Responsive instruction--or instruction that foregrounds and takes up the disciplinary substance of student thinking--is both a hallmark of recent STEM education reforms and challenging to enact. This kind of instruction may be especially challenging in instructional contexts that mandate or rely on curriculum with set, structured learning…

Student-Question-Based Inquiry (SQBI) represents a form of inquiry where pupils design their research questions, hypotheses, and protocols. The "Savanturiers" program aims at helping teachers overcome their potential apprehension of SQBI by matching hundreds of elementary and middle school teachers with mentors. These mentors are usually…

The study attempted to answer two basic questions of classroom teaching: a. what were the most common teaching practices at the elementary school level? And b. did teachers foster curiosity in children during teaching? Classroom proceedings enfolded various teaching activities that might lead to a knowledge gap in students. 137 primary and middle…

Economically disadvantaged (ECD) students come to classrooms performing below grade level, particularly in reading. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine master educators' identities and practices that contribute to success in literacy development with ECD students. The performance of ECD students compared to more affluent…

Students' ability to build knowledge, and transfer it within and between contexts is crucial to cumulative learning and to academic success. This has long been a concern of higher education research and practice. A central part of this concern for educators is creating the conditions that enable their students' deep learning, as this is an area of…

This paper describes the formation of a circumzenithal arc for the purpose of teaching light and optics. A circumzenithal arc, an optic formation rarely witnessed by people, is formed in this study using a water-filled cylindrical glass illuminated by sunlight. Sunlight refracted at the top and side surfaces of the glass of water is dispersed into…

This study presents a methodology for investigating teacher learning in and from practice based on "discourses" that are in constant flux and transformation. Conceptualizing teacher learning as a frame of meaning based on "knowing" and "doing" discourses, the ideas are illustrated through data collected from a…

Using an observation study in Norwegian lower-secondary school classrooms this paper explores how subject matter and students' real-world experiences are linked within the use of examples in teaching. The theory of "mimetic didactics" claims that giving students the possibility to interpret examples as both subject matter and something…

This article considers the role of early childhood education within these uncertain times of human induced climate change. It draws from feminism and environmental humanities to experiment with different ways of becoming-with the world. By bringing together Donna Haraway's figure of the Modest Witness and Deborah Bird Rose's notion of witnessing,…

The instructional practices of three current classroom teachers who formerly served as Servant Leader Interns (SLIs) in the Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools (CDFFS) Program were examined. Haskell ("Transfer of learning: cognition, instruction, and reasoning." Academic Press, San Diego, 2001) outlined eleven principles of transfer…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of professional development in the use of effective questioning techniques on the perceptions and instructional practices of teachers in an elementary school setting. Participants were surveyed pre- and post- targeted professional development, asking their perceptions on knowledge and use of…

Discussions on the educational potential of school football range from its social acceptance to the pedagogically desirable lessons that can be drawn from it. The aim is to understand the process of institutionalisation in school football and the main formative challenges it entails. An ethnographic multiple case study is presented. The sample…

The pursuit of multiple educational outcomes makes teaching a complex craft subject to potential conflicts and competing commitments. Using a data set in which teachers were randomly assigned to classes paired with videotaped lessons, we both document and unpack such a tradeoff. Upper-elementary teachers who excel at raising students' math test…

With the help of digital media and networking technologies, today's learners are increasingly participating in the consuming, producing, and disseminating of new meanings in various modes such as text, image, sound, video, or all together--particularly in online communities--forming new identities as knowledge producers. By using online…

Recent education reforms including the "Next Generation Science Standards" emphasize integrating engineering into K-12 science instruction. Although prior studies have characterized engineering design (ED) in K-12 settings, no validated protocols attempt to characterize ED integration in secondary science classrooms. The present study…