Middle School Journal最新文献

{"title":"Moving from theory to practice: A critical approach","authors":"Kathleen M. Brinegar, Lisa M. Harrison, Ellis Hurd","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2047576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2047576","url":null,"abstract":"The phrase theory to practice permeates education. A simple Google search will reveal that there are countless books, articles, podcasts, and videos touting the importance of putting theory into practice. As educators we are constantly being told that we need to put theory into practice in the ways that we develop curriculum, select and implement instructional practices and assessment strategies, make decisions that impact our classroom climate and relationships with students and families (i.e., Akos & Kurz, 2016; Fuhler, 2003). In the same vein, teacher education programs are consistently striving to find the right combination of coursework and fieldwork and innovative strategies (i.e., Howell et al., 2017) for teacher candidates to gain the knowledge and experiences they need to put theory into practice. But when we step back and examine that phrase, what does it even mean? And more importantly what does it assume? Technically, the term “put {insert something} into practice” is an idiom that means, “to commence doing something that had previously only been discussed, suggested, or planned” (thefreedictionary.com). In education, we use this idiom to explain the importance of taking a theory (a belief or procedure followed as the basis of action) that was previously discussed, suggested, or planned and implementing it, most likely in a classroom. At the most basic level, teachers do this every second of every day. One teacher might do it when they notice that Marta responds well when given the opportunity to draw instead of write out her thinking, so they make that a regular part of their practice. Another when they recognize that Sonny is most engaged when he completes an experiment independently and then explains his findings to a group of peers so they organize their science class to incorporate options for independent work followed by small group sharing and discussion. Educators are literally putting their own theories into practice constantly as they make decisions based on repeated observations, experiences, and dialogue. I once heard that, on average, educators make nearly 10,000 decisions per day related to teaching and learning. But when we talk about putting theory into practice, as a field, we generally are not referring to the ways that teachers put their own theories about what works and what does not for the learners in their classrooms into practice everyday; we are talking about putting certain theories, unquestionably, into practice, some of which have been around for years or even decades. Other times the theories are the newest fads in education. Many of these theories are problematic, and the research behind them might not be transferable to certain populations of students. Either way, many theories are used almost unquestioningly, without consideration for the impact on or the implications for young adolescents. For example, one of the long lasting theories that has informed the way we think about young adolescence is Hall’s","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":" ","pages":"2 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43660418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Utilizing action research to integrate curriculum, instruction, and assessment in middle school classrooms","authors":"Ruba Monem, Elizabeth D. Cramer","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2047370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2047370","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Action research is an evidence-based practice that is highly applicable to middle school teaching and learning. Middle school teachers can empower themselves and their students by participating in immersive, meaningful activities that are designed to improve educational outcomes. Action research is purposeful and beneficial for teachers, students, and educational stakeholders. This article describes the features and phases of action research and how the framework can be used to find solutions to classroom concerns.","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"5 - 14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44637745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Middle grades IRL: A collective self-study of practices and problems of practice in the context of middle grades teacher education","authors":"Kristina N. Falbe, Kristie W. Smith","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2047371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2047371","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As middle grades teacher educators, we carry a responsibility to prepare pre-service teachers for the realities of practice ahead in their real-world classrooms. Similarly, middle school instructional coaches and specialists support in-service practitioners within the authentic context of their real world, real time experiences as teachers. In the roles of middle grades teacher educator and middle grades instructional coach, there can be a considerable focus on theories that underlie best practices, but what happens when theory and practice have untested connections or when theory and practice diverge? And, what happens if teacher education fails to focus on maintaining an authentic context in the real world? In The Successful Middle School, This We Believe, Bishop and Harrison put forth the importance of ensuring clear correlations between theory and practice, as the idea that professional learning for all staff [should be] relevant, long term, and job embedded. Within this descriptor of doing middle school successfully is a call to continuously examine connections and disconnections between classroom theory put forth by teacher educators and authentic, current middle grades practices. This article tells the story of a collective self-study between middle grades teacher educators who were seeking to interrogate connections and disconnections between theory and practice. In shared inquiry and critical reflection, we sought, not only to uncover problems of practice in our professional spheres, but also to confront the gaps that emerged between theory and practice, looking for ways to more explicitly connect our work with the middle grades In Real Life (IRL).","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"15 - 21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41984184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Middle grades readings: Where are the picturebooks?","authors":"William P. Bintz, Lisa M. Ciecierski-Madara","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2047566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2047566","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article adds picturebooks to the rich landscape of middle grades readings. It begins with a vignette that inspired this article, followed by an introduction to the changing definitions picturebooks. Next, it provides a brief overview of the different relationships between