Education Commons^™

Balancing Free Play And Structured Learning Opportunities In Early Childhood Education Classrooms: Contrasting Perceptions Of Teachers And Researchers, Logan Mentzer

University Honors Theses

This study explored how early childhood education classrooms can provide a balance of learning opportunities that are both initiated by the child and facilitated by the teacher. Three transitional/preschool teachers were interviewed along with two researchers who study preschool/kindergarten classrooms. The results of this study found four strategies that are used in early childhood education classes that allow both child exploration and adult facilitation: 1) creating close teacher-child relationships; 2) creating close lead-assistant teacher relationships; 3) using both mental and physical planning; 4) using guided questions to teach. There were interesting differences in contrasting perspectives of early childhood education teachers …

The Combined Effects Of Parent And Teacher Involvement On The Development Of Adolescents' Academic Engagement, Nicolette Paige Rickert

Dissertations and Theses

The current dissertation includes two related studies designed to examine the combined effects of parent and teacher involvement on the development of adolescents' academic engagement as they transition to middle school. Previous studies have demonstrated the positive, individual effects of parent and teacher warm involvement on adolescents' engagement in school. However, this research is limited in its focus on only one social partner. Adolescent development is embedded within multiple, dynamic systems, necessitating the examination of both parent and teacher influences. The few studies that have examined parents and teachers together suggest that their combined effects are both cumulative (additive) and …

Examining The Development And Classroom Dynamics Of Student Disaffection Over Multiple Time Periods: Short-Term Episodes And Long-Term Trajectories, Emily Anne Saxton

Dissertations and Theses

Student disaffection, a pervasive problem in middle school classrooms, is costly not only for disaffected students themselves (e.g., declines in GPA, high school drop out) but also for their teachers (e.g., stress-related health outcomes). Despite its importance, however, open questions remain regarding both the development of disaffection during early adolescence and the classroom dynamics that underlie changes in disaffection. This dissertation includes two free-standing manuscripts that explore these open questions regarding the development and classroom dynamics of disaffection. Each focuses on different developmental time scales and employs different methodological approaches to examine these important, but unanswered questions.

Drawing from a …

"It's All Because I Like The Person That's Teaching Me": Masculinities, Engagement, And Caring Relationships In Secondary Schools, Cristy Lauren Weggelaar

Dissertations and Theses

U.S. schools face a well-documented gender gap within some important educational and social indicators. In the United States, boys and young men are significantly more likely than girls and young women to be diagnosed with a learning disability, leave high school without a diploma, receive failing grades in core classes, and be suspended or expelled from school. This study uses an interpretive research framework to investigate the relationship between this gender gap in education and constructions of masculinity, social and cultural capital, agency, caring and resistance in secondary schools. Data collected through interviews with young men who engaged in acts …

The Role Of Teacher Autonomy Support Across The Transition To Middle School: Its Components, Reach, And Developmental Effects, Julia Sara Dancis

Dissertations and Theses

Building upon self-determination theory, this study sought to ascertain the reach of teacher autonomy support beyond its well-documented impact on student autonomy and engagement to include student competence and relatedness, as well as to parse apart specific teacher behaviors that comprise autonomy support (i.e., respect, choice, relevance, coercion) and their unique influences on the multiple motivational outcomes, surrounding the transition to middle school. These questions were examined using information from 224 fifth graders, 339 sixth graders, and 345 seventh graders attending elementary and middle schools in a predominantly Caucasian working and middle class school district.

Regression analyses, predicting change in …

Student Motivation Profiles As A Diagnostic Tool To Help Teachers Provide Targeted Support, Cailin Tricia Currie

Dissertations and Theses

Research has demonstrated that academic engagement is an important resource for students, promoting their learning and achievement. Less well documented is the possibility that students' classroom engagement may also be a valuable resource for their teachers, capable of influencing how teachers treat their students over time. The current study sought to examine the relationship between student motivation and teacher behavior to better understand how teachers perceive and respond to their students' classroom motivation and whether these motivational states contain diagnostic information about the types of supports students may need in order to be engaged, enthusiastic learners. The observable manifestations of …

Capturing Peers', Teachers', And Parents' Joint Contributions To Students' Engagement: An Exploration Of Models, Justin William Vollet

