The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to delivering music content through distance learning, adding to what is often already a stressful and challenging time for first-year educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of six first-year music teachers who began teaching in Hawai'i during the COVID-19 pandemic. I…

The most effective way to improve the performance of students is to improve the practice of their teachers (McLeskey & Brownell, 2015). Teachers must provide highly effective, research-based instruction responsive to the unique needs of students with disabilities for quality outcomes to occur. High-Leverage Practices (HLPs) were developed by…

Mindfulness as focused attention and awareness with acceptance is increasingly being promoted and used as a professional development tool for educators to improve their own as well as students' well-being, stress, and learning climate. Twenty-six K-12 Hawaii teachers and counselors participated in a three-day mindfulness training course as part of…

Two international social studies teacher educators and researchers (from Japan and the USA) use qualitative methods to systematically examine the impact of the philosophy for children Hawai'i (p4cHI) approach to deliberative pedagogy on social studies teaching and learning in two countries. The study's participants are two secondary level social…

This qualitative case study explored how three expert secondary special education teachers in Hawaii successfully negotiated their job demands. Purposeful sampling was used to select one secondary school on the Leeward coast of Oahu. We used reputational-case sampling to select participants that fit Dreyfus and Dreyfus' (1980) expert theoretical…

Among 110 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, teacher autonomy support in 9th grade significantly predicted intrinsic motivation for math in 9th grade as well as math course-taking over the next 2 years, both of which in turn significantly predicted math achievement by 11th grade. In a second model, teacher autonomy support was positively…

This action research study examines a graduate level course on Ethnicity and Education. Eighteen teacher participants enrolled in a Master of Education program. Course instructors analyzed teacher participants' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching. A teaching plan, a post-course questionnaire, a focus group interview, and a follow up…

This mixed method study explored Christian teachers' beliefs in religious schools on evolution, their attitudes toward evolution, and their perceptions on the effect of those beliefs on the teaching of evolutionary content. Teachers (N = 52) from Association for Christian Schools International (ACSI) accredited schools in California and Hawaii…

This paper reports on a professional development initiative that targeted teams of teachers and librarians working with high school students on strengthening an inquiry approach to capstone projects. While much has been written about student-focused models for information search and use, little has been reported on how training for the…

Research with Native Hawaiian science teachers is contributing to a better understanding of issues relating to equity in science education, and toward improving science curriculum to support Native Hawaiian students as well as support systems for Native Hawaiian students interested in pursuing higher education and science-based careers.…

"Kahua A'o," a National Science Foundation Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences project, seeks to prepare educators to address issues of underrepresentation of Native Hawaiian students in Earth and Space Science (ESS) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. An interdisciplinary team…

Hawai'i is a unique and special place to conduct environmental science inquiry through place based learning and scientific investigation. Here, we describe and evaluate a unique professional development program for science teachers in Hawai'i that integrates the traditional approach of providing training to improve content knowledge, with the…

These authors are in the process of completing the development and evaluation of a series of professional development (PD) modules consisting of in-person trainings coupled with online learning support. The PD is grounded in the Teaching Science as Inquiry (TSI) pedagogical framework, which is centered on learning through authentic application of…

The following study attempted to ascertain the instructional cost-effectiveness of public high school teachers towards high school completion through a financially based econometric analysis. Essentially, public high school instruction expenditures and completer data were collected from 2000 to 2007 and bivariate interaction analyzed through a…

A focus group of 5 general education schoolteachers from one rural middle school in Hawaii was conducted to investigate their perspectives on the unintended effects of including students with learning disabilities. The general education teachers were asked how the inclusion of students with learning disabilities had impacted (a) their professional…