Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Mentoring Of New Teachers And Student Performance, David Shadwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While much research has explored the positive correlation between mentoring programs and resulting reduction in teacher attrition, the relationship between mentoring activities and student learning remains equivocal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between frequency and depth of mentoring activities in which high school teachers in their first three years of teaching report engaging, on the 2011 Colorado TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Survey, and examining concurrent student achievement growth and shifts in growth gaps as measured by the Colorado Growth Model in those teachers' schools. This mixed methods study also entailed open-ended interviews …

Transformative Professional Development Through The Eyes Of Jack Mezirow And Thomas Guskey, Leslie Diane Stahl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The key to improving education is the classroom teacher. Students must have skillful, highly effective teachers who have consistent access to on going professional development. NCLB offers guidelines for effective professional development. States interpret these guidelines and add their own varied legislative requirements. The current result is an eclectic mix of ideas, methods, and approaches. This investigation explored the current professional development literature through the lens of Jack Mezirow's transformational theory of adult learning. Overlaid with theory was Thomas Guskey's model of effective professional development which resulted in a tool for planning and evaluating ongoing teacher education. A survey crafted …

A Meta-Analysis Of Testing Accommodations For Students With Disabilities: Implications For High-Stakes Testing, Michelle Vanchu-Orosco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Test accommodations are designed to ensure the comparability of test scores between students and their typically developing counterparts by eliminating as much construct-irrelevant variance and construct-irrelevant difficulty as possible. Although those involved in test creation endeavor to create tests with suitable accommodations for students with disabilities, there is lack of consensus regarding accommodation efficacy. Using meta-analysis and meta-regression to summarize previous research, this study examined whether test accommodations differentially boost test scores of students with disabilities, and whether accommodated conditions provided a more effective and valid assessment of students with disabilities. Results from the meta-analysis of 34 studies (119 effect …

Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Teacher Perceptions: Background, Practices, And Attitudes Related To Student Achievement, Deborah Isabell Faust

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education policy has focused on teacher quality and student achievement since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which defined teacher quality in terms of teachers' professional qualifications and certification. This is consistent with a history of econometric studies examining the effects of teacher background characteristics on student achievement. More recently, researchers have argued that investigations of teacher effectiveness should examine what actually happens in the classroom, and that teacher attitudes and instructional practices are conspicuously missing from the prior research.

This study uses a two-phase parallel mixed methods design to explore teacher perceptions of the influence of …

Still `Unfinished Education:' Latino Students Forty Years After The Mexican American Education Study, Lizely Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The onus of this dissertation was to evaluate the educational conditions of Mexican American students forty years after the Mexican American Education Study published a six-volume study detailing the findings of the Mexican American Education Study (1970-1974). The MAES study focused on five southwest states Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. To learn the current status of Mexican American students, a three-tier scale of analysis was created. Each level of analysis had a specific focus: macro, meso, and micro. The macro level presented a descriptive analysis of the educational status of Mexican American students in the five states presented …

Principles For Designing An Effective, Post-Compulsory Music Curriculum Suitable For Western Australia, Andrew T. Sutherland

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A new post-compulsory Music course known as the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) Music course was recently introduced into Year 11 and 12 in Western Australian (WA) schools. Following a convoluted process of creation, its implementation into classrooms has been problematic. Given criticism levelled at its process of creation and implementation, the researcher questions whether the WACE Music course embodies effective, recognised principles to support the effective teaching and learning of music. This study investigates the principles which should form the basis of an effective, post-compulsory music curriculum, suitable for WA. It involved a literature review which sought to …

Comparing Ratings: In-Class (Paper) Vs. Out Of Class (Online) Student Evaluations, Rose Opengart, Ronald Mau

Management & Technology - Worldwide

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) are used by institutions of higher learning in the tenure and promotion process and in awarding merit pay increases. The trend at some institutions has been towards using an online student assessment instrument (SAI) in lieu of the traditional paper –based, in-class assessment. This study examines the difference in student evaluations in two contexts; online and paper-based, in a finance course taught to non-finance majors. The evidence strongly indicates faculty receives higher evaluations using a paper-based instrument administered during class than with an online assessment instrument which students complete on their own time.

