Education Commons^™

Read4respect Service-­Learning Project: Motivating And Engaging Students In Reading, Valerie Zelenka, Eric Deneault, Keith Dreiling, Beth Walizer

The Advocate

This paper discusses an after­school service­learning project implemented over the course of the school year in a low SES elementary school. This project offered a sustained, coordinated effort to motivate and engage 57 struggling readers in a skills­based literacy tutoring program. A paired two-sample t­test was conducted to determine if there was a significant increase in scores from the reading attitude pre-survey to the post­survey for the fall 2014 and spring 2015 semesters. Increases in attitude scores were found for 13 of the 20 survey questions with three of the increases found to be significant.

Keeping Community Stakeholders Informed About The Rationale For Program Changes (Editorial), John Morton

The Advocate

An editorial comment: Communication is the key element in much of education. Gathering input and utilizing the information to help educators understand community perceptions is a vehicle that has long been underutilized in schools.

Pre-Service Teacher & Mentor Clinical Experiences, Kevin L. Splichal

The Advocate

Effective clinical experiences that pre-service teachers and pre-service teacher educators participate in are crucial for instruction to be highly effective and successful. However, the dynamics of different participating schools, mentors, instructors, and pre-service teachers add hundreds of variables to the quality of those experiences. How pre­service teachers and mentors perceive those clinical experiences can help unravel those variables and provide ways to increase quality. Based on the research, one key question is foremost as a priority, namely, what are the characteristics of pre-service teacher and the mentor relationships? Further, do those relationships equate to effective clinical experiences for pre­service teachers?

The Feasibility Of Virtual Service-­Learning, Lorie Cook-Benjamin, Chapman Rackaway Ft. Hays State University

The Advocate

This study assessed attitudes regarding the effectiveness of discipline­based service-learning within the virtual environment. The study, conducted at a comprehensive Midwestern state university, collected data using a Likert-scale survey and reflections. Research on virtual service-learning is sparse making it a field ripe with research opportunities. The quantitative results suggest virtual learners are not provided opportunities for service-learning commensurate with their in-person cohort. For one discipline, the qualitative data suggests there is a need for multiple and synchronous communication, and reflection at multiple points throughout the semester. The study validated literature on the need to use active learning pedagogies across disciplines.

The Impact Of The Common Core State Standards:The Top Five Shifts In Literacy Instruction, Carolyn Carlson

The Advocate

The Common Core State Standards Initiative adopted a goal of having every student in the United States college and career ready by the end of high school. As a result, the CCSS English/Language Arts have influenced the way teachers approach literacy instruction. Since the implementation of the CCSS (or standards similar to the actual CCSS but that vary slightly), there have been five main shifts in literacy instruction. Regardless of grade level, content area, or student characteristics (struggling, gifted, etc.), all instruction is impacted by these five shifts.

Secular Spirituality And The Foundations Of Education Classroom, Don Hufford

The Advocate

Every institution of higher education serves in some measure as a community of imagination in which every professor is potentially a spiritual guide and every syllabus a confession of faith (Parks, p. 159).

In a somewhat radically-inspired foundations of education classroom, I seek to stimulate thinking, and questioning ­ a little philosophical wondering and wandering - when I toss-out the statement that "teaching is a spiritual journey – as is life itself.”

Assessment Accommodations For English Language Learners Using The Student Language Assessment Plan, Sherri G. Brantley

The Advocate

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the assessment accommodation process for English Language Learners (ELLs) on high-stakes testing (HST). It is understood the accommodation process is a challenge for school staff members that administer assessments to ELLs. This study addressed the problem of accountability and identification systems for ELLs by: (a) investigating the assessment accommodation process used by the study school; (b) understanding the perceptions of educators regarding the assessment accommodation process, and; (c) exploring the assessment accommodation tool used by educators to document appropriate accommodations for ELLs.

