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Full-Text Articles in Education

The Nature And Impact Of Cyberbullying On The Middle School Student, Jacqueline K. Pilkey Jan 2011

The Nature And Impact Of Cyberbullying On The Middle School Student, Jacqueline K. Pilkey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cyberbullying is harassment through the Internet or other technologies. Forty-two percent of youth nationally have experienced cyberbullying and 53% admitted to being the cyberbully. A lack of understanding by adults of cyberbullying logistics and impact causes cyberbullying to remain a serious issue that has not yet been appropriately addressed within schools. A sequential, mixed methods study was implemented to investigate the prevalence of cyberbullying in one middle school and to determine the nature and impact of the experience in order to inform site-based interventions. Bandura's social learning theory, Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework, and Agnew's strain theory provided this investigation's theoretical foundation. …


Activating Prior Knowledge With Cues And Questions As A Key Instructional Strategy To Increase Student Achievement In Low Socioeconomic Middle Schools, Michael Glenn Cason Jan 2011

Activating Prior Knowledge With Cues And Questions As A Key Instructional Strategy To Increase Student Achievement In Low Socioeconomic Middle Schools, Michael Glenn Cason

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act created new accountability for educational institutions where schools must demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) by regularly increasing student achievement. Many school districts across the nation failed AYP, searched for effective teaching strategies, and used new instructional models to help, yet they continued to fail. Thousands of educational institutions turned to the learning-focused schools (LFS) model of instruction, but increases in student achievement were sporadic. The rationale for this project stemmed from inconsistent student achievement results at a local middle school while using LFS from the inception of NCLB. This project study reviewed the …


A Phenomenological Approach To Examining Perceptions Of Middle School Students And Their Educators About Their Service-Learning Experiences, Mccafferty, Anita J. Stewart Mccafferty Jan 2011

A Phenomenological Approach To Examining Perceptions Of Middle School Students And Their Educators About Their Service-Learning Experiences, Mccafferty, Anita J. Stewart Mccafferty

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A primary purpose of public education is to ensure that all citizens have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to participate in a democracy. Service learning is a democratic, constructivist, instructional strategy that connects academic learning with community needs. This phenomenological study described: (a) how youth, their educators, and community partners who experience service learning perceive its effects on themselves, their schools, and their community lives and (b) how professional-development opportunities need to be structured in order to encourage high quality civics education instruction. The problem this study addressed was how to solve youth civic and political disengagement. This study relied …


The Impact Of Inclusion On The Achievement Of Middle School Students With Mild To Moderate Learning Disabilities, Ruth Carol Hawkins Jan 2011

The Impact Of Inclusion On The Achievement Of Middle School Students With Mild To Moderate Learning Disabilities, Ruth Carol Hawkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to IDEA and NCLB requirements, students with disabilities are held to the same standards established for nondisabled students. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the impact of a special education inclusion program for middle school students with mild to moderate learning disabilities. Student outcomes were measured based on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test scores for reading/language and mathematics. The theoretical foundation for this study was Vygotsky's social development theory applied to special education inclusion programs to support learning within the general curriculum for students with mild to moderate learning disabilities. An independent samples t …


The Relationship Between Professional Learning And Middle School Teachers' Knowledge And Use Of Differentiated Instruction, Andrea Mcmillan Jan 2011

The Relationship Between Professional Learning And Middle School Teachers' Knowledge And Use Of Differentiated Instruction, Andrea Mcmillan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Self-efficacy beliefs, a component of Bandura's social cognition theory, provided the basis for this study of teachers' participation in professional learning. Training and positive experiences increase teacher efficacy, or the level of effort and persistence educators are willing to exert as they teach. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between teachers' participation in differentiated instruction (DI) in-service opportunities and teachers' knowledge and frequency of use of DI. It was hypothesized that middle school teachers' levels of DI training would be related to teachers' knowledge and use of DI in the classroom. An anonymous survey was …


Effects On 8th Grade Advanced Placement English Class High-Stakes Test Achievement Using Extended Time Blocks, Douglas M. Corbett Jan 2011

Effects On 8th Grade Advanced Placement English Class High-Stakes Test Achievement Using Extended Time Blocks, Douglas M. Corbett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Student performance on high-stakes tests continues to be an important issue for school administrators. This quasi-experimental, quantitative study investigated the relationship between the amount of time 8th grade students spent in advanced placement English classes using an extended block schedule and their achievement on language arts sections of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) high-stakes tests. The study was based on Carroll's theory relating instructional time and student learning. The guiding research questions investigated if extended time blocks in advanced placement English would improve student achievement scores on the language arts sections of NJASK tests. The study …


A Psychological Investigation Of The Expressed Attitudes Of Middle School Aged Adolescents Toward School Bullying, Jodi Marie Daly Jan 2011

A Psychological Investigation Of The Expressed Attitudes Of Middle School Aged Adolescents Toward School Bullying, Jodi Marie Daly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

International research on bullying suggests that bullying is pervasive in schools and the workplace. Most researchers concur that bullying behavior is a disruptive factor to the social and educational well-being of students. Previous research, grounded in social and family systems theory, has indicated those who bully tend to be involved in self-destructive and delinquent behaviors. Additionally, in the only-large scale study on bullying behaviors, 29% of the 10th-grade student body admitted to being bullied that school year. Further, in a new study conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, half of all high school students reported that they have bullied …


