Education Commons^™

Professional Learning Outcomes That Teachers Experience As A Result Of Implementing A Community-Based Instruction Program: A Qualitative Case Study, Suzan Radwan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to explore the professional learning outcomes of teachers as they implement community-based instruction programs for students with disabilities in a New Jersey school district. The study was viewed through the theoretical lens of disabilities studies in education, which posits that the term disability is a socially constructed concept that leads to the systematic social and environmental disadvantage of people with disabilities.

The sample included public school teachers who have participated in a community-based instruction program for students with disabilities in Mountainview Public Schools in New Jersey. Data collection methods included semi-structured …

Found Missing: Fugitive Slaves, Jailer Ads, And Surveillance In Antebellum New Orleans, Tara L. Garbutt

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores fugitive slave advertisements from the pages of the New Orleans Argus in 1828. As the main repository for runaway slave advertisements in New Orleans at the time, the Argus played a critical role in policing and surveillance of the city’s enslaved population just as New Orleans was becoming the largest slave market in the South. Using the Argus as well as historians’ accounts of the city, this thesis argues that as the market in enslaved people grew, slave owners depended upon local jailers in tandem with papers like the Argus, to police the enslaved population. The large …

Undocumented Students’ Access To Higher Education In San Francisco, Bay Area, Sandra Miklosic

Master's Theses

This paper will explore the question: “in what ways does DACA status influence undocumented students’ ability to access higher education in San Francisco and Bay Area, California?” Even though DACA does not encompass any direct policies regarding access to education, there is a very strong correlation between having DACA status and accessing higher education for the undocumented students. In this research, I highlight the voices of undocumented students through the method of testimonio. Each participant reflects on their personal experiences with DACA while accessing postsecondary education. In this research, I explore how testimonio, as a methodology and a theoretical framework, …

Teaching Reduced Forms: A Curriculum Guide For Junior High English Language Teachers Using Digital Technology Based Activities And Classroom Games, Dion Sanchez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Japanese English language students often struggle with listening comprehension when communicating with native English speakers due to the use of reduced forms. Native speakers use contractions, reductions, elisions, and linking in casual speech which sounds unfamiliar to students who have not been exposed to reduced forms in their classrooms. In order to facilitate improved listening skills and help students with speaking fluency, reduced forms ought to be taught in English classrooms.

While the use of reduced forms by native English speakers has been recognized as a problem for English students, incorporating reduced forms instruction into an English curriculum involves overcoming …

Teaching Efl/Esl College-Level Learners Through Current Global Topics: Integrated Lessons For Efl/Esl Teachers, Chaiyeon Sylvia Lee

Master's Projects and Capstones

The importance of educating effective English users competent in communicating and interacting in a variety of social settings is highlighted in today’s highly globalized world. Being able to understand and discuss complex global topics related to current cultural, social, and business issues and events has become an integral skill of English learners to achieve greater international connectivity. Unfortunately, many EFL/ESL college-level students, specifically Korean EFL students, do not seem to have sufficient preparation to build English communicative competence and cultural awareness necessary to cope with various situations in which they need to communicate meaningfully and purposefully as effective English users. …

Can Addressing Language Skills For Fifth Grade Ells In A Multiplication Curriculum Help Address The Achievement Gap In Math? A Multiplication Workbook For Big Kids, Michelle Douglas

Master's Projects and Capstones

Currently, the state of California has 1,332,405 students from grades k-12 who speak a language other than English at home (Caledfacts, 2016). When I started my first year teaching fifth grade with 95% of my students being English language learners (ELLs), I was surprised to see an achievement gap of two to three years in my student’s reading and math skills. I found that my student’s developmental language and math skills contributed to a lack of engagement during math time. Upon further research, I found that these three factors play a role in the wide achievement gaps between ELLs and …

Pedagogies Of Possibilities: (Re)Designing Teacher Professional Learning To Support The Use Of Digital Technologies In Multimodal Pedagogies, Lori Mckee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Digital technologies have the potential to expand communication opportunities (Walsh, 2011), but challenges exist in including these technologies in early literacy instruction (Flewitt, Messer, & Kucirkova, 2015). The literature explains that teachers identify a need for support in using digital technologies in their teaching (e.g., Hill, 2010) and professional learning activities are herein key. Still, the research offers differing advice about the formats these activities should take and the types of literacy digital technologies can support. This exploratory multiple-case study was designed to create teacher professional learning (TPL) opportunities to support early primary teachers (kindergarten-Grade 2) in creating and enacting …

