Learning science vocabulary is an often tedious but important component of many curricula. Frequently, students are expected to learn science vocabulary indirectly, but this method can hinder the success of lower-performing students (Carlisle, Fleming, and Gudbrandsen 2000). We have developed an inquiry-based vocabulary activity wherein students…

Addressing the reading needs of adolescent learners living in rural areas may create challenges for teachers and administrators in the age of accountability. This study addressed this issue by implementing two explicit instructional approaches with struggling adolescent readers (n = 49) in a rural middle school in the southeastern United States.…

Play is a significant aspect of preschool curricula. We report two studies that examine the effects of play-related variables: length of free play, type of language instructional approach, degree of structure of free play, and amount of teacher involvement in communication with peers. For each study, we target three dependent variables: rate of…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a typical third-grade boy and fifth-grade girl and a boy with learning disabilities could benefit from the combined use of Direct Instruction (DI) flashcard and math racetrack procedures in an after-school program. The dependent variable was accuracy and fluency of saying basic multiplication facts. A…

Science education reform documents identify nature of science (NOS) as a critical component of scientific literacy and call for universities, colleges, and K-12 schools to explicitly integrate NOS learning into science curricula. In response to these calls, this study investigated the classroom practices of nine graduate assistants (GAs) who…

Teachers of young children can plan proactively so that they avoid some of the serious problem behaviors in the classroom. The strategies presented in this article are part of a problem solving approach to challenging behavior based on the principles of positive behavioral support. Although these methods presented here have research-based…

This dissertation presents the results of an experiment that measured the learning outcomes associated with three different pedagogical approaches to introductory physics labs. These three pedagogical approaches presented students with the same apparatus and covered the same physics content, but used different lab manuals to guide students through…

Anecdotal accounts from science educators suggest that few teachers are teaching science as inquiry. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. This study aimed to provide evidence-based documentation of the state-of-use of inquiry-based instruction and explicit instruction about nature of science (NOS). We examined the…

Determining effective instructional strategies for the attitudes and achievement of middle school social studies students and the attitudes of their teachers was the focus of this study. Specifically, the researcher looked at the difference in the impacts that direct and indirect instruction made on attitude and achievement of students, attitude…

A highly proficient Direct Instruction (DI) teacher is a teacher who is able to demonstrate the effective use of Direct Instruction curriculum and teaching practices, resulting in sustainability and high student achievement. In this qualitative case study investigation, I describe and, when possible, explain how two teachers reflected on the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit direct instruction and cooperative learning on reading comprehension in fourth grade students. A quasi-experimental design was used. There were six cognitive and three affective measures used to collect quantitative data. Cognitive measures included California State Test scores,…

Two research questions are answered: how did teacher instructional skills develop during a whole school year? What is the influence of this development on the interactions between students during the co-operative learning moments? From the analysis, it appeared that the teachers' instruction changed from direct instruction to a more process and…

This article presents the transcript of Peter Webster's 2014 Senior Researcher Award Acceptance Address. Webster comments on several big ideas in music education: (1) The consideration of teaching as a blend of constructivist approaches and direct instruction that values student-centered work primarily as evidence of learning; (2) The…

Current approaches in Science Education attempt to enable students to develop an understanding of the nature of science, develop fundamental scientific concepts, and develop the ability to structure, analyze, reason, and communicate effectively. Students pose, solve, and interpret scientific problems, and eventually set goals and regulate their…

Although exploratory (inquiry-based, discovery, problem-based) learning environments have been effective for certain categories of learners and instructional situations, they could also be very cognitively demanding, especially for novice learners. Such forms of instruction may generate a heavy working memory load caused by intensive unguided…