In writing instruction, teachers often struggle with developing engaging and interactive activities given constraints such as large classes and packed teaching schedules. A purposeful and appealing pre-task can energize the writing process and set the context for the subsequent writing task. With this purpose in mind, the author designed the…

Group and team class decision-making activities often focus on demonstrating that "two heads are better than one." Typically, students solve a problem or complete an assessment individually, then in a group. Generally, the group does better and that is what the students learn. However, if that is all such an activity conveys, then a…

This article discusses the virtues of using podcasts in the classroom by focusing on the pedagogical merits of one podcast: StartUp. The StartUp podcast provides a compelling first-person account of the entrepreneurial journey, as told by an award-winning radio journalist. Episodes from the podcast can be used to engage students and improve their…

The most recent Kindergarten Common Core Mathematics State Standards include an emphasis on teaching geometry skills, such as recognizing, describing, naming, and composing shapes. This article provides five effective ideas for teachers of young children as they introduce and teach shapes.

Learners with reading and/or spelling difficulties (RSD) generally also show severe problems in learning EFL. Taking into consideration several observational and interventional studies, this article illustrates some practical and pragmatic means of identifying RSD, and provides possible solutions when addressing these difficulties in ELT…

Background: Physical activity (PA) is important to mental and physical health. Physical education (PE) lessons have the potential to increase daily moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) and reduce sedentary time (SED). We measured MVPA and SED in primary school PE, determined the contribution of PE to daily MVPA and SED, and compared PA on days with and…

This article describes an innovative teaching approach that can offer the changes needed for school improvement. When entering an Education: Basic and Interactive (EBI) classroom, one will see students focused on accomplishing self-guided tasks and eager to move on to the next challenge in their self-paced learning. The EBI Project described here…

In this article, the author describes how the hottest show on Broadway, "Hamilton," teamed up with a nonprofit organization and a major foundation in an attempt to reinvent how American history is taught--and motivate 16-year-olds to interact with primary documents from 240 years ago.

This exploratory study reports on how students activated learner-controlled scaffolding and navigated through sequences of connected problems in a digital learning environment. A design experiment was completed to (re)design, iteratively develop, test, and evaluate a digital version of an instructional unit focusing on binomial distributions and…

The rapid growth of the offer of available educational resources raises the issue of their appropriation by teachers. Although the term appropriation is widely used in mathematics education research, there is no clear conceptualization allowing researchers to understand the processes involved. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap by…

While there exists a sizeable evidence base suggesting nurture groups (NGs) in primary schools are effective in supporting children's social, emotional and behavioural development, there is little exploration into their secondary context applicability, or their impact on our vulnerable youth. This study explores this area using a purposefully…

The author wants her students to see any new mathematics--fractions, negative numbers, algebra--as logical extensions of what they already know. This article describes two students' efforts to make sense of their conflicting interpretations of 1/2 × -6, both of which were compelling and logical to them. It describes how discussion, constructing…

This study investigated the perspectives of seven English authors, on aspects of their geography textbook writing for schools in England, through a questionnaire-based enquiry. This investigation asked about the features that geography textbook authors consider to be the most important when designing student activities, and which criteria they…

This article describes a unit of work framed by a rationale for activating English language learning through arts-based practices that are suitable for preservice teachers who are nonnative speakers of English (seeking certification for teaching English as a second language). Because teachers of English are expected to use language arts to promote…

In the context of the recent presidential election in the United States, this article examines the place of critical pedagogy and liberation theology and its positionality in impacting the moral imperative of resisting a climate of hate and intolerance. Particularly drawing from the work of Peter McLaren, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Paulo Freire and…