Background: Motor development of many children in rural areas of South Africa is compromised because of various socio-economic factors, hence, the need to address these developmental needs. Aim: To examine the immediate and sustainable effects of a 9-week movement programme on fundamental movement skills (FMS) of school children. Setting: Seven to…

Peer tutoring methods were implemented in a 2nd grade classroom using an alternating treatments design with a baseline. In the baseline phase, 18 participants spelled words they had not yet learned. During the treatment phase, teacher-led spelling instruction was alternated each week with peer tutoring for spelling. Peer tutoring for spelling was…

Purpose: In this study, we investigated the effects of a schoolwide program, Bookworms K-5 Reading and Writing, on student achievement. Method: The study included seven cohorts of students (N = 8,806) in grades 2-5 in 17 elementary schools across three school years. We used a comparative interrupted time-series design, conducting multilevel growth…

The problem addressed in this quantitative study was that the second-grade students in the selected school were performing low on the tests compared to other grade levels in the selected school district. The results from the investigation on the effect of blended instruction using the Zearn® Math curriculum on student achievement, the perception…

The purpose of this quantitative comparative research was to determine if there was a statistically significant main effect of teaching method (project-based vs traditional) on second-grade students' learning in mathematics and if gender differences exist between the scores of male and female students in general and the scores of male and female…

Reading performance in third grade has significantly declined across the United States in recent years, suggesting a critical problem that was addressed in this study. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perspectives of K-3 teachers working in a rural elementary school district regarding a decline since 2018 in the…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative case study was to discover Second through Fifth Grade rural North Texas teacher perceptions focusing on reading and mathematics student achievement gaps resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown affected students not only academically but also socially…

Augmented reality (AR) technology can enhance picture book reading experience. The present study aimed to explore the influence of reading AR picture books on primary school students' reading comprehension, story retelling, and reading motivation. Eighty second graders, who were from two classes at a rural primary school in a coastal city in East…

The lack of teachers and equipment is a major obstacle to the implementation of Computational Thinking (CT) in education, particularly for rural schools. Although CT education has been investigated for many years, less attention has been paid to lower primary schools in rural areas. This study contributes to filling this gap by investigating the…

This study explored whether the computational thinking skills of early elementary-aged students be positively impacted by participation in a robotics-based, classroom intervention. Action research was used to examine the impact of a multifaceted, constructionist, robotics-based intervention on 37 second and third grade students at an elementary…

This paper describes a problem of practice that arose from a lack of consistent, systematic phonics instruction within a small rural school with a large percentage of students not mastering skills in a way that builds the needed foundation for reading. To address this problem, action research was conducted through a mixed methods approach to…

Children appear to be faced with more stressors today than ever before, and schools are tasked with providing social and emotional support and instruction to help their students navigate life's ups and downs. The purpose of this mixed methods action research case study was to explore the effectiveness of mindfulness-based practices as a social and…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental repeated measures study was to analyze the reading achievement of the students in both the face-to-face and remote learning infrastructures to determine which method produces the greatest gains in overall achievement. Second-grade face-to-face and remote learning students in a rural, northeastern North…

The FRIENDS Resilience programs provide cognitive-behavioral skills across the developmental spectrum and can be applied as a universal or selective prevention program. In the current study, we assessed whether, relative to the schools' existing counseling curriculum ("guidance"), FRIENDS improved social skills, problem behaviors, and…

As the popularity of growth and fixed mindset in education grows, there is an increasing need to investigate how mindset is actually portrayed in the classroom, especially from the students' perspectives. This dissertation proposal aims to build upon the research conducted in the previous phase of the study. The research component study revealed a…