This article outlines a series of lessons the author led to help students understand gerrymandering, which is the practice of drawing district boundaries to favor a particular group or party and which undermines the fairness of a representative democracy. These lessons were developed to capture student interest and engagement by linking…

Teacher education research, by and large, has been profoundly influenced by psychological interpretations of beliefs, particularly the assumption that teachers attempt to reconcile, rationalize, minimize, or avoid contradictions. Building on research across multiple disciplines, which demonstrates that people live harmoniously with contradictions…

The paper evaluates math performance at four high-need middle schools during a four-year intervention, which was designed to help math teachers diagnose students' areas of need and to design lesson plans responsive to those needs. Before the intervention began, the researchers pre-selected four comparison schools by matching based on achievement…

Multimodal text types hold promise for promoting classroom discourse. Because of the ways that language combines with various other modes such as sound and movement, video-based texts can offer access points for meaning-making and engagement that print-only text cannot. Through the lens of New Literacies, this mixed methods study examines one…

The past 10 years have seen a major shift in English and English as a Second Language (ESL) placement and pedagogy in California's Community Colleges (CCC), driven by a developmental education reform movement known as acceleration. Popularized by the faculty-led California Acceleration Project (CAP), the acceleration movement focused on reducing…

Physical education classrooms reflect a range of learners, movers, and abilities. Incoming physical educators report lacking confidence and knowledge in their ability to create inclusive lesson plans. Many undergraduate and liberal studies students are required to take one adaptative physical education pedagogy course; thus, incoming educators…

Farm to school education connects learning to the real world by helping students foster a deeper appreciation for local agriculture and healthy eating habits. Students experience and understand how nature supports life and the food they eat. Farm to school can take many forms, from classroom lessons to field trips in the school garden. Many…

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of technological tools that were used by language teachers to develop their students' English language skills. As a result of the sudden shift to online instruction, teachers at the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics Academy middle school had little time to prepare and had limited…

Limited research exists on the factors that contribute to community college students' development of self-efficacy (SE) while serving as preservice teachers (PSTs) during their early childhood education (ECE) practicum. This lack of research is concerning because educators who have high SE enhance the educational well-being of all children. The…

This case study explores how bilingual teacher candidates (BTCs) in a Texas dual language teacher education program reflect on their mathematics teaching experiences through a translingual, transcultural, and transdisciplinary lens. By analyzing bilingual teacher narratives, the study investigates how translanguaging and reported speech shape…

This study investigated whether collaboration between science teachers and ELD teachers would result in changes to teachers' perceptions about their role and responsibility to support English Learners in their science classes and whether professional learning opportunities provided would result in planned implementation of strategies and practices…

The Japanese lesson study (JLS) model for curriculum development has seen limited application to middle school science classrooms. The JLS model was used to develop and refine three hands-on activities focused on four major eighth grade science topics from the California curriculum. Prior assessments of these topics showed limited understanding by…

The purpose of this case study was to explore teachers' pedagogical beliefs about student learning and achievement in mathematics. The participants included three classroom teachers who taught mathematics from one public charter school in Southern California. Data collection included two sets of interviews, field notes, samples of lesson plans,…

The researchers piloted an observational protocol to examine the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and checkpoint strategies used during daily instruction with a small sample of general and special education teachers. Observational research on UDL has been recommended within the literature. Researchers used the high-leverage practice…

Heterogeneity is fundamental to learning and when leveraged in instruction, can benefit racially minoritized children. However, finding ways to leverage heterogeneity toward disciplinary teaching is a formidable challenge and teachers can benefit from targeted support to recognize heterogeneity in STEM, and its relationship to race and racism in…