We report a study examining, for the first time, the effectiveness of engagement in dialogic argumentation in relation to its ability to promote integration of multiple source perspectives in an argumentive writing task after reading controversial multiple texts. Sixty-four primary school students engaged in a dialog-based intervention aiming to…

In this edition of Assessment News, Charles Darr uses a case study from the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) to highlight how students can benefit from activating deliberate thinking in assessments. The key message underscores the value of using assessment information to generate insights that inform better teaching and…

Achieving the targets of science education mostly depends on the true understanding of the fundamentals where science and the scientific efforts are embedded through the realist ontology and epistemology that science is based on. Models have a special place in science education revealing to understand the nature and status of scientific knowledge.…

This article draws on the ongoing discussion in some European countries about whether and how non-religious worldviews and pupils should be included in religious education (RE). This discussion lacks empirical knowledge about the specific learning conditions of these pupils in RE -- a desideratum that this article addresses. Building on a…

Understanding climate change concern among adolescents is considered a useful strategy for building public engagement with climate change. However, the psychological and sociodemographic antecedents of climate change concern have been studied mainly with Western adults. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to gain insights into the factors…

This article presents an English language arts teacher's critical reflection on how she worked with her middle and high school students to develop perspectives about the world in her classes. The article is grounded in the idea that teachers are researchers who constantly implement new ideas and reflect on their own teaching for their own…

This study explores Taiwanese junior high school social studies teachers' definitions of sustainability, using a qualitative semi-structured interview approach. Three themes explaining these teachers' definitions are cycling, cultural sustainability, and balancing, harmony, and coexisting. These definitions unveil an alternative worldview that is…

School counselors have been encouraged to operate within a multi-tiered system of support and develop a comprehensive school counseling program to oversee the academic, social emotional, and career development of their students (Goodman-Scott & Ockerman, 2019). To guide their program, school counselors may choose to utilize the American School…

This study is an exploration of how U.S. middle school students interacted with different topics in world history, and how their specific understandings of topics were connected to both sociocultural and instructional contexts. I observed two world history classrooms in a Midwestern Catholic school for 10 months and conducted task-based group…

Research has shown that youth and their communities benefit from civics education, with its aim to prepare citizens for democracy. However, civics education for adolescents in the United States is not equitable, and determining how to best measure aspects of civic development in younger adolescents is a challenge. In this qualitative study, we…

This study focuses on the beliefs of teachers regarding the malleability of their skills, and the factors they consider as enhancing or inhibiting teacher mindset. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings revealed that both internal factors (e.g. background and success experiences) and external factors (e.g. learning climate,…

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to view the influence that implementing growth mindset could have on a private preparatory school and the students' academic achievements. Qualitative methodology was used to investigate the influence of growth mindset could have on student learning in a private preparatory school. The…

Maintaining adolescents' engagement with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in and out of school may help ensure that adolescents are prepared to enter the STEM workforce. This study aims to extend prior work by documenting internal and external factors that matter for both STEM class engagement as well as engagement with STEM…

When trying to promote empathy, it is not sufficient to merely learn about other people and cultures if we seek to understand them better (Case, 1993). As a language arts teacher and researcher, the author sought to explore the potential for multicultural literature to expand adolescent learners' worldviews and shape their perceptions as global…

The goal of the present research was to assess the environmental worldviews and concerns of students from the fourth to the seventh grade in Slovenia. The New Ecological Paradigm Scale for Children was translated and validated for use with Slovenian primary school students (N = 310). The students were also asked about their environmental concerns…