The public education system in the United States continues to struggle in educating children of diverse backgrounds. Many have addressed this issue by documenting how certain practices teach children particular types of knowledge and skills. This developmental focus on what should be happening to children of diverse backgrounds tends to ignore the…

Lesson Study is rapidly becoming one of the most adopted models of teacher professional development worldwide. In this paper, we examine the teachers' discussions that are an integral part of the Lesson Study research cycle. In particular, we investigate the "dialogic mechanisms" that enable teachers' pedagogical intentions to be…

This paper reports on findings related to the Nature of Technology from Stage Two of the "Technological Knowledge and Nature of Technology: Implications for teaching and learning" ("TKNoT: Imps") research project undertaken in 2009. A key focus in Stage Two was the trialing of different teaching strategies to determine how…

This article uses data from 65 teachers participating in a K-2 mathematics professional development research project as an example of how to analyze video recordings of teachers' classroom lessons using mixed methods. Through their discussion, the authors demonstrate how using a mixed methods approach to classroom video analysis allows researchers…

In the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability, many social studies teachers struggle to find creative ways to add depth and authenticity to a broad, shallow curriculum. Teachers can use the time after tests are administered for students to reflect back on the social studies curriculum and select topics they want to study more deeply…

This article focuses on the methodological use of reflective narratives from discourses and activities of an experienced primary teacher as evidence of her professional identity. The teacher's reflective narratives emerge from her participation in a 3-year developmental and research project, Learning Communities in Mathematics, conducted at the…

The first appendix in this report is the complete version of the literature review from the research project "Motivation and Engagement of Boys: Evidence-based Teaching Practices." This project was carried out by the University of Western Sydney on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST)…

This paper introduces a research project in which five chemistry teachers, working in cooperation with university researchers, implemented a new teaching approach using context-based modules specially designed to stimulate the intrinsic motivation of students. The intention was to induce change in chemistry teachers' teaching approach from more…

This article concerns the contribution that feedback makes to valid classroom assessment of the writing of young learners (YLs), defined here as approximately 9-13 years old. It shows that a scale of descriptors adapted from the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001) can play a central role…

The manuscript examines the relationship between language, identity, and classroom learning. Through an exploration of a series of research studies conducted over the course of 6 years, this manuscript examines how the idea of "Good Teaching" fails to account for the language-identity learning dilemma. In stage one of the research, a series of…

Transforming Writing is a two-year action research project which aims to develop a model for the teaching and learning of writing that more fully incorporates a focus on embedded formative assessment. In the first year of the project, the 12 participating schools developed a model of writing underpinned by Talk for Writing, an approach developed…

Often, for preservice students, teacher education programs consist of a series of disjointed experiences that fail to make a connection with their fieldwork and student teaching. For example, preservice teachers typically read about how to incorporate specific teaching methods, classroom management strategies, and assessment tools into their…

Despite the wide interest in and need for student-centered approaches to learning, educators have scant access to a comprehensive accounting of the key components of it. To build the knowledge base for the emerging field of student-centered learning, Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit based in Boston, commissioned papers from nine teams of…

This article, by Lynda Abbott and Richard Grayson, offers a fascinating example of collaboration between school and university, focused on the development of a community archive. The project--run as an extra-curricular activity--was originally inspired by a concern to preserve the personal stories of those whose lives were affected by the Second…

This document presents the proceedings of the 18th Annual Research Forum held June 26, 2013, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 13 action research papers: (1) Developing Oral Language Ability in the Secondary Spanish Classroom Using the Interpersonal and Presentational Modes of Communication…