Through a qualitative analysis of data collected over four years of design-based research on the implementation of a reform-oriented mathematics curriculum, this study describes two sixth-grade teachers' changing views of the role and place of reading in mathematics instruction. The findings reveal the evolution of the teachers' perspective on…

In this study we extend our prior exploration focused on the extent to which middle school teachers appropriately identified proportional situations and whether there were relationships between attributes of the teachers and their ability to identify proportional situations. For this study, we analyzed both a larger dataset (n = 32) and two…

Many children in U.S. K-12 schools struggle with childhood obesity. A healthy lifestyle taught in a child's early years is essential for student learning, and it can set the pace for healthy choices to be made in adulthood. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore the experiences of parents in Montgomery County, Ohio, who…

Implementing an assimilative agenda within the traditional U.S. education system has prevented the authentic inclusion, validation, and development of American Indian students. The enduring ramifications, including the loss of cultural identity, underscored the critical need to decolonize, or challenge, the historic assimilative agenda of the…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are being recognized as effective in improving teacher collaboration and student achievement. Trust is critical in effectively implementing the PLC model, and the school principal is best positioned to influence school trust levels. Using five facets of trust, this research sought to clarify the impact of…

This study investigated how middle school students leverage information about bound Latin roots (e.g., "voc" in "advocate" and "vociferous") to infer meanings of unfamiliar words, and how instruction may facilitate morphological analysis using roots. A dynamic assessment of morphological analysis was administered to…

This study investigated how middle school students leverage information about bound Latin roots (e.g., voc in "advocate" and "vociferous") to infer meanings of unfamiliar words, and how instruction may facilitate morphological analysis using roots. A dynamic assessment of morphological analysis was administered to 29 sixth…

Almost half of all gifted students do not achieve according to their exceptional potential. Though significant research has investigated identifying characteristics of underachieving gifted students, current research is yet to fully employ the established theoretical knowledge to determine practical strategies for the reversal and remediation of…

Online environments can cultivate what have been referred to as 21st century skills and capabilities, as youth contribute, pursue, share, and interact around work and ideas. Such environments also hold great potential for addressing digital divides related to the development of such skills by connecting youth in areas with fewer resources and…

This case study examines the role of playful talk in negotiating the "how" of collaborative group work in a 6th-grade science classroom. Here we develop and test a Vygotsky-derived hypothesis that postulates playful talk as a mechanism for identity exploration and group status negotiation. Our findings indicate that students utilized the…

Unlike most research, which has primarily examined the players' interest in or attitude toward game-based learning through questionnaires, the purpose of this empirical study is to explore students' engagement patterns by qualitative observation and sequential analysis to visualize and better understand their game-based learning process. We…

Beyond common associated factors, such as teacher characteristics and socioeconomic background of students, little is known about how student achievement relates to differences in the pedagogical approaches used in Latin American classrooms. This paper highlights the main findings from a qualitative study on cross-country differences in teaching…

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and present the status of student synthesis with color coded formula writing for grade level six through twelve, and to make recommendations for educators to teach writing structure through a color coded formula system in order to increase classroom engagement and lower students' affect. The thesis first…

Few studies have documented the literacy activities in an after-school setting of affluent early adolescents assigned to remedial reading. This may be because these students are not considered to be at risk of academic failure. The out-of-school literacy activities of 3 sixth-grade students were examined in this qualitative research. Multiple data…

This study examined how a group of ten middle school teachers implemented a technology enriched problem-based learning (PBL) environment. The goal was to understand their motivation, document their implementation techniques, and identify factors that teachers considered important in using technology-based PBL tools in their teaching. The analysis…