Globally, fewer students are choosing careers in science. In developing countries like Bangladesh, this attrition is often attributed to limited access to laboratories, lack of qualified science teachers, and limited use of student-centered strategies (SCS). Educators are attempting to design professional development programs to empower teachers…

Case studies of single classrooms and schools have shown promising evidence of learning outcomes associated with action civics and student voice. These findings justify efforts to expand and sustain such opportunities, to ensure greater access for students, and to create a positive feedback loop between youth activism and equity-centered systems…

In this study, I explored how (a) a team-based instructional method rather than a one-teacher-one-classroom, traditional teaching model and (b) an inquiry-based learning approach affected teachers attitudes and self-efficacy for teaching and students attitudes, self-efficacy, engagement, and connections to school. The study was conducted within…

In our interconnected world, what does it mean to teach global environmental issues to young children? Using theoretical foundations from the social justice learning community and child-directed, inquiry-based learning best practices, this practitioner reflection details a seven-week, student-centered, interdisciplinary learning experience…

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of authentically based instruction using the 5E model as the structure for lesson delivery on student emotions and the extent to which the students perceived that the teacher was facilitating mastery goals. Participants were 241 sophomore and junior biology students in three urban high schools in…

We explored the COVID-19 pandemic as a context for learning about the role of science in a global health crisis. In spring 2020, at the beginning of the first pandemic-related lockdown, we worked with a high school teacher to design and implement a unit on human brain and behavior science. The unit guided her 17 students in creating studies that…

Substantial, involved, and expensive efforts to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge and career interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are enthusiastically supported by many scientific, federal, and local organizations. The articulated underlying goals for these efforts include an enhanced public…

Transformative teacher education can support educational experiences which provide the opportunity for pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to contribute towards tackling the significant sustainability issues with which we are faced. It is argued that for professional development programmes to be effective they need to improve…

This investigation explores the critical reflection of two urban high school science teachers as they participate in cogenerative dialogues--weekly discussions with focus groups of students that are held outside of instructional hours and that center on identifying and addressing problem areas of classroom teaching and learning. The study finds…

Drawing on culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and the development of cultural competence, this study explores how teacher learners in a critical inquiry group narrated and discussed their urban field experiences, particularly in regard to equity-oriented literacy education. More specifically, this study demonstrates both the impact that…

This study explores the experiences of six urban middle school students in an authentic science inquiry program. Drawing on data including teaching journal entries, student work folders, and semi-structured focus group interviews of six participants, the findings explore six dimensions of authentic science inquiry, an approach to science inquiry…

Student participation in real-world problems promotes "a sense of their own agency andcollective capacity to alter their neighbourhoods or communities for the better" (Smith, 2007).This paper describes student engagement in a two-week summer workshop conducted in June2016, where they used geospatial technologies and community mapping to…

In the city setting in which this article's investigation took place, high school dropout rates have remained above 50% for better than three decades. This article reports on a photographic inquiry into urban youth's perceptions of the very institution of school, revealing reasons behind the multigenerational school disengagement represented by…

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effects of virtual versus physical manipulation using a simulation-based laboratory activity (SBL) and a microcomputer-based laboratory activity (MBL). Both the SBL and the MBL used computers to collect, graph, and analyze data. A major difference was that the MBL allowed the students to…

Throughout this group of authors' respective experiences as middle school teachers and teacher educators, they have worked with diverse populations of students with varying beliefs about education--students for whom achievement and success are perceived as foregone conclusions, students for whom school is viewed as a pathway to a better life, and…