Alabama standards for Early Learning and Development have shifted to a more academic-based learning approach that moves away from play-based learning. The problem is Alabama early childhood educators are expected to implement a more teacher-directed approach in the classroom. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to explore…

Throughout history, artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted various aspects of human life and professional industries, including the field of education, by mimicking human behaviors and tasks to increase productivity and efficiency (Grudin et al., 2023; Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019). Generative AI is a form of AI using deep learning to quickly…

Using theoretical sampling, focused on those who could best inform the theory, the participants in this study, all Latina women, consisted of two program "Tias" (Aunties), currently teaching and mentoring in the "Abuelas Preparando a los Ninos Para La Escuela" [Grandmothers Preparing the Children for School], or APPLE program,…

This two-phase study examined the educative features of upper elementary Eureka Math curriculum as well as examined take-up of those educative features in two classrooms at each grade level. Using an analytical framework based on Males (2011) and Quebec Fuentes and Ma (2018) in the first phase, I coded the educative features of a module at both…

Research has established the importance of play-based experiences for young children's development and learning. Yet, facing the mounting pressure of accountability and standardized testing, some educators have turned to didactic methods of instruction. Guided play (Weisberg et al., 2016) provides a middle ground between play and instruction for…

Many have labeled the youth residing in detention homes as the forgotten children of society. Education in a detention home can be a catalyst for restoring troubled youth to the right track. However, most detention home education programs and educators are isolated, unregulated, and operated with minimal guidance from either the state or local…

The purpose of this disquisition is to disseminate an improvement initiative in a public high school that addressed female Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disparity in STEM classes. In this high school current instructional and career guidance practices were inadequate in providing female STEM students opportunities to experience…

Counselors working in religious schools have a unique opportunity to help students integrate religious/spiritual (R/S) practices, teachings, or beliefs and emotion regulation (ER) strategies to control intense emotions. The primary research question guiding this study was to explore how school counselors integrate ER strategies with R/S practices,…

This thesis explores the questions of how a teacher guides students to see concepts, and the role of gesture and gesture viewpoints in mediating the process of guidance. To examine these questions, two sociocultural theoretical frameworks--Radford's cultural-semiotic theory of knowledge objectification (e.g., 2003), and Goldman's Points of Viewing…

Teachers in Saudi Arabia are attempting to advance their teaching in mathematics to address specific reforms by the Ministry of Education. Saudi teachers must improve their students' thinking through engagement in problem solving. This qualitative study investigated how teachers use knowledge of student mathematical learning and how they promote…

Through the lens of Schegloff's (1996) Action Theory, this study examined the dynamics of four groups of fifth-grade students as they learned to talk about academic mathematical reasoning over the course of a school year using Freeze Frame Analysis (Leander & Rowe, 2006) to help map "talking spaces" and Critical Discourse Analysis to understand…