Creating conditions that allow for the autonomy of educators during professional learning has been a key focus in educational research in recent years. Much evidence supports that collaborative inquiry (CI) is a model that can foster this autonomy by prioritizing teachers' concerns, needs, and interests in the professional learning process. By…

The article introduces a design-and-effects-framework comprising five key features of effective professional development: (1) extended Duration, (2) Content Focus of input, (3) Coherence of input with practice, (4) Collegial Participation, and (5) Active Learning. The framework's general feasibility is investigated in a proof-of-concept study.…

This scholarly essay explores the challenges that teachers face in implementing the Nueva Escuela Mexicana (NEM) [new Mexican school] educational model, which prioritizes project-based and interdisciplinary learning over subject-based instruction. The NEM's flexible approach requires teachers to independently structure lessons, ensuring continuity…

Written by teachers for educators and researchers, this is the first handbook to present a series of insights that teachers may use to conceive, design, execute, and develop active learning experiences for authentic assessment that will enrich students' learning experiences. Active Learning considers a series of educational methods where students…

In the evolving landscape of 21st-century education, inquiry-based learning (IBL) has emerged as a leading pedagogical framework to foster critical thinking, problem-solving, and conceptual understanding in students. However, the effective integration of IBL in primary school mathematics education remains a complex challenge, particularly in the…

In recent years, more science classrooms include inquiry-based approaches to learning in response to advances in education theory and science curriculum reform efforts. Yet, extant research indicates there are hurdles to fully actualizing those benefits: learners' regulation of cognitive, social, and motivational processes can be challenging. To…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the prediction-observation-explanation (POE) strategy using worksheets designed for the "living things and life" topic on conceptual understanding and science process skills (SPS) of students with mild intellectual disabilities (SMIDs). The sample consisted of 12 SMIDs (eight students for…

Writing-intensive and proof-based mathematics courses have a variety of unique course outcomes and challenges. As such, active learning in these courses may differ from what we traditionally expect to see in an "active" first-year calculus course: an interactive in-class activity can be replaced with an out-of-class reading and homework…

This paper is focused on the collaborative work of two communities, one of teachers and one of researchers, during a teacher professional development program on the inquiry-based learning approach in mathematics, addressed to lower secondary school in-service mathematics teachers. We conceptualize the design of inquiry mathematics task as the…

This study explores how the construction and refinement of visual representations support elementary students' learning of astronomical concepts, particularly in topics that are challenging to teach and understand. Drawing on qualitative data--including student interviews, classroom recordings, student-produced visual representations, and field…

Within creative domains in studio- and project-based education, documentation is often central to demonstrating outcomes, process, and progress. Despite much prior work into the instructional practices, technologies, and tools that support cultivating documentation practices, no prior work explores the student valuing and perception of…

School librarians often find themselves betwixt two different worlds that come with quite varied expectations. They are seen as the arbiters of traditional learning and academia, with library spaces providing books and quiet places for self-enrichment and study. They are also often given the responsibility of being the building's technology…

This paper is a practical how-to guide to help you start using active learning or to have greater success and more fun with it. We categorize active learning techniques as Think, Pair, Share, Composite, Group, Move, or Lead and discuss how to implement activities in each category, along with advice on creating engaging, effective, and equitable…

Computer-supported learning technologies are essential for conducting hands-on cybersecurity training. These technologies create environments that emulate a realistic IT infrastructure for the training. Within the environment, training participants use various software tools to perform offensive or defensive actions. Usage of these tools generates…

Physical experiments in classrooms have many benefits for student learning, including increased student interest, participation and knowledge retention. While experiments are common in engineering and physics classes, they are seldom used in first-year calculus, where the focus is on solving problems analytically and, occasionally, numerically. In…