Classroom teaching is a life-practice in which both teacher and pupils engage and bring in their authentic and living experiences. Classroom teaching should be seen as a period of life-experience that is a meaningful component of the lives of both teachers and students. However, this is not how teaching is seen in most pedagogical and educational…

As a Methods Professor in a Research I institution in the Midwest and the largest education program in its respective state, I faced a crisis after ten years in higher education. The concern I faced was whether or not the repertoire I taught my students was appropriate and meaningful in their training. While staying abreast of current research and…

Every class has a first day, yet many professors only read the syllabus to students rather than more intentionally leveraging the day to set up understandings that enhance learning and classroom management. Logic, experience, and research indicate that it is not just content expertise that matters to student experience and learning: it is also the…

This article recounts our efforts as three critical teacher educators to respond to the postelection aftermath at an Hispanic-serving institution by organizing a conference aimed at re(engaging) our students in the kinds of critical conversations we deem essential to the profession. By considering the ways in which neoliberal ideology has shaped…

In their article "Mindfulness and discussing 'thorny' issues in the classroom" Konstantinos Alexakos et al. ("Cult Stud Sci Educ," 2016. doi: 10.1007/s11422-015-9718-0) describe "thorny" issues as "difficult topics to discuss because they are more personal to some perhaps even cause pain and violence." As…

This article follows one year in the life of one of the authors of this article, Eto--the year she was a graduate student in the M.Ed. program and concurrently was teaching in a second grade elementary school. Addressing her subjective emergence along the intertwining experiences in two different contexts: it explores her conversations with her…

Whenever the author explains the brain to her second-grade students, the look on their faces is one of simultaneous fascination and relief. What caught her off guard was the relief. In retrospect, it makes pure sense. Of course it was a relief for them to realize that they could affect their brains and its abilities--that nothing was set in stone.…

Edutainment, while seemingly a new and trending idea, is quite simply the combination of education and entertainment, or improving learning by making it more engaging. What began as a way to teach children concepts in a fun way (e.g., School House Rock) has evolved into an integration of technology, design, and academics (e.g., TED talks).…

Even though previous research points to the significance of kindergarten teachers' practices which consider the nature of children and how they learn, there is still limited research regarding how learning activities impact children's development. To address this gap in literature, a qualitative multi-case study into teachers' perceptions of…

In prior studies, we examined Collective Classroom Efficacy (CCE) through the role of teacher and through the voices of students in a diverse classroom developing CCE. One participant exhibited an element of hope that added to her learning experience. Through Lara's telling case, we illustrate how she accomplished her goals through interactions…

The following article presents a small-scale qualitative study in which the student learning experiences from service user and carer (SUAC) involvement in social work, mental health nursing and social welfare courses at an English university were evaluated for any effects on student perceptions, knowledge, skills and practice. Using focus group…

The authors examine factors influencing student active learning and the ensuing class learning experience in the context of applying technologies in the classroom. The results suggest that the psychological benefit directly and indirectly influences class learning experience. In addition, the functional benefit only indirectly influences class…

Learning is related to the environment created for the learning experience. This environment is often highly routinized and involves a certain social structure, but in entrepreneurship education, such routinization and structure may actually counteract the learning goals. This article investigates how classroom routines and rituals impact on…

This article reports on a mixed-method research study into situated motivational conditions available for the English language (L2) pedagogy at a university in Saudi Arabia. The current study evaluated the L2 Learning Experience of the students by focusing on the key contextual factors that included teachers' pedagogical practices, group dynamics…

There is a breadth of psychological research that points to potential cognitive benefits of game play. Games engage and motivate learners while promoting mastery of skills and content knowledge. Further, thoughtfully applying gaming elements and structures to classroom environments, an approach called gamification, has the potential to optimize…