This study investigated the goal-setting approaches of 11 middle grades teachers during the first year of their implementation of a statewide, personalized learning initiative. As an increasing number of middle level schools explore personalized learning, there is an urgent need for empirical research in this area. Goal setting is a critical…

Latino immigrant children represent the fastest-growing population in the United States and families are frequently residing outside of the traditional migration destinations. These cities lack the infrastructure and resources to provide culturally relevant services and bilingual education that supports these youth. Following a social-ecological…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between character education and school climate based on the lived experiences and beliefs of teachers. The research was conducted in a public middle school to explore understandings and beliefs of teachers about character education and its perceived impact on school climate. Social…

Youth readers navigate complex school contexts involving not only different classes, teachers, and texts but also various institutional processes, such as tracking and reading assessment. Yet little research has examined how or why adolescents' literacy skills vary as youths interact with these myriad contexts across space and time. During this…

Although the idea of responding to learners' individual needs is far from new in the middle grades movement, there have been renewed efforts in recent years for schools to tailor programs and practices to students' unique interests and needs through "personalized learning" (Bingham, Pane, Steiner, & Hamilton, 2016). To date, little…

Sexuality education teachers in the USA are often the only officially sanctioned voice in schools charged with teaching students about sexuality and gender. This paper considers the ways in which sexuality education teachers conceptualise gender and anti-queer bullying in order to explore the ways in which teachers understand their own role in the…

This research examines the relationship between ethnicity, ethnic identity, self-efficacy, and academic achievement within a multi-ethnic mid-sized city in the US Midwest. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, middle and high school adolescents (Fall, N = 482; Spring, N = 392) were surveyed and interviewed over the course of one year to investigate…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide insight to the multiple ways that school leaders resist, avoid, or block LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, queer, and questioning) professional development for their staff and, thus, resist the conversations around school responsibility to these students and families. Research…

This study reports on the outcomes of educational psychology school-based intervention. The aim was to determine whether the intervention served as an educational pathway to resilience. Through a concurrent mixed-methods research design interpreted through a pragmatic lens, academic school performance of students in a rural school was used as an…

This case study explored how multiple educational personnel in a middle school identified as an exemplar of inclusive education defined and provided students with severe disabilities access to the general education curriculum. Data sources including a questionnaire, interviews, observations, observation reflections, and artifacts were collected…

The changes which occur during the learning process have been explained by many teaching-learning models and theories. One of these models is allosteric learning model (ALM) which was developed by André Giordan in 1989. This model was derived from a biological metaphor related to proteins. The interaction between individual and environment in a…

This comparative case (Merriam, 2009) study explored two charter school principals' engagement in instructional leadership. Analysis of three data sources--interviews, observations, and documents--revealed that principals were almost exclusively focused on state accountability and possessed limited knowledge of pedagogical practices. In…

Numerous studies indicate that token economy systems continue to be used by teachers as a means to either increase or decrease behaviours observed in their classrooms. However, studies find that student demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, race, and gender inform teachers' identification of target behaviours. In response to these…

Teachers are expected to improve their planning, instruction, and assessment as they progress through their career. An important component to teachers knowing what to modify in their teaching style is being able to solicit meaningful feedback from students. This mixed-methods study was conducted to provide teachers with a quantitative method to…

Discretion is described as a hallmark of professional work. Professional discretion rests on trust in the ability of certain occupational groups to make sound decisions 'on behalf' of societal authorities. It has been suggested that in Europe, managerialist-influenced policies with increased focus on control and accountability have placed pressure…