A comprehensive high school in Bellevue, Washington, embraces problem-based learning as its strategy for improvement. Supported by a federal i3 grant, the school spent five years preparing for a widespread launch of PBL at the school. After several years of implementation, researchers learned that students perform the same or better on…

Teaching is complex; teachers and school leaders crave more meaningful collaborative experiences to make sense of that complexity. However, the structural, cultural, and historical factors involved with schooling impede the extent to which teachers can collaborate. Teachers spend five to six periods of the day teaching classes, largely working in…

Renaissance School is part of a network of Expeditionary Learning (EL) schools that was borne of a collaboration between the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound, USA. The EL model is centered on the Outward Bound ethic of having youth work together to achieve a task. EL schools take an approach to teaching and learning that…

A successful problem-centered program must focus on problem-solving and planning strategies more systematically and intensively than is typical in most classrooms. Teachers can approach problem solving by posing open-ended questions, teaching the steps of thinking, incorporating problem solving into the curriculum, connecting lessons to children's…

Let's Get Real, a competitive program in its 5th year, challenges teams of secondary students (in public, private, and home schools) to solve actual problems posed by corporate co- sponsors. Proposed solutions are presented at corporate headquarters and judged by corporate executives, scientists, and engineers. (MLH)

The tradition of the active mind views knowledge as provisionally constructed by the mind in perpetual interaction with the world. There are no substitutes for students' and teachers' consistent application of intelligence and steady thinking. A problem-based-learning approach to teacher education exemplifies John Dewey's laboratory model.…

Describes the characteristics, benefits, and common elements of place-based education. Identifies five thematic patterns: cultural studies, nature studies, real-world problem solving, internships and entrepreneurial opportunities, and induction into community processes. (Contains 16 references.) (PKP)

An assistant professor approaches students' unconventional research topics (like crystal healing) as ordinary research endeavors, asking students if they want their work to be credible, what academic discipline they plan to use, what research question should be asked, and what resources are necessary to understand the topic. (MLH)

If schools of education are to remain relevant in this era of accountability, they must approach the preparation of school leaders as part of an urgent social justice agenda. At the heart of this agenda is the improvement of access to educational opportunities for all children, a goal to be accomplished through instructional leadership grounded in…