Factors that support learner engagement and achievement are vast. School learning environments can promote care for learners. The present year-long study examined the "Designed Caring Classroom Intervention" in 17 s grade classrooms in a large school district. To examine the effect of the intervention on second grade learners'…

Background: Schoolyards and/or playgrounds are important settings for fostering children's social, cognitive, and physical development. Optimal schoolyard design is likely an important health-promoting and equigenic strategy, but prior research does not fully consider multiple dimensions of these spaces, such as vegetation, slopes, ground cover,…

Teachers' agency in using teaching and learning resources (TLRs) like teachers' guides and learners' textbooks is crucial for developing countries to achieve the sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4) of education quality. I analysed 29 lesson plans and interview data from 6 grade 2 teachers from two schools to examine factors that influence their…

Model-eliciting activities (MEAs) challenge students to interpret a problem and collaboratively create solutions using the engineering design process. This Innovation to Practice article describes how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher educators can use MEAs to build elementary teachers' understanding of computational…

Preparing elementary-aged children to practice data science literacies is important and understudied. Our research investigates how data science curricula might be effectively designed and integrated into elementary classroom instruction. We use narrative case study methodology, focusing on a single case detailing a second-grade teacher's approach…

Background: Zoomorphism, an obverse of conventional anthropomorphism, has been shown in many cases to be a powerful tool with respect to the metaphorical use of animals. Objectives: This study introduced zoomorphism into the instructional video design of pedagogical agents (PAs). Method: We first developed three image sets, each of which…

Cognitive interviews play an important role in articulating the intended construct of educational assessments. This paper describes the iterative development of protocols for cognitive interviews with kindergarten through second-grade children to understand how their spatial reasoning skill development aligns with intended constructs. We describe…

This exploratory case study examined the kinds of activity that a 'deskless school" (i.e., flexible physical school spaces) engenders among pupils and teachers. We also considered the meaning and significance that pupils and teachers attach to various features of the school, as well as the associated action possibilities. The data were…

There is a paucity of research that has effectively listened to children's voices on matters important to them and has asked them how they would like to be listened to. This study used a playful approach to listen to children's voices about play spaces in their primary school. The research questions were: How can a playful approach be used to…

Arousing and sustaining young students' curiosity within school environments is an important concern in contemporary education. Our study investigated the triggers of curiosity in elementary classrooms centered around social constructivist discourse, specifically knowledge-building. To this end, we performed longitudinal network analysis on 4166…

Empathy, an unsung, yet critical element of learning, can be strategically interlaced with literacy instruction and engineering design to create a rich and authentic learning experience for students. Integrated STEM education rests on the promise of engaging students and providing deep understandings through the intentional practice of delivering…

More than a century of research exists on summer learning loss and summer learning programs. However, many schools continue to underutilize the summer as a period of time in which students with academic deficits can catch up to their peers. Few studies have explored the impacts of summer learning experiences on concentrated, school-level…

Engineering has led the way in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, including developing masks that reduce transmission, digital tools that allow contact tracing, and vaccines that show promise to put an end to the pandemic and allow a more normal way of life. Society is not only "following the science," but is also applying principles…

Chronic absenteeism is a critical issue that has been linked to many adverse student outcomes. The current study focuses on improving a key system already in place in many school districts--early warning systems (EWSs)--in order to decrease chronic absenteeism in students' earliest schooling years. Using a demographically diverse population of…

Many words in English resemble one another in multiple ways. Words with similar spellings are referred to as "orthographic neighbors." The purpose of this within-subject experimental study was to examine the effect of orthographic neighbors on the spelling acquisition of second-grade students. In each of five sessions of a computer-based…