Dialogues in Middle Level Education Research Volume 1

David C. Virtue is Taft B. Botner Distinguished Professor of Middle Grades Education at Western Carolina University, USA.

INTRODUCTION

1. Engendering and Enriching Critical Conversations about Middle Level Education Research

David C. Virtue

PART I: Factors Affecting Middle Grades Mathematics Achievement

2. Middle Level Mathematics Achievement from Teacher and Student Perspectives: Reflections and New Directions in Middle Level Mathematics Research

Theresa A. Garfield and W. Sean Kearney

3. Student Readiness to Learn and Teacher Effectiveness: Two Key Factors in Middle Grades Mathematics Achievement

W. Sean Kearney and Theresa A. Garfield

4. Teaching Mathematics in the Middle Grades: Connecting Seminal Education Philosophies to Current Best Practices

Holly H. Pinter

PART II: Perspectives on Personalized Learning

5. Critical Reflections on Personalized Project-Based Learning

Jessica DeMink-Carthew, Steven Netcoh, Kathleen Brinegar, and Jeanie Phillips

6. Mixed Feelings about Choice: Exploring Variation in Middle School Student Experiences with Making Choices in a Personalized Learning Project

Jessica DeMink-Carthew and Steven Netcoh

7. Hands-Joined Learning as a Framework for Personalizing Project-Based Learning in a Middle Grades Classroom: An Exploratory Study

Jessica DeMink-Carthew and Mark W. Olofson

8. A Response to Critical Reflections on Personalized Project-Based Learning

John Downes and James Nagle

PART III: Understanding Teacher Collaboration in Diverse Classrooms

9. "All the Way Better": Teacher Collaboration and ESL Students’ Participation

Amanda Giles and Bedrettin Yazan

10. "You’re Not an Island": A Middle Grades Language Arts Teacher’s Changed Perceptions in ESL and Content Teachers’ Collaboration

Amanda Giles and Bedrettin Yazan

11. Insights from a Case Study on Teacher Collaboration: Response to Giles and Yazan

Bogum Yoon

PART IV: Exploring Social and Emotional Learning in the Middle Grades

12. Extending Research on SEL in the Middle Grades

David B. Strahan and Beth Poteat

13. Middle Level Students’ Perceptions of Their Social and Emotional Learning: An Exploratory Study

David B. Strahan and Beth Poteat

14. Researching Social and Emotional Learning in the Middle Grades: A Response to Strahan and Poteat

Katherine M. Main and Cheryl R. Ellerbrock

CONCLUSION

15. New Directions as Travel Itinerary

Matthew J. Moulton