Faculty at Bucknell, similar to those at most colleges and universities worldwide, have traditionally begun their careers with a limited understanding of the teaching practices available to them and for what purposes those various practices were considered useful. Though many faculty have done their own research into teaching activities and become…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call upon K-12 science teachers to provide authentic science and engineering practices which deepen understanding of core ideas and crosscutting concepts (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Probeware technology provides exposure to these scientific practices; however, there is a disconnect between the frequency…

This mixed methods action research study explored how students reacted to using literature circles to enhance their knowledge and understanding of reading nonfiction text as compared to students using guided reading. This study showed a minimal improvement for students participating in the literature circle group in overall understanding of…

Despite the perception that face-to-face classrooms provide speaking opportunities, studies by Fassinger (1995), Nunn (1996), and Weimer (2013) have conveyed that there is limited interaction in a traditional college lecture setting. Social media networks such as Twitter provide an opportunity for instructors to utilize popular mobile technology…

Nineteen students whose first language is not English (English Language Learners, ELL) participated in an action research study that focused on the marriage of an art education curriculum and literacy practice. The study introduced students to the consistent use of language in art education as a means to discuss, inform, explain, and demonstrate…

School leadership has always been a moral undertaking. Contemporary school leaders face complex ethical dilemmas every day. A limited amount of research exists to describe the extent to which school principals feel formally prepared to be ethical leaders. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the self-identified…

The Model My Watershed (MMW) application, and associated curricula, provides students with meaningful opportunities to connect conceptual understanding of watersheds to real-world decision making. The application uses an authentic hydrologic model, TR-55 (developed by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service), and real data applied in…

As part of state transitions to college- and career-ready (CCR) standards, including the Common Core State Standards in more than 40 states (NGA & CCSSO, 2010), states are for the first time administering new summative assessments aligned to those standards and aiming for a higher bar in assessment quality. For a majority of states, this means…

This study is an exploratory study of faculty members' knowledge and perceptions toward of with academically vulnerable college students who are specifically experiencing reading and writing difficulties. Data were gathered from 174 college faculty at six higher education institutions throughout northwestern Pennsylvania via an online electronic…

Focusing on a suburban Philadelphia high school's social studies classes, this research study investigated the influence of tracking on student achievement, on teachers' and students' perceptions of self-efficacy, and on teachers' instructional practices in the classroom. In order to address these research questions, the researcher used a…

As the face of education in Philadelphia's public schools changes in response to budget constraints and politics, current "Teach For America" (TFA) corps members' roles have also changed. These changes have resulted in the majority of second-year TFA corps members being relocated from school district to charter-managed schools, many of…

Staff development training is a method many public schools employ in an effort to prepare their teaching staff to better meet the demands of effectively educating district students. In this mixed methods case study quantitative and qualitative data was incorporated to answer four research questions: (1) How accurately do scores achieved by…

This mixed methods study explored implementing guided reading in grades 3-5 in a suburban school district located in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how teachers implement guided reading in their classrooms and how the use of guided reading affects student achievement in Text Structure and Vocabulary, Reading…

Involving two or more academic subjects, interdisciplinary studies aim to blend together broad perspectives, knowledge, skills, and epistemology in an educational setting. By focusing on topics or questions too broad for a single discipline to cover, these studies strive to draw connections between seemingly different fields. Cases on…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…