Teacher collaboration continues to be deeply grounded within effective professional development. Teacher teams, where small groups of teachers work together in teaching and learning, have become progressively more popular and are considered one of the most effective approaches to improvement and growth. However, teacher teams are situated within a…

By bringing everyday phenomena into the classroom, teachers can more readily engage students in authentic scientific inquiry. When working with young children, the best phenomena are those that students can directly experience and investigate. Meaningful phenomena can be identified by watching children at play, listening to the conversations they…

In this article, we show how close attention to language throughout a socio-scientific investigation supports upper elementary Arabic-speaking students to learn English while participating in valued disciplinary practices in science. Engagement in reading and writing with a focus on language also enables them to bring critical perspectives to the…

Quartiles are usually introduced early, often in primary school together with box-and-whisker plots. Various methods are used, and in lack of explanation in many textbooks at elementary level, this leads to unnecessary confusion. We discuss some elementary methods that are consistent with the most common definition and are also easy to understand.

This case explores Coach Rosa's efforts to gain access to teachers' classrooms to support teaching and learning. As Rosa demonstrates, working to gain access is a complex coaching practice and coaches cannot assume that their classroom access at any school is universal. School leaders, including district administrators, principals, coaches, and…

Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic…

Professional learning that includes coaching is an effective method of supporting teachers to make changes to their teaching practice. This article provides an overview of the initial in-situ professional learning and coaching in a primary school in Western Sydney facilitated by a Mathematics Teaching Educator. In this article I present the…

This case occurs in a Midwestern community that has received Afghan individuals and families. It explores the experiences of an Afghan mother and two children as they transition into U.S.-based schooling culture and norms as the children start elementary school. The family initially had the help of a K-12 liaison from a community-based…

A major challenge faced by elementary education programs is the vast amount of content preservice teachers must master in various subject areas. With limited time and coursework, how can teacher preparation programs scaffold meaningful experiences and provide a progression of opportunities to aid preservice teachers in mastering this content and…

Differences in performance between students living in poverty and more advantaged students are reflective of an opportunity gap, as opposed to a gap in student ability. Walker-Dalhouse and Risko focus on disparities in literacy achievement that might be attributed to color-blind practices, deficit mindsets, low expectations, or context-neutral…

One of the guiding principles highlighted in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012) states that "children are born investigators," claiming that students construct their own understanding of the natural world even before they learn about it in formal learning settings. Even if students lack a thorough…

Where does our food come from? Such a question may be difficult for some children to answer, especially those living in a city apartment devoid of a backyard with a vegie patch or fruit trees. This article describes a learning experience designed to encourage Year 1 children to think about the foods that humans obtain from plants. The learning…

Although incorporating engineering into science instruction seems straightforward, adding more content into an already busy school day may be overwhelming for some teachers. To address this challenge, the authors created a unit that integrates engineering and literacy instruction. This article demonstrates how young students can learn…

Mathematics-related affect comprises an individual's attitudes, beliefs, emotions and motivations towards mathematics. These affective constructs have been widely studied in mathematics education and cognitive psychology and have been shown to be related to cognitive outcomes such as performance on a range of mathematical tasks. However, it is not…

Headteachers, teachers, parents, politicians and school governors have long been united in wondering how to produce effective teaching in primary schools -- but they could find few reliable answers. This book changes that. Here, some of the UK's leading researchers into effective primary school provision combine qualitative and quantitative…