Background: Virtual manipulatives (VMs) are increasingly adopted in inquiry activities. However, the effects of the ratio of mobile device-based VMs to students and external scripts (a guiding structure for prompting group process) provision on group interaction has not been detailed. Objectives: This study proposed four different technology…

We examined students' understanding of the causes of a scientific phenomenon from a multiple-document-inquiry unit. Students read several documents that each described causal factors that could be integrated to address the given writing task of explaining the causes of change in average global temperature. We manipulated whether the document set…

The research examined the nature and scope of e-portfolio reflective writing by primary pre-service teachers about their classroom implementation of information and communication technologies. Familiar and new technologies require a teacher to be able to confidently identify the pedagogical potential for effective learning and teaching. With the…

Service learning has become increasingly popular across all levels of education. Previous literature emphasizes that reflection is an important aspect of service learning. However, limited focus has been given to appropriate methods of reflection for younger children. This longitudinal study followed 31 second-grade children (15 females; mean age…

High-quality writing instruction needs to permeate elementary students' in- and outside-of-school experiences. The aim of this research was to explore how teaching writing to parents may support home-school literacy connections. This qualitative case study explored parents' experiences in interactive writing sessions. The descriptive coding and…

We present a new system for automated scoring of graph construction items that address complex science concepts, feature qualitative prompts, and support a range of possible solutions. This system utilizes analysis of spatial features (e.g., slope of a line) to evaluate potential student ideas represented within graphs. Student ideas are then…

This qualitative study describes the experience of a cross-age tutoring intervention for three PreKindergarten/Kindergarten-aged students with autism and their fourth grade general education tutors. Data were collected in an inclusive environment; the school library. Three fourth grade general education cross-age tutors were trained to use a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how writing in mathematics is treated in one 4th grade National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded mathematics textbook titled "Everyday Mathematics" and one publisher-generated textbook titled "enVision MATH." The developed framework provided categories to support each of the research…

Teacher-educators and policy-makers recognize that ongoing training and support for high quality implementation of curricula can be a vital component of systems that ensure the value of education experiences, particularly for students at-risk of school failure (Meisels, 2007; Pew Charitable Trusts, 2007; Pianta, 2005). In particular, there is…