In 2010 the American Management Association Critical Skills Survey found that three out of four (75.7 percent) executives believed 21st Century Skills would become more important to organizations as the economy grew toward a global marketplace. The problem to be addressed was how high school teachers in the Midwest were integrating 21st Century…

Teacher education programs aim to prepare teachers by building repertoires of knowledge and skills, mindsets, attitudes, and beliefs to develop dispositions necessary to succeed in a teaching career. As teachers prepare to meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations, they need to attend to diversity issues and challenges and develop…

American society's increase in ethnic textures, interracial tension, immigrants, religion, gender, disability, ability, and students who speak languages other than English as their first language prolongs the pedagogical challenges teachers encounter in the classroom due to diversity. This study explored the experiences of secondary social studies…

Elementary social studies resources have faced criticism for well over 30 years. Text that is too complex (Beck et al., 1989; Beck & McKeown, 1991), contains questionable content (Chu, 2017; Wade, 2012), and is boring to students (Kelley, 2021; Schug, 1982) and teachers (Zhao & Hoge, 2010). More recent studies have found that teachers are…

The advisory period is a key component of a successful middle level experience for young adolescents. Advisory is designed to be a time when students build relationships with peers as well as one trusted adult, referred to as an advocate. During the advisory period, the academic and social-emotional needs of students are addressed. In order to…

Seaford School District has allocated significant resources and launched multiple initiatives to increase the achievement of Seaford Middle School mathematics students. These included adopting high quality instructional materials, hiring a school-based mathematics coach, purchasing curriculum materials, ensuring collaborative grade level planning…

This qualitative study aimed to identify teaching competencies teachers attribute to student achievement and what evaluator feedback they want and need to improve their instruction. Participants from one school district were interviewed. The data were coded through the lens of Marzano's (2017) Art and Science of Teaching Framework. Of Marzano's 60…

Structural reasoning is a combined ability to "look for structures, recognize structures, probe into structures, act upon structures, reason in terms of general structures, and see how a piece of knowledge acquired resolves a perturbation experienced" (Harel and Soto, 2017). The purpose of this study was to explore the cognitive…

This convergent mixed methods study sought to explore the effects of engineering design challenges (EDCs) on middle school students' achievement. Data was collected from four middle schools from an urban school district in Maryland. Two of these, Group A, included teachers with experience with EDC design and implementation; the other two schools,…

A qualitative, exploratory approach was utilized to examine the course experiences of 18 early childhood education PSTs enrolled in a three-credit undergraduate language and literacy methods course. Eight of these participants were enrolled in the course during the Fall 2019 semester while 10 participants were enrolled during the Fall 2020…

Each teacher brings different strengths and beliefs to the classroom through instruction. When teachers implement the same curriculum, pacing guides, training, and support, their instruction still varies, as does student learning. The Action Research study sought to improve the connection between teacher self-efficacy and teacher perceptions in…

This study took place in a large Kindergarten-5th grade independent school in the Southeast United States implementing HyFlex instruction grounded in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework during the COVID-19 pandemic, 8/20-6/21. Teachers completed a professional development (PD) course designed to help them implement HyFlex with the goal of…

Physical education curriculum challenges students to experience a series of physical movements, degrees of flexibility, increased stamina, and components of strength that provide multiple opportunities to achieve a high level of individual fitness. Curricula that are used to achieve these areas of physical education vary from Health-Related…

Algebraic thinking is an essential component of the K-12 mathematics curriculum. Early algebra focuses on the overall numeric structure (Kaput, 2008; Kieran,2018; Kieran et al., 2016) which focuses on the noticing of arithmetic patterns leading to generalizations supported by justification, reasoning and justifications (Blanton, 2008; Blanton et…

This qualitative action research study examines how middle and high school STEM teachers create and implement lessons that connect concepts to the real-world and develop student metacognition. The researcher collected data through interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and survey questions. Participants from vocational, private, and…