Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability-focused, cocurricular, interdisciplinary programming for graduate students at creating future leaders in sustainability, i.e. did interdisciplinary sustainability programming further prepared graduate students in sustainability leadership beyond the scope of the…

Background: A systematic adaptation of an evidence-based state health curriculum (Michigan Model for Health™, MMH) was created to enhance physical activity and family engagement materials but retain the core functional elements of the curriculum. Methods: The Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications-Enhanced (FRAME) was used to…

Though early childhood educators have a long history of emphasizing learning through play to foster the development of the whole child, including social-emotional competencies, the proliferation of formal social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula first seen in kindergarten to 12th grade has expanded to prekindergarten. This report presents initial…

This report presents the results of a study conducted by RAND researchers that investigated the implementation and effects of the Positive Emotional Development and Learning Skills (PEDALS) program in prekindergarten classrooms in Western and Central New York and Southeast Michigan. PEDALS is a social-emotional learning (SEL) program that combines…

This mixed-methods dissertation study analyzed curriculum and teachers' enacted instruction to determine if there was overlap between the evidence-based practices in teachers' enacted practice and those that were also contained in the curricular materials. Participants in this study were kindergarten through third-grade teachers (n=25) from…

This report examines the evolving landscape of English language arts (ELA) curriculum and instructional support in Michigan elementary schools from the 2019-20 to the 2022-23 school years. Recognizing the pivotal role instruction plays in shaping students' literacy development, this report explores which curriculum resources teachers are using to…

This paper presents the results of a multi-year effort to redesign the introduction to business course at Western Michigan University. ScrimmageSIM, a business simulation that emulates commercial ERP systems, provides the core experience in the course and is a mechanism for students to develop their understanding of business with a focus on…

If the White Christian nationalist movement has significantly galvanized parent, community, and larger-scale political groups whose guiding ethos challenges teacher professional roles in shaping literacy curriculum and instruction, then how can literacy teachers and teacher educators better understand this movement, its interpretive orientation to…

Due to current and upcoming needs in the discipline and accreditation, the Nutritional Sciences faculty at a major university reformed their curriculum using backward design. As part of this process, they developed new learning outcomes that aligned to the institutional learning outcomes and mapped these new outcomes across the major's required…

This study documents secondary pre-service teachers (PSTs) who examined Black Lives Matter (BLM)-themed young adult literature (YAL) embedded in contemporary realistic fiction and graphic novels, as part of coursework for an online YAL course required for secondary teacher certification. An analysis of instructor mentoring, online discussions,…

In this piece, the authors unpack a heuristic developed by the Great First Eight curriculum for helping young children to recognize and act on injustice. First, they explain the rationale behind the heuristic, known as ReAD, and the inspiration behind its creation. They then detail a series of seven practical principles that can help to…

The fundamental structure of a typical mainstream two-semester organic chemistry course, populated mostly by life science majors and taught at universities throughout the United States, has changed little since the 1970s. However, much of the research on learning in organic chemistry has been devoted to characterizing student difficulties of…

While much research has been devoted to understanding how peer tutoring benefits tutors, less attention has been given to how peer tutors develop pedagogical content knowledge as an additional benefit of working with students as they write. In this qualitative study of 15 undergraduate Writing Fellows (writing-focused peer tutors who work in large…

Although policymakers have advocated for infusing sustainability throughout the higher education curriculum, we know little about how to teach students this complex subject matter. Therefore, using data from a sustainability survey of Michigan State University undergraduate students, this study charted students' exposure to promising practices of…

Despite psychology's position within the National Council for the Social Studies' definition of social studies, the American Psychological Association is advocating the rebranding of psychology as a science course. This study interviews six high school psychology teachers and employs a Foucauldian framework to understand different perspectives on…