Background: Many first-year students find the reading of academic texts to be challenging and overwhelming. In particular, first-year students studying sociology at the South African institution where the study was conducted complain of comprehension challenges. This may be due to the presence of numerous theoretical and abstract concepts in…

Background: This study focused on undergraduate L2 students' performance in written historical reasoning, particularly written historical contextualization, before and after participating in a historical reasoning course. The Content and Language Integrated Learning course was designed using a cognitive apprenticeship model and was based on…

For this dissertation, I had the opportunity to investigate a well-established university-based intensive English program in the northeastern United States as it transitioned from an integrated-skills to a paired-skills approach. My goal as a researcher was to investigate in what ways "listening," the second language (L2) skill…

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainty in major aspects of national and global society. This pandemic has had an extreme impact on education. Since March, 2020, the education system has changed drastically. Schools, educators, families, and students are experiencing unprecedented times and are finding a way to navigate and determine the best…

Mathematics concepts in early childhood education are often predictors later outcomes for student success, because mathematics is a foundational area of academics. The purpose of the research is to engage educators in conversations regarding experiential learning opportunities in early mathematics through curriculum planning and instructional…

The most recent generation of graduates, known as millennials -- those born between the years of 1981 and 1996 -- are entering the workforce and the teaching profession. A recent publication indicated that millennials now comprise approximately 50% of the workforce, and they will make up 75% by the year 2030 (Emmons, 2018). As millennials enter…

With young children, there is often an instructional focus on naturalistic interactions between the child and environment. In special education, there are times when direct instruction (di) and discrete trial training (DTT) are both needed, requiring a balance of explicit DTT and child-initiated instruction. This article discusses what…

The purpose of this study was to compare the 5E method of inquiry-based instruction (IBI) and the four-stage model of direct instruction (DI) on students' content knowledge achievement. The population for this study was all secondary high school students enrolled in the CASE® Natural Resources and Ecology course and whose teachers completed the…

Formal teacher preparation programs are facing the challenge of ineffective instruction of educational theories. It is partly because educational theories are taught through direct instruction, which could lead to problems such as impersonality and low motivation of pre-service teachers. In addition, it is also an unwieldy task for teacher…

As educators of students with autism, many teachers recognize that the day-to-day instruction is helping students learn skills to improve their quality of life, for today and in the long term. For those who teach young students, it may be difficult to project that far into the future; however, the reality is that educators want students with…

Middle school students with learning disabilities often struggle with reading and literacy skills, including vocabulary, and require support in content-area classes such as mathematics where weak vocabulary knowledge can negatively affect learning, achievement, and deep understanding. However, in general, middle school mathematics teachers do not…

This study investigated student perceived shared-metacognition--self-regulation and co-regulation--as explained by three teaching presence sub-elements--"Instructional Design, Direct Instruction, and Facilitation"--in an online case-based course. 113 online graduate students enrolled in an advanced instructional design course…

Families face adverse experiences in gentrified urban areas, including dangerous living conditions, eviction, and homelessness. Parents and caregivers often work long hours to avoid these outcomes, leaving children with reduced home literacy interactions lacking necessary letter knowledge for kindergarten. This study examines the effectiveness of…

In the era of 21st century learning, many secondary students with learning disabilities continue to struggle with mathematics problem solving. Emerging evidence suggests self-regulated strategy development can be combined with existing evidence-based and promising practices during mathematics instruction. These practices include explicit…

Educators and researchers have been fighting the reading wars for the last century, with battles see-sawing literacy instruction in American schools from phonics to whole language and, most recently, back to phonics again. Over the last decade, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new "science of reading" laws that require…