Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Using Inquiry To Raise Engagement During Third Grade Instruction, Andrew Ellingson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this study is to research the effects that using inquiry-based strategies have on independent reading time engagement and reading achievement for third grade students. The research will begin by identifying the level of engagement and reading achievement of a third-grade class. A third-grade class will receive lessons on using the inquiry process, and then they will be able to take control of their learning and will be able to read and create projects based off what they are interested in. This study will examine if these strategies and options will boost engagement for these third-grade students, which …

Fostering Children’S Academic Development Through Movement-Based Learning Environments, Hannah Martin

Graduate Teacher Education

Abstract

This study investigated how play and movement affect young children’s learning in order to provide educators with teaching strategies that are effective and developmentally appropriate in supporting the whole child. Academics, standardized testing, and school readiness have been buzzwords in education since No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2001. The term “school readiness” has been interpreted to indicate worksheets, memorization, and direct instruction to increase academic scores on standardized tests (Klein, 2015). The Common Core Standards for reading have dramatically increased in recent decades, including the expectation that children leaving kindergarten be comprehensive emergent readers (Carlsson-Paige, Bywater-McLaughlin, & …

Implementing Mindfulness: The Effect On Student Behavior And Focus At The Elementary Level, Brianna Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The practice of mindfulness is being used with increasing regularity in classrooms around the world. Mindfulness is the idea of being present in the moment without thinking about the past or wondering about the future. Teaching students about practicing mindfulness has several components including breathing, seeing, stretching, and listening. Provided is a literature review and research on the positive effects mindfulness has on a students’ ability to focus, self-regulate, and release anxiety and stress in a Title 1 elementary classroom. Analysis of the data showed a decrease in the frequency of off-task behaviors in four out of six students during …

Will ‘Single National Curriculum’ Be Able To End Systematic Discrimination Against Religious Minorities In Pakistan?, Bakhtawar Ahmed

MSJ Capstone Projects

Being a bilingual and multiethnic country, Pakistan is a multi-religion state where non-Muslims are a sizable part of the society and many of whom have contributed enormously to its wellbeing as well.

The country's population is overwhelmingly Muslim; therefore, the Islamic education is more dominant in its national curriculum and is also reflected in the customs and traditions.

Therefore, the teachings of Islam and its importance are conveyed to society including non-Muslims.

In a multiethnic, religiously diverse and sectarian state of Pakistan, the protection and delivery of basic human rights have always been a challenging task to be provided by …

Civic Education In South Dakota K-12 Schools: The Effect On Students From K-12 To Adulthood, Katrina Marie Callahan

Honors Thesis

The South Dakota Department of Education (DOE) has emphasized the importance of civic education within the past four years. Since then, they have created various surveys and distributed them to the South Dakota K-12 teachers. This report discusses two surveys that were created for the purpose of helping the DOE in their efforts to increase the impact of civic education within the state and determine whether what they are currently doing is working on their students. The first survey was sent to SD K-12 teachers and the second to University of South Dakota students in order to compare the answers …

The Relationship Between Classroom Distractions And Off-Task Students, Ashton Harrison, Kathryn E. Wojnar

Honors Theses

Classroom distractions occur on a daily basis and prevent students from being fully engaged with their teacher’s instruction. In this session, elementary education candidates discuss the results of a study in which they documented the sources of students’ inattention.

Elementary Teachers’ Experiences With Remote Learning And Its Impact On Science Instruction: Multiple Cases From The Early Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Beth Pesnell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers across the United States and worldwide found themselves in unprecedented educational situations during the early response period to the COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020. Efforts to quarantine and provide social distancing to prevent the spread of the disease brought mandated school closures throughout the United States, and teachers were required to pivot from their traditional, in-person instructional methods and deliver instruction remotely. This phenomenological multiple-case study explored the experiences of 10 elementary teachers with remote learning during the early response period and sought to understand the delivery of science instruction in the remote learning experience. Weekly interviews were …

Culturally Responsive Science Education And Teaching: Current Literature, Preservice Elementary Science Teachers And Lesson Planning, Lundon Pinneo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

First, a meta-analysis of Culturally Responsive (CR) science teaching characteristics and practices was conducted. Findings revealed that there are a limited number of CR teaching studies at the elementary science level. When studies conducted at the middle, secondary and postsecondary level were included, six themes which encompassed the characteristics and pedagogical practices of effective CR science teachers and teacher development emerged. These themes were academics, cultural competency, social inequities, CR learning environment, rejection of the deficit lens and pedagogical strategies.

