Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

A Comparison Study Of Parents’ Perceptions Of Quality In Early Childhood Programs, Juanita Ortiz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research has demonstrated that high quality early childhood education (ECE) programs result in short and long-term benefits that are critical for children to reach their full potential and narrow the achievement gap. Parental involvement has been accepted as integral to quality ECE programs, and parental perception drives parental involvement. Perceptions and contributions of parents and caregivers including those who do not speak English have not been adequately addressed in the research. Furthermore, research has not addressed how parental perception regarding quality in ECE programs may vary according to whether their child has or does not have a disability.

This study …

Negative Impacts Of Teacher Evaluation Reform: The Role Of Federal Policy In Student Achievement And Teacher Quality, Allison Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this sequential transformative study was to elucidate the negative experiences of teachers with performance evaluations and to juxtapose the intended use of current popular teacher evaluation reform movements to the evident implementation. One may quickly assume that negative experiences with evaluation are a result of unsatisfactory teaching practices. However, this may not accurately explain the negative experiences. This study focused on the negative experience of teacher evaluation to provide a broader understanding of the impact of new evaluation policy reform on student achievement and teacher quality. Five data sources were analyzed: PAR policy, a teacher survey, district …

A Mixed Method Study Of The Effectiveness Of Gaining Early Awareness And Readiness For Undergraduate Programs (Gear Up) Federal Incentive Program In Southern Mississippi Public Secondary Schools, David Micah Maxwell

Dissertations

The Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) incentive program has been in place since the late 1990s nationally. This grant, which covers a time span of six years and offers up to eighteen million dollars in federal funds, is designed to increase college readiness and decrease dropout rate among high school students. This study examines the effectiveness of this grant in southern Mississippi for the graduating class of 2014. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the effectiveness of this grant, this study draws some conclusions and recommendations for this incentive program.

Cognitive Function And The Administration Of A Writing Strategy Compendium Incorporating Autobiographical Recall And Art, Jonnie Sue Cleveland

Dissertations

The ability to write is vital in many academic areas (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Roughly 70 percent of U. S. students in a representative sampling during 2010 (grades 8 and 12) scored only at the Basic (fractional grasp of prerequisite information and abilities) level and below (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).

Fifty-four percent of students in the eighth grade and 52 percent of students in the twelfth grade in the United States scored at the Basic level. Another 20 percent of students in the eight grade and 21percent of students in the twelfth grade scored below the Basic level. …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Ability To Respond To Active Shooter Incidents, Carole Frances Rider

Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to determine Mississippi high school teachers’ perceptions regarding their preparedness for an active shooter incident. The study included an extensive literature review that included background and policy context, theoretical foundations, pertinent research and professional perspectives and a worldwide timeline of school shootings. The study also included data collection and analysis, results, conclusions, recommendations for policymakers and educational leaders, and recommendations for further research.

The study was conducted to determine if there was a relationship between school planning procedures, participation in practice and drill activity, and administrator preparedness for an active shooter incident and …

The Implementation Of Common Core: Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Chesnie R. Keeler

Honors Theses

The Common Core State Standards are alive and thriving in schools across the nation, and teachers are constantly looking for the best possible ways to implement these rigorous standards with student interests in mind. These standards set goals, or benchmarks, for students to reach at any specified grade level throughout their primary and secondary education; school districts, administrators, and teachers have the choice of deciding how students meet these standards. As a pre-service teacher who will enter the teaching profession, I examine how graphic novels can be implemented into the English Language Arts classroom by analyzing Maus, Persepolis, …

Defining Primary And Academic Discourse Through Instructional Methods In A Single Junior High Classroom, Ashley Nicole Gerhardson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the use of academic discourse in the school setting and discuss the relation of the primary discourse to academic discourse. I focus on the verbal exchanges between a teacher and her students as these students acquire the academic discourse of the English classroom. The study focuses on the ideas of primary discourse and secondary or academic discourse as presented by Gee (1996) and focuses on his idea of Social languages.

