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The main goal of this paper was to examine middle school students’ game engagement and its effect on math performance. For the game, we developed [Math App], an educational video game intended to support students’ understanding of fractions. Using [Math App] in a quasi-experimental research setting, we collected data on game engagement, game features, the perception of game learning ability, gender, and the amount of gameplay, and math performance. Our structural equation modeling analysis revealed that game engagement was categorized into two subdomains of behavioral and emotional/cognitive engagement. We also found that students’ game engagements were associated with student’s perception of gaming ability and in turn, it displayed a significant path with game features.

In an effort to maximizing success in mathematics, our research team implemented an educational video game in fifth grade mathematics classrooms in five schools in the Eastern US. The educational game was developed by our multi-disciplinary research team to achieve a hypothetical learning trajectory of mathematical thinking of 5th grade students. In this study, we examined overall engagement and three sub-domains of engagement as outcome variables after ten sessions of treatment with fifth grade students. The results showed that both male and female the video game group had slight increases in all engagement levels while students, particularly male, in the paper-and-pencil drill group displayed large decreases in all engagement levels. Implications of the study are 1) more fine-grained evidence of engagement in three sub-domains after implementing an educational video game, and 2) a consideration of gender differences in engagement levels in mathematics in the adoption of a video games.

This case study uses the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework to describe how teachers from two contiguous school districts in southwest Virginia implemented The CandyFactory, an iPad-specific learning game that focuses on pre-algebraic concepts, particularly fraction knowledge. As a result of this implementation, significant changes in practice and instruction took place for these teachers and their students. The goal of this paper is to exemplify the most salient changes that took place, using the TPACK framework and seven knowledge areas. Through a series of focus group interviews with nine teachers and an interview with a program administrator from three middle schools in two districts, findings of this study illustrate how the main and interconnected types of knowledge of the TPACK framework could be used to evaluate the affordances and constraints of a learning game implementation and how it affected the content and pedagogical styles of teachers in the classroom. Using an interpretative research methodology, complemented by quantitative pre-/post-assessments of fraction achievement, data from these interviews were collected and analyzed, using a coding system to identify patterns and themes regarding best practices for instructional alignment as well as shifts in instruction, assessment, and pedagogical styles. As part of the special issue, the case study includes a series of recommendations and implications that could be relevant to similar school districts, including those in the Asia Pacific region, that are considering the adoption of game-based learning and implementing these types of mathematical learning games in classrooms to enhance engagement and performance.

This study examined the individual, class, and school level variability of the students’ science achievement. It was hypothesized that there are school or teacher effects which contribute toward explaining achievement differences, besides the student level differences. Owing to the nested structure of the data in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, we used the Hierarchical Linear Modeling methodology. Besides the significant effect of engagement, the teachers’ teaching certification in science and the topic coverage were both significant factors as were the effect of school SES and availability of remedial and enrichment programs in science. The study makes a contribution to a better understanding of the opportunity to learn variables at classroom and school level in students’ science achievement.

Transformative graduate education programs (TGP) are programs that are national in scope and are intended to impact the reformation of graduate education in the United States. We employ data from national sources and shift the unit of analysis from the individual doctoral student to the doctoral institution as whole in order to begin to assess the impact of TGPs on the number of doctoral degrees awarded, a critical outcome for such programs, and an educational priority in many countries. In addition, we examine the critical issue of whether TGPs enhance Ph.D. degree conferral for women and minorities, and if they do so at STEM-oriented institutions, typically the least hospitable of all environments for these groups.

This study examined the relationship of self-concept, school belonging, school engagement to school performance of Caucasian- and African-American students. The main purpose is to assess the ethnicity-based differences in these psycho-social constructs and to explore their differential relationship to school achievement in high-school students from different ethnic background. The data were collected through a survey questionnaire in three school divisions in the Southwest region of Virginia of the United States. The results showed significant ethnicity-based difference in self-concept and in school engagement, but no significant difference in school belonging. The achievement differences were also significant, Caucasian students being higher on self-reported grades. In the regression model, self-concept was not a significant predictor of school outcomes, while school belonging had a significant relationship to school achievement for African-American students. Both self-concept and school engagement were significant for Caucasian students. The findings of the study provide better understanding of the relationship of these variables to school achievement and point to some policy-relevant implications.