The push toward efficiency in higher education is occurring as increasing numbers of faculty and students are struggling with mental health concerns and the world appears progressively polarized. However, education, at its core, can foster hope and effect positive change. This chapter presents a pedagogy of authentic hope that relies on…

Educators often use stories, humor, surprise, images, or other ploys to catch students' interest. This form of interest, often called "situational interest" because of how it is triggered by contextual cues, can facilitate learning to some degree. Yet it also may carry risks. This article proposes one such potential risk: flawed…

This study aims to investigate students' readiness to use virtual reality for educational purposes. To achieve this, we developed a questionnaire that included items related to students' experience with using VR, their confidence and perceived importance in using various VR features, and their expectations of using VR in education. We collected…

Albert Bandura's social learning theory focused on the interaction of personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. This article honors Bandura's legacy with the real-life application of his theories regarding modeling, enactive rehearsal, vicarious learning, and self-efficacy. Included are excerpts from a discussion of a group of teachers from…

Early mathematics skills are predictive of later achievement, but there is evidence teachers generally provide little mathematics instruction in preschool classrooms. We conducted this survey study to better understand teachers' reported beliefs about their own mathematics skills, expectations, and practices for children with and without…

This paper presents the results of a quantitative study investigating the development of teachers' attitudes and self-efficacy expectations for inclusive mathematics instruction in the context of an in-service training that was designed in a blended learning format and compared to an unsupported online offer. In the blended learning format, 101…

United States math achievement has long lagged behind that of other nations and has been relatively stagnant for 8th-graders on national assessments over the past 2 decades. The need to understand how teachers can better support mathematics learning is particularly acute in the wake of pandemic-era learning disruptions, which impacted already low…

In the United States, stagnating mathematics achievement and persistent racial and socioeconomic disparities in math performance point to a need to understand how math teachers can more effectively support the learning of each and every student. Given a growing body of research that emphasizes the impact of the classroom environment on student…

Florida's Broward County Public Schools and the University of Chicago engaged in a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) to scale teacher practices that support students' critical thinking. As part of the RPP, Jeanne Century's research team conducted research to determine what barriers might limit the spread of these practices. The findings show…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary teachers rate their level of self-efficacy and to examine the characteristics of school leaders influencing teacher self-efficacy, including when teachers worked from home during the COVID-19 school shutdown. On the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), all 287 participating teachers…

The problem addressed was the high school classroom learning environment tends to benefit extraverted students while putting introverted students at an academic disadvantage. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to develop a greater understanding of the experiences of introverted students in the classroom and how their experiences may…

Past studies have shown that kindergarten teachers find it challenging to integrate science into their instruction, but little is understood about factors that influence their science teaching in Indigenous areas. Our study aimed to investigate the associations between kindergarten teachers' experiences, attitudes, self-efficacy, outcome…

To improve student motivation, the authors propose a five-step process that entails learning about a motivation framework, identifying students' motivational challenges based on that framework, adopting interventions to address those challenges, and assessing the effectiveness of the interventions. In particular, they recommend adopting the…

With the call for reformed teaching practices in STEM education, there is a need to spread effective teaching practices to classrooms. Affective drivers can lead an instructor to improve their teaching practices, but they are infrequently addressed or recognized. This case study followed one instructor through her General Chemistry course over a…

Understanding how teachers' implicit beliefs promote and inhibit students' creativity has important implications for fostering creativity in the classroom. This study investigated whether the effect of teachers' fixed creative mindset on their self-efficacy for teaching creativity was mediated by their perceptions of students' potential and the…