Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Exploring Brain-Based Instructional Practices In Secondary Education Classes, Constance Darcy Jack

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Research on how the brain perceives, processes, stores, and retrieves information is important to guide pedagogy, yet many schools continue to promote practices that are inconsistent with practices suggested by brain research. Brain-based teaching practices promote a more holistic approach to teaching that acknowledges the interconnectedness of the brain and how it naturally learns.

In order to explore brain-based teaching practices, this study focused on a high school (grades 9-12) in southwestern Idaho to determine whether teachers’ perceptions of their use of brain-based teaching strategies are consistent with the strategies they demonstrate in the classroom. Data included two original instruments: …

Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes, Familiarity, Use, And Perceived Applicability Of Content Area Reading Strategies, Bridgette Ladonna Davis

Dissertations

The influence of field based-experiences in K-12 classroom and grade level licensure area on preservice teachers’ attitudes, familiarity, use, and perceived applicability of content area reading instruction was examined for 597 participants from three state-supported universities in a southeastern state in the United States. These participants who were seeking either K-6 or 7-12 licensures represented three levels of field-based classroom experience: (a) no field-based experience, (b) some non-sustained field-based experience, and (c) a full-semester of field-based experience. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and two instruments, the Attitudes toward Content Area Reading (ATCAR) questionnaire and the Content Area Reading …

The Relative Value Of Online Learning Environments As Perceived By High School Teachers, Daryl Joe Scoggin

Dissertations

Online learning environments have become more popular for use in education from year to year. This medium for teaching and learning has been successfully used in higher education for years. Only within the past decade has this instructional platform made its way into the P-12 arena. With the expansion of online learning environments becoming more popular, this type of lesson delivery may eventually make its way to the building or site level. As in a face-to-face classroom, teachers have an effect on the success of the students. The perceptions of teachers regarding dimensions of implementation and use of online learning …

The Natural Provenance: Ecoliteracy In Higher Education In Mississippi, Sarah Elizabeth Wheeless

Dissertations

Researchers have suggested that there is an increasing apathy in the study of natural history both in academic settings and in the scientific community (Schmidly, 2005). Natural history is the cornerstone of ecological literacy. However, most studies of environmental knowledge do not directly address knowledge of local natural history. Instead, they concern knowledge of human environmental issues, environmental concepts, or broad ecological knowledge. Ecoliteracy established the study of natural history as fundamental to environmental knowledge and seeks to determine levels of knowledge of local environments and factors associated with that knowledge (Pilgrim et al., 2007).

This study investigated ecoliteracy in …

Technical Writing Redesign And Assessment: A Pilot Study, Gaye Bush Winter

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare scores on writing assignments from traditional, fully online courses in technical writing to pilot, hybrid courses at a southern university. A total of 232 students’ assignments were compared in this study. All writing assignments were scored by six trained instructors of English using the same five point rubric.

The pilot, hybrid classes had a total of 97 writing assignments. The students were divided into three disciplines including business, humanities, and sciences. In the pilot, hybrid classes, there were 18 students (or 19%) enrolled in a business major. Five students were enrolled in …

Development Of A Collaborative Mlearning Module On Nutrition For Form 2 Students., Dorothy Dewitt

Student Works (2010-2019)

The purpose of this study was to develop a collaborative mobile learning module on the topic of nutrition in Form 2 Science. The module was implemented for a group of Form 2 students in a selected school in the Klang Valley. A developmental research approach was employed for the module, with three phases: needs analysis, design and development, and evaluation. Data from the needs analysis phase was mainly from a survey and the analysis of documents, while in the second phase, written records and interviews were used. In the third phase, data was collected from various sources: online communications records, …

Penyediaan Dan Penilaian Modul Asas Bahasa Arab Untuk Pelajar Universiti., Sainei Andamit

Student Works (2010-2019)

This thesis is primarily focused on a study conducted on “The Preparation and Evaluation of The Basic Arabic Language Module for University Students”. Subjects involved in this research do not cover all students from higher institutions in Malaysia but specifies the research demographic on a selected group of students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). These students do not have the very basic level of Arabic, comes from different academic disciplines in UMS, and they are from various ethnic and religious groups in Malaysia. The module applied for this research experiment was produced by the researcher based on information gathered from …

