Project based learning (PBL) is gaining renewed attention with the current focus on college and career readiness and the performance-based emphases of Common Core State Standards, but only high-quality versions can deliver the beneficial outcomes that schools want for their students. It’s not enough to just “do projects.” Today’s projects need to be rigorous, engaging, and in-depth, and they need to have student voice and choice built in. Such projects require careful planning and pedagogical skill. The authors—leaders at the respected Buck Institute for Education—take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess PBL using a classroom-tested framework. Also included are chapters for school leaders on implementing PBL systemwide and the use of PBL in informal settings. Examples from all grade levels and content areas provide evidence of the powerful effects that PBL can have, including * increased student motivation and preparation for college, careers, and citizenship; * better results on high-stakes tests; * a more satisfying teaching experience; and * new ways for educators to communicate with parents, communities, and the wider world. By successfully implementing PBL, teachers can not only help students meet standards but also greatly improve their instruction and make school a more meaningful place for learning. Both practical and inspirational, this book is an essential guide to creating classrooms and schools where students—and teachers—excel.

It's no secret that in today's complex world, students face unparalleled demands as they prepare for college, careers, and active citizenship. However, those demands won't be met without a fundamental shift from traditional, teacher-centered instruction toward innovative, student-centered teaching and learning. For schools ready to make such a shift, project-based learning (PBL) offers a proven framework to help students be better equipped to tackle future challenges. Project Based Teachers encourage active questioning, curiosity, and peer learning; create learning environments in which every student has a voice; and have a mastery of content but are also comfortable responding to students' questions by saying, "I don’t know. Let's find out together." In this book, Suzie Boss and John Larmer build on the framework for Gold Standard PBL originally presented in Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning and explore the seven practices integral to Project Based Teaching: Build the Culture Design and Plan Align to Standards Manage Activities Assess Student Learning Scaffold Student Learning Engage and Coach For each practice, the authors present a wide range of practical strategies and include teachers' reflections about and suggestions from their classroom experiences. This book and a related series of free videos provide a detailed look at what's happening in PBL classrooms from the perspective of the Project Based Teacher. Let's find out together. A copublication of ASCD and Buck Institute for Education (BIE).

Deep in Thought provides an introduction to intellectual virtues—the personal qualities and character strengths of good thinkers and learners—and outlines a pragmatic approach for teachers to reinforce them in the classroom. With a combination of theoretical expertise and practical experience, philosopher Jason Baehr endorses intellectual virtues as a rich, meaningful way to think about and understand the purpose of education. He makes a persuasive case for prioritizing intellectual virtues in the classroom to facilitate deeper learning, encourage lifelong learning, and enrich teacher practice. Baehr profiles nine key virtues that enable learners to initiate the process of learning, maintain forward momentum, and overcome common obstacles. With engaging anecdotes and concrete examples, he presents a wealth of principles, postures, and practices that educators can employ in promoting essential habits of mind such as curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual courage. Baehr illustrates how opportunities to practice these intellectual habits can be integrated into the classroom in ways that align with current teaching practices. In addition, he shows how educators can adapt these practices to accommodate students’ identities, developmental abilities, and interests. This thought-provoking book supports all educators, especially middle and high school teachers, in teaching for intellectual virtues. Deep in Thought is a philosophical and yet practical guide to one of the most important aims of education: helping students become skilled thinkers and learners.

This updated edition of the bestselling Reinventing Project-Based Learning offers examples of the latest tools, assessment strategies and promising practices poised to shape education in the future. This popular ISTE title follows the arc of a project, providing guided opportunities to direct and reflect educators’ own learning and professional development. This book shows how to design authentic projects that make the most of available and emerging technologies. This new edition: • Provides examples of how to merge personalized learning, flipped classrooms, and PBL for effective teaching and learning. • Includes coverage of computational thinking and coding, demonstrating ways to develop new approaches to solving problems as well as new forms of expression. • Discusses PBL as an equity consideration, with opportunities for personalization and empowerment, addressing issues of social justice and closing the achievement gap. Includes coverage on new trends like augmented and virtual reality; and new and updated Spotlights from educators featured in the first edition and others. • Features deeper focus on Gold Standard and High Quality PBL, the P21 Framework, and ISTE Standards for Students and Educators. With this book, teachers will come to appreciate the importance of problem-finding and problem-posing — thoughtful activity that needs to precede problem solving in any context. The companion jump start guide based on this book is Project-Based Learning: Strategies and Tools for Creating Authentic Experiences.