The Evolution Of Pre-Service Teachers Tpack After Completing An Undergraduate Technology Integration Course, Sherri Booker

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology Dissertations

The steady momentum of emerging technology tools continues to impact the educational environment, generating dramatic changes over the past five years (Spalding, 2016). According to the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP), educational institutions that prepare educators often fail to give teachers the technology skills required to do their job well. Many teacher preparation programs claimed technology was integrated throughout the courses within the program; however, the comfort level with technology for pre-service teachers entering the teaching field remained low (Moore-Hayes, 2011; Giles & Kent, 2016; NETP, 2016; Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2016). As members of the educational learning community, teacher …

Strengthening The Teacher Toolkit: Effective Autism Inclusion Methods, Roxanne Guel

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on Autism inclusion methods. This is an important issue for teachers because they are often not given the tools and resources to effectively include their students with Autism Spectrum Disorders into a general education classroom. It is argued that some of the most effective methods include peer-mediated instruction, antecedent procedures, and school-wide organizational change. Considerations of the issue, should include the perspectives of both Special Education and General Education teachers. Three themes/action options emerged from an analysis of the data and were explored as ways to address the issue presented. Antecedent procedures are …

Understanding Public Health Professional Socialization And Professional Identity Formation Experiences, Jennifer M. Freiheit

Theses and Dissertations

Public health is in unstable times with funding decreasing, an exodus of retirees, and a paradigm shift with emergency preparedness and response critically changing the identity of the profession. Public health is at a grave trigger point where if something is not done, the entire field may be in jeopardy of caving in to consolidations, poor succession planning, and a field that cannot work toward the health of the public if they themselves are not operating well. It is commonly accepted that orientation practices exist in public health agencies, but the orientations that currently exist lack transfer to full socialization …

Building Effective Parental Involvement In Middle Schools: The Parents' Perceptions, Tracy Oates

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Parental involvement is an integral variable that bears a significant value in the overall academic achievement and learning process of a student’s educational journey. Therefore, all parents should play a major role in their children’s academic success from elementary through middle and high school. The prime focus of this research was to examine the perceptions of middle school parents and find strategies to build effective relationships between the school and home. This two-part case study utilized Epstein’s (1995) School and Family Partnership Surveys of Teachers and Parents in the Elementary and Middle Grades, and semi-structured interviews to gather a firm …

Teachers Appraisal Of Their Relationship With Instructional Coaches And Interpretation Of The Instructional Coaches Role, Sandra Lawson Higgins

Dissertations

The need for high quality teachers has increased over the past years with the new mandates for college and career ready students. School administrators are providing job-embedded professional development to ensure quality teaching is taking place in classrooms. Instructional coaching is a form of job-embedded professional development that is being used to offer an opportunity with support for teachers to implement best learning practices into their classroom teaching.

This quantitative non-experimental research study used survey methodology to collect data from the two districts that participated. This study involved asking teachers to report if the relationship between the coach and the …

"It Teaches Them To Have A Conversation In The Real World" : An Analysis Of How Identity Performances Shape Classroom Discussions., Ashley Lauren Shelton Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although discussion has long played a role in classroom learning, recent focus on moving discussion away from the evaluative and toward the dialogic is key to understanding how discussion can be driven by multiple, shared understandings. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, this dissertation explores the ways in which identity performances shape one teacher and his students’ participation in classroom discussions. The theoretical framework guiding this study draws on the relationship between discourse and identities construction, with further attention given to improvisations of identities, figured worlds, and the ways in which power shapes discourse. This dissertation argues that performed identities shape the …

Student Voice Initiative: Exploring Implementation Strategies, Blaine G. Alexander

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student voice is the process of allowing students to work collaboratively with adults to produce a learning culture that is conducive for optimum growth in every student. In a traditional setting, the adults make the decisions and the students are passive observers in the learning process. Data has shown that this traditional culture is not advantageous to student learning for all students. Research has shown that students are seven times more academically motivated when they have the opportunity to have a voice in their personal learning process (Quaglia, 2016). This case study centered on the Northeast Arkansas Regional Student Voice …

Improving Reading Through Fine Motor Skill Development In First Grade, Tyler West-Higgins

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Children who struggle with learning to read in first grade, fall behind, and have difficulty catching up with their peers. Research has shown students who struggle to read in first grade, also struggle to read in later years. The purpose of this study was to determine if an intervention to enhance fine motor skills to a select group of students in one class room increased their reading abilities. This was a mixed methods research study which assessed the quantitative data from the running record assessments, and the qualitative data taken by teacher-aide during assessment process post fine motor intervention. This …

Promoting Biliteracy And Biculturalism In Bilingual-Maintenance Secondary Classes: A Key Measure In The Creation Of A Gateway To Post-Secondary Education For First And 1.5 Generation Latino Students In Northwest Arkansas Public Schools, Jeanette A. Arnhart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the context of the Northwest Arkansas (NWA) regional setting, this study examines the effects of the Spanish for Heritage and Native Speakers (SHNS) model from multiple vantage points. Educational capital and biculturation approaches are employed to help theoretically frame post-secondary educational success and ethnic identity, respectively.

