Rarely is a school-based speech language pathologist (SLP) thought of as an active contributor to the achievement of students or to the learning community in general. Researchers have found benefits for students when members of the learning community collaborate, and the SLP should be a part of this community collaboration. This qualitative case study examined elementary school teachers', administrators', and reading specialists' perspectives related to knowledge of and the inclusion of the SLP in the learning community at a local elementary school in central Georgia. Schon's theory of reflective practice and Coleman's theory of social capital provided the conceptual framework. Via an open-ended questionnaire and intensive interviews, 8 educators with 3 or more years of experience in 1 of the K-5 elementary schools in this local community provided data for this study. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through inductive methods using open and axial coding with thematic analysis. The results of the study showed 4 common themes that the participants felt were important. These themes included the fact that teachers understood the SLP to be a resource, but were unsure how to access their specialty; teachers and SLPs needed allotted time to work together; teachers and SLPs needed to communicate frequently; and teachers desired more knowledge of the SLP's role in the educational setting. Important implications for social change in elementary school learning communities include increasing involvement of the SLP, promoting SLP involvement in the identification of at-risk students, increasing educator awareness of the SLP's benefit, and increasing collaboration between SLPs and educators promoted through a 3-day professional learning project.

International Baccalaureate (IB) schools are focused on a school-wide approach to developing inquiring students who are motivated to succeed. The problem explored in this case study was based on a local IB elementary school's response to a reform model to integrate music into other content areas. The curriculum lacked an interdisciplinary approach to music education even though teachers had participated in some professional development (PD) to help them integrate music into content areas. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of elementary teachers regarding the influence of professional development on music integration at the IB elementary school. Maslow's theory of human motivation was the conceptual framework. The research questions focused on participants' perceptions of music integration, curriculum, and PD. A case study design was used to capture the perceptions of 10 Kindergarten and 1st grade teacher participants through a questionnaire, individual interviews, and a focus group. Emergent themes were identified from the data, and findings were validated through triangulation and member checking. The key results were that teachers' desire to implement music integration increased after PD and they recognized the benefits of fostering the whole child and encouraging creative thinkers associated with using music integration as an instructional practice. A PD project that included customized curriculum content was developed to assist teachers with the integration of music to enhance school curriculum. Positive social change might be realized as teachers become more prepared, confident, and consistent in music integration and are able to enhance students' creative thinking and foster development of the whole child in the classroom.

Creating a community of learners with and among students in a collaborativeclassroom environment provides the keystone for developing the skills necessary forsuccess in the 21st century. Some preservice teachers envision that community building can enhance the learning experience for them and their students and want to learn and employ the necessary strategies. This study examined whether such a desirous group of novice teachers could identify the key factors they believed comprise community building and could successfully establish a community of learners during their first full year of teaching, supported by participation in a collaborative inquiry group. Four novice teachers met monthly throughout their first year for two-hoursessions during which they discussed and examined various aspects involved inestablishing their classroom communities. They created and shared artifacts designed to promote a caring, respectful relationship between them and their students as well as among the students themselves. These novice teachers discussed the challenges inherent in helping students with differing sociocultural, language, and behavioral needs bond with one another. They also supported each other in dealing with the myriad of necessities and constraints involved in implementing a start-up classroom. During the final session, group members synthesized what they believed constituted the essence of community building. They also elaborated regarding the areas of success they had achieved during their initial year of teaching. Finally, the members identified that participation in a collaborative inquiry group had supported their first-year experience. The group judged their overall experience as productive and successful. The researcher’s perspective was somewhat different from the other groupmembers. Difficulties identified in the process were using collaborative inquiry as themethod to gather data for a dissertation while endeavoring to act as an equal groupmember, requiring in-depth analysis of novice teachers who had not previouslyparticipated in action research and were still in the early stages of developing theirpractice as well as the tendency of novice teachers who had experienced the samepreservice program to employ groupthink rather than to challenge one another’sstatements. Further research should study collaborative inquiry as a method employed throughout preservice programs.

The ability to make and record scientific observations is critical in order for students to engage in successful inquiry, and provides a sturdy foundation for children to develop higher order cognitive processes. Nevertheless, observation is taken for granted in the elementary classroom. This study explores how linking school garden experience with the use of science journals can support this skill. Students participated in a month-long unit in which they practiced their observation skills in the garden and recorded those observations in a science journal. Students' observational skills were assessed using pre- and post-assessments, student journals, and student interviews using three criteria: Accuracy, Detail, and Quantitative Data. Statistically significant improvements were found in the categories of Detail and Quantitative Data. Scores did improve in the category of Accuracy, but it was not found to be a statistically significant improvement.

Part I of the study examines the differences between two environmental assessment methods for the K‐12 education sector: the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Schools Version 3.0 and the British Research Establishment’s (BRE) BREEAM Education issue 2.0. Credit requirements are compared side‐by‐side and against recommendations from researchers in areas such as acoustics, lighting and indoor environment quality. Strengths in the two schemes and areas for improvement are highlighted, with acknowledgement that each scheme offers components and techniques from which the other could benefit. Part II of the study introduces the Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland, Maine. Designed as an open‐plan school in the 1970’s this configuration is currently seen as a barrier to teaching and learning in the school which is slated for renovation by the Portland Public School District. Part III of the study looks towards precedents in education which have followed either the LEED or BREEAM assessment methods and Part IV of the study provides a design proposal for the Howard C. Reiche Community School’s renovation.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the combination of factors that pertain to the implementation of new technologies in the classroom. Specifically, the study was an analysis of the age of the teacher, years of teaching experience, quality of professional development, and teacher self-efficacy as defined by Bandura (1997) to examine the manner in which these factors relate to implementing new technologies in the classroom. Participants in this study were located in 2 different school districts in East Tennessee. All data were collected through an online survey distributed to K-5 teachers by way of email from school principals. The analysis of data was based on the responses of 124 teachers from these 2 school districts. Research revealed that teacher age, years of teaching experience, teacher gender, and the hours a teacher spent in technology professional development did not play a significant role in the self-efficacy by teachers. Findings also indicated that teacher age, years of teaching experience, teacher gender, and the hours spent in technology professional development did not play a significant role in the classroom technology use by teachers. However, the research indicated that the self-efficacy of teachers is significantly positively related to classroom technology use by teachers.

