Extension personnel are tasked with ensuring that 4-H volunteers have competencies identified in the Volunteer Research and Knowledge Competency (VRKC) Taxonomy, 4-H youth development's foundational volunteer skills framework. The VRKC Codebook is a qualitative analysis tool for accurately identifying VRKC-aligned needs expressed in volunteer…

The "Forum Guide to Exit Codes" provides an updated taxonomy for exit codes, information on best practices related to exit coding, and case studies that highlight different education agencies' approaches to and experiences with exit coding. In 2006, the Forum addressed the need for a voluntary, common format for tracking data about when…

This dissertation examines the epistemological moves made by Washington State University undergraduates in their general education course writing and during two impromptu writing assessment exams administered by the WSU writing program. It builds from previous interview-based research on epistemological change (Perry, 1998; diSessa, 1993;…

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is increasingly used in developmental research despite minimal evidence of whether children's IAT scores are reliable across time or predictive of behavior. When test-retest reliability and predictive validity have been assessed, the results have been mixed, and because these studies have differed on many…

On the basis of responses to written questions administered to more than one thousand introductory chemistry students, we claim that students often rotely apply memorized combustion rules instead of reasoning based on explanatory models for what happens at the molecular level during chemical reactions. In particular, many students argue that…

Teaching students with severe disabilities is a complex endeavor, and the skills and qualities of expert teachers for students with severe disabilities are not well understood. A lack of understanding about the unique roles and expertise of teachers of students with severe disabilities can influence the quality of education students with severe…

Disciplinary literacy scholars promote text-based instruction in the service of disciplinary inquiry, and scholars of teacher education promote practice-based preparation for teachers. This study brings these scholarly communities into conversation by investigating how practice orientations in teacher education influence novice teachers' literacy…

The edTPA, a performance assessment designed to generate reliable and valid measures of teaching practice, increasingly is used as a gatekeeping mechanism for beginning teacher licensure in various states, including New York, Washington State, Wisconsin, and Georgia. One of the edTPA's key components is the demonstration of instructional practice…

This study examined the 4th-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments (history, geography, and civics) and 3rd- and 4th-grade social studies standards from nine randomly selected states and organized the content around three global concepts (conflict, movement, discovery) and six specific concepts (war, rebellion,…

Teacher educators have an obligation to prepare preservice teachers with the skills and dispositions necessary to promote a socially just world. Yet the results of this study uncovered that the majority of elementary preservice teachers in a national sample (N = 846) have a simplistic perception of good citizenship consistent with what Westheimer…

This study examines how the use of a science inquiry activity in an environmental socio-scientific issue (SSI) impacts pre-service teachers' argumentative practice in two ways: social negotiation and epistemic understanding of arguments. Twenty pre-service science teachers participated in this study as a part of their science methods class. Small…

In this article, the authors report on the initial results of a mixed methods study that examined the beliefs that preservice teachers have about teaching real-world contexts, including those related to injustices, controversial issues, and children's home and cultural backgrounds. Data collection included a survey with 92 preservice Pre-K-8…

This study examined how U.S., Finnish, and Irish educators identified and supported struggling readers. Using Johnston's (2011) framework for evaluating reading interventions and activity theory (Engeström, 1999), we interviewed educators in four U.S., three Irish, and three Finnish schools. In the United States, the adoption of three…

This study examined associations between parent-child interactions and the development of social skills in 42 children (21 typically developing and 21 with autism spectrum disorders) between the ages of 3 years, 0 months and 6 years, 11 months. We expected that positive parent-child interaction qualities would be related to children's social…

We examined narrative processes of identity development as they related to desistance from delinquent behavior in a sample of vulnerable adolescents. Building on a robust theoretical and empirical foundation in the field of narrative identity, we examined processes of meaning-making and agency in relation to desistance. Thirty-one adolescents were…