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This document presents the proceedings of the 28th Annual Research Forum held June 27, 2024, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following eight action research papers: (1) College Athletics and the High School Athlete: Perspectives of High School Coaches (Michael Goehrig); (2) The Influence of Blogging on Self-Efficacy in Students' Writing (Jayna Palumbo); (3) Impacts of Environmental Justice Topics on Student Perception of their Identity in STEM (Samantha G. Reese); (4) Historical Thinking in Small Group Cooperative Learning (Sam Schectman); (5) The Effect of Adaptation on Student Engagement with Shakespeare (Savannah Smith); (6) Story Maps and Reading Comprehension in Second Grade Students (Emma Stein); (7) Poetic Composition's Influence on Student Attitudes Toward Poetry (Rachel Thomas); and (8) Student Engagement with Graphic Novels (Taylor Whitman). Individual papers contain references, tables, and figures.

Place value is a foundational competency for primary school mathematics and for this reason we have sought to investigate what the recent and current academic conversations are around this important concept. In this paper we present a survey of literature presented in the Australasian, European and Southern African contexts through a review of purposively selected conference proceedings and journals to establish what the conversations have been about the teaching and learning of place value in these research communities from 2013 to 2022.

Thirty-three second graders participated in a study to discover the value of teaching concepts using picture attribute chunking (PAC). It was hypothesized that PAC would yield superior concept learning performances compared to a picture attribute list (PAL) treatment and a word-alone treatment. The children, selected on the basis of a pretest that determined their knowledge of the concepts to be learned, were divided into three treatment groups. They were taught 14 concepts and given immediate posttests and delayed posttests of recall and recognition. On the immediate recall posttest, the PAC treatment results were superior to the word and PAL treatments. On the immediate recognition posttest, the PAC was superior to the other two and the word treatment was superior to the PAL. On the delayed recall posttest, there were no significant differences among the treatments. On the delayed recognition posttest, the PAC was superior to the PAL and word treatments. (TJ)

The proposed paper utilizes teacher and student data from the 2014 U.S. National Assessment for Education Progress 8th grade Civics test (NAEP-Civics8) to explore the relationship between teacher pedagogical practices and other factors (i.e., teacher credentials, teacher professional characteristics, individual traits, and teachers' education preparation pathways) that support student short term civic outcomes and access to civic learning opportunities in schools of choice. This study revealed some aspects of teacher pedagogical practice and other limited factors that support student short-term civic outcomes and access to civic learning in these settings. School variance (i.e., schools of choice) did influence not only teacher pedagogical practice but also student access to civic learning opportunities.

This paper presents the use of the time-on-task analysis (TOTA) diagnostic model as an instrument to improve the efficient management of allocated academic time in schools and focuses on the descriptive analytics produced by the TOTA model. The model aims to analyse how time is spent during the school day to enable school leaders, managers, and teachers to identify opportunities for improving teaching and learning 'uptime' in their schools and classrooms. The theoretical underpinning of the TOTA model is overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), a powerful analytical productivity metric used widely in manufacturing, and thus provides a novel perspective on how time is spent in the school day. The descriptive analytics are based on a data set of 450 observations taken during a time-series classroom observation study in the intermediate-senior phase of a primary school. It is argued that the TOTA model can be a valuable tool for school managers and teachers to improve teaching and learning productivity through the efficient utilisation of allocated academic time. The time-on-task analysis presented in this paper further underscores the importance of teachers' classroom management competencies and has the potential to be a valuable tool to enhance the instructional and transformational leadership practices of school principals. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]

The study reported in this paper is on the professional development (PD) of primary school mathematics teachers. Teachers from two primary schools participated in the PD for two years. High-stakes mathematics examination tasks were used to kick start awareness and thinking about teaching for big ideas. Teachers did the tasks and discussed their solutions focusing on how their instruction could facilitate the acquisition of mathematical ideas as a body of connected knowledge. Data presented in this paper show that the tasks teachers worked with at the start of the PD did impact their understanding and instructional practice specific to big ideas in mathematics. Some challenges the teachers faced during the PD are also noted.

The interactional role of language use in the mathematics classroom is explored in the last few decades. This paper adds to the knowledge base by exploring different ways of talking that children and their teacher use in a New Zealand primary geometry English-medium classroom. Bakhtin's concept of speech genres is used for an analysing transcript of one audiovisually recorded whole-class interaction episode from a geometry lesson in a Year 5/6 classroom. The analysis suggests that the teacher and children use various genres to participate in classroom interactions. The use of several genres provides insights into what children and the teacher construct as mathematical in the real sense. The paper finished with a few implications for teaching and research.

In today's modern age, digital technologies are an essential part of everyone's life, so students must learn to use them in primary school. The specific competences defined in the European Digital Competence Framework DigComp 2.1 (2017) are divided into six areas. The Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic has subsequently drawn on this document to add digital competences to its Framework Education Programme (FEP). For this reason, a research experiment was conducted in the context of primary school teaching, which included the design of several specific lessons. The aim of this experiment was to test the research question of whether online collaboration between students using the BYOD model would lead to the acquisition of the subject curriculum, as well as the acquisition of selected digital competences. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a design of a Geography teaching method in which students develop not only their subject knowledge but also selected digital competences, using the H5P application and the creation of a multimedia learning object, and to present the results of the research carried out. The paper includes a description of the individual lessons, the tasks set for the pupils and the methodology for the teachers. [For the full proceedings, see ED639391.]

