Elementary Education and Teaching Commons^™

Educational Environments And Children's Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviors, Nathan R. Tokarek

Theses and Dissertations

Children and adolescents spend the majority of their day engaged in sedentary behaviors (SB), while also not meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations. The failure to develop and maintain health enhancing behaviors from a young age may impact an individual throughout their life. With children and adolescents spending a large proportion of their waking hours in a school setting, the educational environment presents an opportunity in which children and adolescents’ PA and SB can be positively influenced. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to explore how children and adolescent’s school time PA and SB are associated with the educational setting, …

Curriculum Adaptations To Teach For Creativity Using A Published Language Arts Curriculum, Barbara T. Prendergast

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine a published language arts curriculum, determine how Anna Craft’s possibility thinking framework could be integrated into the curriculum, and then observe how students responded to the implementation of lessons integrating the elements of possibility thinking. The findings revealed that a teacher can use the possibility thinking elements to encourage creativity while still teaching the objectives of a published curriculum. Creativity development can be encouraged by using a variety of supports that build possibility thinking. The data demonstrated a connection between life experiences and the curriculum through possibility thinking. The …

Understanding The Potential Of Anticipation, Teaching, And Response To Struggle In The Learning Of Mathematics, Erin Gae Edgington

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative semi-structured interview study investigated how the opportunity to learn with productive struggle emerges in a teacher’s beliefs, anticipation, planning, teaching, and response to struggle in learning mathematics. In this study, the experiences of student struggle in the teaching and learning of fractions was investigated through the experiences of three fifth grade and one sixth grade teacher. The purpose was to understand how the phenomenon of productive struggle in learning mathematics was impacted by teachers anticipation, planning, teaching, and response to struggle. The central research question asked: What role does productive struggle play in the design and implementation of …

Anxiety And Social Withdrawal Among Children: Associations With Emotion Awareness And Emotion Regulation Strategy Use At The Intra- And Interpersonal Levels, Janae Ellen Teer

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety and social withdrawal are two frequently experienced internalizing conditions among children. These early-onset challenges are associated with numerous maladaptive outcomes in the academic, social, and psychological domains (Levitt & Merrill, 2009; Long, 2018; Sanchez et al., 2018; Shernoff et al., 2017). While identifying anxious and socially withdrawn children in the classroom is difficult as symptoms generally occur internally, distinguishing between the conditions is perhaps more challenging as the two are closely associated, oftentimes overlapping constructs (Barzeva et al., 2019; Rubin et al., 2009). Particularly, it is unclear whether anxiety and social withdrawal are similarly or differently associated with key …

Teaching And Learning In The Co-Teaching Model: Analyzing The Cooperating Teacher/Teacher Candidate Co-Planning Dialogues, Jennifer Brownson

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE CO-TEACHING MODEL:

ANALYZING THE COOPERATING TEACHER/TEACHER CANDIDATE

CO-PLANNING DIALOGUES

by

Jennifer Brownson

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018

Under the Supervision of Drs. Hope Longwell-Grice and Linda Post

Planning is a central component of the teaching experience in which the teacher draws on curriculum and pedagogy as well as learners and their context. Planning is also a teacher standard at both the state and national level (WI DPI Teacher Standards, InTASC, 2013). For teacher candidates (TCs), an opportunity to learn to plan occurs during the student teaching experience, and the planning session can reveal how …

The Impact Of Stand-Biased Desks On After-School Physical Activity Behaviors In Children, Nathan Tokarek

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess changes in after-school time spent performing sedentary behavior (SB), light intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) among elementary school children in response to the introduction of stand-biased desks in the classroom. Thirty-one 6th grade participants randomly assigned by their teacher to a traditional (CON) or stand-biased (INT) desk provided complete accelerometer data. After-school PA and SB were measured on four consecutive weekdays at baseline and 10-weeks. Wilcoxon Rank Sum Tests were used to detect significant differences (p<0.10) in changes in the proportion of after-school wear time performing SB and PA between groups. Results suggested no significant differences in changes in after-school time performing SB (p=0.770), LPA (p=0.740), or MVPA (p=0.470). Significant differences in the change in moderate PA (INT: -1.4%; CON: -0.2%, p=0.093) were detected. Stand-biased desks were not detrimental to children’s after-school PA and SB.

Reading Workshop & Formative Assessment: Maximizing Quality Reading Instruction, Katherine Ann Lindner

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to closely examine an elementary teacher’s classroom practices in implementing reading workshop, to examine her assessment practices within this model and to see if, when, and how her assessment practices support or enhance constructivist practices within reading workshop. This qualitative case-study, was designed to examine, in depth, the teaching practices of one teacher attempting to implement constructivist teaching and learning practices in literacy instruction (reading in particular) in her classroom. The findings revealed that teachers implementing reading, when coupling that with formative assessment practices, can use those practices to enhance and grow students’ reading …

Exposing The Brilliant Facets Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Collective Case Study, Kristina Kaljo

Theses and Dissertations

A tremendous cultural richness exists throughout today's urban communities. From language, race, culture, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status, PK-12 pupils enter the classroom with a multitude of lived experiences and academic proficiencies. In particular, it is the range of academic proficiencies and the inadequate preparation of urban educators that perpetuates a visibly widening achievement gap between urban pupils and their suburban counterparts. Add to this a skeleton curriculum and endless high-stakes assessment exams, the future success of urban pupils becomes bleak. A deep foundation in pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), also known as the amalgam of rich content knowledge …