The Effects Of Interaction On Adolescent Reading Motivation, Greg A. Hoetker

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study had two main purposes: One, to discover the nature of interactions that motivate adolescent students to read; and two, to follow how adolescents’ views of interaction and reading motivation evolve over time. The study’s research question was: What do student artifacts and interviews within both middle and high school contexts reveal about adolescents' perceptions of interactions with peers, teachers, and family and their motivation to read? The concept of interaction used within this study was based on a collaborative group-process learning context (Webb & Palincsar, 1996) and a social constructivist conceptualization of intrinsic motivation for literacy learning …

An Investigation Of Exemplary Teaching Practices Of Teachers Of Native American Students, William M. Young

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation traces the historical roots of indigenous education from the violation of treaty rights of the late 1800's to the staggering rates of non-persistency facing Native American students today. While many factors are outside of the classroom teacher's scope of influence, teacher candidates should be trained in culturally responsive methods to address factors that are within their control and which can be addressed in the classroom.

The study was conducted using a mixed-methods design employing Creswell's (2008a) sequential transformative strategy. STS is a multi-phase study with an implicit theoretical lens. In this study the researcher is situated at an …

Impact Of Golf Video Games On Teaching Golf In Physical Education, Ann Pohira-Vieth

Dissertations

Although technology has become an integral part of many classrooms across the country, the incorporation of technology through the use of video games in physical education is also becoming a mainstay in multiple school districts. In West Virginia public schools, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) has entered the physical education classrooms as a way to help curb obesity (“Study Shows Video,” 2008). Schools in Arkansas, Missouri and Hawaii have also followed suit by adding DDR to the physical education curriculum (Gallaway & Lauson, 2006). Even though the incorporation of video games into educational programs is becoming more prevalent, there is a …

Cooperative Learning: Attitudes, Perceptions, And Achievement In A Traditional, Online, And Hybrid Instructional Setting, Allison Hardin Duckworth

Dissertations

Cooperative learning has been sufficiently studied to be accepted as an effective method of education. Student reception of cooperative learning, and therefore the degree of its success in a given situation, will depend on the mode of delivery. New technology for delivering courses totally online challenges many aspects of traditional education, and is particularly difficult for cooperative learning that relies heavily on intense face-to-face communication among students. This study was conducted to compare cooperative learning in a traditional setting to that in hybrid and online settings. A model for delivering a cooperative learning experience has been developed utilizing concept maps …

Kindergarten Assessments As A Predictor For A Student’S Need For Intervention, Victoria Ellen Weinketz Hoover

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the kindergarten assessment results from the three windows in reading, written communication, and mathematics were a valid predictor of a student’s need for intervention up until the conclusion of second grade. Reynolds (1992) suggested that a student’s overall school success is reflective of the approach taken early in kindergarten. With the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), districts have set in place strategies to meet the standard of all students reading on grade level at the conclusion of the third grade. If districts are to rise to the …

A Critical Analysis Of The Implementation Of Depth Of Knowledge And Preliminary Findings Regarding Its Effectiveness In Language Arts Achievement, Carol Elizabeth Ferguson Viator

Dissertations

Mississippi implemented its new curriculum standards with depth of knowledge (DOK) goals in 2007, but successful educational reform requires effective professional development that prepares teachers to make the needed instructional changes. This study evaluated whether there were statistically significant relationships among professional development duration, frequency, type of training, utilization of training in instruction and assessment, and teachers’ perceptions of instructional and assessment implementation practices and language arts achievement for third, fourth, and fifth graders as measured by the MCT2 language arts assessment. The study also evaluated teacher perceptions of the implementation of depth of knowledge in instruction and assessment and …