Spelling Instruction In The Primary Grades: Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, And Concerns, Antoinette Doyle, Jing Zhang, Chris Mattatall

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study examined Canadian teachers’ beliefs, practices and concerns about spelling instruction in the primary grades. Data from surveys (n = 56) indicated that most teachers believe that spelling is important and plan for spelling instruction. For most teachers, the spelling words and activities used, and the instructional resources they chose, reflected an attempt to incorporate both holistic and traditional approaches to instruction. Teachers reported that substantial numbers of children experience difficulty with spelling. They suggested that greater emphasis be placed on defining spelling outcomes in the curriculum, as well as on teacher education and resources for teaching spelling to …

Successfully Promoting 21st Century Online Research Skills: Interventions In 5th-Grade Classrooms, Tara L. Kingsley, Jerrell C. Cassady, Susan M. Tancock

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This quantitative study was developed to explore the ability to impact elementary student 21^st Century online research skills with a planned classroom intervention curriculum. The repeated measures quasi-experimental study randomly assigned all 5^th grade classes in a Midwestern, suburban school (n=418) to a 12-week intervention or control condition. Analyses of the ORCA Elementary-Revised performance prior to intervention revealed significant correlations with traditional measures of reading achievement as well as limited influence from demographic variables. In the primary research question, results demonstrated that the intervention group showed significantly higher gains from pretest to posttest on the measure of online …

Deaf Children’S Science Content Learning In Direct Instruction Versus Interpreted Instruction, Kim B. Kurz, Brenda Schick, Peter C. Hauser

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This research study compared learning of 6-9th grade deaf students under two modes of educational delivery – interpreted vs. direct instruction using science lessons. Nineteen deaf students participated in the study in which they were taught six science lessons in American Sign Language. In one condition, the lessons were taught by a hearing teacher in English and were translated in ASL via a professional and certified interpreter. In the second condition, the lessons were taught to the students in ASL by a deaf teacher. All students saw three lessons delivered via an interpreter and three different lessons in direct ASL; …

Pbl In The Era Of Reform Standards: Challenges And Benefits Perceived By Teachers In One Elementary School, Nahid Nariman, Janet Chrispeels

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

We explore teachers’ efforts to implement problem-based learning (PBL) in an elementary school serving predominantly English learners. Teachers had an opportunity to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) using PBL in a summer school setting with no test-pressures. To understand the challenges and benefits of PBL implementation, a case study method was used and a variety of data collected. Results suggest collaboration amongst teachers is essential to design and implement PBL units. A challenge was the tension between the contradictory accountability and curriculum coverage goals of the regular academic year versus letting go to promote inquiry. Both teachers and …

The Effects Of Continuous Improvement Practices Using State Value-Added Data For Reading Educator Program Enhancement, Kristin A. Gansle, Gerlinde Grandstaff-Beckers, Angelle Stringer, Nancy Roberts, Jeanne M. Burns, George Noell

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

Louisiana’s value-added evaluation of teacher preparation programs has provided a salient impetus for program improvement; however, due to the nature of the assessment, teacher preparation programs need to use additional sources of data to identify actionable responses to the value-added results. This paper describes one teacher preparation program’s approach to continuous program improvement in reading education and describes some of the limitations and benefits of value-added assessment results for that purpose.

Protean And Boundaryless Career Attitudes: Do Teacher Candidates Have These?, Tony Michael, Kevin B. Stoltz, Lori A. Wolff, Laith G. Mazahreh, Ann E. Monroe

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

Since the late 20th century, the Protean (Hall, 1996) and Boundaryless (Arthur, 1994) career concepts have been posited as explanations for employment transformations in corporate structures. While previous research (Briscoe, Hall, & Fratschy DeMuth, 2006) provides evidence of these constucts with business students, research has lacked in evaluating the Protean and Boundaryless Career Attitudes Scale (PBCAS) with other professions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factor structure of the PBCAS with 350 undergraduate teacher candidates and to test the new model with a second sample (n = 194). The results showed moderate support for the validity of …

Lifelong Learning To Help Both You And Me : Ms. Tong Kit-Ha's Sharing For Awarded Outstanding Third Age Citizen, Kit Ha Tong, Man Yin, Emily Chan

Asia Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies Newsletter 亞太老年學研究通訊

23 April 2015 is a particularly exciting and memorable day for eleven retired people, as they were selected by HK Electric and Kong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) to be the Outstanding Third Age Citizens 2015 for their positive and optimistic life attitudes. Having a passion for volunteerism and lifelong learning, Ms. Tong Kit-ha, "a toy-packaging worker who pursued tertiary studies after retirement and graduated with merits, better than many younger students", was elected as one of the Outstanding Third Age Citizens. We are honorable to have Ms. Tong sharing with our readers her third-age life experience as well …

持續學習，助己助人 : 傑出第三龄人士湯潔霞女士分享, Kit Ha Tong, Man Yin, Emily Chan

Asia Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies Newsletter 亞太老年學研究通訊

