Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Connect - October 2009

Connect

No abstract provided.

Does Socio/Economic Status Affect Environmental Awareness In Elementary School Children Interacting With School Gardens?, Grady C. Erickson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This is a case study involving three elementary schools in the greater Lincoln, Nebraska area. These schools were chosen to provide insight to three different economic backgrounds. Saratoga and Randolph from Lincoln Public Schools, and Norris Elementary part of Norris Public Schools 160 was the third school involved in the study. This case study focused on seeing whether socio/economic background had any effect on environmental awareness. To do so, surveys were handed out to each school to help measure environmental awareness. These surveys also helped determine where the environmental literacy standards were in the elementary schools of Lincoln, Nebraska. The …

Educators' Attitudes Toward Outdoor Classrooms And The Cognitive Benefits In Children, Carlie Speedlin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at a K-5 elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraksa. This school is Saratoga Elementary School and is a United States Title I Distinguished School1 under No Child Left Behind. It has a population of 266 students, with 47% being minority, 1% gifted, and 28% special education (LPS School Profile Brochure). 80% of the student population is eligible for free/reduced meals, implying that it’s a school with a lower socioeconomic status. At this school a garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented for this case study. The club had been running since …

Teaching Note - Then And Now: Canadian And American Students Discover Each Other, Andrew C. Holman

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Ending Generational Poverty: A Contemporary Application Of The Work Of Paulo Freire In Nicaragua, Los Angeles And Uganda, Nicole Broom

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Para disminuir el nivel de pobreza generacional en poblaciones marginalizadas, hay que explorar formas educativas alternativas porque los esfuerzos existentes no han mostrado una habilidad para reducir ese fenómeno. A pesar de las diferencias en geografía y el estatus socioeconómico de los países de origen de esas organizaciones, las siguientes instituciones comparten ciertos fundamentos filosóficos, muchos de los cuales corresponden a las teorías de Paulo Freire en Pedagogy of the Oppressed, que sirven como prácticas efectivas para servir a poblaciones marginalizadas: Pearl Lagoon’s Academy of Excellence en Laguna de Perlas, Nicaragua; Camino Nuevo Charter Academy en Los Ángeles, California; …

The Relationship Of Personality Traits To Satisfaction With The Team: A Study Of Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams In Rhode Island Middle Schools, Michele D. Humbyrd, Robert K. Gable

Teacher Education

Shared practice in schools has emerged; teachers are moving from isolation to team collaboration where personality traits could be related to quality interactions. Team personality traits and team satisfaction were examined. A survey and interview approach was used for N = 244 full-time teachers from N = 49 interdisciplinary teams at N = 7 middle schools. Descriptive, correlational, multiple regression analyses and coded themes about team members’ personalities and interactions were employed. No significant relationships were found between the BFI traits and Satisfaction with the Team. Team-level analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between Satisfaction with theTeam and Extraversion and …

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

España Y El Buen Ciudadano: El Debate Educativo, Thomas Mcafee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the spring of 2010 I volunteered in the Colegio Cristo de la Yedra as an English language tutor. My original plan was to work in a human rights organization, but this fell through and I therefore decided to help students learn English. While volunteering at this school, I taught four English classes every week, with students whose levels ranged from beginner to intermediate. During the first week, one of my students told me that he did not like the football team Barcelona F.C. because he thought it was just a tool of the Catalan government and that it promoted …

Problematic Conceptualizations: Allies In Teacher Education For Social Justice, Vonzell Agosto

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications

This review of the literature on the concept ally and ally identity development was inspired by a qualitative study exploring the identities and social justice values of prospective teachers of color. Although the participants in the original study never used the term ally, their narratives inspired me to characterize them as allies in the struggle for social justice education. However, a review of the literature on allies, as analyzed through critical race theory and critical discourse analysis, revealed emerging conceptualizations of ally as incongruent with minority identities as they position people of color at the periphery of this social justice …

English Education Program Assessment: Creating Standards And Guidelines To Advance English Teacher Preparation, Janet Alsup, Don Zancanella

Department of English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Faculty Success: Developing A Research And Publication Agenda, Kathleen P. King

Department of Leadership, Policy, and Lifelong Learning

Anyone associated with higher education will acknowledge that tenure track faculty have to perform a fantastic balancing act. Compared to an administrative or line role in an organization, higher education faculty have tremendous autonomy and freedom. However, they face competing demands of many different (and good) opportunities, and for them the stakes are always high. Help is here! This article introduces a powerful strategy for staying on track in the research strand of this competitive journey.

Stereotype Threat’S Effect On Women’S Achievement In Chemistry: The Interaction Of Achievement Goal Orientation For Women In Science Majors, Janice M. Conway-Klaassen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

"Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group" (C. M. Steele & Aronson, 1995, p. 797). A stereotype threat effect then is described as the detrimental impact on a person's performance or achievement measurements when they are placed in a stereotype threat environment.

