This study addressed the effects of Strategies for Teaching Reading, Information, and Vocabulary Effectively (STRIVE), a distributed professional development (PD) model designed to help teachers implement reading comprehension and vocabulary practices in fourth grade social studies classes. Schools (n = 81 schools, n = 235 teachers, n = 4,757…

We examined the influences of pre-solving pause time, algebraic knowledge, mathematics self-efficacy, and mathematics anxiety on middle-schoolers' strategy efficiency in an algebra learning game. We measured strategy efficiency using (a) the number of steps taken to complete a problem; (b) the proportion of problems completed on the initial…

Adult learners with low literacy skills compose a highly heterogeneous population in terms of demographic variables, educational backgrounds, knowledge and skills in reading, self-efficacy, motivation etc. They also face various difficulties in consistently attending offline literacy programs, such as unstable worktime, transportation…

We now know a tremendous amount about early reading development, including the various skills that learners have to master and integrate to be both effective word readers and skilled comprehenders. The body of work referred to as the "science of reading" has helped illuminate these processes, and it offers important guidance for the…

This study examined if and how thinking time, defined as the time from the start of the problem to the students' first action to solve, influences their problem-solving efficiency, defined as the number of steps taken to solve the problem, using Graspable Math, a web-based mathematical tool. We found that: (1) students who took longer to think…

Expanding on the extant body of research on content validity, this study applied the tenets of content validity research to the development of an expository book reading intervention focused on science for preschool students with language impairment. This example case explains how, guided by content validity research in healthcare interventions,…

This paper reports a pilot study to determine the potential impact of an integrated STEM curriculum on Pre-K teachers' engineering content knowledge, self-efficacy and teaching practice. Using a randomized control trial design, researchers examined the impact of the curriculum in 17 Pre-K classrooms (8 intervention classrooms, 9 control…

A majority of the challenging words that adolescent readers encounter in school texts are morphologically complex and from the Latinate layer of English. For these words, bound roots carry important meaning, such as the relation between innovative and its bound root, nov, meaning "new." This study investigated the effects of instruction…

Water is critical to the existence of Earth in its current form; therefore, it stands to reason that a student's science education experiences ought to support the development of increasingly sophisticated ideas about water in socio-ecological systems. Despite the significance of water, it has tended not to receive systematic treatment in the…

Scholars have long argued that individuals' beliefs influence their behaviors and the decisions they make throughout their lives. Focusing on beliefs as a cognitive construct, the purpose of this study was to identify several key beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning held by practicing elementary mathematics teachers. An iterative…

Addressed are four key issues regarding concrete instruction: What is concrete? What is a worthwhile concrete experience? How can concrete experiences be used effectively in early childhood mathematics instruction? Is there evidence such experiences work? I argue that concrete experiences are those that build on what is familiar to a child and can…

Hope Elementary School recently purchased tablets for all of its students to facilitate the use of technology in the classroom. The principal at Hope Elementary understands that technology can be an efficient and effective way for teachers to access materials and differentiate instruction to support the achievement of all learners. However, some…

Purpose: This study evaluated the efficacy of an instructive feedback strategy for modeling letter names and sounds during presentation of positive feedback within a small group phonological awareness intervention for preschoolers. Method: Two experiments were conducted using multiple baseline designs across children and behaviors. Letter name and…

One's ability to listen and comprehend spoken language of multiple utterances (i.e., listening comprehension) is one of the necessary component skills in reading and writing development. In this chapter, we review theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence of listening comprehension development and improvement, and propose a direct and mediated…

Reading comprehension is multidimensional and complex. The persistent challenges children, adolescents, and even adults face with reading comprehension call for concerted efforts to develop assessments that help identify sources of difficulties and to design instructional approaches to prevent or ameliorate these difficulties. Doing so requires…