October 20, 2023 9:14 am

Inquiry-Based Learning: What I’ve Learned

Imagine Learning implementation specialist and former social studies teacher Timothy Lent discusses the value of inquiry-based learning for students, strategies teachers can use to create successful inquiry projects, and why Traverse’s huge library saves teachers “a ton of time.”

Engaging Students with Real-World Contexts

Inquiry-based learning involves getting students to actively apply their skills to real-world contexts through problem-solving activities. I use inquiry in my social studies classes because it gets students engaged and topics appear more relevant to them. By exploring problems, ideas, or questions through a range of different media sources and activities, students can draw their own conclusions, and the lesson is brought to life.

For the first three years of my teaching career, I used a more traditional style of teaching. Often, it very much felt like we were just going lockstep through history: this happened, then this, then this, then this. Every once in a while, we would stop to look at a source here or there.

I was lucky enough to attend some workshops and be involved with some training that introduced me to the inquiry design model that Kathy Swan helped to create. When I started to introduce this method into my own classroom, I saw straight away that students became much more connected to what they were learning. We were still moving along chronologically—because that’s usually how you teach social studies—but instead of taking a day to look at a source, you’re really taking maybe three or four classes to breathe a little bit within a time period. Instead of telling kids what happened, you’re providing students with just enough context to get to the inquiry question so they understand what led up to it, and they can grapple with the question.

Inquiry in Action

At the beginning of an inquiry, you present students with the scenario: here’s the big question you’re trying to answer, and here are four or five sources that you’re gonna try to figure out the answer to that question with. And instead of students searching for the right answer to get the points, they now have the opportunity to come up with their own answer. Not only is this more interesting and more engaging, it’s also more challenging and rewarding to have to support a claim with evidence and then try to explain how that evidence supports the claim.

My first inquiry was on the Industrial Revolution, and by at the end of this inquiry, students were involved in a debate where they had roles—so you had students who took on the role of being child workers in factories, there were factory owners, there were labor leaders, and some of the kids dressed up for the roles. They prepared for it for a week and a half, gathering their evidence, from the point of view of their roles: “That testimonial is gonna be perfect for us” or “This piece from Adam Smith is perfect for me as a factory owner to prove that it’s just more efficient.” The students were the ones providing the momentum in the instruction because they really got into the debate and thought it was fun. It was very fulfilling to see as a teacher.

One of the biggest challenges of inquiry is finding the right question or right topic—if the inquiry is flat or the students aren’t so interested in the subject, you can look to implement a range of different sources so the students can draw connections to the subject, whether that be thematic or direct connections. Sources don’t necessarily need to be historical or traditional formats. In an inquiry about Black Lives Matter protests in July 2020, I brought in some tweets from a local reporter, Instagram posts from a student group, and a local news report, and the students had to figure out why the protests took place. They loved it because they could draw connections from people they were familiar with and work with media that resonated with them.

Finding High-Quality Sources

One of the reasons why Traverse is so valuable is because of the sources that have been selected. Most of them are really great quality and they’ve already been pared down. I think that’s incredibly important, not just for engaging students but also saving teachers time. It takes a ton of time for teachers to find sources.

Let’s say I’m teaching about the Whiskey Rebellion and I want to have five sources. I’ll probably pull a little excerpt from the textbook. I’ll look online, type in “Whiskey Rebellion, primary sources,” and then I have to read through all of them, and excerpt them, and they’re probably in PDF format so I need to find a way to copy and paste that. When I’m done with that, I have to actually create questions for the kids. And a lot of what you can find online is public domain, from 1916 or something like that, and written in a style that you need to translate for your students.

With Traverse you’ve got, for each chapter, a source set, a question already developed, activities for each source, additional source information in the Teacher Edition that you wouldn’t know about unless you did some next-level investigation on your own. And it’s so easily customizable, so let’s say there are six sources in the Traverse source set and I know we only have time to look at three or four, I just have to click a button and then those aren’t assigned to the kids. It just saves people a ton of time.

Strategies

Here are some tips and strategies that I’ve found helpful to create successful inquiry projects:

Develop compelling questions—Work closely with your students to guide their inquiry by developing questions that are open-ended and encourage critical thinking and exploration.
Provide scaffolding—Throughout inquiry journeys, provide scaffolding to support your students, including offering background information, modeling the inquiry process, and giving feedback.
Encourage reflection—Encourage your students to reflect on what they have learned and to make connections between their new knowledge and their prior knowledge and experiences.
Assess learning—Formative assessments such as observations, checklists, or rubrics can be used to gauge student understanding throughout the process. Presentations, research papers, or debates are good ways of evaluating learning outcomes too.
Positive classroom culture—It’s important to have an environment that promotes collaboration and open communication. Students need to feel comfortable asking questions, taking conceptual risks, and exploring different ideas and perspectives.