For several decades, English language learners in P-12 setting were initially viewed from a deficit perspective (Valenzuela, 1999) in which they were unfairly and unjustly compared with the dispositions, experiences, skills, etc. of their native-speaking counterparts. In recent years, however, these learners are increasingly considered from an asset-based perspective (Bartlett & García, 2011) in which their cultural and linguistic resources are being identified, understood, and valued. This paper thus provides an overview of a course unit on the funds of knowledge approach embedded in a ESOL culture and education course for preservice elementary education teachers. The goal of the unit is to acquaint students with the funds of knowledge approach while also equipping them with specific strategies and techniques for incorporating English learners' funds of knowledge in their future classrooms. The paper begins with a summary of the history and principal tenets of the funds of knowledge approach and an overview of critical pedagogy, another theoretical framework which structured the course unit. The paper then outlines the readings, activities, and resources which constituted the multi-day course unit along with a rationale for including these resources in the unit. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]

This paper explores how learning analytics data provided by a math problem-solving educational technology platform informed 5th and 6th grade teachers' instructional decisions around socioemotional learning (SEL). MathSpring is an educational technology tool that provides teachers with data on students' effort, progress, and emotions while students are solving math problems. This paper presents findings from qualitative analyses of 11 classroom observations, 10 observation follow-up chats, and 35 teacher interviews that were collected as part of a randomized control trial conducted in the northeastern United States. The analyses include teachers who used the program with their students (treatment group) and teachers who implemented math instruction as usual (control group). Teachers in the treatment group viewed analytic data on students' effort and progress, which informed the discussions they had with their students around SEL topics including setting goals, the importance of effort, and using productive problem-solving strategies. Findings from these analyses suggest that analytic data on effort and progress can inform teachers' discussions of math-related SEL concepts with their students. [This paper was published in: "The 14th Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK '24), March 18-22, 2024, Kyoto, Japan," ACM, 2024.]

Perseverance is critical for students' achievement and may be particularly important after COVID-19. This paper includes analyses of teacher and principal interviews and student educational technology usage data to examine students' perseverance during math problem-solving across three cohorts of students during and after COVID-19. Data were collected as part of a randomized control trial examining the efficacy of an educational technology platform, MathSpring, in supporting students' math achievement. The results indicated that teachers and principals were concerned with their students' perseverance, and students' usage data similarly demonstrated that students may have reduced perseverance when solving math problems after COVID-19. Teachers and students may benefit from using tools that help foster perseverance in math class. MathSpring and other educational technology tools that support perseverance could be useful for encouraging students to put forth effort when solving math problems, which could in turn support students' math learning outcomes.

This paper explores the utilisation of "Twitter" as a dynamic language learning platform in order to create an authentic domain of use for learners of Irish as an Additional Language (IAL) in a primary school setting in Ireland wherein 20 fourth class children and their parents participated. The Irish language context is firstly introduced, which contextualises a rationale for utilising Twitter for language learning. Teacher, child, and parent engagement with "Twitter" is then outlined with reference to the action research methodology employed. The repository of class tweets, periodic participant advisory group discussions and questionnaires, coupled with teacher-researcher reflection informed a qualitative data analysis. Results indicate notable student engagement with and enjoyment of tweeting in class "as Gaeilge" [in Irish] whereby the class Twitter account emerged as a practicable language learning platform. Its affordances enabled the student composition and publishing of short texts (tweets) and the provision of authentic Irish tweets for class reading. Parent and child engagement out of class, while relatively low, also demonstrated a promising additional domain of use, subject to the negotiation of orientation-related and implementation-related challenges for learners in a blended setting. In conclusion, recommendations to support the use of Twitter in endangered language school contexts are suggested. [For the complete volume, "Intelligent CALL, Granular Systems and Learner Data: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2022 (30th, Reykjavik, Iceland, August 17-19, 2022)," see ED624779.]

In the effort to improve student outcomes, teachers are usually the focus of professional development efforts. However, research increasingly demonstrates the significance of administrators in influencing student outcomes, raising questions about how they too should be involved in such programs. The study involved interviews conducted with 12 administrators engaged in a large-scale professional development program dedicated to equitable math instruction for diverse learners. The paper reports on the different understandings they had regarding their role in supporting the innovation, including their perspective on diverse learners, perceptions of teacher needs, and approaches for teacher support. While conventional professional development programs might overlook administrators, this paper argues for a situated approach for engaging administrators in the complex process of leading change.

