Education Commons^™

Adolescent Literacy In The Common Core Classroom, Kelsey Montgomery

Honors Projects

This project focuses on the advantages of utilizing reading fluency assessments and targeted reading instruction in adolescent language arts classrooms. Typically, as students progress beyond about sixth grade, many teachers do not continue to instruct and assess students specifically on their reading fluency; however, research shows that continuing to focus on these skills is beneficial to students, especially with the increased pressures for students to be "college and career ready" from forces such as the Common Core State Standards. Learning to read is a skill that grows as students grow - the data in this project shows that when students …

Telescopes And Spyglasses: Using Literary Theories In High School Classrooms, Danielle M. Rains

Honors Projects

This project, “Telescopes and Spyglasses: Using Literary Theories in High School Classrooms,” is a pedagogy book that provides information about literary theories in a way that can be applied directly to a classroom. Each chapter includes background information on the theory, instructions on how to read following the theory’s guidelines, how to teach and introduce the theory to students, and how to begin writing an analysis of a work using the theory as a guiding framework.

This project is important because students are being demanded more and more to be able to analyze texts for deeper understanding of the work, …

Assessing Vocabulary Of Children: Investigating The Evaluation And Instruction Of Basic Concepts, Rebecca Elizabeth Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vocabulary knowledge of preschool children is a key factor in predicting literacy success in elementary school (Hammer, Farkas, & Maczuga, 2010). However, few deliberate attempts to teach basic concept vocabulary have been studied (Bowers & Schwarz, 2013; Wilson, 2004). The purpose of this research is to determine if large group explicit instruction with interactive activities of specific basic concept vocabulary will increase preschool children's understanding of basic concept terms when measured by a standardized basic concept assessment. This research will also assess the validity of a basic concept-curriculum based measure (BC-CBM) as an efficient tool to monitor a child's understanding …

Defining Primary And Academic Discourse Through Instructional Methods In A Single Junior High Classroom, Ashley Nicole Gerhardson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the use of academic discourse in the school setting and discuss the relation of the primary discourse to academic discourse. I focus on the verbal exchanges between a teacher and her students as these students acquire the academic discourse of the English classroom. The study focuses on the ideas of primary discourse and secondary or academic discourse as presented by Gee (1996) and focuses on his idea of Social languages.

Using a microethnographic study, I develop the idea of how the teacher related to her students and how a single educator felt about the purpose …

The Value Of Prior Professional Skills And Experiences: Perceptions Of Second-Career Teachers, David M. Kahn

Ed.D. Dissertations

Second-career teachers’ pathways to teaching are often different from the traditional pathways of first-career teachers. This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored the common traits that second-career teachers share that may be unique within education, and whether second-career teachers’ prior skills and experiences assisted them in their new profession. The study also examined whether second-career teachers perceived that their certification programs helped them to develop their teacher identities and taught them to utilize their prior work experiences. Finally, this study investigated whether second career teachers believed that administrators valued their distinctive abilities. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews illustrating the individual experiences …

An Exploration Of Information Sharing Among Schools With Gang-Involved Youth, Jennifer L. Van Deusen

Ed.D. Dissertations

This study explored the value of perception of information sharing among educators and school resource officers in schools with gang-involved youth. There were 93 teachers, administrators, and school resource officers who participated in the study. Participants of the study were in 1 of 3 respondent groups: teachers, administrators, or school resource officers. Respondents took the original 39-question survey, The Street Gang Information Sharing Survey, which yielded data on six topics: demographic information, training and knowledge, data effectiveness, perception of knowledge, gang content, and gang interventions. Perception of knowledge was evaluated using an exploration of effectiveness. Results indicated that teacher …

An Investigation Of Perceptions Of Program Quality Support Of Adult Basic Education Programs In Arkansas, Gary William Udouj

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to identify the degree to which the directors of adult basic education programs in Arkansas perceive they have program quality support, as evidenced by a well-defined mission and role in the community, a management system, human resources management, and a suitable learning environment. To collect data for this study, NSCALL's Evidence-based program self-assessment (2006) was modified and administered electronically. Thirty-nine administrators of adult education programs funded by state and federal grants under the Arkansas Department of Career Education were invited to participate. The survey consisted of 40 questions scored on a 5-point Likert type scale, four …

