This article provides insight into the process and implementation of a professional development workshop that was created for and provided to educators who were interested in implementing more playful pedagogies in their educational settings. The workshop focused primarily on meeting the needs of all learners through meaningful and engaging…

Purpose: Due to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, primary and secondary schools worldwide are deploying online teaching/learning practices, fostering and thus innovation practices. The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which practices reflecting educational innovation are implemented in the Greek public primary and…

The Assessment for Learning disposition has been long established in the literature as a desirable attribute for teachers. To use the biological metaphor of adaptation, assessment for learning has been argued to be a key base pair on the teacher genome. We argue that the selection of the correct genotype for teachers is not enough. What is needed…

Strong collaborative partnerships between teachers and researchers who are interested in enhancing the outcomes of students with disabilities have the potential to improve student outcomes, facilitating a wave of student success. Teachers and researchers share their unique expertise in this collaborative partnership in order to understand student…

This study examined the feasibility and effectiveness of a comprehensive function-based intervention applied across multiple inclusive classroom settings. The participant was a middle school student diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome who exhibited chronic off-task behaviors across all academic environments. This study was conducted across two…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' implementation of a specific mathematics curriculum and how their conceptions influenced this implementation. An innovative, powerful tool, known as "teacher logs," was used to examine teachers' implementations of the curriculum; a survey was used to study teachers' conceptions related…

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that influence the ability of teachers and administrators to use data obtained from a data warehouse to inform instruction. The mixed methods study was guided by the following questions: 1) What data warehouse application features affect the ability of an educator to effectively use the…

Over the past two decades, several new K-12 mathematics curricula have been developed. The question asked by many researchers, administrators, and policy-makers is: "Do these materials work?" This question has led to research on curricular effectiveness and, more specifically, on teachers' implementations of the curricula. Teachers…

In an ever changing society of the 21st century, there is a demand to equip students with meta competences going beyond cognitive knowledge. Education, therefore, needs a transition from transferring knowledge to developing individual potentials with the help of constructivist learning. Advantages of constructivist learning, and criteria for its…

This article describes elements of an approach to research and development called "design-based implementation research." The approach represents an expansion of design research, which typically focuses on classrooms, to include development and testing of innovations that foster alignment and coordination of supports for improving…

In recent years policymakers have seized on teacher evaluation as a primary lever for improving schools. Of all school factors--from expanded school calendars to smaller class sizes to community and family engagement programs--teachers contribute the most to student achievement. Policymakers reason that evaluating teachers based on their students'…

Several studies have shown the complexities that teachers faced when planning for instruction in technology enhanced learning environments (TELE). Although classroom-oriented instructional development (ID) models have the potential to help teachers think and plan for effective instruction with technology, teachers are often reluctant to use these…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the first-year evaluation of the Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program, one of several statewide performance incentive programs in Texas. The report provides an overview of changes to teacher behavior and instructional practices…

This article describes one teacher's efforts at creating a differentiated mathematics program in her multi-age first- and second-grade classroom. The author describes challenges encountered and successes met in this process, as well as the structures she uses to meet a variety of student abilities, including open-ended problem-solving tasks,…

The rising numbers of special education referrals have resulted in national debate and subsequent new legislation regarding the methods school districts have traditionally used to identify specific learning disabilities. The 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) now allows the use of a student's response…