This paper discusses the relevance of using physical situations to introduce the concept of angles at elementary school. We compare the effectiveness of two geometry teaching sequences. In the first one (physical sequence), the pupils learned the angle concept by experimenting on the playground (i.e. mesospace) and then modelling the situation. In…

In the field of education for sustainable development (ESD), many authors refer to the notion of 'experience' and associated concepts. This highlights some of the theoretical underpinnings of ESD, a disciplinary field which, in France, became generalized in schools as of 2004. It has since been the subject of numerous research studies and…

Introduced in 2013, the A.L.P.E.S. approach (AgiLe aPproaches in higher Education Studies) aims to apply agile practices to teaching. Agile approaches are project management practices for IT development. More pragmatic than traditional methods, they allow to be closer to the applicant and to involve him/her as much as possible. They offer a great…

This study aims to gain a better understanding of the practices of first-year university teachers by considering the distinction between direct instruction and active learning. It is based on the responses of 356 teachers to questions relating to three areas of teaching practice: preparation, implementation and use of digital technology. Principal…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how the creativity of pupils and teachers is nurtured through the use of a virtual world (VW) within a sociotechnical network affecting pupils' learning in a pilot secondary school. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is the result of a pluri-disciplinary systemic analysis involving…

Teaching mathematics to future engineers while keeping up with real-world scientific evolutions is a challenge with diverse constraints and difficulties. In this article, I present and analyze the design and implementation of a Study and Research Path (SRP) in a statistics class in a French chemical engineering school. An SRP is a project-based…

The development of communication and other soft skills among computer science students is not usually an easy task. Often, curricula focus on technical skills, with team projects being used for the improvement of communication skills. However, these teams usually comprise solely of computer science students. In this paper, we present a didactical…

Developing inquiry-based science teaching (I.B.S.T.) methods in lower secondary schools challenges many schools and educational bodies. The paper addresses the influence of teacher collaboration on science teachers' approaches and practices regarding I.B.S.T. The research emphasises three case studies: two science teachers, one expert and one new…

We report on an experiment carried out among master's students in specialised translation involved in an authentic translation project at the University of Grenoble Alpes. With a view to designing an authentic translation environment for future translators, a collaborative and ergonomic dimension was integrated into translator training. Ergonomics…

Purpose: This paper aims to develop a model of measuring student engagement in a blended-massive open online course (MOOC) context. MOOCs are those that are delivered, usually by leading universities, with a promise to provide free high-quality education to an unlimited number of learners. They offer an opportunity for "blended" course…

A first time attender at the annual conference of the "National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology" (NITOP, 2014), Castro was impressed with how throughout, discussions were vivid and innovative; talks were warm and interactive, handouts and other resources were diverse and abundant, with all materials very well adjusted to various…

Flipped classes are well-known for reversing the typical in-class lecture and out-of-class homework structure by instructing students to learn by themselves from on-line learning materials and inviting them to ask questions based on their individual difficulties in class. Many attempts at integrating this teaching method into English as a foreign…

We describe here a collective and experimental research project-based learning (ERPBL) for master's students that can be used to illustrate some basic concepts on glucose/lipid homeostasis and renal function around a topical issue. The primary objective of this ERPBL was to strengthen students' knowledge and understanding of physiology and…

This case study describes two iterations of a cross-disciplinary Virtual Exchange (VE) project developed between the Universities of Bordeaux (France) and León (Spain), involving students of Applied Physics and Measurement Engineering (APME), and Electrical Engineering. The students worked together on designing a real garden in Bordeaux within…

This paper presents the "Multi-Role Project" method (MRP), a broadly applicable project-based learning method, and describes its implementation and evaluation in the context of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course. The MRP method is designed around a meta-principle that considers the project learning activity…