Next, the impact of curriculum and practices designed to reflect these six themes on preservice elementary science teachers was explored. …

Evaluation Of Reading Intervention Programs For Students With Disabilities, Diana Greer

Dissertations

The purpose of this evaluation is to identify a delivery model for reading intervention services that can provide successful support for Students with Disabilities in reading. The participants in this study, general education and exceptional education teachers who teach reading content in grades K-5, answered survey and interview questions related to the current delivery of intervention services at ABC Elementary (pseudonym). The results of this evaluation revealed that addressing additional time for reading intervention and using materials that provide a multi-component of reading elements can improve the delivery of reading intervention services for Students with Disabilities. Based on these findings, …

Career And Technical Education Teachers’ Attitudes Toward And Their Participation In Technology-Based Professional Development Training In Mississippi’S High School Districts, Natalie N. Hill

Dissertations

The use of technology has become an essential part of daily interaction in Career and Technical education learning environments. There is very little research regarding career and technical teachers’ attitudes and participation in professional development, although previous studies have been conducted referencing K-12 teachers’ attitudes. A qualitative research methodology was employed to investigated the insight of CTE teachers’ attitudes toward the professional developments that they had attended. This study also investigated whether training was appropriate to teachers’ learning needs in high school districts in MS. The population for this study included seven high school career and technical teachers in five …

A Program Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Fundations And Reading Strategies Professional Development, Cecile Amy Farino

Dissertations

This program evaluation focused on a research-based reading intervention program implemented in a public school district. It also considered the professional development provided in reading strategies and the use of the program to increase students’ reading achievement levels. A problem I identified with using a reading intervention program was it did not identify student deficiencies, and educators lacked the knowledge of basic reading foundational skills to help identify students’ deficiencies. In my research, I examined one elementary school and the administrative team members’ implementation of the reading intervention program. The literature I presented focused on two phases of reading: the …

The Type Of Questions Being Promoted In A 3rd Grade Reading Textbook, Suzanne Olivero

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Asking questions is essential for checking student understanding and keeping them engaged with the task at hand. It is crucial to the way students receive and process information and it encourages independent and critical thinking. Statistics show that the average teacher asks between 300 and 400 questions per day. To have the desired effect, these questions need to be effective, well-considered, and challenging.

Effective, cognitively complex questioning involves using questions in the classroom to open conversations, inspire deeper intellectual thought, and promote student-to-student interaction. Effective questions focus on eliciting the process, i.e. the ‘how’ and ‘why’ in a student’s response, …

A Literature Review For The Implementation Of Computational Thinking For Ontario K-12 Classrooms, Stephan Rogers

Major Papers

The importance of the problem-solving skills involved in computational thinking has gained significant traction since its introduction. As Ontario seeks to implement coding into the school curriculum, an analysis of previous implementation of computational thinking could provide a framework for which to formulate new curriculum in the province. A literature review was completed to investigate the following three questions: (1) How has computational thinking been implemented into education in a K-12 environment? (2) What barriers will affect the implementation of computational thinking in a K-12 environment? (3) What grade levels are appropriate for implementing the varying competencies of computational thinking? …

A Case Study Of Academic Performance In A K-8 School Model, Jamie North

Dissertations

The historical and current dispute on how to educate middle grade students continues to puzzle today’s leaders of school systems nationwide. As a result of conflicting research on academically high performing schools, scholars and school decision makers continue the discussion on the influence of grade span configurations on academic performance. The purpose of my mixed method case study was to explore how teachers and school principals perceive the role of collective efficacy as influencing academic performance for grade eight students in the school under study. My study obtained input from school principals, district leaders, and teachers guided by the following …

The Impact Of Reading Intervention On Retained Elementary-Age Students, Elizabeth Lazar

Dissertations

Due to historically high rates of retained students, one low-performing school needed to fix the endless cycle of student failure. After implementation of a close reading program, participating students made growth on the state reading test. My main goal was to examine which key elements of this program supported retained third grade students resulting in learning gains. My data showed t-test findings with a statistically significant difference in both scale scores and achievement levels on the state reading assessment.