Using these approaches, I have witnessed the transformative power of inquiry-based learning in my classroom. I’d recommend it to any teacher who wants to not only enhance students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills but also help inspire a genuine passion for learning and a deeper understanding of their subject.

About the Author Timothy Lent

Timothy Lent is a social studies educator from New York State. He taught middle school and high school social studies in Brooklyn and Syracuse, NY and has years of experience in curriculum development and professional learning in schools, non-profits, and for-profit companies. He is now a Professional Learning Specialist at Imagine Learning, training educators who use IL’s innovative social studies program, Traverse, to develop the next generation of informed and active citizens.

Inquiry driven. Media powered. A new approach to social studies.

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October 19, 2023 8:00 am

Stop Blaming Ed Tech for Our Current Education Inequality

Published by: Sari Factor in EdWeek

Technology can and has reduced inequities in education, unleashing potential and providing new opportunities for millions of learners.

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October 16, 2023 8:00 am

Inquiry-Based Curriculum Solves Urgent Need to Develop Critical Thinking and Civic Engagement for Grades 6–12

Paradigm Shift from Legacy Textbooks to Fully Digital Social Studies Curriculum

Scottsdale, Arizona, October 16, 2023 – Imagine Learning, the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S., serving 15 million students in more than half of school districts nationwide, today announced the launch of Traverse, a groundbreaking, innovative, and digital-first social studies, living core curriculum solution for grades 6–12. Traverse, created by a team of Imagine Learning developers and educators, represents a significant milestone for the organization as it expands its comprehensive suite of dedicated and immersive digital core curriculum courses for teachers and students across the country.

“Gone are the days of large history books that cannot be easily updated. Traverse turns that paradigm on its head and provides an on-ramp to ensuring that our students are taught the most updated information, yet customized to meet the standards of local communities,” said Jonathan Grayer, CEO of Imagine Learning. “This launch is a significant step forward for Imagine Learning as we now provide thousands of school districts — large and small — a complete array of solutions, from supplemental to intervention to core.“

In today’s evolving world, the demand for teaching social studies appropriately has never been greater. Districts have been searching for a modern curriculum that can adapt to their needs and empower teachers to meet the required content and instructional standards while encouraging critical thinking and civic engagement for students. Pairing advanced technology and engaging media with inquiry-based learning, Imagine Learning developed Traverse to address this market demand with a highly adaptable and engaging curriculum.

Mr. Grayer continued, “Traverse represents a real breakthrough in how social studies can and should be taught in this country. In a rapidly changing world where there is a greater urgency placed on teaching our students how to be responsible citizens contributing to the well-being of our society, Traverse solves an enormous problem facing our schools by equiping students with the knowledge and skills to navigate a complex and ever-changing global landscape. Like other Imagine Learning curricula, Traverse shares responsibility for this process with teachers, empowering them to cultivate the active, informed, and engaged citizens our society needs. We are very excited to bring Traverse to market.”

For the first time, students will be engaged in a comprehensive learning experience that combines content, inquiry, and skills development. Students are exposed to a wide array of multimedia resources, primary and secondary sources, lessons designed to build their skills, collaborative learning activities, and assessments to deepen their engagement with the subject matter. Traverse will prepare students for civic engagement beyond their classrooms by using a standards-backed, inquiry-based approach to learning. It aligns with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework and state standards, providing teachers with a cohesive instructional social studies program for grades 6–12.

The Traverse Solution

Traverse was developed in collaboration with renowned educators Kathy Swan and Sam Wineburg , and designed by Imagine Learning’s development group, the same team that created the award-winning ELA program StudySync. Its digital-first instructional design allows districts to easily support changing curriculum standards with adaptable courses that are built with powerful media and interactives. Through a combination of video, activities, and tools, Traverse leverages interactive media to enhance engagement in instruction. Aligned to the C3 Framework, Traverse prepares students for college, career, and civic life by connecting the lessons to real-life social issues. Students are further supported through active learning and are encouraged to collaborate with their peers and find answers themselves through careful and critical study of the standards-based resources provided.

As part of its modern, new approach to social studies, Traverse:

Maximizes student learning by focusing only on the content standards teachers are expected to teach.
Enables students to critically evaluate issues, both inside and outside the classroom.
Blends technology and multimedia to empower learners.
Supports teachers in facilitating an equitable learning environment by providing the necessary resources to create personalized learning experiences.
Includes Imagine Learning’s exceptional digital and print implementation support and toolkits that work with districts according to their needs.
Offers varied modalities for lessons and is compatible with multiple devices.

Traverse is the latest digital-first curriculum to be added to Imagine Learning’s core product line, joining Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics, Twig Science, and Imagine Learning EL Education. It is available for U.S. History: Beginnings to the Civil War; U.S. History: Reconstruction to the Present; World History: Beginnings to the Reformation; World History: Emergence of the Modern World to the Present; World Geography; U.S. Government; and Economics. For more information on Traverse, visit www.imaginelearning.com/traverse.

