The video game market continues to increase, reaching millions of users on a variety of platforms and revealing how engaging and pervasive gaming can be. Games create engagement and offer both entertainment and a powerful way to understand and interact with the world. It is natural that educators see the potential of games as a learning tool that can support students who have difficulties learning and also reinvent it. Practical Perspectives on Educational Theory and Game Development is a critical scholarly resource that combines educational scenarios and game fundamentals in order to improve the way people learn and evolve. The book supports professionals with the creation of strategies for using gamification and game-based learning theory with effectiveness and measured results. Featuring a wide range of topics such as entrepreneurship, gamification, and traditional learning, this book is ideal for academicians, education professionals, curriculum designers, educational game developers, researchers, and students.

In the spirit of encouraging international dialogue between researchers and practitioners, often working within isolated traditions, this book discusses perspectives on science education for the gifted informed by up-to-date research findings from a number of related fields. The book reviews philosophy, culture and programmes in science education for the gifted in diverse national contexts, and includes scholarly reviews of significant perspectives and up-to-date research methods and findings. The book is written in a straightforward style for students studying international perspective modules on undergraduate, but especially masters and doctoral degrees in Science Education and Gifted Education. Gifted education has come to be regarded as a key national programme in many countries, and gifted education in science disciplines is now of major importance to economic and technological development. Despite these national initiatives and developments, there are very few discussions on gifted education in science from international perspectives. This will be a valued addition to the scholarship in this emergent field.

A key new textbook which is part of a new series co-published with The Open University Written to be used in conjunction with its counterpart in the Teaching in the Secondary School series. Between them they address both the theoretical and practical issues in science teaching Examples of good practice are underpinned by reference to research and other literature

This text combines theory, practice and personal perspectives through the use of case studies and commentaries by senior scholars in the field of science education.

This book explores how science learning can be more relevant and interesting for students and teachers by using a contextualized approach to science education. The contributors explore the contextualization of science education from multiple angles, such as teacher education, curriculum design, assessment and educational policy, and from multiple national perspectives. The aim of this exploration is to provide and inspire new practical approaches to bring science education closer to the lives of students to accelerate progress towards global scientific literacy. The book presents real life examples of how to make science relevant for children and adolescents of diverse ethnic and language backgrounds, socioeconomic status and nationalities, providing tools and guidance for teacher educators and researchers to improve the contextualization and cultural relevance of their practice. The book includes rigorous studies demonstrating that the contextualization of science learning environments is essential for student engagement in learning science and practitioners' reflections on how to apply this knowledge in the classroom and at national scale. This approach makes this book valuable for researchers and professors of science education and international education interested in designing teacher education courses that prepare future teachers to contextualize their teaching and in adding a critical dimension to their research agendas.

Co-Published with the Association For Science Teacher Education. Reflecting recent policy and standards initiatives, emerging research agendas, and key innovations, this volume provides a contemporary overview of important developments and issues that have that have in recent years shaped elementary science education pre-service courses and professional development, and practices that are shaping future directions in the field. Contributors from several countries who are actively engaged in research and design in elementary science education address: *Conceptual issues which impinge on contemporary science teacher education; *Intersections of content, pedagogy, and practice; and *Professional development as a contextualized practice. Elementary Science Teacher Education: International Perspectives on Contemporary Issues and Practice offers a clear picture of the current state of the field and directions for the future--to the benefit of elementary science teacher educators, aspiring teacher educators, school policy makers, other professionals involved in science education and, ultimately, the millions of elementary school children who will gain from improved practice.