LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

CEU courses open for enrollment

The Civil Rights Movement in Context
Investigate the precursors to the Civil Rights Movement, its leadership, its opposition, and its legacy, including lesser-studied events of the movement and primary sources.
Take this course: Begins February 2.

From the education reference

project-based learning
Teaching approach that engages students in sustained, collaborative real-world investigations. Projects are organized around a driving question, and students participate in a variety of tasks that seek to meaningfully address this question.
digital game-based learning
Instructional method that incorporates educational content or learning principles into video games with the goal of engaging learners. Applications of digital game-based learning draw upon the constructivist theory of education.
problem-based learning
Model of instruction in which the teacher poses an authentic problem for student resolution. PBL may be one among many strategies in a classroom or an entire curricular and instructional approach. In the course of problem-solving, students work cooperatively in groups to learn content and skills related to real world problems. The teacher acts as a facilitator to learning.
inquiry
Active approach to learning in which students investigate a problem based on a model of scientific inquiry. Students or teachers pose a problem, form hypotheses, collect and analyze data, and compare findings with initial hypotheses.
problem-based assessment
Based on a problem-solving or problem-posing educational model, problem-based assessment involves the presentation of a problem the student must solve.
site-based management
Organizational structure that decentralizes authority and increases the autonomy of individual schools. Responsibility and accountability are at the school level, and the decision-making process includes teachers, administrators, parents, and community members.
site-based management
Organizational structure that decentralizes authority and increases the autonomy of individual schools. Responsibility and accountability are at the school level, and the decision-making process includes teachers, administrators, parents, and community members.
discovery learning
Learning that takes place, not through instruction, but through examination, analysis, or experimentation.
cooperative learning
Instructional method in which students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to complete a problem, project, or other instructional goal, while teachers act as guides or facilitators. This method works to reinforce a student’s own learning as well as the learning of his or her fellow group members.
collaborative learning
An umbrella term for the variety of approaches and models in education that involve the shared intellectual efforts by students working in small groups to accomplish a goal or complete a task.
learning contract
An agreement between a teacher and a student regarding how that student will achieve specified learning goals or objectives.
learning disability
A discrepancy between expected achievement and observed achievement, also known as "unexpected underachievement."
service learning
Intentional combination of community service objectives and learning opportunities that benefits both the recipient and provider of the service. Student service learning projects should be structured to link learning tasks to self-reflection so that they enrich learning, strengthen communities, and teach civic responsibility.
Dimensions of Learning model
Model of learning developed by Marzano et al (1988) that links content area knowledge, metacognition, and critical and creative thinking with a taxonomy of thinking skills and thinking processes.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

The learning cycle
A three-part model of scientific inquiry that encourages students to develop their own understanding of a scientific concept, explore and deepen that understanding, and then apply the concept to new situations.
Format: article/best practice
By David Walbert.
Discovery learning
This reference article explains the theory of discovery learning and discusses its history and its use in the classroom.
Format: article
By Heather Coffey.
A perspective on inquiry
In this interview, Norman Budnitz, cofounder of the Center for Inquiry Based Learning, talks about inquiry and how to teach with it in a K–12 classroom.
Format: article/best practice
By Waverly Harrell.
North Carolina e-Learning for Educators
A description of the North Carolina e-Learning for Educators program, a series of high-quality, low-cost professional development courses.
Format: article/help
Science as a verb
Inquiry science requires active relationships between students, teachers, and science. Building these relationships is a three-step process that involves thinking about inquiry as a process of science, as a pedagogical strategy, and as a set of skills and behaviors to encourage in students.
Format: article/best practice
By Amy Anderson and David Walbert.
Demonstration
This education reference article explains the demonstration method of teaching.
Format: article
By Heather Coffey.
Letting students ask the questions -- and answering them
For this high school science teacher, learning science means doing science. A look at an inquiry-based earth and environmental science classroom.
Format: article/best practice
By Amy Anderson.
North Carolina A&T University Farm
Discover Agriculture provides an interactive experience for students to learn about agricultural science including farming with the environment in mind.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Woodworms: A study of natural selection
A study of natural selection and the evolutionary process through the use of a fictitious species, toothus pickii.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Science)
By B. Carl Rush.
Strive to survive: Part 2
Students will explore the concepts of survival and natural selection from scientific and historical points-of-view using inquiry-based investigations, internet research and other strategies.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Science)
By Jeffrey Bell.
Mirror, mirror on the ground!
In this lesson, students will use their knowledge of similar triangles and indirect measurement to measure the heights of various objects.
Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Mathematics)
By Denise Corbett.
Kinetic connections: Bloom's taxonomy in action
An introduction to strategies for using the web to push your students to higher levels of thinking.
Format: article
By Bobby Hobgood, Melissa Thibault, and David Walbert.
Exploring properties of matter with submersibles
This inquiry-based learning activity allows students to explore the relationships between mass, volume, density, and buoyancy as they manipulate various materials to construct a submersible “vehicle” for deep-sea research.
Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Science)
By Miriam Sutton.
Research and strategies for problem-centered math
In Problem centered math, page 7
A bibliography of research-driven strategies for teaching problem-centered math at all grade levels.
By Libby Montagne.
Hands-on biology
Hands-on science exploration clarifies difficult concepts and engages learners who have difficulty in more traditional classrooms. This article looks at an inquiry-based classroom that meets the needs of all of its students.
Format: article/best practice
By Waverly Harrell.
Making connections for environmental education
How can you get students fired up about environmental education? Get them outside and get them involved in local issues through activism, service learning, and teaching others.
Format: article/best practice
By Carolyn Moser.
Science students get their hands dirty
Enter Carol Swink's classroom where students become scientists by conducting hands-on, inquiry-based investigations. By saving the textbook reading and lectures for last and doing experiments first, students master not only science content but math content too.
Format: article/best practice
By Waverly Harrell.
Museum of Life and Science
Packed with highly interactive exhibits, the Museum of Life and Science showcases aerospace, weather, geology, Carolina wildlife, farmyard, train rides, traveling exhibits, gift shops, café and more culminating with the tropical Magic Wings Butterfly House and Bayer Crop Science Insectarium.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Plants and Trees
This selection of resources helps teach students about the importance of plants and trees to animals and humans. They also explain how how they grow, their structure and the elements they need to flourish.
Format: bibliography/help
Collection Connections
In American Memory: North Carolina educator's guide, page 7
In this installment of the American Memory Guide, learn to find teaching resources associated with the Library of Congress's primary source collections.
Format: article
By Melissa Thibault.