In 2022, the state department released new standards and a competency-based education curriculum. Simultaneously, the Toledo Creek School District has experienced an unprecedent shift in the student population demographics. The shift has resulted in two distinct zones, east and west, with income averages on the two extremes of the income spectrum.…

One reason for the widespread use of the energy concept across the sciences is that energy analysis can be used to interpret the behavior of systems even if one does not know the particular mechanisms that underlie the observed behavior. By providing an approach to interpreting unfamiliar phenomena, energy provides a lens on phenomena that can set…

Introduction: Cognitive psychology courses are rich in content that can be useful to broad audiences. Much of the foundational research presented in course texts is conducted in highly constrained laboratory settings, making the concepts difficult to apply or use in the real world. Statement of the Problem: Students in cognitive psychology classes…

Background: Authenticity in schools has been highlighted as important for improving students' engagement and learning, and to prepare them for future job markets, especially in science and technology. Purpose: This study investigates students' perceived authenticity of a developed innovation project when implemented in an upper secondary…

Background: Design problems have long attracted researchers' attention for their potential to provide authentic learning opportunities. While we have methods for supporting students to learn through relatively simple engineering and design tasks, supporting students to address complex problems that they find and frame remains poorly understood.…

This pilot study investigates the way that young students and teachers of a Dutch Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) secondary school subject Research and Design (R&D) reason about the concept of 'model'. The core of the Dutch Technasium secondary school course Research and Design curriculum (R&D is in Dutch called…

Incorporating authentic engineering practices into educative experiences in elementary school has the potential to positively impact student consideration of STEM careers and increase student self-efficacy in later engineering study. Additionally, as students move from primary to secondary grades, their interest in STEM topics tends to decline. To…

Community partnerships present opportunities for expanding students' learning experiences outside traditional classroom settings. However, under-resourced low-income communities often lack access to such opportunities. This qualitative study explores how high school teachers, community liaisons, and community partners establish and sustain…

This study explores student agency in the context of a culturally authentic computer science (CS) curriculum implemented in an introductory CS course in two high schools. Drawing on focus group and interview data, the study utilizes qualitative research methods to examine how students exercise critical agency as they engage in the course and how…

Background and Context: Learning to create self-directed and personally authentic programming projects involves encountering challenges and learning to get unstuck. Objective: This article investigates how one U.S. fourth-grade classroom engaged in practices which emphasized community supports, in the context of the classroom's implementation and…

This paper examines the transformative potential of performance-based assessment (PBA) in mathematics education across Sub-Saharan Africa when integrated with Ubuntu philosophy. Through a conceptual analysis of existing literature and pedagogical frameworks, this study explores how PBA can be integrated with Ubuntu philosophy to address…

This paper examines specific problems of educational practice that I, an undergraduate engineering educator and education researcher, have encountered in creating an interdisciplinary engineering project course. I reveal my process of theorising about problems of practice to position engineering educators' pedagogical theorising as worthy of…

Educational authenticity occupies a strong position in higher education research and reform, building on the assumption that correspondence between higher education learning environments and professional settings is a driver of student engagement and transfer of knowledge beyond academia. In this paper, we draw attention to an overlooked aspect of…

Engaging with Students as Partners (SaP) in areas of curriculum design and pedagogic consultancy is relatively well established. Here we present a case study of two recent projects at Imperial College London, a research-intensive science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) university, that have extended the SaP model to the…

This paper provides a background on recent research related to learning and instruction, focusing on two mechanisms essential to deeper learning: (1) inclusion of authentic learning contexts and (2) valuing student voice as part of instruction. The authors point to ways that culturally responsive and related pedagogies leverage these same two…