Digital pedagogy, or the strategic incorporation of contemporary digital technologies in education, has been used to enhance teaching, assessment, and curriculum (Kivunja, 2013) in public education in the United States since the 1990s (Barbour et al., 2011). However, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has witnessed a dramatic uptake in fulltime virtual and blended learning opportunities for K–12 learners. As virtual resources, technological tools, and online instruction have adapted to meet the demands of today’s population of middle-level virtual learners, we must provide middle-level teachers, administrators, and educational leaders with current research regarding effective pedagogy and strategies for implementation to address the unique needs of young adolescents.
As a former middle school educator who has taught adolescent learners within a traditional brick-and-mortar, as well as in a fully virtual public school context, I (Brooke) have had the opportunity to integrate technology and online pedagogy within my daily planning and instruction. Now, as an associate professor of middle school education and substitute middle school teacher, I continue to witness the way in which teachers and learners engage with artificial intelligence [AI], technology, and assorted aspects of virtual instruction daily.
I (Nicole) have also extensively explored the role of and used technology in teaching and learning as a former middle grades teacher, technology coordinator, and teacher educator both in face-to-face and online learning contexts. Technology has played a vital role in my teaching and learning and with the advent of COVID-19 and the boom of AI resources, technology integration with a focus on the needs of middle grades educators and learners has come even more to the forefront.
While teacher and learner access to a myriad of applications, technological tools, and variations of online teaching and learning continues to expand, there remains a significantly limited scope of research that pertains specifically to the realities and needs of young adolescent learners within this context. According to the Association for Middle Level Education’s The Successful Middle School: This We Believe (Bishop & Harrison, 2021), successful middle schools must be responsive, challenging, empowering, equitable, and engaging (p. 8). Specifically, middle level digital and virtual pedagogy should respond to the distinctive identities of middle grade learners, and an effective infusion of technology and online resources should engage and empower students. Therefore, we called for this special issue to highlight research that speaks specifically to the middle level demographic. We invited researchers to share their current work as it relates to technology and virtual pedagogy for the middle grades classroom. In this issue, we are pleased to offer two articles and a professional book review that promises to advance our understanding of utilizing virtual programming to encourage learner motivation in middle-level education, the inclusion of third spaces within the virtual context, and effective approaches to the evaluation of online information.
Opening this special issue, Sorochka and Zambak focus on the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for learning mathematics within the virtual context, as they present their research on a 12-week-long Voluntary Independent Virtual Mathematics Program [VIVMP] involving the use of asynchronous screencasts as an instructional modality to supplement instruction. The VIVMP intervention was designed to enhance middle-level learners’ mathematical knowledge, while simultaneously providing the researchers with insight into student motivation in learning online. Using student surveys, program practice assignments, and interviews of their experience with the program and motivation for learning mathematics, the authors conclude that the VIVMP intervention moderately aided students in their mathematical knowledge and enhanced extrinsic motivation for most participants to learn mathematics. They call for additional research into the role of diverse approaches to virtual learning on students intrinsic motivation to learn mathematics.
In the next piece by Ranschaert et al., “Creating Virtual Third Spaces that Foster Students’ Well-Being”, the authors share their research on how teachers created virtual third spaces to support middle grades students’ social and emotional well-being and their perceptions of the impact of these spaces on middle grades students during the COVID-19 pandemic. These virtual spaces are those that “extend learning opportunities beyond school hours and offer a safe and supportive environment for students to express themselves, explore their interests, and build meaningful connections with teachers and peers from diverse backgrounds” (Ranschert et al., 2024, p. 30). The authors used focus group interviews to discuss these third spaces with middle-grade teachers in one Title I middle school. The researchers call for an additional examination of how virtual third spaces can be created to support online middle grades students’ overall well-being.
Finally, Susan Patterson closes this issue with her review of Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions About What to Believe Online (Caufield & Wineburg, 2023). Patterson shares an overview of the text along with its application for middle level educators. Verified focuses on three methods to support critical thinking and media literacy: using the SIFT method, lateral reading, and using Wikipedia for validation. She highly recommends this text for middle level educators given its alignment with many of the calls from The Successful Middle School: This We Believe (Bishop & Harrison, 2021).
As we consider new directions for middle grades research in digital pedagogy, we encourage researchers to continue examining the role of virtual instruction, online pedagogy, and the inclusion of online resources within the traditional classroom in meeting the unique needs of young adolescent learners. It would be beneficial for researchers to examine the online pedagogies section of the 2024 research agenda of the Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group (MLER) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to help guide additional research (Coleman et al., in press). Specifically, researchers could examine how we can assist teachers and learners in effectively integrating artificial intelligence, ever-changing technology, and diverse approaches to fully online and blended instruction within the middle-level classroom. How might we best prepare educators to meet the developmental needs of adolescents within the virtual context? How might we prepare teachers to reflect and adapt their pedagogy to meet the growing demands of technological integration and connective online pedagogy? We hope researchers, educators, and leaders in middle-grades education will continue to push the envelope in developing this research agenda for the benefit of young adolescents and teachers.
