Secondary Education Commons^™

Breaking Barriers: Creating Inclusive Dance Spaces For High School Students With Cerebral Palsy, Samantha Michelle Barnewolt

Dance (MFA) Theses

Abstract This thesis explores the power of positive mindsets as it relates to creative movement development in dance for students living with Cerebral Palsy (CP) who also use motorized wheelchairs. This research dives into the development of movement mantras used to break negative mindsets and create thinking strategies that encourage movement development for varied bodies. As a result of collaborative efforts between the researcher, a student living with CP, and students living without CP, this study reveals that through the removal of mental barriers which complicate the accessibility of intentional movement in dance, students with CP may overcome obstacles that ...

Young Adult Literature In The Classroom: A Tool To Inspire Students And Encourage Reading Both Inside And Outside Of The Classroom, Naomi Nagy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper examines the potential of incorporating more young adult literature into high school English and language arts classrooms. Drawing on past research of others and the thoughts and opinions of a handful of current high school students, this paper will focus on what young adult literature is, why more teens and young adults should read it, and how it can be incorporated and taught in the average high school English classroom. These studies, along with the thoughts and experiences provided by high school students surveyed for this paper, may not reflect the thoughts and opinions of every high school ...

The Effect Of Virtual Labs On High School Student Attitudes Towards Chemistry, Emily Koehler

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This mixed-methods action research project evaluated high school chemistry student attitudes towards chemistry before and after the students completed a virtual laboratory. Students were surveyed by utilizing the Attitude Toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (Bauer, 2008) and a random sample of students were interviewed by the author. Survey scores in five subscales (emotional satisfaction, anxiety, intellectual accessibility, interest and utility, and fear) were compared through statistical analysis of mean, standard deviation, and t-test. Student attitudes were not significantly different before and after the virtual laboratory experience but did show a general decrease in perceptions of interest and utility of ...

Reproducing The Status Quo In The Middle School English Classroom: A Critical Examination Of Literacy Learning Via Personalized Learning Technology, Michele Mcconnell

Dissertations

Personalized learning technology (PL Tech) is a growing educational reform movement supported by federal grant dollars. As a bourgeoning educational movement, no research has been conducted to explore the potential effects of such structures in supporting student literacy learning. Additionally, current education reform research often lacks the perspective of the students experiencing the reform. Therefore, this study sought to examine the lived experiences of middle school students using PL Tech to understand what structural and cultural arrangements influenced students’ literacy learning.

Portraiture, a qualitative methodology, was employed to conduct the study at a charter school in Fresno, California implementing PL ...

Katie Parnell's Final Master's Portfolio, Kathryn Parnell

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio includes insight, analysis, research, and pedagogy concerning the following topics:

The Lost Prince: A Multi-Theory Analysis of Peter Morgan’s Representation of Prince Charles in The Crown

Semiotic Content Analysis: Gender Stereotypes in Laundry Advertisements

Emma Extended Lesson Plan and Critical Essay

Grey Clouds And Silver Linings: Professional Learning For Secondary Educators During Covid-19, Jenelle Williams

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.

Fourth Voices Conference On Teaching Stem With Song, Lawrence M. Lesser

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The fourth VOICES (Virtual Ongoing Interdisciplinary Collaborations on Educating with Song) conference will be held September 26, 2021, with its Sunday date especially targeting those whose teaching schedule precludes attendance on a weekday. This online-only conference explores the use of song to teach STEM content at the college or secondary school level and will include reviewed interactive sessions, video-posters, and discussions of interest to both practitioners and researchers.

Using The Modern Classrooms Project Instructional Model To Address Post-Covid Challenges In The Classroom, Mary Clare Murray

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

The trauma and upheaval that students and families suffered due to the Covid pandemic will impact the classroom in the 2021-2022 school year in two significant ways: in the uncertain social-emotional health of students and in the dramatic disparities in their recent learning experiences. What is the most effective method for teachers to address these issues during instruction? The Modern Classrooms teaching method emphasizes self-paced, mastery-based, blended learning that could be a successful method to address post-Covid challenges in the classroom. This paper refers to studies that show the success of each of these instructional aspects: self-paced, mastery-based, and blended ...

Vocational Education: Cna Students’ Perspectives Of Soft Skills In Training And The Workplace, Kimberly S. Mcclendon-Payton

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify CNAs’ perceptions about the most important soft skills used by CNAs in training and the workplace.

Methodology: This quantitative research study identified CNAs’ perceptions of the most important soft skills they used based on the composite model for soft skills. CNAs were selected based on purposeful sampling. Likert scores were collected from the survey responses.

Findings: Examination of the quantitative data from the 35 CNAs revealed that brainstorming is the most important collaboration soft skill in CNA training and the workplace.

Conclusions: Results based on the findings of this study ...

