Rural schools in high-poverty areas are often understaffed. This descriptive phenomenological study examined fourth-grade state research projects in high-poverty rural Iowa schools to reveal the influence of school librarians' staffing levels on student learning of research skills. To determine evidence of students' critical literacy, ethical use…

Additional research is needed on ways in which urban youth report their civic engagement. Existing research indicates that federal legislation has resulted in reduced instructional time and resources in social studies and civic education in many states, which has led to a civic education opportunity gap that resonates through many urban…

The development of sustainability literate teachers has been identified as a key challenge for the implementation of education for sustainability in Australian schools (Skamp, 2010) and elsewhere (Nolet, 2009). This paper reports on the first year of a participatory action research project that investigates the learning of school teachers, teacher…

This mixed-methods study explored early adolescents' national American identification, and meanings attached to being American. Participants (N = 102; 51% female; ages 10-12, [x-bar] = 11.45, SD = 0.70) were racially and ethnically diverse from primarily middle- to upper-middle class families (median household income = US$150,000-US$199,999; 75%…

Problem scoping--determining the nature and boundaries of a problem--is an essential aspect of the engineering design process. Some studies from engineering education suggest that beginning students tend to skip problem scoping or oversimplify a problem. However, the ways these studies often characterize students' problem scoping often do not…

This study addresses the following questions: Does professional development (PD) designed to meet third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade teachers' pedagogical and content needs influence how teachers teach and engage with graphical devices found in social studies texts? If so, what effect does that instruction and engagement have on students'…

This study aims to identify errors made by primary school students when modelling word problems and to eliminate those errors through scaffolding. A 10-question problem-solving achievement test was used in the research. The qualitative and quantitative designs were utilized together. The study group of the quantitative design comprises 248…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how college and career readiness teachers describe their lived experiences as they guide students from a K-12 district in Phoenix, toward their postsecondary aspirations. This study was derived from the funds of knowledge theory, status attainment theory, and social capital…

The search for assessment procedures that are more fair and useful have led to the investigation of alternatives to traditional forms of intellectual assessment. This study explored an alternative which combined a dynamic assessment approach with the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing (PASS) model of cognitive processing.…

The present study investigated 15 Year 4-6 classrooms in two multicultural schools in New Zealand to understand what opportunities students had to draw on their diverse experiences of texts. A mixed-methods approach was taken, including classroom observations and student interviews. Results suggested that lessons were characterised by a consistent…

Inquiry science instruction is especially challenging in elementary grades where teachers are constrained by crowded curricula and time. Professional development (PD) may provide an opportunity to support elementary teacher development of inquiry science instruction. The study examines the inquiry practice of two teachers who participated in an…

To answer questions about how students' proficiencies are changing over time, educational researchers are looking for data sources that span many years. Clearly, for answering questions about student growth, a longitudinal study--in which a single sample is followed over many years--is preferable to repeated cross-sectional samples--in which a…

The regression discontinuity design (RDD) has the potential to yield findings with causal validity approaching that of the randomized controlled trial (RCT). However, Schochet (2008a) estimated that, on average, an RDD study of an education intervention would need to include three to four times as many schools or students as an RCT to produce…

Problem Statement: There have been several studies that have investigated curricular interventions for gifted students to address their educational needs. For most courses and disciplines, a standard curriculum may not be sufficient for the majority of gifted students. Here, among other curricular efforts in the education of the gifted, an…

The main purpose of this research study was to fill gaps in existing research on the comparative forms and qualities of learning that emerge from formal professional development and from more self-directed teacher teams. This research study also described the extent to which both align to recommendations for professional learning and the extent…