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Social and Behavioral Sciences

2023

Schools

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Education

Texas School Social Workers: Demographics, Work Characteristics, Job Satisfaction, And Work Barriers And Facilitators, Astrid Gandaria Dec 2023

Texas School Social Workers: Demographics, Work Characteristics, Job Satisfaction, And Work Barriers And Facilitators, Astrid Gandaria

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the demographics, and job, services, responsibilities, barriers, facilitators, and satisfaction of Texas school social workers. A survey was emailed to Texas school social workers identified on a state list. A convergent parallel mixed method design was used to compare and discuss quantitative and qualitative data obtained. The data reveal consistency with existing school social work literature related to demographics and provided novel information on work characteristics, job satisfaction, work barriers and facilitators, and program preparation of school social workers. The data shows school social workers are highly involved …

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Places For Young People To Influence Decision-Making: Developing Means For Democracy Education In Finland, Anna Suorsa Oct 2023

Places For Young People To Influence Decision-Making: Developing Means For Democracy Education In Finland, Anna Suorsa

Democracy and Education

This study examines young people's (ages 13–18) perceptions of their own opportunities to influence the development of their own environment through an experiment aimed at developing civic democracy in Finland in 2020–2021. The purpose of the experiment was to try out new ways of participating and influencing meaningfully for young people at school, to encourage young people to bring up grievances, and to support them in finding solutions that end up in decision-making. The experiment involved young people from different educational institutions (secondary school, upper secondary school, and vocational schools), teachers, and local decision-makers. Data was gathered with ethnographic methods …

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Establishing A Transformative Social Emotional Learning Evaluation Plan To Support All Students Within A Targeted School District, Tia Coleman, Angela Blackwell, Tiffany Lee Oct 2023

Establishing A Transformative Social Emotional Learning Evaluation Plan To Support All Students Within A Targeted School District, Tia Coleman, Angela Blackwell, Tiffany Lee

Fall 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Social and emotional learning (SEL) refers to the process through which individuals acquire social and emotional competencies (Geesa et al., 2022). This capstone project aimed to enhance education by developing a transformative SEL evaluation plan in a school district. The school district presented a commitment to fostering SEL but recognized the need for more targeted and transformative actions. This initiative arises from the acknowledgment that the existing SEL program did not meet the district's specific needs of inclusivity and equity, potentially impacting overall student performance, participation, and well-being. To address this gap, the district incorporated insights from occupational therapy practice …

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Conversations About Race Between Educators And K-12 Students, Elana Wolkoff, Ronda Goodale Sep 2023

Conversations About Race Between Educators And K-12 Students, Elana Wolkoff, Ronda Goodale

Race and Pedagogy Journal: Teaching and Learning for Justice

Conversations about race between teachers and K-12 students have been found to improve racial attitudes for students of all races and to serve as a protective factor for students of color. This study examines perspectives of educators and youth in regard to these conversations, obstacles that impede them and factors that increase positive outcomes. Eighty-nine educators and 130 youth completed questionnaires that included multiple choice and open response questions. Samples were diverse in regard to race and geographic region within the US. Using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, researchers found that these conversations generally have positive outcomes and often strengthen …

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Dimensions Of Hope And The School Environment: Results From A School-Wide Needs Assessment At An Urban High School, James P. Canfield, Wendy L. Wilson, Lauren Shute, Amy N. King, Kennesha J. Smith, Dana Harley Jul 2023

Dimensions Of Hope And The School Environment: Results From A School-Wide Needs Assessment At An Urban High School, James P. Canfield, Wendy L. Wilson, Lauren Shute, Amy N. King, Kennesha J. Smith, Dana Harley

International Journal of School Social Work

Objectives: Various aspects of hope can play a major role in how students from urban locales perceive their school environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between various dimensions of hope and the school environment as perceived by adolescents at an urban high school. Methods: Data from a school-wide needs assessment measuring urban adolescents’ perceived hope and perceptions of the school environment were analyzed. Results: The analysis from regression models indicate that the dimensions of hope variables can be predicted by perceptions of the school environment. Conclusion: Overall, the urban adolescent hope …

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Creating And Maintaining High-Quality Educational Spaces For Black Children: Challenges And Strategies, Darius B. Mensah Jul 2023

Creating And Maintaining High-Quality Educational Spaces For Black Children: Challenges And Strategies, Darius B. Mensah

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Public education in the United States offers disparate outcomes that negatively impact Black children. Leaders who go against the norms and create spaces where Black children thrive face professional and personal challenges. Yet educators still do this work, employing strategies to protect their work and themselves. This study explores how educational leaders describe their experiences in creating and sustaining high-quality educational environments for Black students through the lens of Critical Race Theory. Nine participants, including the author, describe their backgrounds, their entry into the field of education, their professional and personal challenges, and the strategies they have used to persist …

