Digital tools and applications are an intricate part of many classroom communities. In the field of education, there is a need to continually monitor the digital landscape and keep up to date on the tools and applications that are available to classroom teachers and K-12 students. Understanding the ever-changing digital landscape and its impact on teaching and learning is critical to using digital tools and applications effectively and in ways that enhance students' opportunities to learn. Next Generation Digital Tools and Applications for Teaching and Learning Enhancement is a critical scholarly publication that explores digital tools and applications for the PreK-12 classroom and how digital technology can enhance the preparation of teachers. Featuring a wide range of topics including education equity, social media, and teacher education, this book is essential for educators, academicians, curriculum designers, educational software developers, IT specialists, library specialists, researchers, and practitioners.

Education in the 21st century is shifting focus from accessing and sharing information to designing active and collaborative learning environments which foster student engagement and critical thinking skills. Active learning features a hands-on, activity-based teaching approach during which students synthesize information and take joy in new discovery. The Handbook of Research on Learner-Centered Pedagogy in Teacher Education and Professional Development presents a comprehensive look into the methodologies and strategies necessary to establish classroom climates in which students feel free to question their preconceptions and express opinions. Featuring chapters from international researchers, this book is ideal for administrators, teachers, policy makers, and students of education.

Over the past thirty years, Holt High School in central Michigan has engaged in a quiet revolution that has transformed mathematics teaching and learning in the district. From its roots as a rural high school housed in a single building in the 1980s, the high school mathematics staff has grown an innovative, meaningful high school mathematics curriculum that sees nearly every student in the district completing the equivalent of Precalculus. Tracking was dropped in favor of an evolving suite of supports designed to promote student success in unifying, rather than segregating, ways. Mathematics classrooms in Holt are discourse-rich environments where teachers and students explore meaningful uses for mathematics as they reason and problem solve together. This transformation took place and persists amidst changing professional partnerships, shifting district demographics, increasing accountability measures at the state and national level, and turnover in teaching staff and district leadership. In this book, we explore the case of Holt High School though an exploration of how the mathematics curriculum has shifted over the past thirty years, and the conditions and supports that have been put in place in the district to make this work fruitful and sustainable. The story includes successes, failures, celebrations and challenges as we chronicle Holt's high school mathematics evolution. Guiding questions, protocols, and reflective activities are provided for teachers and district leaders to begin the challenging conversations in their own district that lead to meaningful change.

Achieving College Dreams: How a University-Charter District Partnership Created an Early College High School tells the story of a remarkable 10-year collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley and Aspire Public Schools to develop and nurture the California College Preparatory Academy. Bridging the two cultures-artfully described as "Pac-Man (the charter district) meets chess (the university)"-the school serves as an exemplar in providing low-income and first-generation college youth with an excellent and equitable education. Framed by a longitudinal lens, findings from community-engaged scholarship, and a diversity of voices from students to superintendents, this book charts the journey from the initial decision to open a school to the high school graduation of its first two classes. The book captures struggle, improvement, and success as it takes readers inside the workings of the partnership, the development of the school, and the spillover of effects across district and university. Confronting the challenge of interweaving rigor and support, its authors explore such critical ingredients as teacher-student advisories; school transition; the home-school divide; building a supportive college-preparatory culture; teaching with depth, relational power, and equity; the forging of an academic identity; and scaling up. At a time of sharply unequal schools, glaring disparities in college readiness, and heightened expectations, Achieving College Dreams uniquely extends the knowledge base about how to better prepare underserved students for college eligibility and success. The book also calls for universities to step up to the plate as partners with districts to ensure both excellence and equity in secondary education for all children.

The majority of South African principals believe that subject heads and Heads of Departments should be in charge of curriculum and teaching monitoring. Due to this impression, curricular management by principals does not support teaching and learning. According to the KZN department of education's study from 2015 on curriculum management and delivery plan, principals now spend more time on administrative responsibilities and learner discipline than on topics related to instructional leadership. This book emphasizes how major social and economic development in rural areas is necessary in order to achieve actual quality education. Until then, the educational options available in rural areas will restrict people's ability to live long, productive lives and to learn and experience freedom, dignity, and self-respect. Contributors are: Bongani Thulani Gamede, Samantha Govender, Nontobeko Prudence Khumalo, Azwidohwi Kutame, Mncedisi Christian Maphalala, Rachel Gugu Mkhasibe, Dumisani Wilfred Mncube, Ramashego Shila Mphahlele, Fikile Mthethwa, Edmore Mutekwe, Nokuthula Hierso Ndaba, Thandiwe Nonkululeko Ngema, Phiwokuhle Bongiwe Ngubane, Sindile Ngubane and Dumisani Nzima.

Concept mapping has often been acknowledged as an efficient instrument for aiding students in learning new information. Examining the impact this tool provides in STEM fields can help to create more effective teaching methods. Advanced Concept Maps in STEM Education: Emerging Research and Opportunities highlights both the history and recent innovations of concept maps in learning environments. Featuring extensive coverage of relevant topics including object maps, verbal maps, and spatial maps, this publication is ideal for educators, academicians, students, professionals, and researchers interested in discovering new perspectives on the impact of concept mapping in educational settings.

