Education Commons^™

The Perceptions Of Elementary School Teachers Regarding Their Efforts To Help Students Utilize Student-To-Student Discourse In Science, Jennifer Lovejoy Craddock

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the perceptions of elementary teachers who teach science as opposed to science teacher specialists regarding their efforts to help students use student-to-student discourse for improving science learning. A growing body of research confirms the importance of a) student-to-student discourse for making meaning of science ideas and b) moving students’ conceptual development towards a more scientific understanding of the natural world. Based on those foundations, the three research questions that guided this study examined the value elementary teachers place on student-to-student discourse, the various approaches teachers employ to promote the use of …

The Quest For A Meaningful “Special Education”: The Educational Journeys Of Nine Students With Learning Disabilities From An Inaccessible Learning Environment To One That Enabled Them To Learn, Amy E. Ballin

Educational Studies Dissertations

This ethnographic case study follows the educational journeys of nine students with learning disabilities who with luck and parental advocacy attend a school designed to address their disability. The researcher explores the role of cultures, both within and outside the school, and examines some of the effects of the social construction of special education on student learning.

This study draws no conclusions regarding the connections between the cultures at the school and the student’s success. However it does highlight the perspective of students, parents, and teachers, noting the ways in which they describe how and why this school environment allowed …

How Elementary School Teachers Learn To Teach Mathematics, Phyllis Schneider Kirschner

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study examines how elementary school teachers learned to teach mathematics during their pre-service education and during their first few years of teaching. The study identifies those experiences teachers found to be most significant in their development as mathematics teachers. All seven teachers in this study had been taught using procedural methods and each had to find a way to integrate conceptual mathematics education into their own understanding. The study examines the teachers' motivations for pursuing this understanding and the circumstances that provided opportunities to do so.