Dissertations and Theses

Building on research that has focused on understanding how peers contribute to students' engagement, this dissertation explores the extent to which peer group influences on students' engagement may add to and be contextualized by qualities of the relationships they maintain with their teachers and their parents. To focus on how each of these adult contexts work in concert with peer groups to jointly contribute to changes in students' engagement, the two studies used data on 366 sixth graders which were collected at two time points during their first year of middle school: Peer groups were identified using socio-cognitive mapping; students …

An Exploratory Study Of Teachers' Uses Of Data To Understand Students' Cognitive And Affective Engagement, Nicole Van Gasse

Dissertations and Theses

Since its introduction in the 1980's, student engagement has been a popular topic in educational research. In the beginning, engagement was thought of as a simple construct; however, it is now believed that student engagement involves four separate, but equally important components (Appleton, 2012; Christenson, Reschly, Appleton, Berman, Spanjers, & Varro, 2008). The components of academic, behavioral, affective and cognitive engagement are each vital to the ongoing educational success of students, and ideally, these would remain high throughout all of the years that students are in school. Unfortunately, research shows that most students' engagement levels continuously decrease from elementary school …

How Do Youth And Adults At A Rural High School Conceptualize The Role Of Student? An Investigation Of The Student Role Identity Standard At The Intersection Of Student And Teacher Perspectives, Joseph M. Zenisek

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past decade, engaging student voice has emerged as an approach to increasing meaningful student involvement in schools towards meeting adolescents' developmental needs for agency, efficacy, and sense of belonging. Central to student voice work is the re-creation of student-teacher and student-organization relationships, generating student identity roles that are fundamentally different from the roles traditionally allocated to students. Conventional concepts of student roles by both adults and youth can act as barriers to increasing student voice. The goal of this study was to develop a better understanding of student role identity. Applying a critical ethnography approach in the context …

Being An "Other": The Significance Of Teachers' Lived Experiences In Working With Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Yumiko Otsuki

Dissertations and Theses

The study's goal was to understand what contributes to the formation of teachers' perspectives regarding the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Its focus was to portray through teachers' stories the experiences in their lives that may have contributed to constructing who they are as people and as educators.

Four teachers from one rural district participated. Using qualitative methods, the study explores and describes incidents in teachers' lives, looking at the way their life experiences are reflected in their relationships with students. In considering ways in which those experiences may have helped shape teaching philosophies and practices, the study …

The Impact Of Theories Of Dialogic Epistemology On Composition Theory And Pedagogy, Kandy Sue Robertson

Dissertations and Theses

Dialogic epistemological theory dramatically changes traditional concepts of composition theory and pedagogy in several ways. First, it changes our understanding of the ways in which human beings acquire knowledge. By suggesting that the cognitive environment is dialogic, a product of consensus, rather than isolated within the individual, we come to understand knowledge as a product of experience and interpretation rather than a fixed quantity waiting to be discovered.

Second, dialogic epistemology had changed our concept of the way in which classrooms are configured as well as the ways in which they function. The notion of learning through dialogue facilitates collaboration …

The Influence Of Student Gender On Teacher/Student Interactions In Esl Classrooms, Lisa Sybil Mann

Dissertations and Theses

Because teacher I student interactions provide opportunities for correction and comprehensible input, a major component of successful language learning, equitable distribution of teacher I student interactions in the language classroom is an important element for the success of all second language students. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences in teacher I student interactions based on student gender occurred in four college English as a Second Language instructors' classrooms. The role of instructor gender and student ethnicity in teacher I student interaction content and frequency were also examined. Informal interviews were designed to determine the instructors' …

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Role Behaviors Pertaining To The Roles Of Student And Professor, Kathryne Jeanne Nadal

Dissertations and Theses

Communication theory involving the role concept has shown that role expectations and differing evaluations of role behavior can lead to communication breakdowns between persons. Literature pertaining to relations between professors and international students indicates the presence of unfulfilled expectations between them as to how they perform their respective roles. It was therefore hypothesized that some difficulties international students face in the academic world may be due to factors such as differing role expectations. As the literature provided no methodologically based cross-cultural research in this area, the researcher undertook to discover if professors and students evaluate the roles of student and …