Education Commons^™

Understanding Fourth Graders' Decline In Reading Motivation From Students' And Teachers' Perspectives, Christine A. Hebert

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Previous research by Chall and Jacobs (2003) documented the phenomena of the fourth grade slump, a period in which students switch from learning to read to reading to learn and the subsequent loss of motivation to read. The purpose of this research is to present a phenomenological qualitative study of whether a sample of fourth grade students, low-achieving readers and average achieving readers, exhibited a loss in their motivation to read. Students' responses to a standardized conversational survey and questionnaire, the Motivation to Read Profile (Gambrell, Palmer, Codling & Mazzoni, 2007) and teachers' responses to a researcher-developed questionnaire were examined …

Effect Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Community College Students' Writing Apprehension And Writing Performance, Megan E. Britt

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This experimental study used a quantitative data collection strategy to examine whether a mindfulness intervention, a three-minute breathing exercise marked by focused attention on the sensations of breath, would affect writing anxiety and writing performance measures. The researcher compared Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension surveys and narrative writing samples from 277 students enrolled in a freshman composition course at a southeastern community college, half of whom practiced the mindful-breathing technique at class onset.

Quantitative results revealed students in the mindful-breathing group experienced a statistically significant decrease in writing apprehension and mechanical error scores from pre- to post-measures when compared to controls. No …

Elementary Teachers' Views Of Environmental Education, Rose M. Hotchkiss

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' views of environmental education (EE) at the elementary level. The study addresses teachers' attitudes toward the EE at the elementary school level and their self-efficacy in teaching EE.

The study's sample consisted of 201 randomly selected kindergarten through fifth grade United States public school teachers. The participants completed an on-line survey with eight percent of the respondents participating in follow up interviews. The questionnaire measured two constructs; Teachers Attitudes Toward EE and Teacher Efficacy in EE. Teachers Attitudes Toward EE had 3 subscales; Advocacy for EE, Stewardship in EE, …

How “Struggling” Readers Engage In Literacy Events In Middle School Science: An Analysis Of Interactions In Literacy Events, Kristin Cartwright Palmer

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This study examined opportunities for participation and learning for "struggling" readers in a sixth grade science classroom. Literacy practices, language differences, activity structures, and the social and cultural identities and associated practices and everyday funds of knowledge of both "struggling" and nonstruggling readers in one sixth grade science classroom were documented and analyzed using a qualitative research design. Over sixteen hours of audio and video recordings as well as numerous student work samples were transcribed and analyzed. Analyses of the classroom interactions and artifacts documented in this study revealed several important affordances available in the context of this classroom related …