A growing body of evidence shows that infusing sustainability into undergraduate courses and programs can simultaneously benefit institutional goals, student learning outcomes, and society at large. In addition to being a globally relevant and urgent topic, sustainability can enhance learning of disciplinary concepts and development of broad…

Drawing upon ethnographic data, this article investigates the effects of a new online campus management system in one of the largest universities in Germany. It shows the various ways in which this technological innovation influenced students', teachers' and administrative personnel's relations and everyday working practices and how it is…

Tuning is a faculty-driven initiative designed to improve the quality of higher education by establishing transparent and fully assessable learning outcomes and proficiencies for degrees, discipline by discipline. Unlike many other initiatives in the United States which function within an individual institution, the Utah Tuning Project involved…

The challenge of updating curriculum to align with Common Core State Standards is a national one felt by states, districts, and teachers alike. Teachers generally express enthusiasm for the Common Core, but consistently cite a lack of high-quality curricula as an impediment to teaching them. The demand for core-aligned quality materials has far…

Political realities dictate that, as with any tests, passing scores on those developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) will be set at a level that avoids having an unacceptable number of students fail. Since Massachusetts is by far the highest performing of the states that remain in the PARCC…

The role of assessment in education has grown greatly over the past few decades, a trend that has two major manifestations. One is the rapid increase in the number of countries and other jurisdictions either participating in international surveys (tests) of learning or initiating their own system-wide assessments; or both. The other is the…

"Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action," published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011, suggested cultivating biological literacy and practicing more student-centered learning in undergraduate life sciences education. We report here on the use of Group Active Engagement (GAE)…

Supporting 21st century skill development calls for necessary changes in teaching practices to encourage contemporary learning outcomes. Research points toward technology integration as a catalyst for supporting shifting pedagogies necessary to enhance learning. As many Catholic educators and leaders are attempting to re-shape Catholic school…

Schools that teach within the context of the International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Program approach learning through a global lens. They focus on how subjects relate to a larger, international context and connect topics together so that students can have a deeper understanding of knowledge. To further support and promote this approach to…

In this activity, students learned scientific practices and evidence-based reasoning by formulating and testing hypotheses about factors affecting human reaction time and examining those hypotheses with data from ruler-drop tests. The project aligns with all eight of the science and engineering practices (SEP) embodied in the "Next Generation…

This paper studies the early implementation of a school improvement effort in two high schools. We examine what explains variation in the teacher adoption of program practices. Our findings highlight the tension between encouraging immediate adoption of program practices and the longer term goals of schoolwide culture change. We find that highly…

This paper considers the policy "roles" adopted by teachers enacting policy in a department. It draws on a longitudinal study of two secondary mathematics departments endeavouring to make deep change aligned with a demanding curriculum policy. The study validates aspects of an existing typology, demonstrates the existence of a variety of…

Ethical competencies are included in all competency-based education models and are considered essential for the professional preparation of students, especially in terms of their professional conduct and workplace preparedness. As such, the Tuning Academy, along with incorporating ethical competencies in its group of generic competencies, also…

The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the professional learning activities that experts perceive are necessary for local education agencies (LEAs) to effectively implement California's Quality Professional Learning Standards (QPLS) in alignment with the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Priority 2. The study also examined the degree…

This paper studies the early implementation of a school improvement effort in two high schools. We examine what explains variation in the teacher adoption of program practices. Our findings highlight the tension between encouraging immediate adoption of program practices and the longer term goals of schoolwide culture change. We find that highly…