Teacher learning is a huge challenge in instructional change, but relatively little work has carefully examined the mechanisms by which teachers learn, in contrast to the extensive work on programs that help teachers learn and the high-leverage instructional practices that are strong predictors of student learning. Specifically, relatively little…

This paper describes how an interdisciplinary design team used the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model and its accompanying Ten Steps design approach to systematically design a professional development program for teaching differentiation skills to primary school teachers. This description illustrates how insights from a cognitive…

Effective interventions are needed to bolster students' argumentation capacities, an area in which they consistently struggle. Quality Talk (QT) is an approach to small-group classroom discussion shown to support students' oral argumentation with preliminary evidence that it may also bolster students' written argumentation. Teachers often must…

This study examines the effects of including interactive graphic organizers into a whole-class PowerPoint lesson as an instructional approach intended to improve student engagement and generative learning in schools. A software application was developed and integrated into PowerPoint that makes it possible for the instructor to fill in empty…

The aim of the present study was twofold. First, we aimed to replicate the findings of previous studies which had showed a substantial improvement on procedural and epistemological knowledge after direct instruction and their maintenance in time. Second, we aimed to examine the dynamic relationships of the procedural (control of variables…

A study involving 106 fourth graders and two teachers from a school in Beijing investigated the impact of a peer-led, open-format discussion approach, called collaborative reasoning (CR), on students' reading comprehension and teacher's professional learning. Mixed results of effects of CR on children's reading comprehension were found. After…

We report on a design based research study exploring how the organization of classroom activity impacts early elementary students' critical criteria for evaluating representations in science class. The ability to critique representations produced by others as well as one's own is an important practice when working with representations. Effective…

Primary mathematics teachers' (N = 521) personal goal orientation and instructional practices were examined based on questionnaire responses. The teachers (grades 2 and 3) were oriented towards mastery goals and mastery approaches to instruction, and reported high teaching efficacy. Strong positive relation between performance orientation and…

Participants included 112 Year 1 and 54 Year 4 undergraduate preservice teachers, 21 continuing education students, and 18 honors psychology students. The programs provided different exposure to inquiry. Groups were compared on the importance attributed to specific building blocks (strategic demands) of inquiry instruction and learning, and…