Education Commons^™

Finding Focus: Authentic Inquiry And Composition In The Third Space, Noah Brewer

Dissertations

This research seeks to better understand the attitudes and dispositions of advanced-level English Language Arts students toward the activities of academic research and writing, and to explore the ways that critical pedagogies focused on authentic inquiry and composition interact with these attitudes. The project draws upon research in student motivation, sociocultural definitions of literacy, and theories of hybrid identity in order to discover the potential impact of engaging students in critical reflection on their own meaning-making practices, and of curricular and pedagogical choices aimed at making the lessons of the classroom more relevant to the demands of real-world literacy practices …

Influential Experiences: Practices Of Teaching And Learning Successes To Increase Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy, Amanda L. Steiner, Jennifer Lemke

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Teaching is a complex yet rewarding career; still, 40% - 50% of teachers leave the field within the first five years of their career (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). Teacher preparation programs are often criticized for the lack of connection between theory and practice. Pre-service teachers who have more pedagogical courses and field experiences built into their coursework display higher levels of self-efficacy in their first year of teaching (Boyd et al., 2009; Clark, 2016). Through the lens of Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy, this case study examines what experiences are most influential in developing pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy.

High School Student Perceptions Of Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports, Candice Conley

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This case study examines student voice and their interpretations of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework used in one Kentucky high school. Qualitative interview data from high school student focus groups was analyzed using grounded theory to develop themes related to PBIS implementation.

Using open and axial coding, themes were developed from common student interpretations of PBIS within focus groups. Participants discussed a variety of positive techniques teachers use inside the classroom and responses to student behavior. Reward systems were discussed, but more importantly students offered suggestions of interventions and supports to offer at school. When asked to …

An Examination Of High School Students' Experiences As Anti-Defamation League Peer Trainers: A Case Study, David G. Knecht

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine students experiences as Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Peer Trainers at a predominately White, suburban high school in New Jersey, including in what ways students' experiences reflected transformative learning and empowered them as social justice allies. In addition, the study explored in what ways students' experiences could inform social justice education at their high school. The findings indicate that within this context, many participants experienced at least the beginning of perspective transformation, resulting in a shift from an exclusive to an inclusive perspective and an orientation toward social justice. Further, the findings …

Text Messaging Between School Counselors And Students: An Exploratory Study, Nicholas R. Gilly

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory case study examines the impact of text messaging on mentoring relationships when used as an outreach between school counselors and high school students, where established relationships are lacking. An SMS gateway was used to mediate communication between school counselors (N=2) and students (N=5) over a three-month timeframe. The SMS gateway converted email, sent from counselors, to text messages, which were received on mobile devices of students and allowed students to respond back to counselors. Findings indicate that the use of text messaging may ease scheduling of face-to-face meetings between counselors and students, but evidence does not support any …

This Is My Neighborhood: An Exploration Of Culturally Relevant Agency To Support High School Latinx Students In An Urban Career Academy, Edward C. Fletcher Jr., Victor M. Hernandez-Gantes, Chrystal Smith

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives and strategies internal and external stakeholders used to support students in a career academy serving a predominately Latinx community. Within this case study, the principal of the school was Latinx, grew up within the same community as the school, and therefore shared the same culture as his students. Thus, we wondered how effective the principal would be in overcoming the cultural, political, and social barriers of students in the predominately Latinx school. We found the school leaders had a heightened awareness of organizational, cultural, and political complexities because of their …

A Student Research Manual: Helping Students Help Themselves Identifying And Addressing Challenges Facing Prospective Undergraduate Researchers, Landon Rohrer, Karen L. Sirum

Honors Projects

Undergraduate research does not only help equip STEM majors to be better researchers and employees but increases retention of students to graduate school in needed scientific fields. However, while resources are being produced for undergraduates like Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs), Centers for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURS), and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), undergraduate involvement and awareness about these resources, and the value of undergraduate research in general, does not seem to be improving. Therefore, it would be valuable to figure out why undergraduates aren't autonomously seeking out undergraduate research during their studies. To investigate why, a two-part survey was …

Developing Serious Games In Engineering Education: Innovation At The Nexus Of Food, Energy, And Water Systems, Nathan Rice

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

At a time when food, energy, and water (FEW) are of the utmost concern to the security and health of the world, an initiative has begun to understand the interactions between these systems. The goal of Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) is to bring together research fields that typically work in their own silos to solve complex problems increasing the resiliency and sustainability of the FEW system. Stemming from this initiative was a project to produce an educational immersive simulation game to teach youth about how their food is produced, systems thinking, and sustainable …

Parents’ Involvement In Their Children’S Education: The Value Of Parental Perceptions In Public Education, John Duman, Hasan Aydin, Burhan Ozfidan

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this study was to gather data from public school parents that would contribute to the understanding of parental involvement with school choice for their children and of parental involvement with educational organizations. We employed a case study approach as the methodological basis for eliciting 22 multi-racial parents perceptions’ about school climate and their child’s school choice. Our comprehensive in-depth semi-structured interviews, field notes, observations, and documents data collection process incorporated feedback from potential respondents from the outset of the design process to enhance data quality. Verbatim transcripts and documents were analyzed using a content and thematic analysis …