This study examined the perceptions of educators to determine if they felt that they were adequately prepared to teach in a high poverty school setting. The participants, educators from four school districts, completed a survey based on their perceptions of their own level of self-efficacy and preparedness to work in high poverty schools. The…

Recent studies have posited that K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education should go beyond traditional subject silos and take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates these core subjects into a cohesive curriculum to foster authentic problem-solving skills. The purpose of this study was to field test one of five…

Title 1 middle schools have always faced unique challenges. Students belonging to families with low socio-economic status and financial stress have to overcome various barriers before they are academically successful and ready for college, career, and life. The COVID-19 pandemic forced students to engage in education outside of traditional school…

This mixed-methods study analyzes the perspectives of educators in middle school regarding the impact of cell phones in the middle school environment. Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory of cognitive development along with opportunity theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) provide insight regarding implications related to accessing personal devices…

International comparisons suggest that middle school American students compare poorly to their international peers in tasks that require spatial skills. This deficiency in spatial skills is more prominent in females and has been linked to a lack of developmental activities influenced by gender norms. These deficiencies are especially concerning as…

The aim of this research is to determine the opinions of Social Studies teachers about teaching students the skills in the curriculum. Obtaining the opinions of Social Studies teachers regarding the acquisition of the skills in the program will contribute to the improvement of the infrastructure and practices of the skills that are difficult to…

The phenomenon of teachers designing their own instructional materials is gaining more attention in research. Different aspects of this enterprise have been examined--its potential to reveal the complexity of teachers' instructional planning considerations, the design principles employed by teachers to realise instructional goals, among others. In…

The Project Citizen Research Program (PCRP) was a three-year research initiative that evaluated the effectiveness of the Center's Project Citizen teacher professional development (PD) program and curriculum intervention for middle and high school students. The program took place over three academic years that were impacted by the COVID-19…

This dissertation investigates the critical role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in urban education through the lens of educators working in a diverse middle school setting in St. Louis, Missouri. With a focus on understanding educators' perceptions and experiences, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of SEL programs in addressing the…

This dissertation investigates the critical role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in urban education through the lens of educators working in a diverse middle school setting in St. Louis, Missouri. With a focus on understanding educators' perceptions and experiences, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of SEL programs in addressing the…

This dissertation investigates the critical role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in urban education through the lens of educators working in a diverse middle school setting in St. Louis, Missouri. With a focus on understanding educators' perceptions and experiences, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of SEL programs in addressing the…

This dissertation investigates the critical role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in urban education through the lens of educators working in a diverse middle school setting in St. Louis, Missouri. With a focus on understanding educators' perceptions and experiences, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of SEL programs in addressing the…

This dissertation investigates the critical role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in urban education through the lens of educators working in a diverse middle school setting in St. Louis, Missouri. With a focus on understanding educators' perceptions and experiences, this study aims to explore the effectiveness of SEL programs in addressing the…

Professional development is used in education to assist teachers with strategies and concepts to be used in the classroom. The problem is that the experiences of veteran teachers in professional development to integrate technology into the classrooms is something that is not entirely known or understood. A gap in the literature was identified in…

There are well-documented justice-related issues in engineering education. How do teachers begin to develop a way of seeing forward in their teaching, both in how they understand their role and their hoped-for outcomes for students, in ways that bridge the goals of justice with required engineering disciplinary expectations? In this manuscript, we…