About Imagine Learning

Every classroom, every student is bursting with potential. That’s why we pursue relentless innovation at the intersection of technology, people, and curricula. Imagine Learning creates K–12 digital-first solutions fueled by insights from educators, working alongside educators to support 15 million students in over half of the districts nationwide. Our core portfolio includes Twig Science^®, Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics^®, and Imagine Learning EL Education^®. Our robust supplemental and intervention suite equips learners with personalized instruction for English and Spanish literacy, math, coding, and more. Imagine Edgenuity^™ is our flagship courseware solution, complemented by Imagine School Services’ Certified Teachers. Imagine Learning. Empower potential. Learn more: imaginelearning.com.

October 5, 2023 10:11 am

Celebrating Bilingual Students with Imagine Español

The benefits of bilingualism are astounding, and our multilingual students deserve to be celebrated. Here are 5 ways Imagine Español, our K–5 supplemental Spanish literacy program, honors the culture and heritage of bilingual students.

In today’s interconnected world, being bilingual is an invaluable skill. It not only opens doors to diverse cultures but also enhances cognitive abilities and provides a competitive edge in the job market. For K–5 dual language program coordinators, fostering bilingualism in young learners is a mission that carries immense significance. These enriching programs allow students’ bilingualism to fully blossom. However, we must ensure instructional materials value and build upon the cultural and linguistic assets students bring from home.

Imagine Español ® is an innovative, personalized digital learning program that accelerates Spanish language and literacy development for students in grades K–5. Here are 5 ways the program honors the culture and heritage of bilingual students:

1. Transfers students’ foundational literacy skills across languages

Imagine Español provides explicit instruction in foundational literacy skills like phonological awareness, letter-sound connections, decoding, and sight word recognition in Spanish. As research shows, these critical early skills then transfer to English, supporting students’ overall literacy development. For example, when students learn to segment sounds and syllables in Spanish words, it improves their phonological awareness in English as well. Their ability to map letters to sounds transfers across languages too. Building this early literacy foundation in Spanish allows students’ knowledge to flow into English acquisition.

2. Builds vocabulary in two languages

Imagine Español has robust vocabulary instruction integrated throughout. Students learn high frequency Spanish words, English/Spanish cognates, and academic terms. As dual language learners use and retain more words, their comprehension improves in both languages. Hearing vocabulary terms pronounced and used in meaningful Spanish texts, then recognizing those words again in English, cements the terms in students’ minds. This vocabulary reinforcement in two languages helps students understand texts they read and set them up for success.

3. Mirrors students’ cultures

Imagine Español includes authentic Hispanic songs, texts, and artwork that reflect 20 different Spanish-speaking countries. Hearing traditional songs and seeing images from Spanish-speaking countries allows students to see themselves and their community reflected in learning. This fosters biliteracy development and bicultural identities simultaneously. Students stay engaged and motivated when lessons resonate with their cultural background knowledge. The cultural mirror of Imagine Español program validates students’ identity and home experiences.

4. Provides scaffolded support for biliteracy development

Imagine Español has embedded multimedia, visuals, and interactivity designed to support students’ Spanish literacy growth. Songs, videos, and animated stories introduce letter sounds in engaging ways. Interactives allow students to click pictures to learn vocabulary meanings. Built-in dictionaries and text highlighting provide guidance with reading. This scaffolding provides assistance to students as needed until literacy skills are mastered. The program allows them to engage meaningfully with Spanish texts while ensuring support is in place.

5. Ignites students’ potential

When students have access to quality dual language learning, it ignites their inner sparks. Robust materials like Imagine Español build students’ skills and knowledge, instilling confidence and motivation. Our bilingual students blaze trails to promising, bilingual futures when their potential is recognized. Imagine Español fuses students’ home language and culture with instruction to help them achieve their highest potentials. This is the transformative power of valuing our bilingual learners.

Imagine Español honors the home languages and cultures of our dual language students. With this program, students’ bilingualism is celebrated as the valuable resource it is.

Discover a culturally relevant curriculum

Imagine Español

October 5, 2023 8:00 am

Artificial Intelligence, Human Intelligence—and a Fundamental Shift in Teaching

Published by: EdTech Digest

The introduction of generative AI is another milestone that we believe has the potential to help teachers become more effective and efficient, in support of student learning. As a digital curriculum leader, we’ve always leveraged technology and AI, though we know that human interaction is at the heart of teaching and learning.

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September 19, 2023 10:30 am

Trusting Inquiry

By allowing students space to think (deliberate ideas), talk (collaborate around ideas), and do (produce ideas), teachers can build a culture of classroom trust with their students that accelerates inquiry-based learning in the classroom.

