Philosophy for Children (P4C) is an educational approach that helps children question, reason, construct arguments, and collaborate with others. This approach to teaching is new to Chinese teachers and students who have traditionally relied on rote learning and dissemination of knowledge. Independent thinking and questioning are rarely encouraged.…

Background/Context: Although calls for rich discussion and argumentation about disciplinary texts and content are frequent, research indicates that in classrooms such discussions are rare. When discussions do happen, few students tend to participate. Purpose/Focus of Study: We look to exemplar teachers' classrooms where a range of ethnically,…

Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, NewSchools Venture Fund awarded a research grant to ACT to better understand factors related to social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL lessons were implemented in schools serving students who were 96% Latinx, 85% economically disadvantaged, and 38% English learners during the 2019-2020 school year. The…

This study examined how virtual middle-school teachers establish meaningful and productive teacher-student relationships in virtual environments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight virtual middle-school teachers, utilizing narrative inquiry methodology and the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. The themes that emerged…

Experiential outdoor learning is a teaching strategy that provides students with hands-on experiences and real-life examples to reinforce science content being taught in the classroom. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions that middle school teachers ascribe to their experiences of facilitating outdoor learning…

In this study reciprocal peer tutoring was implemented in middle school mathematics classes for a six-month period. The effects of this methodology on students' mathematics achievements, mathematics anxiety levels, attitudes towards mathematics, and mathematics self-concepts were examined. Study participants included 768 students in grades 7-9…

Students' relationships with their teachers are a form of social capital (i.e., relational social capital; RSC). Latent transition analysis (LTA) was used to investigate longitudinal patterns of RSC in a sample of 786 grades 6 (35%), 7 (35%), and 8 (30%) students (48% female, 37% Hispanic, 22% white, 68% low income), and their links to academic…

A binational team of investigators culturally adapted, implemented, and tested the efficacy in Mexico of "keepin' it REAL," a US-designed prevention intervention for youth. This article reports on the social validity of the adapted intervention by assessing its feasibility, acceptability, and utility, as perceived by participating middle…

In order to improve instruction, teachers need to make sense of and evaluate the critical events that have the potential to strengthen the understanding of students' mathematical thinking. Mathematics instruction has shifted toward inquiry teaching which leaves many teachers attempting to change their practices accordingly. While there are…

Formal collaborative structures for teacher teams as professional learning communities (PLC) have long been a supported practice aimed at changing instructional practice and increasing student outcomes in a cycle of continuous improvement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of PLC teams at the middle school level in a…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to analyze if a significant relationship exists between teacher efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies, classroom management, and student achievement in mathematics at middle and high school levels in Eastern Arkansas. Using Bandura's self-efficacy theory as the theoretical…

Access to general education is a federal mandate for all students but a major challenge in middle schools. The problem addressed in this study is a lack of access to the general education curriculum in the middle grades 6th-8th. To solve this problem, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework was created to provide instructional design…

To efficiently solve mathematical expressions and equations, students need to notice the systemic structure of mathematical expressions (e.g., inverse relation between 3 and 3 in 3 + 5 - 3). We examined how symbols--specifically variables versus numbers--and students' algebraic knowledge impacted seventh graders' problem-solving strategies and use…

When students perceive unfair treatment from teachers based on their race or gender, they disengage and begin to lose interest in school and often misbehave (Roeser & Eccles, 1998). If students feel marginalized within the school, they may not reach their academic potential (Banks, 2004). It is possible, therefore, to say that teachers'…

Throughout public schools in the United States, minority students continue to receive more disciplinary consequences compared to other groups of students. The problem addressed in this study was the persistence of discipline disproportionality between minority students and White students at a public U.S. middle school, even with recent efforts…