Elementary Education Commons^™

Challenging Student Behaviors And Teacher Well-Being, Dannah Steele

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Classroom management is a necessary component of a teacher’s classroom in order for students to learn in a safe environment. When a teacher is unable to manage his or her classroom because of dangerous and disruptive behaviors, it can be physically dangerous and impede the learning of others. Teachers frequently exposed to challenging behaviors experience high levels of stress that transcends into their personal lives. The purpose of this study was to determine how administrators can better support teachers who experience high levels of stress incurred from working with students who exhibit challenging behaviors in the classroom. Data collected through …

The Correlation Between Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, And Phonics Skills And Effective Readers In First Grade., Olivia N. Didio

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

The purpose of this study was to get insight related to the literacy instruction and the connection between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics for fluent reading. The research includes examinations of students' prior knowledge of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics decoding skills, along with their ability to read grade level text. Students received daily instruction in literacy through modified Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study in reading, writing, and phonics. Some adaptations and supplemental resources were used to support this curriculum. As the data was collected the instructor made adjustments to the instruction to fill gaps in phonological awareness, …

Increasing Social Development For 5th Graders, Akito Aromin

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Elementary school kids in 5th grade had social development being enhanced before the year 2020. The pandemic hit in 2020, causing the social development of children to falter. There have been more negative effects on social development in children, impacting their regulation of emotions, respect, and even forming friendships to have troubling effects. This is expressed because of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), ceasing any real-life events or schools to halt for a bit and moving to remote learning for the time being. This paper outlines how social development in 5th graders was impacted, providing research needed on how you can increase …

Parent Volunteers And Covid-19: Balancing Necessity, Enthusiasm, And Caution, Jarrod Myers

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus issue addressed in this Capstone Project is how the pandemic disrupted parent volunteering in schools. Parent volunteering is an essential issue for schools because parent involvement is essential for student success. An evidence-based argument is offered that schools struggled to staff the void left by parent volunteers. The three primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were parents, school leadership, and teachers. Parents make up the volunteer pool; teachers know what kind of assistance classrooms need, and school leadership creates policies. Three themes emerged from analyzing the data and explored ways to reintroduce parents to a school campus. Parent volunteers make …

Preventing Behavior Problems Among Elementary School Students, Carena Wills

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Behavior problems among elementary school students has become the leading disruption in classrooms today. Behavior is a key factor in the functionality and tone of a classroom, which, in turn, affects the learning atmosphere for all students. Behavior problems also have increased the probability of high school dropout and students forming other behavior disorders. With the proper preventive measures taken, the decrease and improvement of student behavior can impact a student's life. This capstone project investigates the key causes of behavior problems and the kinds of measures that would help prevent these problems. This project further examines the importance and …

Nature-Based Education For Elementary Students With Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Kayleigh Morrison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There are several advantages to including a nature-based curriculum and outdoor learning into state standards, and the consequences of students who do not have access to outside learning and activities can be severe. The term “Attention Restoration Theory” (ART) was coined by psychology professors Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in 1989 and claims that exposure to nature can improve mental fatigue and concentration. This senior capstone examines Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory and academic studies rooted in its philosophy as it applies to nature-based curriculum and outdoor learning. There are certain advantages for students who are exposed to a nature-based curriculum and …

The Effects Of Covid-19 On Early Childhood Mental Health Development, Taylor Ybanez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

A child’s development is of the highest importance to any person that has the opportunity to teach them. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many people, especially developing children have struggled with their mental health development. With the lack of resources and outreach opportunities, some of them had to be left alone for a good portion of their time during their stay-at-home orders due to not being allowed to attend school. This senior capstone is to bring awareness of the toll COVID-19 has taken on children’s development in terms of their emotional, physiological, and physical well-being. The findings offer some …

Impact Of Positive Classroom Environment On Elementary School Students’ Learning, Marisa Contrada

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

When students are asked if they like school or not, their answer is typically negative for the reason that they don’t feel comfortable in the classroom. Classroom environment is where their mindset could be changed. Classroom environment has not been a prominent topic of discussion. This senior capstone research report was designed to shed light on the importance of classroom environment. Through the use of literature review, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and anonymous student survey, positive classroom environment has a tremendous impact on students learning. This senior capstone examines the importance of classroom environment as well as strategies in creating …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of School Counselor Antiracist Social Justice Practices, Stephanie Deonca Smith-Durkin

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Decades after the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, the push continues to make schools a safe and welcoming environment for Black and Brown students. Black students in particular are continuing to be oppressed and marginalized in PK-12 educational settings. Accounting for approximately 15% of public PK-12 students, Black students comprise 13.7% of all students who receive out-of-school suspensions in 2017, are 16% of the special education student population, and are more likely to attend a school with less resources (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2021; Ramsey, n.d.). …

How Does Parental Involvement Shape Kindergarten Readiness In One Title 1 Classroom?, Kiristen Moriah Boles

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to explore the role parental involvement plays in Kindergarten readiness in Title 1 schools. The theoretical foundation used to support this research was Epstein’s 6 model construct of parental involvement. For this study, a compilation of qualitative and quantitative data was used based upon the question being researched. The target sample was 20 Kindergarten students in a Title 1 elementary school along with 20 of the parents. The data collected was composed from scores from state assessments, teacher created assessment data, a parent climate survey, and parent communication logs.

