Many high school students are either intimidated or unmotivated when faced with science courses taught with a traditional teaching methodology. The focus of this study was the integration of the arts, specifically the Creative Arts Laboratory (CAL) approach, into the teaching methodology and assessment of a high school chemistry class, with…

The purpose of this report is to describe a rationale and strategies for use of the Promising Syllabus (in Bain, 2004, What the best college teachers do). This syllabus reflects the learner-centered paradigm where students take charge of their own learning. The syllabus creates a series of promises between teacher and student, focusing on a…

Both employer expectations and education standards, including the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, are shifting the focus of learning from knowledge and discrete skills to the ability to think critically and creatively. This paper describes the process of translating an existing teacher-led STEM curriculum to fit…

The Alaska Statewide Mentor Project (ASMP) is a joint effort of the University of Alaska and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development to address the persistently low teacher retention rates in the state, especially in rural districts that predominantly serve Alaska Native (AN) students. Over six years, teacher retention in rural…

The purpose of this study is to report on the nature of student learning resulting from an open facilitation approach to solo activities. Three key moments of facilitator intervention were identified at which the facilitator was encouraged to take a step back from directing the experience. They are the pre-activity brief, the mid-activity visit…

In this study, the researcher explored collegiate faculty use and perception of learning- centered strategies to assess student performance on various learning tasks. Through this study, the researcher identified the assessment strategies that faculty participants most frequently used, as well as the strategies that they perceived to be most…

"Natural acceleration" happens through an internal fire that burns to learn and may transcend school boundaries. Based on their passionate interests and connections with a domain, children who hunger for domain understandings outside school curricula require different types of acceleration, motivated by these interests. The lifeworks,…

The number of candidates seeking and completing online courses and programs in teacher education continues to increase in order to meet the licensing flexibility demands of adults pursuing teacher certification. Using the theoretical constructs of learner-centered instruction and zones of proximal development, this paper provides an overview of…

This article presents KnowledgePuzzle, a browsing tool for knowledge construction from the web. It aims to adapt the structure of web content to the learner's information needs regardless of how the web content is originally delivered. Learners are provided with a meta-cognitive space (e.g., a concept mapping tool) that enables them to plan…

In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued Guidelines for Preschool Education (GPE) (trial version) to call on early childhood practitioners to use a child-centered and play-based approach to teaching and learning. The guidelines also include mathematics within the science domain and described its standards in a way that significantly…

Accomplishing personalized, deeper learning through anywhere, anytime digital learning requires a redesign of the K-12 education system. This report looks at readiness for digital learning at two levels in West Virginia: the district capacity building to ready the system for digital learning and school implementation of digital learning. The…

This article presents a new classroom observations analysis tool (CLI-O: Class Learning Interactions--Observation tool). The CLI-O tool enables the collection of various data regarding the use of ICT tools, organization of learning, and teacher-student interactions in the lesson. Several examples demonstrating the use of CLI-O and some preliminary…

A collaborative and knowledge sharing virtual activity on "Second Life" using a learner-centred teaching methodology was initiated between Temasek Polytechnic and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU) in the October 2011 semester. This paper highlights the author's experience in designing and implementing this e-learning…

Instructional practices in mathematics courses at two-year colleges include lecture as the predominant instructional form in 78% of two-year colleges, with class sizes averaging about 26 students (AACC, 2005). The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicates that there is a need for change in the practices of mathematics teachers…

The integration of technology into classroom instruction in K-12 schools remains problematic. The problems associated with this integration are troubling, as technology integration may change a teacher's pedagogy toward more innovative approaches that increase student achievement. The purpose of this study was to document teachers' experiences as…