This randomized controlled trial examined a fraction intervention enhanced with worked examples (presolved problems) to develop verbal conceptual explanations in grade 5 students with mathematics difficulties. Students analyzed worked examples depicting correct and incorrect solutions-both individually and in pairs for comparison-to explain key fraction concepts and common misconceptions. Ninety-nine students were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 48) or a business-as-usual comparison group (n = 51). The intervention consisted of 36 lessons delivered over 12 weeks. Results favored intervention students significantly on fractions proficiency (g = 0.39-1.11) and both verbal and written explanations (g = 0.89-1.11). Findings suggest that incorporating worked examples to develop students' verbal explanations is effective when embedded in multicomponent fractions interventions for students with mathematics difficulties.
This study presents a Text Complexity Continuum of Multimodality in Science Books from recently published lists of award-winning science books. This text complexity continuum considers factors such as the degree to which the text layout is linear or nonlinear, the range of visuals present, the interactive nature of multimodal elements, and the density of information, including the text and visuals contained across pages. Using content analysis methods, texts were coded and organized into a hierarchical continuum of multimodality to represent the complexity of information presented. This text complexity continuum adds to the literature by acknowledging that the demands of science texts go beyond the written word to also include challenges from layout and visuals. The Text Complexity Continuum of Multimodality in Science Books can be used by researchers and educators to better inform literacy instruction regarding the demands readers face accessing and comprehending information from science books.
Given the established importance of engaging in satisfactory peer relationships, we examined children who withdraw from peer interaction due to a preference for playing alone. Hypotheses addressed the degree to which belief in the importance of belonging moderates the relation between unsociable behavior and social adjustment. Data from 473 fourth and fifth graders were used to assess peer perceptions of unsociable behavior. Children reported on their beliefs about the importance of belonging and their dissatisfaction with their dyadic and network-level relations, separately. Results indicated that unsociability predicts dyadic and network dissatisfaction, but only when children report that belonging is relatively unimportant to them. It is possible that beliefs about the importance of belonging motivate some children who are unsociable to accept more social bids from peers, suggesting such beliefs could be a reasonable intervention target for educators. Other results suggest opportunities for educators to improve the classroom environment.
Children often stereotypically perceive scientists to be White men, and such exclusionary stereotypes can dissuade children of color and White girls from studying science and pursuing a career in science. This exploratory study tested an intervention to examine whether children's engagement with picture books featuring diverse racial, ethnic, and gender representation could change children's conceptualization of who works and has careers in scientific fields and their interest in science more generally. This study identified several key findings associated with the intervention. Students' conceptualizations of scientists were more likely to be stereotypical regarding gender than race or ethnicity. After the intervention, students were more likely to conceptualize scientists as a woman or person of color, with girls of color having a statistically significant change. Finally, girls and boys reported greater interest in science after the intervention.
Instructional coaching is widely promoted as a means of enhancing elementary teacher learning and improving instructional practices. However, research reveals inconsistent outcomes. This article addresses the disparity between the substantial investment in coaching and its variable impact by advocating for the development of theories of action as a foundational step. We argue that a clearly articulated theory of action can serve as an explicit blueprint that links intentions to outcomes, which can help ensure that coaching initiatives are purposefully designed and systematically implemented. To illustrate this approach, we present a theory of action guiding a multiyear project around mathematics elementary teacher learning. We conclude by offering principles to guide the development of contextually appropriate theories of action for instructional coaching.
General and special educators often need support to learn the necessary knowledge and skills for effectively implementing evidence-based, multitiered instruction and the collaborative practices to coordinate their instructional efforts. In our study, we employed a randomized control design to examine the impact of Project Coordinate (PC), a professional development approach incorporating online content modules and lesson study, on 24 fourth-grade general and special education teachers' knowledge, collaborative planning, and instructional practice in reading. Using mixed effects models, we show that PC has a large effect on teachers' knowledge, moderate to large effects on most aspects of collaborative practice, moderate to large effects on teachers' use of evidence-based practice and explicit systematic instruction, and smaller and more mixed effects on measures of student word level and comprehension achievement. We discuss implications for future research on PC and similar interventions.
This study examines rural primary school students' perceptions of school, offering a broad inquiry into how education is structured. By making rural children's experiences visible, the research aims to contribute to more inclusive and context-sensitive educational policies. In addition, it seeks to provide a methodological contribution to participatory research with children by integrating visual and verbal data. Adopting a phenomenological qualitative design, the study collected data through children's hand-drawn mind maps and in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that children's conceptions of school are shaped not only by instructional processes but also by relational experiences, play and free time, digitalization, aspirations tied to urban life, physical spaces, and interactions with nature. These results underscore the multidimensional and experiential significance of school for rural children. The study concludes that rural students attribute layered meanings to school and that these meanings offer guiding principles for integrating children's perspectives into pedagogical and structural reforms in education.
