Informal learning environments such as Natural History Museums can introduce visitors to a variety of topics in evolution by providing accessible representations of concepts like geological time, evolutionary mechanisms, biological diversity, geological time, and fossil dating. Our study examined sixth-grade students' conceptualization of…

In an article written by Matthew Randazzo (2017) titled "Students Shouldn't Live in STEM Deserts," he revealed that a limited number of educational opportunities exist for students to gain essential STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills. This need for more STEM minds is bolstered by a widespread economic shift…

In this article I explore a challenge identified by teachers involved in a recent research project on curriculum integration. Teachers described this challenge as how to balance the need to "cover" "The New Zealand Curriculum" with the need to support student agency. I describe how teachers saw this challenge, and the different…

The study used experimental research design to randomly selected senior high school students in analysing their attitude and achievement in statistics when contextual teaching is implemented. In addition to structured questionnaires, semi-structured interviews with the students were also conducted to provide rich descriptions about learning…

Sensor systems have the potential to make abstract science phenomena concrete for K-12 students. Internet of Things (IoT) sensor systems provide a variety of benefits for modern classrooms, creating the opportunity for global data production, orienting learners to the opportunities and drawbacks of distributed sensor and control systems, and…

This paper introduces a percentage activity based on the context of "Black Friday" discounts. The aim of the study was to reveal the existing and new conceptions of the 7th grade students regarding the topic of percentage calculation. The activity was designed considering the students' prior knowledge in the concept of "Ratio and…

School systems in PK-12 are being challenged to incorporate real-world learning into their curriculum to better prepare students for success after graduation (Karakas-Ozur & Duman, 2019). As high school organizations are beginning to apply authentic learning strategies, there is a gap in knowledge for implementation as much of the research has…

Learning by Evaluating (LbE) is an instructional approach that involves students making comparative judgements of pairs of artifacts, such as student work, portfolios, prototypes, or curated images related to a topic of instruction to enhance critical thinking and decision-making skills. Situated as a primer for learning, the efficacy of LbE stems…

Curriculum strategies on social justice in education often focus on classroom management and technology integration, which may be surface-level approaches. Emerging trends include project-based learning and community partnerships for students to address real-world problems; as such, selected courses employ service-learning as a method of…

In this study, we designed a game-based English as a foreign language (EFL) learning activity for junior high school students for the application of newly learned knowledge to the real world. The learning activity was combined with physical exercises such as walking. Smartwatches were used to help students create learning content during the…

STEM partnerships are popular initiatives but can be challenging to implement in practice. Accordingly, within the context of a nationwide, cross-setting STEM partnership program in Norway -- Lektor2 -- a co-design tool was introduced to support teachers to collaborate with STEM professionals in developing curriculum units involving authentic STEM…

Our world faces a range of environmental problems directly linked to or exacerbated by human actions and choices. Environmental education (EE) is one tool that can create a more environmentally literate citizenry. EE research contains numerous studies examining whether or not EE programs are achieving certain outcomes, yet research on the…

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of authentic investigation activities on the reasoning process of ratio concept which has been regarded as the milestone of mathematics and science teaching. In line with this purpose, the research has been carried out with eight 7th grade students attending a public school located in Central…

Parramatta Marist High School is a school in Western Sydney, New South Wales, that has over 14 years of experience in project-based learning in Stages 4 and 5 (Years 7-10). Over this period, projects have been constantly developed, redeveloped and improved by teachers based on their experience and feedback from their colleagues and their students.…

Authentic pedagogy is a complex enterprise for students and teachers. Planning and developing the instructional procedures and scaffolds for student success is daunting. In addition, the teacher implementing the lesson makes dozens of quick decisions as they attend to student thinking and decide how to respond. These spontaneous decisions can have…