The study examined how school closures and the rapid transition to online learning may have impacted student performance. In March 2020, a global pandemic was declared in response to the quick spread of the COVID-19 virus. The impact of this global pandemic was felt across all areas of daily routines. Businesses closed, and many workers found…

The problem investigated in this study was the decline in student achievement since the implementation of project-based learning (PBL) by the third- through sixth-grade teachers at the local elementary school. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate teachers' perceptions at the study location about their knowledge of PBL and…

Teachers' beliefs about the reading standards as well as curriculum materials used to address the standards affect how teachers implement the standards, which further impacts student learning. In this case study, 26 middle grades (6-8) reading teachers each participated in a 90 minute one-on-one audio-taped interview consisting of 33 open-ended…

The relevance of diagnostic meta-subject competence measures in secondary schools is caused by the fact that the importance of a meta-subject competence formation was officially defined in educational standards, but there are still no qualitative and informative diagnostic tools for this competence development. The purpose of the article is to…

Decision matrices are valuable engineering tools. They allow engineers to objectively examine solution options. Decision matrices can be incorporated in K-12 classrooms to support authentic engineering instruction. In this article we provide examples of how decision matrices have been incorporated into 6th and 7th grade classrooms as part of an…

The authors explore the importance of talk and interaction for learning, particularly in relation to new K-12 standards and the prominent role of academic language in today's educational contexts. The article concludes with a detailed example of a Grade 6 teacher's use of content and language objectives to address the needs and strengths of all…

This article describes the Energy Transformation 4-H school enrichment curriculum. The curriculum addresses energy efficiency and conservation while meeting sixth-grade science essential standards requirements. Through experiential learning, including building and testing a model home, youth learn the relationship between various technologies and…

Discrepant events are often used by science educators to incite interest and excitement in learners, yet sometimes their results are farther-reaching. The following article describes how one such event--dissolving packing peanuts in acetone--led to a change in the course of a college-level elementary science teaching methods class and to the…

This paper presents a method for social studies teachers to incorporate song lyrics into the study of controversial historical events and issues. Using the Hunt and Metcalf "Seven Problematic Areas of the Social Studies" as the rubric for selecting appropriate songs, the Teacher Candidate (TC) explains how song lyrics make viable text…

Teachers who participated in a recent summer institute focused on implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Throughout the summer institute, teachers had many in-depth discussions about the meanings they attributed to the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs). In this article, the authors share some of the…

In the current educational climate, teachers are required to find methods to give all students, including students with mild intellectual disability, access to the general education curriculum. The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effects of the concrete-semiconcrete-abstract instructional sequence and model-based problem…

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and present the status of student synthesis with color coded formula writing for grade level six through twelve, and to make recommendations for educators to teach writing structure through a color coded formula system in order to increase classroom engagement and lower students' affect. The thesis first…

"The Zeroing in on Number and Operations" series, which aligns with the Common Core State Standards and the NCTM Sandards and Focal Points, features easy-to-use tools for teaching key concepts in number and operations and for addressing common misconceptions. Sharing the insights they've gained through decades of mathematics teaching and research,…

This article describes the extension of a simple activity into an exploration of multiple NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) Standards. It includes the solution process undertaken by a combination fifth-sixth-grade class. In teaching students to attain Standards, all classroom activities should purposefully address one or more…

The vision of K-12 standards-based mathematics reform embraces a greater emphasis on students' ability to communicate their understandings of mathematics by utilizing adaptive reasoning (i.e., reflection, explanation, and justification of thinking) through mathematics discourse. However, recent studies suggest that many students lack the…