Education Commons^™

Differentiating Instruction Through Math Stations And Literacy Centers, Olivia Bates

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Differentiating instruction based on students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles is essential for creating effective and meaningful learning activities. Identifying these characteristics allows teachers to meet students’ needs and engage them in learning. By differentiating instruction, educators target specific students’ strengths and challenges in developing lessons to support their understanding of content. Two useful strategies for differentiating math and literacy instruction include stations and centers. In stations and centers, students work on specific skills catered to their educational needs while rotating activities in flexible groups. This guide supports teachers in identifying strategies and understanding the benefits of differentiating math and …

Community Partnerships In Urban, Title 1 Elementary Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study, Jae L. Strickland

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify and describe community partnerships in Urban, Title 1 Elementary Schools.

Fifty-one principals from the Southern and Midwestern regions of the United States completed a 19-question on-line survey designed to explore community partnerships in Urban, Title 1 Elementary Schools. Of the 51 principals who completed the survey, 26 agreed to participate in a semi-structured interview.

The findings of the study suggest that community partnerships play an essential role in supporting Urban, Title 1 Elementary Schools. Finding community partners can be challenging. Principals who wish to engage community partners should identify the needs …

Experiences Of Elementary Teachers Using Inclusion Models To Serve Gifted Students, Mandy Sears

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Gifted education has undergone recent changes because of the decrease in funding set aside for gifted students in the public school system. The use of inclusion to provide gifted education within the general education classroom is one option that is more cost-effective than the traditional resource, or pullout, programs that have been used in the state of Georgia. This phenomenological study investigated the perceived experiences of general elementary educators who were new to teaching gifted students and were required to use an inclusion model in the general education classroom. Participants included 13 teachers from 4 school districts in Northern Georgia. …

Teachers’ Experiences Of Georgia’S Early Math Intervention Program: A Phenomenological Study, Rachel Scott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions that K-5 teachers have toward Georgia’s mandated Early Intervention Math Program (EIP) on at risk learners in an elementary school in a rural, North Georgia community. The following questions guided the study: 1. How do K-5 teachers describe their experience with Georgia’s Early Intervention Math Program as an early math intervention for at-risk learners? 2. How do participants describe their experiences with Georgia’s EIP regarding student math preparedness? 3. How do participants perceive the EIP program in comparison to the regular education math program? The setting for this study …

A Little Change Can Make A Big Difference, Kelley E. Buchheister

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The opportunity to teach mathematics through service learning projects provides a relevant and connected experience that encourages concept development and problem solving proficiency while also developing students’ feelings of generosity and altruism. In this article I describe a prior project that helped my students, many of whom struggled with mathematics, become engaged in mathematical thinking and reasoning. Additional specific connections are made toward extended projects surrounding current events, as well as state and national standards.

Turnaround Elementary Principals In Rural Missouri, Julie C. Delaney

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rural high poverty schools can often be invisible to those not living in rural areas. The number of students in rural areas is not far below the number of urban students, yet there has been little attention or research about rural school student achievement (Arnold et al., 2006; Pitchford 2011; Richard, 2005). The state of Missouri has established a program entitled Top Ten By Twenty. This initiative has been an impetus for change in rural high poverty schools. The program has led to increased student achievement in more than 60 rural high poverty schools. In this study, these schools were …

Analyzing Unique-Matching Games Using Elementary Mathematics, Calvin Jongsma, Tom Clark

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

We present here an analysis of the game of Spot It! that can be used as background information for the purpose of leading a math circle around the game. The presentation here follows the progression of solving the puzzle for simple cases first and culminating in the solution of the original game.

Examining Student Writing Proficiencies Across Genres: Results Of An Intervention Study, Hannah M. Dostal, Kimberly A. Wolbers

Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Publications and Other Works

This study examines the patterns of growth across both taught and untaught genres of writing for deaf and hard of hearing students in grades 4-6. 23 students were exposed to Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) for five weeks, during which time they received guided, interactive instruction focused on how writers address particular purposes and audiences with their writing. By examining student writing samples before and after both regular writing instruction and SIWI using genre-specific rubrics, we investigated whether students transfer and generalize writing strategies and processes learned in one genre to writing in a genre for which they did …

How Feedback And Goal-Setting Impact Children's Recess Physical Activity, Ryann Koufoudakis, Heather Erwin, Aaron Beighle, Michelle L. Thornton

Kinesiology and Health Promotion Faculty Publications

In recent years, schools desire to promote physical activity (PA) for their students but are restricted due to resources being expended in other areas of their curriculum, including standardized testing preparation. Recess/lunch periods have potential to contribute important amounts of PA to youth’s overall levels. Interventions to maximize PA during recess are warranted. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the impact of feedback and goal-setting on students’ PA during recess. A sample of 136 (67 females, 69 males) 4^th and 5^th grade students in the Southeast United States wore unsealed Walk4Life pedometers during recess for one …

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of Mathematics Through Drawings, Adam Akerson

Faculty Publications

Research indicates that mathematics anxiety is particularly high in pre-service teachers (Bekdemir, 2010; Gresham, 2007; Hembree, 1990). These future teachers will soon be entering classrooms of their own, responsible for teaching mathematics to young children, who need strong teachers. A 2013 report from The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), found that 42% fourth-graders performed at or above the proficient level in math (NCES, 2013. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary pre-service teacher candidates (PSTCs) perceptions of mathematics, through drawings. Drawings were analyzed before and after a semester-long field experience in a constructivist mathematics environment. The participants …

Reading And Math Interventions At The Secondary Level: A Research Brief, Ashlee Lester, David Naff

MERC Publications

Starting in the early 2000’s with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, federal and state education authorities promoted the use of accountability policies that require schools to meet certain measures of academic progress overtime. Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) and Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) have become the new measure of school success. These policies rely heavily on students’ Math and Reading achievement at particular benchmark grades, leading local educational agencies (i.e. school divisions) to place increased emphasis on the reading and math results of state-mandated testing. In Virginia, pressures to meet AYP and AMOs by improving school performance on the …