Emr Training Tactics: A Case Study Of Clinical Staff Training Experiences, Needs And Perceptions, Victoria Leaann Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electronic medical record systems have become essential for giving patient care at health care institutions. The purpose of this study was to explore the training provided to staff at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest Family Medical Center in an effort to identify participant training experiences, needs, and perceptions. This study included qualitative, case study research. There were fourteen participants in the study. A focus group interview was conducted with eight administrative and training participants. Interviews and observations were conducted with six staff members.

The literature review of this study discussed educational theories including andragogy and training techniques. …

A Case Study To Determine Characteristics For A Successful, Diverse School District, Tanya J. Vest

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a rapidly changing society, education must make adjustments and keep learning focused on the needs of students by providing increased opportunities for success. Classrooms are filled with students of different cultural backgrounds which makes education a challenge to every building leader and teacher. The challenges are how to design instruction and implement it to meet the academic and Social needs of all learners. Understanding different lifestyles, languages, word context, body language, traditions, and dress present opportunities for educators to expand their cultural knowledge and create learning objectives for students which ultimately affect student achievement in the educational environment.

The …

Leadership Behaviors Used By Principals Of Large High Schools Compared To Principals Of Small High Schools: A Comparative Multiple-Case Study, Kimberly Lynn Baker Garrett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-case study was to examine if there may be a perceived relationship between the size of the school and the leadership behaviors of the four principals. This purpose was achieved through a qualitative inquiry of principal interviews, principal survey, observation of a principals' leadership team meeting, focus group interview with the principals' leadership team, and analysis of the extant texts: principals' time log for one week, organizational chart, and agenda for a leadership team meeting. The data were reduced through two cycles of coding which then further analyzed resulting in the identification of five major themes. …

Teachers' Sense Of Efficacy: Examining The Relationship Of Teacher Efficacy And Student Achievement, Nouf Abdullah Alrefaei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate which teachers’ characteristics have an impact on teachers’ sense of efficacy. In addition, the relationship between mathematics and science fifth grade teachers’ sense of efficacy and student achievement was examined. Two characteristics related to teachers were examined: teachers’ years of teaching experience and teachers’ highest degree. Participants included 62 mathematics and science teachers from three school districts in Northwest Arkansas. When comparing fifth grade mathematics and science teachers’ efficacy beliefs based on their highest degree, a significant difference in teachers’ efficacy beliefs was found based on their degrees. Teachers with a Bachelor …

The Value Of Student Choice In Reading. A Book Review Of Keep Them Reading: An Anti-Censorship Handbook For Educators, Christi R. Keelen

Democracy and Education

Keep Them Reading: An Anti-Censorship Handbooks for Educators is a must-have for elementary and secondary English and reading teachers, administrators, and librarians or media specialists. While the focus for this text is how to handle and avoid challenges on books, how to create an environment where reading is important and the students' ability to choose what they want to read is part of the classroom culture is also addressed.

An Education Saved My Life: Silver Wolf’S Path To Promise, David Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya)

Books and Monographs

In An Education Saved My Life, Professor David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv unegv Waya) narrates his path from a difficult early family life, his introduction to alcohol and drugs as an adolescent, and a directionless early adulthood overshadowed by chemical dependency, to a series of events and encounters that transformed his life. Dr. Patterson Silver Wolf attributes not only the substance abuse, but the many turns that led to it, to what he calls a “poor belief system.” As the title suggests, by contrast, he attributes much of the success he has experienced since then to his education, but …

Arts-Integration In A Middle Grades Social Studies Classroom, Stephanie J. Dorminey

Honors College Theses

Many middle grades students are not engaged in their Social Studies classrooms, and history teachers are faced with the task of finding an effective way to engage students and help them remember the required content. The purpose of this study was to investigate how integrating the arts in a middle grades history classroom influences student learning and student satisfaction in social studies. The study is mixed-methods; therefore, data collected are both quantitative and qualitative. Participants are two classes of middle grades students at a rural school in the Southeastern United States. This study will benefit educators who are interested in …

