Education Commons^™

“Math Talks Are Like An Alarm Clock Waking You Up”: Language’S Crucial Role In Mathematics, Gabriella M. Wasser

Journal of Practitioner Research

Whole group math talks, or number talks, are a common practice to get students talking about their own understanding of mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to implement math talks in small group settings to see what would happen, specifically to students’ conceptual understanding as well their general perceptions of math talks. This study took place in a fourth-grade math classroom, and math talks were implemented with the whole class for a week and then moved to small groups for the remaining three weeks of the study. During the study, a pre-and post-assessment was given, field notes were …

Inquiry, Discovery, And The Complexities Of Teaching: Learning From The Research Of Practitioners, Angela Hooser, Laura Sabella

Journal of Practitioner Research

In this opening article, Guest Editors Angela Hooser and Laura Sabella define the purpose of this special themed issue of Journal of Practitioner Research: Inquiry, Discovery, and the Complexities of Teaching: Learning from the Research of Practitioners and introduce the seven pieces of teacher research published in this volume that encapsulate this theme.

Critical Collaborative Inquiries In Social Studies: Fostering Inclusion, Engagement And Literacy, Sara Lewis-Bernstein Young Ed.D.

Journal of Practitioner Research

Collaborative inquiry groups are a well-advocated tool to support comprehension and collaboration, but how do critical collaborative inquiries support students with different levels of engagement and academic performances in social studies to develop critical literacies? This article responds to the research question through case studies of two high school students who engaged in a critical collaborative inquiry project. One student was a senior labeled with disabilities, who struggled with academic literacies, graduated at the bottom of her class, and said that she hates school. The other student was a junior who thrived in school, mastered a range of academic literacies, …

Development Of The Quantitative Reasoning Items On The National Survey Of Student Engagement, Amber D. Dumford, Louis M. Rocconi

Numeracy

As society’s needs for quantitative skills become more prevalent, college graduates require quantitative skills regardless of their career choices. Therefore, it is important that institutions assess students’ engagement in quantitative activities during college. This study chronicles the process taken by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to develop items that measure students’ participation in quantitative reasoning (QR) activities. On the whole, findings across the quantitative and qualitative analyses suggest good overall properties for the developed QR items. The items show great promise to explore and evaluate the frequency with which college students participate in QR-related activities. Each year, hundreds …

The Mediating Role Of Classroom Social Environment Between Teacher Self-Efficacy And Student Adjustment, Keri Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether students' perceptions of the classroom social environment mediate the relations between teacher self-efficacy and student adjustment.

Research suggests that early adolescents often experience decreases in engagement and motivation during the middle school years, which can put individuals at risk for academic failure and school dropout (Eccles, Lord, & Midgley, 1991). This occurs due to a mismatch between the individuals' developmental needs and the environment (Eccles et al., 1993). Whether early adolescents remain engaged in school is largely dependent on how they perceive the classroom environment promoted by their teacher (Erikson, 1950; …

High School Students In College-Level Classes: Associations Between Engagement, Achievement, And Mental Health, Rachel Anne Roth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student engagement is a multifaceted construct gaining increased interest within the fields of psychology and education. Current literature suggests that student engagement is linked to important student outcomes including academic achievement, psychopathology, and mental wellness; however, there is a dearth of studies that have examined all components of student engagement simultaneously as they relate to the aforementioned outcomes. Additionally, past literature has found support for a decreasing trend in student engagement across the school years, but less attention has been paid to student engagement in the high school years. Among high school students, a particular subgroup has been virtually ignored: …