Study methods are briefly described and paired with a description of the NWA region as an ideal southern Latino emerging community in which to conduct research on educational outcomes. The manuscript then turns to an ethnographic examination of how and the extent to which curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular aspects of a Spanish for …

Wicor Walkthroughs And Teacher Practice, Christie L. Mcmullen

Dissertations

Watching experts execute their craft allows for learning. In four schools, this type of learning, teachers watching one another teach, was made available and the feedback from those interviewed showed positive results. This paper explains the process each school used for allowing teachers to watch others teach and the results that they got in the process. This program evaluation was designed to provide guidance to principals on some specific ways to ensure that they can avoid pitfalls if they were to employ a similar strategy with their staff. Teachers using high yield strategies with confidence in their classrooms has the …

Consistent Coaching And Alignment: A New Way Of Work For College Readiness System Staff, Christie L. Mcmullen

Dissertations

As an answer to a missing system of interaction and accountability between College Readiness System (CRS) Staff and school systems across the country, a coaching framework was created. This framework provides a repeatable, consistent model for CRS staff members to use with each school implementing CRS across the nation. This paper outlines the new coaching framework, the need for having a framework and the process for getting all stakeholders to support the new system. This process would be applicable for implementing any type of change within a large non-profit organization. This change leadership project includes ways to get organizations to …

Examining The Understanding Of Inquiry-Based Learning And Teaching Among Undergraduate Teachers And Students, Maren Hudson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the main aims of inquiry is to engage students as active, not passive, participants in science. The purpose of this study is to describe science educators’ and students’ views about inquiry-based instruction in order to better understand and improve implementation of evidence-based teaching strategies. Inquiry-based techniques have been shown to improve student understanding of scientific concepts, yet, there continue to be challenges in implementing these techniques. This research project utilizes Q Methodology, a research method that captures both common and disparate measures of subjectivity, to identify commonalities and defining viewpoints about inquiry-based teaching and learning. Three significantly different …

Redesigned Adult Learning To Create An Environment Of Deep Understanding Of The Danielson Framework For Teaching And The Shifts Required To Lead Students To Excellence, Caletha White

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Using Wagner’s (2006) change leadership model to assess culture, context, condition and competencies of a small suburban school district to create a change plan for value-added teacher evaluation is the central idea to this study. The four arenas of change together allow for a systematic analysis of teaching and learning. This research study represents the current state of the school district with gaps in the connectedness of opportunities for building competency toward enhancing teacher quality as measured by the Danielson Framework for Teaching and value added NWEA MAP achievement outcomes. Ninety-six percent of the teachers are rated effective while …

Ongoing Professional Learning Opportunities, Christie L. Mcmullen

Dissertations

As an answer to a lack of policy around follow up training between CRS Center Staff and school systems across the country, a policy needs to be created around providing follow up training opportunities nationally. This policy provides a repeatable, consistent model for CRS Center staff members to use with each school implementing CRS across the nation. This paper outlines the policy for allowing teachers to see other teachers implementing CRS strategies in their schools, therefore increasing the use of these strategies in classrooms nationally. This process will be applicable for school districts that works with CRS nationally. This policy …

Policy Advocacy - Advocating For Redesigned Adult Learning In Support Of Value-Added Teacher Evaluation, Caletha White

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Redesigning adult learning in order to move toward excellence in the classroom is critical to improving the state of the reform work occurring in our schools. Building coherence among teams of educators by linking staff development to student achievement is the goal of the advocated policy. Providing a professional learning network for educators to work in teams, engage in meaningful and relevant work and develop transformative practices for the classroom is essential to school reform. Creating practical learning networks for classroom teachers that are based on student achievement, current practice, and staff needs is the basis for the policy. …

Teachers' Perceptions On Professional Learning: A Mixed Method Program Evaluation In A Middle School Setting, Emily Crement

