In rural, geographically dispersed school districts, access to high-quality face-to-face professional development (PD) is challenging. Our study developed and compared the effectiveness of an online PD for middle-school science teachers working in remote, rural areas of Kansas with an evidence-based traditional face-to-face PD with the goal of…

Students' critical thinking is often researched using quantitative tests designed to measure critical thinking. In contrast, this study qualitatively analyses group and whole-class dialogues in an interdisciplinary SSI project by focusing on students' critical thinking practices. As such, the study provides an in-depth example of an immersion…

With new standards in social science and science, student-centered inquiry drives contemporary geography education. This article introduces and explains the Geo-Inquiry Process. Developed by the National Geographic Society, the Geo-Inquiry Process centers on the fundamental nature of global interconnectedness, the idea that wise decisions at all…

This study evaluated five teachers from a middle school with a history of low-performances and high teacher turnover. This school participated in a reform program, Pay-For-Performance, where they received financial bonuses to increase performances on literacy and mathematics assessments. Additional requirements included participation in workshops,…

Data science is a highly interdisciplinary field that comprises various principles, methodologies, and guidelines for the analysis of data. The creation of appropriate curricula that use computational tools and teaching activities is necessary for building skills and knowledge in data science. However, much of the literature about data science…

In an attempt to respond to the calls for dance educators to explore alternatives to harmful authoritarian teaching practices, we propose that one such route forward is an Activist Approach to teaching, which was originally developed in physical education contexts as a student-centered, inquiry-based approach that attends to issues of embodiment…

The students at the author's alternative, academic-recovery school come from their base schools and at the author's school are able to rewrite their own school stories. Some of that rewriting naturally happens in the library. Many of the students have experiences at multiple schools, but it is not until they come to the author's school that many…

One-to-one laptop initiatives have become prevalent in schools aiming to enhance active learning and assist students in developing twenty-first-century skills. This paper reports on a qualitative investigation of teachers in a junior high school in Northern Israel, who were gradually implementing one-to-one computing. The research reported in this…

Curriculum reforms often fail because teachers are asked to implement approaches to teaching and learning that are contrary to their beliefs about students and how to teach them. Since curriculum reforms are attempts to resolve particular educational problems, failures in implementation produce parallel failures to resolve the problem for which…

Many national reports call for K-12 teachers to increase their content knowledge, expertise in student-centered learning methods, and skills in working with an increasingly diverse student population. Historically, most teacher professional development (PD) has not addressed these multiple challenges. We evaluated two PD models--research…

Professional development (PD) has been widely implemented to shift mathematics instruction practices from teacher-centered (traditional practice) to studentcentered. As such, a study examining mediating factors on the relationship between PD and student-centered instruction is of great importance in enhancing the effectiveness of PD and shifting…

The examination of students' motivation towards lessons is an important aspect of educational studies. The constructivist approach significantly impacts the improvement of students' motivation. The present study aims to examine the use of the 5E learning model with concept maps to support students' motivation and compare the 5E approach and the…

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the adoption of online learning methods worldwide, including in Malaysia. The Ministry of Education (MoE) in Malaysia has recognized the importance of online learning due to the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO). However, the limitations of online learning, such as reduced interaction between…

Design thinking is emerging as a popular student-centric teaching approach in Nepal. However, limited research has been done to understand how teachers feel about using these approaches in their classrooms. In-depth interviews with five design-thinking teachers revealed that cultural context plays a crucial role when new teaching approaches are…

With the rapid development of the Internet and other related technologies, the educational community has come to accept the use of educational technology in the classroom. Its innovation not only transforms teaching techniques but also expands students' channels and resources for learning. This article explores the use of educational technology in…