It is becoming increasingly important for students to go beyond engaging in design by reflecting upon the nature of engineering (NOE) and wrestling with questions such as, "What do engineers do?" and "What is engineering?" This article describes an activity in which middle school students are asked to create a product to help a…

Building from the concept 'sponsors of literacy', the authors revisit three empirical studies to argue for mobilising notions of sponsorship beyond fixed conceptions of individual sponsors and literacy to lifewide perspectives that take into account sponsoring relations across the broader learning lives of youth. The authors take up the…

This article builds on prior work that aims to measure computational learning (CL) during middle school. Since game computational sophistication (GCS) has been used as a proxy for a student's engagement in CL we build on their model to more completely describe the relationship between different types of building blocks of computer games and GCS.…

We share results of a study on the analytic stances of coaches' and teachers' as they annotated key moments from classroom video of the teacher's lessons. In the analysis, emphasis was on the analytic stances of the coaches and how their annotations related to trends in teachers' annotations. Findings indicate differences in how coaches and…

The State of Tennessee transitioned to new science standards. Previous methods for delivering professional development were unable to support teachers in pedagogy, content knowledge, or sustainability during this paradigm shift. As such, a lead teacher model was thoughtfully and intentionally implemented, and delivered professional development for…

This study examined the learning trajectory of five US humanities teachers when navigating learning to teach the difficult history of school desegregation within a context of a six-month inquiry-based professional development. The research questions were: What do teachers frame as problems when teaching difficult histories? How do they…

This study evaluates the Individual Strengths, Collective Power! program in fostering students' use of strengths vocabulary and improving classroom relationships in an inclusive education setting in Switzerland, where students with and without special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) attend school together. The study involved 179…

In this paper, we propose a teaching approach centered on community and care, aimed at fostering a democratic classroom environment. We highlight the communal co-creation of the Rights of the Learner (RoTL) as the foundation for establishing a shared responsibility atmosphere. Our interpretation of the RoTL challenges traditional power dynamics,…

Research indicates teachers feel teaching goal-setting is an effective way to enhance academic engagement. However, teachers ultimately feel unprepared to embed goal-setting instruction into academic content to support active student engagement. Given the importance teachers place on goal-setting skills, there is a need to identify strategies to…

This study documents the inclusive, deliberate, and unintended educational practices in Japan for mathematically gifted students. It also aims to identify various schools' strengths and challenges in improving the mathematics education of these students. Case studies with multisite designs were undertaken in five middle schools selected using…

In a time of social and political unrest and challenge, teaching mindfulness skills to the next generation is a wise investment that will bring positive rewards to all of our futures as we become better able to meet life's challenges. Arnett (2011) said there is a growing awareness of the unique challenges faced by young people in "emerging…

This study aimed to examine the effects of a research-based SSI program on fostering students' understanding of issues and their willingness to act. Twenty-five middle school students voluntarily participated in the program on the issue of artificial food additives over 6 months. The data were collected by means of interviews with the students,…

The overall purpose of the current paper was to examine the social validity perceptions of middle school students and school personnel (i.e., school psychologist, counselors, assistant principal) regarding the importance of effects and appropriateness of an academic, self-regulated learning (SRL) intervention called the Self-Regulation Empowerment…

In language courses, it is important to foster students' systematic thinking and to develop their competence to express, appreciate, criticize and reflect, in particular in such courses as classical Chinese, which aim to develop students' cultural and literature knowledge. Problem posing is a promising strategy to achieve this objective. However,…

It is difficult to motivate learners to seek out and persist at challenging learning tasks where failure is likely. However, in game environments, people seem highly motivated to engage with challenges and respond productively to failure. Many typical game features purportedly enhance intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, which should improve…