Problem-based learning (PBL) offers a powerful approach to engage students in meaningful learning experiences by connecting classroom content to real-world challenges. This Spotlight explores how PBL can be implemented across K-12 to foster critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. From preparing students for the workforce…

Boost young children's problem-solving skills and set them up for long-term success with the second edition of this practical guidebook! Enhanced with new lessons and timely topics--including equity and the use of makerspaces--this book will help you get all children ready for kindergarten by teaching them basic practices of engineering design and…

In this study, the effects of design-oriented STEM activities on preschool children were examined. In the research conducted with case study in qualitative research designs, 20 preschool children aged five years in a kindergarten formed the participants of the study. Design Oriented STEM Activities were completed with 24 sessions of 8 weeks, 3…

The recent popularity of computational thinking (CT) and the desire to apply CT in our daily lives have prompted the need for a successful pedagogical technique for learning CT in K-12 education. The application of co-design pedagogical techniques has the potential to improve students' CT learning through knowledge sharing and the creation of…

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which WM measured in kindergarten predicts WM measured in second grade (stability of individual WM progress) and the extent to which WM measured at kindergarten predicts academic performance at second grade (N = 94). The results showed that WM skills significantly increase during the time span from…

This study consists of a 17-year (2006-2021) systematic literature review on the effective instructional strategies for developing Computational Thinking (CT) in primary school students (K-5). The aim of this paper is to identify instructional strategies that have been implemented and evaluated by means of a pre- and post-test, with the aim of…

In 2015 an urban school district reported that 84.6% of third graders did not demonstrate proficiency on the Math Standardized Test, which challenges students to solve problems and justify solutions. Since 2006 there has been a negative trend of proficiency levels on the New York State (NYS) Math Exam in third grade. I propose that students may be…

Do you work tirelessly to make your math lessons meaningful, challenging, accessible, and engaging? Do you spend hours you don't have searching for, adapting, and creating tasks to provide rich experiences for your students that supplement your mathematics curriculum? Help has arrived! "Classroom Ready-Rich Math Tasks for Grades K-1"…

Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support, a framework for remediating and preventing student problem behaviors and supporting schools, has demonstrated a reduction in office disciplinary referrals (ODRs) among student groups. However, African American students are still overrepresented in ODRs. This study extended a prior study that explored parents'…

This highly practical reference is organized around the problem behaviors that K-6 teachers see as the greatest barriers to student success--and the positive behaviors they value the most. Of particular value to educators, the book matches proven intervention techniques to specific target behaviors. Hill M. Walker presents exemplary strategies for…

The present study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort of 2011 (N = 15,827; 51.1% male; 48.4% White, 13.5% Black/African-American, 24.3% Hispanic/Latino, 7.5% Asian, and 6.3% other ethnicity) to examine the unique contribution of specific executive function processes (working memory and cognitive flexibility)…

Research Findings: The present study investigated the effects of a 12-week inquiry-based science and engineering (IBSE) program on preschoolers' science and engineering learning experiences. The treatment versus control condition was randomly assigned to four preschool classes, which included 122 preschoolers (M = 61.10 month, SD = 3.73).…

America's most popular science curriculum, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), fails students. This report details how the popular curriculum omits basic tenets of science, including the scientific method, and provides recommendations to correct deficiencies in the NGSS.

This study focused on using a single case research design (SCRD) to compare the effectiveness of a child-centered group play therapy intervention to a psychoeducational group intervention (skillstreaming), and a group that received no intervention for 6 weeks. A group of 10 young children (kindergarten and Grade 1) were randomly assigned to 1 of…

Children's literature can provide useful contexts for teaching mathematics. In this article, the authors discuss the use of the children's book "Measuring Penny" (Leedy 1997) to support Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) related to length measurement. The authors first describe three types of misconceptions…