Fostoria Intermediate Elementary School Family Math Night, Chelsea Nye

Honors Projects

This is a Family Math Night that was planned and held at Fostoria Intermediate Elementary School in Fostoria, Ohio. It includes the Research Questions, Literature Review, Proposed Activity, Methodology, and Expected Results as well as the Annotated Bibliography and Timeline for Completion from my research and planning. Following the Proposal are 20 mathematical activity or game lesson plans and direction sheets that were planned for the Family Math Night. There are 5 different mathematical activities or games for each grade level 3-6, each meeting a different domain in the Common Core State Standards. At the end there is two general …

Prophetic Imagination: Confronting The New Jim Crow & Income Inequality In America, Cornel West

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

On October 11, 2014, Cornel West delivered the keynote address to nearly 600 students at the regional Leadership & Social Justice Conference, hosted at Saint Mary’s College of California. The conference occurred two days before West was arrested in Ferguson, Missouri, during a demonstration to protest the killing of young Black men by White police officers, as in the case of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. Speaking of the students, West said, "I would like to see these precious young people commit themselves to lives of integrity, honesty and decency, where they are vigilant against all forms of evil—White supremacists, …

A Website Of Agriculturally Related Activities For Elementary Grade Levels, Bailey M. Kirby

Agricultural Education and Communication

The purpose of this project is to develop a website containing agriculturally-related activities designed for the elementary classroom, including kindergarten to fifth grade. This website was created in order to bring agriculture into the elementary classroom and introduce the topic to students at an earlier age because the subject is currently only taught at the high school level. Two activities were created for each grade level and fit into the current curriculums for those grade levels. The website was designed in a way that teachers will be able to continually submit activities to be added to the website at any …

The Disabled Teacher: A Memoir Of An Interrupted Pedagogical Career, A Life With A Chronic Illness, And An Encounter With Real Barriers To Inclusive Education, Dorothy M. Bossman

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation is a narrative exploration of multiple themes relevant to education research: the relationship between the university and school, epistemology, teacher identity, disability studies, researcher subjectivity, and the retention of quality educators. This work of “autoethnography” (Ellis, Bochner, & Adams, 2011) approaches these topics through the tellings of a teaching career, the awakening of an education scholar, and the development of a chronic illness. While the focus of this inquiry often returns to the researcher’s pedagogical identity, the three storylines interact in myriad ways that relate to the larger field. Removal of one of these narrative threads would, metaphorically, …

You're And Your, Stella Rich

Grammar Fair Posters

This poster was created by a UNE teacher education candidate for use in a mini-lesson on the words Your and You’re, which students often confuse. During the lesson, students were given the rule for when to use each of the words correctly and the tip that when using “you’re” they can substitute you are in place of the word and when using “your” they can substitute the word my in its place to see what makes sense. After students went over the words they were each given either “your” or “you’re” on a star and asked to Velcro the …

Then Or Than?, Jamie Buyak

Grammar Fair Posters

This poster was created by a UNE teacher education candidate for use in a mini-lesson on the words Then and Than, which students often confuse. During the lesson, students learned the rule for when to use each word correctly and this trick to help: use THEN when referring to time (both “then” and “time” contain the letter e) and THAN when comparing things (both “than” and “compare” contain the letter a). Once students learned the rule they were each given the words then and than and a sentence was presented. Students were asked to come up and Velcro the …

Prefixes, Christine Beecher

Grammar Fair Posters

This poster was created by a UNE teacher education candidate for use in a mini-lesson on Prefixes. During the lesson, students first were taught what prefixes are and how they are combined with a root word to alter the meaning of the root word. Students then were each given index cards—some with prefixes and some with root words. They had to match up their prefix with someone else’s root word to make a new word and then share this with the group. Certain common prefixes such as un, dis, pre, non, re, ex, mis, bi and con were emphasized. …