The appropriate level of instructional guidance for students to acquire a deep understanding of the disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards remains ambiguous. To shed light on this important topic, we tested two distinct science programs in a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 11 second-grade classrooms and 185 students. Holding constant content, dosage, and professional development, findings favored the program that provided greater levels of instructional guidance on all three science measures (g = 0.19, 0.21, 0.40). In addition, differential response analyses revealed that students with lower initial scores made significantly greater gains on a distal science measure in classrooms that implemented the program with more instructional guidance. Last, exploratory correlations between teacher-level instructional guidance and student outcomes suggested positive associations between guidance levels and outcome gains. Implications for designing and delivering science instruction to meet diverse student needs are discussed.
This study investigates the factors influencing an elementary teacher's pedagogical actions as she facilitated whole-class discussions across mathematics and an integrated English language arts (ELA)/science lesson. Facilitating these discussions is a complex task requiring numerous pedagogical decisions. Using a comparative case-study design, we analyzed the pedagogical judgment of one first-grade teacher using video-stimulated reflection. Our findings reveal that Veronica's actions were primarily shaped by her instructional goals and a pedagogical responsibility related to positioning students as contributors in dialogic talk. Although she consistently employed talk moves to elicit viewpoints and orient students to peers' ideas across both discussions, the enactment of questioning varied due to different instructional goals: process-oriented in ELA/science versus knowledge-oriented in mathematics. Findings reveal how a teacher navigated competing pedagogical responsibilities and social goals, with implications for teacher education programs focused on developing pedagogical judgment that balances content demands with social goals in classroom discussions.
In many schools, the number of students identified as needing support in reading is greater than 20%, and providing Tier 2 prevention to that large number of students is counterproductive. Although recommendations to improve Tier 1 reading instruction according to reading screening data are straightforward, there are few examples of implementation that are both empirically supported and descriptive enough to replicate. This study describes a research-practice partnership in an underpowered randomized controlled trial with 16 grade 2 classrooms to describe the relations of Tier 1 supports on both teacher and student outcomes. Results showed a small practical effect (Hedges's g = 0.20) on students' reading accuracy. To help other schools evaluate their Tier 1 reading practices, we demonstrate the use of a logic model and an observation/coaching tool-the Instructional Content Emphasis-Revised-as mechanisms to align students' reading development with instructional quality and coaching practices.
When teaching a responsive mathematics lesson, teachers urge students to solve problems using whichever strategy they prefer. This instructional approach has many merits for students' learning and mathematical dispositions, yet remains rare. Prior research has described the challenges of responsive mathematics teaching, but little has focused on the especially high-stakes moments in responsive lessons that engender notable confusion, threaten to derail the lesson, and may prevent responsive teaching from becoming commonplace-what we refer to as "critical juncture." We examined the critical junctures that prospective elementary teachers encountered in video-recorded lesson rehearsals and described in written reflections. Critical junctures varied in their criticality, with the most critical ones involving substantial confusion that was difficult to resolve. We present a set of criteria and a criticality continuum that teachers may consult in learning to notice and respond to critical junctures, thereby contributing to efforts to make responsive mathematics teaching more commonplace.
Parent-teacher conferences (PTCs) are among the most common structured opportunities for family-school interaction in US elementary schools. This qualitative case study examined leadership team members' perceptions and experiences with training and implementing the Building Equitable Trusting Relationships (BETR) PTC model in two elementary schools. Grounded in sociocultural theory and the principles of equity, advocacy, trust, bidirectional communication, conflict prevention and resolution, and strengths-based approaches, BETR was designed to structure PTCs to foster parent-teacher collaboration. Leadership teams, including principals, teachers, and parents, were trained to guide school-wide implementation. Data from interviews, focus groups, and leadership team-generated materials revealed three interrelated themes: (a) leading the shift toward relational conferences, (b) transforming conferences into collaborative conversations, and (c) facilitating equity and shared responsibility. Findings highlight implementation supports and challenges, offering future research and practical implications for professional development and systemic change.
This study aimed to investigate the pattern in two mathematics teachers' responses to student mathematical thinking (SMT) in classroom discourse and how their responses vary depending on the mathematical potential of the SMT for learning opportunities. The results revealed that in these two cases, teachers mainly directed their responses to whole class or same student. The teachers' dominant action was literal, demonstrating that teachers primarily provided the students with a chance to offer brief information on mathematical ideas. Most teacher responses were explicit and core, which revealed that teachers paid attention to incorporating main ideas in SMT. The results also showed that the teachers' preferred actions may change depending on the actor and whether the instances are mathematically significant pedagogical opportunities to build on student thinking (MOST or non-MOST). The lack of responses to the MOSTs demonstrated the limitations in teachers' ability to present appropriate learning opportunities by using SMT.
