Search

Teaching and learning of foundational math have emerged as concerns in India, and might be connected with the problems of large classroom sizes and inappropriate curriculum resources. To address these problems of practice, ABC School explored the use of blended learning in three Grade 2 mathematics classrooms (n = 108), while a control group of three Grade 2 classrooms (n = 113) received traditional instruction and curricular resources. A quasi-experimental mixed-methods design was used to determine the differences in teaching, student engagement, and learning after eight months. Standardized test scores showed a significantly higher increase in the performance of the treatment group compared to the control group. Also, the treatment group experienced higher levels of learner-centered pedagogy, measured in terms of the extent of differentiated instruction, timely and precise feedback, and student engagement. This study contributes to the small pool of international experimental studies on blended learning in elementary grade classrooms, and supports a growing belief among researchers that the approach holds promise for school reform in developing countries.

The Johns Hopkins University Doctor of Education program was developed with the expressed program outcome of developing leaders who possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to rigorously examine educational problems of practice with stakeholders within their context of professional practice using a social justice lens. The purpose of this article is to describe how improvement science principles depicted by Bryk et al. (2015) served as a frame for our Applied Dissertation to support scholar-practitioners to partner with their colleagues in educational institutions and to independently take on the challenges and opportunities they will encounter in their future work. We outline the dissertation through a discussion of these principles and provide four examples of the resulting dissertations and their impact on the scholar-practitioner's context of professional practice and on them as educational leaders.

The development of student civic engagement has featured in Indian educational policies for decades as a critical goal of schooling. However, the narrowness of the prescribed K-12 curricula, and the intense focus on competitive exams, do not support such an outcome. To overcome this problem, ABC School in India decided to pilot service-learning in its middle-school classroom. The idea was to assess the effects of such a program on students and the community's welfare. Analysis of data from surveys, focus groups, and interviews showed that the service-learning project might have supported increased civic engagement in some students while also enhancing the welfare of the community served. No prior peer-reviewed empirical studies have been published on the nature and effects of service-learning at schools in India.

Schools in India typically provide teachers with professional development in the form of workshops with a one-size-fits-all approach. However, a large body of international studies show this to be ineffective in transforming classroom practice, and the draft National Education Policy of India released in 2020 lists several shortcomings of current in-service professional development practices across the country. On the other hand, a large body of international research has emerged to show that professional learning communities (PLCs) are one of the most effective means to improving teacher practice and student learning. Yet, the National Education Policy does not make any explicit mention of PLCs. This study shows that the benefits of PLCs researched in international contexts may apply to the Indian context too because it was found that participation in PLCs might have supported increased collaboration among teachers, improved classroom teaching, and increased unity and consistency in practice across classrooms, at two schools in India. Also, this paper presents important findings related to the successful planning and operationalization of PLCs in the context of Indian schooling. It is hoped that with the publication of this study, public and private schools in India will be encouraged and better prepared to take steps towards the establishment of PLCs in their institutions as a key lever for school improvement.

The development of student civic engagement has featured in Indian educational policies for decades as a critical goal of schooling. However, the narrowness of the prescribed K-12 curricula, and the intense focus on competitive exams, do not support such an outcome. To overcome this problem, ABC School in India decided to pilot service-learning in its middle-school classroom. The idea was to assess the effects of such a program on students and the community's welfare. Analysis of data from surveys, focus groups, and interviews showed that the service-learning project might have supported increased civic engagement in some students while also enhancing the welfare of the community served. No prior peer-reviewed empirical studies have been published on the nature and effects of service-learning at schools in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative research endeavor explored the role of embodiment as a pathway to visual-spatial thinking. The researchers relied on an interdisciplinary approach using geography and theater rooted in kinesthetic and empathetic embodied activities to facilitate visual-spatial thinking within the context of a community redevelopment project. The participants consisted of 14 elementary and middle school aged girls attending a Girls Inc. program within a low-income housing community. The researchers situated the findings using McCormack's ([1998. Visual/Spatial Thinking: An Essential Element of Elementary School Science. Washington, DC: Council for Elementary School Science]; [2011. "Don't Verbalize, Visualize!" NSTA WebNews Digest. Accessed June 15, 2016. ]) visual-spatial thinking typology and theories of embodiment. The findings revealed that the girls exhibited three types of visual-spatial thinking, which ranged from foundational to highly advanced ways of thinking about space, to include visual-spatial perception, memory, and creative thinking. The results also illustrate that embodied activities that engage sensorimotor functions through an interdisciplinary approach, can facilitate visual-spatial thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]