This article describes workable strategies for instructors to introduce highly interactive question and answer (Q&A) sessions with accomplished guest speakers from industry. Two innovative strategies serve as the key factors behind the series' success: (1) using LinkedIn to partner with guest speakers, especially university alumni, who possess…

Although researchers recognize the importance of discussing support for math learning within online learning communities, there is a lack of relevant network classifying methods and analyses at the group level to understand the behavioral differences between groups with varying levels of activity, including their mathematical literacies. In this…

Despite its importance for students' learning, engaging students in dialogic discussions, especially about controversial, justice-oriented topics, can be difficult for U.S. teachers to enact due to current political constraints. In this study, we explore how three middle school teachers engaged their students in curriculum-embedded discussions on…

The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of laboratory activities employing the Predict-Explain-Observe-Discuss-Explain (PEODE) approach in promoting gifted students' interpretation of everyday problems related to fundamental science concepts. This quasi-experimental study involved 54 gifted students enrolled in the Science and…

Entomology is a foundational subject in the sciences and is often required in curriculum standards for K-12 education because insects allow students to learn about animals in a controlled way. As a result, entomology education is a common yet frequently overlooked aspect of academic learning. To better understand the role an interactive insect…

This paper discusses ideas for incorporating the study of happiness and other measures of self-reported or subjective well-being (SWB) into undergraduate economics courses. We begin by motivating why students of economics would benefit from learning about SWB, and then proceed to provide examples of ways to introduce this topic into different…

Students in U.S. elementary schools continue to experience difficulty learning to read, with some attributing these difficulties to a lack of alignment with the Science of Reading (SOR). Social media plays a prominent role in disseminating information about the SOR, serving as a platform for discussion and debate that reflects many tenets of…

All students deserve to be engaged in high-quality science instruction that moves beyond memorization and recall of facts and offers opportunities for sensemaking. Science achievement is alarmingly low signifying there is a large percentage of students experiencing difficulty in science. The low science achievement may be symptomatic of gaps in…

Participation in citizen science enables students to gain authentic research experience through collaboration with expert scientists. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate how the interactions between expert scientists and student citizen scientists were mediated through the collaborative investigation and co-creation of…

Based on self-determination theory, this study examines the added value of video-based discussion, which is included in a need-supportive training programme, on novice teachers' motivating style and students' engagement throughout a school year. Twenty-four teachers in the treatment condition attended a need-supportive training programme including…

For both first-year teachers and veterans, closing a lesson and assessing whether students met learning goals is a persistent challenge. This article explores how teachers using demanding, discourse-rich tasks can make informed decisions about when to move on in a lesson. Specifically, the author considers a "launch-explore-share and…

Consensus-building is a component of democratic instruction that can be used to center student voices and empower them rather than imposing preconceived options. In this article, we draw from research and practice to describe ways teacher educators can implement inclusive strategies to build consensus among students. The process includes…

The observational and interview study explored how two middle school teachers, Ms. Watson and Mr. Garry, from two different public schools in a small college town in a midwestern state in the United States, used talk moves to establish mathematical discussions during both small group and whole class discussions. The study also examined their…

Here I present 'stories of reading' as a model that takes account of the way an actual reader, together with other readers in a group, reacts to a text as part of an interpretive event. I demonstrate the model through the shared reading and discussion, by a non-academic group of Israeli women, of a Hebrew translation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's…

Video games, and the affinity spaces that develop around them, have been lauded as valuable sites for promoting learning as a transformational and intentional process of identity exploration. This research examines how such processes are enacted on a community discussion forum for the space flight simulator game Kerbal Space Program. Public…