We investigated how student understanding of complex science topics was impacted when 27 teachers switched from typical to inquiry instruction in a delayed cohort comparison design study. For the same set of science topics, the teachers used typical methods of instruction in the first year and online, visualization rich inquiry units in the second…

The "TOEFL Junior"® Standard Test is an assessment that measures the degree to which middle school-aged students learning English as a second language have attained proficiency in the academic and social English skills representative of English-medium instructional environments. The assessment measures skills in three areas: listening…

Previous research has found a link between theory of mind and cooperation. The aim of this study is to deepen into this relationship, to identify which theory of mind skills are more related to the cooperative ability on a referential communication task. A total of 50 children from first and fifth grade completed a battery of theory of mind tasks,…

National efforts to interest students in STEM careers are intensifying around the globe, due to a shortage of professionals to fill the growing demands in these fields. Although some US studies find high interest in STEM in K-12 students, longitudinal studies show a decline in interest following middle school. Many students, particularly females…

This qualitative case study investigated the process of teaching the self-management strategies, self-determination, and self-monitoring to chronically misbehaved students from the perspective of a secondary special education teacher. The investigation used a purposeful sample to select an urban high school setting and a tenured special education…

This study investigated some of the underlying factors that may relate to and predict the reading comprehension of children in fourth through eighth grade (N = 47). A subset of these children previously had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD; n = 10); the remainder are classified as typically-developing (n = 37). The participants…

Examining the body as a site and product of various ongoing discursive processes can provide insight about how identity impacts students' learning and understanding of their classroom experiences. This qualitative case study investigates how two, urban, eighth-grade students responded to being identified as struggling readers, concentrating…

Use of research-based practices for improving content area literacy of English learners is important both because of their growing numbers and their overall poor academic performance. However, how do we ensure that teachers are implementing proven methods with fidelity? This study shows the direct relationship between teachers' level of…

The findings reported on in this manuscript emerged from a design experiment conducted at a low-income urban middle school intended to support the teacher in incorporating pedagogical practices supportive of students' everyday knowledge and practices during a 6th grade unit on food and nutrition from the LiFE curriculum. In studying the impact of…

This article features a school built on multiple intelligences. As the first multiple intelligences school in the world, the Key Learning Community shapes its students' days to include significant time in the musical, spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, as well as the more traditional areas of logical-mathematical and linguistics. In…

This study makes two contributions to the literature. First, it bridges the sociological discussion of social class habitus with psychological notions of adolescents' educational expectations, locus of control, and self-concepts. Second, it empirically examines the relationships between early employed parental practices and expectations and…

This article presents findings drawn from the development of an intervention designed to leverage Spanish to improve English reading comprehension. Five teachers and 18 middle school English language learners (ELLs) in 2 urban middle schools participated in the project over the course of an academic year. Analysis of policy documents, interviews,…

As of 2008, approximately 40% of eighth grade students in the United States enroll in Algebra I (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2008). Although research has shown that students have more opportunities to take advanced mathematics courses by taking eighth grade Algebra I, in the United States, approximately only one-third to one-half…

College and career aspirations are important to the development of students' short and long term educational and personal goals. Although students rely on information they receive and are influenced by experiences in which they engage in a variety of settings, for many, school is an important source of college and career information. How students…

Students who leave elementary school after fourth grade may not be receiving adequate literacy instruction. Although many recent studies have focused on a drop in test scores for middle school students, a gap exists in the literature with regard to explicit literacy instruction in elementary and non-elementary school settings. To inform educators…