Education Commons^™

Key Characteristics Of Teacher Leaders In Schools, Angela Lumpkin, Heather Claxton, Amanda Wilson

Administrative Issues Journal

Teacher leaders who share their specialized knowledge, expertise, and experience with other teachers broaden and sustain school and classroom improvement efforts. Teacher leaders can transform classrooms into learning laboratories where every student is engaged in relevant and well-designed curricular content, every teacher embraces the use of more effective instructional strategies, and authentic assessments provide evidence of rich student learning. This work describes four essentialities associated with teacher leaders: a focus on student learning, along with the importance of empowerment, relationships, and collaboration. In addition to gleaning insights from the literature, examples of the impact of teacher leaders in schools are …

Imagining An Ideal School For Wellbeing: Locating Student Voice, Catharine A. Simmons, Anne Graham, Nigel Thomas

Professor Anne Graham

This article explores the significance of actively engaging with students in school about matters that concern them. The discussion draws upon data from a large-scale mixed methods study in Australia that investigated how ‘wellbeing’ in schools is understood and facilitated. The qualitative phase of the research included semi-structured focus group interviews with 606 students, aged between 6 and 17 years, which incorporated an activity inviting students to imagine, draw and discuss an ideal school that promoted their wellbeing. These data reveal how capable students are of providing rich, nuanced accounts of their experience that could potentially inform school improvement. While …

Imagining An Ideal School For Wellbeing: Locating Student Voice, Catharine A. Simmons, Anne Graham, Nigel Thomas

Dr Catharine A Simmons

This article explores the significance of actively engaging with students in school about matters that concern them. The discussion draws upon data from a large-scale mixed methods study in Australia that investigated how ‘wellbeing’ in schools is understood and facilitated. The qualitative phase of the research included semi-structured focus group interviews with 606 students, aged between 6 and 17 years, which incorporated an activity inviting students to imagine, draw and discuss an ideal school that promoted their wellbeing. These data reveal how capable students are of providing rich, nuanced accounts of their experience that could potentially inform school improvement. While …

School Climate And Risky Behaviors Among Rural Adolescents, Marissa Sherri Green

Theses and Dissertations

The present study sought to determine whether rural high school students' positive perceptions of their school climate could make it less likely that they would engage in or be exposed to risky behaviors, and if students' gender and grade moderated this association. School climate is a construct that consists of the following five major dimensions: Safety, Relationships, Teaching and Learning, the Instructional Environment, and the School Improvement Process, although this final dimension was not assessed in the current study (Thapa, Cohen, Guffey, and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013). The specific risky behaviors that were examined in this study were delinquent behaviors, victimization, substance …

Contradicting Conventional Wisdom: Women Presidents' Abilities To Forge Purposeful And Instrumental Relationships For Institutional Outcomes, Susan Amy Woollen

Theses and Dissertations

CONTRADICTING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: WOMEN PRESIDENTS' ABILITIES TO FORGE PURPOSEFUL AND INSTRUMENTAL

RELATIONSHIPS FOR INSTITUTIONAL OUTCOMES

Susan A. Woollen

268 pages May 2015

There is a perception in the literature that women presidents are weak in the function of instrumental relationship building. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the practices developed and utilized by women presidents of 4-year institutions to identify and build relationships with key constituents whom they recognized as having resources that could lead to institution building and to learn how the presidents secured those resources.

Through an interview format, 12 presidents elaborated on the internal …

An Examination Of Relationship Factors Contributing To Student Persistence In Ing Run For Something Better, Brice Leon Sampson Cockfield

Theses and Dissertations

There is sufficient empirical evidence that children are more unfit now than ever before in the history of the United States. Defeating childhood obesity is a critical agenda issue for the First Lady Michelle Obama as the medical community and the United States at large continually cite research that obesity, poor nutrition, and low physical activity may affect children’s cognitive and physical outcomes. Much of the research in this area is quantifiable and measurable through body mass index, the number of repetitions of certain exercises, and physical stamina. As schools search for solutions to address this epidemic, school nutrition and …

Roles And Relationships In Learning And Teaching: A Case Study Of The Development And Worldwide Implementation Of A New Religious Curriculum, Melissa Noel Hawkley

Theses and Dissertations

This in-depth case study examines perceptions of teacher and learner roles and relationships that were the basis for common understanding in the creation and implementation of the new youth curriculum, Come, Follow Me: Learning Resources for Youth, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The assumptions and beliefs of teachers and learners directly influence each other in their perception of their roles and thus, directly influence the type of teaching and learning they engage in. The curriculum was intentionally designed to help members of the Church teach and learn for conversion. Teachers who understand both their role and …

An Exploration Of A Blended Learning Cohort Through Social Network Analysis, Kelley Charlene Bliden

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies: Doctoral Research Projects

The following technical report is a social network analysis of online threaded discussions from three blending learning cohorts. The purpose of this social network analysis was to explore graduate level blended learning cohorts by investigating how the relationships and interactions among individuals shape and affect the overall cohort,to explore the evolution of each cohort overtime,and to investigate facilitator interactions within the blended learning program and how their contributions shaped and affected the network.

