The authors describe a study aimed at enhancing knowledge about amphibian species. Two classes of 3rd and 4th graders aged 9-11 years participated in the study. In addition, approximately one half of the students participated in an environmental conservation action designated to preserve migrating amphibians. During this action, students…

In this article, we propose a theory for understanding the processes of adaptation in classroom learning and interaction. Adaptation processes are the emergent, improvisational, and recursive relationships between tensions and how they subsequently reorder learning activities. Through the analysis of a representative example of classroom…

In a 3-year longitudinal, mixed-method study, 67 children in two schools were observed during literacy activities in Grades 1-3. Children and their teachers were interviewed each year about the children's motivation to read and write. Taking a grounded theory approach, content analysis of the child interview protocols identified the motivations…

Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that…

Objective: The Bergen Child Study is a longitudinal study of child mental health from the city of Bergen, Norway. We present methods and results from the first wave of the study, focusing on prevalence of disorders, associations with risk factors, and the use of services. Method: The target population included all 9,430 children attending grades 2…

We examined third graders' understandings of condensation using an expanded notion of the Emergent Perspective, a reflexive consideration of individual and group meaning-making situated in the culture of the classroom. Data were collected from two small groups of students in an inquiry-based, urban classroom during a unit on the water cycle.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the identified function of student problem behavior and different types of teacher behavior. Students with emotional/behavioral disorders and their teacher in one classroom were observed during reading instruction. Results showed consistent patterns of teacher attention across the…

In this article, the author relates her difficult experiences as a novice teacher when she started teaching bilingual third-graders in Spanish at Spangler Elementary School in 2002. She relates that her teaching strategy of balancing rigor and sweetness had its rewards as her students' rate of reading proficiency on the Colorado Student Assessment…

Numerous studies indicate that children of adolescent mothers are at an increased risk for a variety of negative outcomes, even after controlling for diverse social and health factors. However, relatively less research has examined positive adjustment in these children, or protective factors associated with such adjustment. We examined the…

This qualitative study that allowed children to be the dominant voice examined children's stories of hope. Twenty-nine kindergarten children through to third graders were interviewed using familiar school items: story board, pictures, puppets, and so on. One elementary school, located in a large southwestern metropolitan city, was selected for…

With traditional mentoring programs working hard to attract new kinds of volunteers and schools facing increased pressure to help students succeed, school-based mentoring is a promising--and increasingly popular--approach. According to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the number of school-based matches grew from 27,000 in 1999 to 90,000 in…

This book re-examines the dichotomy between the everyday and the disciplinary in mathematics and science education, and explores alternatives to this opposition from points of view grounded in the close examination of complex classroom events. It makes the case that students' everyday experience and knowledge in their entire manifold forms matter…

We queried Florida elementary teachers about how they perceived their principals' professional and personal inviting leadership behaviors during a time when many teachers and principals felt a lot of pressure due to test-based accountability. Despite the pressure, teachers reported that their principals demonstrated fairly high levels of inviting…

This paper will examine the discourse of one experienced teacher of Indigenous children in lessons observed as part of the Conductive Hearing Loss (CHL) project conducted by Edith Cowan University in Perth. In the classroom observed, all the children were Indigenous and the teacher was aware that some children were suffering from CHL. This…

As part of an ongoing research collaboration with university-based researchers, Nancy and her teaching partner, Meredith, implemented a loosely defined system of portfolios to supplement the other forms of assessment in their classroom. School-based and university-based researchers interviewed children to assess children's perspectives of their…