The problem addressed in this study was that many urban minority students in a Midwestern state begin school without the requisite emergent literacy skills. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the instructional approaches used by early childhood education (ECE) teachers in an urban community in a selected Midwestern…

This book uses the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, as a touchstone for the importance and value of including place-based education in the social studies curriculum. Whitlock scrutinizes this local environmental issue to not only drive critical inquiry in the classroom, but also to show how the curriculum can propel valuable social change in the…

Coaching is a popular mechanism for supporting teachers' improved use of teaching strategies. However, relatively little is known about which coaching processes are used or how those are implemented, especially in emerging formats like online asynchronous coaching. We used a multiple-case study design to examine coaching logs from an asynchronous…

The city of Flint, Michigan switched its water source in April, 2014, and, to reduce costs, anti-corrosion agents were omitted from water treatment. Consequently, lead leached into pipes, contaminating the water supply and exposing Flint's children to lead well beyond safety standards. The event became known as the Water Crisis, and now dominates…

According to the Michigan Department of Education, between 2011 and 2017, the number of multilingual learners (MLs) enrolled in K-12 schools in the state increased by more than 50%. In 2017, the average teacher to ML ratio in the state was an alarmingly low 1:168. To increase the number of teachers prepared to effectively serve MLs, we developed…

As part of integrated instruction, educators aim to efficiently and simultaneously address learning goals across multiple subject areas like English language arts (ELA) and science or social studies. While studies are beginning to show that this instructional approach can be effective, it is challenging to implement in practice, requiring that…

Project-based learning is popular with many parents, students, and teachers because of its focus on problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and real-world application (Gallup, 2019). It encourages teachers to act as facilitators while students actively engage in teacherand student-posed learning challenges, working alone and in groups on…

Drawing on data from a multi-sited study examining making and makerspace technologies' impact on early social studies education, this article explores how two 1st-grade children mobilized digital media to write (right) a personal issue of geo-civic injustice. Using speculative civic literacies and sound studies as conceptual tools to interrogate…

This exploratory study examined the changing role of music education and the availability of musical experiences for students attending Montessori schools in the Midwestern United States. On a survey instrument designed by the researcher, Montessori school directors (N = 36) from eight states shared descriptions of the current role of music at…

This article details a qualitative case study of 24 preschool children engaged with step-by-step drawing instruction provided by five educators as they developed their fine motor skills and drew detailed objects using the Drawing Children Into Reading curriculum (Halperin, W. A. (2011a). "Project 50 preschool manual." South Haven, MI:…

IBHA, the International Big History Association, was organized in 2010 and "promotes the unified, interdisciplinary study and teaching of history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity." This is the vision that Montessori embraced long before the discoveries of modern science fleshed out the story of the evolving universe. "Big…

In this paper the authors briefly describe how features of the multilevel bi-factor model align with salient features of instruction. They then apply this framework to measure the extent to which teachers' instruction is supportive of vocabulary learning in second and third grade reading comprehension and vocabulary lessons. The results lend…

The goal of this study is to investigate early childhood teachers' perspective of teaching foster and adopted children. The main purpose is to seek suggestions how teachers can nurture the development of foster and adopted children. A 6 question survey was sent to 44 teachers pursuing graduate studies in early childhood education. Of this 50%…

The aim of this study is to compare the teaching process of early reading in the US to in Turkey. This study observes developing early reading of students, their reading miscues, and compares early reading process of students in the US and to early reading process of students in Turkey. This study includes the following research question: What are…

The purpose of this design case is to tell the story of our work to design context-aware activity notification for learning management systems. The story of the design experience is not simple, in that it includes research and development, conceptual evolution, implementation and extinction, and multiple phases, including inspiration for future…