Few studies provide conceptual frameworks that help teachers make decisions about the scaffolding they will offer their students in project-based learning (PBL) processes. To address this deficiency, an adaptation of the motivational development self-system model was used and a PBL experience involving high school students who had to create an…

This article provides and reflects on an original lesson plan for engaging high school, undergraduate, or graduate students in learning fundamental concepts of environmental ethics. Implementation of this lesson plan effectively promoted critical analysis, reflection, and communication of environmental ethics issues in a seminar for second-year…

In this paper we describe our investigation of underrepresented high school students' interests, engagement, and experiences in design-based Information and Communications Technology (ICT) summer workshop activities; with the goal of identifying activities, aspects, and/or elements of the program that can be tailored or improved upon to attract,…

The focus of this qualitative study is upon 15 Grade 12 students situated in an English Communications (ECM) classroom in rural Nova Scotia and the impact a daily classroom circle had upon their academic engagement. ECM is intended for students who may require further support to develop their skills as readers, writers, and language users as they…

The tension between teachers' desires to instill independence in students, and students' desires for teachers to provide answers, is a complex one. This article explores a lesson that, with virtually no guidance from the teacher, enhances student independence, engagement, and insight.

The purpose of this research study was to determine how Community Based Instruction (CBI) affects the social skills of middle school students with moderate to severe disabilities. Existing literature is limited in findings related to the influence of CBI on middle school students with moderate to severe disabilities. This qualitative study was…

Mathematics classrooms have reflected little change over the past century, consisting of the learning of inert, disjoint procedures with few connections between mathematics concepts and students' everyday experiences. However, problem posing, that is, the reformatting of existing problems and the generation of new ones, has been promoted by the…

As a result of reforms like the Common Core Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and its framework, science instruction is transitioning from traditional forms of science to reformist curriculum. Classrooms committed to an epistemological approach to science education will have students engaging in a co-construction of…

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 extent to which our students, and indeed we, are manipulated by popular culture and a normative perception of an ideal way to be is an issue of increasing import. The changes we make to our teaching to engage students in this issue must be conducive to meaningful learning and subsequent academic achievement. The changes we make are based on…

In a six-week literature circle unit in a tenth-grade classroom, one group of students discussed Dorothy Allison's novel "Bastard out of Carolina." By criteria frequently used to judge the quality of discussion, this literature circle was successful. However, several key moments are highlighted that point to the limits of literature circles as…

This exploratory study examines how a series of laboratory activities designed using a new instructional model, called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI), influences the ways students participate in scientific argumentation and the quality of the scientific arguments they craft as part of this process. The two outcomes of interest were assessed with a…

This article reports on the construction process of inclusion/exclusion for high school chemistry students in two schools in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. We examined the interactional accomplishment of inclusion/exclusion of four students, two from a private school and two from a public school. The aim of this article…

This study investigates an elective English class, in which students in grades 10-12 collectively read and collaboratively wrote fantasy fiction in four groups. The purpose of the class was to have students consider the choices fantasy and science fictions writers, directors, and video game designers make when creating a fictional world. The…