The pandemic has not only increased economic inequities within various communities, but it has also exacerbated the social, emotional, and math achievement inequities of middle school students, creating an environment that increases the potential for heightened anxiety and peer conflict. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that educators not…

Recent reform initiatives in STEM disciplines inspired the development and implementation of integrated STEM approaches to science teaching and learning. Integrated STEM as an approach to science teaching and learning leverages engineering principles and practices to situate learning in an authentic and meaningful science learning environment.…

This qualitative study investigates teachers' perceptions of the challenges faced by students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds and their ability to implement equitable instructional practices. Guided by The Equity-Based Framework for Achieving Integrated Schooling, the research explored teachers' experiences through semi-structured…

Recent literature justifies the use of virtual learning in supporting middle-grades students' mathematical knowledge development and emphasizes the critical role of motivation in learning (Lo & Hew, 2020; Murphy et al., 2020; Spitzer & Musslick, 2021). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation both play a role in learning for middle-grades…

This article reports on a project implemented to help middle school teachers provide evidence-based instruction and intervention to students with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD) and mathematics difficulties (MD). Multiple sources--interviews, surveys, and field notes from formal and informal observations--were used to gather data on…

This research aims to develop ECARsites, an online site designed to support data-related activities in science learning and to facilitate the implementation of data, computational thinking (CT), and self-directed learning (SRL) practices in a more contextualized and relevant way for students. The approach used design-based research (DBR) methods,…

Educators across the United States have designed and implemented Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-tiered (Ci3T) models to meet K-12 students' academic, behavioral, and social and emotional well-being needs. As part of implementation efforts, educators collect and use social validity and treatment integrity data to capture faculty and staff views…

Digital math assessments with bilingual accommodations allow multilingual learners to use their entire linguistic repertoire to showcase their knowledge and skills. The bilingual accommodations, which include tools like language translation and audio prompts in both English and Spanish, are designed to be adaptable, giving multilingual learners…

The background of this research is the low interest of children learning social studies, meanwhile, the purpose of this study was to increase interest and social studies learning achievement with the subject of growth and development of the national spirit with the Think Pair Share Pedagogic Criticle (TPSPC) learning model in class VIII students.…

It appears that a disconnect may exist between the taught curriculum in middle school and the real-world applications of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) concepts, leaving students underprepared to envision themselves in future STEM roles. This two-cycle action research study investigated the connection between middle school…

Background: Children's academic achievement is considerably influenced by genetic factors, which rarely operate independently of environmental influences such as teachers' behaviour. Praise and punitive discipline are commonly used management strategies by teachers. However, their effects on the genetic expression of children's academic…

Effective teaching requires enjoyable classroom tasks aimed at promoting students' learning of mathematics meaningfully, and previous research has demonstrated that the use of origami activities in mathematics classrooms can help achieve that goal. In this article, the authors describe their "LOVE MATH" one-straight-cut letter origami…

The participatory action research (PAR) aimed to build educators' culturally responsive teaching capacity to support equitable classrooms. The study focused on the culturally responsive teaching development and decision-making process of a middle school principal, three Language Art teachers, and the culturally responsive teaching influence to…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the relationship between teacher's perceptions of school climate and student achievement of middle school students. Two hundred twenty middle school teachers, from a large urban school district located in the Southwestern region of the US, participated in the "New Jersey School Climate…

This quantitative study was conducted to examine if teacher reflective practices had an impact on student engagement, teacher-student relationships, and student engagement. Survey data were collected from 356 middle school teachers and students. Data concluded no significant relationships among the reflective practices of teachers, student…