Education Commons^™

More Than Civil Engineering And Civic Reasoning: World-Building In Middle School Stem, Alejandra Frausto Aceves, Daniel Morales-Doyle

Occasional Paper Series

This narrative essay describes a project in an urban sixth grade science class that began as an effort to link civic engagement with disciplinary learning in chemistry. The ways in which students took up this project prompted the authors to see urban infrastructures as engineered sites of learning with world-making possibilities. By interrogating the ways in which science and engineering practices are imbued with values and happen in places, teachers can engage young learners in critical examinations of their built worlds. The authors argue that there is an opportunity in K-8 engineering education to avoid reproducing some of the pathologies …

Are Students' Basic Psychological Needs Fulfilled In Remote Learning Environments?: A Mixed Methods Study, Lindsay M. Griendling, Victoria J. Vanuitert, Sean D. Mcdonald

Middle Grades Review

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that three basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) must be fulfilled to promote positive outcomes among individuals participating in social environments. Teachers can provide supports to fulfill these needs within classroom environments to help them become autonomously motivated to engage in tasks and activities. Unfortunately, school closures and the shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic may have challenged teachers’ ability to create need-supportive classroom environments due to issues such as reliable access to technology, teacher preparedness in facilitating remote learning, and negative impacts to mental health and well-being. However, the extent to …

Integrating School Makerspaces Into The English Language Arts Curriculum, Lou Lahana

Middle Grades Review

School Makerspaces have shown great potential to foster powerful learning outcomes for students, including the enhancement of creative problem-solving abilities, the nurturing of “soft skills” such as grit and leadership, as well as deep STEAM knowledge development. Within the school context, however, little attention has been given to how Makerspaces can promote social activism. Students hold passionate views on issues, such as homelessness, e-cigarette smoking, domestic violence, plastic pollution, and street harassment. How can Makerspaces provide an environment that promotes personal learning and self-expression so that these passions take form as social activism?

This practitioner perspective details the implementation of …

Teacher Perceptions And Implementation Of A Content-Area Literacy Professional Development Program, Osha Lynette Smith, Rebecca Robinson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The Common Core State Standards recommend that all educators equip students with the literacy skills needed for college and careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle-level content-area teachers’ perspectives on a district-led literacy professional development program and their implementation of the literacy strategies they learned. The conceptual framework included Bruner’s constructivist, Bandura’s self-efficacy, and Knowles’s andragogy theories. These theories informed the investigation of adult learners’ perspectives regarding the way they learn and gain confidence in providing literacy instruction. Eleven English, math, science, and social studies teachers participated in the study through individual interviews. Data were …

Using The Cornell Note-Taking System Can Help Eighth Grade Students Alleviate The Impact Of Interruptions While Reading At Home, Bradley Evans, Christopher Thomas Shively

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

A large group of eighth-grade social studies students (N=-101) received instruction and practice using the Cornell note-taking system and were assigned to one of three note-taking groups or one non-note-taking group. Students were asked to read an article about persuasion and use their assigned note-taking system to take notes at home. A 10-question multiple choice reading comprehension test and questionnaire were given. A one-way ANOVA found a significance in the group’s means and a Tukey HSD found significant differences between each note-taking group and the non-note-taking group. The students’ self-reported feelings of preparedness, their time spent reading and taking notes, …

Curriculum Drama: Using Imagination And Inquiry In A Middle School Social Studies Classroom, Catherine Franklin

Occasional Paper Series

This essay provides a vivid window into an eighth-grade class engaged in a legislative curriculum drama. Students acted as members of political parties within the Senate and participated in legislative hearings, discussed costs and benefits to legislation, and engaged in debates. Curriculum drama formed a bridge that linked the task of teaching and learning about a defined unit of study to the authentic interests, concerns, and energies of the students

What About The Little People?: Empowering Middle School Students To Discard The Great Man Theory, Sarah Straub

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

This paper attempts to address the promotion of critical thinking in our middle school students as they reflect on the widely-accepted White Eurocentric perspective of history that has been traditionally taught in school. In this article, the incomplete treatment of history is identified as Carlyle’s Great Man Theory. The hope is that educators can be critical of the curriculum they are teaching so as to promote critical perspectives in their own students. History is not just the story of Great Men – it is a collective story of which many of us have a partial understanding. Specifically, this article addresses …

The Promise Of Character Education In Middle School: A Meta-Analysis, Calvary R. Diggs, Patrick Akos

Middle Grades Review

Early adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by changes in reasoning, social cognition, and desire for autonomy in youth aged 11-14 (or grades 6-8). This period is also associated with heightened impulsivity and risk-taking that has been linked to school-related challenges such as antisocial behaviors and declining grades. Character education, a particular brand of social-emotional practice, has been promulgated as a developmentally responsive program that can promote prosocial behavior and academic success by building upon existing developmental strengths. However, research findings to date are primarily informed by elementary school program outcomes. Due to this limitation, a meta-analytic review of recent …