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was evaluate the program of teacher professional learning at Hamlin Middle School to guide formative improvement, therefore maximizing the potential of increasing teacher effectiveness and results. By facilitating evaluative thinking among teachers on the topic of teacher professional learning, the goal was to change how teachers conceptualize teacher professional learning. The discussion of professional learning was based on the Modes of Learning Framework (HarvardX, 2014), which organizes learning along two continua: hierarchical-distributed and individual-collective. Methodology included a survey on teachers’ perceptions on the modes of learning, and focus group discussions in which participants interpreted survey …

An Evaluation Of Avid As A Supplemental Education Program At The Middle School Level, Lori Bradner

Dissertations

This is a study of AVID as a supplemental education program at the middle school level that includes a quantitative evaluation of the academic efficacy of AVID utilizing anonymized, longitudinal student achievement data. The second section is a qualitative evaluation of the AVID program at one middle school within a district to determine the perceived efficacy of the AVID program among stakeholders using surveys and interviews. This also includes a discussion of the necessary change in leadership determined by the evaluation portions of this project. The third portion outlines a policy change essential for satisfactory outcome as defined by AVID …

Becoming A Learning System That Maximizes The Modes Of Professional Learning: A Change Leadership Plan In A Middle School Setting, Emily Crement

Dissertations

This paper follows a program evaluation conducted at Hamlin Middle School. It begins with the premise that the Modes of Professional Learning function somewhat independently of each other and therefore, Hamlin Middle School fails to function of a learning system. The goal of the research is to establish a set of structures that leverages each of the four modes to their greatest advantage. The methodology is mixed method, utilizing quantitative results from the Illinois 5Essential Survey and qualitative data gathered during focus groups that convened to discuss the survey data. Results suggested that a) a culture of compliance negatively impacts …

Developing A Partnership In Teacher Preparation Program Between Colleges, Universities And School Districts: A Policy Advocacy Document, Leah Gauthier

Dissertations

Teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate. Many are unprepared for the rigors of the job, and others become overwhelmed with new initiatives. This problem is due in part to school districts in Illinois not currently being a part of the teacher preparation accreditation process for colleges and universities. This policy advocates for creating that partnership. The findings indicate that doing so will build expertise for the new teachers and help them stay in the classrooms. This, in turn, will help improve student achievement.

Mentoring Experiences In Medical Education: A Phenomenographic Study Among American Indian Medical Students And Those In Residency, Naomi M. Bender

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to better understand how currently enrolled American Indian (AI) medical students and recently graduated physicians in residency experienced mentoring during medical school. This study consisted of 19 participant-recorded interviews that were later transcribed, analyzed, and coded for thematic outcomes. Participants were all current AI medical students in the same Northern Midwest Medical School (NMMS) in years one, two, three, or four, or they were recent AI graduate physicians from the same institution and were in years one or two of residency. The theoretical frameworks that guided this research were Kalbfleisch’s Mentoring Enactment …

Examining The Read-To-Write Strategy And Its Effects On Second Grader’S Writing Of Sequential Text, John Neal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Writing is so important. It is important in school and in our careers; writing is found to be helpful physiologically and psychologically. Experts wonder, with writing so important, why is writing not being adequately taught in the schools. The answer may be that writing is complex and teaching it is even more complex. The Read-to-Write Strategy is a writing model based on the study of exemplary models of text and children are explicitly taught how to write the way an author writes through a process of the teacher modeling how to write this way; the teacher sharing the writing task …

Bridge Over Troubled Water: Creating An Ecology Of Transformative Care For Students At Risk Of Their Promise, Cherina O. Betters

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The teacher-student relationship is multidimensional and fluid. This is especially true for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Educational leaders in the public school setting cannot control which students enroll at their school sites. The only thing teachers, as educational leaders in K-12 public education, have complete control over is the environment they create in their classrooms. Among those student groups most reflecting few gains on state and federal reports of proficiency data are students who typically come from backgrounds besieged with challenges or from historically underserved and marginalized communities. In this transcendental phenomenological study, the phenomenon investigated was how …

Policy Advocacy: Standards For Professional Learning, Emily Crement

Dissertations

This paper advocates for a district level policy the Standards for Professional Learning as a way of defining what high quality professional learning should look like. The Standards for Professional Learning represent a compilation of decades of research on what characterizes effective professional learning. Since improvements in professional learning will lead to large scale school improvement, this paper concludes that the Standards be used to define effective professional learning. Presented in this paper is an analysis of need from the educational, economic, political, social and ethical perspectives. An argument in favor of adopting the standards is presented, and a counterargument …