Freshman grades relate to academic outcomes, yet limited research explores which students face the highest risk of course failure. With logit analysis using a five-year Arkansas dataset (n = 164,688), we find that economically disadvantaged ninth-grade students are more likely to fail a course than their more privileged peers. This disparity…

Most research on mathematical play and learning is focused on early childhood. This study examines how mathematical play and learning manifest in older children in a mathematical videogame designed by the first author, "Rolly's Adventure." We examined how players experienced mathematical play as they played "Rolly's Adventure,"…

Background: Moments of failure during learning present a wide range of opportunities for growth. However, experimental research and meta reviews focused on failure and learning tend to target singular valued learning processes, such as efficient fixes or transfer of conceptual understanding. These analytical decisions conflict with research…

Struggle is a behavior that is often perceived in a negative light in education. Students respond to struggle by avoiding them. Likewise, educators respond by removing obstacles (e.g., heavily scaffolded instruction) or providing assistance prematurely. The ability and opportunity to engage in struggle, specifically productive struggle, is…

The principles of inclusive education largely accepted by governments of different countries require differentiated classroom instruction to meet the diverse needs of individual students. Despite this, teachers have differing experiences and understandings about implementing differentiated instruction (DI) and heterogeneous classrooms. This…

In this study, the authors investigated the attitudes of Japanese junior high school students towards studying English from the perspective of the Self-worth Theory. A total of 383 students aged 12 to 15 years participated in the qualitative study. Students were required to write three essays about how they would react under hypothetical…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

It is difficult to motivate learners to seek out and persist at challenging learning tasks where failure is likely. However, in game environments, people seem highly motivated to engage with challenges and respond productively to failure. Many typical game features purportedly enhance intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, which should improve…

In this research we explore the pedagogical affordances associated with the use of a 3D printer in a middle school classroom (11-12 years old). We introduced the 3D printer in a classroom where no one, including the teacher, had prior knowledge of 3D printing. Lessons using the 3D printer were designed to correspond with the mathematics curriculum…

Emerging research points to the importance of developing the capacities of teachers to help their students to be creative risk takers and to learn from productive failure. Facilitating this creative risk taking in learners has been shown to require expertise and a degree of risk taking on the part of both teachers and educational leaders. This…

This study investigates the effects of an alternative approach to grade retention, known as a "remediation measure." This measure was tested in 2010-2011 in two high schools in Quebec (Canada) and its effects on students' achievement motivation were analyzed. Specifically, the evolution of general and domain-specific expectancy and value…

This study examines issues encountered during a school's first year implementing science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) curriculum. The school year began with multiple changes in leadership, including the appointment of a School Operations Manager and Teacher on Special Assignment, who took on respective roles of principal and…

Using administrative data from an urban school district, two series of predictive models were tested for their ability to project a student's high school graduation status. The models included student grades, attendance, behavior, demographic predictors, and school-level variables. Eighth and ninth-grade variables were tested for two graduation…

Often, when middle-school students make mistakes, they tend to erase their work and record the correct answer without trying to understand what led to the mistake. In response, this article describes three opportunities educators can leverage for engaging students in the processes of reasoning and sense making about mathematics.

This paper explores technology integration and the role of teacher beliefs in this integration to assess a 'smart-class' initiative that was introduced in 3173 Grade 7-8 classrooms of 1609 public schools in India in 2017. It first reports on the impact of the initiative at the end of its first year, using a sample of 2574 children drawn from 155…