It is one thing to build an inquiry-based curriculum, it is quite another to make an inquiry come to life in a classroom. If curriculum is a recipe, then how do teachers move from being line-cooks to inquiry chefs? How do they get students to eat their inquiry vegetables and keep coming back for more? What makes an inquiry rise in one classroom and flop in another? What is inquiry’s instructional secret sauce? I will argue that trust is how inquiry teachers “kick it up a notch”!

Why trust? Recently, I co-directed a documentary film project, Making Inquiry Possible (MIP) featuring four films that explore how innovative teachers, schools, and districts are shifting to inquiry-based instruction. At the core of each documentary is the question: What does it take to make inquiry possible in social studies? The answer has become unmistakable: trust. Like a song that gets stuck, once I started to hear it, I couldn’t un-hear it.

For example, when I asked one of the teachers in the project how inquiry had changed his teaching, he responded this way:

So my role as a teacher has changed. What I’ve noticed with the use of compelling questions and using IDM in my classroom it is absolutely incumbent on the student to answer that question for themselves. Now that doesn’t seem wild when we say that, but in the moment of teaching, many of our students have been accustomed to being able to find an answer, rather than simply create one…

Do you hear it? Did you notice how he needs to trust the students to answer the compelling question “for themselves”?Let’s listen again. When I asked a teacher about scaffolding inquiry, this was the response:

Students need enough support in order for them to even put the pieces together. What I’ve noticed is that it’s almost like holding an egg. If you grip it too tightly, it’s gonna break. But if you truncate everything too much for the student, what you get on the other end is, is simply just not a robust answer. It kills the process. So because of that, I have to be both the support, but also have to like, kick the kid out in the pasture a little bit to kind of figure things out on their own.

Surely you heard it this time — how the teacher needs to hold (or trust) the inquiry “egg” by not gripping too tight? Or how he needs to “kick the kid out in the pasture a little bit to figure things out on their own” as an act of pedagogical trust? While I would never suggest or condone literally kicking a kid, metaphorically (and only metaphorically), it does make sense for inquiry. Students need space to figure things out in an inquiry. Teachers need to trust students and give them that space. And, students need to trust teachers to make that space meaningful and to be there when they lose their way. Sometimes that space is uncomfortable and teachers will need to nurture students and scaffold the process so that they can ultimately embrace that intellectual freedom.

This theme of trust surfaced in every facet of the film project and further deepened a curiosity about trust and its relationship to inquiry. Trust is now popping up in every conversation with an inquiry teacher and in every classroom observation. It has been a Eureka! moment. But, trust is one of those words that is kind of squishy and a platitude like, “just trust your students” seems really unsatisfying and possibly frustrating for teachers wanting to go deeper into inquiry-based instruction. So, trust me, you are going to want to read on!

Along with my C3 Teachers colleagues, S.G. Grant and John Lee, we have landed on three key inquiry processes that build a culture of trust in the classroom: deliberation, collaboration, and production.

Deliberation involves instructional practices that allow students to listen to each other’s ideas and speak about their own. This might include a Harkness Discussion, Think-Pair-Share, Take a Stand debate, or Socratic Discussion. These types of deliberative experiences engender respect for others and an appreciation for a pluralistic democracy where people hold different perspectives on life. Deliberative exercises build trust by fostering empathy between students and between teacher and students because they show that teachers trust their students to think about big ideas.

Collaboration involves instructional practices that allow students to work with others to problem solve through teamwork. This might include a Jigsaw, Question Formulation Technique (QFT) exercise, or Structured Academic Controversy. During collaborative experiences, students negotiate with others and learn to respect other ways of knowing and doing. If a task is “group worthy”, students learn to value team member’s strengths and to value their own contributions to the whole. These kinds of experiences build trust by creating interdependence between students and demonstrating that a teacher trusts their students to work with others.

Production involves instructional practices that allow students to construct meaningful work. This could include an evidentiary argument or a project (Public Service Announcement, Museum exhibit) or it could include important formative work like a map, timeline, or T-Chart. When students produce work, they risk putting their ideas out there and cultivate agency in the process. Healthy inquiry cultures allow students to explore frontiers and create forgiving spaces to learn and grow. In doing so, they build classroom trust.

By allowing students space to think (deliberate ideas), talk (collaborate around ideas), and do (produce ideas), teachers build a culture of classroom trust with their students that engenders key attitudes of empathy, interdependence, and agency that can accelerate inquiry-based learning in the classroom. While these processes and attributes are not exclusive to social studies, they do connect deeply to citizenship and our role in preparing students for civic life. “Bam!” Now, we are really cooking with (inquiry) gas!

So, this year, as you think about strategies that you use in or outside of an inquiry experience, spare a thought for trust. Consider: How am I creating a trustworthy classroom? How do I show my students that I trust them? When do students learn to trust each other? What strategies really accentuate trust and what differences do they make in students’ attitudes toward my class? How does a trustworthy classroom accelerate learning? And, finally, to my fellow inquiry travelers, let’s keep trusting inquiry!

