This research examined how three middle school mathematics teachers who were supported by their district to use the Teaching Through Problem Solving approach interpreted and implemented the Standards for Mathematical practices (SMPs) developed by the Common Core State Standards (2010) and the Mathematics Teaching Practices (MTPs) developed by the…

Declining national assessment scores and continuous critiques of Common Core curricula have presented persistent challenges for stakeholders within the American education system. This study was an investigation of the existence of parallelism in five commonly used Common Core middle school mathematics curricula. An embedded mixed methods research…

In this study, I documented, analyzed, and compared the thought processes of six high school science teachers during twenty minutes of planning for NGSS-aligned instruction. Teachers' thoughts were captured using a virtual revisit think-aloud protocol and their thoughts were analyzed and compared using a novel tool called a thinking web. A…

The purpose of this study is to explore special education teacher and teacher educator perceptions of the Standard Outcome Lesson and Reflection (SOLAR) Guide. Even though research shows that special education teachers need the skill of curriculum mapping in their roles in the classroom, a dearth of research has identified effective ways to help…

Mathematicians teaching at the university level have a deep understanding and appreciation for the mathematics that they teach. However, they rarely receive much formal training in teaching. Thus, university mathematicians must rely on their mathematical understandings and personally developed ideas of teaching to guide their decision-making.…

Elementary social studies resources have faced criticism for well over 30 years. Text that is too complex (Beck et al., 1989; Beck & McKeown, 1991), contains questionable content (Chu, 2017; Wade, 2012), and is boring to students (Kelley, 2021; Schug, 1982) and teachers (Zhao & Hoge, 2010). More recent studies have found that teachers are…

This qualitative action research study examines how middle and high school STEM teachers create and implement lessons that connect concepts to the real-world and develop student metacognition. The researcher collected data through interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and survey questions. Participants from vocational, private, and…

In recent history, the desire for an internationally competitive economy has driven education policy and reform. Creativity has become a signifier for innovative growth in global economies. As a result, creators of recent international education policies expect teachers to develop creative attributes in students. Tensions can exist when writers of…

The problem this study addressed was educators of students with severe and profound disabilities face barriers to teaching a functional curriculum due to the lack of training and targeted curriculum. The purpose of this qualitative single exploratory case study was to examine the benefits and barriers faced by teachers of students with severe and…

The instructional decisions made by classroom teachers impact the learning acquired by students. The Common Core Mathematics Standards and the history of mathematics education in the United States create a background for how geometry standards are taught in one Midwest middle school. A study of the pacing guides, lesson plans, and naturalistic…

This research was a mixed-methods study investigating how teachers in northeastern West Virginia use student data to drive their instructional decisions. This study also investigated teachers' perceptions of the data use on their instruction, their students, and themselves. Data collection for this research included both a cross-sectional survey…

The field of education has seen exponential growth in the number of education professionals using social media platforms as instructional resources to supplement their existing classroom resources. Social media has made it easy for education professionals to create, share, and sell their ready-made instructional materials with other educators;…

Instructional time spent on elementary social studies has waned in the context of high stakes testing of math and English Language Arts. Integrating social studies within an English Language Arts instructional block creates learning opportunities that more closely align with recommendations from the National Council for the Social Studies (2009)…

This study investigated how eleven secondary mathematics teachers used curriculum resources to plan and enact lessons that support the participation of emergent bilingual (EB) students in mathematical practices in their linguistically diverse classrooms. EB students classified as English Learners often experience mathematics as a set of…

Administrators and teachers are concerned that English Language Learners (ELLs) in an urban elementary school in a southern part of the United States are not meeting required state standards in reading. Teachers have indicated that they do not always know how to differentiate instruction for ELLs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to…