Education Commons^™

Syntactic Structures In Dialogue: The Role Of Influence, Brenda Ellen Hite

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Genuine dialogues reflect the way that language is initially developed by providing opportunities to hear and practice language. Participants within dialogues are found to speak in similar ways through the priming effect, giving language learners continued opportunities to hear and practice a greater variety of syntactic structures. The purpose of this study was to determine if genuine dialogue, and the priming that occurs, could aid in the use and expansion of syntactic structures.

Within the context of Reading Recovery, the teacher/researcher (a female member of the dominant culture) and a single student participant (male, African American, 6- years-old) were engaged …

Mindfulness In The Classroom: Cultivating Peace From Within, Maya Vandriel

Honors Program Theses

Teachers are placed with the difficult task of transferring knowledge to the next generation of leaders. This knowledge transfer can be measured in various ways. What cannot be easily quantified is the impact of the life skills taught to accomplish this handoff of reading, writing and math skills. Often times, teachers are the role model of how a student can cope with life inside and outside of the classroom. Teaching mindfulness in the classroom is a powerful method that shows students how to self-regulate emotions in order to cope with whatever life brings them. These life skills are essential for …

The Impact Of Teacher Prompting And Questioning On Third Grade Students' Comprehension, Jenna Francois

Honors Program Theses

This qualitative research study explores how teacher prompting and questioning impacts students’ comprehension of texts. The researcher observed a third grade teacher, Mrs. G., at a local elementary school in order to discern patterns in how this teacher used verbal prompts and questions to assist her students in understanding what they read. An initial interview was conducted with Mrs. G. to determine how she typically teaches and assesses reading comprehension, as well as the types of verbal prompts and questions she utilizes to assist students in comprehension. The researcher observed two literacy lessons in which Mrs. G. instructed the whole …

Self-Management Of Cognitive Load In Children: Exploring Effective Strategies By Manipulating Informational Text, Marcus J. Hora

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study was designed to measure which reading comprehension strategies were most successful in allowing children to self-manage their cognitive load while reading electronic informational text. It built on previous research on cognitive load theory and teaching children self-management strategies. Participants were sixth grade students in a Midwestern suburban intermediate school.

A quantitative experiment was conducted with a control group and three experimental groups. Experimental groups were taught to highlight key words, draw arrows to show process on a diagram, or move text boxes nearer a corresponding illustration. The control group received equal time with the teacher but did not …

Belief And Practice: A Self-Study, Jamie Marie Nelson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this self-study was to critically examine whether or not my beliefs about literacy are reflected in my teaching practice. In addition, it was to determine if my teaching practice aligned with six instructional elements for literacy suggested by Allington and Gabriel (2012) in their article “Every Child, Every Day.”

There were three data sources in this study. I kept a time-log for one week with an instructional calendar about my schedule for literacy instruction. At the end of each day, I wrote a post-teaching reflection. The third data source was my personal, written responses to each of …

The Effects Of Argumentation On Student Motivation In Mathematics, Julie Kirkpatrick

Honors Program Theses

As a future educator, I am going to need to motivate my students to learn mathematics and be engaged deeply with the material. Because mathematics is a required subject for students, mathematics teachers must employ various strategies to motivate their students. Something that has motivated me in past mathematics courses has been the chance to form arguments and defend them in class. Argumentation in mathematics classrooms has been included in the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice as Practice Standard 3: “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of …