After watching his fifth-grade son perform in "The Taming of the Shrew," Ben Lathrop realized that having learned the play through performance, his son found the experience enjoyable. Moreover, his acting decisions (movements, gestures, vocal inflections) demonstrated that he had at least some understanding of his lines, suggesting that…

Data from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress indicates that only one-third of fourth and eighth grade students are able to read proficiently on grade level. Despite a well-established research base indicating that all students benefit from explicit, systematic code-based instruction, many teachers lack the knowledge about the…

This dissertation consists of three papers about quantitative research methods in education. Each paper is a response to potential limitations of the current approach to building evidence for effective education -- an approach that is dominated by Randomized Controlled Trials of school programs, with mathematics and English achievement as primary…

Successful implementation of the current English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum invites a new approach to teacher professional learning (PL). A focus on establishing and renewing relationships must play a role in developing the collaboration necessary for curriculum implementation. This article presents a research-based argument that effective and…

The purpose of this research discusses (1) to find out the preparation of pre-service teacher students in using digital storytelling in online learning, (2) to study the implementation of teaching English by using digital storytelling, and (3) to find out the pre-service teacher students' perception in using digital storytelling. This research is…

This paper examines how English teachers experience and articulate a rural sense of belonging (RSOB) while teaching and living in rural communities. Given that rurality is a social construct, teachers' inclusion in this study occurred through meeting nuanced rural criteria. RSOB is a relationship people have with rurality that helps English…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what degree significant academic gains occurred in English/language arts and mathematics achievement for students who attended the after-school program compared to the students who did not participate in the after-school program. This study was significant in that it examined the impact of structured…

This work studied an institution's experiences with acceleration and placement reform in English coursework as changes in these measures affected student persistence, completion, and subject mastery in English composition. Through assessing student learning outcomes after placement reform and acceleration, this study compared students' success…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect extrinsic motivation had on student academic achievement in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math. The study was a quantitative, ex-post facto quasi-experimental design that compared student achievement on a benchmark assessment from one year to another. In this study, the instrument used…

Schooling has long been identified as a tool for nation-building and cultural reproduction. In early post-Federation Australia, English and literacy education played a significant role in producing colonial subjects. Although Australia today is heralded as a successful multicultural nation with momentum growing for constitutional recognition of…

Purpose: This paper aims to apply ecological models of agency to understand factors influencing how an eighth grade English language arts (ELA) teacher enacted agency in four moments in the classroom. It focuses on how his language in relation to his instructional choices reflected messaging to his students regarding the learning he intended from…

This paper investigates the language demands of creating texts in the English classroom, which involve transformations in context. In particular, it focuses on the tensions inherent in tasks which require more traditional textual analysis to be presented in ways other than traditional 'essay' format. These tasks are interpreted differently by…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how young people imagine civic futures through speculative fiction writing about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The authors argue that young people's speculative fiction writing about AI not only helps make visible the ways they imagine the impacts of emerging technologies and the modes…

Purpose: With the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (AI), it is important to consider how young people are making sense of these tools in their everyday lives. Drawing on critical postdigital approaches to learning and literacy, this study aims to center the experiences and perspectives of young people who encounter and…

Despite the increasing attention to technology-enhanced language learning in English-as-a-foreign-language contexts, investigation regarding the effects of multimodal technologies on affective factors (particularly emotions and grit) in digital storytelling has remained underexplored. Therefore, this mixed-methods study reports on…