Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Solution Concept Inventory For The High School Chemistry Classroom, Grace Tetschner

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Many high school chemistry students struggle to learn the chemistry of solutions because they hold alternate conceptions—beliefs that differ from scientifically accepted ideas—related to the topics covered in a traditional solution unit. For this reason, high school chemistry teachers would benefit from the development of a Solution Concept Inventory (SCI)—a multiple-choice assessment that could be used in the high school classroom to identify student alternate conceptions on the concept of solutions. In this study, common solution-related alternate conceptions were identified, items for an SCI were developed, an analysis was performed to determine the quality of the items, and validity evidence …

Engaging Every Student In American Government: A Vertical Learning Approach, Tatiana Schumacher

Graduate Research Showcase

This project is a research-based creative endeavor that aims to design an innovative high school course on American government. The course, titled “American Government: Thinking Classrooms,” has several unique and effective features. It promotes equity in the political science classroom by focusing on student assets, such as their cultural backgrounds, personal experiences, and interests. The course also incorporates social-emotional learning, helping students develop skills such as self-awareness, empathy, and collaboration. Culturally responsive teaching methods are utilized, connecting the content to the students’ lives, using diverse sources and perspectives, and fostering critical thinking. The course adopts Peter Liljedahl’s “building thinking classroom” …

Bridging The Divide: Improving Digital Humanities Pedagogy By Networking Higher Education And Secondary Education Faculty In St. Louis, Geremy Carnes, Margaret K. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

In 2021, faculty at Lindenwood University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) led the formation of a Saint Louis Digital Humanities (STL DH) Network of faculty and scholars at area universities, schools, and cultural institutions.1 The Lindenwood and SIUE campuses bookend the St. Louis metro area, a region whose strong geospatial presence offers fruitful opportunities for digital humanities (DH) education but which also suffers from long, deeply ingrained economic and racial segregation. While other regional DH networks exist, the STL DH Network is unique in taking undergraduate education and secondary education— and particularly equitable access to education—as its chief focus. …

The International Crisis In Numeracy Education, Nathan D. Grawe

Numeracy

The OECD recently released results from the 2022 administration of the Programme for International Student Assessment test. As other studies suggest, pandemic mitigation policies resulted in deep learning loss including in basic mathematics which forms the foundation of numeracy. Perhaps of greater concern, however, in many countries pandemic effects amplify declining performance that dates back a decade or more. Losses of two or more years' worth of mathematics education are not uncommon among developed countries. The editorial makes an urgent call for research that identifies practical steps to reverse these trends.

Soft Skills Don’T Have To Be Hard: Embedding Soft Skills Instruction In Moroccan Secondary Schools, Dc Lambert

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

In an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, the need for the development and mastery of soft skills has perhaps never been greater. Schools can play a key role in soft skills education, but implementation in the classroom has faced a range of challenges that have impeded instruction. One solution is embedding soft skills within an extant academic curriculum, with the advantages that the academic infrastructure is already in place, and few additional materials or time are needed. This field study found that embedding soft skills had excellent outcomes, even with limited resources, materials, and training, a notable first step in …

Coaching High School English Teachers In Guided Reading For Struggling Readers, Tiffany L. Gallagher, Arlene Grierson, Catherine Susin

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Although small-group guided reading is traditionally an elementary school instructional practice, this study details how high school English teachers perceived its implementation in high school classrooms. As part of a larger, multiyear research project, this 2-year study examined a dual-level coaching professional learning program that included two school district literacy coaches, eight provincial literacy facilitators, and 21 high school teachers. Teachers were coached in the implementation of guided reading and small-group instruction to support students in Grades 9–10 who were struggling with reading. Qualitative methods were used to gather data including observations of the professional learning meetings and teachers’ instruction; …

Use Of Vocabulary Strategies To Aid English Language Learners In A General Education Biology Classroom, Virginia Perry

All Dissertations

The demographics of the typical American classroom continue to present as a more diverse student population with the increase of English Language Learners (ELL) entering public schools. General education teachers on a secondary level are challenged with incorporating academic language instruction into content instruction for ELLs. Many of these teachers seek appropriate instructional strategies to teach ELLs academic language skills related to literacy to comprehend the specific content taught at the secondary level. A deeper understanding of language and skill acquisition within a secondary classroom can help guide future efforts in implementing effective literacy strategies to address ELLs’ academic language …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Graphic Organizers In An English Classroom, Alexandra Espinoza

