This study aims to identify how mathematics teachers understand whole-class discussions and to know the influence of lesson study on the way they orchestrate these discussions. This is a qualitative study, conducted with two groups of middle school teachers. We analyze data concerning three teachers, Patrícia, Marta, and Diana, collected through…

Teacher empathy has often been considered vital to successful and equitable teaching practices; however, empirical results have been inconsistent as to the effect of teacher empathy on educational outcomes. Further, researchers have questioned the effectiveness of both recent operationalization's of teacher empathy as well as its application in…

Introduction: In today's world, which is progressively oriented towards science and technology and facing a growing demand for skilled professionals, it becomes essential to identify the factors that encourage individuals to pursue careers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Previous research has shown that…

Recognizing that a successful middle school is one where adult advocates foster and guide students' academic and personal development (Bishop & Harrison, 2021), we explore how COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for one middle school to create novel spaces that supported students' social and emotional well-being. Calling on Bhabha's (1994) and…

Curriculum materials are not a fixed object; they are an active partner in a teacher's practice. Teachers and curriculum materials interact in a participatory relationship where both the characteristics of the teacher and the characteristics of the curriculum material affect the instruction. Teachers interpret and tailor these materials to create…

Student stress and anxiety are at an all-time high. Following the pandemic, more research is needed to better understand what types of interventions can be supportive in helping students manage their emotional wellbeing. To better support them, the researcher worked with various English Language Arts middle school teachers to implement Calming…

Scientist-led K-12 outreach offers many benefits to scientists, teachers, and students; however, many of these programs are top down rather than collaborative. Our team facilitated a museum-based scientist-teacher partnership to co-design a lesson on shark biology for middle school students. Following the implementation of the lesson, we conducted…

This study examined if in-class, online, and hybrid (in-class and on-line) instruction provided to middle and high school students in the U.S. differed during the third school year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provided a description of how writing was taught to secondary students. Thirty-eight middle and high school teachers (32 female, 6…

To effectively support the academic development of students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is crucial to establish a collaborative relationship between middle school teachers and parents. However, the lack of comprehensive comprehension regarding teachers' perspectives on this collaboration impedes its…

The purpose of this study was to discover methods and practices that have led to successful collaboration between school librarians and classroom teachers. A qualitative design with a phenomenological approach was employed to discover the lived experiences of six credentialed school librarians and six classroom teachers who have successfully…

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…

This study addressed teacher perspectives of behavior management in the post-virtual learning classroom. The problem that was addressed was the decline of middle school student classroom behavior compared to the pre-pandemic classroom, which is crucial for educators due to its influence on the quality of teaching and learning. The purpose of this…

During the 2020 pandemic, global governments imposed COVID-19 restrictions. Among the restrictions were K-12 school closures, which caused an abrupt change from in-person to virtual learning. These circumstances damaged students' mental health even after constraints were lifted. The problem was the socio-emotional learning (SEL) deficiency…

It is widely understood that people's perceptions of themselves and tasks influence their engagement and effort. Further, these relationships are often viewed as the purview of the individual. In contrast, research on human development has documented the influences of participation in multiple (often overlapping) contexts on individual…

As the pace of digital transformation continues to accelerate in classrooms and myriad distractions vie for the attention of learners, the challenge of engaging students grows ever more daunting (Garet et al., 2020). To establish stimulating learning environments in which students associate positive emotions toward tasks, ascribe value to their…