This qualitative research explored why older people do not participate in formal and nonformal education. This study focused on older adults who have not participated in formal or nonformal education since their retirement. Recent studies have shown that participation in formal and nonformal educational activities is an effective way to maintain…

The metaphor of the leaking pipeline is sometimes used to suggest that some students are lost for STEM as they advance through the educational system. This paper follows a cohort of upper-secondary school students with an interest in STEM from 18 months before their completion of upper-secondary until three years after their completion. Adopting a…

This paper analyses a part of the results regarding environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) in Romania, obtained by administering a survey in 2017, willingly and anonymously filled out by 335 teachers (preschool teachers, primary school teachers, Geography teachers). It examines: respondents' interest,…

Purpose: This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between motivation and attitudes of students towards physics subjects in high school. Method: The type of research used is quantitative descriptive with correlational design. The data used by researchers were in the form of questionnaires/motivational questionnaires and…

Professional Development in the field of education has undergone several shifts in focus. Currently, teacher content knowledge and the ability to disseminate this knowledge is the focus in professional learning communities. The importance of creating a thriving STEM workforce in the United States has been promoted for the last decade. Studies have…

This study aims to identify how student teachers were impacted by an interest-driven challenge-based instructional design of an Educational Technology course over three semesters. The instructional design of this course was foregrounded by the Interest-Driven Creator Theory, anchoring on the two out of three concepts, namely Interest and Creation.…

The smartphone is perhaps the most influential device in modern society. Research has indicated students perceived that using smartphones in the classroom aided learning. However, most American high schools ban students from using phones in the classroom. Previous research supports the idea that advanced smartphone applications in student-centered…

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of student agency when applied to learning across "The New Zealand Curriculum" (Ministry of Education, 2007). To explore agency the author presents and describes a range of teaching pedagogies that are based on principles of intrinsic motivation. The author describes, with examples,…

The interest-driven creator (IDC) theory is being developed as a group endeavor by Asian researchers to articulate a holistic learning design theory for future education in Asia. The theory hypothesizes that students, driven by "interest", can be engaged in the "creation" of knowledge (generating ideas and artifacts). By…

In this article, I discuss the potential uses of the Department of Labor-sponsored Occupational Information Network (O*NET) in the classroom context. O*NET is a free, publicly available resource that provides an array of occupation-specific information, such as relevant tasks, knowledge, skills, abilities, and salary information. Tools such as the…

The world has seen growth in the availability of mobile devices, and the use of these devices is gradually being implemented in the post-secondary environment. Unfortunately, although there is a growing body of data on the use of mobile devices by post-secondary students in general, there is little information available on the ownership and use of…

Although interest development is often conceptualized as a process that occurs within an individual, interest can be developed through various social mechanisms. Messages that suggest that one is or is not welcome within a context may serve to bolster or attenuate interest in those contexts. In a sample of first semester freshmen undergraduate…

To craft engaging nonfiction prose, young writers should focus on a specific idea or concept of interest and use acclaimed children's books as mentor texts to help them understand options for developing their ideas. In this article, the authors provide examples of high-quality children's nonfiction for exploring various formats and text structures…

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in mathematics interest. In a sample of middle school students (N = 366), we examined mathematics interest as a trait (i.e., individual interest) and as a current state (i.e., situational interest) during a learning activity in mathematics. Assessment of perceived competence,…

There is an established positive relationship between learning that creates a deep understanding in academic content and the development of interest in that content. Recent advances in learning sciences and interest development research have also emphasized the importance of social supports and interaction and the need for personalization during…