text and illustrations. Then, it discusses the value of picturebooks for middle graders readers, followed by an introduction to crossover picturebooks, and how they can be used as Way-In texts.","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"22 - 30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43619813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Society is an oxymoron","authors":"Derrick Vaughn","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2047578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2047578","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":" ","pages":"4 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42875351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Insecure teen","authors":"Angelina L. Rivera","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2026159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2026159","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"4 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42227318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A case study: Enacting courage and collaboration in equity and justice-oriented educational leadership","authors":"H. Hughes, Kelsey Benson, D. Brody, A. Murphy, Rachel Ranschaert","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2021.2022444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2021.2022444","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In spring 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic collided with a national reckoning on racial injustice and ruptured our country’s core. The effects of this collision necessitated something other than business as usual in school leadership: it called for the kind of courageous leadership rooted in equity and justice we describe in this paper. In this qualitative case study, we draw on nine months of data collected at a Title I middle school in the southeast to describe how the administration leaned into vulnerability and courageous leadership by naming and acknowledging uncomfortable realities and inviting collaborative engagement with the school community about these realities.","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"5 - 11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43707711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Youth will lead the way","authors":"Lisa M. Harrison, Ellis Hurd, Kathleen M. Brinegar","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2022.2026155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2026155","url":null,"abstract":"Since it was first published in 1982, This We Believe has grown from a single document into a comprehensive program that educators, schools, and districts can adopt to help support student success. With the publication of the newest edition, The Successful Middle School: This We Believe (2021), this special issue of Middle School Journal (MSJ) highlights research that demonstrates how educators operationalize the essential attributes outlined in this edition. The 18 characteristics presented in The Successful Middle School are divided into three categories: Culture and Community; Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; and Leadership and Organization. In this special issue we feature research on innovative practices centering multiple characteristics related to these three categories. As you read this issue, our hope is that it serves as a starting, or for some, a continuing point of engagement with the essential attributes and characteristics outlined in The Successful Middle School. More so, we hope that you fully embrace one of the major goals of this latest edition, which is to center equity as an anchoring component of the middle school concept. Harrison and Bishop (2021) stated when describing the changes found in the newest edition that","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"2 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59059785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Middle school students’ perceptions of teacher empathy in Christian schools: A transcendental phenomenological study","authors":"H. W. Brackins","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2021.2022445","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2021.2022445","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Numerous studies have contributed to the theoretical, empirical, and practical understanding of teacher empathy, but few have captured the voices of middle school students to understand their lived experiences; no studies have explored the topic in Christian academies. Grounded in Rogers’ theory of self and subsequent theories about student-centered pedagogy, the intent of the study was to explore the perceptions of teacher empathy as voiced by 10 middle school students. Data collected from individual interviews, a focus group session, and letters written to hypothetical future middle school teachers revealed that middle school students perceived teacher empathy as a relational process that positively impacted their personal and academic growth. A major implication for decision-makers is the necessity to prioritize relational cultures, while implications for teachers include the necessity to build ongoing, nonjudgmental, and transparent relationships that lead to functional, fundamental, and profound empathic opportunities.","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":" ","pages":"22 - 30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49348181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Setting the stage for responsive middle level mathematics teaching: Establishing an adolescent-centered community of care","authors":"C. Ellerbrock, Eugenia Vomvoridi-Ivanović","doi":"10.1080/00940771.2021.2022443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2021.2022443","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This qualitative case study highlights the ways a novice middle school mathematics teacher established an adolescent-centered community of care that set the stage for responsive middle level mathematics teaching (RMLMT). Findings revealed that fostering caring school-based relationships supports the establishment of a responsive classroom environment. This can be achieved through an early and ongoing purposeful focus on teacher-student and student-student relationship development and through nurturing emotional safety. Further, holding a student-centered teaching approach is a way to respect, value, and advocate for young adolescents. This can be achieved by celebrating diversity, supporting academic and personal development, and fostering persistence. Fostering a responsive classroom environment and respecting, valuing, and advocating for young adolescents is foundational to establishing an adolescent-centered community of care in any middle school classroom, especially in a mathematics classroom. Placing an acute focus on culture and community is essential to establishing an adolescent-centered community of care that sets the stage for RMLMT to take place.","PeriodicalId":37061,"journal":{"name":"Middle School Journal","volume":"53 1","pages":"12 - 21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43768304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}