From the minute a student walks into her first day of kindergarten, she is learning to read and write. Reading and writing are reciprocal in nature, using the same composing processes (Roe, Smith, & Kolodziej, 2019). Interchangeable thinking skills are essential for both reading and writing, such as analyzing, identifying, inferencing, evaluating, and comparing (Roe, Smith, & Koldziej, 2019). Published research over time suggested that instruction focused on teaching students the craft and mechanics of writing significantly contributed to the overall improvement across the spectrum of literacy development (Cutler, 2015;Raphael, 2019; Wright, 2016). However, studies also suggested that teachers of all grade levels tend to vary in their approach to teaching writing (Newmark, B., Speck, D., Amesbury, E., Lough, C., Belgutay, J., Lowe, J., … Hepburn, H, 2018). This study was focused on understanding how two elementary level teachers interpreted writing curriculum and carried out instruction in their respective classrooms. Qualitative methodological procedures were employed through interviewing both educators and observing their writing instruction. The collected data was analyzed through inductive thematic analysis and findings included: 1) both teachers believed that writing instruction matters; 2) both teachers followed the curriculum as they learned in teacher professional development; 3) writing instruction varied according to primary versus elementary contexts.

This study explores the rationale, efficacy, and social validity of a professional development model designed to move elementary school science activities closer to the practices of working scientists as required by the United States’ “Next Generation Science Standards.” The model is culturally sensitive and aims to create experiences with high subjective task value. The formal theory of change uses scaffolding, Piagetian agency, and Vygotskian learning opportunities to argue that culturally familiar representational tasks in culturally natural intersubjective contexts can lead to work prototypical of scientific modeling under particular facilitation conditions: when participants (a) are allowed free use of their cognitive and culturally native tools; (b) work in open dialog amongst themselves and with a science cultural adept; (c) work in groups in contexts that represent cultural aspects of science work; (d) are pressed to follow some of the epistemic and ontological imperatives of working science; and (e) maintain their agency in resolving cognitive conflict. The study implemented the model with fidelity as a professional development workshop around exploring physics with simple, everyday materials over two afternoons with a small group of elementary-school teachers in southern Appalachia. Analysis indicates that participants engaged in representational tasks with little off-task behavior, exhibited all of the targeted modeling behaviors, felt all components were inherently interesting and useful, and rated the workshop highly as professional development in science teaching but lower as coherent with local evaluation standards. Data on outcome-expectancy beliefs were largely inconclusive but may suggest that the workshop caused teachers to doubt their current ability to teach science to their students. The workshop model provided “cultural modeling” and access to participants’ “funds of knowledge,” created a “third space,” and attended to intrinsic task interest as recommended in the National Research Councils’ How People Learn II. Overall, the study endorses using genuine dialog around teachers’ descriptions and explanations of the physical world to bridge native cultural norms and behaviors with science practices.

For low-income minority and marginalized communities, American democracy’s educational mission remains unfulfilled. Student voices have provided insight into ways that schools disserve and serve students and how schools can improve in promoting academic achievement; however, academically successful low-income students’ voices—particularly those at the elementary school level—are largely excluded from the literature. Providing a platform for student voices, this qualitative, intrinsic critical case study explored six high achieving low-income students’ views of their academic success and how that success was achieved. Participants were six fifthgrade students, their parents, and teacher, in a school-wide Title I urban public school. Data were collected over a 12-week period through individual interviews, observation, participation, and semiformal conversations. Using an immersive pattern analysis, four main categories emerged from the student interview data: student beliefs about their role; classroom structures; teacher practices; and family support. The study found four principal success factors: a dynamic effort-driven view of success and intelligence; a rigorous dialogic classroom that prioritized student voice, critical thinking, collaboration, and social imagination; an accountable classroom culture of high expectations and mastery learning; and the richly diverse experiences and teachings of parents and families as valuable funds of knowledge. Implications and recommendations are included for policy, practice, and future research.

The purpose of this research study was to predict and explain elementary and secondary preservice teachers' continuance behavioral intentions and pedagogical usage of Twitter, a web based social networking, microblogging platform, to build professional growth and capital. The objective of the research study was to examine preservice teachers' beliefs associated with the specified constructs that formed the latent variables of the hypothesized research model; these latent variables were then measured with their associated indicators or manifest variables, and the relationship between the manifest variables was examined through the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) process. A non-experimental empirical research study was conducted using the survey methodology; purposive, criterion referenced, sampling of elementary and secondary preservice teachers, N=379, was employed using social media platforms and intern listserv at a large Southeastern university. The final sample of N= 250 participants was determined through the process of regression imputation of elementary and secondary preservice teachers' survey responses. The results demonstrated that constructs of the extended Technology Acceptance Model showed significant goodness-of-fit indices and coefficients of determination after analyzing the data from the survey. Implications of this research contribute significantly toward teacher education and training by providing insights into the factors that impact the pedagogical use of Twitter, a web-based social networking and microblogging platform, for building professional capital in preservice teachers.