Recognising critical reasoning and problem-solving as one of the key skills for twenty-first century citizenship, various types of problem contexts have been practiced in science classrooms to enhance students' understandings and use of evidence-based thinking and justification. Good problems need to allow students to adapt and evaluate the…

"Building Computational Thinkers," a three-year research study, explored how educators and designers can most effectively support the development of computational thinking capacity, and how these learning experiences could be customized to meet the needs of different learners. This research study focused on three specific exhibit design…

This paper analyses the tasks allotted to students, featuring two thematic units in the 6th grade Geography textbook published in 2018 by the Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing House Ltd., Bucharest and used in the schools in Romania during the 2018-2019 school year. After a brief analysis of the textbook and its lesson structure, we studied the…

In this article, we discuss the approach adopted within the Vanderbilt University Learning Disabilities Innovation Hub, which focuses on students with higher-order comorbidity: students with concurrent difficulty with reading comprehension and word-problem solving. The aim of the Hub's Research Project is to test what we refer to as the…

Many teachers' experiences in problem-based classrooms are limited, therefore, mathematics teacher educators face a significant challenge when trying to inspire in-service teachers (ISTs) to teach through problem solving. To address this challenge, the professor in a mathematics education course designed and implemented an instructional model…

Maps are an increasingly used source of information and it is therefore essential to develop map skills in students. A fundamental factor affecting the choice of map skills and the way they are developed is the teacher and his/her concept of map work. Based on the results of a survey and semi-structured interviews among Czech teachers, this study…

Self-efficacy represents an individual's belief that he or she can perform a particular task in a given domain. It is a strong predictor for performance and persistence in STEM education. Research shows that there is a large and persistent gender gap in student self-efficacy in STEM academic disciplines. In some cases, active teaching strategies…

The purpose of the current study is to determine pre-service teachers' opinions about 21st century learner and teacher skills. The study group of the current research is comprised of 391 senior students from an education faculty. As the data collection tool, the 21st century Learner Skills Use Questionnaire and 21st Century Teacher Skills Use…

Geometry students have few opportunities to apply geometric concepts and solve geometry problems in authentic contexts. We developed a Ubiquitous Geometry (UG) system to teach geometry to elementary students by using it to measure common objects in authentic contexts. The instant study investigates the effects of UG on student geometry estimation…

Students learning the skills of science benefit from opportunities to move between the scientific problems and questions they confront and the mathematical tools available to answer the questions and solve the problems. Indeed, students learn science best when they are actively engaged in pursuing answers to authentic and relevant questions. We…

This study tested the hypothesis that exploratory learning, with and without analogous problems, would improve students' ability to make connections between conceptually-related topics. In this randomized experiment, undergraduates in introductory physics (N = 171) studied a new topic under three different instructional conditions. Order and type…

Too often, professional development (PD) sessions consist of little more than delivering lists of things teachers should know and should be doing. There is little to no follow up. There are few opportunities to think about how to adapt and apply the learning to fit your own classroom context, or to try it out and compare outcomes with fellow…

School leadership is broadly acknowledged to be the lynchpin for school success. Yet, amongst the countless demands that school leaders face, making wise leadership choices is increasingly challenging. On what should leaders focus their attention and how should they prioritize their improvement efforts? How can they identify, understand, and make…

Classroom instructional quality is seen as crucial to student learning. Of particular interest is the interpretation and enactment of the intended mathematics curriculum in Singapore schools by experienced mathematics teachers towards quality learning outcomes. This paper discusses the findings from the study which investigate the instructional…

Learning, development, and response to instruction often involve changes in the strategies that learners use to solve problems. In this chapter, our focus is on mathematical problem solving in both children and adults. We offer a selective review of research on three classes of factors that may influence processes of strategy change in…