School districts that have adopted the 3Ls™ approach to provide rigorous instruction for English learners (ELs) have, invariably, had to make a case for what this approach offers, how it reflects best practices in English language development (ELD) instruction, and how it meets the needs of English learners. They have also had to make explicit…

Increasing student achievement is a fundamental concern for many school districts and teachers. Providing students with engaging, blended STEM educational experiences may help them understand how scientists and engineers solve problems. The purpose of this article is to share teaching strategies and student activities that will not only increase…

This paper describes instructional choices used by two high school teachers to engage students in the research process. Working with diverse learners in large urban high schools, the teachers used different approaches to support students' through the research process. The teachers' intentional teaching helped to engage students through structured…

Being a teacher is much more that delivering contents in the classroom. It implies setting standard behaviors as well as showing ways to work. In one word, teachers are an example in the classroom. The implementation of their way to teach will be considered as good or bad teaching by their own students for many years. Likewise, the way they use…

Gamification is an important movement in business management, but also in higher education. Projects like the GradeCraft LMS, funded at $1.8 million dollars at U of M, demonstrate that designing student experience in learning is a top priority for major educational institutions. Considering enrollment limitations and changes in population…

Open Badges are digital representations of achievements or skills which describe the framework, significance, and outcomes of a learning procedure based on specific criteria. The "Open Badges' collection" can be used by its holder as a virtual CV of skills and qualifications. The practice of development, issue, and use of badges is…

In this design case, we describe our work to develop a gameful learning design for use in an introductory, undergraduate biology laboratory course for science majors. Our design team included three university-based mathematics and science educators and a biologist responsible for the management of curriculum and instruction in the course under…

Creative book design connects learning in visual arts and language arts. Explore the benefits of bookmaking and specific steps to create a variety of book formats with children. Examples of imaginative books, such as accordion, flip, paper bag, and pop-up, are shared.

In general, physical activity subsides for females after high school. Researchers have found that women experience unique barriers to remaining physically active during their college years. Obstacles such as social anxiety, lack of social support, and life balance have been cited as challenges for women in relation to maintaining consistent…

In 2010, more than 40 states adopted the Common Core State Standards. Initially, the standards were quickly and easily embraced, but over the past year the standards have become enmeshed in various controversies, raising many questions about how the standards were written and what they include. This article attempts to provide authoritative…

This issue in the "Connect" series is a field report that discusses how a student's personal competencies--cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and social/emotional--propel learning and other forms of goal attainment. These personal competencies are personal to the individual in their shape, size, and effect, but they are enhanced by…

The best learning outcomes are rarely achieved without motivating the learner, and in this regard, active teaching and learning methods have been proven useful. Here, we introduce the "learn and innovate" strategy to enhance the students' interest, conceptual understanding, and deep learning under full guiding instructions. Moreover, by…

The author is responsible for teaching reading classes and overseeing the reading curriculum at an intensive English program in the United States. The institution strives to make reading fluency a priority in the classroom, but after conducting a basic overview of the literature on the topic, the author realized that the approach could be improved…

Keeping students engaged in the curriculum is extremely important when attempting to close the achievement gap for students with and at risk for disabilities. This is particularly important for students with learning disabilities or behavior disorders. This article discusses the use of applications (apps) for mobile technologies that may be used…

This article illustrates how mathematics teachers can develop design-focused projects, related to project-based learning, to motivate secondary mathematics students. With first-hand experience as a secondary mathematics teacher, I provide a series of steps related to the engineering design process, which are helpful to teachers in developing…