This article presents "Be a coach instead of a judge" pedagogy that has resulted in significant improvement in college student learning/performance, highly favorable student comments and better teaching evaluations. This pedagogy inspires students to learn by embracing empathy, enthusiasm, positivity and trust along with other learning…

Author and educator Jason McKenna describes how teaching STEM education in his elementary school changed his classroom and his life, improving his students' and his own approaches to problem solving, collaboration, and general motivation to learn. Offering examples, tried and tested classroom projects, and collaborative strategies, this innovative…

In this article, the author shares the Menu Writing project, designed to promote a meaningful, real-world connection to mathematics with the lives of students. The rationale for developing this project was two-fold: (1) to connect school mathematics to students' lived experiences to encourage and sustain students' interest, motivation, and…

Students become attentive, curious, and passionate about learning when they can see its relevance to their lives and when they're empowered to use that learning to solve problems that matter. Regardless of the subject or grade level you teach, you can infuse your instruction with the meaning students crave by implementing design thinking. Design…

Courses: Communication and Conflict. Objectives: Through the use of a game-based framework, students will build intrinsic motivation to engage with course material and course content, and will engage their critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills in relation to conflict management over the length of the course. A list of…

Intelligence is not fixed. While many of us may not be innately talented in all areas of learning, all of us are capable of learning anything. It is important that teachers help communicate this concept to students and help students to develop this growth mindset. This article first compares growth and fixed mindsets, discussing some of the…

During the author's eighteen-year tenure as a high school mathematics teacher, there has been one question that she has yet to answer: "Why don't students do homework?" On the basis of research, many factors may lead to a student leaving homework undone. A student may lack the drive to complete work out of school. Or a student may choose…

DNA barcoding is increasingly being introduced into biological science educational curricula worldwide. The technique has a number of features that make it ideal for science curricula and particularly for Project-Based Learning (PBL). This report outlines the development of a DNA barcoding project in an Australian TAFE college, which also combined…

In the authors' attempts to incorporate problem solving into their mathematics courses, they have found that student ambition and creativity are often hampered by feelings of risk, as many students are conditioned to value a produced solution over the actual process of building one. Eliminating risk is neither possible nor desired. The challenge,…

Students' success in solving problems involving proportional reasoning is an indication that they have moved beyond additive thinking to multiplicative thinking. However, classroom work indicates that many students do not reason proportionally in many practical contexts. The authors discuss a particular task that reveals students'…

Students are seldom given an authentic experience within school that allows them the opportunity to solve real-life complex engineering design problems that have meaning to their lives and/ or the greater society. They are often confined to learning environments that are limited by the restrictions set by course content for assessment purposes and…

With the introduction of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), teachers must now teach math with an eye on simultaneously meeting the Standards for Mathematical Practice (CCSSI 2010). These Standards "describe varieties of expertise that math educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students" (p. 6). The first Standard, that…

Gaming, an integral part of many students' lives outside school, can provide an engaging platform for focusing students on important disciplinary core concepts as an entry into developing students' understanding of these concepts through science practices. This article highlights how S'cape can be used to support student learning aligned with the…

This guidance report focuses on the teaching of mathematics to pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to mathematics teaching. We have made recommendations where there are research findings that schools can use to make a significant difference to pupils' learning, and have focused on the questions that…

In redesigning the preclinical curriculum and shifting from a discipline-based approach to an organ system-based approach, faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson took the opportunity to restructure the sequence of introductory histology content to make it more engaging and relevant. In this article, the author describes…