For your corkboard

Print and pin Kathy’s guide to building trust in an inquiry classroom.

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About the Author – Dr. Kathy Swan

Professor, University of Kentucky, C3 Framework Lead Author

Kathy Swan is a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Kentucky. Kathy was awarded UKY’s Great Teacher Award in 2021 and has been a four-time recipient of the National Technology Leadership Award in Social Studies Education, innovating with inquiry-based curricula. Dr. Swan served as the project director and lead writer of the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards (2013), the national standards for social studies. She has co-written a number of best-selling books including Inquiry-Based Practice in Social Studies Education: The Inquiry Design Model (2017); The Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiries in Social Studies (2018), and; Blueprinting an Inquiry-Based Curriculum: Planning with the Inquiry Design Model (2019).

September 7, 2023 10:21 am

Soft Skills with Big Impact: the 4Cs of STEM

Make STEM classrooms a playground for curiosity, a canvas for creativity, a stage for communication, and a hub for collaboration. When students embrace these skills, they’re not just preparing for the future — they’re shaping it.

“Hey Siri, how many rings does Saturn have?”

“Alexa, tell me what the square root of 1089?”

“ChatGPT: give me HTML code to embed a basic calculator on a webpage.”

There was a day when students had to ask their teachers, librarians, or even consult an encyclopedia for this type of information. But those days are long (like really long) gone, and the teacher is no longer the only keeper of information in the room.

Since the teacher’s role is evolving due to new technologies, and certainly students are not motivated to memorize what Alexa already knows, what should STEM classrooms be focused on? What skills are employers in STEM careers looking for if ChatGPT can produce code for free?

A 2018 survey by the Association of American Colleges & Universities showed, “that just 34 percent of top executives and 25 percent of hiring managers say students have the skills to be promoted. Many of those skills are soft skills — communication, team work, problem-solving — that are critical in a quickly shifting job market. Entry-level skills change every few years; it’s the habits of learning to learn and navigating the ambiguity of a career that will prove most valuable to undergraduates in the long run.”

The National Education Association has boiled these soft skills down to the 4 Cs: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration. Let’s explore why these 4Cs are critical to providing a modern STEM education that gives students real career opportunities.

1. Critical Thinking: where curiosity begins

Imagine a classroom buzzing with questions. Except, not fact-based “how many rings does Saturn have” questions. Questions like: is it possible for New York City to become carbon neutral? What would that plan look like? Or: why does the kind of water (fresh or salt) affect how long it takes an ice cube to melt? That’s the power of critical thinking at work. It’s all about encouraging young minds to ask, “Why?” and “How?” Critical thinkers don’t just accept things at face value; they dig deeper. When students learn to analyze information, separate facts from opinions, and spot patterns, they become problem-solving heroes.

Picture a group of students exploring a science experiment. Instead of just following a set of instructions, they’re asking themselves, “What will happen if we change this variable?” That’s critical thinking igniting their imagination — it’s like a spark that lights up their learning journey.

2. Creativity: where imagination takes flight

Creativity isn’t just for artists — it’s a skill that every STEM student needs. It’s about looking at a problem from a different angle and dreaming up new solutions. Think of it as the magic wand that turns ordinary ideas into extraordinary ones.

Take a moment to think about a famous inventor, like Thomas Edison. He didn’t just stumble upon the light bulb; it took him 1000 attempts to find a design that worked. Creativity is what made him keep going, even when things got tough. Encouraging our students to think outside the box, to come up with wild ideas, and to believe that they can change the world — that’s the heart of creativity in STEM education.

3. Communication: bridges between minds

Imagine a world where nobody understood each other. It would be chaotic, right? Communication is like a bridge that connects our thoughts to the world. In STEM, it’s not enough to have brilliant ideas; you also need to share them effectively.

Think about a young engineer who designs an amazing new gadget. If they can’t explain how it works to others, their idea might never see the light of day. Teaching students how to express complex ideas in simple terms empowers them to inspire, collaborate, and bring their innovations to life.

4. Collaboration: teamwork for triumph

Remember the saying, “Two heads are better than one”? That’s the spirit of collaboration. In a world where problems are more complex than ever, working together is key. Collaboration is like a puzzle; each piece has its role, and when they come together, they create something amazing.

Think about a group of students working on a science project. Some are great at designing, others excel at research, and a few are natural leaders. When they pool their talents, their project becomes a masterpiece. It’s the same spirit that built the tallest skyscrapers and sent humans to the moon.

Putting the 4Cs into action

Imagine a classroom where students use their critical thinking skills to solve a real-world problem. Maybe they’re designing a water-saving system for their school garden. They brainstorm creative ideas, like using rainwater and self-watering plants. Then, they work as a team to build the system and explain their design to their classmates. These students are embracing the 4Cs in action: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.