Supporting Students After A Concussion: School Administrators’ Perspectives, Tricia M. Kasamatsu, Tamara C. Valovich Mcleod, Johna K. Register, Cailee E. Welch Bacon

Perspectives In Learning

Students with a concussion may experience challenges when returning to school and completing schoolwork. Therefore, students may require temporary academic support throughout the recovery process. The purpose of this study was to examine school administrators’ perceptions of the return to school process and provision of academic adjustments (AA) after concussion. Online surveys were analyzed using a series of descriptive, chi-square, and Mann Whitney tests. School administrators strongly agreed a concussion can affect school performance and were supportive of providing AA for symptomatic students. More school administrators with access to an athletic trainer and who completed concussion training had an established ...

An Analysis Of 7th Grade Us History Students And The Desire To Participate In Academic Dishonesty In A Forced Hybrid Learning Model, Alexander Jelacic

Education Masters Papers

The purpose of this action research was to analyze ninety students in a 7^th grade US History students and the desire to participate in Academic Dishonesty in a forced hybrid learning model. Data was collected over a period of five weeks using pre and post intervention surveys, an exit slip for self-assessment, and unit assessment scores. Then seeing how reading a script with positive words created by students and adding a proctor can affect the results. Results show a positive correlation between reading a script and proctoring with student self-reporting, morality, and efficacy, however, it did not have correlation ...

Agential Schooling: Posthumanism, Ypar, And Spooky Entanglements, Thomas Albright

Doctoral Dissertations

This yearlong ethnographic project, building upon three years of work within an Ethnic Studies program, examined schooling through a posthumanist lens to better understand the intra-actions between humans, nonhumans, and discourses in a public high school along with an afterschool youth participatory action research program in Western Massachusetts. Intra-action here refers to the way that the bodies are co-constitutive. A posthuman framing of schooling, what I label agential schooling, demonstrates how schooling is protean, and shifts as we seek to understand and challenge it. To shed light on this issue of examining agential schooling, and YPAR as a possible intervention ...

Feedback Is A Gift: Do Video-Enhanced Rubrics Result In Providing Better Peer Feedback Than Textual Rubrics?, Kevin Ackermans, Ellen Rusman, Rob Nadolski, Saskia Brand-Gruwel, Marcus Specht

Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation

High-quality elaborative peer feedback is a blessing for both learners and teachers. However, learners can experience difficulties in giving high-quality feedback on complex skills using textual analytic rubrics. High-quality elaborative feedback can be strengthened by adding video-modeling examples with embedded self-explanation prompts, turning textual analytic rubrics (TR) into so-called 'video-enhanced analytic rubrics' (VER). This study contrasts two experimental conditions (TR, n = 54; VERs, n = 49) with their version of the anonymized online tool (used to collect the given feedback in 'Tips for improvement and Tops identifying strengths'). Peer feedback quality (concreteness and consistency) was evaluated using Natural Language Processing. As ...

Scaffolding Independence: Inside The Classroom, Outside The Classroom, And In The Spaces In Between, John B. Weinstein

Early College Folio

This piece outlines the author's educational concept, Scaffolding Indpendence, and its applications in early college classrooms over nearly a decade. The author also introduces the works of other dynamic, innovative educators—The Scaffolding Indpendence Team—who created educational modules to codify early college teaching practices.

Early College Pedagogy: An Introduction To The Bard Early College Fellowship, Ligaya Franklin

Early College Folio

The author introduces the Bard Early College Fellowship, an opportunity for faculty from the network of Bard Early Colleges to craft a lesson series which centers Bardian pedagogical methods and student success. The author also highlights five projects that emerged from past fellows, also published in this issue.

Layers Of Inclusion: Arranging Music For Multi-Leveled Ensembles, John Myers

Early College Folio

This paper describes the author’s practice of “layered arranging” in music education. As a response to the range of ages and skill levels of students at Bard Academy and Bard College at Simon’s Rock, this pedagogical approach allows for experienced students to work with level-appropriate material while less experienced students may participate supportively through simplified chord progressions.

Initiatives To Find The "Lost Einsteins" Through The Integration Of Independent Scientific Research Projects In Early College, Maria Agapito, Mini Jayaprakash, Tiffany Morris, Carla Stephens

Early College Folio

This exploratory study examines the effects of incorporating Independent Scientific Research Projects (ISRP) into early college biology curriculum. The authors present their findings, which are steeped in the goal of increasing minority students’ interest in STEM careers, by analyzing student engagement in classrooms with and without ISRP integration.

The Need For Early College In The 21st Century, Donald E. Heller

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” details the evolution of the early college movement within the American educational system. The author then makes a case for the continued importance and success of early college models in the 50 years since Hall’s initial call for reform.

Early College Pedagogy: Intellectual Development In Community, Kristy Mcmorris

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” observes the early college classroom—a space for diverse and independent voices, community-driven intellectual development, and for growing social responsibility. The author describes her own experience as an early college educator and depicts this equity work in action.

Early College As Sites For "Moratorium", Michael Sadowski

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” finds common ground in Hall’s depiction of the self-exploration of young students entering her new school and the findings of child and adolescent psychologist Erik Erikson’s identification of a particular point in youth development he dubbed a “psychosocial moratorium.” The author grounds these pioneers’ theories in the transformations he witnessed in students as former director of a Bard Early College program.