This study examines the effects of self-efficacy, students' effort and access to educational resources, and teachers' development on the achievement of elementary school students in mathematics. Using the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) restricted data set, this study determined if and how these three aspects individually…

With the 2015 change in science standards to align more closely with the Next Generation Science Standards, as the district STEM coach, I saw a need for professional development that addressed the lack of understanding and skill needed to teach the Science and Engineering Practices, specifically the practice of Scientific Augmentation. This…

The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and improve the student learning experience by understanding how Grades 4 & 5 educators in a Title 1 suburban-urban school district perceive, comprehend, and apply the CASEL framework for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to improve learner motivation and academic achievement. Using…

Each teacher brings different strengths and beliefs to the classroom through instruction. When teachers implement the same curriculum, pacing guides, training, and support, their instruction still varies, as does student learning. The Action Research study sought to improve the connection between teacher self-efficacy and teacher perceptions in…

This study addresses a problem of practice at Nipmuc Elementary School (NES), a large urban elementary school in New England. State standardized test data and student writing samples showed that students were performing well-below grade level in writing. The primary factors driving this problem included teachers' lack of knowledge and low…

The purpose of this two-phase, sequential explanatory mixed-methods research study was to examine the correlation between kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers' self-efficacy and the impact on literacy achievement to determine how professional development (PD) positively impacted teachers with high self-efficacy. The study was conducted in a…

Context: With the introduction of Computer Science (CS) into curricula worldwide, teachers' adoption of CS pedagogical content is essential to ensure the long-term success of reform initiatives. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programs play a key role in this process. Unfortunately, adoption is seldom evaluated in CS-CPDs or CPDs in…

With large-scale wicked problems threatening our world, the integration of sustainability into teacher professional learning is systemically lacking in the United States. The purpose of this case study was to understand the impact of a multi-session, sustainability-related professional learning program on twelve PreKindergarten-8th grade educators…

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine if there were statistically significant differences between 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-grade reading teachers in the Northeast Unites States, defined as participants and nonparticipants in the LETRS® professional development, in terms of teachers' self-efficacy in student…

When designing professional development for math teachers, teacher confidence, math anxiety, and student performance are factors to consider. St. Lucie Public Schools in Florida has seen a decline in performance in fifth-grade mathematics, where students are first asked to showcase their knowledge on operations for fractions. As a curriculum…

The purpose of this dissertation-in-practice was to examine the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs of K-5 elementary school teachers in a suburban Central Texas school on their use of blended learning in the classroom. Before conducting the study, previous research on blended learning was reviewed in the areas of student achievement, student…

Writing teachers play an extraordinarily important role in their students' writing development. Teachers' motivational beliefs, such as attitudes toward writing, perceptions of their efficacy to teach writing, or preparation to use evidence-based instructional practices, impact their writing instruction, which directly affects the advancement of…

Elementary school teachers are faced with numerous challenges when teaching science using the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This action-research case study looked to explore the effects of a coaching cycle on teacher's increased perceived understanding of NGSS and its three-dimensional design as a way to better implement the standards.…

Notwithstanding the value of self-regulation, different studies evidence that self-regulated learning (SRL) is still insufficiently ingrained in schools and that teachers only rarely promote it among their students. Therefore, the current study reports on a one-year school-wide professional development programme (PDP). A quasi-experimental…

The primary purpose of this parallel mixed methods study was to discover the extent to which instructional coaches and third and fourth grade elementary teachers were impacted by participating in the instructional coaching model available on their campuses. A subsequent concern was to determine to what extent the writing practices of the teachers…