The current structure of formal education makes it difficult for teachers and students to hold meaningful conversations to support high-school youth's meaning-making of critical social-justice issues. This paper presents data on three high-school youth's knowledge and experiences with social justice issues during the pandemic. Specifically, the…

This is a story of becoming. In this creative non-fiction essay, I share a case study of an informal science program for high school aged youth that took place over 5-weeks one summer in an urban park in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. I conducted observations, interviews, and artifact analysis to explore how youth environmental interest and identity…

This article presents an exploratory study examining the importance that students attribute to pedagogical strategies focused on bridging learning in-and-out of school. The aim is twofold: to analyse students' views of such strategies in different types of school (personalised learning--PL--and mirror schools), and to investigate whether different…

Purpose: Language learning is often conceptualized as a cognitive, psycholinguistic or pedagogical process confined to formal classroom contexts. Scant attention is paid to the autonomy of young learners in out-of-class situations. Methodology: Using an emic approach, this study attempts to fill the research gap by analyzing the visual and verbal…

In recent years, out-of-school learning has become more and more important, thus creating new learning environments for students. Out-of-school learning enables students to discover new information both by having fun and by experiencing. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the perceptions of secondary school students about…

Based on Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory, this study investigates how Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE; consisting of "teacher appreciation, personal enjoyment," and "social enjoyment") mediates the relationship between Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) and EFL secondary students' willingness to…

Electronic textiles (e-textiles) weave computational and electronic components into fabric, enabling students to design and build fabric-based projects that interact with their surroundings. This meshing of physical hardware and virtual software can be difficult for students to untangle when debugging. Is an LED failing to light up because of an…

Teachers in Vietnam need professional learning in order to meet the national requirements of comprehensive educational reform. Teacher professional development encompasses all forms of continuous education for educators. Teacher professional learning is a continual process that begins with schools determining the educational outcomes that are…

Out of school informal learning environments provide an excellent experience for students to develop scientific curiosity and critical thinking skills. Currently, there is a range of methods available for supporting STEM learning. As schools focus on college and career readiness, while giving high school students opportunities to take college…

Providing opportunities for students to express ideas in their own words is key to promoting authentic disciplinary engagement and robust conceptual understanding. In this article, we discuss our experiences and observations related to students' informal vocabulary in the context of a middle school probability unit. We noticed that students'…

Doctors and teachers in their first year of practice face steep learning curves and increased stress, which can induce poor mental health, burnout and attrition. Informal workplace support from colleagues can help smooth transitions and aid professional development. A three-phase comparative research design was used to explore who provides…

In this paper we consider the issue of formality in learning. Both formal and informal learning appear to be well-defined in educational discourse, in contrast with non-formal learning which is less clearly articulated. This lack of clarity around non-formal learning has consequences for its recognition by teachers and learners. To contribute to…

Enrollment in high school physics across the United States of America is notably lower than in other scientific disciplines. Given that physics serves as a prerequisite for admission into many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degree programs, the lack of completion of this course at the high school level can significantly…

Purpose: This research paper aims to explore how secondary school-aged business owners utilise social media to engage in informal learning. The authors make use of the concept of a self-directed experiential learning cycle to empirically explore adolescents' entrepreneurial learning processes without formal guidance or curriculum.…

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive effects of epistemological beliefs about science and informal reading of scientific texts on students' future-oriented optimism on the issue of climate change. Future-oriented climate change optimism is defined as encompassing "hope" and "anticipation" about the climate…