Providing students and teachers with appropriate support is a pivotal component when it comes to improving student outcomes. Pre-Referral Intervention Teams (PIT) provide structured interventions and assistance for at-risk students. The purpose of this study was to answer the following research questions: (1) What are teachers' perceptions of…

One of many problems schools face today is the ability to implement effective professional development (PD) for staff. Research on this topic has shown a lack of follow through on the school district's part to offer consistent and effective PD to our teachers (Daegan & Bean, 2015). With the adoption of Smarter Balanced state testing in New…

The impact of social and emotional skills on educational, career, and life outcomes is well supported in the research literature. Schools are increasingly implementing universal curricula to teach social and emotional skills to all students. Today's climate of accountability places pressure on school administrators and policy makers to evaluate…

We explore development of elementary preservice teachers' reflective practices as they solved problems encountered while teaching in a reading clinic. Written reflections (N = 175) were collected across 8 weeks from 23 preservice teachers and analyzed to investigate relationships among problem exploration, teaching adaptations, and problem…

Several studies suggest that values-affirmation can serve as a simple, yet powerful, tool for dramatically reducing achievement gaps. Because subtle variations in implementation procedures may explain some of the variation in these findings, it is crucial for researchers to measure the fidelity with which interventions are implemented. The authors…

This study aimed to add to the information known about the leaders charged with the task of successfully and sustainably turning around a school. Specifically, this research examined the extent to which leaders engaged in turnaround school reform experienced mindfulness. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, state assigned school grades of schools…

In December 2011, I was thrilled to embark on my first job in academia at the then Faculty of Health, Education and Society, Plymouth University. A few months later, I applied for my first small research grant with Janet Georgeson to undertake a research project on children's social interactions and friendships in the context of inclusion within…

This study presents an 'education for sustainability' curricular model which promotes science learning in an elementary classroom through equity pedagogy. A total of 25 fourth-grade students from an urban, public school in Denver, Colorado participated in this mixed-methods study where concept maps were used as a tool for describing and assessing…

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of the teaching practice course on preservice elementary teachers' TISE level. In this research both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The participants were 43 pre-service elementary teachers from a state university in Turkey. In the quantitative part of the study, these…

This article reports on an exploratory study that addressed the low confidence levels of 80 generalist primary student teachers enrolled in a mandatory visual arts course. Previous studies in this area have found that a cycle of neglect exists in Australia, as a result of educators' lack of confidence in their ability to teach visual arts. This is…

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the primary mathematics teacher candidates' perceptions about the equal sign within the scope of neuroscience studies. To reveal their perceptions about the equal sign, three types of addition operations were asked to the participants: a+b=[], []=a+b, a+b=[]+c. Their brain waves were recorded by EEG…

Learning mathematics is problematic for most primary school age children because mathematics is rote and the memorization of steps rather than an approach to seeing relationships that builds inquiry and understanding. Therefore, the traditional "algorithmic" way of teaching mathematics has not fully prepared students to be critical…

This mixed-methodology case study explored one district's attempt to provide teacher leadership training in an effort to increase feelings of empowerment. Empowerment is defined as the degree to which an individual feels capable of influencing his or her work role and context (Spreitzer, 1995) and in the field of education, empowering teachers is…

The following research report documents a professional development that focused on promoting understanding of algebraic learning progressions across vertical teams of elementary and secondary teachers. Analyzing quantitative data from the pre and post MKT assessment and qualitative data from lesson reflections and final course reflections,…

The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate essential components of an arts-integration program that may contribute to improved student achievement in elementary reading at the school of study through a formative evaluation. Stufflebeam's CIPP model of program evaluation served as the conceptual framework for the study's findings. Creative…