A case is described of the development of a lesson plan for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes on the chemistry of shower gels. The lesson plan follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This means that, aside from learning about the basic chemistry of the components making up modern shower gels in…

A problem-solving template enables a methodology of instruction that integrates aspects of both sequencing and conceptual learning. It is designed to enhance critical-thinking skills when used within the framework of a learner-centered approach to teaching, where regular, thorough assessments of student learning are key components of the…

Important tools that schools need to support a 21st century approach to teaching and learning include the usual suspects: the Internet, pen and paper, cell phones, educational games, tests and quizzes, good teachers, caring communities, educational funding, and loving parents. All of these items and more contribute to a 21st century education, but…

The mathematics that students see in their textbooks is highly polished. The steps required to solve a problem are all clearly laid out. Thus, students are denied what could be a valuable learning experience. Often when students meet a problem that differs only slightly from the ones in the book, they are unable to proceed and afraid to "play…

Cooperation between English as a second or other language (ESOL) and content-area teachers, often difficult to achieve, is hard to assess linguistically in a revealing way. This article employs register analysis (which is different from, but complementary to, genre analysis) in a Systemic Functional Linguistic perspective to show how an ESOL…

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games prominent in the media, children were exposed to images of athletes skiing down snow-covered slopes, coasting furiously on bobsleds, and skating gracefully across the ice. Therefore, the authors capitalized on their children's natural curiosity about the world around them by exploring the concept of motion in a…

This study investigates how structured Mediated Learning Experiences may improve peer-cooperative communication within problem-solving task exercises. Two groups (n = 22) of Year 8 students (mean age 13 +/- 5 months) were randomly selected to participate in this study. The study began with two one-hour sessions of activity-based problem-solving…

To focus on mathematical reasoning and what makes a good argument, the authors developed an assignment that requires college students to submit a book of mathematical reasoning as an assessment during the semester. To begin, the authors looked for questions and tasks that lend themselves to developing mathematical arguments and justifications and…

Problem solving, introduced in every grade and practiced throughout elementary school, is an essential foundation on which students build their understanding of mathematical ideas, operations, and relationships. This article discusses 1-2-3 Time, an instructional mode that promotes multimodal math learning in ways that engage and sustain students'…

The goal of this literature study is to give some preliminary answers to the questions that aim to uncover the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of Informatics Education, with focus on Programming. PCK has been defined as the knowledge that allows teachers to transform their knowledge of the subject into something accessible for their students.…

The ill-structured nature of design problems makes them particularly challenging for problem-based learning. Studio-based learning (SBL), however, has much in common with problem-based learning and indeed has a long history of use in teaching students to solve design problems. The purpose of this ethnographic study of an industrial design class,…

Reciprocal teaching, a social constructivist instruction method, was explored in this study on the mathematical word problem solving skills of fifth grade students in two elementary schools within a suburban school district in upstate New York. Eighty-five students in four intact classes participated in this mixed methods study. Using a…

Nervous about teaching math to young children? Too pressed for time to teach all of the math concepts children need to know? Now there's a practical, stress-free guide to one of the most effective ways to enhance children's mathematical thinking in pre-K-Grade 3--by weaving math concepts into storytime. Ready for any educator to pick up and start…

One goal of 21st-century education is to develop mature citizens who can identify issues, solve problems, and communicate solutions. What better way for students to learn these skills than by participating in a science and engineering fair? Fair participants face the same challenges as professional scientists and engineers, even Nobel laureates.…

This study compared one lesson across four U.S. "traditional" textbook series, two U.S. reform-based textbook series, and one Chinese mathematics textbook series in teaching the connection between multiplication and division. The results showed the differences across U.S. and Chinese lessons in both the teaching and the practice parts of…