Principle: Real-World Connections

LearnNext: Pedagogical Approaches

This course focuses on the changing role that educators play as they implement pedagogical approaches that promote learner agency. Specifically, participants will define learner-centered learning, differentiate between learner-centered and teacher-centered learning, assess their own learner/teacher-centered behaviors, explore case studies and pedagogical approaches that support learner agency, and select a new pedagogical practice to incorporate into the classroom.… Read More ›

Coming Soon: New Findings from the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative

Leaders in education rarely have the bandwidth to comb through technical studies in order to apply research findings in their classroom. JFF’s Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative is cutting through the clutter to deliver useful research findings presented in actionable ways. If you’re an educator, administrator, district leader, or state-level official interested in using student-centered learning… Read More ›

How Turning to My Students Made Me a Better Teacher

I was frustrated. My students weren’t completing their homework, and I’d run out of ideas for motivating them. I didn’t know what to do. The books I’d read and strategies I’d tried got me nowhere, and despite dealing with the same problem, my peers had no solutions. So, after days, weeks, and months of frustration,… Read More ›

Camp C-Block Introduces Blockchain Technology to Black Girls

This article discusses the work done by Project Bitmobile. Project Bitmobile hopes to educate, inform, and inspire young black women in the fields of coding, cyber security, cryptography and blockchain technology. The founder will be touring the country in an RV in the summer and fall teaching young black women about these emerging technologies through… Read More ›

Improving Teaching With Expert Feedback—From Students

This article, part of the Schools That Work series by Edutopia, describes the approach a physics teacher at Trinidad Garza Early College High School took to improve his instruction. He found, through surveys, that letting students voice their opinions on how they learn best was the key to changing his teaching practices and improving students’ understanding.… Read More ›

Teacher Inquiry Labs in South Carolina Demonstrate Personalized Learning in Action

This article discusses a hands on approach to teacher professional development. In South Carolina learning labs are part of the state-led support for personalized learning. They are educator-driven and volunteer-run. A host district highlights one personalized learning practice that they are using across the K-12 continuum and district leaders, educators and instructional coaches from across… Read More ›

Let Student Voices Ring—In and Out of School

Imagine building a bonfire in a local park—legally, of course. You start throwing in file folders filled with papers, and somehow your laptop ends up in there too. Before you know it, everything you’ve collected, catalogued, and annotated is burning in the fire. When faced with the concept of student-led classrooms, many educators visualize something… Read More ›

Leveraging Digital Depth for Responsive Learning Environments

This paper explores the potential for wearables, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to help create more responsive learning environments that: Increase student engagement Enhance the personalization of learning Increase understanding of others’ experiences and perspectives Help develop greater levels of self-awareness Foster critical thinking Increase student agency The paper presents a frame for… Read More ›

360 Story Lab

The Digital Promise Global’s 360° Story Lab supports young people to produce 360° media on topics that affect their communities. Virtual Reality technology can be used to expose students to many new perspectives, experiences, and places. Students can also learn to be creators not just consumers of this technology. Through experiential storytelling and immersive technologies,… Read More ›

2018 Youth Leadership Institute

The Youth Leadership Institute is designed by youth for you. It is an annual gathering of youth and adult advocates from Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s grantee organizations who are committed to youth leadership, voice, and organizing in building system-level change that is student-centered and grounded in equity. The Youth Leadership Institute seeks to: Promote student-centered learning… Read More ›

Allowing Students to Design Assessment Tools

As an educator, one would think that the point of every assessment would be clear to students. But if you are anything like me, sometimes we get so wrapped up in designing and creating the tools for students to use on the assessment (or in some cases, even the assessment itself), that we forget to… Read More ›