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The use of graphic organizers has risen in classrooms over the past few decades. However, it is essential to assess whether they lead to improved student learning, as some trending instructional strategies are not well-backed by quality research. The purpose of this study was to analyze if graphic organizers are indeed effective to use in a high school English class. This study took place in a secondary school setting for a weeklong unit. For this project, students completed three graphic organizers throughout the unit in order to better understand selected topics relating to the unit’s nonfiction text including inferences, characterization, …

Through Her Eyes: Learning And Teaching About Racism Through "To Kill A Mockingbird" And "The Bluest Eye", Sloane Larsen

English Honors Theses

This thesis argues that Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird both merit a place in te United States’ secondary education systems by using use them in the classroom to encourage students to recognize and challenge their biases, perspectives, and choices. One of the many complex questions this thesis addresses is the efficacy of teaching students about racism using such novels. Teaching these novels through Critical Race Theory could help create a new generation of students who are more likely to address and challenge their biases and privilege. At the same time, this approach requires …

The Not-So-Silent Period: Testimonios Of Recently Arrived Latinx Students, Teri M. Hutchinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore and amplify the experiences of recently arrived Latinx¹ students as interpreted through their testimonios in educational borderlands. Through increasingly xenophobic discourses around immigrants and their children (Pérez Huber, 2015), U.S. public schools have become entrenched borderland spaces wherein the humanity of recently arrived students is voided through silencing them with labels of linguistic deficiency and cramming them into one-size-fits-all educational programming (Fine et al., 2007; Flores & Rosa, 2015). There is demand for research that explores the experiences of these children, especially in light of their continued marginalization through neoliberal programming …

The Impact Of Effective Motivation Strategies On Student Engagement In Secondary Physical Education Classrooms, Devin Wortman

Education Theses

Properly motivating students is not only the backbone of academic success but positive in-class experiences. When students are having more positive classroom experiences, they will ultimately be more motivated to engage and succeed. More and more students today are choosing not to take physical education in school. A lack of self-confidence and a general interest in the subject are two of the many factors associated with this problem. With the help of intrinsic motivation and self-determination theory, this thesis will seek to answer the question: What impact does effective motivation have on secondary students’ willingness to participate in physical education …

Ecologies Of Learning For Inclusive Pedagogy In Spanish Secondary Education, Inmaculada Orozco, Anabel Moriña

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

From the theoretical basis of the ecology of learning and inclusive pedagogy, this article explores the activities, resources and interactions practised by 25 Spanish teachers in compulsory secondary education. This qualitative study involved semi-structured and individual interviews. A progressive analysis of the data was carried out using an inductive system of categories and codes. The results show that the activities were varied and all of them put students at the centre of the teaching-learning process. The resources that stood out were technologies and peer support. Interactions were characterised by the need to nurture affection and get to know and motivate …

The Impact Of Non-Affirming Christian Secondary Schools On Students Who Identify As Lgbtqia+: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Alexis C. Schneider

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, nearly 100,000 LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) students attend non-affirming religious secondary schools yearly (Green et al., 2019; Institute of Education Sciences [IES] & National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2019a, 2019b). Because organized religion can have both beneficial and harmful outcomes on LGBTQIA+ youth (Wolff, 2016) and a secondary school environment has a significant impact on a student’s sense of academic success and well-being (Forber-Pratt et al., 2021), it is essential to understand and implement best practices that support LGBTQIA+ students in non-affirming religious secondary schools. Using phenomenological methods within a qualitative …

Faculty And Staff Perceptions Of Their Roles In Preparing Students For College And Career Readiness: A Qualitative Exploration Of High Schools, Community Colleges, And Universities, Monica Ruiz

Theses & Dissertations

In 2020, nearly half of Texas’s 385,000 public high school graduates were unprepared for college-level reading or math. Limited research reveals K-12 faculty perceive limited roles and responsibilities in the college process, relying heavily on guidance counselors and college admissions counselors for preparing students for college and careers. The purpose of this study was to help fill this gap by answering the central research question: How do high school and college-level faculty and staff prepare high school students for college and careers? I chose a qualitative, interpretive design to explore educators’ individual and shared social meanings and interpretations. I used …

A Spark Of Light In The Darkness: A Framework Of Habits And Routines That Grow Literacy Identities, Andy Schoenborn

Michigan Reading Journal

Using familiar and flexible classroom routines, authentic literacy habits, and encouragement, his students moved from "I hate reading and writing" to self-identifying as readers and writers in a matter of eighteen weeks.