Empowering educators for success

As educators, you’re the guides on this exciting journey. You hold the keys to nurturing the 4Cs in your students. Encourage them to question, to dream, to share, and to work together. Make STEM education a playground for curiosity, a canvas for creativity, a stage for communication, and a hub for collaboration.

When students embrace these skills, they’re not just preparing for the future — they’re shaping it.

Imagine Learning STEM

Prepare the next generation of STEM leaders with digital and hands-on learning aligned to the 4 Cs.

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About the Author – Carolyn Snell

Carolyn Snell started her career in education teaching first grade in San Bernardino, California. A passion for the way technology and stellar curricula can transform classrooms led her to various jobs in edtech, including at the Orange County Department of Education. Her knack for quippy copy landed her a dream job marketing StudySync—an industry leading ELA digital curriculum. Now, as the Senior Content Marketing Manager for Imagine Learning, Carolyn revels in the opportunity to promote innovative products and ideas that are transforming the educational space for teachers and students.

August 31, 2023 6:15 am

Imagine Robotify Named 2023 Tech Edvocate Award Winner

Imagine Robotify Earns Top Honor as Best Coding App or Tool in 2023 Tech Edvocate Awards

Scottsdale, Arizona, August 31, 2023 – Imagine Learning, a leading provider of digital curriculum solutions in the United States, has been named a 2023 Tech Edvocate Award winner in the Best Coding App or Tool for Imagine Robotify.

Imagine Robotify is an accessible, immersive computer science solution for grades 3 and above. Students learn to code by programming virtual robots on a 3D browser-based simulator. They also problem-solve through a “Learn, Create, Compete” instructional design—developing the four Cs of STEM. Learn more about Imagine Robotify here.

“We’re thrilled to be honored by the Tech Edvocate Awards with this recognition. This award represents the incredible work of many people at Imagine Learning who are dedicated to creating programs, like Imagine Robotify, that are efficacious and engaging for students,” shared Adam Dalton, CEO of Imagine Robotify. “It’s our passion to ensure every student knows they can be successful in whatever academic avenue they pursue, whether it’s coding or another STEM field they are interested in. We love that Imagine Robotify prepares today’s students for the future workforce by teaching critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity skills they’ll need to succeed.”

The Tech Edvocate Awards were created to highlight the edtech tools, organizations, and individuals that best serve and support today’s students and educators. Tech Edvocate Award winners were determined by a panel of edtech thought leaders, PreK-college educators and administrators, and PreK–12 parents. Judges evaluated entries based on whether the developers of the edtech product are in the educational field, whether the product was developed with research and teacher input, whether the product is scalable, flexible, engaging, and unique, and other rigorous qualifications.

Every classroom, every student is bursting with potential. That’s why we pursue relentless innovation at the intersection of technology, people, and curricula. Imagine Learning creates K–12 digital-first solutions, fueled by insights from educators, that evolve with the ever-changing demands of tomorrow. We work alongside educators to support over 15 million students in over half of the districts nationwide. Our core portfolio includes Twig Science^®, Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics^®, and Imagine Learning EL Education^®. Our robust supplemental and intervention suite equips learners with insightful and personalized instruction for literacy in English and Spanish, math, coding, and more. Imagine Edgenuity^™ is our flagship courseware solution, complemented by Imagine School Services’ Certified Teachers. Imagine Learning. Empower potential. Learn more at https://www.imaginelearning.com.

August 29, 2023 6:15 am

Imagine Math Meets ESSA Evidence Standard

Evidence for ESSA’s review of Imagine Math research indicates promising evidence of program effectiveness

Scottsdale, Arizona, August 29, 2023 — A research study from Imagine Learning, the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the U.S., serving over 15 million students, received an ESSA Promising rating from Evidence for ESSA, a website produced by the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University that promotes the use of programs that meet ESSA evidence standards.

Evidence for ESSA reviewed Imagine Learning’s study Impact Evaluation of Imagine Math in a Charter School Network, and published their review in June 2023, indicating the research provides promising evidence of significant, positive impact for students in grades K-8.

“Educators are rightfully searching for educational programs with a proven record of effectiveness in helping students achieve learning gains,” said Sari Factor, Vice Chair and Chief Strategy Officer at Imagine Learning. “The research reviewed by Evidence for ESSA demonstrates Imagine Learning’s commitment to ensure that our products optimize learning outcomes for students. Our mission is to inspire learning breakthroughs for students, and studies like this provide evidence that Imagine Math helps students learn, grow, and reach their academic potential.”

For the Impact Evaluation of Imagine Math in a Charter School Network study, Imagine Learning partnered with a charter school network in the southeastern region of the United States to evaluate how Imagine Math impacted students’ academic performance in mathematics. In total, 9,015 users of the Imagine Math program in Kindergarten through Grade 8 were compared to 9,015 statistically similar students in Florida and North Carolina.