We investigated whether dosage was related to the outcomes of the computer-based early-literacy intervention Build! as implemented by schools. Two aspects of dosage were distinguished: duration (time spent on the intervention) and exposure (the number of lessons completed). Exposure was expected to mediate the relation between duration and intervention outcomes. Three aspects of duration were distinguished: session frequency, session length, and intervention weeks. Participants were 226 kindergartners from 45 schools. Letter knowledge and phonological awareness were assessed before and after the intervention. Findings showed that, controlling for performance at pretest, the relation between duration and preliteracy at posttest was completely mediated by exposure. Session frequency and intervention weeks showed the strongest relation with exposure and literacy outcomes. Session length had smaller effects. Overall, the findings underline the importance of dosage for the outcomes of a literacy intervention in a naturalistic setting, when the intervention is implemented by schools.
Student mastery of elementary mathematical procedures is foundational to learning in the discipline and to success in more advanced mathematics. Prior studies suggest that classroom instruction often focuses on the steps of procedures without also providing support for their meaning, for instance by emphasizing place value or justifying steps. However, studies on this topic are either outdated or limited in scale. In response, we analyze 324 teachers' spoken instructional explanations in reaction to 6 animated teaching simulations covering 3 teaching tasks-explaining a procedure, addressing student confusion, and summarizing a nonstandard student method. An analysis of these data reveals that teachers primarily focus on the steps of procedures except when summarizing nonstandard student methods. Results provide clues about the nature of US classroom instruction and offer a new tool for evaluating the impact of efforts to change that instruction.
The importance of providing children with more robust opportunities to access high-quality science instruction is a widely recognized challenge. Unfortunately, science instruction is often neglected in the earliest school grades, meaning that many young children face opportunity gaps in learning science. We present the results of a meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental research of the effects of classroom-based preschool/pre-K-first grade science educational interventions. We find that, on average, treatment group children in early science educational interventions demonstrated significantly stronger science achievement outcomes compared with control group children. Most of the programmatic and contextual moderator variables examined were not significant predictors of the magnitudes of achievement impacts. Rather, it appeared that a variety of different intervention strategies could effectively improve early science learning outcomes. We found suggestive evidence of positive impacts on children's literacy and social-emotional learning outcomes, and on teacher-level outcomes. We discuss implications and promising directions for future research.
High-quality feedback is a powerful tool to support student learning with benefits for both those who receive and provide feedback. This study investigates the frequency and type of feedback fourth- and fifth-grade students used when delivering Sound Partners lessons to a younger peer. Results indicate that student tutors were successful in providing responsive academic and behavioral feedback for their younger tutee, with more than 850 instances of feedback identified across 58 audio recordings. The most common types of feedback tutors provided included praise and corrective academic feedback.
This study investigated the relationship between preservice teachers' self-evaluated lesson design efficacy, their actual lesson analysis proficiency, and their ability to construct new inquiry lessons for elementary social studies. Using a quantitative design, the findings revealed that at the beginning of the semester, most preservice teachers were more adept at adapting ready-made inquiry lessons than systematically reading and evaluating them. The lesson design efficacy and the proficiency in lesson analysis affect preservice teachers' ability to create inquiry-based lessons, although the influence varies at different stages of the inquiry design process. When designing new inquiry lessons at the onset, lesson design dispositions were the most fundamental factor. However, after receiving peer and instructor feedback and engaging in iterative lesson design practice, preservice teacher proficiency in evaluating lessons became a significant determinant of their ability to design new, high-quality inquiry-based instruction. Implications of teacher education and research are discussed.
Middle school students are subject to considerable stress due to both adolescence and national high school entrance exam preparation in Turkiye. In this context, cognitive flexibility exerts a significant influence on both self-efficacy and academic motivation. This study examines the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and academic motivation. In this correlational study, a sample of 480 middle school students from Istanbul was selected using multistage sampling techniques. The mediation analyses revealed that cognitive flexibility significantly predicts academic, social, and emotional self-efficacy and all subdimensions of academic motivation. Notably, academic self-efficacy exhibits a full or partial mediation effect in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and all subdimensions of academic motivation. Emotional self-efficacy demonstrates partial mediation only in predicting identified regulation and amotivation. The present study is exploratory; consequently, it is anticipated that the results will provide a foundation for subsequent confirmatory studies.