The threaded discussions were coded and analyzed based on literature about social network analysis, constructive-developmental theory, holding environments, and transformational learning theory. Eight selected weeks of discussions …

The Effects Of Relationship-Driven Classroom Management, Lisa M. Laasch

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

Abstract This study was initiated to determine the effects of relationship-driven classroom management on positive behaviors in the lower elementary classroom. The research was conducted in a rural public Montessori school. Students were carefully observed to determine behavioral norms. Next, they were invited to participate in a survey to establish their current perception of positive relationships within their school and particularly with myself as a guide. Subsequently, I conducted a family survey, recorded daily observation of positive behaviors, and collected samples of student work during the research period. Finally, I re-administered the students survey to determine if they believed their …

Communication As Yoga, Kristen Caroline Blinne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I am in conversation with the following questions: How can individuals and communities teach and learn to engage more peacefully, nonviolently, and compassionately with each other? Further, how can one practice a style of communication that helps at least one person suffer less each day? In asking these questions, my goal has been to imagine as well as attempt to actualize a world where individuals and communities work together to create less suffering in each other's lives by first developing compassionate awareness of our interconnectedness, then "waking up" not only to our own divinity but also to …

Growing Ideas - Shocking Language! - Swearing, University Of Maine Center For Community Inclusion And Disability Studies

Early Childhood Resources

When children swear, it is important to understand the hidden meaning behind those troubling words. As with any behavior, it is important to learn as much as you can about a child and what may be causing this swearing behavior. Young children usually do not know what the swear words mean, so what is the swearing behavior communicating? Is a child saying..."I am angry!" "This word makes people pay attention!" "I want to be like my favorite TV character!" "I need a friend!" or " I feel sick or hurt."

Growing Ideas - Friends & Feelings: Social-Emotional Development In Young Children, University Of Maine Center For Community Inclusion And Disability Studies

Early Childhood Resources

Social-emotional development involves the ability to form close, secure relationships and to experience, regulate, and express emotions. Social-emotional growth is affected by a variety of factors, such as an individual’s unique biology and temperament, as well as life experiences. “Social” refers to how individuals interact with others. “Emotional” refers to how individuals feel about themselves, others, and the world.

Counseling College Women: The Interplay Of Psychological Development, Social Factors, Alcohol, And Sexual Risk-Taking, Alyson M. Pompeo, Leslie Kooyman, Gloria Pierce

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines how traditional college-age women adjust to the campus environment, including alcohol usage and sexual risk-taking, from a developmental/feminist perspective. Interpersonal adjustment, alcohol usage, and sexual risk-taking are explored, with consideration for physical and psychosocial consequences. Recommendations for counseling, including an illustrative case example, are provided.

School Culture And Mentoring Relationships, Crucial To Developing Confidant Professional Identities Among Lbote Pre-Service Teachers, Lynn D. Sheridan

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the AARE-NZARE 2014 Conference, 30 November-4 December, Brisbane, Australia

Structural Equation Modelling To Assess Relationships Between Event-Related Potential Components, Heart Rate And Skin Conductance In The Context Of Emotional Stimuli, Susan Thomas, Peter Leeson, Craig Gonsalvez, Stuart Johnstone

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract of a poster presented at the 17th World Congress of Psychophysiology (IOP2014) of the International Organization of Psychophysiology (IOP) Hiroshima, Japan, September 23rd to 27th, 2014.

The Effect Of Interpersonal Relationships On The Body Image Of First Year, Women Of Color Studying At Predominately White Undergraduate Institutions, Lauren Kross

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

"The Effect of Interpersonal Relationships on the Body Image of First Year, Women of Color Studying at Predominately White Undergraduate Institutions" by Lauren Kross, a 2014 graduate student in the Gender and Women's Studies Department at Minnesota State University Mankato, focuses on how relationships and peer groups positively or negatively impact the body image of first year women of color studying at Minnesota State University Mankato, a predominately white undergraduate institution. The first year of college is a time that students experience many changes in their environment, academics, interests, and identity development. Their previously formed and newly formed relationships play …

Fostering Organizational Learning: Superintendent And Principal Relationships, Ryan P. Clark

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Schools have a responsibility to prepare students for the 21^st century because the global economy demands a workforce that can adapt to a constantly changing and increasingly complex environment. High-stakes accountability for student learning is the United States’ strategy to ensure that schools adequately prepare students. This high-stakes environment requires school leaders to make curricular and instructional decisions intended to simply prepare students for tests. Yielding to the pressure to perform on tests often neglects students’ opportunities to think critically or engage in complex problem solving, which are both important skills for today’s workplace.

Some school and district leaders …