Scientific American discusses why, when it comes to education, experience and degrees don’t matter in the classroom nearly so much as the mastery of science and math–”and some plain old smarts.”
A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age
January 24, 2013EdSurge discusses a Bill of Rights and Principles, newly developed by a group of people passionate about learning, serving today’s students, and using every available tool to respond better to the needs of students in a global, interactive, digitally connected world....
Digital Content: What Does the Future Hold for Education Systems?
January 23, 2013GETideas.org hosted this GooglePlus hangout on the future of digital content. The online discussion featured a panel of education experts, including Nicole Allen, affordable-textbooks advocate, Student PIRGS; Una Daly, communication college outreach director, OpenCourseWare Consortium; and Cable Green, director of global...
Explaining Inequalities in School Achievement: A Realist Analysis
January 22, 2013In Explaining Inequalities in School Achievement, author Roy Nash argues that a realist framework for the sociological explanation of educational group differences can, and must be, constructed. A move to such an explanatory framework will allow society to take into account the...
Education 3.0: Seven Steps to Better Schools
January 14, 2013In Education 3.0: Seven Steps to Better Schools, renowned educator and technology expert Jim Lengel provides a refreshing and hopeful picture of what schools should look like, including a groundbreaking seven-step process for envisioning and building them that draws on the...
-
July 12, 2012In an ongoing study, RAND researchers are evaluating the effectiveness of Carnegie Learning’s Cognitive Tutor Algebra I (CTAI) curriculum, a technology-based curriculum that combines classroom instruction with individualized instruction by a computer-based tutor. While the effectiveness of the curriculum in raising student achievement is the main focus of the study, the affordability of the curriculum is another factor that districts may wish to consider in deciding whether to adopt it;…
-
July 6, 2012SparkTruck is an educational build-mobile, traversing the U.S. to spread the fun of hands-on STEM learning, encouraging kids to find their inner maker. The project began as SparkLab, a group of Stanford d.school students passionate about making, education, and technology. As part of a year-long thesis project, the group talked with teachers, students, and other experts about hands-on learning. When the team discovered that many schools, due to tight budgets and…
-
Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Issues, Reflections, and Ways ForwardJuly 6, 2012How can curriculum integration of school science with the related disciplines of technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enhance students’ skills and their ability to link what they learn in school with the world outside the classroom? Featuring actual case studies of teachers’ attempts to integrate their curriculum, their reasons for doing so, how they did it, and their reflections on the outcomes, Integrating STEM, editing by Leonie Rennie, Grady Venville, and…
-
July 5, 2012Steve Isaacs, a technology instructor at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey (U.S.), shares how he integrates video-game design and development into his 7th-grade curriculum. Using game-design programs such as Gamestar Mechanic and Gamemaker enable this teacher to embed essential programming skills into a unit of study that also has an authentic purpose: His students are creating games for the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge. This…
-
June 26, 2012Paul Andersen has been teaching science in Montana (U.S.) for the last 18 years. In this TEDxBozeman video, he explains how he is using elements of game design to improve learning in his AP Biology classroom. Paul’s science videos have been viewed millions of times by students around the world. He was the 2011 Montana Teacher of the Year, and he is currently a science teacher at Bozeman High School.
-
June 25, 2012KQED MindShift cites evidence that suggests that focusing on the spatial properties of objects can help children hone their spatial thinking skills. As researchers note, spatial thinking skills are an important predictor of academic achievement and professional success in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
-
June 19, 2012This report from the U.S. Department of Education’s IES National Center for Education Statistics presents results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) at grades 4, 8, and 12 for hands-on and interactive computer tasks from the 2009 science assessment. Interactive computer and hands-on tasks were designed to assess how well students can perform scientific investigations, draw valid conclusions, and explain their results. As a part of the 2009 science…
