Spatial language and ability play important roles in children's cognitive development. Spatial ability in kindergarten predicts achievement in reading, math, science, and technology in primary school and therefore constitutes an important skill set in preparation for school entrance. Good spatial thinking skills are required for learning in…

Several studies indicate that executive functions (EF), such as working memory (WM), inhibition or flexibility can be improved by training and that these training-related benefits in WM capacity generalize to reading and mathematical abilities. However, the results of these studies are inconsistent and most of them focused on WM training in…

Previous research has reported that schoolteachers are an at-risk population for stress and anxiety-related psychological disorders. High stress levels have been linked to the suboptimal use of executive functions, abilities which are a major component of effective job performance in educational contexts. In the present study, 99 teachers from…

This study discussed the effects of the Early STEAM Education Program on the visual-spatial reasoning skills of children. A pre-test post-test experimental design was used. The study group consisted of 54 students who attended a state kindergarten in Gaziantep in Turkey. The effectiveness of the Early STEAM Education Program was tested by…

Extended reality technologies -- mixed, augmented, and virtual reality, and future-related technologies -- are rapidly expanding in many fields, with underexplored potentials for multimodal composition in digital media environments. This research generates new knowledge about the novel wearable technology -- smart glasses -- to support elementary…

This dissertation investigated whether specific music training components of pitch and rhythm had a differential effect on early literacy skills of phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and concept of word awareness. In addition, this study examined associations between musical aptitude and early literacy skills. The central element of this…

This action research study describes the impact of ability grouping on fifth-grade students' academic achievement in reading. The theoretical framework that supported this study is embedded in cooperative learning, social learning, social interdependence, and self-efficacy. This study used a mixed methods design to consider the following research…

The intersection of modeling and STEM practices offers a promising avenue for creating an integrated STEM curriculum. However, research on designing modeling-based STEM (m-STEM) curricula is limited, particularly concerning how the curriculum affects the learning of students with different spatial abilities. This study developed a four-round…

The primary goal of this research was to examine the impact of Augmented Reality (AR) based virtual interaction and physical interaction on the development of spatial skills in Xining Qinghai, China's primary school students (aged 8 to 10). The research was conducted in a public-school setting with 54 participants using a quasi-experimental…

Children's white matter development is driven by experience, yet it remains poorly understood how it is shaped by attending formal education. A small number of studies compared children before and after the start of formal schooling to understand this, yet they do not allow to separate maturational effects from schooling-related effects. A clever…

Spatial reasoning correlates with academic success in mathematics and science, is highly malleable, and can be learned. Yet, spatial reasoning is often underused, underdeveloped, and ignored in current grade-school curriculum and teaching. This study explores changes in elementary students' spatial reasoning skills after participation in either a…

This improvement project was designed to ensure students enrolled in elementary schools with a high poverty index received literacy instructional strategies that promoted literacy achievement. When analyzing Graham County School data, I noticed third-grade students attending high poverty elementary schools were not achieving literacy success at…

The study aimed to determine the effect of a brain-based environmental program for preschool children aged 5-6 years on their sustainable environmental behaviors. For this purpose, an experimental study was designed for a period of 8 weeks. The participants of the study were composed of 20 children from middle socio-economic level families who…

Background/Context: The early school years are an important time for building family-school relationships (Sibley & Dearing, 2014). As such, family engagement is a top priority of organizations that serve young children, such as Head Start. Children whose parents report being involved in their school demonstrate greater social competence and…

Despite an abundance of research centered on reading and applied behavior analysis, minimal literature exists on the use of applied behavior analysis methodologies to treat reading disabilities. This dissertation-in-practice action research study examined the extent to which a behavior-analytic intervention infused with the science of reading…