Lagging student performance in the Sultanate of Oman has, in recent years, led the Ministry of Education to target teachers' professional learning as a key strategic pillar in its efforts to reform the education system. While international evidence finds principal leadership can make a meaningful difference in teacher engagement in professional…

Students' positive experiences in schools positively predicts students' political trust. However, little research has examined how individual students' feelings of exclusion at their schools may relate to students' political trust. Moreover, how does an overall sense of exclusion from the school relate to political trust apart from individual…

This qualitative dissertation aimed to understand if an after-school kinesiology service-learning program changed the relationship between a large Research I institution and a local public school. Eight 7th- and 8th-grade students, three classroom teachers, and one administrator participated. Data collection methods included semistructured…

Adolescents with positive attitudes towards the legal authorities are unlikely to adopt delinquent behaviours. To examine the role school can play in shaping such attitudes, we questioned 465 middle school students to assess how their emotional relationships with teachers (teachers' compassionate love, teachers' esteem) relate to their attitudes…

This study examined the relationship between secondary school students' problem-solving success and perceptions using a relational survey model. This study investigated 378 students (212 girls and 166 boys) in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades between 11 and 14 years old using the convenience sampling method. The problem-solving inventory for…

This tool is part of the Countering Truth Decay initiative, which is focused on restoring the role of facts, data, and analysis in U.S. political and civil discourse and the policymaking process. RAND researchers developed this educational tool, consisting of five sequenced lesson plans for middle school teachers, with the goal of improving RAND's…

Civic self-efficacy and trust are interrelated dimensions of citizenship that are important in adolescence and linked to educational contexts. Furthermore, they have been separately connected to corruption. However, the three factors are seldom looked at together and investigations of them using international education datasets are rarely…

Collaboration is a powerful tool for professional development that creates opportunities for teachers to reflect on their practice. However, school districts continue to have difficulty both implementing and sustaining collaboration. The purpose of this research was to investigate the experiences the teachers in a creative, instructional…

This two-wave study examined the cross-lagged relations between teacher-student relatedness (student-teacher communication, teacher trust, and teacher alienation) and reading achievement of academically at-risk secondary students (N = 787) in Singapore. Compared with the cohort, these students had lower aggregate scores in a national examination…

Restorative justice pedagogies, such as dialogue or peacemaking circles, allow students to learn how to share and listen with peers, set boundaries for moral dialogue, and engage constructively with each other's perspectives. This study is part of a larger project focused on teachers' professional development and circle implementation. The focus…

This research tested a social-developmental process model of trust discernment. From sixth to eighth grade, White and African American students were surveyed twice yearly (ages 11-14; Study 1, N = 277). African American students were more aware of racial bias in school disciplinary decisions, and as this awareness grew it predicted a loss of trust…

While bullying is a serious concern for students and educators alike, empirically tested interventions are needed. This study examined the impact of a bullying intervention curriculum at a public middle school in the Midwest. This intervention, CORE"Matters", was designed to reduce bullying behaviors, foster a greater sense of community…

Empirical arguments rely on examples without necessarily addressing all cases. Students should be skeptical of empirical evidence and should seek more secure arguments for generalizations, such as those that explain why a generalization is true for all cases. Generalizing on the basis of patterns in data is an important mathematical practice;…

This paper discusses the implementation and evaluation of an innovative professional development program that supported 8th grade mathematics teachers in designing learning activities that assisted students in developing a conceptual understanding of mathematics. Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of…

Principals are increasingly held accountable for school achievement. This paper reports the results of a mixed methods sequential Quan --> Qual research study to explore how middle school principals created a culture of academic optimism (AO) that promoted high student achievement (SA). Based on the analysis of AO scores from 26 schools, mostly…