Using a microethnographic study, I develop the idea of how the teacher related to her students and how a single educator felt about the purpose …

Assessing Vocabulary Of Children: Investigating The Evaluation And Instruction Of Basic Concepts, Rebecca Elizabeth Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vocabulary knowledge of preschool children is a key factor in predicting literacy success in elementary school (Hammer, Farkas, & Maczuga, 2010). However, few deliberate attempts to teach basic concept vocabulary have been studied (Bowers & Schwarz, 2013; Wilson, 2004). The purpose of this research is to determine if large group explicit instruction with interactive activities of specific basic concept vocabulary will increase preschool children's understanding of basic concept terms when measured by a standardized basic concept assessment. This research will also assess the validity of a basic concept-curriculum based measure (BC-CBM) as an efficient tool to monitor a child's understanding …

Teachers' Sense Of Efficacy: Examining The Relationship Of Teacher Efficacy And Student Achievement, Nouf Abdullah Alrefaei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate which teachers’ characteristics have an impact on teachers’ sense of efficacy. In addition, the relationship between mathematics and science fifth grade teachers’ sense of efficacy and student achievement was examined. Two characteristics related to teachers were examined: teachers’ years of teaching experience and teachers’ highest degree. Participants included 62 mathematics and science teachers from three school districts in Northwest Arkansas. When comparing fifth grade mathematics and science teachers’ efficacy beliefs based on their highest degree, a significant difference in teachers’ efficacy beliefs was found based on their degrees. Teachers with a Bachelor …

The Writing Process: Using Peer Review To Develop Student Writing, Jennifer M. Selting Troester

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following thesis will explore how peer review through an online writing exchange influences student writers during the writing process. I propose that when students participate in this online writing exchange to peer review, it will assure that they will have a better understanding of the writing process, and more confidence in analyzing their own writing and in themselves as writers. It also makes these students more conscientious of the writing they share with peers because they have a wider audience than just their teacher, and this motivates them to improve their writing. The last part of the document features …

A Study Of Prekindergarten Impact On Early Literacy Readiness, Lakeisha Shantae Stokes

Dissertations

The awareness of the positive impact of prekindergarten programs on the success of early literacy of students has heightened due to the research performed on the topic (Barnett et al., 2003; Cohen, 1996; Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). The purpose of this study was to evaluate prekindergarten student gains in the development of early literacy skills, depending on their prekindergarten program experience. The study further examined Head Start and public school prekindergarten teachers’ knowledge of early literacy skills.

Results from the prekindergarten teacher survey indicated that public school prekindergarten teachers had higher levels of education than Head Start prekindergarten teachers. The …

The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration And Teachers' Level Of Knowledge, Implementation, And Confidence Related To Common Core State Standards For Literacy In History/Social Studies, Science And Technical Subject Areas, Talia Shaunte' Lock

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between elements of teacher collaboration and teachers’ level of knowledge, level of implementation, and level of confidence related to CCSS for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subject Areas in grades 6-12. The study included an extensive literature that included an introduction, pertinent literature and research regarding literacy in the 21^st century, CCSS, cross curriculum, teacher collaboration, the role of leadership, and the theoretical framework. The study also included the methodology, research results, the conclusions, recommendations for policymakers and practitioners, and recommendations for further research.

It was discovered …

A National Study Of Alternatively And Traditionally Certified Teachers, John F. Hoye

Dissertations

The alternative teacher certification policy has been firmly in place for more than a decade, but there have been conflicting reports on its effects. I conducted the study to investigate whether the policy has materialized its promise. I compared the characteristics of alternatively certified (AC) and traditionally certified (TC) teachers by analyzing data from a nationally representative sample of public school teachers (N = 27,810). The sample was constructed from the Schools and Staffing Survey 2007-08, a national survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. I investigated what teacher characteristics (such as age, gender, ethnicity, total years of …

High School Educators’ Perceptions Of Their Schools’ Conduciveness To English Language Learners’ Success, Jill Winiger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of administrators, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers in the high schools of Northeast Tennessee regarding their schools’ academics, climate, culture, parent engagement, and their English Language Learners’ school experiences. The researcher sought to ascertain if significant differences exist between the perceptions of different groups of educational professionals in the school, with those groups to include school administrators, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers. Data were analyzed from 50 survey questions with 42 of those questions measured on a 5-point Likert scale, 5 questions as multiple choice, and 3 questions as open-ended. …

