Decades of research have shown that exclusionary discipline practices are not only ineffective for changing student behavior, they lead to worse social, behavioral, and academic outcomes for students. This article explores the findings from a pilot study of the "Inclusive Skill-Building Learning Approach" (ISLA), an instructional…

Developing the ability to think critically is vital component of real, meaningful teaching and learning. Critical thinking helps us solve problems, make decisions and reach our goals. Thinking is not a passive but an active process. If students' critical thinking skills are activated, for example while writing, very successful results can be…

In recent decades, one important objective in higher education has been developing professionals who can display competences in their specific work fields. Hence, the development of such competences and skills has been a widely discussed, highlighting that the use of active pedagogical initiatives might be the best approach to fulfill this…

A curriculum framework to support the integration of academic content to support students' development of 21st century skills including critical thinking and problems solving skills is notably absent from agricultural education. An integrative agricultural education framework is conceptualized through a review of literature in STEM education to…

In this study, we aim to deepen our understanding of how biology and medicine undergraduate students experience the relationship between teaching and research. Employing a phenomenographic approach, 34 final-year students of a Bachelor in Biological Sciences and a Bachelor of Medicine, from one research-oriented Chilean university, were…

The United States faces a shortage of well-qualified, technically skilled individuals entering manufacturing and energy production fields. Compounding this shortage, employers want graduates to possess technical knowledge foundational for these highly-skilled positions, as well as less tangible 21st century work skills. Technical colleges are…

Reasoning, our ability to solve novel problems, has been shown to improve as a result of learning experiences. However, the underlying mechanisms of change in this high-level cognitive ability are unclear. We hypothesized that possible mechanisms include improvements in the encoding, maintenance, and/or integration of relations among mental…

As times change we need to continually review what our education systems offer and where priorities might lie. The Technology and Knowledge Ages of the twenty-first century have brought about new understandings, new ways of doing things, and an array of new career and workplace opportunities. Employees today are expected to bring more than an…

In some math classrooms, students are taught to follow and memorize procedures to arrive at the correct solution to problems. In this article, author Mike Flynn suggests a way to move beyond answer-getting to true problem solving. He describes an instructional approach called three-act tasks in which students solve an engaging math problem in…

Well-developed, problem-solving skills are essential for any student enrolled in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) course as well as for graduates in the workforce. One of the most essential skills is the ability to monitor one's own progress and understanding while solving a problem. Successful monitoring during the…

The research presented in chapters 2, 3, and 4 in this dissertation uses a sociocultural and sociohistorical lens, particularly around power, authority of knowledge and identity formation, to investigate the complexity of engaging in, supporting, and evaluating high-quality argumentation within a college biochemistry inquiry-oriented classroom.…

Professional development for academics has seen a trend towards social engagement through communities and groups, as reflected by a number of increasingly popular concepts: communities of practice, faculty learning communities, and learning and teaching networks. Despite the potential benefits of such engagement, there is a paucity of research on…

The goal of this study is to determine the effectiveness of mind games played by secondary school sixth grade students as classroom activities in math and grammar courses on their perceived problem-solving skills and achievements. In the quantitative part of the study, the nonequivalent groups pre-test--post-test control group design from…

This reflective narrative explores the voices of two participants in the Early Childhood Professional Mentoring Group (ECPMG), created in response to our graduates' concerns about their lack of support as they entered the field of inclusive early childhood education. Building on their existing relationships with each other, and with us as their…

Clinicians and training programs strive to implement evidence-based practices and manualized treatments with fidelity. However, the constraints of a local setting may limit the extent to which this is possible. In the current study, an adapted model of an evidence-based social-emotional learning small group curriculum, the Incredible Years…