Confusing Achievement With Aptitude, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

My wife and I read and reread the words several times, allowing them to sink in. "Being in an academic class would cause him harm," the principal wrote about our son, "as the rigor would be too great." The report continued, "He would be the lowest-ability student in the class and by a large margin." It is a day you don't soon forget when the principal of your son's school tells you—in an email, no less—that your child simply is not capable of managing academic work. [excerpt]

Australian Core Skills Framework (Acsf), Philippa Mclean, Kate Perkins, David Tout, Kath Brewer, Linda Wyse

Transition and Post-School Education and Training

The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) provides a rich, detailed picture of real life performance in the five core skills of: Learning, Reading, Writing, Oral Communication and Numeracy.

These skills are essential for individuals to participate effectively in our society. They are inextricably interwoven into all parts of our lives, being directly or indirectly linked to the physical, social and economic wellbeing of individuals, workplace productivity and safety, community interaction and capacity, and ultimately to Australia’s economic and community wellbeing. The ACSF reflects contemporary use of English in Australia.

The ACSF has been developed to facilitate a consistent national approach …

Framing In Cognitive Clinical Interviews About Intuitive Science Knowledge: Dynamic Student Understandings Of The Discourse Interaction, Rosemary S. Russ, Victor R. Lee, Bruce L. Sherin

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Researchers in the science education community make extensive use of cognitive clinical interviews as windows into student knowledge and thinking. Despite our familiarity with the interviews, there has been very limited research addressing the ways that students understand these interactions. In this work we examine students’ behaviors and speech patterns in a set of clinical interviews about chemistry for evidence of their tacit understandings and underlying expectations about the activity in which they are engaged. We draw on the construct of framing from anthropology and sociolinguistics and identify clusters of behaviors that indicate that students may alternatively frame the interview …

Testing A Model Of Undergraduate Competence In Employability Skills And Its Implications For Stakeholders, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2012

Despite the development of employability skills being firmly entrenched in higher education’s strategic agenda worldwide; recent graduates’ standards in certain skills are not meeting industry expectations. This paper presents and tests a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills. It highlights those factors which impact on competence in employability skills and identify ways in which stakeholders can adjust curricula and pedagogy to enhance graduate skill outcomes. Data was gathered from an online survey of 1008 business undergraduates who self-rated their competence against a framework of employability skills typically considered essential in graduates. The data was analysed using multiple regression techniques. …

Lessons For Teachers: What Lower Secondary School Students Tell Us About Learning A Musical Instrument, Geoffrey Lowe

Research outputs 2012

In this study I set out to investigate why many students drop out from elective instrument programmes, particularly in lower secondary school. I examined the values and beliefs a sample of students in their first year in secondary school attach to learning an instrument, and the impact of the instrument lesson upon these values and beliefs. Forty-eight year 8 students (aged 12-13) from the Perth metropolitan area participated in eight focus groups. The study found that, while participants had strong cognitive and affective reasons for learning, their competence beliefs were fragile, due in part to the dislocation associated with the …

Effects Of Multisensory Phonics-Based Training On The Word Recognition And Spelling Skills Of Adolescents With Reading Disabilities, Sallyann Geiss, Kenyatta O. Rivers, Kelly S. Kennedy, Linda J. Lombardino

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of an Orton-Gillingham-based reading instruction system, the Barton Reading and Spelling System (BRSS; Barton 2000), that was used as a supplemental reading instruction program for increasing the lower-level reading skills of a group of adolescents with persistent reading problems. Nine students participated in the supplemental reading program based on pre-test scores of a spoken and written language assessment battery. Progress was measured at the end of intervention by post-testing students on the same assessment battery. Each student showed some improvements from their pretest to posttest scores on all of the …

