Many states use research-based mathematics curricula as an instructional tool to improve mathematics performance outcomes on state assessment scores. The problem was that despite the implementation of a research-based curriculum, students at XYZ Elementary School (pseudonym) had underperformed on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for…

Many colleges and universities take a "weeding out the weak" approach to teaching STEM, despite substantial literature that emphasizes the values and effectiveness of various other approaches. Introductory, foundational, STEM courses which are often taken by students during their first and second years of college, have been shown to…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) demand that science educators shift from traditional to NGSS teaching and learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the change process of shifting from traditional one-dimensional teaching to NGSS three-dimensional teaching and learning. A survey was sent to all science…

This study aimed to uncover kindergarten teachers' experiences and viewpoints concerning the challenge of integrating sufficient play into their classrooms amidst academic demands. This approach explored kindergarten teachers' experiences and perspectives to understand the complex dynamics between play and academics in early childhood education.…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate current evangelical small group or Sunday school curricula for high school students using the Danielson Framework for Teaching (FFT). The literature review revealed large-scale problems with Christianity in the U.S., problems in Christian education, and finally deficiencies in church curricula.…

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that jobs within the life and physical sciences will grow by 8% between 2020 and 2030; therefore, it is imperative that students receive an engaging, rigorous, and comprehensive science education. Many urban and minority students have been denied this opportunity as evidenced by their poor performance on…

This dissertation was a study of the efficacy of incorporating a creative writing-based curriculum into English Composition I courses. The goal of this study was to determine whether students learning with this style of curriculum could meet the student learning outcomes and master the core competencies for this course as effectively as students…

This descriptive, qualitative case study investigated how three high school teachers in non-STEM subject areas developed integrated STEM (iSTEM) pedagogies for conventional classroom lessons in a high-technology makerspace. The school in focus adopted a STEM teaching policy that required all teachers to implement iSTEM teaching in the school's…

This study addressed the problem of identifying challenges and expectations when a school transitions from traditional education to personalized learning. The single case study used semi-structured interviews to discover the experiences and thoughts of ten teachers and staff members from a rural high school that transitioned. The school was in its…

Assessing volume status in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) remains a difficult task. Newer technology, such as CardioMEMS, allows providers to download pulmonary artery pressure measurements from an implanted sensor. In a large rural emergency department (ED), lack of staff education on CardioMEMS made the device useless when a…

The field of biology is becoming increasingly fragmented, and this fragmentation spills over into the ways our students think and learn about biology. Biology education policy documents stress the importance of teaching biology in an integrated manner and call for the biology education research community to establish a unifying paradigm for the…

Recent K-12 science reforms necessitate a shift in curriculum and instruction to support coherence from the students' perspective. This coherence emerges when students see their science work as addressing and making progress on their questions and problems. Storyline curricular units afford student coherence, but teachers need support to craft…

This qualitative study examined the experiences and perspectives of five high school teachers in a suburban area in Northern California. It investigated how each mainstream content teacher adapted their curriculum for their Newcomer Emergent Bilingual students. A Newcomer Emergent Bilingual student is one who has recently immigrated to the United…

Science education literature calls for students' participation in science practices through ongoing collective sensemaking built on coherence from the student perspective. However, few studies systematically consider students' point of view and there is little guidance for how teachers can lead the class to co-construct specified learning goals…

This is a qualitative, descriptive, and multi-case study, in which the researcher investigated the perceptions of middle school teachers who were implementing three-dimensional learning aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into their instructional practices. The participants were 10 middle school teachers who worked in three…