Education Commons^™

Efficacy Meets Inquiry: Impact Of Lesson Study And Reflective Inquiry On The Development Of Novice Teacher Self-Efficacy, Taylor B. Hering

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Novice teachers often struggle to meet the demands of an expansive workload in their first years in the classroom. As reality sets in, district, school, parent, and communal needs often diminish the excitement of their first classroom, thus leading to low rates of teacher efficacy and early-career burnout. This is an educational dilemma because teacher vacancies are rising in schools such as Mockingbird High, a southeastern school with high poverty rates and varying racial demographics. This study aimed to determine if Lewis and Hurd’s (2011) lesson study model, an instructional intervention, influences novice teacher efficacy during the transitional period from …

The Use Of The South Carolina School Improvement Model - Quick Cycles In Sixth-Grade Science Classrooms, Jennifer Gnann

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Using data to make informed decisions about instruction strengthens a teacher’s delivery of content within the classroom. However, many teachers have not been taught how to properly use a model of rapid improvement cycles to analyze data and apply it to their classroom instruction. I modified the South Carolina School Improvement Model so that it could be used in short cycles to see how teachers used it to plan for, monitor, and adjust instruction in their classrooms.

I conducted a single case study over a six-week period in which I instructed two sixth-grade science teachers on how to use the …

Annotations Of Awareness: A Framework For Externalizing Thinking To Promote Metacognitive Discourse In High School English And Social Studies Classrooms, Todd Howard

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Teachers find it challenging to integrate metacognition into the classroom to promote critical thinking, but such rigorous instruction is one way to improve access to quality education for all students, no matter their access to outside-of-school resources. To help teachers find more comfort and confidence in designing for increased critical thinking and metacognitive discourse and to help close the theory-practice gap in metacognition research, I conducted a mixed-methods case study focusing on assessment-design interventions. Using the Metacognitive Framework for Assessment Design and Annotations of Awareness, both designed in response to my literature review, my 90-day action research included three Plan-Do-Study-Act …

Interventions To Increase Prospective Teacher Candidates' Praxis Ii Content Exam Scores, Takara Hart

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Teacher shortages are a pervasive issue in South Carolina’s public schools. Some prospective teacher candidates have shown obstacles in meeting the minimum required Praxis II Content exam score. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and develop specific Praxis II Content exam interventions to improve scores for six prospective teacher candidates in South Carolina. All participants were trying to meet the licensure exam requirement for various alternative certification programs. Malcolm Knowles’ Andragogy Adult Learning Theory guided the study as a theoretical framework, and Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Constructivism provided the conceptual frame. Descriptive coding and analysis, using Dedoose …

Exploring The Associations Preservice Social Studies Teachers Make Between Discussion As A Pedagogical Approach And Democratic Education: A Multi-Case Study, Rory Tannebaum

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Educational scholars and political theorists credit the use of discussion in the K-12 classroom as a way to provide students with a democratic education through its ability to incorporate various perspectives, inform students of current events and issues, and teach students to think critically about a range of topics. Despite this, however, an extensive body of research details the lack of discussion occurring in K-12 classrooms in the United States. This study seeks to examine this issue by exploring the associations preservice social studies teachers make between the underlying principles of democratic education and the use of discussion in the …

Avoiding Engagement With 'Invisibles:' Religious Issues And The Field Of English Education, Robert Bruce

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This study used content analysis of selected documents representing the three dimensions of the field of English Education (curriculum, teacher preparation and development, and research) to ascertain how the field was responding to the larger societal problem that religious intolerance and ignorance pose, especially given the growing religious diversity of American society. Data from the documents were classified into four categories derived from various proposals for the incorporation of religious issues into the public school curriculum: religious literacy, religious concerns related to personal development, religious aspects of multiculturalism, and religious issues related to improved civic engagement.
The documents related to …

Teacher Practices And High School Chemistry Students' Metacognitive Skillfulness, Joni Jordan

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The research literature has been dominated with information about teacher practices that promise to help chemistry students improve their problem-solving abilities and maneuver the conceptual complexities inherent in learning chemistry. Drawing on this research, this study proposes that teaching for metacognition may equip students to learn science authentically and more responsibly. Research related to teaching for metacognition has provided some evidence that strategic questioning, specific feedback, and engaging activities help students become more metacognitive. Furthermore, research has shown that enhanced student metacognition improves problem-solving skills, enhances conceptual change, and may even compensate for lower cognitive abilities.
This study was inspired …

The Impact Of A Ninth- And Tenth-Grade Academy Program On Student Attendance, Discipline, And Achievement, Sandra Wooten

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ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an Academy Program on freshman and sophomore attendance, suspensions out of school, PLAN and PSAT scores, and the number of students retained in ninth and tenth grades. With the Academy Program at Gaffney High School, the amount of time spent in mathematics and English language arts classes was doubled, staff development was provided, instructional methods were changed, data was analyzed to modify instruction, and successes were celebrated. School data from two years before and two years after implementation were examined to determine whether any significant differences existed. Results …