Education Commons^™

Affinity-Seeking: Student Desirability And Motivation In The Classroom, Taylor D. Corlee

MSU Graduate Theses

Affinity-seeking research once provided teachers with effective strategies to create an overall better classroom environment. Over the last twenty years there has been no continuation of this research and the effectiveness of these strategies seemed to be agreed upon. The purpose of this study is to bring affinity-seeking research back into the modern era and see how motivation is affected for both in-person and online classes. This study is a contribution that adds to these strategies for effectiveness in both in-person and online classrooms.

Welcoming The Stranger: Essays On Teaching And Learning In A Diverse Society

Occasional Paper Series

This issue of "Occasional Papers" is filled with stories by and about "strangers"--people of all ages who perceive themselves or have been perceived by others as outsiders either because of who they are, where they have come from, or even how recently they have arrived in this country. Successful educators know that the ability to welcome the stranger into the classroom, indeed an entire group of strangers each September, is essential to building a productive, caring community of learners. They know, too, that, from the point of view of students new to the school or society, the culture of the …

University Campus Climate Survey: Report On Campus Administrator Responses, Diversity Action Council And Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

After PSU’s Diversity Action Council identified the need for a campus-wide climate survey in the spring of 2016, PSU’s office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) convened a meeting with faculty, staff and students to discuss the criteria for the survey and determine a vendor to administer the survey. GDI contracted Campus Climate Survey, LLC, to administer the Viewfinder® online survey. Viewfinder® is a campus climate survey instrument that measures the extent to which diversity and inclusion play an integral role within the infrastructure of our college campus.

After providing a copy of the survey and an administrative plan to …

University Campus Climate Survey: Report On Campus Staff Responses, Diversity Action Council And Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

After PSU’s Diversity Action Council identified the need for a campus-wide climate survey in the spring of 2016, PSU’s office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) convened a meeting with faculty, staff, and students to discuss the criteria for the survey and determine a vendor to administer the survey. GDI contracted Campus Climate Survey, LLC to administer the Viewfinder® online survey. Viewfinder® is a campus climate survey instrument that measures the extent to which diversity and inclusion play an integral role within the infrastructure of our college campus.

After providing a copy of the survey and an administrative plan to …

University Campus Climate Survey: Report On Campus Faculty Responses, Diversity Action Council And Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

After PSU’s Diversity Action Council identified the need for a campus-wide climate survey in the spring of 2016. PSU’s office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) convened a meeting with faculty, staff, and students to discuss the criteria for the survey and determine a vendor to administer the survey. GDI contracted Campus Climate Survey, LLC, to administer the Viewfinder® online survey. Viewfinder® is a campus climate survey instrument that measures the extent to which diversity and inclusion play an integral role within the infrastructure of our college campus.

After providing a copy of the survey and an administrative plan to …

University Campus Climate Survey: Report On Student Responses, Diversity Action Council And Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

After PSU’s Diversity Action Council identified the need for a campus-wide climate survey in the spring of 2016, PSU’s office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) convened a meeting with faculty, staff and students to discuss the criteria for the survey and determine a vendor to administer the survey. GDI contracted Campus Climate Survey, LLC, to administer the Viewfinder® online survey. Viewfinder® is a campus climate survey instrument that measures the extent to which diversity and inclusion play an integral role within the infrastructure of our college campus.

After providing a copy of the survey and an administrative plan to …

Pathways To Kindergarten Growth: Synthesizing Theories Of The Kindergarten Transition To Support Children's Development, Rita Yelverton

Dissertations and Theses

The transition into Kindergarten is a critical time for children's development--children's patterns of academic development and engagement with school often start in Kindergarten and persist throughout their academic careers. This is a developmental period that is marked by many changes in children's lives, and therefore it is not a surprise that many children struggle during this transition. These struggles are more common for children who are living in poverty, and although there have been national initiatives to address opportunity gaps in access to early education, investigations into the effectiveness of these programs in promoting children's Kindergarten development have shown mixed …

Aspiration, Attainment, And Assimilation : A Critical Ethnography Of Newcomer Youth In An American High School, Aaron Leo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As immigrants and refugees constitute an increasingly large proportion of public school students across the United States, much scholarly attention has focused on the variables which promote and hamper academic success of these students. Specifically, the high aspirations and optimistic attitudes towards schooling and the effects of assimilation pressures have been identified as two important features contributing to the academic performance of newcomers.

