At its core, inquiry--whether conducted with students or teachers--is a process of making observations, asking questions, working with evidence, and interpreting data. Even though research shows well-documented benefits to understanding content, secondary teachers often hesitate to incorporate inquiry for learning. This article presents two…

Today, elementary school teachers continue to revisit old lessons and seek out new ones, especially in engineering. Optimization is the process by which an existing product or procedure is revised and refined. Drawn from the authors' experiences working directly with students in grades K-5 and their teachers and preservice teachers, the…

This piece reports on an early attempt at gamification (reframing post-secondary classrooms drawing on the structure of games). The attempt began in the 2011-2012 academic year and is structured to allow students substantial autonomy in determining which assignments, and how many of them, to complete over the course of the semester. Initial…

The paper investigates relations between higher education teachers' approaches to teaching and their emotions during teaching, as well as their emotion regulation strategies. Based on the assumption that the approaches hinge on emotional experiences with higher education teaching and learning, three studies assessed teachers' emotions, their…

At one elementary school in Massachusetts, students are actually excited about homework. In this article, Cathy Vatterott and educators from Vinal Elementary School explain how--and why--they have made the shift to individualized homework, "a methodical, standards-based approach that starts with big ideas and enduring understandings from the…

Students in Western university contexts require multiple literacies, numeracies, and critical capacities to succeed. Participation requires a blend of English language capacity, cultural knowhow, and cognisance of the often-hidden racialized assumptions and dispositions underpinning literate performance. Students from Culturally and Linguistically…

This article affirms the essential role of play for the well-being of children within the school context. The article explores the definition of play, why play is so important, gives examples of play in schools, and advocates for a child-centered approach to learning. The downside of a curriculum-centered approach is explored as an agent of…

This study explores how a group of Dominican teachers build a professional teaching culture of learner-centered pedagogies by working with a U.S.-Dominican education non-profit organization, CREAR. First, this study uncovers the CREAR cultural logics--the knowledge and know how's characteristic of teaching--that shape CREAR teaching to define…

School discipline remains authoritarian in the USA despite the superficial adoption of student-centered, constructivist lesson delivery. The issue may be lack of ideas for how to conduct constructivist discipline. Three novel activities are presented for classroom discipline that may close this gap. All three present discipline in a manner that is…

This issue brief discusses opportunities for states under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to redesign systems of assessments to support student-centered learning. In addition, this brief introduces "balanced systems of assessments" and "assessment literacy" as two key concepts required for long-term sustainable systems…

Diversity in schools is at an all-time high, and student diversity will continue to increase (Crouch, 2012; Tomlinson, Brighton, Hertberg, Callahan, Moon, Brimijoin, Conover, & Reynolds, 2003). The result is a need for teachers to respond to the differences among students. Teachers can respond to student differences through differentiated…

Many Korean scholars have praised progressive initiatives in the current Korean National Curriculum (KNC) and Korean National English Curriculum (KNEC), although they also state that the actual teaching practices have changed little. With each new iteration of the KNC it is apparent that the Korean Ministry of Education (MOE) is encouraging a…

There is a dearth of studies on academics' perceptions of good teaching in transitional economies such as Uganda and the degree of parity between academics' conceptions of good teaching and the items in the student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires. Against this backdrop, the article reports on a study that explored how academics at…

This qualitative study investigated preservice teachers' experiences working with dual language learners within an early university-based practicum with young children. Our data were multiple reflective journal entries that each preservice teacher composed during the practicum. Our initial analysis revealed a subset of preservice teachers who…

Higher education enrollment has declined recently. New recruiting strategies and student-centered learning environments with challenge, enthusiasm, and joy are required to boost enrollment and engagement. Thus, the student-centered teaching approach, which one of the approaches under implementation and observation, are increasingly needed.…