Education Commons^™

Cultivating Creativity: The Practice Of Teaching For Creativity In The Elementary Classroom, Karin M. Colley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Limited resources in public education and a focus on the “basics” have resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum, which, in turn, has led to a dramatically minimized role for the arts and creativity (Mishook & Kornhaber, 2006). Our world and the ways in which we access and share knowledge continue to evolve at an alarming rate. With this, complex issues arise- issues that will need fresh, innovative eyes that can cultivate creative solutions. The success of our society is fueled by creative and flexible minds that can generate innovative and authentic solutions to some of our most complex problems …

Innovative Educational Design: The Development Of Autonomous Schools, Jennifer E. Arzberger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Innovative Educational Design: The Development of Autonomous Schools captures an educator’s journey in developing an economically integrated, urban Expeditionary Learning charter school, an autoethnography of an educator embracing an entrepreneurial spirit and traversing the years prior to opening a school and obtaining unanimous approval from the authorizing board of education. Autoethnography provides the researcher with an opportunity to turn scholarly interests inward, bringing personal experiences to center stage revealing the culture of founding school leaders. Similar to an ethnographer describing the culture of a group of people and learning what it is like to be a part of the group …

The Nature Of Imagination In Pedagogy: A Qualitative Study Of An Elementary School Setting, Perry S. Shank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The task of this dissertation is to assess the popular thought of teachers on the topic of imagination and uncover how they incorporate imaginative methods into their current teaching practices. I attempt to ascertain the origination of these current perspectives through an analysis of the imagination from a historical perspective. Through portraiture, a qualitative research tool, I examine how the imagination is currently engaged in an elementary classroom setting. The research questions that guided this inquiry were as follows: 1) What is the intention of teachers who utilize imaginative teaching methods/strategies, 2) what types of instructional practices, activities, and learning …

The Development Of A P-20 Educational Campus: A Case Study On Innovation, Richard R. Patterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tyack & Tobin (1994, p. 454) describe that the “grammar of schooling,” like the shape of classrooms, has remained remarkably stable over the decades. This has frustrated generations of reformers who have fought to change standardized organizational traditions. Typically school reform has taken the form of innovations in education. Unfortunately, educational innovations don't usually last long or they were never truly innovations in the first place but rather a repackaging or reintroduction of age-old customary practices.

The “Eos Public Schools” set out on a mission to integrate P-20 educational reform into its overall school system as a way to confront …

Teachers' Perspectives About Implementing A Content-Specific Technology Innovation, Thomas Stovall Hibbs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to examine the implementation of a technology innovation in a content area from teachers’ point of view. Three classroom teachers who were involved in organized implementations of a technology innovation at the school level were asked to describe their implementations. They then were asked to review those implementations through four specific lenses that research indicates are important: school change, factors affecting implementation of technology innovations, technology in their content area, and examining their use of developers’ innovative improvements. Finally the classroom teachers were asked, as a summary technique, to talk about factors important to include in …