Overcoming The Imposter Phenomenon: Exploring The Strategies Secondary Educators Used To Cope During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Barbra J.C. Bedwell

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this descriptive mixed-method study was to explore and describe the coping skills used by secondary teachers who identified as experiencing the impostor phenomenon (IP) by the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) (Clance, 1985) to overcome the nine behavioral characteristics of IP during the transition to distance learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology. This descriptive mixed-methods research design used both quantitative and qualitative techniques to identify teachers with IP and explore the coping techniques they used during distance learning. First, a quantitative 20-question diagnostic survey, the CIPS, was used to identify teachers with IP. …

All In Pix Ypar: A Youth Participatory Action Research Study Of Students With Significant Disabilities In High School, Jessica L. Jennings

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Education facilitates community involvement, participation, and acceptance, but not for students with significant disabilities who are taught in separate settings. The policy of separate education derives from arcane beliefs, limited research, and misconceptions that result in people with disabilities having choices made for them not with them. The All IN Pix YPAR asked six high school students with significant disabilities to photo document a week in their high school yearbook class. Each day after school, the students discussed a single photo using a modified photovoice method in structured interviews using the SHOWeD questioning protocol. After data capture, during a Zoom …

Measuring Students' Pro-Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors Before And After Demonstration-Based Instruction, Collin Ryan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A growing amount of research exists on environmental education programs which incorporates the viewpoints of students into its assessment of the program’s efficacy. This research seeks to add to that body and evaluate an environmental education program about the sustainability of plastics, using both quantitative and qualitative data collected from participating students. The data was collected after a 90-minute instructional block of demonstration-based environmental education meant to inform students on the variability of plastics’ properties and the sorting and remolding processes of recycling. It also aimed to help build pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in the students, and a sense of …

Can We Make Our Robot Play Soccer? Influence Of Collaborating With Preservice Teachers And Fifth Graders On Undergraduate Engineering Students' Learning During A Robotic Design Process (Work In Progress), Krishnanand Kaipa, Jennifer Kidd, Julia Noginova, Francisco Cima, Stacie Ringleb, Orlando Ayala, Pilar Pazos, Kristie Gutierrez, Min Jung Lee

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This work-in-progress paper describes engineering students’ experiences in an NSF-funded project that partnered undergraduate engineering students with pre-service teachers to plan and deliver robotics lessons to fifth graders at a local school. This project aims to address an apparent gap between what is taught in academia and industry’s expectations of engineers to integrate perspectives from outside their field to solve modern societal problems requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Working in small teams over Zoom, participating engineering, education, and fifth grade students designed, built, and coded bio-inspired COVID companion robots. The goal for the engineering students was to build new interprofessional skills, …

Implementing Food Science-Based Instruction In Career Technical Education Courses, Jasmine D. Hendrix

Theses and Dissertations

Students are exposed to food concepts in agriculture-based career technical education (CTE) courses which provide a gateway for students to become more aware of food science career pathways. Professional development for Mississippi (MS) CTE teachers is needed to effectively implement food science-based instruction since there is not a food science curriculum framework adopted in MS. The objective of this study was to assess a food science professional development training for MS CTE teachers that would increase their self-perceived knowledge of food science, self-perceived ability to conduct food science skills, and their self-efficacy to implement food science-based instruction. Thirty-one teachers participated …

Teachers And Digital Literacies: Mixed-Methods Investigation Into 1:1 Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments, Angela S. Wagner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Despite the bustling technological landscape in which we live and learn, technology is still limited in its integration within classrooms. The current drive in education to promote 21st-century skills and digital literacies appears to remain relatively idle for a variety of reasons. This mixed-methods study examines the impact 1:1 technology has on digital literacies and the barriers faced by teachers with its incorporation into secondary classrooms. It explores the extent to which instructors within 1:1 environments perceive their technology integration and investigates how this indirectly impacts the acquisition of digital literacies within the classroom. By gaining more insight into how …

The Intersection Of Writing Process Pedagogy And Prolepsis: A Phenomenological Case Study Of Secondary Writing Instruction, Jennifer O. Peñaflorida

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the lived experiences and essences of secondary high school students and participating teachers in a three-week summer journalism camp sponsored by the National Writing Project and funded by the MacArthur T. Foundation. This study employs Moustakas' (1994) modification of the van Kaam method for phenomenological data analysis in order to reveal the intersection of writing process pedagogy and prolepsis, a writing framework I developed. Data sources included pre-and-post writing samples, semi-structured interviews, field notes and student writing artifacts which were collected between May 27, 2019 and June 14, 2019. Data were analyzed …

Simplified But Not The Same: Tracing Numeracy Events Through Manually Simplified Newsela Articles, Ellen C. Agnello

