IMPROVING CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR: EVALUATION OF THE CLASS PASS INTERVENTION

Off‐task and disruptive classroom behaviors have a negative impact on the learning environment and present a unique challenge for teachers to address. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Class Pass Intervention (CPI) as a behavior management strategy for secondary students with disruptive classroom behavior. The CPI consists of providing students with passes that they can either (1) use to appropriately request a break to engage in a preferred activity for a preset amount of time or (2) keep and later exchange for a preferred item or activity. Using an ABAB withdrawal design with replication through a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design, the CPI was shown to increase academic engagement, which is incompatible with disruptive behavior, in 4 students who engaged in high levels of disruptive behavior throughout the baseline condition. Results also demonstrated partial support for the durability of intervention effects over time and indicated that both teachers and students perceived the intervention to be socially feasible. Implications of the results and directions for future research are discussed.     

The relationships between elementary students' knowledge-in-use performance and their science achievement

This longitudinal study examines the relationship between students' knowledge-in-use performance and their performance on third-party designed summative tests within a coherent and equitable learning environment. Focusing on third-grade students across three consecutive project-based learning (PBL) units aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the study includes 1067 participants from 23 schools in a Great Lakes state. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling estimates the effects of post-unit assessments on end-of-year summative tests. Results indicate that post-unit assessment performances predict NGSS-aligned summative test performance. Students experiencing more PBL units demonstrate greater gains on the summative test, with predictions not favoring students from diverse backgrounds. This study underscores the importance of coherence, equity, and the PBL approach in promoting knowledge-in-use and science achievement. A systematically coherent PBL environment across multiple units facilitates the development of students' knowledge-in-use, highlighting the significance of designing science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts coherently and progressively, with intentional revisitation of disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). The study also investigates how the PBL approach fosters equitable learning environments for diverse demographic groups, offering equitable opportunities through equity-oriented design. Contributions include a coherent assessment system that tracks and supports learning aligned with NGSS, emphasizing the predictive power of post-unit assessments, continuous monitoring and tracking. The implications of context similarity and optimal performance expectations within units are discussed. Findings inform educators, administrators, and policymakers about the benefits of NGSS-aligned PBL systems and the need for coherent and equitable learning and assessment systems supporting knowledge-in-use development and equitable opportunities for all learners.     

Are the Measurements of Attention Allocation and Perceived Exertion Trustworthy?

Two studies examined the trustworthiness of commonly used measurement scales for ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and state attentional focus (SAF) during exercise. In Study 1, participants (N = 24, 14 female) performed a treadmill graded-exercise test. The order of scale presentation during the task was manipulated (i.e., RPE followed by SAF or vice versa). In Study 2 the same order manipulation was used while participants (N = 70, 36 female) performed a stepping task for three consecutive trials. Additionally, time intervals between scale presentations were manipulated (i.e., 30 sec, 60 sec, or 90 sec) and counterbalanced between trials. Non-significant order effects of RPE and SAF emerged in both studies; however, a more frequent presentation of the two scales (30 sec and 60 sec) yielded higher RPE scores and increased associative attentional focus than a less frequent presentation (90 sec). The authors recommend minimizing measurement interruptions during the measurement process.     

The Relationships Between Teacher Nonverbal Immediacy and Student Course Workload and Teacher Availability Expectations

The purpose of this study is to identify student expectations for course workload and teacher availability and to assess whether teacher nonverbal immediacy influences these student expectations. Based on a sample of 198 students at a large public university enrolled in a required general education hybrid communication course, students were willing to complete more work than the current course requires, which is comparable to other general education hybrid communication courses in the USA. Additionally, students have moderate to high expectations for teacher availability. Student perceptions of teacher nonverbal immediacy were positively correlated with students’ willingness to engage in their learning (reading, writing, speaking), teacher availability expectations, and tolerance for teacher unavailability.     

Balancing Teacher and Student Roles in Elementary Classrooms: Preservice elementary teachers’ learning about the inquiry continuum

Using the National Research Council's inquiry continuum framework, we use a multiple-case study research design to investigate the teacher- and student-directedness of elementary preservice teachers’ planned and enacted science lessons and their pedagogical reasoning about science instruction during a semester-long science methods course. Our specific research questions were (1) What ideas do elementary preservice teachers bring to a science teaching methods course about the inquiry continuum? and (2) How do their ideas about the inquiry continuum change over the course of the semester through engaging in planning, enactment, and reflection upon science instruction? Participants’ course artifacts (journals, reflective teaching assignments, and lesson plan rationales), interviews, and field observations of their enacted science lessons served as data for this study. Findings show that although the preservice teachers began the semester defining inquiry as highly student-directed, their ideas and definitions broadened over the course of the semester to include and embrace more teacher-directed forms of inquiry. Their early science lessons were more student-directed but, as they encountered challenges engaging in inquiry-based instruction and increasingly emphasized students’ learning needs, they began to plan and enact lessons that were more teacher-directed. Teacher education programs need to explicitly emphasize these variations of inquiry as a core component of supporting preservice teachers’ learning to teach science as inquiry.