This paper argues for an understanding of teaching and teacher development that is realistic and based on research. It maintains that teaching is a highly complex job requiring technical knowledge, the highest levels of communication skills, empathy, maturity, intuitive understanding and skills in planning and organisation. It argues that debates…

This inquiry-based activity designed for the fifth through 12th grade allows students to engage in an outdoor, place-based experience, working collaboratively both in groups and as a class to accomplish the class goal of creating a local tree map linked to student-collected data about each tree. During Local Tree Mapping, students explore the…

This article examines the comment culture that accompanies documentary films on YouTube as a site of (geo) political education. It considers how viewers try to teach each other about the proper "place" of critique in response to the global, national, and local rhetoric featured in one environmental documentary film. YouTube viewers use…

This paper approaches mindfulness, an awareness of internal and external realities, as a culturally-shaped habit of mind. Findings of a cross-cultural study and popular sayings that reflect America's cultural orientation to consumption and competition are contrasted with findings from Hawaiian language newspapers, traditional cultural practices,…

The article introduces a Czech environmental education middle school program focused on helping students develop place attachment to their community and on increasing their interest in natural area in their region. The evaluation applied a mixed approach combining pretesting/posttesting of the students (N = 158), two group interviews with selected…

Curricula are not just lists of subjects to teach. Curricula guide and are central to the quality of teaching and learning. They are fundamental to improving human capital, motivating people to stay in education and training and to promoting lifelong learning. Pressure to modernize education and training to respond to the diverse needs of learners…

The notion of "place", as in "place-based education", has received considerable attention in educational theorizing because of its potential to link students, their lifeworlds, and their experiences in particular settings to formal education. However, in current debates of place-based education, the notion of "place" is emerging as problematic.…

Drawing upon van Eijck and Roth's notion of "place as chronotope," this review paper discusses historical consideration of place as it assists us to conceptualize place in its collective, political, and dialogical nature. In a place, we are positioned amidst of the multiplicity of histories and narratives within ever shifting various contexts of…

This paper describes a global professional development program called 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD), which helps teachers design academic lessons that integrate opportunities for students to develop 21st Century competencies in a variety of dimensions such as collaboration, knowledge construction, and the powerful use of ICT for learning.…

At first glance, implementing the new Common Core Standards, with their dramatically higher learning expectations for early elementary students, may seem like a daunting task. The authors of this article think there has never been a better time for K-2 teachers to begin developing lessons that integrate all disciplines, promote higher order…

The rapidly changing picture on localism and the government's focus on local economic growth have significant implications for adult learning and skills providers in England. Government now sees a sense of place as key to economic growth and recognises the need for a renewed debate on how business and state interact with localities. There is a…

Although the author loves winter camping and holds the Inuit culture in great regard, thinking about material culture in a northern landscape referred to as barren constitutes a daunting lesson. She wondered, when a landscape is barren is it possible at all for someone to find material, make useful items and survive? So it was she joined the Mara…

The nature-based excursion has been a significant teaching strategy in environmental education for decades. This article draws upon empirical data from a collaborative research project where teachers were encouraged to visit natural areas to provide an understanding of their roles and experiences of planning and enacting excursions. The analysis…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

Case studies of successful place-based education that involve international partnerships are rare. This article reports on an inclusive educational collaboration between pre-service teachers at an Australian university and primary and secondary school-aged children in a slum area of Delhi, India. Encouraged to undertake teaching that affirmed and…