Mathematics educators have moved past the days of students sitting quietly in mathematics classrooms, listening to their teachers while procedures are demonstrated at the board. While this is certainly not true everywhere, the evidence to move away from traditional lectures is clear. Rather than sitting and just listening, students must actively…

In this study, I examined the ways in which teachers' facilitation techniques are associated with students' mathematical thinking. The teachers' beliefs and students' perception about mathematics discussions were also examined in order to determine whether or not the connection of the teachers' facilitation techniques with students' thinking were…

Through this non-experimental descriptive correlational study, 31 high school classrooms were observed, and instances of non-content teacher talk were identified and correlated with female student science identity survey responses to determine the presence or absence of a relationship between the two constructs. A correlational research design was…

Despite the standardization of calculus education as a Calculus and Analytic Geometry course after the 1950s, curriculum updates have been slow to penetrate the undergraduate mathematics classroom practice, taking decades to manifest. Common struggles with the teaching and learning of calculus, such as relying on a procedural understanding of…

This qualitative case study examined communication strategies and interactional resources that junior and senior high school Spanish teachers use more often in their oral activities in central Pennsylvania public schools. A mismatch in students' knowledge and use of Spanish motivated the investigation. Twelve Spanish teachers were the purposely…

This quantitative study examined teachers' self-efficacy in teaching multilingual learners (MLL) and implementing the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) to support MLL instruction in classrooms. The problem is that teachers' self-efficacy when teaching MLLs may affect them not utilizing the best research-based Tier 1 instructional…

Chemistry is considered a difficult subject by most students. Its difficulty lies in Chemistry's complex and abstract nature. This highly abstract nature requires constant interplay and coordination between the macroscopic, particulate, and symbolic representations. Experts can successfully navigate the various representations without overloading…

This qualitative narrative research investigated successful cases of international students who actively verbally participate and speak up during academic or coursework discussions in the classrooms. More specifically, the aim of this narrative inquiry was to capture the lived and living experiences of English language learners (ELLs) navigating…

Teacher talk is a major way in which instructors support and provide scaffolding for their students, frame their pedagogies, model ways of thinking, and convey ideas. Effective teacher talk about engineering design at all levels of students' educational experiences has the potential to better prepare students for success in engineering and…

This research seeks to understand how secondary science students make space for themselves in the classroom. Specifically, this study examines the interplay between classroom structures and students' agentic negotiations while identifying the relationship between students' enacted agency and their authored science identities by drawing from a…

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) science and engineering practices (SEPs) involve commands of the English language in writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Language tasks embedded in NGSS SEPs require English learners (ELs) to develop science skills and understanding and language proficiency simultaneously. Sense of self-efficacy…

Teaching mathematics for conceptual understanding: An examination of elementary and secondary teacher candidates (Under the direction of Dr. Cyndi Edgington and Dr. Temple Walkowiak).This embedded multiple-case qualitative study aspired to learn more about how elementary (K-5) and secondary (6-12) teacher candidates (TCs) incorporated and…

This qualitative study explores the current practices of K-12 foreign language teachers (FLTs) in using the target language (TL) within an urban school district in the Midwest United States. Focusing on how FLTs engage in professional development (PD) to optimize their TL use in the classroom, the study investigates the strategies and knowledge…

University mathematics classrooms are continuing to become more linguistically and culturally diverse. Students in these courses bring rich language resources for learning and engaging in classroom mathematical practices. Despite this diversity, little research has examined the role of language in post-secondary mathematics education. Using mixed…

The purpose of this study was to understand how the facilitator affects the participants' perception of the professional development based on the moves they make to engage educators in the learning experiences. The implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards has resulted in the development of a variety of science professional…