Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Approaches To Narrative Instruction For Second Language Learners, Mathew Peters

MA TESOL Collection

Narratives have reemerged as a dominant form of rhetoric over the last fifty years. This dominant use of narrative discourse has only increased with the rise of social media. Walther Fisher (1987) proposed the narrative paradigm as a unifying theory of human communication. His major claim is that people are inherently storytellers and that people use a narrative rationality and a logic of good reasons to inform their beliefs, values, and actions. This paper utilizes his theories, along with recent findings in neuroscience, to establish an argument for greater inclusion of narratives into second language teaching. Narratives can have a …

The Effects Of Bibliotherapy On Students With Behavioral Problems: Combating Negative Behavior With Books, Alaina J. Peters

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

At the time of the study, the researcher was a graduate student serving in a yearlong clinical teacher placement. The researcher sought to find an intervention to behavioral problems taking place in a third grade classroom setting. The aim of the study was to diminish the negative behavior occurring in the classroom setting through the use of bibliotherapy. For this study, the researcher collected data through the use of surveys, document collections, interventions, and observation with the addition of field notes. Using the constant comparative method with the addition of descriptive statistics, the author found common themes amongst the data …

“Now I Feel Like I’M Supposed To Make Mistakes”: Changing Student Perceptions Of Mistakes, Ellison Lunde

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined how second-grade students in a GT-clustered classroom perceived making mistakes. The researcher implemented literature discussion circles focused on growth mindset and making mistakes as an intervention to improve student perceptions. She collected data through surveys, field notes, and student focus group interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method to look for recurring themes as well as descriptive statistics in the case of numerical data. Three major themes emerged including struggles with mistakes, internal processes, and benefits of mistakes. Statistics confirmed that the intervention effectively improved the perceptions of almost every student and that GT students …

Reimagining Student Engagement In The Remote Classroom Environment, Christopher B. Denning, Serra Acar, Carol Sharicz, Ellen Foust

Pedagogy and the Human Sciences

As higher education institutions struggled with switching to remote teaching due to the COVID19 pandemic, perhaps one of the most important lessons learned is that instructors need additional support to successfully engage students in remote classrooms. Moving courses from the classroom to online delivery radically alters all aspects of teaching and learning, making it easy for interactions to be lost in the transition. It is, therefore, imperative that instructors use elements of effective online teaching and synchronous classroom pedagogy to maintain student engagement. This paper uses the constructivist learning theory as a framework, especially as this theory is applied in …

Covid-19 Impact On Radiology Students’ Distance Learning (Spring 2021), Mary Lee, Jason Chan, Cherylann Jackson-Holmes, Renzo Marmolejo, Zoya Vinokur

Publications and Research

Radiologic Technology students are well into a full year of distance learning. The Juniors are utilizing a hybrid mode, where they continue to have laboratory classes on campus at half capacity and every other week. The Senior students are completely learning through distance learning and focusing their efforts on reviewing for their licensing exams. Both cohorts are in clinical rotation with COVID-19, a smaller threat to their schooling, but still a hazard that can impact their personal and educational lives. With the use of surveys that are distributed during online classes, we hope to evaluate how a full semester of …

Coloring In The Grey Area: The Fine Line Between Academic And Student Affairs, Mannie Brown

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my research was to examine the bridge between academic and student affairs within a learning community (LC) program by assessing holistic student well-being practices taking place within the classroom, residence halls, and general campus community. My research sought to answer the following question: How are current University of San Diego faculty, staff, and student leaders, within the LC program, working to articulate competencies of integration, collaboration, and student thriving? What I found was a strong need to better translate the onboarding experience into the LC program. There was also the strong desire of making the experience of …

The Impact Of Explicit Teaching Of Emotions In A Second Grade Classroom, Shaina Pine