對11位退休人士來說，2015年4月23日是一個尤其令人振奮和值得紀念的大日子。皆因他們當日於香港電燈有限公司 (港燈) 與香港社會服務聯會 (社聯) 合辦的第四屆「傑出第三齡人士選舉2015」中獲獎，其努力向上、積極樂觀的態度與表現得到社會的肯定。

「從事玩具包裝，退休後終身學習，大學圓夢，更勝莘莘學子」為大會對其中一位傑出第三齡人士得獎者湯潔霞女士的描述。湯女士對終身學習以至服務社會都充滿熱誠，我們很高興可邀請她向本通訊之讀者分享她的第三齡生活和得獎感受。

What Can Jesus Teach Us About Student Engagement?, Glenn James, Elda Martinez, Sherry Herbers

Journal of Catholic Education

This article examines Jesus’s teaching methods as described in the four Gospels, highlighting the ways in which He led listeners to participate actively in their learning. We identify similarities between many of Jesus’s techniques and current practices in the field of student engagement, with a focus on applications for instructors in higher education. Several of His approaches, most notably storytelling and the use of analogies, point to recommendations for improving teaching practice by increasing student engagement in the learning process.

Qu'est-ce que Jésus peut nous apprendre sur l'engagement des élèves?

Cet article examine la manière dont les méthodes d'enseignement de …

Difficult Knowledge And The English Classroom: A Catholic Framework Using Cormac Mccarthy's The Road, Scott Jarvie, Kevin Burke

Journal of Catholic Education

In this article, the authors explore the generative possibilities of risk-taking in the Catholic school English classroom. They associate pedagogical risk with what Deborah Britzman (1998) has called “difficult knowledge”—content that causes students to consider social trauma. Incorporating difficult knowledge meaningfully requires English teachers to take significant pedagogical risks, especially in the Catholic school classroom. Drawing on critical theology and Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road (2006) as a difficult text, the authors employ a case study looking at how the traumatic difficulty of the novel could be fruitfully taught at a Catholic school. How might students reckon with The Road …

Teacher Morale, Student Engagement, And Student Achievement Growth In Reading: A Correlational Study, Jenny T. Sabin

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This research study explored the current state of teacher morale in fourth and fifth grade classrooms in three low socio-economic schools in North Carolina. Additional research questions address correlational relationships among the variables of teacher morale, student engagement, and student achievement growth as measured by the NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey, Van Amburg Active Learning Inventory Tool, and the NC End of Grade reading tests, respectively. This study found no significant relationships among the primary variables of teacher morale, student engagement, and student achievement growth. However, significant relationships were found between increasing student engagement and an increase in the number …

Program Evaluation Of Alternative Schools In North Carolina: A Companion Dissertation, Michael O. Jones

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The purpose of the program evaluation was to evaluate two alternative programs in a North Carolina (NC) and South Carolina (SC) public school district to determine if they are effective in delivering constructive interventions that modify student behavior once students have left the programs and have returned to their regular learning environments. This mixed-method evaluation consisted of an experimental-comparison design approach that included interviews with program participants, focus groups, and comparison of the number of out-of-school suspensions that participants received after completing the alternative school programs in both school districts.

Does Mclass Reading 3d Predict Student Reading Proficiency On High-Stakes Assessments?, Amy S. Bowles

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This quantitative, correlational study investigated the relationship between the North Carolina End of Grade Assessment of Reading Comprehension (NCEOG) and mClass Reading 3D assessment in a North Carolina elementary school. It especially examined the degree to which mClass Reading 3D measures predict scores on the reading comprehension portion of the NCEOG. The study was conducted in two parts. Part one utilized quantitative methods to describe the relationship between mClass Reading 3D and NCEOG based on demographic data. Part two utilized quantitative methods to determine the predictability of mClass Reading 3D measures Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and Text Reading and Comprehension …

Spiritual And Religious Capabilities For Catholic Schools, Christine Mcgunnigle, Chris Hackett

eJournal of Catholic Education in Australasia

The Australian Curriculum articulates the role of general capabilities across all learning areas in the schooling years. The function of these general capabilities is to ensure that students have the dispositions and skills that provide for deep learning and the ability to function successfully in the 21^st Century. Within Catholic schools, these same general capabilities apply. Catholic schools, in recognising the mission of the Church, are however, called to ensure that not only are students able to participate in the 21^st Century context, but that they are able to evangelise through the integration of faith, life and culture. …