In a research study designed to investigate the emergence of collective creativity in elementary classroom settings, and in which teachers' decision-making practices were analyzed alongside both the teachers' observed teaching practices in their classrooms and their students' problem solving actions, the first author developed four metaphors for collective mathematical creativity and linked the entailments of these metaphors to teachers' actions. In this paper, we discuss in detail these entailments and teacher actions, present a framework for collective creativity, and reflect on the implications for practice and further research. [For the complete proceedings, see ED657822.]

As part of a longitudinal study focused on mathematical play, we (Melissa, Amy, and Anita) are often faced with questions about what counts as play and what mathematics (and other learning) we see in play, and whose play is most likely to be seen or dismissed. Rather than discuss our findings from classroom videos of kindergarten children engaged in mathematical play, we asked scholars who bring different lenses to research on play, young children, and teaching and learning mathematics to look at some of our data and provide their perspectives. In this session, we will share video and discuss with our panel (Nathaniel, Naomi, and Tran) various ways to interpret that video. This paper provides background on the potential of mathematical play and the details of the study that generated data for analysis. We conclude with a copy of a transcript that is associated with a video we will watch during the plenary with hopes that participants will watch prior to the session and come with their own questions/perspectives. [For the complete proceedings, see ED657822.]

Textbooks play an important role in teachers' instructional decisions (Jones & Tarr, 2007), which consequently affects students' learning. This paper reports on a comparison of the elementary mathematics textbooks used in Iran and the United States, the Go-Math textbook. I analyzed topic sequences, frequency of the tasks, and cognitive demands of the fraction task in second and third-grade textbooks, employing the framework developed by Smith and Stein (1998) regarding the Levels of Cognitive Demands (LCD). Findings showed that Iran's textbooks devoted more percentage of pages to fractions in second grade than Go-Math textbooks. LCD of the tasks in second grade in both courtiers were in lower levels. Also, the presentation of the fraction concepts varied in different countries and Go-Math covered more fraction concepts in third grade. Recommendations for future research were offered. [For the complete proceedings, see ED657822.]

German primary school students' reading skills have declined between 2016 and 2021, with a deficit of up to one third of a school year. The most significant portion of the decline is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic experiences. These delays are critical because children have to catch up on skills and knowledge they should already have while continuing to acquire new skills and knowledge. Students who are ill prepared in core readiness skills for secondary schools are simultaneously having to cope with the stressful experiences of school transition. Anxiety generally impedes participation in science classes, but the specific concept of science anxiety is less explored. Mindfulness has been successfully implemented in schools to alleviate stress as well as being somewhat effective in positively supporting student anxiety. This paper presents background to a current study that aims to address the significance of the issue of science anxiety amongst German post-transition students, and whether science anxiety can be improved through the implementation of a mindfulness program. [For the full proceedings, see ED652261.]

Big Ideas in school mathematics can be seen as overarching concepts that occur in various mathematical topics in a syllabus. For teachers, this knowledge can be used to help students develop a better understanding of mathematics by making visible the central ideas, and connection across topics and across levels. For students, this knowledge can further be helpful affectively by engendering an appreciation of mathematics as a subject that is coherent and comprehensible. Although there has been much interest recently in the understanding of Big Ideas, there is little research done in the assessment of Big Ideas thinking. In this paper, we discuss our development of an instrument to measure the Big Ideas of equivalence and proportionality. Our analysis of some pilot items suggests that Big Idea thinking is a multidimensional construct within most school environments.

Place value is one of the 'big ideas' in number and plays a critical role in helping students develop their number sense, problem solving and computation skills. Yet, the elegant simplicity of our place value system belies the abstract nature of the construct. This paper presents data from 606 Year 3-6 students (ages 8-12) from two metropolitan Melbourne primary schools who completed the Place Value Assessment Tool (PVAT). Each student's place value knowledge was categorised according to the Place Value Developmental Progression (PVDP). The results highlight the wide range of understanding in each year level and challenge the efficacy of a number magnitude-based progression in place value.

In this paper, we explore how students' algebraic noticing's and explanations changed across a two-year period with the introduction of designed instructional material. The data in this report is drawn from n=53 Year 7-8 students' responses to a free-response assessment task across two different years. Analysis focused on how students noticed and explained algebraic relationships in pairs of equivalent equations. Findings indicate that with the introduction of designed instructional material, there was a shift in student noticing of number properties to identify equivalence between pairs of equations. However, identifying the distributive property of multiplication and developing generalisations about the algebraic relationships remained challenging for students.

This conceptual paper discusses two frameworks, developed independently by the lead author, that will provide the conceptual foundation for the identification and evaluation of mental computation strategies students demonstrate during an upcoming research project entitled Mental Computation in Year 5. These frameworks will be used by the lead author during an intervention to investigate the application of mental computation strategies in problem solving tasks involving duration of time. It is an intended outcome of the project that the two frameworks will be useful for teachers and students in upper primary school to provide feedback regarding the teaching and learning of mental computation.

This paper describes results from a case study about how a primary pre-service teacher (PST) used curriculum materials (CMs) when planning for a mathematics lesson during her final practicum. The data is drawn from a doctoral study (in progress) and results show how the PST initiated an active process of searching for and sifting through CMs on a familiar website to make selections for a lesson. Selections were based on several aspects, including the mathematics focus of her lesson, curriculum connections, her chosen teaching approach and mathematical representation for teaching multiplication. Implications for mathematics Initial Teacher Educators (ITEs) are discussed.