Empirical and anecdotal data suggests that education technology increases access to learning, democratizes knowledge, and increases the breadth and richness of the learning experience. Due to this, there is a need to disseminate awareness and information about the role of emotional intelligence and technology from various dimensions to help students and teachers maintain the quality of e-learning and emotional well-being. Technology-Driven E-Learning Pedagogy Through Emotional Intelligence provides updated research perspectives focusing on the relationship between e-learning pedagogy, technology, and emotional intelligence. Covering key topics such as blended learning, resilience, social awareness, and empathy, this reference work is ideal for administrators, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

The intricacies of providing quality education for school-age children can best be realized through collaboration between practitioners. This same ideology has infiltrated education preparation programs, encouraging the emphasis on collaborative methodologies of program design, development, implementation, and evaluation. This context presents a huge challenge for many education preparation programs, but one that has been partially realized in some states through large-scale reform models. Collaborative Models and Frameworks for Inclusive Educator Preparation Programs provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in collaborative strategies in educator preparation programs and addresses the impact on accreditation and changes in policies as a result of large-scale collaborative models. Covering topics such as education reforms, social justice, teacher education, and literacy instruction, this reference work is ideal for teachers, instructional designers, administrators, curriculum developers, policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, and students.

This volume draws on findings from the Canada-China Nature Notes Reciprocal Learning Program to explore cross-cultural exchanges in science education in and outside of the classroom. Under the collaborative reciprocity perspective, cross-cultural learning needs to go beyond simple comparison in practices, values, and results and moves to a paradigm that emphasizes a two-way learning process in the context of acting together. Through collaborative work between the international teams and partner schools, the program described in this book shows how collaborative efforts between the two sister schools worked to raise awareness about Chinese farming culture and extend students' outdoor learning experiences. In this book, educators from across the research team share their insights and reflect on the cross-cultural collaborative process and how it impacted the learning experiences of themselves and their students.

Immense challenges now face the global community. How can educators train the next generation of students to deal with the vast array of issues awaiting them in every sector of society? Written as a testimony to three decades of experimentation with these challenges in mind, Hong Kong International School humanities teacher Dr. Marty Schmidt draws upon the universal Wisdom tradition to propose pedagogical frameworks that combine what he calls the yang of social conscience with the yin of inner awakening. This yin-yang approach forms the basis of the The Wisdom Way of Teaching, which describes in curricular detail how to cultivate the whole person development of students.

With increasing diversity and widening disparities in the United States and globally there are significant challenges and opportunities throughout the educational landscape. Today's educational stakeholders, particulary public school administrators and teachers, must re- envision education and collectively build equity-centered systems, structures, and practices. Confronting systemic inequality in education can be a daunting task, but it is nonetheless imperative. Connecting theory to practice, this book aims to promote inclusive educational excellence, and will offer valuable insights and inspiration to a wide range of educational stakeholders. Affirming diversity and advancing social justice requires dismantling oppressive customs and structures inside and outside of the classroom, fostering an equitable school culture, building inclusive learning environments, and increasing collective efficacy though best practice. Creating healthier schools and communities requires authentically investing in and supporting historically and socially marginalized students and families. Rooted in social justice and weaving together diverse voices from the field of education, this edited volume will examine equity-focused pre-K-12 pedagogical practices and showcase high-impact initiatives. Educators play a vital role in ensuring positive student outcomes and success, but often report feeling inadequately prepared for current challenges. Unfortunately, growing challenges are contributing to turnover rates and shortages as well as perpetuating social inequities among pre-K-12 students instead of dismantling them. A research study by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) reveals that public schools with higher percentages of low-income students and students of color are more likely to experience administrative and teacher turnover, which compounds equity issues affecting already vulnerable students. This edited volume will provide educational stakeholders (i.e., school administrators, teachers, service providers, parents/guardians, nonprofit leaders, community members) with a deeper understanding of pedagogical practices that affirm diversity and promote social justice, while offering a current view of educational inequalities juxtaposed with an urgent call to action. School districts across the United States must recognize inequalities and provide increasingly diverse students with needed support and resources, particularly as social dispairties continue to widen and adversely impact millions of students. Through a collection of diverse voices from the field of education (university educators; pre-K-12 district leaders, schools administrators and teachers; Nonprofit leaders serving children and youth) this book will illuminate current social inequalities impacting pre-K-16 students, establish the need to affirm diversity and advance social justice, share practical examples of transformative initiatives including mindful school-family- community partnerships, feature evidence-based pedagogical practices, and provide an array of helpful resources for 21st century educational stakeholders.

A volume in Research in Curriculum and Instruction Series Editor: O. L. Davis, Jr. The University of Texas at Austin In many elementary classrooms, social studies has taken a back seat to English Language Arts and Mathematics in the wake of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top This volume is not another hand-wringing lament. On the contrary, the elementary educators who have contributed to this volume have a positive set of stories to tell about how social studies can play a central role in the elementary classroom, how teachers can integrate social studies knowledge and skills throughout the school day, and how this learning can carry over into children's homes and communities. The seven case studies in this book, one at each elementary grade level, highlight exemplary teachers in whose classrooms social studies is alive and well in this age of accountability. At the end of each case study, each teacher provides advice for elementary teachers of social studies. Our hope is that elementary teachers and prospective teachers, elementary principals, social studies supervisors, staff developers, and professors of elementary social studies methods who study the stories that we tell can be empowered to return social studies to its rightful place in the curriculum.

The primary purpose of this book is to serve as a resource in teacher preparation programs. It is also intended to serve as an instructional resource in P?12 education. The book will be especially useful in methods of teaching and foundational courses both at the elementary and secondary education levels. The book contains pertinent instructional topics, units and lessons in global education and social justice themes. The secondary purpose of this book is to serve as a resource for graduate students and researchers whose interest is global and social justice education. This unique book provides for an interdisciplinary approach to teacher education. Additionally, this book is intended to create a deeper sense of relevancy to issues of curriculum in teacher education. Together, global educators and social justice educators can forge pedagogical content knowledge that bridges the gap between affirming one's own identity and maintaining unity with the whole, thus exemplifying a robust notion of social justice. Consequently, content in this book will help pre?service teachers to gain confidence and deeper knowledge around issues of global interest, responsibilities and uncertainties associated with their role as teachers who will teach children within the intersection of local andinternational neighborhoods.