The research was designed to retroactively compare the academic performance of students who used Imagine Math with those who did not during the 2020–2021 school year. Results showed that students in grades K-8 who used Imagine Math scored significantly higher on the Spring 2021 administration of the NWEA MAP Growth Math test than did similar comparison students. Similarly, results by grade level showed statistically higher performance for students in Grades 1 through 8 who used Imagine Math. Thus, the study provided evidence that the use of Imagine Math supports students’ mathematics achievement.

Evidence for ESSA vets educational research through rigorous review “to provide clear and authoritative information on programs that meet the ESSA evidence standards and enable educators and communities to select effective educational tools to improve student success.” Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015 as the federal law governing K-12 education. Within the bill are stipulations supporting the use of federal dollars on educational programs with evidence of effectiveness.

About Imagine Learning

Imagine Learning creates K–12 digital-first solutions, fueled by insights from educators, that evolve with the ever-changing demands of tomorrow. We work alongside educators to support over 15 million students in over half of the districts nationwide. Our core portfolio includes Twig Science^®, Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics^®, and Imagine Learning EL Education^®. Our robust supplemental and intervention suite equips learners with insightful and personalized instruction for literacy in English and Spanish, math, coding, and more. Imagine Edgenuity^™ is our flagship courseware solution, complemented by Imagine School Services’ Certified Teachers. Imagine Learning. Empower potential. Learn more at https://www.imaginelearning.com.

Imagine Math^® provides rich, standards-based mathematics instruction in motivating, age-appropriate learning environments for PreK–Geometry. This supplemental, adaptive curriculum challenges students with grade-level content and provides scaffolds for learners, as needed, to ensure they always feel successful. Additionally, point-of-need access to live instruction by certified, bilingual math educators is available starting in grade 3.

August 23, 2023 1:35 pm

Navigating A New Era: The Shift from Teacher-Centric to Student-Centered Learning

The era of information scarcity is long gone, leaving room for a new dawn of student-led inquiry, exploration, critical thinking, and discovery. Are you ready for it?

Technology is radically changing how students communicate, collaborate, and create. Their small devices are an extension of their physical selves and give them impressive control over their daily lives. They stream television shows and movies, build music playlists for every mood, and order food to be delivered. This technology-rich reality stands in stark contrast to my experience growing up. If I wanted to watch Friends, I had to be on the couch at 8 o’clock on Thursday nights. I strategically timed bathroom breaks for commercials. And at the end of every season, I wondered, “Will Ross and Rachel ﬁnally end up together?” As a viewer, I had no control over my experience.

Watching my two teenagers engage with media is radically different. They decide what they watch, when they watch, where they watch, and how much they watch. They have total control over the media they consume. Despite this new reality, young people spend their days in classrooms that operate like network television. Like it or not (need it or not), all students are getting the same information at the same time. This disconnect between their experience at school and their lives beyond the classroom likely contributes to the high number of students who report negative feelings associated with school (Moeller, Brackett, Ivcevic &White, 2020).

Technology is permeating every aspect of society and fundamentally changing how we engage with information and each other. Yet, many classrooms still function in much the same way they did 20 years ago. Even the addition of computers and tablets in classrooms has not radically changed traditional approaches to teaching and learning. Many teachers still spend their days at the front of the classroom disseminating information. It made sense 100, 40, or even 20 years ago for teachers to dedicate signiﬁcant time to transferring information. They and the textbook were the sole sources of information in a classroom. However, students today can access unlimited information in myriad formats online. This should have a transformative impact on our approach to educating young people. The era of information scarcity is long gone, leaving room for a new dawn of student-led inquiry, exploration, critical thinking, and discovery.

The era of information scarcity is long gone, leaving room for a new dawn of student-led inquiry, exploration, critical thinking, and discovery.

A Shift in Teacher Mindset: From Expert to Facilitator

However, to truly transform education, educators must ask themselves, “What is my fundamental purpose in the classroom?” The way they perceive their value shapes their teaching methods. If they see themselves merely as experts, they gravitate toward one-size-ﬁts-all, teacher-led, teacher-paced lessons. This whole group approach to teaching fails to acknowledge learner variability or meet the diversity of needs, abilities, language proﬁciencies, learning preferences, and interests in a classroom. Such a teacher-centric approach also requires the teacher, not the students, to do the lion’s share of the cognitive work. Instead of facilitating active learning, they spend their time at the front of the classroom, presenting information, unpacking complex concepts, and modeling processes and skills in the form of mini-lessons or lectures and relegating students to the role of passive observers.