This paper reports on students' experiences of describing and representing variation in hypothetical data. Fifty-six students (8-9 years-old) experienced collecting and working with quantitative data for two years as part of a STEM education project. The task described here was an end-of-year survey question, with three parts about a hypothetical context for surveying students in two different Australian cities: recording the data, describing the potential variation in the data, and creating a representation of what the data might look like when only a descriptive account of the context and variables were provided. The data analysis framework utilised provides a means of determining students' readiness for further development of statistical ideas.

Worldwide interest in Lesson Study (LS) and the opportunities offered for student learning through the use of a Structured Problem-Solving Approach (SPSA), as typically adopted in Japanese LS research lessons in mathematics, have left largely unanswered questions about the extent to which these can be replicated elsewhere. This paper presents a case study of one primary school teacher's learning experiences, and his views about LS and SPSA, as a result of participating in a project introducing SPSA through LS in three Fijian primary schools. The results reveal that engaging in the LS process was instrumental in supporting this teacher's implementation of SPSA in his mathematics classroom. The findings are important for teacher professional learning (PL) in Pacific cultural contexts.

This paper reports on 73 Grades 3 to 6 students' written responses to equal groups, arrays, multiplicative comparison and Cartesian product word problems. It is part of a larger study relating to students' development of multiplicative thinking (MT). The potential of using multiplicative word problems as a diagnostic assessment to reveal students' transition barriers from additive thinking to MT was explored. The development of the assessment and some of the research findings are described here. Findings show that students experience different types of barriers during their transition from additive to MT. Some recommendations are given on how these barriers might be overcome during primary school years.

In this paper we compare the early years mathematics curricula of Germany, South Africa, and Australia in relation to the place value concept. Place value is an important topic as it underpins much of the number work completed by learners in the early years of schooling. We found that there were differences between the three curricula that could be summarised using five themes: namely, number range, place value structure, role of the zero, influence of language, and use of materials. We argue that how the different curricula deal with these five themes influences the quality of learning provided and we highlight key areas of concern. In concluding we identify three important implications for our future research project.

Providing opportunities for students to demonstrate their mathematical thinking can be challenging. This paper reports on a case study conducted with a teacher and her class of Grade 3/4 students which investigated this phenomenon. Following collection of baseline data that showed her students were not demonstrating evidence of mathematical thinking, the teacher implemented teaching approaches designed to address this. The findings indicated the teaching approaches were effective and led to changes in the teacher's practice and professional growth. The study has implications for teachers who are looking to make changes to their practice based on evidence-informed teaching approaches.

This paper reports on early years teachers and how often they should devote planning time to anticipating student responses in advance of the lesson. Sixty-five Foundation to Year 2 teachers (students 5-8 years of age) completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of a year-long research-based professional development program. Participants were learning to teach with sequences of challenging tasks. Post-program data showed a shift in the frequency of time participants believed teachers should devote to anticipating student responses prior to teaching. Supporting teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching with an emphasis on how they plan and anticipate student responses has implications for improving practice and student outcomes.

Conceptual body movement in education is an external representation mode that research suggests can support children's learning about mathematical phenomena. Children's learning and understanding of mathematical concepts and processes, such as number structure and relationships, number sequencing, position, or geometric properties, may be supported by experiences using their own body movements. The aim of this paper is to share classroom activities trialled within the Embodied Learning in Early Mathematics and Science project in 7 classrooms focusing on conceptual body movements. The results share what was trialled, and what was observed in relation to children's learning of mathematical processes. Findings revealed that body movement is a helpful mode through which young children can learn and communicate mathematical understanding.

The phenomenon of teachers designing their own instructional materials is gaining more attention in research. Different aspects of this enterprise have been examined--its potential to reveal the complexity of teachers' instructional planning considerations, the design principles employed by teachers to realise instructional goals, among others. In the study reported in this paper, the focus was on its utility as a form of teacher professional development. In particular, evidence was sought for this claim: not only is teacher-designed instructional materials a useful tool for professional development, it can capture usable knowledge teachers appropriate from professional development.

There is an educational expectation that children's natural drawing will develop into proficient mathematical representations and formal diagrams, yet there is little research available to guide the assessment and development of children's mathematical drawing skills. The aim of this paper is to explore how Year 2 children (approx. 7 years) chose to represent their interpretations of a simple story that is suggestive of the take-away subtraction process, and what changes occurred when the drawing task was repeated 6 months later. Analysis of 13 pairs of drawings revealed changes in what the children drew (categories of number representations) and how they drew it (style). The findings suggest that substantial change in children's representational ability can occur in within 6 months.