Education Masters Papers

How can the explicit teaching of emotions affect student behavior and emotional problem solving? This action research project investigated how lessons using the explicit teaching model affected the ability for students to identify their own emotions, problem solve emotional responses, and use the process of affect labeling, or naming an emotion, to help students regulate their emotions within the classroom environment and beyond. Twenty-six second-grade students participated in daily emotional check-ins, explicit teaching lessons about twenty-five different emotions, and journal writing to reinforce emotional identification and problem-solving skills. A pre and post interview was used to assess students’ ability to …

Identifying Schools As Caring Communities: Teacher Perceptions About Character Education, Jasmine Johnson

Faculty Works

This study quantified teacher perceptions and their observations of school community interactive attachments. Observed attachments through teacher perceptions classified school communities as caring. Elementary school teachers in the southern United States districts volunteered, in order to determine the significance of school-based taught or learned character education principles in comparison with caring attachments. Data were collected using the Caring Community Profile – II questionnaire, which measures the participants’ attitudes by the extent to which they agree or disagree with a statement. The results clarified the significance of character education programs that identify school communities as caring.

Additionally, the findings answered the …

K-12 Economically Disadvantaged Students, Poverty, And Education: Ecological Narratives Of Successful Raised-In-Poverty, Texas Educators, Rebecca N. Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study aimed to understand how successful Texas educators who grew up in poverty understood and improved the educational experience of economically disadvantaged students. This study utilized a structural ecological theory and three theories of social relationships (Social Identity, Standpoint, and Cultural Capital). This phenomenological and qualitative study used a cross-sectional, descriptive, online case study design rooted in narrative nonfiction. Virtual interviews with six successful Texas educators that grew up in poverty were conducted. A narrative method of analysis was utilized to generate codes then organize them into themes, and to construct and compare the narrative findings. The results …

Going For The Goal: Identifying Relationships Among Sdsu Student Leaders’ Goals And Successes, Madison Dulas

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

Because today’s collegiate student leaders will be the leaders of the future, it is important to measure and ensure they have the tools needed to accomplish set goals. This study examines the relationship between South Dakota State University student leaders’ traits, time management abilities, ability to say “no,” and their impact on goal attainment. Surveys were distributed to students in the LeadState program, a co-curricular leadership development program, and a control group. Quantitative analyses, including independent samples t-tests and bivariate correlations, were conducted. Analyses revealed weak, positive relationships between leadership traits (i.e., integrity, self-confidence, synergy, and morality), time management abilities, …

“Why Are We Still Reading About Rosa Parks?”: Essential Questions For Continuation Schools, Samantha Mbodwam

English (MA) Theses

Continuation schools are historically constructed places of both academic and social rejection. With cultural rhetorics theory providing a context for the research, this inquiry values student stories and experiences. This IRB-approved case study analyzes continuation school education, including classroom participant-observation and interview data to explore if the current academic system is failing these children, and, if so, is failure essentially manufactured and a result of socialized oppression. Therefore, this case study provides a means to hear the voices of those students placed in a continuation school and the voice of a classroom teacher’s perspective on the school curriculum and educational …

Systemic Functional Linguistics In The Community College Composition Class: A Multimodal Approach To Teaching Composition Using The Metalanguage Of Sfl, Jennifer James

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This qualitative research study sought to understand the affordances and limitations of a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to teaching composition at the community college level. The study took place over the course of a semester in two developmental college composition classes using the language of SFL to teach writing through multimodal assignments. The study was developed in response to the increasing diversity in writing skills and educational goals of students in the community college composition class. The increase in diversity is a result of legislation in California that restructures developmental class offerings and affects placement in the transfer-level composition …

Re-Centering Racial Justice In White-Dominated School Settings, Brian A. Davis

Master's Projects and Capstones

Any institution that does not give students the critical and theoretical frameworks to understand White supremacy in the United States is an active contributor in the proliferation of this hegemonic force. White supremacy is a system that produces violence educationally, socially, politically, environmentally, ontologically, and epistemologically. The study of Whiteness and White supremacy has been discounted in high school settings for various reasons. This project seeks to solve this critical issue within the field of secondary education through the implementation of a course that unpacks White supremacy while center Black history. This course will provide students with a historical framework …

