There are increasing calls to introduce computational thinking in schools; the arguments in favor call upon research suggesting that even kindergarten children can successfully engage in coding. This contribution presents a cross-sectional study examining the coding practices and computational thinking of fifty-one primary school children using…

While important theoretical work has helped define the goals of teacher professional development in multicultural science education (MSE), less is known about how beginning elementary teachers' strengths may inform this work. The purpose of this case study is to examine potential starting points for professional development based on elementary…

Many standards documents and learning progressions recommend evolution learning in elementary grades. Given young children's interest in dinosaurs and other fossils, fossil investigations can provide a rich entry into evolutionary biology for young learners. Educational psychology literature has addressed children's reasoning about foundational…

This study aims to explore an educational learning environment that supports students to learn conceptual modelling with the unified modelling language (UML). In this study, we call the describing models "UML programming." In this paper, we show an educational UML programming environment for science, technology, engineering, art, and…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the results of a qualitative case study of three beginning elementary teachers' knowledge-in-practice of multicultural science education. Design/methodology/approach: Data included interviews, focus group discussions, audio-recorded lessons and daily field notes through the course of a month-long summer science…

National reform documents are calling for an upsurge in the development of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula to simultaneously increase the number of kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12) students involved in STEM-related coursework and increase the competitiveness of the United States in the STEM-related…

Young children need opportunities to engage in the practice of constructing scientific explanations in order to develop their own understanding of science content. To engage in this scientific practice, teachers need to provide young children with explicit instruction and scaffolding. However, many classroom teachers' knowledge and beliefs for how…

In the context of a 10-day summer camp makerspace experience that employed design-based learning (DBL) strategies, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to better understand the ways in which children use visualization skills to negotiate design as they move back and forth between the world of nondigital design techniques (i.e., drawing,…

This article examines case studies of two part-time synagogue education programs, a conventional "Hebrew School" and an alternative program modeled after Jewish summer camp. Using the lens of teaching of Bible to children in Grades 3-5, the study provides insight into similarities and differences between the two types of programs and the…

This case involves inner city students situated within a summer program purported to meet their needs. The administrators charged with creating this program do not necessarily understand the identities of their students or the community needs and desires. This case hinges on the conflict of whether students should be disciplined for using their…

This longitudinal case study utilizes critical race theory methodology to chronicle the journey of an African American female in science teacher education. The study looks at her educational history first as a young child and then how she navigates a contested, racialized predominantly White teacher education program, grows and develops in science…

The purpose of this phenomenological bound case study was to explore the effect of acquiring sight words on reading fluency and comprehension skills for early literacy learners during a summer reading camp at one elementary campus in south Texas. Study findings indicated that through prescribed learning experiences with sight words that included…

Background: This study presents two teacher design teams (TDTs) during a professional development experience centered on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-integrated curriculum development. The main activity of the study, curriculum design, was framed as a design problem in order to better understand how teachers engaged…

The authors present the experiences of Wyatt, a nine-year-old whose mother described him as a struggling writer, in a summer digital writing camp. The authors consider how Wyatt was positioned as a writer at camp and how this may have differed from his experiences at school. They found that for Wyatt, being able to compose with digital tools along…

School-community partnering activities promote the education of children, the well-being of families, and the vitality of communities. This study explores the connections that exist and are desired between a small, rural elementary school and its local community. Interviews (n = 21) with district and school administration, teachers, parents, and…