"Balai Besar Guru Penggerak Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (BBGP DIY)" conducted a professional development course aimed at enhancing primary school teachers' capacity to develop and implement STEM lesson plans in their classrooms. As part of the course, teachers were asked to record their lessons, which were later analysed to identify the mathematical content involved and how teachers delivered this content during the STEM lessons. The findings indicated that, although mathematics appeared to be less pivotal than other STEM disciplines in the lesson plans, the STEM activities provided rich opportunities for developing students' mathematical content knowledge. Most of the teachers realised this and were able to deliver the mathematical content within the context of STEM education. This paper presents an insight into how primary school teachers in Indonesia deliver mathematical content in their STEM lessons and highlights the role of mathematics in STEM education.

Teachers often perceive barriers to integrating technology with Mathematics. In the study, teachers participated in professional development about considerations for and examples of integrating Digital Technologies into Mathematics learning in primary schools meeting the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics and Digital Technologies" requirements. This exploratory multiple case study included preand post-surveys, mentoring conversations and interviews to explore their beliefs and perceived barriers to integrating mathematics and digital technologies. This paper provides insights into their perceived barriers to integrating digital technologies.

Big Ideas in school mathematics can be seen as overarching concepts that occur in various mathematical topics in a syllabus. Although there has been much interest recently in the understanding of Big Ideas, there is little research done in the assessment of Big Ideas thinking. In this paper, we discuss our research on Big Ideas in School Mathematics. The study consists of three sub-studies: the first sub-study on developing an instrument to measure Big Ideas; two sub-studies on measuring students' and teachers' Big Ideas at test-points before and after a professional development on Big Ideas for primary and secondary school teachers and students.

Fostering students' bidirectional conception of the equal sign (viewing the equal sign as indicating an equivalence of two sides rather than a 'show result' symbol) is challenging, and students' misconception of the equal sign is persistent. Some studies mention that in China, the pedagogical approach to introducing the equal sign supports students' development of bidirectional sense toward the equal sign. Built up on this body of literature, this paper further investigates the Chinese pedagogy from the researcher, students and the teacher's perspectives.

One of the most significant objectives of the learning and teaching processes is to achieve meaningful learning for the individual; in line with this objective, educators are searching for various methods to accomplish meaningful learning and make it enduring. Following the present age, the sought-after and essential qualified human profile should encompass many diverse skills. While the range of skills aimed to be imparted to individuals of school age has diversified and expanded, knowing history and engaging in historical thinking continues to maintain its relevance and significance. The teaching of historical subjects, as well as the planning, implementation, and evaluation of methods and techniques, presents challenges for the 8th-grade course of The Principles of Atatürk and History of Turkish Revolution due to its structural focus on theoretical knowledge intensity. The emerging generation requires novel techniques. One instructional technique where active learning occurs is through educational games. Educational games are a significant and effective instructional technique that contributes to making the teaching process more efficient and achieving the targeted learning outcomes set by the programs. In Turkey, the number of games designed for history curriculum objectives and the number of studies related to the subject are quite limited. In line with this, this research study aimed to investigate how university students experience the process of designing a history education-themed board game within the scope of the 8th-grade Principles of Ataturk and History of Turkish Revolution course, aiming to impart historical knowledge and historical thinking skills to students. The study focused on the design, development, and evaluation of the board game, exploring the experiences of students throughout this process. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 24-37.]

The development of students' mathematical problem-solving skills is contingent upon the approaches and methods employed by primary school teachers. This research endeavors to scrutinize the effectiveness of primary school teachers in their roles within the problem-solving process, with particular attention directed toward their inquiry techniques, instructional approaches, and responses to student errors. Employing as a explanatory mixed-design research, firstly quantitative data were obtained from the primary school teachers (N=116) and analyzed by applying the questionnaire form developed by the researchers; additionally, qualitative data were obtained by conducting focus group interviews with a subset of participants (N=6) based on the information obtained from these data. Thereby, teachers get the opportunity to share their ideas in the process. Second phase of the research aimed to develop the active roles of the participants in the problem-solving process. The research outcomes underscore that teachers frequently gravitate toward questioning techniques and teaching methods that promote a nuanced comprehension of the problem. There also appears to be an underutilization of inquiries pertaining to prediction, generalization, and collaborative group work. Furthermore, the research unveils an array of strategies employed by teachers to rectify student errors. These encompass commonly employed techniques such as question-answer, exemplification, and lecture responses, irrespective of the specific type of question posed. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 476-492.]

Spatial ability is frequently encountered in professional disciplines and daily life. In general, it includes abilities such as rotating objects, estimating the appearance of objects based on a person's position, and being able to think of open and closed forms of three-dimensional objects. It is essential in learning and teaching geometry. In this research, we tried to examine the spatial abilities of 6th grade students through Visualize-Predict-Check (VPC) heuristic in a computer-based environment (GeoGebra). In the research, we designed the teaching materials according to the topics such as reflection, translation, rotation, view from different directions, and expansion, which are included in the mathematics curriculum. The experimental method was used in the research, and the Spatial Reasoning Instrument (SRI) was used for pre-test and post-test. The research groups were 75 students selected from 223 6th grade students studying in four public secondary schools in a large province of the Black Sea Region during the 2022-2023 academic year. These students were selected according to their pre-test scores and were divided into three heterogeneous groups of 25 students each. The result of the research indicates that through the VPC heuristic, there was no statistically significant difference between the scores of the first group of students in the spatial reasoning instrument when teaching was carried out only according to the visualization component. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the scores of the second and third group students in the spatial reasoning instrument when teaching was carried out, respectively, according to the visualization prediction and visualization-prediction-control components. Based on the findings, suggestions were made for further research. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 538-553.]

