Middle school social studies teachers are increasingly working on argument writing in their classrooms so that students can successfully write counterarguments that acknowledge competing perspectives about historical and social issues by the end of eighth grade. The authors' prior research indicates that eighth-grade students "can" grow…

The adoption and implementation of state science standards based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have posed significant challenges for the development and interpretation of science Large-Scale Assessments (LSA); specifically, the extent to which the assessment items align with the standards. Previous research has relied on large…

Objectives: At the K-12 level, "CS for All" initiatives across the country strive to increase equitable access to and participation in computer science (CS). However, there are many open questions about the implementation and effectiveness of these initiatives, including the extent to which exposing young people to CS early on can shape…

The aim of the present research is to examine the opinions and experiences of 7th grade students towards design thinking. In this context, activities for design thinking about energy transformations included in the science curriculum were conducted for four weeks. Phenomenology method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study…

The current study investigated the associations among student perceptions of COVID-19 stress, internalizing problems, and school social support (teacher and classmate support) and how these relations differed across elementary/middle and high school students. Based on data from 526 4th- through 12th-grade students from a school district in the…

Teacher Geneviève DeBose Akinnagbe discusses her school's--and her own--improvement in the area of writing instruction. While she is a strong believer in teacher-led change, she says the change in this case was mainly the result of the school's becoming more intentional, at an organizational level, about the teaching of writing. The progress truly…

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study among 50 secondary school students from 10 schools in the Netherlands, aiming to understand how they experience 'presence' -- being fully (with one's entire being) engaged in the here-and-now -- in class. Although presence was a non-regular experience, students experienced it as personally…

A young person's sense of belonging at school can affect their level of motivation, academic achievement and wellbeing. During the transition from primary to secondary school, one's sense of belonging may be affected by the changes and challenges encountered. This paper reports some of the findings from a larger qualitative longitudinal study that…

Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled 'lower-attainers' in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in…

Throughout a unit of study about survival, students and their teacher engaged in individualized learning. Discussions of teacher-dictated curriculum versus student-driven learning, design of the unit, and students' and teacher's experiences and takeaways from the unit are included.

Standardized testing pressure sometimes discourages schools from broadly implementing experiential learning opportunities. However, some K-12 schools are challenging the trend with greater commitment to learning by experience. STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, arts, mathematics) school is a project-based program providing students…

Purpose: This longitudinal study provided a retrospective examination of the impact of student participation in a year-long Sport Education curricular experience on physical literacy development. A focus was placed on students' reported motivation, attitudes and disposition to participate in physical education (PE) and sport, and their…

In this article, the authors discuss how teachers can help students to grieve through the power of writing. Six years ago, a student named Miranda, experienced a great loss. To make sense of the tragedy, Miranda did what came naturally to her; she picked up her pen to write in her journal. Now a college sophomore, Miranda has grown through the…

Schools in Norway are supposed to meet the ideals connected to inclusive education. The most common definition of inclusive education in Norway is multiple-oriented, meaning that inclusive education is a product of a variety of values, processes and experiences. Learning environment is a particularly central element in inclusive education. The…

The present study reports on an investigation of the generalizability of the technical adequacy of the Positive Experience at School Scale (PEASS) with a sample of students (N = 1,002) who differed substantially in age/grade level (i.e., adolescents in middle school as opposed to children in elementary school) and ethnic identity (i.e., majority…