In order to improve STEM education, as well as incorporate 21st century skills, teacher education programs are in the process of finding better ways to address these areas (Trilling & Fadel, 2009). New teachers entering the workforce are prepared mostly to teach content the way they were taught (Alger, 2009; Eick & Reed, 2002; Goodnough…

This problem-based learning project addressed the need to improve the construction and implementation of value-added teacher evaluation policies and instruments. State officials are constructing value-added teacher evaluation models due to accountability initiatives, while ignoring the holes and problems in its implementation. The team's…

This problem-based learning project addressed the need to improve the construction and implementation of value-added teacher evaluation policies and instruments. State officials are constructing value-added teacher evaluation models due to accountability initiatives, while ignoring the holes and problems in its implementation. The team's…

This problem-based learning project addressed the need to improve the construction and implementation of value-added teacher evaluation policies and instruments. State officials are constructing value-added teacher evaluation models due to accountability initiatives, while ignoring the holes and problems in its implementation. The team's…

Two recent peer-reviewed studies support the need to update the traditional school design model that has remained fundamentally unchanged for over a century. In a 2011 study published by the American Educational Research Journal, entitled "Problem-Based Learning in K-12 Education," Clarice Wirkala and Deanna Kuhn document a 200-500…

The dialogic nature of small group collaborative learning requires verbal contributions from students to progress individual and group learning. Speaking can become privileged over listening as a collaborative act, and an imbalance in these values can become embedded in the classroom culture to the degree that the core value of listening can be…

Design is a rhetorical activity that requires creative thinking in response to difficult situations. That creative work ultimately builds new relationships and new contexts. Sustainable design can become an approach to composition that alters ways of thinking about writing situations, keeping ethical and contextual factors in focus, and…

Debates regarding higher education's relevance and responsiveness to societal exigencies have in the past three decades resulted in the development of programs with leitmotifs such as "service learning," "problem-based learning," and "civic engagement" (e.g., "Scholarship on Teaching and Learning," McNair…

This paper describes the use and benefits of Microsoft's Adventure Works (AW) database to teach advanced database skills in a hands-on, realistic environment. Database management and querying skills are a key element of a robust information systems curriculum, and active learning is an important way to develop these skills. To facilitate active…

Background: Context-based learning approaches are used to enhance students' interest in, and knowledge about, science. According to different empirical studies, students' interest is improved by applying these more non-conventional approaches, while effects on learning outcomes are less coherent. Hence, further insights are needed into the…

"Seizing the Future: How Ohio's Career and Technical Education Programs Fuse Academic Rigor and Real-World Experiences to Prepare Students for College and Work," demonstrates Ohio's progress in developing strong policies for career and technical education (CTE) programs to promote rigor, including college- and career-ready graduation…

Experience in problem-based learning, authentic experiences, on-the-job decision making, and critical reflection on decisions made formed the conceptual framework of an internship to develop democratic leadership as a professional ethic in interns. Interns in an on-the-job guided internship examined decisions over a 13-week period as they…

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are accepted throughout the world, particularly in the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Emerging economies are also are aligning their practices with IFRS. Historically, the USA has been cautious about accepting IFRS. However, following acceptance of IFRS worldwide, the US…

This article reports on the qualitative aspects of a study that examined whether introducing a "Problem-based Learning" ("PBL") approach in a one-year foundation programme can create conditions for learners to develop and sustain self-directed learning skills. This interpretive constructivist case study was located in…

This article synthesizes findings from an on-going line of inquiry investigating the potential of educatively scaffolded digital resources to help teachers understand and implement a complex model of history instruction, problem-based historical inquiry. The digital resources developed for this inquiry provided teachers with wise-practice…