Middle School Mathematics Students' Perspectives On The Study Of Mathematics, Christy H. Vaughn Jan 2011

Middle School Mathematics Students' Perspectives On The Study Of Mathematics, Christy H. Vaughn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study addressed the perceptions toward the study of mathematics by middle school students who had formerly been in a remedial mathematics program. The purpose of the study was to explore the past experiences of nine students in order to determine what is needed for them to feel successful in mathematics. The conceptual framework of the study was grounded in philosophies of motivation, including achievement goal theory, self-worth theory, self-efficacy theory, expectancy-value theory, and attribution theory. The study used a phenomenological research design to answer the key research question, which focused upon the experiences of students and the meaning …


Evaluation Of A Remedial Educational Program At A Southern Suburban Middle School, Mary K. Mills Jan 2011

Evaluation Of A Remedial Educational Program At A Southern Suburban Middle School, Mary K. Mills

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates that students be measured yearly on standardized state tests, rather than on classwork, to show adequate academic growth. During the 2007--2008 school year, 38% of eighth graders in one state failed the math portion of the Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). The purpose of this quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest control-group study was to determine if there was a significant difference in CRCT scores between at-risk eighth-grade math students receiving instruction in (a) the Remedial Education Program (REP) and in (b) the regular program. The theoretical base for this study included Piaget's concrete operational theory, constructivist theory, …


Latino English Language Learners In Middle School And The Effect Of General Education Teachers' Use Of The Lesson Study Collaborative Model, Chauncey Dante Reese Jan 2011

Latino English Language Learners In Middle School And The Effect Of General Education Teachers' Use Of The Lesson Study Collaborative Model, Chauncey Dante Reese

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

General education content teachers in an urban middle school are responsible for the academic performance of Latino English language learners (ELLs) but lack specialized training in language acquisition. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate content teachers' use of the lesson study collaborative model in teaching Latino ELLs. The theoretical framework of cooperative learning and the lesson study planning model guided this study. The research questions addressed the specific English as a second language (ESL) conversations and planning that occurred in interdisciplinary team meetings and lesson study implementation in teaching practice and student performance. Typological analysis of …


Middle School Teachers' Perceptions Of Barriers Of Managing Student Behavior, Winifred Nicole Whitlock Jan 2011

Middle School Teachers' Perceptions Of Barriers Of Managing Student Behavior, Winifred Nicole Whitlock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite training and support, many middle school teachers struggle to create, implement, and enforce research-based strategies to manage students' behaviors. The purpose of this case study was to examine teachers' perceptions about the barriers of managing student behavior. The research questions investigated 9 teachers' perceived barriers of managing student behavior at one middle school and the observed actions of these teachers' reactions to student behavior. Each participant was asked to participate in a 45-minute semistructured interview to examine their perceived barriers of managing student behavior and the strategies they use to manage student behavior relative to McGregor's theories X and …


A Case Study Exploring The Transition To Middle School From The Perspective Of Students, Kelly A. Rappa Jan 2011

A Case Study Exploring The Transition To Middle School From The Perspective Of Students, Kelly A. Rappa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The transition to middle school is often associated with negative effects on academic achievement, motivation, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. Educators at a Grade 6 through 8 middle school in the northeastern United States observed students struggle with the adjustment to middle school. Research suggests that developmentally responsive schools can significantly reduce the potential negative impact of middle school adjustment. Drawing upon developmental theories from the works of individuals such as Piaget, Erikson, and Maslow, the purpose of this single-case study was to capture the opinions, thoughts, and perceptions of the students transitioning into middle school to better understand how they …


Middle School Educators' Perceptions Of Online Professional Development, Kelley E. Theodocion Jan 2011

Middle School Educators' Perceptions Of Online Professional Development, Kelley E. Theodocion

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Numerous researchers have investigated distance education in postsecondary settings, but there is a paucity of research regarding the design and delivery of online professional development for K-12 educators. The goal of this mixed methods sequential exploratory study was to examine attitudes of middle grades educators toward an online professional development course held for teachers employed by one suburban school district in the southeast region of the United States. The theoretical framework is Knowles's theory of adult education (andragogy). The research questions addressed perceptions of connectedness and learning in an online professional development course. A structured interview protocol was used to …


National Music Education Standards And Adherence To Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, Vada M. Coleman Jan 2011

National Music Education Standards And Adherence To Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, Vada M. Coleman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Pressures from education reforms have contributed to the need for music educators to embrace new and diverse instructional strategies to enhance the learning environment. Music teachers need to understand the pedagogy of teaching and learning and how these affect their praxis. The purpose of this multiple case evaluative study was to investigate the instructional methods used in 10 middle school general music programs to assist students in obtaining the National Standards for Music Education. Bloom's revised taxonomy was the theoretical framework used to evaluate the teaching praxis of the participating teachers. The research questions for the study addressed the effectiveness …


A Case Study Investigating Teachers' Knowledge And Implementation Of Response To Intervention, Regina Sims Jan 2011

A Case Study Investigating Teachers' Knowledge And Implementation Of Response To Intervention, Regina Sims

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The local school district in the current study was struggling to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets in reading because secondary students were scoring below the basic level in reading and their content area teachers had little or no training in reading deficiencies. What had been speculated, yet never tested, was the utility of teacher training in research-based reading programs and interventions on increasing reading achievement scores. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine issues hampering RTI implementation. This case study focused on analyzing the perceptions of secondary RTI teachers within an urban school district in Texas. …