Teachers’ Thoughts On E-Readers In The Elementary School Classroom, Marcy Zipke

Education Faculty Publications

Despite the popularity of e-readers and the enthusiasm of some for their use in secondary education, their utility in elementary education has not yet been systematically explored. Some advantages and disadvantages to teaching elementary literacy with e-readers are identified here. A convenience sample of ten teachers from a variety of different types of elementary schools and classrooms who were e-reader novices read a chapter of a grade-appropriate book on a Kindle and evaluated its use for their students. The teachers gave their opinions and ideas on how the devices could be implemented. Three specific technological affordances of an e-reader that …

Promoting Success In Developmental English: Student Life Skills Courses A Mixed-Methods Case Study, Richard Anthony Greene

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to describe the impact the SLS courses had on the retention and success rates of students who were taking developmental English courses at FSCJ-Kent Campus, (b) to explain how students taking developmental English felt the SLS courses impacted them, and (c) to find out what elements of the SLS program were most and least valued by students.

In order to understand how the SLS program impacted students in the developmental English program at FSCJ-Kent Campus, I conducted a mixed methods case study using FSCJ–Kent Campus as the research site. The case study …

Osmd: Cultural Competence Tool For Research, Education, And Practice, Rebecca Tadlock-Marlo, Danny Applegate

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Results from a mixed methods study provide insight into redefining multicultural counseling competencies specific to school counselors. Foci include new counseling competencies and implications for counselor educators. Attendees will explore aspects of multiculturalism, counseling competencies of school counselors, research implications, and its importance for the field. Also discussed will be applying information to the development of skills, knowledge, and awareness of counselors-in-training through specific pedagogical examples. Participant discussion is vital to this presentation to further discuss content area, explore redefining multiculturalism, and implications this research has for both practicing counselors and counselor educators. Attendees can expect to gain groundbreaking theory …

Relationship Between Assessment And Students’ Learning, Babar Khan

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

Assessment is a critical aspect of teaching and learning process which aim at collecting, interpreting and analyzing the regarding students’ performance. The quality of learning is determined by the quality of assessment practices in the classroom. There are many purposes of assessment that focus on the different dimensions of educational development, however, the most dominant purposes of assessment are improving students’ learning and develop accountability measures for learning at classroom and school levels. For effective assessment, using appropriate assessment strategies is significant. There are number of that can be employed to enhance students’ learning outcome but teacher rely on only …

Transition From Lecture Based To Activity Based Teaching Through Whole School Improvement In Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan, Salima Begum

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

The study sets out to answer the question, “How and to what extent has Whole School Improvement Program influenced the teachers to shift from lecture to activity based teaching and learning processes in the project schools in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan? The study was conducted in two Whole School Improvement Programme (WSIP) project schools in district Gilgit from public and private education sector of Pakistan. A case study approach was used in qualitative paradigm and Context, Input, Process and Product model was used in data collection and analysis to evaluate the input given by Professional Development Teachers (PDTs) and outcomes of …

Portfolio: A Professional Development And Learning Tool For Teachers, Babar Khan, Salima Begum

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

Professional development of teachers is considered a source to enhance teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. To meet this purpose teacher education institutions use a variety of ways for teachers’ development programs. Mostly these ways and strategies are used in short and long programs where teachers are provided opportunities to learn knowledge and skills outside classroom and schools. The purpose of these courses is to enhance the teachers’ capacity and improve students’ learning outcomes. However, most of these learning and strategies are limited to the training centers and teachers face challenges while implementing the learning in their respective schools. Teachers …

The Dirty “S” Word: Innovative Teaching Techniques For Counselor Educators Facilitating Learning In Statistics And Research, Rebecca Tadlock-Marlo, Megan Michalak

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Innovative pedagogy will be presented and discussed to help make research a less painful class to both teach and learn. Foci include teaching methods, potential assignments, and suggestions for activities to help facilitate a more fluid learning process for counselors. Attendees will explore aspects of helping students overcome their fear of both statistics and research.