In this article, the authors present an approach to developing open-ended problems through capturing contextualised mathematics in photographs. They draw upon their research with the Problem Posing Research Project, a collaborative venture between an Australian and a Canadian university to broaden pre-service teachers pedagogical practices in the…

The 2012 U.S. presidential election is the perfect opportunity to present a timely civics lesson on how a U.S. president is elected. More important, it offers opportunities for students to reason mathematically about election issues--for example, about how much time and resources the candidates should invest in particular states. The results of…

In this article, the authors discuss how educators can engage students in real world learning using their academic knowledge and technical skills. They describe how school districts have discovered that the world of robotics can help students use technical skills to solve simulated problems found in the real world, while understanding the…

The concept of "practice makes perfect" was examined in this work in the context of effective learning. Specifically, we wanted to know how much practice was needed for students to demonstrate mastery of learning outcomes. Student learning patterns in two different university courses that use a similar education approach involving…

This article describes an after-school program at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf (HMS), the oldest public day school for deaf students in the United States, where almost half of the student body imagined and created bridge and robotic machines. The Deaf Robotics Engineering and Math Team, or the DREAM Team club, included HMS students in…

In order to maximize college English language students' learning, product development, 21st Century skills and engagement with real world meaningful challenges, a course was designed to integrate Challenge Based Learning (CBL) and iPad mobile learning technology. This article describes the course design, which was grounded in design thinking, and…

The introductory computer programming (CP) course has been taught for three decades in the faculty. Besides pursuing CP technology, one major goal has been enhancing learners' problem-solving (PS) skills. However, the current situation has implied that this might not be the case. Therefore, a research was conducted to investigate the effects of a…

Recent publications have elevated the priority of increasing the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) content for K-12 education. The STEM education community must invest in the development of valid and reliable to scales to measure STEM content, knowledge fusion, and perceptions of the nature of STEM. This brief…

A model of teaching/learning is proposed based on a "problem-based structure" of the contents of the course, in combination with a training in paper and pencil problem solving that emphasizes discussion and quantitative analysis, rather than formulae plug-in. The aim is to reverse the high failure and attrition rate among engineering…

Active learning pedagogies play an important role in enhancing higher order cognitive skills among the student community. In this work, a laboratory course for first year engineering chemistry is designed and executed using an inquiry-based learning pedagogical approach. The goal of this module is to promote higher order thinking skills in…

Recently, many educational institutions across the globe have implemented engineering leadership programmes either as a part of a formal engineering curriculum or where leadership development is embedded into separate in-house programmes. This shows the clear intent of these educational institutions to prepare their engineering students for…

In problem-based learning (PBL), students working in collaborative groups learn by resolving complex, realistic problems under the guidance of faculty. There is some evidence of PBL effectiveness in medical school settings where it began, and there are numerous accounts of PBL implementation in various undergraduate contexts, replete with…

This paper discusses a study of students learning core conceptual perspectives from recent scientific research on complexity using a hypermedia learning environment in which different types of scaffolding were provided. Three comparison groups used a hypermedia system with agent-based models and scaffolds for problem-based learning activities that…

School superintendents' role has shifted from the traditional emphasis on managerial aspects to one on instructional leadership (on teaching and learning issues) achieved by generating collaborative learning opportunities at the both school and district levels. Whereas collaborative learning processes in schools have generally been associated with…

Many different versions of Problem-based Learning (PBL) are used today. To be consistent in evaluating the effectiveness of PBL, the focus in this paper is on what Howard Barrows called authentic PBL (aPBL). In aPBL students are empowered with the learning process; key distinguishing features are that the students teach each other the new…