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A critical outcome in social studies education is identity development, and an important component of this process is students establishing a sense of place in their communities, nation, and world. Using data from a southwestern city in the United States, researchers investigated the intersection of local history, identity development, and cultural heritage resources using GIS technology. The instructional unit in which students participated utilized a variety of geospatial technologies which facilitated the visualization of geographic concepts, field-based data collection of geocoded places, and creation of a digitally-mediated cultural heritage map, which allowed students to create a narrative around their cultural identity. The study followed an interpretive case study design. Based on the findings from this study, important implications emerged, which are valuable for both future research in this area, as well as for teachers who wish to replicate this pedagogical approach in their own teaching practice. The implications include the flexibility of geospatial technologies for addressing content-area concepts at all levels of the instructional unit, the potential of geospatial technologies for supporting student cultural identity development, and the value of school-university partnerships in promoting innovative teaching strategies in a high school classroom. 

Twenty-seven teachers and teacher candidates completed two to five iterations of a simulated teaching module in simSchool, an online “flight simulator for teachers” environment. The system recorded instances of pedagogical practices as educators completed each trial. Analysis of data revealed that as a group, gains in addressing core teaching standards across simulated teaching trials where significantly (p < .05) improved, when judged by changes in aggregate scores from first trial to last. Further analysis indicated that three trials are good, but five trials are better for maximizing gains. Limitations of the study include the small sample size (n = 27). Replication with a larger group of participants is planned. 

A growing movement towards expanding computer science education in K-12 has broadened gaps in computing opportunities along lines of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Emergent theories and practices related to culturally responsive computing show promise in addressing this gap; however, little is known about engaging culturally and linguistically diverse preschoolers in computer science. The current study utilized qualitative content analysis to explore how an extant theory of Culturally Responsive Computing aligns with an early childhood culturally relevant robotics curriculum. Findings suggest that while the assumptions of culturally responsive computing were evident throughout the curriculum, there are several key considerations when extending the theory to early childhood contexts. Overarching themes included (1) emphasizing the value of non-digital tools and activities and (2) aligning the goals of culturally responsive computing with children’s current level of social development. 

For decades, the use of computer vision as a component of STEM learning has been encouraged at all levels of education—from K-12 to the university levels. A program was developed to support in-service teachers’ development of computer vision. Professional development was provided to middle school teachers while middle school students also attended a summer camp on computer vision. Our research question was: After in-service teachers engaged in artificial intelligence professional development emphasizing computer vision, how did their perceptions of computer vision change? Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955) was used as our methodology. Pairwise comparisons yielded constructs administered in the form of repertory grids. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed and clusters were identified. Results showed that in-service teachers’ perspectives of computer vision changed after engaging in computer vision-based professional development. 

Scaffolding learning in science museum exhibits can be a challenging endeavor. Learning in these settings is self-directed, sporadic, and lacking in structure (Falk, Dierking & Semmel, 2013). Museum educators and exhibit designers struggle to provide the appropriate types and amounts of scaffolding, where too little scaffolding can result in suboptimal learning outcomes while too much scaffolding can result in an “over-formalization” of the exhibit (Yoon et al., 2013). This study examines the use of signage in scaffolding students’ engagement with a science exhibit about light. Twelve students were asked to engage in four activities within the exhibit. Videos of student behavior were recorded and thematically coded. Findings indicate that textual scaffolds, as they were implemented in this exhibit, may have missed opportunities to promote meaningful engagement with exhibit activities. Implications for exhibit design practice and research are discussed. 

There has been a limited number of studies in which a computing curriculum is designed and developed for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and there has been no study to test the effectiveness of an accessible computing curriculum for students with ASD. Therefore, the objectives of this study are 1) to implement an accessible computing curriculum at an inner-city school for seventh-grade students with ASD, and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of the accessible curriculum in improving students with ASDs’ learning of computational thinking concepts (CTCs) (sequences, loops, parallelism, conditionals, operators, and data) and their development of fluency in computational thinking practices (CTPs) (experimenting, iterating, testing, debugging, reusing and remixing, abstracting, and modularizing) by comparing two groups of twenty-two students; one group taught utilizing the adjusted curriculum and the other utilizing the original curriculum. Students' CTCs were measured by analyzing both groups' pretest and posttest scores, and their CTPs were measured by their artifact-based interview scores. 

Virtual professional development increases meaningful and diverse learning opportunities for in-service teachers (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 2011). As part of virtual professional development the participants in this study engaged in doing math collaboratively and began thinking about mathematical and pedagogical decision making within their classrooms. Preliminary results suggest that participants valued the time to think flexibly about their own work and that of others and began to learn to recognize the hidden decisions they were making when solving a problem that it may benefit their students to know. 

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has required teacher educators to teach their classes online. Teacher educators now need to reflect on the learning opportunities that the COVID-19 induced shift to online learning has provided. This study shares two teacher educators’ experiences of teaching and supporting preservice teachers (PSTs) as they taught engineering online to elementary students. The two teacher educators noticed (a) positive changes in PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs about technology integration, (b) PSTs’ tendency to select and use of educational technologies, (c) PSTs’ recognition of the importance of online interaction and feedback from K-12 students, (d) the importance of providing PSTs with extended access to physical hardware, and (e) the importance of providing developmentally appropriate digital resources. The paper concludes with suggestions for teacher educators who are preparing PSTs for the next generation of teaching. 

Teacher turnover in science and mathematics is a significant and consistent challenge for K-12 education in the U.S. This paper provides: (a) an investigation of the relationship between teacher retention and several social and motivational factors; and (b) a comparison of Master Teaching Fellows (MTF) and non-MTF teachers in terms of their retention and social and motivational factors. Teachers are classified into three retention categories: (a) stayers, (b) shifters, and (c) leavers. Social and motivational factors included teaching self-efficacy, diversity dispositions, leadership skills, principal autonomy support, teacher-school fit (adapted from person-organization fit literature), and social networks related to teaching and education. Study 1 included about 250 science and math teachers from the gulf coast region of Texas. Study 2 included 167 science and math teachers across the country. Teachers completed a survey in the summer and fall of 2021. For study 1, multinomial logistics regression analyses indicate: (a) leavers have significantly higher levels of self-efficacy; and (b) shifters have significantly higher levels of leadership skills and lower levels of teacher-school fit. The second study findings indicate: (a) MTFs’ teacher leadership network and teaching self-efficacy are significantly greater than that of non-MTFs’; and (b) MTFs significantly tend to shift to a leadership position than non-MTFs do.