3D models derived from actual molecular structures have the potential to transform student learning in biology. We share findings related to our research questions: 1) what types of interactions with a protein folding kit promote specific learning objectives?, and 2) what features of the instructional environment (e.g., peer interactions, teacher…

Two investigations of fifth graders' strategies for locating whole numbers on number lines revealed patterns in students' coordination of numeric and linear units. In Study 1, we investigated the effects of context on students' placements of three numbers on an open number line. For one group ("n"?=?24), the line was presented in a…

Educators, researchers, and policy makers increasingly recognize that participation in classroom mathematics discussions, especially engaging with others' ideas, can promote students' mathematics understanding. How teachers can promote students' high-level engagement with others' ideas, and the challenges teachers face when trying to do so, have…

This article reports on a study in which activity theory was used to design, implement, and analyze a 10-week curriculum unit about how honeybees collect nectar with a particular focus on complex systems concepts. Students (n = 42) in a multi-year kindergarten and 1st-grade classroom participated in this study as part of their 10 regular classroom…

Much has been written recently about the role of talk in content-area learning, including science learning. However, there is still much to be learned about how teachers begin to engage students in the kinds of peer-to-peer conversations that help them make sense of their investigations in science and that advance their conceptual understandings.…

Implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children with autism is challenging for teachers because these practices are often complex, requiring significant training and resources that are not available in most school settings. This brief investigation was designed to identify areas of strength and difficulty for teachers implementing one…

Forty-four pairs of Mexican-heritage and European-heritage US children were asked to characterize differences between two contrasting cultural patterns of working together in video clips that showed a) Mexican Indigenous-heritage children working together by collaborating, helping, observing others, and using nonverbal as well as verbal…

Social psychologists have shown experimentally that implicit race bias can influence an individual's behavior. Implicit bias has been suggested to be more subtle and less subject to cognitive control than more explicit forms of racial prejudice. Little is known about how implicit bias is manifest in naturally occurring social interaction. This…