Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons^™

Teaching Standards, Approaches, And Techniques For K-12 Chinese Classes In The Us, Jia Xu

Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology

K-12 is the term used to denote the primary and secondary education system in the U.S., from kindergarten to 12th grade. Second language education is critically important, especially for Chinese language, which has become the fourth most widely taught foreign language at the K-12 levels in the country. This thesis addresses K-12 foreign language frameworks and content standards, as well as discusses and summarizes effective teaching approaches and techniques for K-12 Chinese Classes in the US; and therefore, provides a reference for teachers, schools, and educational institutions. This thesis includes three parts: Part One summarizes K-12 Chinese education in the …

Poverty, According To Gorski, Kristyna M. Rudio

The Montana English Journal

In this poem, "Poverty, According to Gorski", the main points of Paul Gorski's book Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap (Second Edition) are outlined. The poem discusses and summarizes topics heavily researched by Gorski such as meritocracy, equality, equity, equity literacy, ideologies, and strategies to help classroom teachers, administrators, and leaders in literacy help to break down barriers for students and families experiencing poverty.

Promoting Preservice Stem Education Teachers' Metacognitive Awareness: Professional Development Designed To Improve Teacher Metacognitive Awareness, Andrew John Hughes, Eddie Partida

Educational Leadership & Technology Faculty Publications

This quantitative portion of a convergent complementarity, mixed-methods, exploratory study describes the design and implementation of a 5-week preservice teacher professional development (PD) experience and the associated Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) measures before and after the experience. The PD experience was designed to explicitly address participants’ domain-general and domain-specific knowledge and regulation of cognition through a highly integrated academic and clinical preparation regimen centered on a cognitive coaching model. The study participants comprised preservice STEM education teachers (N = 11) enrolled in a dual teaching certification and Master’s in Education program. The findings showed an increase in participants’ regulation …

Exhibit Curriculum For Fighting For Democracy: Unit Three, Sarah Aponte, Martin Toomajian

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Fighting for Democracy: Dominican Veterans from World War II.

Students in Global History and U.S. History courses often spend extensive class time studying World War II. Dominicans were involved in virtually every facet of the U.S. war effort. The Dominican Studies Institute's exhibit highlights Dominican veterans who served in both the European and Pacific theaters, in multiple branches of the U.S. armed forces. These same veterans, like other people of color, faced discrimination as soldiers in the U.S. An exploration of these veterans' experiences would be memorable and valuable for secondary …

Using Book Clubs To Encourage Middle School Reading Interest: A Qualitative Case Study, Marc Shoemaker

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Reading has been central to my life since my earliest years and has molded me into the adult I have become, for better or worse. My conversations in classrooms, backed by research, has made it plain that today’s students value reading far less than in the past. Books are still read in class, but less out-of-class reading takes place, and a lessening number of students carry a love of reading into adulthood. Student attitude toward reading changes during the middle-school years. As reading increases children’s empathy and critical thinking abilities, this becomes a significant concern. For my research, I chose …

Content Area Literacy: The Effects Of Focusing On Preservice Teachers’ Literacy Identities, Heather Pule

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

While secondary preservice content area teachers are passionate about their content areas, many are still resistant to learning about and using literacy in their future classrooms (Moje, 2010; O’Brien & Stewart, 1990, Spitler, 2011). This could be due to a struggle with high level literacy skills (American Institute for Research, 2006; NAEP, 2015) or a lack of literacy in their personal lives. This study examines a university content area literacy course that focused on preservice teachers’ literacy identities and on providing a community that offered positive interactions with literacy through authentic and purposeful reading experiences. A study of survey data …

Moments Of Reflection: A Phenomenological Study Of Preservice Teacher Reflection, Jane Ferris

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Transitioning from their training programs to their own classrooms, new teachers may feel a disconnect between what they learned and what they experience. To help with this transition and to promote teachers’ abilities to respond to the varying and unique needs of their students and schools, teacher training programs, beginning in the 1980s, have incorporated the use of reflective practice. Reflection provides teachers an opportunity to engage with their experiences in such a way that prereflective understandings, assumptions, biases, and beliefs may be identified. Reviewed literature suggests that teacher training programs do not clearly define and implement reflection instruction into …

Vcu Scholars Compass: Suggested Resources For Middle And High School Teachers, Kristina Lee

Scholarship about Open Education

This document was prepared for a VCU School of Education doctoral externship and includes a list of possible secondary education resources available in VCU Scholars Compass, as well as a sample outreach letter sent to educators in the Richmond, VA area.

