcomes they advocate. However, use of an effective instructional strategy does not ensure learning, because the success of a sound approach is determined by how well it is implemented. The purpose…

Design thinking has been receiving increased scholarly and popular interest in education; yet, teachers are often uncertain about what it means to implement this in their educational settings. Design thinking, nonetheless, offers a framework to address the challenging problems of practice educators face. In this article, we examine a…

Problems are part of our lives. It causes stress, tension, emotional instability, and physical strain to us. It is very essential to deal with our problems before they deal with our happiness. Problem solving skill is an irreplaceable life skill and it is cognitive or thinking activity essential to our day-to-day lives. In order to lead a…

Environmental education for all students is becoming more urgent as societies strive to deal with challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity. Teachers have an important role to play in defining the environmental knowledge, beliefs, and actions of the next generation. Understanding the anthropogenic inputs responsible for alteration…

As in the rest of the world, teachers' roles have been changing in the Turkish educational system. In this process, their roles have been redefined as technical and social roles. In their technical roles, they focus on regular educational core tasks while in their social roles they dwell upon a wide range of social tasks besides teaching. However,…

Statistical modeling is a core component of statistical thinking and has been identified by several countries as a curricular goal for secondary education. However, many secondary teachers have minimal preparation for teaching this topic. The goal of this research study is to learn about teachers' perceptions of the role statistical models play in…

This practical book will help readers understand what STEAM is, how it differs from STEM, and how it can be used to engage students in K-8 classrooms. The authors present a conceptual model with recommendations and classroom examples illustrating various key aspects of STEAM teaching in action, including creating the correct teaching environment,…

A recent research report from the International Literacy Association (ILA, 2015) discussed the current challenges facing today's educators, noting the increasing diversity of students' backgrounds and needs, coupled with the higher expectations and standards being widely adopted to prepare students for 21st-century skills. The ILA (2015) document…

Recent data from a cross-national assessment, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), place the United States performance in mathematics at 38 out of 71 countries (OECD, 2016)--one clear indication of the ongoing need for the improvement of mathematics education. This improvement relies, in part, on improving undergraduate…

Past educational reforms have failed because they didn't meet teachers where they were. They expected major changes in practices that may have been unrealistic for many teachers even under ideal professional learning conditions. Instead of promoting broad scale changes, improvement may be more likely if they are composed of small yet powerful…

Many teachers' experiences in problem-based classrooms are limited, therefore, mathematics teacher educators face a significant challenge when trying to inspire in-service teachers (ISTs) to teach through problem solving. To address this challenge, the professor in a mathematics education course designed and implemented an instructional model…

The goals of problem-solving activities in the elementary grades often include making sense of story problems, developing a range of strategies, and reaching accurate solutions. These are important mathematical aims, but they do not fully address the demands of modeling with mathematics as described in the fourth of the Common Core's eight…

Adopting a multitiered design-based research perspective, this study examines pre-service secondary mathematics teachers' developing conceptions about (a) the nature of mathematical modeling in simulations of "real life" problem solving, and (b) pedagogical principles and strategies needed to teach mathematics through modeling. Unlike…

A school that holds as a central belief that knowledge is individually and socially constructed by learners who are active observers of the world, active questioners, agile problem posers and critical and creative problem solvers must evolve leadership models and organizational patterns that mirror this model of genuine and meaningful learning as…

The "community of inquiry" is a techno-pedagogical framework that has gathered significant attention in online education research. It has been implemented in diverse disciplines, (foreign) language learning being one of particular interest for the authors of this paper. Due to the dynamics proposed by the framework, it appears as a…