The True Impact Of Service Learning, Mackenzie Beisser

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

Connections are made between the ideas and data presented in two articles to personal experiences: Imagining a Better World: Service-Learning as a Benefit to Teacher Education and the 2012 study from the University of Kentucky, which looks at the impact of service-learning in practice. Imagining a Better World: Service-learning as a Benefit to Teacher Education defines service-learning as “An ‘approach to teaching and learning in which service and learning are blended in a way that both occur and are enriched by the other’” (Jagla et al, 2010 p.3) This blending of service and learning is exemplified in a medical mission …

Summer In The City: Respect And Autonomy In The Urban Classroom, Matthew Brill

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

This article is a reflection on my time as a STEP-UP fellow. In the course of the article I discuss what I believe I have learned about education from my time in this program.The lessons learned about urban education are valuable to any educator.

Student Voice As Regimes Of Truth: Troubling Authenticity, Emily Nelson

Middle Grades Review

Student voice: authentic or contrived? In this essay I argue that authenticity in student voice has been largely conflated with a notion of objective truth. I trouble this view for the ways in which it masks power dynamics in student voice in a quest for truth. Instead I proffer a view of student voice as socially constructed through discourses that act as regimes of truth to open up but also discipline and constrain possibilities for action and identity within student voice initiatives. I ‘plug in’ this ‘student voice as regimes of truth’ concept to think with data from a recent …

Keys To Reducing Summer Regression: The Reader, Routine, And Relationship, Morgan V. Blanton

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This study utilized a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact of parent development and home-based summer reading on summer reading regression (as measured by oral reading fluency) at three Title I elementary schools in North Carolina. Title I parents and students participated in a parent development and communicated throughout the summer. Quantitative and qualitative methods (QUAN-qual) were used to collect and analyze data in order to answer four research questions related to the parent development seminar and reading routines. Quantitative data were collected using a pretest/posttest, reading logs, contact logs, and questionnaires. Qualitative data were collected from the questionnaire …

Encouraging Teachers To W.A.I.T Before Engaging Students In Next Generation Science Standards Steam Activities., Mason Kuhn

The STEAM Journal

Effective art integration in K-12 curricula has clear benefits for classroom teachers (i.e. student achievement on standardized tests, student engagement, improving critical thinking). This paper proposes a framework based off of Claudia Cornett's levels of art integration. Teaching With About and In Through (WAIT) the arts can serve as a model for teachers who want to transform their science lesson to include art integration.

Reframing Steam Pd, Tiffiny Jackson

The STEAM Journal

The reflection addresses the important changes in approach to professional learning experiences in STEAM.

Engaging Many Minds: Nurturing Collaboration In A Steam Context, Mark Dzula

The STEAM Journal

This field note describes a recent interdisciplinary project facilitated by Jeremy Gercke, an art teacher at the Bishop's School in La Jolla, California. The project creates ceramic tile markers for flora around the Bishop's School campus. The markers feature QR codes linking to websites populated with student content, including: drawings, information, and oral histories. In this project, Mr. Gercke synthesizes his interests as an artist; maximizes his social connections to mentors, peers and students; and bridges disciplines to create opportunities for interdisciplinary (STEAM) inquiry.

Ambiguity In Speaking Chemistry And Other Stem Content: Educational Implications, Mick D. Isaacson, Michelle Michaels

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Ambiguity in speech is a possible barrier to the acquisition of knowledge for students who have print disabilities (such as blindness, visual impairments, and some specific learning disabilities) and rely on auditory input for learning. Chemistry appears to have considerable potential for being spoken ambiguously and may be a barrier to accessing knowledge and to learning. Educators in chemistry may be unaware of, or have limited awareness of, potential ambiguity in speaking chemistry and may speak chemistry ambiguously to their students. One purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of potential ambiguity in speaking chemistry and other STEM fields …

Children's Picky Eating And The Role Of Family Environments, Maureen Lyons

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Picky eating is often seen as a temporary phase that children go through in the developmental process. While some children never exhibit picky eating behaviors, others seem to get stuck in the tendency of judging foods, which they have never tried, based upon a pretense that the food might not meet with their satisfaction. Learning more about children’s preferred food groups and types of foods, along with the family environmental factors experienced by these children may help to understand ways to support children who struggle with picky eating. Introducing children to new foods within a positive atmosphere, where they are …