Assessment is central to teaching and learning, and recently there has been a substantive shift from paper-and-pencil assessments towards technology delivered assessments such as computer-adaptive tests. Fairness is an important aspect of the assessment process, including design, administration, test-score interpretation, and data utility. The…

Recent studies suggest that benefiting early from both a cochlear implant (CI) and exposure to cued speech (CS, support system for the perception of oral language) positively impacts deaf children's speech perception, speech intelligibility, and reading. This study aims to show how: 1/CS-based speech perception ("cue reading"), and…

There is a lack of student engagement in science education that promotes critical thinking, real-world problem solving, innovation, and diversity. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate and develop innovative STEM opportunities for students at the middle school level. Participants and data collected in Cycle 1 consisted of…

This study explored a place-based summer enrichment offering for gifted rural students through the lens of a critical pedagogy of place (Greenwood, 2003). To ameliorate well-documented opportunity gaps for rural students, we established a residential camp on our university's campus where middle school students engaged in STEM and humanities…

Background: The gender gap in engineering presents a critical barrier to achieving a diverse and innovative engineering workforce. This gap is influenced by gender stereotypes, socialization processes, masculine culture, and insufficient early experiences with engineering. These contribute to diminished STEM self-concept, interest, and…

Derived from the Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) model, cost has drawn scholarly interest for being predicative of avoidance motivation. The study is an effort to develop and validate an instrument to measure students' perceived costs in physical education. Through literature review and student interviews, a draft of 39 items under seven domains was…

This paper focuses on exploring the transition South African learners make from Grade 7 to Grade 8, with an emphasis on the experiences of all the role players in two school cultures during this transition phase. This qualitative exploratory research project was placed in a constructivist research paradigm. The data were analysed in an exploratory…

Marginalized students face a range of gaps in experience, highlighting the importance of understanding these students' perspectives on their opportunities to learn. The current study contributes to this effort by reporting on marginalized students' experiences and liking of mathematics instructional strategies in middle-school mathematics…

The past decade has brought increased focus on STEM learning (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse, & Feder, 2009; NGSS Lead States, 2013; U.S. Department of Education, 2015). The growth of STEM-related industries and the power associated with STEM fields make access to STEM careers an equity issue (Buechley, 2016). Despite gains in educational…

Current discourses of equity in teaching and learning are framed around calls for inclusion, grounded in the extension of a set of static rights for high-quality learning opportunities for all students. This essay presents a rightful presence framework to guide the study of teaching and learning in justice-oriented ways. This framework highlights…

French immersion (FI), one of the hallmarks of French as a Second Language education in Canada and mandated in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially English/French bilingual province, is often the target of language ideological debates surrounding its purposes and expected outcomes. Yet, notably absent in FI scholarship has been a focus on the…

This study explores the relationships among students' perceived learning opportunities in school mathematics, their perceptions of self in mathematics, and their desire to learn more mathematics in the future. Data included student survey responses from eighth and tenth grade students from a state in the Southeast region of the United States.…

Drawing on two multi-site ethnographic projects in Beijing and Shanghai, we explore how teachers in both public schools and schools for migrant children have responded to state policies that restrict educational opportunities for migrant students. We argue the importance of political context in re-conceptualising empowerment by raising the…

This paper describes high quality teaching practices in two schools that produce exceptional growth for all kinds of students. These practices focus on making the most of instructional time and exposing students to high quality content in a variety of contexts. They prove teachers don't need to choose between differentiating to meet students'…

A hands-on game based upon principles of oil accumulation and drilling was highly effective at generating enthusiasm toward the geosciences in urban youth from underrepresented minority groups in Newark, NJ. Participating 9th-grade high school students showed little interest in the geosciences prior to participating in the oil game, even if they…