The aim of this study is to examine upper secondary students' (n = 96) argumentation skills and ability to discuss a controversial issue: the evacuation of Finnish children to Sweden and other Nordic countries because of the war. According to their essays written on the basis of multifaceted and contradictory sources, most of the students were not…

Guided by the social emotional learning framework, this study examined whether early adolescents' social awareness (empathic concern, perspective taking) and self-management (effortful control) would uniquely contribute to early adolescents' subsequent forms of aggression, and whether perceptions of their school climate (friction, cohesion,…

In this article, Jennifer Jones describes how at Pine Street School in New York City, they have dispensed with the traditional industrial model of schooling and are looking ahead to the future. The entire school was designed with optional learning environments. Jones describes innovative elements from varied seating (floor cushions, modular…

In recent decades, Norwegian schools have experienced increased cultural diversification among students. Growing heterogeneity in origin and culture may enhance the risk of student marginalisation, segregation and exclusion. In response to these challenges, this paper examines students' intercultural empathy and, particularly, how schools can…

Although studies examining multidimensional perfectionism among adolescents have increased over the past two decades, most continue to focus on psychological outcomes such as anxiety or depression. The purpose of this study was to examine two social outcomes that may differ among perfectionistic subtypes: "social perspective taking"…

Only a limited number of research studies have investigated how students design educational computer games and its impact on student learning. In addition, most studies on educational game design by students were conducted in the areas of mathematics and science. Using the qualitative case study approach, this study explored how seventh graders…

"Deep reading comprehension" refers to the process required to succeed at tasks defined by the Common Core State Literacy Standards, as well as to achieve proficiency on the more challenging reading tasks in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) framework. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that three…

Word Generation (WG) is a research-based vocabulary program for middle school students designed to teach words through language arts, math, science, and social studies classes. The program consists of weekly units that introduce 5 high-utility target words through brief passages designed to spark active examination and discussion of contemporary…

Historical reasoning competencies play an important role in history education. However, valid and reliable large-scale measurement instruments to assess these competencies are scarce. This study considers two instruments for measuring students' ability to perform historical perspective taking (HPT) as a historical reasoning competency. The…

In 2011, the Finnish National Board of Education assessed the learning outcomes of history with a study whose results raised doubts about the fulfilment of the goals of history education. This article seeks to expand awareness about Finnish adolescents' understanding of historical empathy. The study assessed twenty-two 16-17-year-old high school…

Students' opportunities to learn how to think are embedded in the instructional tasks with which they are invited to engage in the classroom. Prior research has revealed that the selection and use of cognitively demanding tasks does not guarantee high-level student thinking during their enactment. To address this challenge, we designed and…

Observers of teachers' practice in their classrooms have typically been adults: academic researchers analysing professional practice, school executive members assessing teacher quality and colleagues engaged in professional development and school reform initiatives. This paper discusses observations of teachers' practice from a different vantage…

The relationship between reading and empathy was explored. Controlling for GPA and gender, reading variables were hypothesized as related to empathy; the relationship was expected to differ for males and females. For the complete sample, affective components were related to GPA but not reading. Perspective taking was related to reading…

Focused on the teaching and learning argumentative writing in grades 9-12, this important contribution to literacy education research and classroom practice offers a new perspective, a set of principled practices, and case studies of excellent teaching. The case studies illustrate teaching and learning argumentative writing as the construction of…

This article reports from an empirical study on the affordances and constraints for using staged socio-political debates for authentic summative assessment of scientific literacy. The article focuses on conditions for student participation and what purposes emerge in student interaction in a socio-political debate. As part of the research project,…