My recommended policy change provides elementary students with a district-wide close reading program to teach comprehension strategies. Through policy measures, I …

Formative Space: Literacy Practices In 21st Century Curriculum Making, Mary C. Ott

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Partnerships for 21st Century learning support curricular reforms for global, cross-disciplinary competencies that will leverage and benefit education technologies. However, this research partnership with a literacy program developer occasioned an opportunity to study curriculum making in the 21st century that did not make assumptions about technologies and competencies. The integrated thesis based on this project pushes boundaries on how assessment and curriculum making are conceptualized by exploring broader questions of inquiry and participation through literacy and assessment practices in six junior elementary classrooms in Ontario, Canada, over a two-year period. Chapter 1 provides the background and purpose of the study …

Toward A Culturally Inclusive Canon Of Multimodal Picture Books: Developing Multiliteracies Practices And Assessments For Ontario’S Classrooms, Arwa Jammali

Major Papers

Multimodal picture books are a critical component of children’s literacy development, and in a multicultural province such as Ontario, it is vital that literacy development include cultural literacy. The demographics of the province’s classrooms are increasingly diverse; however, minoritized cultures are underrepresented among teachers, and there are sparse training mandates related to cultural inclusion. Thus, Ontario’s culturally diverse student body is encountering a number of barriers related to gender, ethnicity, perceived race, sexual identity, ability, class, and other social markers. To provide teachers with the tools needed to support their students, the current study utilizes a theoretical framework derived from …

Delving Into The First Year: A Case Study Of The Novice Teacher Induction Experience, Lindsay Stewart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The issue of high teacher turnover and low teacher retention rates are the driving force of this research. Teacher retention begins with understanding how induction practices are carried out both formally and informally and what support novice teachers need. The majority of research around teacher induction and turnover works with large data sets to produce pertinent percentages and figures (Ingersoll, 2012; Glazerman et al., 2010; Redding & Henry, 2018; Ronfeldt & McQueen, 2017). To supplement the existing research around new teacher induction, this case study was conducted to 1) combine the research-based induction practices with the theoretical underpinnings of these …

Blended Learning Showing Gains, Jessica Lynn Becker

Graduate Teacher Education

In light of what is known about how children learn and the use of technology in society, blended learning is proving to be an effective teaching strategy to improve student academic achievement. Blended learning is a combination of digital technology with face-to-face direct instruction. The purpose of blended learning instruction is to combine the benefits of face-to-face direct instruction with the personalization and collaboration of digital technology. Blended learning comes in many different models that meet the many needs of teachers and school districts. It has succeeded in improving student academic achievement in different subject areas by allowing students to …

Title I Schools And Strategies That Work, Michelle Manriquez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the strategies principals of Title I schools perceived as most effective in improving English language arts (ELA) scores by at least 10 points, through the lens of WestEd’s Four Domains of Rapid School Improvement.

Methodology: This study utilized a qualitative methodology to gather data via the California Dashboard and semi-structured interviews of 11 principals from 11 different sites in northern California that showed at least 10-point growth on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) standardized test. The interview questions were based on the Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: …

Settler Colonial Curriculum In Carlisle Boarding School: A Historical And Personal Qualitative Research Study, Patrick Gerard Eagle Staff

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation research study brings together a historical account and one scholar's personal and family stories of how Indigenous children were stolen and sent to the first Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding schools and tribal schools. In the case of the researcher's family, the educational experiences at Carlisle Indian Industrial School immediately started a traumatic assimilation process on Indigenous children that instilled generational trauma for them and their descendants. At these schools, Indigenous children were forced to conform to a foreign European school designed to abolish their Indigenous identity that demanded they give up their language and culture to …

Exploring The Academic And Social Challenges Of Students With Limited And Interrupted Formal Education (Slife) In Ontario, Hawa Yusuf Osman

Major Papers

Since 2010, Ontario’s education system has taken in an increasing number of students from refugee families, many of whom have limited literacy and numeracy skills and are classified as students with limited and interrupted formal education (SLIFE). To ensure the success of these students, it is important to identify the most effective ways to address their unique learning needs. However, there is currently limited research on this subpopulation in Ontario. Therefore, in order to understand the academic challenges this subpopulation faces, a comprehensive literature review has been conducted with the purpose of establishing the issues that influence this phenomenon. Findings …

The Effects Of Project Lead The Way Launch Curriculum On Elementary Girls’ Perception And Career Interests In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics, Mina Blazy

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The United States has examined the quality of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education since before the turn of the century. STEM educators are still having the conversation around why more women are not joining STEM pathways. Girls and boys as early as birth are curious about the world; through their own lens they learn about gravity from dropping spaghetti on the floor or seeing a small insect on the wall. As children get older they are influenced by the perceptions of their parents and peers.

