Magic has been a very popular form of entertainment for thousands of years and the learning and developmental processes that take place during the process of practicing and performing the trick--are a precious phenomenon from an educational point of view. The MiniMagic kindergarten program was launched in September 2021 in a kindergarten in…

Many scholars have identified teacher education (TE) as a crucial site for strengthening the research-practice interface. Much of this work has focused on formal TE opportunities, English-language instructors, or university-level contexts. Less is known about how other educator demographics engage with second language (L2) research throughout…

The rapid growth of culturally and linguistically diverse populations in K-12 schools has increased the need for preparing culturally responsive teachers. Yet, many pre-service teachers feel unprepared to work with diverse students. With the urgent need to connect educational theory to classroom practice, teacher preparation programs have turned…

Teacher-parent communication is one of the domains in teacher education where the gap between theory and practice is evident. Although teacher-education programmes are responsible for developing preservice teachers' (PSTs') effective parent-teacher communication skills, such interactions are rarely practiced during the training. Simulation-Based…

The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomena of play by exploring kindergarten teachers' perceptions of play, specifically investigating teachers' perspectives on the importance of play, the role of the educator in play, and the changing face of play in response to evolving academic standards. This study utilized the qualitative approach…

Culturally relevant pedagogy includes three tenets: academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Despite personal interests in social justice, many teachers that pursue aspects of culturally relevant pedagogy fail to challenge students to recognize, critique, and act against societal inequities;…

Educational research has been around for over one hundred years and has faced periods of optimism, pessimism, and skepticism. Currently, there is a plethora of educational research available for teachers and districts to use. However, there is a research-practice gap. This gap refers to the amount of research available and educators using the…

In the field of educational leadership, there is some work around the preferred theories of scholars, but little to no research on how the chosen theories are subsequently applied. Better understanding the purpose, role, and depth of how theory is used in educational leadership can help inform the teaching and mentorship of aspiring leaders and…

In this study, we share our broad and deep search for what is known from blind-peer-reviewed research publications about the efficacy of the instructional practice of Number Talks. We describe our process for literature review and the subsequent analysis that revealed a shallow depth of articles for which one can discern the factors of quality of…

Our contribution to this issue features a K12 school district + university partnership related to technology integration, and explores the connections between technology, teacher learning, creative risk taking, and failure. Austin Public Schools (APS) and the LT Media Lab (LTML) have been engaged in a research-practice partnership (RPP) for seven…

In "Small Teaching K-8," a team of veteran educators bridges the gap between cognitive theory and the K-8 classroom environment, applying the same foundational research found in author James Lang's bestselling "Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning" to the elementary and middle school setting. Via clear…

This popular book addresses literacy leaders' eternal quest to prepare all students for the demands of the 21st century. This updated Sixth Edition will help prospective and current literacy professionals understand how to organize and supervise literacy programs within the context of current state and federal mandates. With a focus on providing…

Background: Spatial thinking skills are strongly correlated with achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and emerging research suggests that interventions aimed at building students' skills will likely yield measurable impacts on learning across K-12 settings. The importance of spatial thinking in science has…

Educators increasingly recognize the importance of disciplinary literacy for student success, beginning as early as the primary grades. This cutting-edge volume examines ways to help K-12 students develop the literacy skills and inquiry practices needed for high-level work in different academic domains. Chapters interweave research, theory, and…

This paper makes a conceptual argument for using the Decoding the Disciplines research paradigm as a pedagogical innovation in the field of teacher education. It incorporates empirical findings from a research project in which teacher candidates conduct Decoding interviews to deepen understanding of historical thinking and learn pedagogical…