Numeracy

New York-based education startup Newsela has quickly gained popularity with K-12 educators in the six years since its launch. Its website boasts that it serves 90% of schools in the United States including the 1.5 million teachers they employ and their 20 million students. But what makes it so popular? Teachers are drawn to its Common Core-aligned informational texts which facilitate content-area connections while exposing students to important current events. Likely the most appealing aspect of the platform is its compatibility with differentiation, as it makes available five iterations of each article at varying levels of complexity or Lexile which …

Exploring Actions Toward Supporting English Language Learners In A Rural Remote Secondary Setting, Annamarie Valdez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ESL students make a small population in rural, remote secondary schools. One ESL student can have a profound impact on the academic measures taken on state accountability tests. The gap between an ESL student’s achievement and that of native English-speaking peers is disproportionate. The actions of principals and campus leaders directly impact the teacher’s ability to support English language learners’ (ELL) ESL needs. A problem exists on what principals and campus leaders can do to help ESL students’ needs in a rural, remote secondary setting. The purpose of this exploratory single case study was to identify the actions campus leaders …

An Examination Of Irish Post-Primary Educators’ Attitudes Regarding The Promotion Of Student’S Social And Emotional Wellbeing, David Byrne

Other Resources

Background: In the Republic of Ireland, ‘wellbeing’ was first recognised in 2015 as a formal area of learning for all Junior Cycle students and this led, in turn, to the consolidation of the wellbeing curriculum and the introduction in 2017 of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) wellbeing guidelines. While much research now demonstrates how social and emotional learning and health and wellbeing initiatives and interventions can benefit students, relatively little is known in terms of the attitudes and opinions of Irish post-primary educators in this regard. Objective: The overarching objective of this study was to contribute to …

Conversations With Australian Teachers And School Leaders About Using Differentiated Instruction In A Mainstream Secondary School, Kathryn Gibbs, Wendi Beamish

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Circumstances in today’s schools are requiring a rethinking of pedagogical approaches so that equitable learning opportunities are provided to all students. This small-scale, qualitative Australian study reports how some teachers and school leaders viewed differentiated instruction (DI) being applied in their secondary campus to address diverse abilities and needs. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted using Zoom. The analysis of data identified three themes related to DI: understandings, practices, and concerns. Findings showed that all participants understood many of the important elements of DI. Teachers reported using several well-known DI strategies, with experienced teachers applying a more considered approach. Teachers raised …

The Impacts Of An Entrepreneurial Course On Secondary Students' Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy And Entrepreneurial Intentions, Toi E. Hershman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

There is considerable agreement that promoting entrepreneurship stimulates economic development and job creation, which helps maintain a country’s economic competitiveness. Entrepreneurship education is a key to increasing the likelihood of potential entrepreneurs. While substantial research has documented strategies for enhancing students' entrepreneurial mindset and building entrepreneurial skills in higher education, entrepreneurship is rarely incorporated into or studied in secondary education. This mixed-method study examined the impact of an online ten-lesson entrepreneurship course on secondary students' entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions. Students took a pre-survey that measured their entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intentions before the course and a post-survey upon completing the …

How Alumnae Of A Feminist Organization During Middle-High School Perceive Their Involvement As Related To Their Academic Self-Concept, Miranda R. Snyder

Honors College

Research has found that youth involvement in activism can benefit sense of self and belief in one’s abilities to make positive change for those involved through unique communication with people who are passionate about the same issue, a sense of personal empowerment, and a deepened sociopolitical consciousness to understand the complexities of social-justice issues.

This qualitative study provided greater understanding of how youth perceive their involvement in a feminist organization related to their academic self-concept in middle- high school. Six alumnae of the Girls Advisory Board (G.A.B.) of Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a Maine-based nonprofit that focuses on the empowerment …

Discussing Race, Policing, And Privilege In A High School Classroom, Arianna Banack

Occasional Paper Series

This article describes a unit implemented in a ninth-grade English classroom using the young adult novel, All American Boys (Reynolds & Keily, 2015) to explore issues of police brutality, privilege, and racism. Pedagogical activities are offered alongside a critical reflection of the unit as the author explores difficult moments while teaching. Implications for English educators and currently practicing ELA teachers are provided with suggestions on how to revise the unit to center on exploring the systematic oppression of people of color.

Supporting Students To Read Complex Texts On Civic Issues: The Role Of Scaffolded Reading Instruction In Democratic Education, Shira Eve Epstein

Democracy and Education

This paper discusses the role of scaffolded reading instruction in democratic education. Focusing on a case study of a high school civic unit on the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, it argues the importance of such reading instruction. Students noted the challenges they experienced when reading complex texts on the topic. Yet, scaffolded reading activities that helped students interpret and respond to the texts yielded student engagement with disciplinary material and were praised by the students. This paper illustrates the use of such supports and discusses the ramifications of their absence.