This study was undertaken to provide ways to strengthen and enhance existing online courses and to assist music educators in creating new online classes that are effective and engaging for students. Prior to the pandemic there was a clear lack of instructional expectations, guidance for online music education, and technical support for content…

This qualitative action research study examines how middle and high school STEM teachers create and implement lessons that connect concepts to the real-world and develop student metacognition. The researcher collected data through interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and survey questions. Participants from vocational, private, and…

The number of English learners (ELs) entering middle schools continues to increase, and middle school content teachers providing EL instruction face a considerable challenge. The problem that was studied in this research was the middle school content teachers' insufficient understanding of ELs' cultural background, needs, and interests. The…

The National Council for the Social Studies recommends high-quality access to academic content in the social studies domains (history, government, economics, and civics) to improve in-school performance and postschool civic and community outcomes for students in K-12 schools. To date, limited research information exists to inform social studies…

My dissertation is a pre-mid-post-test, quantitative research design, including surveys and written assessments, to answer these research questions: 1. How do students' science mindset vary over time when engaged in science inquiry activities? Is there a difference between male and female students? 2. Is there a relationship between 7th grade…

The Out of School Learning landscape continues to be an emerging ecosystem of learning, particularly for the adolescent population. While the focus for elementary school-aged youth has often been on after-school programming offering safety, supervision, and homework help, research has indicated that this approach is not equally successful for the…

I set out to understand the teaching and learning of immigration in social studies classrooms through a comparative case study of four veteran public school teachers and their students in a single district located in a post-industrial city in the upper Midwest. I hoped to better to understand the content that teachers addressed, the pedagogy and…

The purpose of the qualitative social constructionist study was to explore the factors that enhance or impede parental involvement of Spanish-speaking Latino parents on both English Language Learners (ELL) and Former English Language Learners (f-ELL) in a Small City School District. According to Krogstad et. al. (2023), the United States Latino…

This qualitative case study explored the implementation of critical citizenship education in an eighth grade social studies classroom. This research was guided by Johnson and Morris' (2010) framework for studying critical citizenship education and took place in a public charter school located in a capital city in the southeastern United States.…

Background: English language learners (ELLs) are dramatically increasing in U.S. schools: by 2025, 25% of public school students will be ELLs (NEA, 2018). In one teacher education program in the Southeastern U.S., all students earning teacher certification must complete a course in second language methodology. This study seeks to understand…

Student achievement is rooted in a teacher's ability to identify and assess student understanding of material. This is particularly challenging in classroom settings, which are dynamic and full of distractions, especially in science classrooms where discussion and inquiry are paramount. In mathematics education, the concept of "professional…

Human beings have an innate need to spend time outside, but in recent years children are spending less time outdoors. It is possible that this decline in time spent outdoors could have a negative impact on child development. Science teachers can combat the decline in the amount of time children spend outside by taking their science classes…

This study was designed to determine eighth grade teachers' perceptions of the impact, quality, and types of job-embedded professional development activities they have participated in and the relationship to student achievement in language arts, math, or science. The researcher identified school districts with 50% or more of their eighth grade…

Kentucky school districts have been charged to present an academic program review that documents the use of dance across curriculum content at all grade levels. This program review will replace statewide standardized tests for all students in the state of Kentucky and will count 20% toward each school's accountability score. Schools within the…

The purpose of the study was to examine teachers' perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing on instructional content, instructional strategies, motivation and morale, and pressure to improve student performance in relation to their views on accountability. It also sought to identify teachers' perceptions of the effect of high stakes testing…