Dialogues in Middle Level Education Research Volume 1

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.

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. Gar-eld 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