Despite increased interest in integrating programming education into K-12 programs, there is a lack of studies on teaching debugging to younger age groups. Therefore, this study proposes practical design components for designing unplugged debugging tasks that affect young learners' debugging performance, problem-solving, and self-efficacy,…

Using robotics and programming, this study investigated the effects of different levels of embodied instruction on the problem-solving, debugging, programming proficiency, self-determination, and self-efficacy of students in ethnically diverse elementary classrooms. The first small-scale, quasi-experimental study involved 37 second-graders, who…

The purpose of this dissertation-in-practice was to examine the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs of K-5 elementary school teachers in a suburban Central Texas school on their use of blended learning in the classroom. Before conducting the study, previous research on blended learning was reviewed in the areas of student achievement, student…

In Tanzania, the education system focuses on schools and teachers as key educators of children, while little attention is paid to the home environment. This study examines motivational factors that may influence parental involvement at home and at school, using Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's model of parental involvement as a theoretical framework.…

With the advent of the South Carolina Read to Succeed Act, authorized in 2014, school districts are required to implement a comprehensive system of ongoing support to address declining literacy performance and ensure students graduate with the necessary skills to succeed in the college or career fields. As a result, school systems employ…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the influences of family literacy workshops on family involvement, families' self-efficacy, and their perception of their children's reading performance. The participants were families of students receiving Title 1 reading service in grade 2, 3 and 4. The research questions for this study…

Professional development is now recognized as a key driver in enhancing teacher expertise and improving student achievement. A multifaceted, collaborative professional-development intervention designed to equip teachers with a range of strategies, tools, and methodologies and raise literacy standards was implemented over two years (grades 1-2) in…

The shared and unique effects of teacher and student reports of teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) in second and third grade on academic self-views, behavioral engagement, and achievement the following year were investigated in a sample of 714 academically at-risk students. Teacher and student reports of teacher-student support and…

The linkages between self-regulatory processes and achievement were examined across 3 years in 733 children beginning at 1st grade (M = 6.57 years, S.D. = 0.39 at 1st grade) who were identified as lower achieving in literacy. Accounting for consistencies in measures (from 1 year prior) and for influences of child's age, gender, IQ, ethnicity and…

This study investigated the mediating effects of learning a memory strategy on second-graders' performance of a memory task and their self-efficacy for the task. Specifically, second-graders were taught a strategy for organizing words into categories to increase their ability to remember lists of words. Their predictions of how many words they…