Computational thinking (CT) activities are increasingly being integrated into early childhood schools. We focus on studying children's learning using an "unplugged" (non-computational) learning unit that considers a teacher's knowledge and classroom space and affords seamless adaptation into the classroom given the objects used in the…

Reading outcomes at a national level have remained stagnant for more than two decades. One reason why is that the field has struggled with how to address poor reading comprehension when reading words is not the problem. Another is that limited insight into the causes of poor comprehension performance is offered by traditional reading comprehension…

Student learning outside the formal classroom is inextricably linked to informal learning environments. In many countries, most activities that employ informal learning prioritize the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and have shown a positive impact on increasing students' interest, self-efficacy,…

Background/Context: Virtual tutoring has grown significantly as a personalized learning tool, especially in response to the academic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While out-of-school virtual tutoring has demonstrated moderate to large positive effects on student learning (0.20-0.40 SDs; Carlana and La Ferrara, 2024; Deacon and…

Early literacy proficiency is a crucial predictor of later reading success, but research in this area often overlooks the unique challenges faced by English Learners (EL). This study addressed a significant gap in the literature by investigating the relationships between Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) scores, English…

Numerous studies have shown cognitive benefits when children engage in activities in natural environments (NE). These benefits may stem from the restorative qualities of nature, which help reduce stress and replenish attentional capacities. According to embodied cognition theories, cognitive processes are shaped by our interactions with the…

Studies have found a relationship between pretend play and self-regulation both during and outside pretend play; however, very few have investigated these three variables simultaneously. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between the frequency of role-play (a type of pretend play), self-regulatory behaviour during role-play, and…

U.S. elementary schools administer reading screeners to identify students in need of remedial instruction. However, the administration of additional assessments comes with a cost. It is unclear the extent to which multiple types of reading screeners warrant the increase in resources that could be used for instruction. This study compared…

Assessments with a large amount of small, similar, or often repetitive tasks are being used in educational, neurocognitive, and psychological contexts. For example, respondents are asked to recognize numbers or letters from a large pool of those and the number of correct answers is a count variable. In 1960, George Rasch developed the Rasch…

Extensive research has demonstrated the importance of struggling reader identification in monolingual children Compton et al. ("Journal of Educational Psychology," 102, 327-340, 2010). However, very few studies have explored identification of struggling readers in bilinguals. The aim of this study was to investigate (1) the overlap of…

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational-predictive study was to assess if and to what extent second-grade student race (operationalized as minority status) and student socioeconomic status (operationalized as eligibility for Free and Reduced Lunch) predict second-grade student classification as gifted under two scenarios: using the current…

Bias influencing teachers' classroom management is increasingly clear, but the circumstances that influence the likelihood of relying on those biases are less understood. This study employed Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis, resulting in four models examining how teachers' appraisals of first-grade students' externalizing problem…

Simplified, reductionist approaches to curriculum design and delivery are pervasive in science education. In ecological curricula--particularly in, but not limited to K-12--biomes, ecosystems, habitats, and other units of study are simplified and presented as static, easily identified and described entities. Characteristics, components, and…

Each year, SC TEACHER administers the SC Teacher Exit Survey to public K-12 classroom teachers who are not renewing their teaching contracts. The survey is designed to offer insights into how working conditions and other factors relate to teachers' decisions to either teach in another school district or leave the classroom. This report highlights…

This study used data from the U.S. state of Michigan schools participating in the "Reading First" program to examine the stability of students' disability status in Grades 1 to 3. Reading First aimed to improve at-risk students' reading comprehension through research-based instruction. We analyzed how changes in students' disability…