ABSTRACT

Mirroring the roundtable discussions conducted at the 2020 Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) conference, this volume highlights the dialogic knowledge-building process critical to advancing middle level teaching and research.

Launching the new AMLE Innovations in Middle Level Education Research series, this collection captures the synergetic dialogue that occurs during professional meetings by collating and centering five recent studies on topics such as mathematics achievement, personalized and project-based learning, and teacher collaboration. A companion essay and critical external response accompanies each study, serving to re-situate original research and reconsider findings in view of professional insights and external critique gained through discussion at AMLE 2020. Ultimately, these response essays foreground potential avenues for future research and alternative thinking, laying the groundwork for implementation of critical discussion in the classroom environment.

This text will benefit researchers, doctoral students, and academics in the fields of middle level education, educational research, and specifically research methods in education. Those interested in teaching and learning, and adolescent development more broadly, will also benefit from this volume.

part I|43 pages

Factors Affecting Middle Grades Mathematics Achievement

chapter Chapter 2|12 pages

Middle Level Mathematics Achievement from Teacher and Student Perspectives

Reflections and New Directions in Middle Level Mathematics Research

chapter Chapter 3|18 pages

Student Readiness to Learn and Teacher Effectiveness

Two Key Factors in Middle Grades Mathematics Achievement

chapter Chapter 4|11 pages

Teaching Mathematics in the Middle Grades

Connecting Seminal Education Philosophies to Current Best Practices

part II|88 pages

Perspectives on Personalized Learning

part III|44 pages

Understanding Teacher Collaboration in Diverse Classrooms

chapter Chapter 9|11 pages

"All the Way Better"

Teacher Collaboration and ESL Students' Participation

chapter Chapter 10|21 pages

"You're Not an Island"

A Middle Grades Language Arts Teacher's Changed Perceptions in ESL and Content Teachers' Collaboration

chapter Chapter 11|10 pages

Insights from a Case Study on Teacher Collaboration

Response to Giles and Yazan

part IV|47 pages

Exploring Social and Emotional Learning in the Middle Grades

part |9 pages

Conclusion