Rules are often created based on the needs and values of society. Social rules, on the other hand, are guidelines that state whether we should or should not do certain behaviors. In addition to educational activities, schools also include activities aimed at teaching social rules. The concept of rule, its formation, implementation, classification and diversity, its changing borders, its importance for human education, order, and life has a structure that is highly questioned among people. It is important to know the perspectives of primary school children regarding the rules, one of the ages where this questioning is made deeply, in order to plan educational activities. The aim of this research is to reveal the cognitive structures of primary school students regarding the rules through the Word Association Test (WAT). In this study, descriptive survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The study group of the research consists of 185 primary school second, third and fourth grade students studying in a Turkish province in the 2022-2023 academic year. The study group was selected according to easily accessible case sampling, one of the purposive sampling strategies. While primary school 2nd grade students associated the concept of rule with 52 different words, third grade students associated 56 different words and fourth grade students associated 75 different words. When the words with a cut-off point of 25 and above were examined, it was seen that school and traffic answers were given at every grade level. When the words at each grade level were examined, it was seen that the students generally did not write the concepts with close meaning and similar meanings related to the concept in which they explained the rules with examples. However, it has been determined that the written words are mostly associated with social and school rules. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 225-240.]

The primary objective of this research was to investigate the effects of model-based science instruction on the conceptual development of 7th grade students in the topic of electricity. This qualitative research was conducted during the 2022-2023 academic year, using purposive sampling method. The study comprised 33 7th grade students (18 boys and 15 girls) from a secondary school located in the city center of the Aegean Region. Students' conceptions were introduced as a conceptual framework representing individuals' mental models. In the study, a conceptual understanding test consisting of five open-ended questions was developed as a data collection tool within the framework of the related literature and science curriculum. In order to evaluate the effects of the designed learning environment, this achievement test was administered to students before and after the instruction. Rubric was used in the analysis of the obtained data. Analyzes were carried out by one researcher and their accuracy was checked by another researcher. The effectiveness of the learning environment is based on the comparison of the pre- and post-test findings. The implementation process lasted 12 lesson hours. The data were analyzed descriptively and classified according to their conceptual knowledge levels. Conclusively, the study demonstrated that the implementation of model-based lessons within the 'Electric Circuits' unit had positive impact on the conceptual development of 7th grade students. In addition, model-based learning sequence reduced misconceptions of students about the topic of electric. Based on these results, model-based teaching was recommended to teachers in the instruction processes and researchers were recommended to investigate features of models and the nature of modeling, the relation between students' knowledge about modeling and the quality of the models they create. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 520-537.]

Physical programming (PP) is defined as the design of interactive physical systems between the real and virtual worlds using a combination of software and hardware. A physical programming platform (PPP) defines a structure that includes hardware and software where such applications can be made. The aim of this study is to introduce the MIDEP computer card, which can be used at all levels of education, does not require a computer and can be used as a computer, and to evaluate its usability in physical programming training. In the study, which was designed with a one-group pretest-posttest experimental model, the evaluation process was carried out in two stages with two different study groups. The study group of the application consisted of teacher candidates in the first stage and K12 level students in the second stage. In data collection, academic achievement tests prepared separately for pre-service teachers and K12 level students and focus group interviews with students were utilised. The findings show that the training given by using MIDEP card and MIDEP workbook increased the academic achievement of the students in physical programming at a statistically significant level. In addition, as a result of the findings, it can be said that the projects and activities included in the training exhibited a balanced distribution in terms of the gains related to the sub-dimensions of hardware, software and Internet of Things, and that the tools and materials used allowed students without any experience to learn gradually from easy to difficult. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 570-590.]

This study aims to explain the relation between school administrators' instructional leadership and teachers' instructional moods according to teacher opinions. The research is quantitative in nature and designed in a correlational survey pattern using quantitative research methods. A total of 160 participants took part in the study, selected through simple random sampling method. In data analysis, t-tests and ANOVA were used. Pearson product-moment correlational analysis was employed to determine the relation between school administrators' instructional leadership and teachers' instructional moods. The impact of school administrators' instructional leadership on teachers' instructional moods were analyzed using simple linear regression analysis. It was found that the level of school administrators' instructional leadership was high, and teachers' instructional moods were at a moderate level. Teachers were found to have a higher sense of enjoyment in their instructional moods, while their anxiety levels were relatively low. School administrators' instructional leadership behaviors were found to be consistent across gender, educational level, years of service in the school, and duration of working with the current school administrator. Similarly, no differences were found in teachers' instructional moods concerning gender, educational level, years of service in the school, and duration of working with the current school administrator. A low level of positive correlation was found between school administrators' instructional leadership and teachers' instructional moods. The study concluded that the instructional leadership of school administrators has a minimal impact on teachers' instructional mood states. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 1-23.]