The Language of Mathematics Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offers mathematics teachers, mathematics education professionals and students a valuable resource in which common terms are defined and expounded upon in short essay format. The shared vocabulary and terminology relating to mathematics teaching and learning, and used by mathematics educators is an essential component of work conducted in the field. The authors provide an overview of more than 100 terms commonly used in mathematics teaching and learning. Each term is defined and is followed by a short overview of the concept under discussion that includes several bibliographic references the reader can use for further investigation. In addition to terms specific to the domain of mathematics education, select key terms common across all fields of education (e.g., curriculum, epistemology, metacognition) are included. The goal for this book is to serve as a resource for those entering the field as they navigate the language and terminology of mathematics education and as an asset for more established professionals who wish to gain additional insights into these ideas.

By designing projects that move students from surface to deep and transfer learning through PBL, they will become confident and competent learners. Discover how to make three shifts essential to improving PBL’s overall effect: Clarity: Students should be clear on what they are expected to learn, where they are in the process, and what next steps they need to take to get there. Challenge: Help students move from surface to deep and transfer learning. Culture: Empower them to use that knowledge to make a difference in theirs and the lives of others.

This book promotes student-centered approaches to the learning process, allowing students to develop skills and competences that traditional, passive learning methods cannot foster. In turn, supporting active learning with digital technology tools creates new possibilities in terms of pedagogical design and implementation. This book addresses the latest research and practice in the use of technology to promote active learning. As such, on the one hand, it focuses on active pedagogical methodologies like problem-based learning, design thinking and agile approaches; on the other, it presents best practice cases on the use of digital environments to support these methodologies. Readers will come to understand and learn to apply active learning methodologies, either by replicating the best practices presented here, or by creating their own methods.

A Primer for Teaching Environmental History is a guide for college and high school teachers who are teaching environmental history for the first time, for experienced teachers who want to reinvigorate their courses, for those who are training future teachers to prepare their own syllabi, and for teachers who want to incorporate environmental history into their world history courses. Emily Wakild and Michelle K. Berry offer design principles for creating syllabi that will help students navigate a wide range of topics, from food, environmental justice, and natural resources to animal-human relations, senses of place, and climate change. In their discussions of learning objectives, assessment, project-based learning, using technology, and syllabus design, Wakild and Berry draw readers into the process of strategically designing courses on environmental history that will challenge students to think critically about one of the most urgent topics of study in the twenty-first century.

A field-tested, classroom-based approach for developing the critical thinking, social-emotional, problem-solving, and discussion skills students need to be good citizens and effective changemakers. We often hear that a key purpose of schooling is to prepare students for informed and active citizenship. But what does this look like in practice? How do teachers pursue this goal amid other pressing priorities, including student mastery of both academic content and social-emotional competencies? Students Taking Action Together, based on a program of the same name developed at Rutgers University, clarifies that the way to prepare young people for life in a democracy is by intentionally rehearsing democratic behaviors in the classroom. This field-tested program ("STAT" for short) is built on five research-backed teaching strategies that work with existing social studies, English language arts, and history curriculum in the upper-elementary, middle, and high school levels. Incorporating these strategies into your lessons is a way to meet students' natural desire to be heard with skill-building that empowers them to * Adhere to norms of civil conversation, even when topics are controversial and emotions are high; * Speak confidently and listen actively; * Engage in respectful debate aimed at understanding issues rather than winning points; * Target communication to different audiences, needs, and contexts; and * Examine problems from many sides, considering potential solutions, drawing up action plans, and evaluating these plans' effectiveness against historical examples. In addition to vignettes that show the five STAT strategies in action, you'll find practical teaching tips and sample STAT lesson plans. For school leaders, there is a road map for schoolwide STAT implementation and guidance on communicating the program's value to stakeholders. Are you ready to help students understand complex content, confront pressing social issues, and engage with the structures of power to advocate for change? This book is for you.

It is acknowledged that today’s teachers are tasked with educating increasingly diverse students as well as with addressing their academic and social-emotional needs. The Stars in the Schoolhouse: Teaching Practices and Approaches that Make a Difference offers a visionary look at teaching skills and practices that focus on the classroom, technology, and specific content areas that are often ignored in educational conversations. Emphasis is placed on research-based strategies, practices, and theories that can be readily translated into classroom practice, whilst examining cutting-edge teaching practices that make a difference in improving general educator and/or student performance across the grade spans. This high-quality teaching resource will be of interest to regular and special educators, school administrators, guidance counselors, graduate education professors, and university students.