Researchers invested in K-12 education struggle not just to enhance pedagogy, curriculum, and student engagement, but also to harness the power of technology in ways that will optimize learning. Online learning platforms offer a powerful environment for educational research at scale. The present work details the creation of an automated system…

The policy intent of the New Zealand Ministry of Education to develop innovative learning environments (ILEs) is underpinned by the belief that changing the physical environment will change pedagogy by enabling collaborative teaching and learning (Benade, 2017b). This policy intent is driven by the pressure to prepare students with '21st-century…

This activity report describes two cases of Language teaching for degree students in the University of Oulu with new pedagogical approaches aiming towards authentic working life skills. Co-creation, collaborative learning and cooperation across borders are the building blocks for these innovative language teaching projects. Case 1 describes…

Purpose: Early Achievements for Education Settings (EA-ES) is a teacher-implemented naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) targeting core social communication impairments. The purpose of this pilot randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) was to examine promise of efficacy of this…

Task-based language assessment (TBLA) is a way of providing information about language learning in authentic settings. Not only does it present language learners with a meaningful and embedded context of assessment but also promotes communication in the target language. Within the framework of TBLA, this study aims to integrate the 4th grade…

The purpose of this study was to explore award-winning instructors' insights on elements of their course design that were award-winning and the differences between expert and novice online instructors. Interviews were conducted with eight award-winning online faculty members from across the United States who had received online teaching awards…

In this paper, we describe the use of ePortfolios at a public, land-grant university and document how the ePortfolio has been used to develop more authentic learning experiences. We discuss the best practices for ePortfolios and its varied use as a teaching and learning tool. In addition, we discuss the challenges of implementing ePortfolios. For…

Educational simulations provide students authentic contexts. These authentic contexts require situated and complex real-world arguments. Such writing scenarios help students recognize why there are often multiple interpretations of evidence, who their audience is, what they want, and what kind of genre is needed. Playable Case Studies help…

Learner-centered education has the potential to meet the needs of individual students and better prepare them for a rapidly changing global world. However, it can be a challenging task to implement learner-centered education in the current education system which was designed for sorting rather than learning. Although an increasing number of…

The past decade has been marked by a shift toward practice-based approaches in teacher education. Rehearsal has become an important dialogic strategy for encouraging candidate reflection as they work toward deconstructing and enacting high leverage practices (HLPs) during their preparation. Despite the frequent reference to rehearsals in the…

This paper describes the design principles and implementation of a novel approach for a K--12 teacher professional development (PD) program. The approach integrates training focused on development of model eliciting activities (MEAs) within authentic engineering design tasks, collaborative 3D model design and fabrication, and inspirational site…

Preparing lifelong, world-ready German learners means German language instructors must intentionally incorporate globalized themes and tasks into the high school German curriculum. In 2010, the College Board redesigned the AP German Language and Culture Exam to meet these needs. The new exam encompasses six course themes and requires students to…

This article introduces the fifty states project, a year-long study of the United States that uses crowd sourcing to bring authentic materials into the social studies classroom. The project started five years ago, when author Kelly McPherson decided that she wanted to have a care package sent from all 50 states to help students learn about the…

Implementation of reform curricula requires teachers to adopt new approaches to teaching. Research has provided promising results about the influence of educative curriculum on teachers' learning and instruction. However, this approach generally focuses on teachers as isolated learners. Using a design-based research approach, the authors developed…

Data are becoming increasingly important in science and society, and thus data literacy is a vital asset to students as they prepare for careers in and outside science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and go on to lead productive lives. In this paper, we discuss why the strongest learning experiences surrounding data literacy may arise…