In an effort to improve student success and thus retention, the College of Arts & Sciences at a highly selective MidAtlantic private undergraduate university in the United States developed a for-credit course titled "Psychology of Success." The course, grounded in positive psychology, adopts a strengths-based approach. Students who…

Experimental archaeology is a vibrant and fascinating field that offers great opportunities for hands-on student learning in history. Although it is typically taught by archaeologists and anthropologists, it is certainly accessible and easily adapted to history courses. In addition to teaching "Introduction to Experimental Archaeology"…

This study explores social studies teachers' self-reported instruction about teaching the 2020 election in U.S. secondary schools. We analyzed survey responses from 1,723 secondary social studies teachers from 12 states (3 left-leaning, 3 right-leaning, 6 battleground) collected in the weeks after the election, examining self-reported pedagogies,…

Purpose: Many K-12 teachers teach difficult topics as part of their curricula, and discussions of difficult topics are common across grade levels and content areas. As teachers increasingly engage with difficult topics in their classrooms, the need for high-quality professional learning experiences has also grown. In response, the purpose of this…

Providing engaging, rigorous social studies education at the elementary level is a challenge faced by school districts across the country. In K-12 schools nationwide, social studies education is often neglected so that more time can be devoted to ELA and math, both of which have annual standardized tests associated with them that often carry high…

Along with a global mobility of NNESTs around the world (Canagarajah, 1999), there has been an expanding population of NNEST trainees in the U.S. higher education institutions (Park, 2012). This brought an assumption that there will be an increasing number of international college composition teachers in the U.S. college contexts (Ruecker et al.,…

As racial demographics of students in schools are becoming more diverse, the racial demographics of teachers remains predominantly White. Adding to this, many White teachers are unprepared in the skills of racial literacy and lack the ability to address racist power structures within both the curriculum and their teaching practices. The purpose of…

We live in ecological crisis. While understanding the human-made crisis requires scientific expertise, addressing it requires active, informed citizens. Thus, the crisis is a matter for the field of social studies education, the subject area foremost tasked with teaching students to become effective citizens of their many communities. However,…

The author of this article discusses the extensive use and analysis of real-world situations as the core construct on which to build a course in principles of microeconomics. Building on the literature that focuses on current event readings, the goal here is to train students to be able to "do economics." The author details course…

This essay describes the experiences faculty may encounter when teaching tough topics. When professionals are in the position as the individual who cares for, hears about, or witnesses the trauma and suffering of others, they might themselves be at risk for experiencing vicarious stress, or secondary trauma. If ongoing and untreated, this…

There exists a power asymmetry between instructors and students in the physical classroom and other learning spaces which symbolizes the distribution of power in social spaces. Because of the structured power asymmetry in most learning spaces, promoting effective classroom teaching sometimes requires instructors to replace existing hierarchical…

Integrating climate change into environmental education programs and formal science classrooms can be difficult, as the issue remains controversial and highly politicized among the American public. This study proposes that the same cultural values that shape worldview differences and divide public opinion on anthropogenic climate change will…

M. Alison Kibler is Professor of American Studies and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. She has taught "Rights and Representations", a seminar for first year students, focusing on the tension between free speech and equality in American law and politics, for fifteen years. In this article, Kibler…

Socioscientific Issues (SSI) provide a strong framework for engaging students and teachers in meaningful and relevant scientific discourse in the development of functional scientific literacy. However, while most teachers recognize the value of introducing students to SSI, they themselves have limited knowledge of SSI and often lack the confidence…

Purpose: Colleges and universities increasingly have the mandate and motivation to integrate sustainability into their curricula. The purpose of this paper is to share the strategy used at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and provide an evaluation of its success and guidance to others creating similar programs. Design/methodology/approach:…