The primary measure used to determine relative effectiveness of in-class activities has been student performance on pre/posttests. However, in today's active-learning classrooms, learning is a social activity, requiring students to interact and learn from their peers. To develop effective active-learning exercises that engage students, it is…

Science hobbyists engage in self-directed, free-choice science learning and many have considerable expertise in their hobby area. This study focused on astronomy and birding hobbyists and examined how they used organizations to support their hobby engagement. Interviews were conducted with 58 amateur astronomers and 49 birders from the midwestern…

In response to increasing homelessness in our city, Seattle Pacific University invited a homeless encampment (Tent City) to reside on our university campus for three months. This provided an opportunity to engage students on issues of poverty and inequality. Building from a service-learning model, we devised course work around homelessness and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the current and potential value of the European Virtual Seminar on Sustainable Development (EVS) as an opportunity for professional development in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for teaching staff at university level. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents and reflects on the…

Teaching large classes is increasingly common; thus, demand for effective large-class pedagogy is rising. One method, titled "SCALE-UP" (Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs), is intended for large classes and involves collaborative, active learning in a technology-rich and student-centered environment.…

Participatory assessment is increasingly employed in higher education worldwide as a formative mechanism to support students' active learning. But do students in an increasingly relationally diverse environment perceive that peer assessment of individuals' contributions to group-work tasks enhances their learning? Recognising the impact of…

For a structural engineer, effective communication and interaction with architects cannot be underestimated as a key skill to success throughout their professional career. Structural engineers and architects have to share a common language and understanding of each other in order to achieve the most desirable architectural and structural designs.…

This paper argues for innovation diffusion as a "becoming" process in the context of lateral and vertical moves. The context of these innovations involves technology-mediated innovations and their diffusion trajectories in the Singapore education system. Embedded in a centralized-decentralized dialectics, this paper traces particular…

Using the of Humans of New York photoblog concept, the exemplar lesson plan described in this article incorporated technology and the replacement, amplification, and transformation framework to modify a traditional social studies lesson on the American Civil War into an engaging and inquiry-based lesson. Students researched individuals who lived…

For decades now, Shattuck-St. Mary's School (Minnesota) has worked tirelessly to support students as they pursue their passions. In particular, the Centers of Excellence--nine programs in which students can dive deeply into areas of personal interest--allow students to fulfill the traditionally rigorous preparatory school curriculum while…

Incorporation of active learning into large lecture classes is gaining popularity as a pedagogical method due to its known benefits in helping learning outcomes. A more recent active learning technique that has emerged is the flipped classroom. In this study, we investigated the effects of incorporating a "partial-flip" into an…

A series of dance activities were introduced to preservice teachers (n = 76) to help them understand how mathematics concepts could be associated with dance performance and choreography processes. A total of 468 pieces of qualitative data were collected, including 147 online discussion entries with 248 follow-up comments, and 73 individual…

This study aims to determine in-service training needs of novice and professionally experienced social studies teachers regarding the planning, implementation and assessment processes of project tasks. The study was carried out using comparative case study from qualitative research patterns as base. Eight social studies teachers who were…

This study analyses how high-achieving students approach team project-based learning (TPBL) and aims to identify the implications and challenges of TPBL practice in higher education. After interviewing 32 high-achieving students and surveying 1022 additional students at a South Korean university, we found that four factors were particularly…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) challenges science teachers to think beyond specific content standards when considering how to design and implement curriculum. This lesson, "Windmills by Design," is an insightful lesson in how science teachers can create and implement a cross-cutting lesson to teach the concepts…