Great teachers plant seeds that spark change. What kinds of growth are being nurtured by today’s educators?  

The UN’s assertion that high-quality teaching is “the single most influential variable” in student outcomes inspired our current series. From Asia to Africa, we’ve been hearing from teachers globally as they make waves in their communities.  

In the final installment of ‘Voices for change’, we shine a spotlight on teachers across the Americas – from Mexico to the US. 

Exploring how students learn best in the US 

Almost a quarter of Bronxdale High School students have special education needs, and the school serves a low-income community. But over the past ten years, Bronxdale has outperformed other schools in key areas. In fact, it’s been singled out as a model for ‘restorative practices’. The goal at Bronxdale is to “teach the way our students learn best,” explains Principal Carolyne Quintana.  

Under her leadership, Bronxdale has created a safe, caring, collaborative community in which all community members — staff, students, and families — have voice, agency, and responsibility. 

The result is a successful school serving diverse learners, using practices that are consistent with knowledge rooted in the sciences of learning and development. 

“Our mission is to work together as a community so that kids understand what a community is in order to develop as self-reliant independent learners, who leave curious and know how to be thinkers and can solve problems and be creative. All of this requires seeing how people work together to do this.” — Carolyne Quintana 

Bringing mothers in Mexico back into education 

Chemistry teacher and PhET Fellow Anel Cruz Castillo puts it best: “Education can reach everywhere and transform the world”. 

She volunteers for En el Semáforo se Aprende (‘let’s learn at the stoplight’) — an organization that supports families who live and work on the streets of Mexico. Teaching on tablets at traffic lights, Anel uses storybooks and simulations to turn curbs into classrooms. 

It doesn’t just spark learning in children. Inspired by what they see, mothers who left school unfinished are returning, too; after a year, nine are back in education. And one now works at a Querétaro cultural center where she’s learning to run children’s robotics workshops. 

“Working with PhET gave one mother the confidence and helped her to generate a very interesting relationship with mathematics and technology, since, like other mothers, she had not previously used a computer or any app other than instant messaging.” – Anel Cruz Castillo 

Putting research into practice in the US and beyond 

A growing body of research shows that project-based learning can have a positive impact on achievement and engagement. What is it and what makes this approach so impactful in the classroom?  

“Real and genuine knowledge is transferrable... It’s the kind of knowledge you can use again. And that’s the type of knowledge that is developed in project-based learning,” explains Dr Linda Darling-Hammond, 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Research Laureate. 

 “We have evidence from many studies that students who engage in inquiry-based learning... do much better on real assessments and real tasks of critical thinking and problem-solving. This can make a bigger difference for them in the long run in school and in life.” 

“When a student is deeply engaged, their brain is awake and alert, because they’re engaged and they’re interested. That engaged brain operates on connections. Connecting what we know to what we are now learning.” —Dr Linda Darling-Hammond 

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Photo credit: PhET Interactive Simulations