In an era dominated by technology and advancing AI, teachers must recognize their irreplaceable value lies in their inherent humanness. This includes their ability to listen, observe, empathize, and organically respond to student needs. By contrast, technology excels at disseminating information. One can read a text, watch a video, listen to a podcast, or converse with an AI chatbot to acquire knowledge on various subjects. Moreover, when individuals engage with digital content, they have greater control over their learning experience. They control the pace at which they consume and process information. They can manipulate digital resources in ways that make the information more accessible. For example, students reading an online article can expand the size of a text and look up the deﬁnitions of unfamiliar words. When watching a video, they can pause, rewind, or rewatch as needed and add closed captions. They can even adjust the speed of a video or podcast to ensure the presentation of information isn’t too fast or too slow. If technology excels at transferring information, why would teachers spend their limited time with students talking at them?

Teachers can lean on technology to shoulder some of the burden of “covering content,” so they can spend their precious time with students focused on the human side of this work. If teachers leverage technology strategically and use blended learning models to architect student-centered learning experiences, they can embrace their role as facilitators of learning. As facilitators, their focus is working alongside individuals and small groups of learners, supporting them as they work to comprehend complex concepts and apply speciﬁc strategies and skills. That way, teachers can effectively differentiate and personalize learning for students to ensure they are all making progress toward ﬁrm standards-aligned learning goals.

A Shift in Teacher Skill Set: From One-Size-Fits-All to Blended Learning Models

To free themselves from the front of the room and embrace their role as facilitators of learning, teachers need a more robust and resilient set of technology-enhanced instructional models. Blended learning models combine active, engaged learning online with active, engaged learning ofﬂine. They strive to fundamentally shift the focus and locus of control in the classroom from teacher to learner. Teachers in traditional classrooms can use the range of rotation models (e.g., station rotation, whole group rotation, ﬂipped instruction, and playlist) to design student-centered learning experiences that allow students more control over the pace and path of their learning.

These blended learning models also position teachers to work directly with individuals and small groups of learners to differentiate instruction and modeling sessions, provide real-time process-based feedback as students work, conference with students about their progress, and conduct side-by-side assessments. The shift from whole group to small group or individual interactions allows teachers to focus their energy and talents on meeting every student where they are in their individual learning journeys, which is critical if we want to provide an inclusive and equitable learning experience.

In an era dominated by technology and advancing AI, teachers must recognize their irreplaceable value lies in their inherent humanness.

The Goal: Shifting Students From Passive Consumers to Active Agents

When educators adjust their mindset, recognizing their value not just as fountains of knowledge but as facilitators of learning, a transformative change begins. This transformational shift is bolstered by blended learning models, which allocate time and space for direct, individualized interaction between teachers and learners. These models don’t just alter the way teachers design and facilitate learning; they redeﬁne the student experience.

Historically, traditional education has conﬁned students to the sidelines as passive observers and recipients of information. They were vessels to be ﬁlled rather than explorers charting their own course. However, blended learning models shift control to learners, positioning them as active agents driving the learning. This demands they move beyond simply absorbing facts and work to make meaning in concert with their peers. The shift to student-centered learning signiﬁes a shift from mere retention to reﬂection, application, and creation. As active agents, students develop the skills and conﬁdence to explore, discover, and create. Ultimately, the purpose of reimagining teaching and learning is to produce not just knowledgeable individuals but critical thinkers, problem solvers, and lifelong learners.

The shift to student-centered learning is a gradual one. Navigating such an environment demands a higher cognitive and social investment from students compared to traditional teacher-led settings where the educator shoulders most responsibilities. However, the dividends of this evolution are invaluable. Students emerge as “expert learners,” characterized by motivation, resourcefulness, strategy, and self-awareness. They become adept at recognizing their strengths, limitations, areas of growth, and conﬁdently advocating for their needs. For teachers, this approach reignites passion and provides a deeper sense of purpose. As we face a time where many educators are stepping away from their roles and students are bracing for a dynamic world and job landscape, adopting this paradigm shift becomes imperative. In an era when educators are leaving the profession in droves, and students prepare to enter a rapidly changing world and job landscape, this shift is imperative.

About the Author – Dr. Catlin R. Tucker

Dr. Catlin R. Tucker is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, international trainer, and professor in the Masters in the Arts of Teaching Program at Pepperdine University. She taught for 16 years in Sonoma County, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2010.

Catlin has written a series of books on blended learning including, The Shift to Student-led, The Complete Guide to Blended Learning, UDL and Blended Learning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes, Balance With Blended Learning, Blended Learning In Action, Power Up Blended Learning, and Blended Learning In Grades 4-12 . In addition to her books on blended learning, Catlin writes an internationally-ranked blog and hosts a podcast called The Balance.

Catlin earned her BA in English literature from the University of California at Los Angeles. She earned her English credential and Masters in Education at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In 2020, Catlin earned her doctorate in learning technologies at Pepperdine University, researching teacher engagement in blended learning environments.

Catlin is active on Twitter @Catlin_Tucker and Instagram @CatlinTucker.

Imagine Simply Teaching Symposium

Listen to Dr. Catlin Tucker’s keynote address on October 25th at 6pm ET.