Background: Fair comparisons of educational systems in large-scale assessments can be made only if the differences in curricula have little impact on the outcomes. This study investigated the sensitivity of science achievement rankings to varying degrees of curriculum implementation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study…

Lesson Study is rapidly becoming one of the most adopted models of teacher professional development worldwide. In this paper, we examine the teachers' discussions that are an integral part of the Lesson Study research cycle. In particular, we investigate the "dialogic mechanisms" that enable teachers' pedagogical intentions to be…

The educational video game Mission Biotech provides a virtual experience for students in learning biotechnology materials and tools. This study explores the use of Mission Biotech and the associated curriculum by three high school teachers and their students. All three classes demonstrated gains on a curriculum-aligned test of science content.…

Research-based content reading strategies were infused in Louisiana's curriculum to improve students' comprehension. This change does not guarantee that teachers know what they are, use them, or recommend their use to colleagues. This study surveyed 381 teachers regarding their implementation, familiarity, usefulness and recommendation of the…

Tablets such as the iPad represent the next iteration of technologies that hold promise to facilitate learning, particularly in mathematics. In the case of algebra, tablets have the potential to bring the curriculum to life by easily linking to supporting materials and they allow an interactive experience whereby manipulation of one type of…

Geospatial technologies are increasingly being integrated in science classrooms to foster learning. This study examined whether a Web-enhanced science inquiry curriculum supported by geospatial technologies promoted urban middle school students' understanding of energy concepts. The participants included one science teacher and 108 eighth-grade…

An inquiry-oriented laboratory in chemistry was integrated into the chemistry curriculum in Jewish high schools in Israel, and after a short period was also implemented in Arab sector. In this study, we investigated the effect of culture on the perceptions of laboratory classroom learning environments by comparing the perceptions of Arab and…

Teachers today are being asked to teach to a broad range of learners (D. Rose, Sethuraman, & Meo, 2000a; Schumm, Vaughn, Haager, McDowell, & et al., 1995) and traditional instruction in not adequate to address students' instructional needs (Coyne, Kameenui, & Carnine, 2007). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has been suggested…

The PIRLS 2011 international database includes data for all questionnaires administered as part of the PIRLS 2011 assessment. This supplement contains the international version of the PIRLS 2011 background questionnaires and curriculum questionnaires in the following 5 sections: (1) Student Questionnaire; (2) Home Questionnaire (Learning to Read…

In this study, the relationship between students' interest in engineering design activities and their expectancy for success in grades 9-12 was evaluated. The theoretical frameworks developed by Eccles and colleagues (i.e., expectancy value) and Butler and Cartier (i.e., what the students bring to contexts under a self-regulated learning…

Background/Context: In September 2007, the Arizona State Board of Education adopted the Structured English Immersion (SEI) model proposed by the Arizona English Language Learner (ELL) Task Force.During the 2008-2009 academic year, it required all school districts to implement the SEI model.The SEI program, best known as the 4-hour English Language…

Research indicates students who engage in music exhibit improved cognitive development. The quantitative study was conducted in a large suburban school district in Southeast Georgia. This study investigated the impact of music on student achievement when music is incorporated with the core academic subject of mathematics at the elementary level.…

After 10 years of No Child Left Behind standards-focused education, mathematics scores have improved only marginally for elementary-aged students. Students who developed a solid conceptual mathematics foundation at the elementary level succeeded later in higher-level mathematics courses; thus, educators have sought ways to increase mathematics…

In order to "offer a first class educational experience and become the system of choice for all families the school system," challenged individual schools within the district to select and implement innovative educational theme based programs, coupled with the framework of Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), to increase the quality of…

To support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the development and dissemination of two tools aimed at operationalizing classroom instruction based on the standards: (1) the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC)'s Framework; and (2) the Math Design Collaborative (MDC)'s…