Emotional Antecedents Of Preprimary Teacher Learning, Elizabeth Anne Beavers

Dissertations

A study of the relationships between emotional understanding, the dispositional attributes to think critically, receptiveness to new learning and willingness to change using structural equation modeling was conducted. Data from 186 preprimary teachers were analyzed to confirm the relationships between the constructs yielding four key findings addressing the individual and collective relationships between the variables expressed. Specifically, the findings and interpretations of this study produced the following conclusions: 1) one’s willingness to change may stem directly from the individual’s emotional understandings; 2) there is a strong relationship between emotional understanding and critical thinking dispositions; 3) receptiveness to new learning precedes …

A Graphophonic Investigation Of Beginning Level Texts, Kevin Clark Walker

Dissertations

This study attempted to provide a systematic framework for phonics instruction for beginning readers in literature-based classrooms based on relative frequency of phoneme-grapheme occurrences found in three distinct corpora. The first corpus contained an academic word list. The second corpus contained the running text from 363 books identified as first grade literature using the searchable online quiz database maintained by Renaissance Learning, Inc. (Renaissance Learning, 2009). The final corpus consisted of running text from 130 decodable readers that accompany Saxon Phonics 1: An Incremental Development (Simmons & Calvert, 2003). Each corpus was analyzed for graphophonic content in order to establish …

Third Grade Reading Performance And Teacher Perceptions Of The Scott Foresman Reading Street Program In Title I Schools In South Mobile County, Jamie Ladnier Hicks

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if third grade reading performance of students enrolled in south Mobile County Title I schools improved as a result of the first year implementation of the Scott Foresman Reading Street program. Attempts were also made to identify predictors that may improve future reading performance and data were obtained regarding the perceptions and overall satisfaction of the certified instructional personnel in grades K-5 employed in the Mobile County Public School System during the 2009-2010 school year, the first school year following the initial full year of program implementation. Reading performance was measured using …

Perceived Reliable Sources Of Reading Instruction Information Selected By Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Fourth, And Fifth Grade Teacher-Practitioners, Janet Kimberly Biglane-Hodges

Dissertations

The teacher is considered the most important factor in student success. With increased emphasis on research-based information through federal legislation, teachers struggle selecting credible methods and procedures among available reading instruction sources confounding the possibility of student achievement. Teacher self-knowledge, peer teachers, administrators, professional development, and the Internet are accessible sources for educators in regard to obtaining reading instruction information. Research in the field of education suggests teacher-practitioners procure and implement retrieved reading instruction information based on two factors: existing teacher beliefs regarding reading instruction and support of implementation of the method or practice within the school climate. This study …

Web 2.0 And Self-Reported Student Performance Among High School Students In Rural Schools, Joseph Carl Cash

Dissertations

This research intends to contribute to the current literature available on the appropriate levels of utilizing Web 2.0 resources in the classroom, therefore, amicably submitting the study's results collaboration of a dynamic theoretical construct for pedagogy in the digital age. Educators must contend with and adapt to cognitive changes within their students. School leaders face existential questions regarding the role of the teacher, the role ofthe student, and the method by which these two partners interact. School administrators aware of the substantive challenge facing traditional methods of instruction should be able to provide professional development to teachers that would accurately …

Citizenship Education In Kenya: A Content Analysis Of State-Sponsored Social Studies Instructional Materials, Anna Mukhongo

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the principal citizenship issues identified by scholars as significant with regard to the African experience were addressed in state-endorsed Kenyan social studies instructional materials. This study also determined whether or not the treatment of the principal citizenship issues was consistent with the recommendations in the citizenship literature. In addition, this study analyzed and evaluated the pedagogical exercises present in social studies instructional materials.
A qualitative content analysis was used for the study. Content in the social studies materials was read iteratively to determine patterns and generate themes. The generated …

Investigation Of Remedial Education Course Scores As A Predictor Of Freshman-Level Course Performances, Larry Ulmer

All Dissertations

This study sought to determine the relationship between the performance in remedial courses (English and math) and college-level course performances among students in a large university. This study investigated whether remedial education improves the achievement in freshman level collegiate courses. The study contributes to the literature on remedial education courses and placement testing, therefore offering possible enhancements and improvements to the improvement in remedial education.
The researcher selected the correlational research design because the study sought to explore relationships between remedial course scores and freshman-level course scores. The findings from this study showed remedial course performance was associated in a …