Synonyms, Saige Sturvist

Grammar Fair Posters

This poster was created by a UNE teacher education candidate for use in a mini-lesson on Synonyms. During the lesson, the teacher first explained what synonyms were and gave some examples. Students then were given some predetermined words and were asked to match their word (written on an orange straw) with its synonym written on the outside of a cup. They were asked to put the word in the cup with the related synonym. To conclude the lesson, students generated their own words that matched a word on a synonym cup and the teacher challenged the students to come …

The Study Of Pre-Service Teachers Participating In Candidate Learning Communities: A Mixed Methods Study, Barbara Sunderman

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of instructional skill and professional dispositions of pre-service teacher education candidates’ understanding of their own teaching skills. The research examined perceptions before and after the clinical experience while participating in a Candidate Learning Community. In this mixed-methods study, perceptions were quantitatively measured with a pre-survey and a post survey of 17 participants and qualitatively described by 11 participants in follow up interviews; each intensely studied teaching skill and professional pedagogy in coursework and cooperative classrooms.

The research revealed significant increase in personal perception of teaching skills and dispositions during the …

Geographical Literacy, Attitudes, And Experiences Of Freshman Students: A Qualitative Study At Florida International University, Daniela F. Ottati

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the geography literacy, attitudes and experiences of Florida International University (FIU) freshman students scoring at the low and high ends of a geography literacy survey. The Geography Literacy and ABC Models formed the conceptual framework. Participants were freshman students enrolled in the Finite Math course at FIU. Since it is assumed that students who perform poorly on geography assessments do not have an interest in the subject, testing and interviewing students allowed the researcher to explore the assumption.

In Phase I, participants completed the Geography Literacy Survey (GLS) with items taken from …

Cyberbullying Prevention: Intervention Effects On Student Involvement, Sarah Nash Bumpas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Repeated studies show that cyberbullying is pervasive amongst adolescents. Cyberbullying can lead to self-harm, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Educators are called to intervene in educating students about cyberbullying through research and federal legislation. However, there is little research examining whether this education is taking place or having an effect.

This study investigates the relationship between the incidences of cyberbullying victimization and offending over time and the direct cyberbullying instruction and activities facilitated by classroom teachers. The study took place amongst sixth graders in Jefferson County Public Schools, a large urban school district located in northern Kentucky. Students in one school …

Supporting Teacher Development : Literature Review, Kate Reid, Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Teacher education

This literature review identifies and evaluates evidence on the effectiveness of approaches to improving teacher quality in developing countries. It examines four categories of assistance for improving teacher quality: teacher development policies, pre-service education and training, in-service professional development, and school-based support. As far as possible, the review highlights practices that demonstrate effectiveness.

Role Of Civil Society Institutions In Promoting Diversity And Pluralism In Chitral District Of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Mir Afzal Tajik

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Pakistan is a country with a fast growing population of nearly 190 million people divided into a large number of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, political and religious groups. The basic ideology behind the creation of Pakistan was Islam and it was considered to be the unique force which could bind together the religiously, ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse society.

An overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s population is Muslim with Sunni and Shia as the two major schools of thoughts but there are many other smaller sects within Muslim and non-Muslim population. Ethnically, Pakistani society is divided into major groups such as Punjabis, …

Plunging Beneath The Surface: Uncovering Internal Dispositions, Lori Piowlski, Karen Colum

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

Teacher preparation programs face the challenge of measuring candidates’ competencies that can be considered internal dispositions; which impact the quality of their instruction. This study delves into candidate edTPA scores in correlation with their IDI mindsets to support program development.

Integrating Games To Teach A First Programming Course, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in game-based learning as a powerful tool to stimulate students’ interest and promote their engagement in the learning process. In this paper, we discuss our experience in integrating gaming to teach a first programming course. The course is restructured and redesigned to allow teaching the basics of programming through games. Students actively use fundamental programming concepts learned to modify and create two dimension games using C# and XNA with .Net framework. This is an on-going work. Surveys and worksheets are developed to be used in assessing the effectiveness of …

Elementary Teacher Education Program- Vital Statistics, Guy Trainin, Mary Masur

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This inforgraphic presents data about the students in UNL's Elmentary Teacher Education Program based on data from Academic Year 2013-2014.