This study was situated at Mountain Middle School (Pseudonym). Students at Mountain Middle School often engage in collaborative compositions embedded within week-long multidisciplinary and multiage units of study called Odysseys. These units of study and the collaborative composition projects are classified as formal cooperative learning. Johnson…

Collaboration is an underused teaching strategy despite its benefits and the call for curriculums worldwide to increase its use. To aid in discovering why the strategy is underused, more information was needed about the implementation of collaboration in the mathematics classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate mathematics teachers'…

This dissertation examines the development of combinatorial reasoning in high school students through an in-depth analysis of a problem-solving session involving the Pizza Problem. The study, part of the long-term Rutgers-Kenilworth longitudinal research project, focuses on four 11th-grade students as they explore and connect concepts related to…

What should the core purpose of educational wind bands in the United States be? Many music students may not pursue the activity in college (or may not even play a band instrument again after their formal schooling). Musical and artistic values, however, can be applied in creative practice throughout one's life. This dissertation explores what it…

Mathematics teachers are continuously looking for ways to improve student learning. New or modified classroom strategies can help teachers reach these goals to increase student achievement, motivation, and confidence in their abilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of students working as collaborative pairs in high school…

Instructional coaches support teacher professional improvement and subsequent student learning through their instructional leadership; however, individual interpretations of district-wide instructional goals influence the work each instructional coach carries out at different school sites. This leads to a lack of systemic focus to ensure the work…

This dissertation explores the implementation of classical education in a non-classical charter high school, with a focus on science education using classical methodologies. Employing techniques like copy work, history-based science teaching (HBST), the Socratic method, and the Progymnastmata, astronomy, and chemistry were taught. To identify…

This study examined the variations between providing secondary-school teachers with collaborative professional development (PD) and traditional PD. Although the U.S. local and federal governments spend billions of dollars on teacher PDs each year, there is still a debate on the effectiveness of those trainings. Research suggests that the most…

Inclusive learning opportunities lead to better outcomes for students with extensive support needs (ESN). In the absence of targeted intervention, however, students with ESN are unlikely to interact meaningfully with their peers or the general education curriculum. The literature describes evidence-based strategies in support of the meaningful…

Over the last two decades, increasingly scholarship has promoted pedagogies and curricular frameworks that push students to develop skills that transfer between disciplines and outside of classroom contexts. There are a number of kairotic moments that are taking hold of our society today that warrant a shift in education. As new AI tools emerge,…

Teenagers are often disengaged in high school. Self-determination theory suggests that support for competence, autonomy, and relatedness may facilitate engagement. Co-creation encourages students to take responsibility for their affective engagement and work with teachers to create a context that supports their basic needs. Youth Participatory…

Over the years, Web 2.0 tools have played a more dominant role in education as they provide the skills necessary for 21st century learning (McLoughlin & Alam, 2014; Sadaf, Newby, & Ertmer, 2012). While this shift with educational technology has been prevalent in most schools, small rural communities such as American Samoa have yet to have…

There is a need for intervention programs that support teenagers' social and emotional development in American public schools. Education stakeholders have observed a disproportionate decline in social-emotional skills among minority and at-risk adolescents in low performing schools, increasing dropout rates and early exposure to the criminal…

The underlying assumption of this study is that writing as a process has profound implications for success and fulfillment both in and beyond the classroom. A second assumption is that electronic portfolios provide students a space to write, revise, reflect, share, and explore themselves as writers. Students who engage with and embrace the writing…

The purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the impact of game mechanics on developing collaborative problem solving (CPS) skills. CPS skills are important for the complex work environments of the 21st century, and games appear to provide potential learning experiences where such skills can develop. The research questions of…