Exhibit Curriculum For Fighting For Democracy: Unit Two, Sarah Aponte, Martin Toomajian

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Fighting for Democracy: Dominican Veterans from World War II.

Students in Global History and U.S. History courses often spend extensive class time studying World War II. Dominicans were involved in virtually every facet of the U.S. war effort. The Dominican Studies Institute's exhibit highlights Dominican veterans who served in both the European and Pacific theaters, in multiple branches of the U.S. armed forces. These same veterans, like other people of color, faced discrimination as soldiers in the U.S. An exploration of these veterans' experiences would be memorable and valuable for secondary …

Exhibit Curriculum For Fighting For Democracy: Unit One, Sarah Aponte, Martin Toomajian

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Fighting for Democracy: Dominican Veterans from World War II.

Students in Global History and U.S. History courses often spend extensive class time studying World War II. Dominicans were involved in virtually every facet of the U.S. war effort. The Dominican Studies Institute's exhibit highlights Dominican veterans who served in both the European and Pacific theaters, in multiple branches of the U.S. armed forces. These same veterans, like other people of color, faced discrimination as soldiers in the U.S. An exploration of these veterans' experiences would be memorable and valuable for secondary …

The Influence Of Observational Experience And Metaconceptual Teaching Activities On Secondary Science Teacher Candidates’ Conceptual Understandings Of The Practices Of Science, Jillian L. Wendt, Brandy Huderson

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Research supports that the use of intentional, metaconceptual teaching practices enhances teacher candidates’ conceptual change, thus affecting teacher candidates’ accumulation of new knowledge and understanding. With the increased focus on and need to accommodate the calls for enhanced science teacher education of the Next Generation Science Standards and the related practices of science, it is important to consider how teacher preparation programs enact conceptual change among teacher candidates that align with the current calls. This study examines intentional, metaconceptual teaching activities coupled with observational field experiences with mentor scientists to determine whether engagement in these activities affects teacher candidates’ understandings …

Hwalbay Ginya Misi', Elise-Alexandria Green

CGU Theses & Dissertations

My life experiences shape me as who I am as an educator. I walk with the knowledge of my ancestors and the protection of the creator. The path of which I walk is full of obstacles and challenges. I use my positionality to put myself in the shoes of my students. I am more than what I appear to be. I am a sister, daughter, student, and educator. In the Hualapai language, Hwalbay ginya misi’, translates to “Hualapai sister and daughter”. I use this title to reflect my identity and honor my culture. My ethnography describes my experience as a …

Transcending Compromise: Principal Practices Predicting Teacher Effectiveness And Teacher Morale, David George Grant

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Two leadership styles have dominated the literature- instructional leadership and transformational leadership. No study could be found quantitatively integrating principal practices from these styles in ways that simultaneously predicted teacher effectiveness and teacher morale. Therefore, this study sought to better understand the complex relationships between principal practices, teacher effectiveness and teacher morale. First, this study synthesized meta analyses of principal effects for studies produced between 1978-2008 and presented a unique empirically grounded integration framework summarizing principal effects for student achievement and teacher morale. Second, the study used this framework to explore four research questions. An online survey was utilized to …

