Despite credible research to support a constructivist-based approach in early childhood programs, policymakers continued to push for a more academic-based philosophy in an effort to reach standardized testing goals. Reggio Emilia, a constructivist-based early childhood philosophy that originated in Northern Italy, has been shown to be an excellent…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Teaching Quality." Contents include: (1) Using Project-Based Learning and STEAM…

In this qualitative study a more flexible alternative of conceptualising changes over time in teams is tested within student project teams. The conceptualisation uses turning points during the lifespan of a team to outline team development, based on work by Erbert, Mearns, & Dena (2005). Turning points are moments that made a significant…

Students do not always realize that after graduating they will be expected to apply what they have learned. For accreditation purposes, most universities survey graduates to assess and evaluate the perceived relevance of the curriculum, but these assessments often occur years after graduation. Assessment of applied learning should occur earlier…

Student engagement during the development of a three-dimensional visual aid or teaching model can vary for a number of reasons. Some students report that they are not "creative" or "good at art," often as an excuse to justify less professional outcomes. Student engagement can be low when using traditional methods to produce a…

A contemporary approach to the synthesis and purification of several UV-active dipeptides has been developed for the second-year organic laboratory. This experiment exposes students to the important technique of solution-phase peptide synthesis and allows an instructor to highlight the parallel between what they are accomplishing in the laboratory…

Teachers of early modern theater often recognize that it is difficult for today's generation of students to approach old dramatic works as actual plays instead of written texts. Two methods for dealing with this difficulty have emerged in recent decades. On the one hand, some teachers have increasingly emphasized the value of performance…

This article discusses two multidisciplinary courses created at the Colorado School of Mines that were developed to integrate ethics into the first-year engineering curriculum: "Nature and Human Values" (NHV) and "Innovation and Discovery in Engineering, Arts, and Sciences" (IDEAS). In both NHV and IDEAS, our objectives are to…

University-led science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach plays an important role in addressing declining rates of student participation in tertiary STEM programs and declining interest in pursuing careers in STEM fields (Sadler, Eilam, Bigger & Barry, 2018). One type of outreach program that is becoming more popular is…

In this article, we will discuss how circumstances and requirements on a micro-level may be of relevance for the conditions for international student mobility within higher education. This will be done through examining similarities and differences in the organization of degree project courses at universities in Russia and Sweden, and how…

The purpose of this study was to compare students' and teachers' perceptions of differentiated practices, student engagement, and the qualities of an effective teacher by fostering student voice. Participants included 802 students and 867 teachers from Northern Sydney government schools in Australia. The researcher used a convergent parallel mixed…

Learn about the Challenge Based Science Learning Project and its larger implications for the fields of Next Generation Science Learning and Open Educational Resources. The project involved 18 middle school teachers and five administrators from three U.S. school districts partnering with instructional coaches and learning sciences researchers from…

Given the common problem of incoherence in district reform efforts, this qualitative study sought to understand what conditions enable (and/or constrain) the efforts of Technical Assistance Organizations (TAOs) to align their products and services with each other and with the specific goals of a district. This paper explores the complexity of TAOs…

New research points to the future of education as online, student-centered, collaborative, and community-based--all largely absent from today's educational landscape. This timely guide shows middle, high school, and college students how to undertake research to address challenges in their curriculum and communities. The approach is deliberately…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe SPARK, an innovative elementary school that highlights the possibilities for elementary education as COVID-19 continues to unfold. Design/methodology/approach: The authors' analysis is based on a research synthesis of the main features of the SPARK model, as it was operating when schools in Arizona…