Effective mathematics teaching practices include not only probing student thinking and selecting student strategies to share but also facilitating discourse and encouraging reflection about important mathematical ideas (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2014, pp. 36-37). Encouraging students to use precise academic vocabulary to…

Student teams' achievement divisions (STAD) is a learning method that can provide active responses to students so that learning is maximized, but this method is still very rarely used by social studies teachers, thus making social studies learning less than optimal. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the question students…

Drawing on three decades of research, this study explores the attitudes of middle school social studies teachers toward professional development in Western Tennessee. Social studies educators frequently navigate the repercussions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which has led to misguided incentives for states and districts to prioritize…

Global climate change is one of the most significant challenges of the twenty first century, requiring its integration into K-12 science education curricula to foster informed and climate-literate citizens. However, challenges remain in effectively teaching climate change, including a lack of instructional materials and a reliance on traditional…

As a fundamental component of formative assessment, student self-assessment is considered "a sine qua non condition" for autonomous learners. Despite the extensive body of literature regarding principles and practice guidelines for student self-assessment, scant is the evidence about what instructional practices teachers use in classroom…

While researchers and practitioners have long known that differentiating formative feedback (FF) is a requisite for creating more equitable learning opportunities for students, less is known about how teachers plan for, enact, and reflect on differentiated FF dialogues with students individually, in small groups, or as a whole class--a lens on…

This descriptive phenomenology study investigated middle school mathematics teachers' formative assessment practices in the Dominican Republic. The study explored three research questions about the types of formative assessment strategies teachers implemented, how they used formative assessment data to make instructional decisions, and the…

This research article reports results of a study centered on an undergraduate instructor who facilitated a practice-based field experience with undergraduate preservice teachers (n=125) in an urban museum setting, working with middle school students with a public museum school. In addition to exploring this practice-based field experience, we also…

Teachers' epistemic beliefs may have consequences for their pedagogical work. We used previously developed scales to assess epistemic beliefs that teachers hold about learning, knowledge and knowing, and how they report putting such ideas into practice. The scales consisted of self-reported Likert-type statements considering collaborative…

Adopting new instructional materials is an important way to support reform in science education, but implementation can be challenging and complex. Therefore, we conducted a contrasting case study of two middle schools implementing new curricular materials. We conducted semi-structured interviews with teachers and leaders and collected…

This research explores how incorporating queer theory into adolescent art education can foster more inclusive classroom environments and support identity development for all students. To investigate this, three art lessons grounded in the principles of queer pedagogy were implemented in 6th and 7th grade classrooms. These lessons centered around…

Executive functioning has been a buzz word in education for a few years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. The research around executive functioning is exploding, as teachers are seeking to support students entering their classrooms with what seems like a wider variety of needs and less independence than ever before. Many districts are…

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student's concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers…

Background/Context: Political divisiveness, racial reckoning, climate change, and mental health challenges represent just a few contemporary issues facing today's youth. Addressing these challenges now and in the future requires deep interpersonal understanding and collective action--neither of which can be achieved without empathy or prosocial…

The purpose of this study was to examine the skills and types of instruction present within four commonly used writing textbooks at grades four and five via content and quantitative analyses. Determining the presence of standards-based skills and evidence-based practices may help shed light on the effectiveness and quality of these curricula. The…