Gracefully Unexpected, Deeply Present And Positively Disruptive: Love And Queerness In Classroom Community., Benjamin Lee Hicks

Occasional Paper Series

During the winter of 2011, I was moving through some of the more overtly physical phases of gender transition. At the time, I was also a grade 6 teacher in a public elementary school. My presence as a visibly transitioning person in that environment was never intended to be a coming out; it was a choosing in… and there is a difference. I was “out” because I was visibly different, and I was visible because that difference was not expected. I - as a teacher of young children who identifies as a non-binary person, as genderqueer, as trans, and …

Predicting Positive Education Outcomes For Emerging Adults In Mental Health Systems Of Care, Eileen M. Brennan, Peggy Nygren, Robert L. Stephens, Adrienne Croskey

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Emerging adults who receive services based on positive youth development models have shown an ability to shape their own life course to achieve positive goals. This paper reports secondary data analysis from the Longitudinal Child and Family Outcome Study including 248 culturally-diverse youth ages 17 through 22 receiving mental health services in systems of care. After 12 months of services, school performance was positively related to youth ratings of school functioning, and service participation and satisfaction. Regression analysis revealed ratings of young peoples’ perceptions of school functioning and their experience in services added to the significant prediction of satisfactory school …

Progressive Education: Mindfulness In The Third Grade, Edna Moy-Rome

Progressive Education in Context

Over the course of the 2013-2014 school year, the author had the opportunity to introduce and explore mindfulness in a third grade classroom.

Being Different, Teaching Difference : Challenges And Possibilities For Non-Heterosexual Men In Elementary School Teaching, Jonathan Farmer

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This inquiry brought together the experiences of six male teachers working in NYC schools who identify as either gay, queer, or bisexual. The purpose of this study was to obtain rich qualitative data to create a portrait of these teachers, each with unique backgrounds and opinions about the challenges or responsibilities of working with young children.

Developing Resilience In The Elementary School Classroom, Ellen Ferrin

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Explores the ways in which elementary school teachers can help their students develop the skills associated with resilience. For this study, an extensive literature review was conducted and surveys were completed by twelve elementary school teachers in Washington, Oregon, California, and New York.

Supporting The Development Of Executive Functioning Skills In Sixth Grade Students, Anne Davidson Anderson

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This integrative master's project explores how teachers can support the development of executive functioning skills in sixth grade students at the particular school where the author is a learning specialist (though many of the findings and recommendations can be generalized to other settings).

Creating A Classroom Environment That Nurtures Motivation In High School Students, Karen Ann Wirth

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to provide high school teachers with training to increase their understanding of how research-based information can help them create classroom environments that nurture motivation in adolescents. Participating teachers completed a pre-test questionnaire to assess goal orientation, teacher efficacy, theory of intelligence, perceptions of the importance of knowledge regarding adolescent development, and autonomy-supportive attitudes and behaviors. Participants included 10 high school teachers from a suburban high school in Southern California.

The Classroom Environment: The Silent Curriculum, Brittany Allen, Katie Hessick

Psychology and Child Development

This senior project focused on the physical environment of elementary school classrooms, with a particular emphasis on how environmental factors influence behavior and academic achievement. Such environmental factors included lighting, color, acoustics, temperature, seating arrangements, space and crowding, and living kinds such as plants and animals. Previous research has demonstrated a connection between student behavior and the classroom environment. Taylor and Vlastos (2009) developed a theory regarding the relationship between environment and design within the classroom. They referred to the physical environment of the classroom as the “silent curriculum” and hold strongly to the belief that understanding the physical environment …

International Study Program For Indoor Environmental Research, Stoil Pamoukov

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the effect on student performance, perception and mood caused by different physical classroom environmental conditions. Three classroom physical environmental conditions were investigated; room temperature, light intensity and sound level. A two phase pilot study was performed where these conditions were compounded into one and two levels were selected in such a way to create a normal and extreme classroom physical environment. A total of 154 undergraduate UNLV students participated in the two phase pilot laboratory study in which they completed tasks related to reading and listening to an oral presentation of a passage of high density technical …

A Behavioural Checklist For The Measurement Of Self-Esteem In The Classroom, Dawn Metcalfe

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The study sets out to develop a behavioural checklist for the measurement of self-esteem in the classroom. The importance of self-esteem to learning and adjustment to life's situation is well recognised by educational practitioners and theorists. This study examined the concept of self-esteem and the need for an objective instrument to measure the concept in children aged 6 to 12 years. The development of the instrument was in four phases and in every phase the input and feedback of classroom teachers was considered crucial The resulting instrument therefore comprises descriptions which are entirely teacher-generated. At several points in the process …