In today's dynamic global economy, integrated units of study are particularly important. Students who are fluent in several disciplines and comfortable moving among them can make meaningful connections and maintain enhanced understandings (Sias et al. 2016). This article shares an integrated STEAM unit that is grounded in the science disciplinary…

This article describes a project that integrates English Language Arts (ELA) and coding into environmental science. For this project, students researched science content about human impact on the environment, communicated their findings through a traditionally formatted narrative story, and then used a coding program called Scratch to create an…

Background: As the number of computer science (CS) jobs become increasingly available in this country and computing skills become essential tools for managing all aspects of our personal lives, CS is quickly becoming an essential element of K-12 education and recently, there has been increased attention to bringing computer science to the…

Digital technology offers new possibilities for children to play, express themselves, learn, and communicate. A recent development in online practice is a shift toward youth engaged in computer programming online communities. Programming is argued to be the new literacy of the millennium. In this article, I examine the use of Scratch, an online…

Recent research has shown that implementation of innovative programs at the classroom level continues to be a major challenge. The purpose of this study was to examine the types of modifications made during implementation of two curriculum units in two different setting types (i.e., self-contained, pull-out) to identify areas that should be…

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons, as perceived by elementary school teachers at the target Title I school, for low student achievement in reading. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the ecological theory that postulates that students' academic achievement is influenced by several subsystems that affect human…

In response to the low passing rate of its students with disabilities, administrators at a small urban elementary school in south Texas implemented coteaching. Guided by Nonaka and Takeuchi's collaborative learning framework, this qualitative instrumental case study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of collaborative teaching in the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the vocabulary teaching of primary-grade teachers (K-3) in low-income schools. A total of 337 observations were conducted during language arts blocks over a three-year period. A coding scheme was developed to analyze teachers' vocabulary instruction. Results indicated that teachers spent less than 5%…

This article examines gender gaps in academic performance (grades in mathematics and reading) between boys and girls of ninth-grade elementary schools in the Czech Republic. Our analysis is based on 2003 data from the Programme for International Student Assessment, encompassing the academic performance and family background of ninth-grade pupils.…

This report provides a description of a cognitive interview study investigating validity of assessments designed to measure "content knowledge for teaching" (CKT). The report is intended both to provide information on the validity of the CKT measures and to provide guidance to researchers interested in replicating the design. The study…

This study reports on a critical review of the language demands contained in the Common Core State Standards for English language arts (CCSS-ELA) with the aim of deriving important implications for the instruction of English language learners. The language demands of the CCSS-ELA were compared with those of existing English language arts (ELA) and…

This study focused on household funds of knowledge or "historically accumulated bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household functioning and well-being" (Gonzalez, Andrade, Civil, & Moll, 2001). A Funds of Knowledge approach provides both a methodological and theoretical lens for educators to understand both themselves and…

This study explored how elementary educators implement iPad devices as instructional tools to enhance their language arts instruction. The study used a phenomenological qualitative design with a single-subject case study design coupled with an embedded rubric component. The researcher conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews, classroom…

This study investigates the use of interactive video in teacher education as a way of laying the cognitive groundwork for developing teacher self-reflection. Two interactive video approaches were designed to help early preservice teachers (novices) align what they observed in classroom teaching videos of other preservice teachers with what…

Gabriela Montserrat (pseudonym) is a Mexican-American child classified by her school district as an "emerging bilingual" and is the focus of this qualitative case study that took place at a public elementary school located in a suburban community in the southwestern US in Mrs Pérez's (pseudonym) second-grade classroom. The student's use…