The results suggested …

The Study Of Morphological Awareness For English Learners, Jane Beeninga

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

English Learner (EL) students in American schools are becoming increasingly common, but there does not seem to be enough support for these students. This is causing EL students to fall behind in content areas such as reading (Richards-Tutor et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to investigate what barriers are keeping EL students from succeeding in reading. After identifying a need for vocabulary instruction, the researcher will be conducting a morphological awareness intervention to improve EL students’ ability to figure out unknown words. Morphological awareness is the understanding of a word’s smaller units such as prefixes, suffixes, and …

The Sel Implementation Monkey: Identifying Factors That Serve As Barriers To The Successful Implementation Of Sel In The Classroom And School Setting, Aron Dody

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that served as barriers to the successful implementation of social and emotional learning in the classroom and school setting. This study utilized a reflective case study approach concerning USD 417’s social and emotional learning implementation journey.

The research questions for this study were: 1. What factors or conditions serve as barriers to the implementation of SEL in the classroom and school setting? 2. What resources or supports would lead to increased fidelity amongst teachers in the implementation of SEL in the classroom and school setting?

The reflections and data were used …

A Literature Review Of Multicultural Education Practices To Support Marginalized Communities, Karleigh Ferrell

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to provide an overview of the current literature surrounding multicultural education practices that effectively support students from marginalized communities. Today’s classrooms are the most diverse and expansive that they have ever been in terms of the student population, but this is not yet reflected in employed public school teachers. So, it is crucial that teachers and public schools are culturally competent and prepared to implement multicultural education practices. Teachers that are culturally competent and that utilize multicultural education strategies have a higher sense of self-efficacy and less risk of burnout, and students of all identities have better …

Steam Explores Project Based Assessments, Erica Luvone, Loretta Radulic, Joe Mondanaro, Nicole Acevedo, Erika Dent, Ann Rhodes

STEM Month

This year, our approach to STEAM explores project based assessments in the disciplines of science and social studies. Students work in groups to produce projects that showcase work and proficiency. These projects are presented, displayed, discussed, and revisited or revised at student discretion.

Re-Examining Writer’S Workshop For Emergent Writers In Kindergarten For The Inclusion Of Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Taylor C. Randall

Masters Projects

Writing’s importance in the classroom has been pushed aside by the recent push for reading and math instruction (Cutler & Graham, 2008). In early childhood classrooms, the amount of time spent on writing is limited and early childhood teachers are feeling unprepared to address the needs of their students (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Haland, Home, and McTigue, 2018; Korth et al., 2017; Pelatti, Piasta, Justice, and O’Connell, 2014). From a theoretical perspective of social constructivism, social cognitive theory, and emergent literacy, teachers will build on what students already know and can do and support within the social constructs of the …

Inservice Middle School Teachers' Understanding Of Views Of Nature Of Science (Vnos), Merika Charupoom, Emily Carter, Yasmeen Hernandez

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

What is a misconception? A view or opinion that is incorrect based on faulty thinking or understanding. Misconceptions may originate from personal experience, imprecise language, lack of examples and non-examples in concept formation, media representation of phenomena, errors in logic, and textbooks. Often occurs from the inconsistency in science curriculums among instittuions and education systems.

Effects of Misconceptions: Gap in knowledge/understanding that is taught from teacher to student; Decrease in the academic success of students.

Nevada is ranked 49th in educational attainment, 42nd in school quality, 46th in best school systems in America.

One way to help us understand whether …

How Rhythm Affects Prosody, Mckenzie Ward

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Music interventions and how they benefit reading fluency have been researched, but there is more to be done in discovering the benefits of rhythm and prosody. This quantitative research study looked at how rhythm-based interventions affect student prosody in a second-grade classroom. Data were gathered from a music experience survey, a prosody pre-assessment, and a prosody post-assessment. The music intervention in this study involved three rhythm-based interventions called “DeeDee games.” This research analyzed and compared the growth between the prosody pre-and post-assessments and the results between students with musical backgrounds and students without musical backgrounds. This study found insufficient evidence …

Curiosity, Motivation, Autonomy, And Lifelong Learning In Education And The United States Marine Corps, Cynthia Malmquist

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and autonomy-supportive teaching all promote lifelong learning in both the classroom and Marine Corps. Humans are all born with curiosity. Children inherently practice forms of intrinsic motivation. Most would agree that they do not like being micromanaged - they enjoy a sense of freedom when completing tasks. Despite this, many students learn in a controlling environment and many Marines work under controlling leaders. Though a large amount of time is spent on learning through the first 18 years of life, lifelong learning does not come naturally and is not commonly practiced. The research and ideas discussed below …

Steam Report By Summer Diaz, Summer Diaz

STEM Month

Hi, my name is Summer Diaz. I am 10 years old and a student at Theodore Roosevelt School (TRS) in Weehawken. I am here to talk to you about my process through STEAM. STEAM is a very important and difficult task to do because I have done many projects involving STEAM like my Umbrella Holder that I made when I was 8 in 3rd grade. Which prevents having so much groceries in your hand when it’s raining so you only have to hold one thing. Then my most recent project is Finder which prevents you from losing your lost devices.

3 Stem Projects By Fares Soliman, Fares Soliman

STEM Month

My name is Fares Soliman. I am a fourth grade student from John Hill School Boonton NJ. I created a 3 STEM project. The first project that I made was a doll. I used pink yarn for the dress and brown yarn for the hair. I also used a round wooden ball for the face. The second project that I created was a diorama of a farm. I put some grass, trees, a barn, hay sticks, some animals, a bridge, a fence, some plastic food and corn for the crop. My third project was a diorama of a park. It …