A highly authentic learning setting is likely to trigger positive motivational and emotional reactions due to its emphasis on promoting the acquisition of knowledge that is connected and transferable to real-world phenomena outside the learning environment. However, a high level of authenticity is usually accompanied by a high level of complexity…

The aim of this report is to build a shared understanding of competence by providing clarity around the concept and its implications for educational practice. The authors present an understanding of competence that is research-based, relevant and appropriate for diverse educational contexts. This will help to create stimulating, thoughtful and…

Taken from a larger qualitative study, this article argues that rather than an encompassing uniform definition, rigor, as understood and enacted by social studies teachers, exists on a complicated spectrum. Teacher placement on this spectrum was influenced by teacher life experience, teacher interpretation of student need, pedagogy employed, how…

This paper is about the notion of conflict in the work of John Dewey. Special attention is given to "Democracy and Education" (1916) because of its centennial and its acclaimed status of "magnum opus". After depicting "conflicts as gadflies" that stir thinking--reflection and ingenuity--and relating it to Socrates, in…