Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Covid-19, Technology, And The Math Classroom: Changes, Obstacles, And Victories Integrating Digitally, Lauren Fifield Bellamy

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Secondary math teachers faced new experiences and struggles this past virtual school year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nine secondary math teachers from a school division in southeastern Virginia participated in this qualitative single case study. Data collection included individual semi-structured interviews and technology integration artifacts. Through a three round coding process, ten themes emerged to answer the following three research questions: 1) In terms of curriculum, teaching methods, and assessments, how did teachers describe their pedagogical change in virtual learning? 2) How do teachers perceive student performance has changed within the virtual learning space? 3) From teachers’ perspectives, …

Teacher Led Tier Two Intervention To Increase Student Academic Achievement, Cynthia Shepherd

Education Masters Papers

The purpose of this action research was to determine if the implementation of a tier two teacher led intervention would increase student academic achievement. A small group of ten students in a ninth-grade physical science class participated in the study. Data was collected over a period of three weeks using pre- and post- intervention surveys, an exit slip for self-assessment, researcher observations, comparisons of work completion and grades from previous grading periods, participant performance self-assessment, and a goal setting activity. Results show an inconclusive connection between the tier two teacher led intervention and student academic achievement. This is possibly due …

How Social Interaction Opportunities And Emotional Skills Instruction Affect Kindergarteners’ Self-Efficacy And Mental Health Within The Distance Learning Model Of School, Sarah Taraba

Education Masters Papers

This study was designed to investigate how implementing social interaction opportunities and emotional skill instruction could improve the overall mental health and self-efficacy levels of students in a kindergarten distance learning classroom. Due to the worldwide pandemic, COVID- 19, students were forced to participate in a distance learning format. This meant that students utilized a technological device to participate in schooling through online meetings with teachers and classmates. The research that was conducted focused on kindergarten students as the participants to see what could be done to improve their overall mental health; increasing levels of positive emotions such as happiness, …

A Virtual Art Therapy Curriculum For High School Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Informed By Bronfenbrenner’S Ecological Systems Theory, Kendra Soule

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

During the 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a global health threat. In order to maintain public safety many schools had to transition onto a virtual space using online programs and classrooms. Not only did schools move to an online platform, but also mental health therapy moved to telehealth platforms to serve those affected by the pandemic. Art therapy is a form of therapy that uses the tangible art making process, art piece, and therapeutic relationship as aspects of therapy. With the move to the virtual setting, art therapists had to modify their work to fit the new setting. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological …

Without A Map: An Examination Of District Leadership During The Covid-19 Crisis, Megan E. Welter Phd

Muskie School Dissertations

Achieving coherence and coordination in a complex system like a school district is complicated by the nested layers of the organization. This structure allows for teachers in classrooms and schools in a district to operate autonomously, as their organizational layers insulate those in the center from external demands and mandates. The COVID-19 pandemic represented an external demand that led district leaders to implement a series of situational reforms that affected nearly every aspect of the educational organization.

This qualitative study examines how the experiences and decision-making processes of district, school, and teacher leaders from a single district in Maine during …

Practitioner Inquiry: Supporting Teachers During A National Pandemic, Carol Brooke Scott

Theses and Dissertations

During this practitioner inquiry, action research study, teachers from a suburban elementary school in the southeastern part of the United States were purposefully sampled to investigate their overall successes and challenges as they were forced to abruptly change their instruction during the global COVID-19 pandemic to engage students in various learning environments such as face-to-face instruction, hybrid instruction, and virtual instruction. A collaborative practitioner inquiry group intentionally designed professional development based on the successes and challenges indicated by teachers through the use of the Atlas: Looking at Data protocol. Data collection methods consisted of a reflective survey, extensive memoing, and …

When The Learning Environment Becomes E-Learning: A Narrative Inquiry Into High School Honors Students’ Motivation, Tyesha L. Deas

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forever changed the landscape of the world, especially education. Due to the guidelines the pandemic caused, education abruptly moved the e-learning setting in the Spring of 2020, when students and teachers had to quickly adjust to new methods of teaching and learning. As a result, students were bearing the responsibility for their own motivation for learning as they took on the of learning from home (Rake & Dunn, 2010, p. 79). Therefore, this study seeks to better understand four high school honors students changes in motivation as the school environment changed to e-learning, determine what …

Journaling On The Transition To College: Foucauldian Approaches In The First-Year Writing Classroom, Daniel J. Metzger

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Utilizing the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and technologies of the self, this qualitative action research study explored how power dynamics inherent in higher education can be recognized and resisted as first-year writing students journal on the transition to college (JTC). Conducted in a suburban community college in the Mid-Atlantic United States during the Spring 2020 semester, the study investigated how college is a feature of governmentality, how writing instructors’ actions interrupt or reinforce college as governmentality, and if journaling on the transition to college acts as a technology of the self, in light of the ways college governs. Journal prompts …

Teacher Perceptions Of E-Learning During Covid-19 In Low-And-High-Income Schools, Thomas Allen Cooper Ii

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examined if there were significant differences among K-12 teachers at low-income and high-income schools on their perceptions of various aspects of e-learning due to COVID-19. The study also sought to collect data concerning how teachers’ perceptions of technology may have changed, what factors impacted their ability to conduct e-learning, and what factors most impacted their students’ performance during e-learning due to COVID-19. A concurrent nested mixed-methods design was used. A 15-item self-report survey containing both Likert scale and open-ended questions was developed by the researcher to assess differences in teachers’ perceptions. Findings indicated a statistically significant difference in …