This study looked at the perception and career interests of girls in STEM …

What Are The Impacts Of Setting Student Learning Objectives On Classroom Instruction And Student Achievement?, Jessica Plaza

Dissertations

Student learning objectives have emerged as a tool to not only measure student growth, but also as a tool to assess an educator’s impact on student learning. The purpose of this inquiry was to determine what, if any, impact student learning objectives have on an educator's instructional planning and delivery, and then create a change plan that addressed the strengths and needs of the educators involved in order to further support growth in utilizing student learning objectives to positively impact student learning.

This research utilized a mixed methods approach to this inquiry. There was analysis of educator reflections submitted as …

Teaching Children To Decode Words: Connected Versus Segmented Phonation, Selenid M. Gonzalez-Frey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Two methods of decoding instruction were compared. Kindergartners who could not decode nonwords participated in the study, N = 38, M = 5.6 years. Segmented phonation, frequently used in synthetic phonics programs, taught students to convert graphemes to phonemes by breaking the speech stream (“sss – aaa – nnn”) before blending. Connected phonation taught students to pronounce phonemes without breaking the speech stream (“sssaaannn”) before blending. Kindergartners were matched and randomly assigned to the two conditions. Both groups were taught to decode the same set of CVC nonwords consisting of continuant consonants and vowels that could be stretched and connected …

The Primary Dilemma: Determining And Overcoming Barriers To A Focus On Prekindergarten Through Grade 3, Sarah Turner Lukas, Sarah Turner Lukas

Dissertations

In 2017, reporters of national data in regard to reading ability among American, fourth grade students indicated low proficiency and achievement gaps. These results were also consistent within the state and district under study. There is a need to increase the focus on prekindergarten and primary grade education taking place prior to the grades in which federally mandated, accountability assessments for student learning take place. The purpose of this study is to determine the potential barriers to a paradigm shift at the state and district levels from a focus on state-assessed grade levels to prekindergarten and primary grade levels. The …

Midline Movement: The Positive Effects On Student Behavior In A Kindergarten Classroom, Ashley Ludlow

Education | Master's Theses

Educators are realizing the unrealistic expectations on students to be quiet and sit still for extended periods of their day (Donnelly & Lambourne, 2011). Some educational advocates have been reintroducing movement into the school day in response to research that indicates the importance of extracurricular activities on developing the whole child (Hannaford, 1995). Movement, connection, touch, play, and creative endeavors have been shown to be critical components to teaching students to be well-rounded individuals (Hannaford, 1995). This study explores how movements and activities that cross the midline affect a student's focus and ability to learn in the classroom. Cultivating an …

Summer Literacy Academy: Evaluating The Impact Of Supports, Book Choice, Incentives, And A Focused, Literacy-Based Summer Learning Program On Reading Outcomes For Rural, Middle School Students, Kathrina Oconnell

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This research explores the effect of the equitable provision of resources and a literacy-focused curriculum on summer learning loss for middle-school students. Using the faucet theory, this mixed methods sequential exploratory study was designed to provide school-year resources during the summer months, for students in grades five through eight, in a rural, socioeconomically disadvantaged school district. Transportation, breakfast, lunch, books, and a literacy-focused enrichment program were provided for all students, and book choice and attendance prizes were used to increase student motivation. The pragmatic approach of the study incorporated both quantitative (e.g., literacy outputs, registration, attendance data, reading observations, and …

Implementing Writers’ Workshop Into The Special Education Classroom, Taylor Denning

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Writers’ Workshop has developed prominence as a method towards providing authentic writing experiences. The purpose of this study was to determine what happens to student perceptions and quantity of writing when Writers’ Workshop is implemented into a special education setting. This study took place in a self-contained special education classroom of third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders. Data was collected through focus group interviews with the teachers, focus groups with two students from every grade, perception surveys, and writing samples.

Surveys and focus group interviews were completed before and after the implementation. Writing samples were collected at the beginning, middle, and end …

Further Investigation: A Daily Inquiry Practice In The Elementary Classroom, Cyanna Gonzales

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Researchers have shown that many students lack problem-solving skills. This deficit can be addressed through the implementation of inquiry-based learning. However, many teachers lack expertise in this area. The purpose of this study was to address both issues with a newly created inquiry practice called Further Investigation time, or FI time. The researcher studied what happened when this practice was implemented in a second-grade, self-contained classroom. In addition, student and teacher perceptions of the FI time were studied. Data was collected through the use of observational head notes, student surveys, and individual teacher and student interviews. Qualitative data was analyzed …