Black And White Student Achievement Gaps In Tennessee, Haley Dirmeyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Achievement gaps between Black students and White students have existed since public education was desegregated, and they still persist despite efforts to close the gap. This research describes the achievement gaps between Black and White 3^rd through 8^th grade students in the state of Tennessee from 2017-2019. This is a non-experimental, quantitative, comparative-analysis describing the ELA and math test scores of Black students and White students in each of the three geographic regions of Tennessee. Data were arranged in 2x2 contingency matrixes to compare the expected frequencies of students in each race scoring on-track and mastered versus below …

Critiquing Instrumentalism In High Education: Lessons From Teaching As A Meditative Inquiry, Ashwani Kumar, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this conceptual and self-reflective essay, the authors begin from the premise that the contemporary higher educational institutions in Canada and many other parts of the world have increasingly tended to focus on instrumental teaching, rooted in neoliberal and capitalist ideals of societal progress through economic development. The result is that higher education centralizes making students career ready, rather than the holistic development of the student. Critical of this, Ashwani Kumar (professor of Education) and Nayha Acharya (professor of Law), undertake a collaborative effort to discuss how Kumar’s theoretical and practical concept of teaching as meditative inquiry can be an …

Developing The Key Constructs Of Career Literacy: A Delphi Study, Kesha S. Valentine, Michael F. Kosloski

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Career literacy is a concept that is often misunderstood, yet it is something that can be developed to enhance youth’s potential for career readiness and career growth. This study sought to determine the knowledge and skills required for career literacy and to identify the optimal time to acquire these skills. A four-round Delphi study was designed and implemented to determine such skills and the ideal corresponding time of acquisition for each. The research indicated a final list of 50 skills and knowledge, all of which fall under the categories of functional, interactive, and critical skills a student needs to be …

Examining Construction And Reproduction Of The Educational Opportunity Gap: The Nation’S School Board Members Respond, Hallet Demouy

Honors Theses

This thesis explores opportunity gaps, often related to achievement gaps, in education via the analysis of school board members’ responses regarding challenges that face future education, students, and the public school system. The perceptions of these school board members serve to address the sources, prevalence, and effects of inequities that exist in widening (perpetuating) this gap between students. After discussing and elaborating upon the perceived challenges and barriers located in the institution of education, school board member responses will again be used to present potential ways and opportunities through which the achievement gaps, relating to the success rates and testing …

Faith-Based Education And Civic Value Formation, Matthew H. Lee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the founding of the United States, scholars and policymakers have argued that education should not merely train the minds of students, but also prepare them for active participation in a democratic republic. This dissertation, divided into three chapters, studies the leaders, schools, and content that shape students’ character.

While educational leadership in U.S. public schools is widely studied, there is much less scholarly attention to educational leadership in Protestant and other private schools. The first chapter investigates principal leadership and tests for systematic differences in educational priorities and preparation for their responsibilities by educational sector. Using a nationally-representative sample …

Child Abuse Awareness And Prevention Programs In Elementary Schools: An Educators' Perspective, Sara Headen

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project focuses on educators’ perceptions regarding implementing a child abuse awareness and prevention program in elementary schools. Participants for this project were teachers who were recruited from an elementary school located in Southern California. This project was completed using a qualitative data gathering method. Interviews were conducted and recorded through a video conferencing software program. The data gathered from the interviews was then transcribed and analyzed. The study found that all the participants were in support of implementing a child abuse awareness and prevention program in elementary schools. Concepts related to educator’s perception included their experience reporting child …

From Barriers To Success: How Elementary School Principals Strategically Lead Schools To Become 21st Century Learning Exemplar Schools, Heather Gold

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the barriers and support systems elementary principals describe, through the lens of Activity Theory, they experienced while leading their schools to achieve 21st century learning exemplar status.

Methodology: This phenomenological study examined the perceptions of 15 elementary and K-8 principals and their respective assistant principals regarding the barriers and support systems they experienced while leading their schools to achieve 21st century learning exemplar status. Participants were selected based on the criteria that they had been identified as exemplary by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21); were public, non-private, …