The 21st century has seen a rapid growth in technological use in schools. Many schools now use computers and other digital devices in order to meet the academic needs of their students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the benefits and barriers that K-8 educators experienced when integrating or teaching coding curriculum in…

Emotion regulation is a key developmental skillset, but many existing measures rely on self-report or laboratory-based measurement approaches. This study aimed to develop a training and implementation protocol for the widely used Facial Expression Coding System (FACES) to be used in real-world settings with pre-recorded video data. A revised…

In recent years, computational thinking has garnered increased attention as an essential problem-solving skill. One of the methods to develop students' computational thinking skills is robotic coding activities. This study sought to investigate the impact of robotic coding activities on the self-efficacy perceptions of secondary school students'…

Emerging technologies in the classroom are paving the way towards high-quality, hands-on distance learning. Augmented Reality (AR), which overlays virtual information into the physical world, provides a promising solution for the development and delivery of collaborative educational content. Frameworks such as ARkit, ARCore, have enabled AR…

The purpose of this research project was to design, deliver, and informally assess the content and methodology of an introductory online course for the educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students (N=20) that focused on the block-based coding language, Scratch. Prior work by The Playful Learning Lab examined various STEM resources and their…

The American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) partnered with Girls Who Code (GWC) to conduct an independent study evaluating the effectiveness of two GWC summer virtual programs, the Summer Immersion Program (SIP) and the Self-Paced Program (SPP), on promoting the pursuit of Computer Science (CS)-related postsecondary education for high school…

Rural students often face challenges in receiving high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without meaningful STEM educational opportunities, rural students might not develop the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a technology-driven workforce. The Learning by Making program (LbyM), an innovative…

Increasing the inclusion of underrepresented individuals in coding is an intractable problem, with a variety of initiatives trying to improve the situation. Many of these initiatives involve STEAM education, which combines the arts with traditional STEM disciplines. Evidence is emerging that this approach is making headway on this complex problem.…

This article reports on the results of a teacher training course in which 41 teachers, working together with three university researchers, experienced a different way to engage in meaningful teaching and learning activities in design, coding and robotics. The course was run in an Italian school during the lock-down period of the COVID-19…

This paper, authored in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviews findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at a partner school, focused on understanding the effects of a direct-to-student intervention on students' mindfulness…

The effects of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Free Secondary Education Policy (FSEP) on access to secondary school education in Kenya's Yatta sub-county have not been adequately explored in available public policy literature. Hence, this qualitative multiple-case study was designed to understand the effects of the 2 policies on…

Background: Although nearly all states in the United States require school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies, little research examines the effect of these policies on student bullying and health. Using a statewide sample, we investigated associations between the quality of school district anti-bullying policies and student bullying…

The purpose of this research was to systematically review the effects of repeated reading (RR) interventions on reading fluency to provide instructional strategies for students with reading disabilities (RD). Correct words per minute were coded as an outcome variable in a search that yielded 34 RR intervention studies from 1990 to 2014 for…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are a group of educators working collaboratively to improve student achievement and expand the pedagogy of the individual as well as the group. Studies on PLCs, grounded by the social constructivism theory of Vygotsky, Bandura, and Wenger, have found that collaboration and collegiality foster a positive…

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an interactive, narrative-based, multimedia game to promote learning and communication about sexual violence and health topics. High school-aged participants created the game concept in a three-week workshop, after which assets were assembled and refined by a university-based game design lab.…