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Supporting And Sustaining Equitable Steam Activities In High School Classrooms: Understanding Computer Science Teachers’ Needs And Practices When Implementing An E-Textiles Curriculum To Forge Connections Across Communities, Deborah A. Fields, Yasmin B. Kafai May 2023

Supporting And Sustaining Equitable Steam Activities In High School Classrooms: Understanding Computer Science Teachers’ Needs And Practices When Implementing An E-Textiles Curriculum To Forge Connections Across Communities, Deborah A. Fields, Yasmin B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

While the last two decades have seen an increased interest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) in K-12 schools, few efforts have focused on the teachers and teaching practices necessary to support these interventions. Even fewer have considered the important work that teachers carry out not just inside classrooms but beyond the classroom walls to sustain such STEAM implementation efforts, from interacting with administrators to recruiting students and persuading parents about the importance of arts and computer science. In order to understand teachers’ needs and practices regarding STEAM implementation, in this paper, we focus on eight experienced computer …

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Calm Sr: Classroom Activities For Learning And Managing Self-Regulation, Corina Arroyo, Angela Labrie Blackwell, Mallorie Garcia Apr 2023

Calm Sr: Classroom Activities For Learning And Managing Self-Regulation, Corina Arroyo, Angela Labrie Blackwell, Mallorie Garcia

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

CALM SR is a program developed for 3-4-year-olds to increase successful participation in desired occupations due to improved self-regulation skills. This program is designed for implementation in a preschool setting over the course of 9 weeks. This program incorporates activities that target sill acquisition across multiple domains. Activities are supplemented by literature, visual displays, modeling, and facilitation of the self-regulation process.

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Music As An Instructional Modality To Increase Attending Behavior Of Elementary Students, Zachary Grossman Mar 2023

Music As An Instructional Modality To Increase Attending Behavior Of Elementary Students, Zachary Grossman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Audio and audiovisual cues, when used as teaching tools, result in desirable learning outcomes for young learners when compared to visual cues alone (Havy et al., 2017; Kirkham et al., 2019; Sloutsky & Napolitano, 2003). Previous research has demonstrated that music can be an effective delivery method for teaching math in the elementary classrooms (An & Tillman, 2015; An et al., 2014; Azaryahu et al., 2020). However, the effectiveness of music at increasing attending behavior specifically has not been assessed in these studies. This study evaluated the effectiveness of music based instruction on students’ attending behaviors compared to non-music based …

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Texas School Social Workers: Who And Where Are They?, George Padilla, Velma D. Menchaca, Astrid Gandaria Mar 2023

Texas School Social Workers: Who And Where Are They?, George Padilla, Velma D. Menchaca, Astrid Gandaria

Organization and School Leadership Faculty Publications and Presentations

School social workers have a long history in American education and much research is needed to better understand their role and impact in schools. Texas schools employ one of the highest numbers of school social workers in the country, but there is also little to no research related to their demographics, working conditions, or effectiveness. Only one recent study on Texas school social workers was found in the research literature. This report analyzes Texas state reports, available to the public on the internet or by specific request from the Texas Education Agency, to develop a descriptive and exploratory overview of …

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Teacher Perspectives Regarding Low Teacher Retention In Rural Primary Schools In Tanzania, Tumaini Urio Morgan Jan 2023

Teacher Perspectives Regarding Low Teacher Retention In Rural Primary Schools In Tanzania, Tumaini Urio Morgan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Tanzania, similar to other nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been experiencing a severe teacher shortage. The problem that was addressed is that factors influencing rural primary school teachers’ decision to continue teaching in Northeast Tanzania are unknown. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions on teaching in rural primary schools in Northeast Tanzania and the reasons why they remain. This study was guided by self-efficacy theory, a subset of Bandura's social cognitive theory. This descriptive qualitative study explored how rural primary school teachers in northeast Tanzania describe the challenges that cause them to consider abandoning …

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A Global Perspective On Mindfulness-Based Interventions In Schools, Rebecca H. Laff Jan 2023

A Global Perspective On Mindfulness-Based Interventions In Schools, Rebecca H. Laff

Theses and Dissertations

The practice of mindfulness, which originated in ancient Buddhist philosophy, has gained popularity in secular society through the work of Western researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn. Kabat-Zinn's focus on using mindfulness to help chronically ill patients cope with stress soon expanded into non-clinical areas, including education. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) adapted from Kabat-Zinn’s work, have been utilized in schools since 2005, but there has been a lack of systematic research on the effectiveness of MBIs in classroom settings globally. To address this gap, this critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) study conducted a comprehensive literature review of quantitative and qualitative studies from around the world …

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