A Case Study Of The Impact Of The Dplc Model Of Professional Learning On Collective Teacher Efficacy And Organizational Trust In A Middle School, Maria Gaspar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this case study was to investigate the relationship between the implementation of the District Professional Learning Community (DPLC) model of professional development and collective teacher efficacy and organizational trust at one middle school in a large urban school district. Data were collected from the following sources: Goddard & Hoy's (2003) CE Scale Form L, Hoy & Tschannen-Moran's (2003) Omnibus-T scale, six additional survey items used to explore teachers' perceptions of the DPLC model's influence on improving student literacy, and semi-structured focus group interviews. A series of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square tests were performed to analyze …

A Window, Mirror, And Wall: How Educators Use Twitter For Professional Learning, Elizabeth Sturm, Laura Quaynor

Education Department Faculty Articles

Teachers and other professionals increasingly utilize Twitter as a medium for professional expression and professional learning. These types of Twitter exchanges often take place in formal chats which are moderated by professional organizations or other knowledge brokers in the field. As moderated public online forums become more common, educators may wish to understand the benefits and limitations of this type of professional learning. This paper reports on a study of educators’ discourse in two hosted Twitter chats focused on global education and analyzes the ways in which these types of chats align with research on high-quality professional learning. Results indicate …

Using Integrated Thematic Units To Teach Social Studies In The Intermediate Grades Classroom, Noelle Frantz

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Teachers are asked every day to teach a variety of subjects to their students, but it is often challenging to find enough time in the day to teach every subject. Often, social studies is the subject that gets left out of the curriculum. The purpose of this project was to examine the research behind thematic units and determine their role as a strategy to teaching social studies in the intermediate grades classroom. I researched thematic units including how to create them and their benefits and challenges. Using the research, I then made a resource for teachers to create their own …

Shared Responsibility Of Highly Effective Co-Teachers In Middle School Mathematics Classrooms, Ann Hembrook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Currently, most students with disabilities (SWDs) receive a majority of their education in the general education classroom (U.S. Department of Education, 2019). This inclusive practice reflects educational and accountability requirements described in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015). To address these requirements, schools seek service delivery models that support SWDs and close achievement gaps (Murawski & Goodwin, 2014). In this study, the researcher investigated the lived experiences of highly effective middle school teachers using co-teaching as a service delivery model to support SWDs in the general education classroom. The researcher used …

Disability- And Mathematics-Related Outcomes Of Adolescents Born Late-Preterm: An Examination Of Eighth-Grade Ecls-K Participants, Annette Romualdo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

To capture a snapshot of the late-preterm academic phenotype in adolescence, and to address a research gap in empirical investigation, the researcher in the present study compared disability- and mathematics-related eighth-grade age outcomes of those born late-preterm (n = 330), to full-term (n = 5434) peers. Through an analysis of Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) the researcher in the present study examined the impact of late-preterm birth on disability-related school outcomes in adolescent-age, as measured by (1) presence of special education services; (2) presence of learning disability or other disability; (3) and presence of increased behavioral …

Using Project-Based Learning As A Tool For Teaching Mathematics In Urban Elementary Schools, Bernadette Jaster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the lived experiences and views of fourth- and fifth-grade math teachers who implemented project-based learning (PBL) addressed the needs of their at-risk students in urban schools. The researcher examined the use of PBL in mathematics-impacted instruction, seeking to understand teacher beliefs related to the influence of exposure to PBL experiences on students' academic outcomes. When deliberately planned and embedded into teaching, the implementation of PBL helps students retain content, improve attitudes about learning, and improve their ability to collaborate with others (Cervantes et al., 2015). A literature review was conducted to …

Sexual Consent In Middle School Sex Health Education: An Analysis Of Health Education Standards In Minnesota, Ashley Parent

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Comprehensive sex education is designed to teach sexual health, reproductive health, human sexual anatomy, safe sex, birth control and sexual abstinence. Consent education focuses on sexually transmitted infection (STI), pregnancy prevention, sexual identity, and the risks of sexual violence (Willis, 2019). This qualitative content analysis and survey will explore consent education in middle schools adopted in Minnesota from the past ten years. The research questions for this study are: is consent a part of sex education? How has consent been taught in 8-10 grades in Minnesota over the past 10 years? What frameworks are being used to teach consent to …