This article presents a methodological approach to educational psychology research in which researchers engage in collaborative transformations of educational practice while developing theory concerning the societal and scientific relevance of these transformative processes. The theoretical inspiration for this approach stems from…

In 2014, over 30 classroom teachers and administrators from one district joined higher education faculty and researchers from an educational non-profit organization to begin a three-year collaborative project. They wanted to find ways to leverage the use of one-to-one mobile technology (tablets) in kindergarten-2nd-grade mathematics classrooms to…

This paper describes some elements of a specific kind of design-based research, cooperative engineering. In the first part of the paper, we argue that cooperative engineering can be analyzed through a joint action framework. We first present some conceptual tools that the Joint Action Theory in Didactics proposes in order to understand didactic…

We think with several theoretical concepts from Jacques Derrida (defer, différance, deconstruction, and trace), in order to better understand how the processes of children, materials, and a teacher (re)defined and (re)imagined writing when they began to compose with a range of tools as writers in a second grade (7- to 8-year-olds) Writers' Studio.…

An inner-city second grade teacher-researcher and her university-based partner examine how she and her inner-city second graders learned to resist and expand the constraints of their mandated, scripted reading curriculum by exploring their neighborhood and classrooms as communities spaces for literacies learning. Drawing on an interactional…

The use of manipulatives in the classroom has been advocated for decades. However, the theoretical and empirical support for this practice is mixed. Some researchers suggest that manipulatives facilitate learning by (a) providing an additional channel for conveying information, (b) activating real-world knowledge, and/or (c) improving memory…

This study investigated the effect of written language experience on spelling proficiency. Students in the second grade did story writing in a supportive environment which accepted their language when they wrote rather than imposed a criteria of correctness. The students were encouraged to use "functional," or "invented,"…

Stemming from a teacher/researcher's experience in a public school where music was "hated" by students, this study investigates how early elementary students understand and appreciate music, and how classroom teachers can help students in this process. The research was conducted in a first and a second grade class in two Boston (Massachusetts)…