This research aimed to develop a valid and reliable test to be used to detect sixth grade students' misconceptions and errors regarding the subject of fractions. A misconception diagnostic test has been developed that includes the concept of fractions, different representations of fractions, ordering and comparing fractions, equivalence of fractions, representation of fractions on the number line, and addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of fractions. Studies in the literature on misconceptions in fractions were examined and 22 misconceptions were listed. An open-ended test consisting of 23 questions was created in which students justified their answers to the questions. The developed test was applied to 215 sixth grade students studying in a public secondary school in Istanbul. The average item difficulty index of the test was calculated as 0.37. The test was found to be of average difficulty. The average discrimination index of the test was measured as 0.69. This value shows that the test items are quite successful in distinguishing between students who know and those who do not. In addition, when the discrimination values of the test items were taken into consideration separately, there was no need for item removal or item change since there were no items below 0.30. The KR-20 reliability coefficient was calculated for the first stage of the test and was calculated as 0.93. A graded classification system was used for the first part and second part of the test. To determine that the two stages work in harmony, the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was calculated and found to be 0.95. These results prove that the developed test is highly valid and reliable. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 255-272.]

The aim of this research study was to examine the opinions and experiences of teachers and pre-service teachers about number sense and its development. The participants of this research were 25 teachers and pre-service teachers studying at undergraduate or graduate level in different regions and different departments of Turkey, who participated in the number sense training project prepared within the scope of teacher training. Research data were collected through open-ended questions and activities developed by the participants. Open-ended questions developed by the researchers consisted of questions about the development and application of the number sense. The data were analyzed through content analysis. Results showed that most of the participants generally emphasized the use of materials such as number cards and ten frame cards for the development of number sense in the classroom environment and the development of number sense components such as having number talk. However, the number sense activities developed by the participants as a group at the end of the training reveal that they need to have more experience in number sense. In addition, the participants see teacher competence and the content and intensity of the objectives in the mathematics curriculum as the biggest obstacle to the use of number sense in the math classroom. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 131-147.]

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is already challenging a variety of societal areas, including education. It is transforming education to data driven. AI-enhanced technologies in education (abbreviated AIinED) will have a significant role in changing the teaching and learning methods, as well as impacting the behavior and organization of the educational system. It is considered that the AIinED will change the paradigm of education in the future. And yet, AIinED is still more in the lab than being practically implemented in education and training. We consider three major players in the implementation of AIinED -- students, teachers, and society. All three can benefit from AIinED and at the same time be a potential target of the risks that AIinED brings along with its promises -- may be one of the reasons why main stakeholders (UNESCO, EC etc.) have been developing guidelines and recommendations for ethical use of AIinED. The literature shows that the center of AIinED system will be the student, but we consider the student not only as a target but also as a source of ideas for AIinED development with the potential to accelerate the process of adoption of AIinED. Hence, one of the big questions should be how the students foresee the role of artificial intelligence in education. To initiate such a question, though, it is important to know the level of understanding among the students about what and where artificial intelligence is. There are three major aspects that AIinED must be considered accordingly -- technological, lawful, and ethical. This paper presents the results of a study on high school students' understanding of AI technologies and their attitudes to their application in education. A survey was used as a tool to elaborate. The conceptual model of the research was developed on the basis of established theories linking attitudes to behavior and the acceptance of artificial intelligence technologies in education. Each element of this concept is explored with a different part of the questionnaire, which contains a total of 12 questions (some of which with sub-questions). The survey was elaborated online within October-November 2021. A link to the questionnaire in Bulgarian was provided to 178 high and vocational high schools educating students aged 14-19 (grades 8-12) across the country (Bulgaria). 766 students submitted their replies through the online survey form. Descriptive statistics and analysis of the frequencies of the respondents' opinions were made based on the data. The results show that the students participating in the survey:(a) understand the essence of AI technologies; (b) they are convinced of the usefulness of the application of artificial intelligence technologies in their daily activities and strongly believe that it improves it; (c) are not entirely clear about the benefits of artificial intelligence enhanced technologies in learning and teaching; (d) do not demonstrate sufficient knowledge and understanding of the necessity of ethical use of AI technologies in education; The latter reduces the positive influence of the perceived usefulness of artificial intelligence technologies in the learning process on students' attitudes. [For the full proceedings, see ED639391.]

