International comparisons suggest that middle school American students compare poorly to their international peers in tasks that require spatial skills. This deficiency in spatial skills is more prominent in females and has been linked to a lack of developmental activities influenced by gender norms. These deficiencies are especially concerning as…

Rural schools, especially smaller ones, offer enormous opportunities for teachers to get to know their students and to cultivate their academic talents. However, students with potential in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) face specific obstacles to having their talents fully realized in rural schools. Joni Lakin, Tamra…

Adolescence can be a particularly difficult time for youth as they experience the physical, social, and academic changes that accompany maturation. One of the most critical challenges for schools is teaching adolescent students positive social and emotional skills, which are crucial for them to succeed academically and emotionally. "Strong…

"Hall of Heroes," a digital game, was used to compare social and emotional skills of 63 adolescent female students matched for age across Malaysia, South Africa, and the United States. Participants were assessed on six social and emotional competencies during game play, namely impulse control, cooperation, communication, social…

The authors aim to present a case study of a three-year professional development program for school leaders with a specific focus on cultivating curriculum leadership. This program is funded by the Ministry of Education Taiwan and its goal is to empower school leaders' curriculum leadership under the second wave of curriculum reform in Taiwan.…

The present paper examines if developmental pathways for students at risk for academic failure can be improved through social and emotional learning (SEL). Specifically, we test this hypothesis by accounting for shifts in student engagement, a highly studied and malleable construct often inclusive of SEL interventions, as the pathway by which to…

With a great deal of divisiveness in today's political climate (Gramlich, 2017), it is not difficult to imagine the impact that partisanship can have on youth. The Internet is filled with examples of social media rants, name-calling, and even violent incidents as adults engage in unproductive and uncivil behavior with those who are different from…

At the heart of this paper is a well-founded belief in the importance of play in the lives of children; play that leads to social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Teacher educators have the responsibility and opportunity to educate and enlighten in-service and pre-service teachers on the role of play in schools. At our university…

Many schools and out-of-school organizations use social-emotional learning (SEL) programs to boost students' skills. Yet research shows that these programs can be difficult to implement and don't always meet students' needs. In response, Rebecca Bailey, Laura Stickle, Gretchen Brion-Meisels, and Stephanie Jones propose a new approach to SEL…

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of a professional development program on sixth grade teachers' use of social dynamics management (SDM) practices. SDM practices represent teachers' active attempts to incorporate classroom social dynamics into everyday instructional and behavior management strategies. Sixth grade teachers…

This study highlights how principal leadership of goal-directed practices impacts outcomes. Over 2 years, three academics partnered with three principals and a small "project team" comprising one or more teachers, and one or more middle or senior leaders. In this report, the authors reflect on some of the key changes that occurred from…

The aim of this research is to investigate mentorship process and programs which are designed for professional development of primary and middle school principals in the State of Georgia, U.S.A. With this aim, a qualitative research model and a semistructured interview technique was used in order to gather in-depth knowledge. The study group…

Maker-based learning activities offer benefits to both students and educators; however, there exist few research examples that examine how educators enact a process of identity exploration when implementing maker activities in their instruction. The Projective Reflection framework was used to assess three science educators' identity exploration as…

There is growing recognition of the prevalence of "within school churn", a phenomenon in which teachers remain within a school but are assigned a new grade level or course. In this study we examine the consequences of within-school churn for the pedagogical content knowledge of elementary teacher participants in an NSF-funded science PD…

This design-based research investigated the context and impact of a three-year practice-based professional development (PD) project introducing science teachers to pedagogical shifts required for full implementation and synergy among disciplinary literacy components of "Next Generation Science Standards" and "Common Core State…