Abstract Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a cyclical process essential for activating independent learners. Because SRL does not develop spontaneously, teachers need to learn about and experience its components and effective practices to stimulate students’ SRL. To support teachers in SRL practice implementation, we propose a unique professional development model that combines direct and indirect instruction of SRL. The model is based on Authentic, Interactive, and Dynamic Experiences in SRL context (SRL-AIDE), and involves live-actor simulations , where participants are highly engaged and immersed in the experience.The study aims to shed light on the relationships and characteristics of practices that promote SRL directly by metacognitive strategic support (MCS), and indirectly by activating students’ independent learning with knowledge construction (KC). This is a quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design. Two teachers’ intervention groups with a pre/post design ( N = 70) were compared: an experimental group exposed to the SRL-AIDE model focused on MCS vs. a comparison group exposed to a practice program focused on KC . The study examined in-class SRL practice implementation of two measures: explicitness level and duration in the lesson, and investigated the relations between the MCS and KC practices using real-time in-class measurement methods. Differences emerged between the groups in the MCS and KC practices by time. The experimental group showed greater gains in both practices. This study contributes to the field by providing quantitative evidence on the relationships between MCS and KC practices, which were previously described as supportive mainly in qualitative studies, offering new insights into how these practices work together to support SRL development. Implications for teacher education and future studies are discussed.

Children’s motivation and engagement in learning act as cornerstones for positive academic outcomes. While gamification is extensively studied as a strategy for making learning fun, there remains a limited understanding of other factors that contribute to a fun learning experience, particularly within formal educational settings. Addressing this research gap, this qualitative study sought to explore the elements primary school students aged 9 to 12 perceive as contributing to fun in learning, focusing on aspects beyond gamification. Firsthand perspectives were collected based on classroom observations (N = 48 students), focus group interviews with students (N = 12), and a semi-structured interview with an expert. The analysis of the students’ viewpoints revealed the following six key, non-gamification elements, consistently associated with fun in learning; sense of agency, challenge, diversity in learning, pleasure, low-stress climate, and peer interaction. Evaluated and contextualized by expert insights, these findings offer fresh perspectives on the elements that primary school students perceived as an enhancement for having fun while learning. Overall, the study provides specific, non-gamification insights that can foster and enhance fun in learning, and offers practical recommendations for educators, potentially informing the development of both offline and online educational practices.

Abstract In the pursuit of inclusive classrooms, educators have identified the importance of teachers’ responsiveness to the particular students they teach. To date, research on responsive teaching has emphasized students’ subjectivities. In this study, we use a situative perspective on teacher learning to examine teachers’ subjectivities as they learn and sustain responsive instructional practice. Using fieldnotes, video, and interviews from two critical events, we analyze what happened when teachers encountered students who challenged something core to their visions of teaching, asking, how do contextual resources shape teachers’ responsiveness to students in challenging teaching situations? Through the case analysis, we show that contextual resources shape teachers’ agentic responses in challenging teaching situations, offering different possibilities for their epistemic and relational agency, which, in turn, shapes their interpretations of student behavior. We highlight the emotional labor involved in maintaining responsive teaching, particularly in challenging situations. This paper underscores how teachers’ capacity for responsive instruction can be amplified or reduced by the complex systems and multiple relationships in their schools.

Abstract Learning and relational goals are inherently intertwined in collaborative teacher learning. However, they present tensions that facilitators of professional development (PD) groups need to navigate. Scholars increasingly advocate for problem-based, collaborative teacher learning and highlight the central role that emotions play in teacher learning. However, scarce research has examined how facilitators manage emotion display in PD settings, navigating between relational and learning goals. This ethnographic study explores how facilitators respond to teachers' emotional displays and how their responses serve either or both relational and learning goals. We analyzed a case study of a video-recorded problem-based PD program for elementary and middle school science teachers. We used linguistic ethnographic microanalysis to identify seven facilitation strategies and mapped them onto two continuums: (1) recognizing the emotion (relational goal) and (2) exploring the emotion (learning goal). We present rich illustrations for each strategy and argue that it is possible, and in many cases desirable, to navigate the tension between relational and learning goals by integrating the recognition and exploration of emotions. We furthermore suggest that consistently avoiding or preventing the discussion of teacher emotions may constitute emotional rules that exclude emotions from pedagogical discourse and, hence, miss out on a significant dimension of learning to teach.