In this classroom activity, students consider geographic context--features like mountains, rainforest, and rivers--in order to assess their influence on transport mode selection, speed, weight limit, and cost. Cost of transport, in turn, has significant effects on the local economy. Students will learn that people in a place must import anything…

A common response from teachers when involved for the first time with the P4C program is related to their lack of background in philosophy. In the current use of the P4C educational approach, most, if not all teacher guides --those who offer training courses to other teachers in preparing them to facilitate philosophical inquiry in their…

Real-world safety case studies provide concrete examples of episodes that can be both instructive and memorable for students. We describe here a framework for teaching safety case studies using the RAMP risk management approach. Structured templates guide students to Recognize the hazards present, Assess the associated risks, and consider what…

Estella Lewis's handbook for teachers, "Teaching History in Secondary Schools," published in 1960, is examined to reflect upon the teaching of history in the UK during the postwar period, a text that addresses the "problem" of teaching history to "non-academic" children attending secondary modern schools. Lewis's…

In this article, we focus on pairing instructional approaches with a strong evidence base in math with evidence-based practices for students with extensive support needs. To do so we draw on two sources. We use the 2021 Practice Guide from the Institution for Education Sciences (Fuchs et al., 2021). In addition, we use identified evidence-based…

Before and during the era when mass elementary schooling took off, children populated classrooms in many roles and not only as learners. The traditional teaching situation was actually full of children in roles as instructors, inspectors, and helpers, among others. In this contribution, the dichotomisation of expected classroom roles, being a…

This article describes Ulrich Kortenkamp's Place Value Chart app and the accompanying teacher guide developed by the members of an international research team led by regular contributor Kevin Larkin.

Inspired by real-life events, this case describes the start of a seemingly solid working relationship between two elementary campus administrators and its demise as the result of inadequate communication and distrust. Initially, these two leaders benefit from differing supervision styles, but these differences eventually lead to increased tension…

"Learning in the Primary Years" is intended to support teachers in nurturing the hearts and minds of young children from Kindergarten through Grade 3, fostering a sense of wonder and encouraging endless curiosity. It is also intended to be relevant, inspirational, and informative and provides connections with the British Columbia Early…

PhysPort (www.physport.org) has become the go-to place for physics educators to learn to apply research-­based teaching and assessment in their classrooms. Usage (defined as the total number of visits) has doubled every two years since the site was released in 2011, and 20% of all U.S. physics faculty and 7% of U.S. high school physics teachers…

For over 50 years, science educators have been calling for increased opportunities for students to engage with science in creative manners, but teachers are still reliant on packaged materials that promote single and 'correct' responses with cookbook approaches. This article suggests five strategies that teachers can use to enhance constructed…

By combining linguistic analysis with metaphors for mediating between a body of knowledge and teaching practice, we exemplify curriculum developers' voices in teacher guides. We discuss two types of voices, that of the Expert, who talks through the teacher and restricts the pedagogical agency of the teacher, and that of the Philosopher, who speaks…

When a newcomer arrives, classroom teachers may wonder what to do. This article provides seven practical tips for getting started with a newcomer, nurturing healthy relationships, and facilitating learning experiences. Teachers can ease the transition for newcomers by attempting to perceive situations from the student's perspective. Awareness of…

Peer instruction, a form of active learning, is generally defined as an opportunity for peers to discuss ideas or to share answers to questions in an in-class environment, where they also have opportunities for further interactions with their instructor. When implementing peer instruction, instructors have many choices to make about group design,…

The "Framework" and NGSS bring to the forefront the role of language in doing science and in learning from doing science. Yet, most existing science assessments for elementary learners do not integrate or attend to aspects of scientific language and literacy that are essential components of science proficiency. Accordingly, there is a…