Circle time is a common part of the day in many early childhood programs. This important routine can encompass instruction on curricular concepts, provide a space to introduce new topics, and build membership and community within inclusive classrooms. Lesson plans or strategies for circle time instruction are also a part of many early childhood…

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) has been shown to both engage and benefit students' learning of mathematics. However, there is evidence that group work is not always easy to facilitate, in part because educators lack details about learners' engagement during group work: the processes of problem solving involved, and how these are engaged. In…

While group work in undergraduate science education tends to have overall benefit, less is known about the specific peer-peer dynamics that optimize learning during group interaction. The current study used peer ratings and self-reported data from 436 students enrolled in team-based undergraduate science courses (biology or chemistry) to determine…

A qualitative case study research design was used to examine American female elementary students' perceptions about mathematics before and after participating in a math practices workshop designed specifically for females. The workshop sought to address perceived barriers to learning math by applying math concepts to real-life situations while…

Engagement is important for learning. Because of their atypical expression, measuring engagement for students with multiple and severe disabilities (MSD) is challenging. Group activities often enhance engagement of children and gross motor activities include an expanded variety of behaviors by which engagement may be measured. The purpose of this…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate engagement in the collegiate concert band setting. Research questions were: (1) How do collegiate band students describe their engagement in large ensemble rehearsals? (2) How do collegiate band directors describe engagement in large ensemble rehearsals? and (3) What does rehearsal…

This piece is presented from ongoing empirical research exploring barriers to student (re)engagement at a Midwestern university as COVID-19 persists. While college student personnel have worked to restore student life as campus operations have transitioned back in-person, college student engagement has struggled at many institutions across the…

This research note examines whether a smart classroom (technology-enhanced learning space) has a positive or negative impact on students' engagement in the learning process; that is, whether it generates positive engagement toward the course and group work. It presents results from a preliminary study comparing two marketing courses taught by the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether college students' attitudes toward group work could be influenced by thoughtful group project design. Undergraduate students (N = 123) in a lifespan human development course were assigned to groups and asked to create a smartphone app for a specific life stage. The authors utilized a convergent…

Student engagement is an important consideration across all levels of education. The adoption of student-centered teaching methods is an effective way to increase student engagement. Student engagement is at risk when instructor expectations and student participation in purposeful engagement activities are not aligned. Traditionally, student…

How hard should the books be in elementary small-group reading? This study explored text difficulty for bilingual students reading below grade level in third grade. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, I used qualitative methods to analyze students' engagement and discussion during small groups and single case design to evaluate…

Mathematics classrooms have reflected little change over the past century, consisting of the learning of inert, disjoint procedures with few connections between mathematics concepts and students' everyday experiences. However, problem posing, that is, the reformatting of existing problems and the generation of new ones, has been promoted by the…

Group-based teaching and learning is ubiquitous across undergraduate and graduate business curricula, and with any type of group work, free-riding--a form of social loafing in which free-riding group members reap the rewards of nonloafing members without exerting comparable effort--is a concern. This research examines a group assignment method,…

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education is currently receiving much attention from governments and educational institutions. Our work is based on active learning and video-based learning approaches to support STEM education. Here, we aimed to increase students' engagement through reflective processes that embrace video…

This study sought to maintain task engagement of a 4-year-old student with developmental disabilities included in a pre-K classroom while decreasing reliance of one-on-one support from a paraprofessional. To accomplish these goals, a withdrawal design (A-B-A) with a nested changing-criterion design was used to withdraw paraprofessional proximity.…