For women, the negative stereotype that exists in our culture states that women are typically not as capable as men in mathematics or science subjects. This study specifically explored the potential impact of stereotype threat on women who have chosen a science-based college major. They were tested in …

Teaching For Social Justice With Students From Privileged Groups: Integrating Social Justice Into Middle School Curriculum, Bong Seok Jang

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation research focuses on the teaching for social justice with privileged middle school students. A need for this research was established based on the limited findings specific to teaching for social justice in mathematics.

This research was implemented with junior high level students in a public charter school. The socio-economic status and ethnic diversity of the class in which this study took place is primarily middle to upper middle class and ten percent nonwhite.

Qualitative research methods were used because this study focuses more on human interactions in the natural setting of a classroom. First, my observations of the …

African-American Males’ Perception Of Factors Involved In Their Resilience And Academic Success, Johnnie Thomas

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the factors that contribute to the educational success and failure of African-American males continues to be a topic of current research. Frequently, educational performance outcome data, report African-American males as low performers. Some African-American males are able to overcome family issues, community violence and school dysfunction, and achieve academic success. They are resilient. Masten, Best, and Garmezy (1990) define resiliency as “the process of, capacity to, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances” (426). In this study, the internal and external factors motivating the academic success of five African-American males who grew up in Chicago, Illinois’ …

Preparing A Student With A Disability And Their Family For Transition Into Adulthood, Katherine Matwiczak-Weber

All Graduate Projects

As a student with a disability makes the transition from high school to adult life, together the student and the family are faced with decisions and challenges outside the support of the school system. There are certain time lines and criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to make the change successful as well guarantee the student's rights and entitlements both financially and vocationally from the federal government and other community based systems. Transition-focused educators have long advocated for a vision of post-school life for the young adult with a disability that includes community and social interactions in addition …

The Greenprint: Nevada’S Environmental Literacy Plan, Part 1, Education About The Environment

Education about the Environment

President Obama’s “Blueprint for Reform” includes environmental education in part because research has demonstrated significant benefits from environmental education, including impacting student test scores in science, reading, math, and social studies. Additionally, studies have shown that environmental education can reduce discipline problems, increase attendance, and develop leadership and other social skills. Other important benefits include increased engagement, motivation, and enthusiasm for learning. The National Science Board of the National Science Foundation recognizes the importance of environmental education to student learning in their 2000 report, Environmental Science and Engineering for the 21st Century.

The need for environmental literacy arises from the …

Authentic Assessment In Infant And Toddler Care Settings: Review Of Recent Research, Allyson Dean, Brenda Zollitsch Phd

Children, Youth, & Families

Authentic assessment provides an alternative approach to gathering child performance information and designing developmentally-appropriate curriculum for infants and toddlers. Conventional tests and assessment have been shown to lead to the mismeasurement of children through the use of norm-referenced testing practices (Bagnato, 2007). Additionally, many of these traditional testing practices have not been developed or validated for infants or toddlers and result in biased samples of a child’s functioning (i.e. results that differ from how a child actually behaves.) This policy brief describes what authentic assessment is, the role observation plays in authentic assessment, how information from observations is used to …

A Teacher’S Guide For Increased Parent Involvement In Low Socioeconomic And Highly Diverse Areas., Alyssa Katheryn Newby

All Graduate Projects

Secondary research was performed to obtain an overview of parent involvement in schools with low socioeconomic status and ethnically diverse populations. Within the project, different ethnicities' typical values and perceptions of appropriate involvement in a child's education were presented. These perceptions often contradict educators' perceptions of parent involvement, which generally takes on a white, middle class perspective. The purpose of the project is to better inform educators about the variety of ethnicities. As a result, this project addressed challenges to parent involvement and suggested possible solutions/interventions to bridge the gap between educators and families.

Court-Involved African American Males And Social Capital Within Chicago Public Schools, Troy Harden

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores how eleven court-involved African American males in Chicago Public Schools gain entry and access into mainstream society via schooling, exploring their choices, interactions and networks in the context of schooling, and how they develop trust or the lack thereof in the educational process. Five themes emerged from interviews of the eleven young men, including school engagement, neighborhood bonds, school exclusion, purgatory and social capital reconceptualized. The young men in this study reported their trajectories associated with schooling, including how they were often “pushed out”, in part by their own behavior and attitude towards schools, and school …

Understanding Multiple Perspectives Of African American Males In A Suburban High School, Ravi Hansra Matrenec

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Research on African American males in high school often looks at their experiences from a deficit perspective, and is often conducted in low resourced, high-risk settings, thus perpetuating the image of failure in school. We know less about how African American males experience education in well-resourced schools. In an attempt to fill this research gap, this qualitative inquiry study explores the schooling experiences of African American males at a predominantly White, affluent, and suburban high school of a major metropolitan city. The focus of this study was to understand how the participants made sense of their schooling experiences, paying special …