This qualitative participatory action research study provides two case studies to demonstrate how teachers in Grades 4 and 6 integrated digital tools into everyday, content-focused classroom instruction. The study demonstrates how teachers' technological pedagogical knowledge might combine with a participatory stance to encourage students to…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among students' conceptions of knowledge building, approaches to knowledge building, knowledge-building behaviors and learning outcomes. A total of 48 primary school students (from grades 3 and 4) who had experienced knowledge-building activities participated in the present study. After…

Improving foundational academic skills for elementary level students continues to be a challenge for classroom teachers. This study implemented weekly progress monitoring procedures using curriculum-based measurement assessments in conjunction with weekly individual student-teacher graphing and goal-setting conferences to determine the effect the…

This study has two primary objectives. The first one is preparation of an efficient review book including a series of activities, which will help fourth grade students exercise what they learned in the elementary science course in a year. The second objective is examination of the prepared book in the framework of student and teacher opinions. In…

Individuals and societies that can use mathematics effectively in this period of rapid changes will have a voice on increasing the opportunities and potentials which can shape their future. This has brought affective characteristics, such as self-efficacy, that affect mathematics achievement into focus of the research. Teacher efficacy refers to…

We consider how research participants engage alongside researchers as choreographers of data generation and highlight the everyday practices of researchers and participants "in motion" within and across time and space. Data for this case analysis were generated during a two-year qualitative study investigating multimodal literacies,…

A key concern today is the question of homework in our nation's public schools. In this study, an investigation was conducted with the first no-homework policy, which has been introduced in one of the primary schools in the Western Cape. This study seeks to determine whether a no-homework policy will validate a positive or negative effect on…

This study was undertaken to discover how fourth-and fifth-grade teachers implemented the systematic Focused English Language Development (FELD) program with English Language Learners (ELL) students. ELL students are not reaching proficiency at a higher rate because of the gap in teachers' understanding of effective teaching practices and…

Research shows that the beliefs individuals hold about knowledge and knowing (epistemic beliefs) influence learning approaches and outcomes. However, little is known about the nature of children's epistemic beliefs and how best to measure these. In this pilot study, 11 Australian children (in Grade 4 or Grade 6) were asked to "draw, write and…

What purposes might literary translation serve in the K-12 classroom? In this article, I use practitioner research to explore a heritage language poetry translation project I taught with third and fourth grade multi- and monolingual students in a suburban independent school. Students interviewed family members about their heritage languages,…

This study investigated the relationship between flexible learning environments and student attitudes about reading. Flexible learning environments are spaces wherein learners can choose from different seating or standing options, locations within the learning space, and the size group with which to work. This allows the learner to find the…

Music activities can have a positive impact on pupils' schooling. It is therefore interesting to obtain more knowledge about pupils' perceptions of different kinds of music activities in school and how these activities affect their schooling. The study was conducted in Sweden at a municipal elementary school where pupils are offered choral lessons…

Facilitators and barriers to recess physical activity are not well understood. To date, research on recess physical activity has predominantly focused on quantitative measures typically focusing on a narrow set of predefined factors, often constructed by adults. To really understand the factors affecting recess physical activity it is crucial to…

The public school system in the United States is facing severe criticism. There exists today, a constant stream of negative messages through media coverage, news articles and charter school marketing campaigns claiming the failing of the public school system specifically in the content area of mathematics. Current research exposes alarming…

Students in the United States continue to struggle with fraction mastery despite the fact that understanding fractions is essential for further progress in mathematics (NAEP, 2008). This research project investigated the potential of using high-press mathematical discourse (Kazemi & Stipek, 2008) to investigate fourth graders' emerging…