The growing trend of "escape games" in science education instigates debate over their pedagogical value, with researchers calling for more emphasis on theory-based design processes. Thus, the current study's goal was to identify situated learning components that can be associated with educational escape games and to generate a…

This paper examines Bauhaus School (1919-1933) innovation and relevance today. The School is a landmark in the history of design as a discipline and the development of design education. The School was also a workplace, commercialising Bauhaus-designed products. While drawing global interest in its innovations, the School faced resistance in…

Video games' capacity to facilitate complex and interactive modes of engagement has led to their portrayal as particularly effective means for designing authentic and situated learning environments, which overcome the artificial and abstract nature of conventional teacher-centered schooling. Focusing on the intentional use of progressive-oriented…

Advocacy of STEM curricular approaches is based on a concern to engage students in authentic disciplinary and interdisciplinary practices in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines, and the need to promote participation in STEM pathways. The "STEM Academy" professional learning program was developed to…

Balancing the competing demands of research and teaching has long been lamented by academics. The challenges associated with Covid-19 will make this increasingly difficult. An integrated approach to research and teaching, where students are directly engaged in the production of research, may provide a useful strategy to support ongoing research…

We have developed an assessment of authentic problem-solving in chemical engineering, which we used to measure students' problem-solving at the beginning and end of a cornerstone design course. We measured how much problem-solving students learned, and how these students compared with data collected from seniors at the beginning of the capstone…

This article introduces a pedagogical approach in design education referenced as creative authenticity. Creative authenticity is defined as an ongoing process of learning to create through intrinsically motivated, self-aware and self-affirming actions and rationales. The concept is grounded in Constructivist learning theory, Postmodernist views of…

Background: Design problems have long attracted researchers' attention for their potential to provide authentic learning opportunities. While we have methods for supporting students to learn through relatively simple engineering and design tasks, supporting students to address complex problems that they find and frame remains poorly understood.…

This pilot study investigates the way that young students and teachers of a Dutch Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) secondary school subject Research and Design (R&D) reason about the concept of 'model'. The core of the Dutch Technasium secondary school course Research and Design curriculum (R&D is in Dutch called…

Empathy, an unsung, yet critical element of learning, can be strategically interlaced with literacy instruction and engineering design to create a rich and authentic learning experience for students. Integrated STEM education rests on the promise of engaging students and providing deep understandings through the intentional practice of delivering…

Infusing five processes into assignments can help students hone the skills they'll need to address complex problems. The world students will enter is full of complex, unpredictable problems--and students will need sophisticated thinking skills to cope. The authors unpack five thinking processes students need to internalize through opportunities in…

Situated learning could benefit STEAM education because both aim to develop skills that can deal with complex real-life situations. Although ample research has been conducted into situated learning within higher vocational education in general, there exists little research on the implementation of the educational approach in STEAM education…

To integrate digital technologies into the curriculum, teachers must support learners to use digital tools in authentic contexts. Physical computing, which involves the use of small portable electronic devices, provides an opportunity to achieve these goals. This article reports on the initial stages of a design-based research (DBR) project that…

The changing landscape of science and science education has provided an impetus to re-imagine how science can be taught in schools. The dawn of the Big Data era, especially in astronomy, and the notion of "Science as Practice" are some of the developments driving this need for a re-imagination of science education. This current work…

Background: Through the human-centered design process (HCD), students, referred to as learners, can use a personal lens to contextualize engineering concepts and solve real-world problems (Goldman and Kabayadondo 2016). The Ignite program, created by the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies (GWHT) at Duke University, integrates the HCD…