Calls to immerse students in the sensemaking practices of science recommend that students propose ideas and work together to construct explanations as well as drive the evaluation and decision-making around classroom knowledge-building. In other words, they should be participating with epistemic agency. Part of the teaching work of supporting…

Using question 28 from the May Problems to Ponder in volume 114, the author and her seventh- and eighth-grade students launched into a discussion of creativity, linearity, piecewise, and recursive definitions of functions. This pattern to ponder provided rich mathematical opportunities for all students in her middle school classroom.

Action research is an evidence-based practice that is highly applicable to middle school teaching and learning. Middle school teachers can empower themselves and their students by participating in immersive, meaningful activities that are designed to improve educational outcomes. Action research is purposeful and beneficial for teachers, students,…

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federal program that provides free and reduced priced lunch to millions of low-income children in urban schools. Empirical research shows mixed results on the physical and nutritional health of urban students participating in the program. However, a considerable limitation of this literature is that it…

The purpose of this convergent parallel design, mixed methods case study, was to discover the perception of students and teachers of the effectiveness of using school-wide restorative practices for students at the middle school level, grades six through eight, at one middle school site. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was the Theoretical Framework…

Successful problem-based learning (PBL) often requires students to collectively regulate their learning processes as a group and engage in socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL). This paper focuses on how facilitators supported SSRL in the context of middle-school game-based PBL. Using conversation analysis, this study analyzed text-based…

Writings related to the meaning and value of music establish that experiences with music influence values and beliefs. The potential impact of this influence highlights the need for sensitivity as teachers orchestrate experiences with musical resources. In a time of increasing division in society, teachers responsibly exercise their influence over…

This study used a convergent mixed-method design and a pragmatic approach to examine how professional development (PD) affected teachers' confidence in their abilities to use the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework in a rural Mississippi middle school. Grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the study aimed to answer two research…

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) involves teaching an additional language through the study of a subject, and teaching the subject through the medium of the new language. CLIL approaches to additional language acquisition are widely adopted and broadly successful, though some content-subjects may be better suited than others. The…

This single-case study investigates the effectiveness of video modeling for teaching the Look, Ask, Pick (LAP) strategy to three seventh-grade students with learning disabilities. The participants watched video segments explaining the technique to solve fraction problems. Results from the intervention revealed substantial performance improvements…

Vertical scales are frequently developed using common item nonequivalent group linking. In this design, one can use upper-grade, lower-grade, or mixed-grade common items to estimate the linking constants that underlie the absolute measurement of growth. Using the Rasch model and a dataset from Curriculum Associates' i-Ready Diagnostic in math in…

Background: Disembedding is a crucial spatial thinking skill in visual arts and mathematics education. It is important in creating and analyzing artworks by separating a figure from its background, as well as for solving geometric problems where shapes must be viewed from new perspectives. Drawing upon research in psychology, arts, and mathematics…

We explored the outcomes of a school counselor consultation intervention informed by the Advocating Student-within-Environment theory as delivered to nine teachers of 149 students in a Title I school. Results from hierarchical regression analyses revealed changes in teachers' perceptions of the teacher-student relationship that predicted students'…

The purpose of this narrative action research study was to tell Marcus's story as an ensemble director learning how to teach composition in his middle school orchestra program. Marcus collaborated with Sam, a university professor, and designed a study to examine his teaching in his 49-member advanced orchestra class. As time passed, the focus of…

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an established, research-based intervention that focuses on building intrinsic motivation to promote lasting, healthy changes in a variety of situations. In school settings, MI has been used to improve student motivation, attendance, punctuality, confidence in schoolwork, and self-determination as well as increase…