Academic optimism (AO) is positively correlated for student achievement and is comprised of three constructs: academic emphasis, collective efficacy, and trust in students and parents. In essence, AO is the permeated belief of a teacher that academic achievement is important, that teachers can effectively increase student achievement, and that…

Current literature calls for more culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education to connect with what students know, do, and believe outside of school and to utilize this to foster their academic achievement. This study investigated elementary teachers' perceptions of culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education in an…

Empirical evidence from national and international studies suggests that the teacher-student relationship has a great impact on students' academic success, and social and psychological wellbeing. Realizing the importance of this impact, the present study has two main purposes: firstly, to investigate the perceptions of 6--11 year old students in…

The problem addressed in this study is that, in a rural Title I public school in the Northeastern United States, administrators have struggled to implement leadership strategies to support the reduction of student discipline issues in the classroom. The purpose of the study was to investigate how administrators implement leadership strategies that…

EL Education, originally called Expeditionary Learning, supports a network of 150 pre-K-12 public schools in 30 states and has launched an open source K-8 English language arts curriculum that has been downloaded more than 10 million times across 45 states. EL Education advocates a three-dimensional view of student achievement that puts character…

School recess is a daily opportunity for school-age students to be physically active. However, in some territories teachers often use recess for other purposes (e.g., children's poor classroom behavior might be punished with reduced time for recess). This study aimed to examine the impact of such practices on children's physical activity (PA) and…

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the contribution of Self-Assessment with Goal Setting (SAGS), which was implemented with the "self-directed learning" (SDL) method, to the improvement of academic performance in the context of language teaching to sixth-grade students in primary school. The research methodology…

Excellent certificates are not enough to make excellent teachers rather, teaching demands constant insight, reflection, and suitable pedagogy. Determining the best pedagogical method of course delivery plagues faculty members and schools across the globe. This paper reports on an investigation and outcomes of a comparative study of three different…

Although Cognitive Assessment System (CAS)-2: Brief was published in 2014 and it is used in applied settings all over the world, we still do not know how well it relates to academic achievement. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relations of CAS-2: Brief with reading and mathematics performance. Two hundred and twenty-two Greek-speaking…

This study examined the association between elementary students' (N = 1627; 51.3% girls, ages 4-12) engineering-related ability beliefs (competence), task-value beliefs (interest, importance), and career aspirations. Findings suggest that mean levels of children's engineering-related beliefs did not vary by gender. High levels of competence,…

Intrinsic motivation is a crucial factor for students' learning and academic achievement and the initial drive for capturing students' interest in learning and engagement in a particular subject. There is a relationship between motivation and learning in traditional schools (Brophy, 2010; Schunk et al., 2014); however, despite the fact that…

Taking the form of three papers, this dissertation seeks to elaborate the role and experience of Black educators by shifting primary research perspective away from the classroom teacher to consider the systemic and organizational roles of racialized faculties. The first paper historicizes the 20th- and 21st-century stories of Michigan's Black…

Disruptive behavior in a classroom setting has the potential to interrupt the learning for all of the students within that classroom setting. As the volume of this behavior increases, teachers are required to spend more time managing behaviors instead of implementing quality instructional practices. Interdependent group contingencies are an…

The current study aimed to assess whether a single-session growth mindset intervention was effective in increasing beliefs in a growth mindset and academic motivation among fifth-grade students. Academic motivation and subsequent achievement tend to show declines with age and increasing difficulty in classes, and this was exacerbated during the…

The purpose of this longitudinal, mixed methods quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact of balanced literacy coaching on teacher efficacy, practices, beliefs, and student achievement. The participants were third- through sixth-grade teachers from five elementary schools within the same south suburban Chicago public school district.…