Education Commons^™

Resources For Developing Your A.I. Literacy, Michelle Reidel

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

This resource review includes materials designed to help you deepen your understanding of A.I. technologies and consider how these technologies can be leveraged to both mitigate your workload and support student learning.

Get To Know The Georgia Council For History Education, Joann Wood

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Find out about the Georgia Council for History Education by exploring with colleagues a deeper understanding of history and improving the teaching and learning of history.

Historical Inquiry Deliberation (Hid): The New Republic Lesson Plan, Rhonda Kemp Webb

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

The following lesson plan is an example of adapting the Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) format for engaging students in the deliberation of the multiple perspectives for a current societal issue to instead create a procedure for evaluating a historical event or decision. The sample lesson included here for engaging students in this process is entitled “Historical Inquiry Deliberation: The New Republic” and requires students to deliberate the following question:

Which of the competing visions for America’s future was the best approach for the nation at the early stage of its development in the late 18^th century?

• Manufacturing: The US …

Making Quality Children’S Literature An Essential Ingredient: How Middle And High School Teachers Can Spice Up Their Lessons, Joy Hatcher, Joann Wood

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Using the language of cooking, the authors argue convincingly for the inclusion of quality children and young adult literature as an ingredient in social studies lessons at the middle and high school levels. They provide steps for using literature as a source, blending literature with inquiry, selecting the best titles, keeping up with new works, and point to a few especially helpful titles to illustrate their message.

Building Civil Discourse In Social Studies Through Historical Inquiry Deliberation (Hid), Rhonda Kemp Webb

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

This article calls for an increased emphasis on social studies in education and highlights an effective strategy for developing civil discourse skills through what I call Historical Inquiry Deliberation (HID). As social studies educators, we want our students to become engaged in their communities and become the problem solvers of the future. Utilizing the Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) approach builds student confidence, discussion skills, and understanding of the power multiple perspectives can bring to solving a problem. Adapting this technique for analyzing historical content can allow for a collaborative twist to the widely utilized Document Based Question assignment. The article …

Reflection On Best Practices In Designing Online Middle Level Learning, Holly J. Thornton

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

An increase in online learning during the pandemic has led to new thinking about online instruction that will last far beyond the pandemic. The hurried nature of instructional design as the pandemic shifted teaching and learning from the classroom to the computer may have neglected the need to design lessons using best practices online instead of focusing on content delivery and grading. Practices that are part of successful middle level education including cultivating depth of student understanding, developmental responsiveness, social emotional learning and differentiation to meet young adolescent student needs may have been neglected in pandemic online lesson design. This …

Accessibility Of Virtual Instruction In Higher Education: Challenges Caused By The Covid-19 Pandemic, Carlie L. Cooper

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed. It prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Institutions of higher education are included under Title III of the ADA, and as such are required to provide the same access to services and education to qualified individuals with disabilities as individuals without. A review of the literature of accessibility of online programs and courses in higher education shows that compliance to the ADA is sporadic due to several challenges. In Spring 2020, all institutions of higher education transitioned to some form of online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This created …

The Impact Of Grade Level Flexible Grouping On Math Achievement Scores, Heather Mckeen

Georgia Educational Researcher

Abstract

Flexible grouping aims to divide students into groups according to their strengths and abilities. This will allow teachers to tailor instruction to meet the needs of students, allowing them to thrive within their current environments. Quantitative research was used to investigate whether flexible grouping had a positive effect on student achievement as measured by the mathematics section of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). The aggregate scores of students in grades 1 to 4 in a school in a county in Georgia were compared for periods before and after the implementation of flexible grouping. The following study was able to …

A Study On Science Achievement And Motivation Using Computer-Based Simulations Compared To Traditional Hands-On Manipulation, Stacey L. Hannel, Joshua Cuevas

Georgia Educational Researcher

This study was conducted to investigate whether or not computer-based simulations had a greater impact on science achievement compared to traditional hands-on methods for middle school students in an on-level science course. The study also sought to determine if either method had an impact on retention as well as motivation. The participants in the study were 6^th grade students attending a public middle school in suburban metro-Atlanta. A variety of statistical analyses were utilized to measure science achievement, retention, and motivation. Results indicated that there was no significant difference on science achievement between the traditional hands-on method and the …

Reimagining The Stacks: Classroom Technology And Library Collaboration For Writing In The Disciplines, Jossalyn Larson, Daniel C. Reardon

The Journal of Student Success in Writing

This article details the process by which one university redesigned a first year writing course to better promote discipline-specific and best-practice research techniques. The program offers experiential learning activities through scholarly collaboration, using library staff as mentors, producing an open-access peer-reviewed student journal, and emphasizing face-to-face interaction of peer research communities. It has the potential to establish for students in high school, community colleges and universities that research writing is fundamentally about joining and contributing to a conversation.

Possibilities And Challenges Of Teaching Integrated Math And Social Studies For Social Justice: Two Teacher Educators' Collaborative Self-Study, Paula P. Guerra, Sohyun An

Georgia Educational Researcher

In this paper, we—one mathematics teacher educator and one social studies teacher educator—describe a project where we collaborated to model teaching integrated mathematics and social studies for social justice in our methods courses. We encountered varied challenges in our efforts to prepare teacher candidates for social-justice-oriented lessons. These challenges included teacher candidates’ perception of authority/credibility of their professors who were foreign females from the “Third World”, teacher candidates’ deficit views on minoritized students, and the limited time and resources for teacher collaboration in teacher education. Despite these challenges, we believe this kind of project is necessary to move forward in …

A Quantitative Content Analysis Of Mercer University Theses, Justus J. Randolph, Lura S. Gaiek, Torian A. White, Lisa A. Slappey, Andrea Chastain, Rose Prejean-Harris, Cole Hansard

Georgia Educational Researcher

Quantitative content analysis of a body of research not only helps budding researchers understand the culture, language, and expectations of scholarship, it helps identify deficiencies and inform policy and practice. Because of these benefits, an analysis of a census of 980 Mercer University M.Ed., Ed.S., and doctoral theses was conducted. Each thesis was coded on 10 variables. The descriptive characteristics of the theses, the predictors of the length of the theses, and the predictors of the type of research method used were investigated. The main results were that: (a) the vast majority of thesis authors was female, (b) the number …