The aim of the study was to examine the effect of the educational practice including growth-mindset strategies on the self-efficacy, self-regulation, academic achievement and mind development scores of 8th grade students who are continuing their secondary education in Turkey. In order to examine the effect of the use of growth-mindset strategies on the self-efficacy, self-regulation, academic achievement and mindset scores of the 8th grade students, the results obtained as a result of the four-week pilot application carried out with the participation of 42 eighth grade students (experimental group: 21, control group: 21). In this study, which was designed in accordance with the nested mixed pattern, data were obtained through Mindset Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale, and Metacognitive Skills Scale before and after the application. In the qualitative aspect of the research, the data obtained from the interviews with the students, reflection reports filled by the students, self-evaluation forms, peer assessment forms and course observations were subjected to content analysis. The categories and codes that emerged as a result of the analysis were structured under three themes that also constituted the interview questions. Within the scope of the research, semi-structured one-to-one interviews were conducted with 4 students in the experimental group, and after the application, self-assessment, peer assessment forms and reflection reports were filled by the students. Before the application, no significant difference was observed between the experimental and control groups in terms of the average scores showing academic success in mathematics, metacognitive skills and self-efficacy skills. A significant difference was observed only between the average scores of mind development among the posttest scores performed after the mind development training. A positive change was observed between the mindset scores of the experimental group students before and after the application. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 383-401.]

Gifted students are future leaders in society. In order to support and encourage them, it's important to have a thorough understanding of the nature of giftedness and the perceptions, and anticipations of gifted students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions and anticipations of 6th-grade gifted students about four commonly used assessment methods, namely, exams, homework, project and performance assessments, and in-class assessments in mathematics classes. The present study is a case study, which is a type of qualitative methodology. The participants of this study consisted of three 6th-grade gifted students who attended Science and Art Centers (BILSEM) in Ankara. To collect the data, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings indicated that although their perceptions and anticipations varied, three gifted students mostly like project and performance assessments out of these four methods, prefer group assessment to individual assessment, and do not like exams and excessive amounts of homework. In addition, the reflections of gifted students' perceptions can be seen in their anticipations. The findings of this study would be helpful to provide teachers and researchers insight into the perceptions and anticipations of gifted students regarding the assessment to diversify assessment, which would contribute to revealing and enhancing gifted students' potential. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2023 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," Ani Publishing, 2023, pp. 675-685.]

This paper examines teachers' adaptive approaches with regard to Environmental Studies (EVS) within primary classrooms of government schools located in suburban Mumbai in India. 'Environmental Studies' (EVS), is a significant aspect of school curricula; integrating concepts and issues of science, social studies and environment education. While the effectiveness of curricular activities and materials for EVS in fostering student learning is often examined, teachers' implementation of these resources have received relatively inadequate attention in scholarly research. The local conditions in government schools, as well as the nature of reform curriculum and teacher training form the background to the complexities involved in adaptive teaching. We find that different adaptive methods are developed by some teachers over time in response to their documentation of local concerns and resources. We also find that the teachers' strong sense of professional agency is reflected in their explorations with curriculum-adaptation possibilities. Additionally, teachers' varying levels of trust in the design of existing textbook activities may affect their pedagogical decisions. We propose that delving into teachers' local knowledge provides insights into their perspectives and practices regarding student learning. Studying teachers' adaptive approaches is therefore imperative, and has critical implications for curriculum design and teacher professional development efforts. [For the full proceedings, see ED654100.]

The paper presents an attempt made to use the Arduino platform and the Scratch for Arduino (S4A) environment for the implementation of an educational project for 6th grade primary school students in a classroom attended by refugee, immigrants, and indigenous students. The aim was to investigate the opportunity to use educational robotics as tools to support the social interactions and social inclusion of refugee children in the classroom community. The research was a case study implemented in a primary school in rural Greece. Students had to work in groups to design, build, and program a construction that simulates an "escape room." Students of each group solving a riddle of the other groups must discover a code to unlock the door of the "escape room," based on a series of six worksheets of increasing difficulty to create their final construction. The research tools were a diagnostic questionnaire, an evaluation questionnaire, specially designed worksheets, an observation sheet for participatory observation, and sociometric test tools. Based on the findings it could be supported that educational robotics are able to support social interactions of refugee children to a certain extent. The intervention supported social interactions and collaboration among students but without solving the problem of difficulties in the social integration of refugee students in the classroom community. Verbally all students stated that they had not any problem cooperating with refugee students, but this was not strongly reflected in practice. Greek students interacted strongly with immigrant students and refugee students seemed to prefer interacting with immigrant students too. [For the full proceedings, see ED656038.]

School rating websites are increasingly used by parents to assess the quality and fit of U.S. K-12 schools for their children. These online reviews often contain detailed descriptions of a school's strengths and weaknesses, which both reflect and inform perceptions of a school. Existing work on these text reviews has focused on finding words or themes that underlie these perceptions, but has stopped short of using the textual reviews as leading indicators of school performance. In this paper, we investigate to what extent the language used in online reviews of a school is predictive of changes in the attributes of that school, such as its socio-economic makeup and student test scores. Using over 300K reviews of 70K U.S. schools from a popular ratings website, we apply language processing models to predict whether schools will significantly increase or decrease in an attribute of interest over a future time horizon. We find that using the text improves predictive performance significantly over a baseline model that does not include text but only the historical time-series of the indicators themselves, suggesting that the review text carries predictive power. A qualitative analysis of the most predictive terms and phrases used in the text reviews indicates a number of topics that serve as leading indicators, such as diversity, changes in school leadership, a focus on testing, and school safety.