Tvaas Rankings And Teachers’ Perceptions Of Data-Driven Professional Learning In Northeast Tennessee Title I And Non-Title I Elementary Schools, Amy S. Doran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this study was a comparison between the perceptions of school-based licensed educators in Title I and non-Title I schools in Northeast Tennessee as measured by the TELL Tennessee Survey and each school’s overall composite TVAAS score. The factor variables were professional development, instructional practices and support, teacher leadership, and school leadership. This dissertation was a quantitative study of teachers’ perceptions of data-driven professional learning and TVAAS composite scores. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to evaluate the difference between teachers’ perceptions of data-driven professional development and student TVAAS data. An independent samples t-test was used …

Use Of C-Map As A Cognitive Tool In Collaborative And Individual Concept Mapping For Enhancing Ell Students' Reading Comprehension, Enaz Yousef Rasheed Mahmoud

Theses and Dissertations

Among those who teach English to English Language Learners (ELL), reading comprehension is considered an essential language skill critical for knowledge acquisition and information exchange. However, in various parts of the world, including Jordan, reading comprehension has been reported as a difficult area for ELL students to master.

The purpose of this study was to investigate in-depth the impact of the use of the reading software C-map as a cognitive tool in collaborative and individual concept mapping to promote reading comprehension among ELL readers. The independent variable of this study was concept mapping, which functioned on three levels: collaborative, individual, …

Students’ Perceptions About High School Preparation For Mathematics In Post-Secondary Programs: A Case Study Of One High School, Wendy Pratt

All Theses And Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how fifteen former high school students from a small, rural high school in central Vermont perceived their preparedness for college level mathematics and identified recommendations for improvement. Student interviews and math assessment data for each participant were analyzed to respond to the research question. The interview protocol consisted of one-on-one semi-structured phone interviews that were recorded for transcription. Thirteen open-ended questions were developed to answer the research question and sub-questions grounded in the research literature and specific concerns identified by the math teachers defined in the case study. The conceptual framework for this research study …

The Effects Of Service-Learning Courses And Traditional Lecture Courses On Students' Academic Achievement And Level Of Course Engagement, Jamie Rife

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this ex-post facto research was to examine the theory of Experiential Learning in the context of service-learning and its relationship at a university to the academic achievement and student level of course engagement in service-learning courses as compared to traditional lecture courses. An ex post facto research design was utilized to examine the relationship between participation in a service-learning or traditional lecture course on the course grade of the students and level of course engagement as measured by the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ). The study determined that participation in either a service-learning course or traditional lecture …

The Effect Of Thinking Maps® On The Reading Achievement Of Middle School Students: An Ex Post Facto Causal Comparative Study, Karen Ogden Woodford

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, relationship existed between Thinking Maps® instruction used as a school-wide strategy and student achievement in middle school students in the area of reading as reported by the Virginia State Standards of Learning Test scores. The association was tested through full implementation and instruction of Thinking Maps® as a school-wide strategy. Using a quantitative design, this ex post facto, causal comparative included a comparison of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students' Virginia Reading SOL scores from 2011, 2012, and 2013 after schools implemented Thinking Maps® as a school-wide strategy compared …

Exploring The Associations Preservice Social Studies Teachers Make Between Discussion As A Pedagogical Approach And Democratic Education: A Multi-Case Study, Rory Tannebaum

All Dissertations

Educational scholars and political theorists credit the use of discussion in the K-12 classroom as a way to provide students with a democratic education through its ability to incorporate various perspectives, inform students of current events and issues, and teach students to think critically about a range of topics. Despite this, however, an extensive body of research details the lack of discussion occurring in K-12 classrooms in the United States. This study seeks to examine this issue by exploring the associations preservice social studies teachers make between the underlying principles of democratic education and the use of discussion in the …