Differential equations are an important mathematical concept used to model processes in many disciplines. However, the literature shows that students experience many difficulties when studying this topic. We investigate the effect of using context while teaching differential equations on engineering students' ability to construct and interpret…

In the face of the global sustainability crisis, schools and teachers are called on to transform education and implement educational innovations to strengthen sustainability education. One of these innovations is 'open schooling': educational practices that involve students in identifying, exploring, and tackling real-world sustainability problems…

Design Thinking (DT) is not merely a well-known design methodology but also an entire mindset towards solving complex societal problems in an innovative way. Its popularity in diverse disciplines beyond design, is due to its relation with the development of key 21st-century skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and…

To improve the teaching and learning materials for a curriculum it is important to incorporate the findings from educational research. In light of this, we present creative exercises and experiments to elicit, confront and resolve misconceptions in geometrical optics. Since ray diagrams can be both the cause and the solution for many…

This paper presents "the DataBuzz Project." "DataBuzz" is a high-tech, mobile educational lab, which is housed in a 13-meter electric bus. Its specific goal is to increase the data literacy of different segments of society in the Brussels region through inclusive and participatory games and workshops. In this paper, we will…

Prior to the recycling process, raising awareness of plastic waste impact, e.g., polluting oceans worldwide, is undoubtedly a first attempt to tackle this pandemic environmental issue. With this in mind, the presented practical session is an effort to entice an interdisciplinary audience of science undergraduates toward a sustainable future. The…

We investigated the effect of emphasising the realistic modelling complexity in text or in the accompanying picture on the solution of P-items, in relation to pupils' grade. 290 pupils from the 5th and 6th grade of various elementary schools in Flanders (Belgium) made a paper-and-pencil task with 7 word problems that are problematic from a…

Recent studies have indicated, particularly in the European context, that students' mathematical successes on international tests of student achievement may not be attributable to the quality of classroom instruction, although, as is shown, this is unlikely to be the case in Flanders, the autonomous Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Flemish…

This research analyzed how fractions are taught in the fourth grade of elementary school in Flanders. Analysis centered on the presence of five features of instruction recommended by research on teaching and learning fractions (i.e., multiple solution pathways, linking representations, estimation and justification of the solution, collaboration,…

This study tested and integrated the effects of an inquiry-based didactic method for preschool science in a real practical classroom setting. Four preschool classrooms participated in the experiment (N= 57) and the children were 4-6 years old. In order to assess children's attention for causal events and their understanding at the level of…

Branches of science and technical/engineering study have for a long time been the less favoured disciplines and students have not been interested in studying them. Informatics/computer education, based on its character, belongs to these disciplines, but on the contrary it belongs rather to the group of popular school subjects. The paper presents…

Introduction: A way to find out how scientific thinking in children develops is to focus on the processes that are involved. As such, scientific thinking can be seen as a particular form of problem solving in which the problem solver selects a strategy from the space of possible experiments that can reveal the cause of an event. Notwithstanding…

The implementation of authentic learning elements at education institutions in five countries, eight online courses in total, is examined in this paper. The International Virtual Benchmarking Project (2009-2010) applied the elements of authentic learning developed by Herrington and Oliver (2000) as criteria to evaluate authenticity. Twelve…

This contribution reports about a seven-month long video-based study in two regular Flemish sixth-grade mathematics classrooms. The focus is on teachers' approaches towards problem solving. In our analysis we distinguished between a paradigmatic-oriented (focus on the mathematical structure) and a narrative-oriented (focus on the contextual…

Symbolic circuit analysis is a cornerstone of electrical engineering education. Solving a suitable set of selected problems is essential to developing professional skills in the field. A new method is presented for automatic validation of circuit equations representing a student's intermediate steps in the solving process. Providing this immediate…