Secondary Education and Teaching Commons^™

A Case Of Fragmented High School Earth And Space Science Education In The Great Plains: Tracing Teacher Certification Policy To Students' Access, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Jia Lu

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

While U.S. high school students’ access to Earth and space science (ESS) varies widely from state to state, nationally ESS content is the most neglected area of science education and scientific literacy. States have been considering if they will formally adopt, or less formally adapt, the new national science education standards, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which have been carefully developed and articulated in conjunction with state educational leaders. However, there are many challenges with which states, school districts, and teachers must grapple in order to enact standards-aligned ESS science lessons. This study of one Great Plains state investigated …

Modeling Inquiry-Oriented Instruction Of Beginning Secondary Science Teachers, Lyrica Lucas, Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

New national science education standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, in the United States (US) promote inquiry-based instruction through an integrated emphasis on scientific practices and disciplinary content. Thus, it is important for beginning science teachers to reach proficient implementation of reformed teaching practices by the end of their induction phase in order to become effective science teachers. Yet, extant science education research studies on development of beginning teachers’ classroom practices is rare. In this study, we collected data from a longitudinal study of science teachers from two teacher preparation programs - a bachelor’s program with teacher candidates who had …

The Good Behavior Game: Effects On And Maintenance Of Behavior In Middle-School Classrooms Using Class Dojo, Komila Dadakhodjaeva

Dissertations

Classroom management is one of the key components for successful instruction and affects both instructors and learners. Although most frequent discipline strategies in schools involve punitive actions, research suggests that using positive statements to teach and reinforce desirable behaviors is more appropriate and effective. A form of a group-oriented contingency that focuses on desirable behaviors is a positive variation of the Good Behavior Game (GBG). The GBG has been used widely in its original form, focusing on undesirable behaviors, and more research is needed on its positive version. Another strategy that can be used within classrooms is Class Dojo, a …

A Qualitative Study Of The Positive Transformation Of Public High School Cultures As Perceived By Administrators, Teachers, And Classified Staff Members, Amy L. Besler

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to discover the factors which contribute to the positive transformation of a comprehensive public high school’s culture as perceived by the school’s administrators, teachers, and classified staff. An additional purpose of the study is to determine what similarities and differences exist between the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and classified staff.

Methodology: The researcher identified comprehensive public high schools within the state of California where measurable growth in positive perceptions of school culture had been achieved within the preceding two to four years. Of this target population, six schools were identified, through …

Experience Of The Neophyte Science Teachers: Through Their Eyes, David Thornton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A variety of lenses were used to examine the world of the novice science teacher. A degree of agency was provided by looking through the eyes of the beginning teacher. Previous studies focused on researcher or program’s orientation, the successes of various educator preparation programs, or were limited in scope to elementary teachers of science. This study was conducted to better understand and appreciate the high school novice science teacher’s view of science, teaching, and teaching science in the today’s contextual setting. Experiences encountered during the initial year of teaching high school science and as perceived by teachers without previous …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Educational Games That Keep Score Of Cooperative Performances, Theodore Alden Wohlfarth

Dissertations

The scoring systems used in traditional sports and games are founded on the zero-sum premise that players are on opposite sides and one side can win only if the other side loses. These scoring systems may be effective at nurturing zero-sum mindsets and providing data for assessing performance in win-lose relationships. If so, games that use different scoring systems can be used to facilitate the development of collaborative mindsets, nurture win-win skills between diverse groups, and enable objective self-assessment of performances in non-zero-sum events when engaging with those on “other sides.” Although economic game theory has rich reservoirs of research …

Critical Media Literacies In The Twenty-First Century: Writing Autoethnographies, Making Connections, And Creating Virtual Identities, Ah-Young Song

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Critical media literacies can help nurture students’ creative agencies and engender positive, sustained change in local communities. Kellner and Share (2005) have noted that students do need to develop faculties with digital technologies but that they must also participate in critical readings of cultural artifacts and discriminate between various multimedia sources. It is important for youth to conceptualize language as perpetuating different kinds of ideologies, for viewpoints are “connected to negotiable, changeable, and sometimes contested stories, histories, knowledge, beliefs, and values encapsulated into cultural models (theories) about the world” (Gee, 2008, p. 29). Semiotic meanings are in constant flux due …

Analysis Of A Stem Education Professional Development Conference For Pre-Service Educators, Keeta Holmes, Pamela Atkinson-Hamilton, Tiffanni Durham, Gloria Hardrict-Ewing, Deborah Heisler, Christina Hughes, Rosalinda Williams, Lane Walker, Christopher Young-El, Amy Dooley

Dissertations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are attracting increased attention in education. The iSTEM 2017 conference was a professional development program designed to acquaint pre-service teachers with interdisciplinary, research-based STEM instructional strategies that can transform traditional classroom instruction into dynamic learning environments.

The STEM Education Scholars (STEMES) is a Learning Community of Practice, housed in the College of Education, at a midsized mid-western public research university. The program of study focused on designing a professional development program for future Pre-K12 teachers. The iSTEM 2017 conference presented by the STEMES Community of Practice sought to inform pre-service teachers of STEM …

Shaking Up Shakespeare: Teaching For The Contemporary High School English Classroom, Megan Sampson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Contemporary high school English students find Shakespeare distant because they believe Shakespeare is hard to understand. Pairing Shakespeare with thematically-similar contemporary texts can make his works more accessible to students. Using different angles on the same theme shows students that Shakespeare presented some universal issues that still have relevance today. The Literacy Design Collaborative modules included within this thesis use Shakespeare in cooperation with other texts to focus on a specific theme. Using the module structure, teachers can organize the unit’s overarching goals and can include all handouts and necessary materials. This structure of design incorporates literacy-centered practices in order …

Undergraduate Engineers And Teachers: Can Students Be Both?, Malinda S. Zarske, Maia L. Vadeen, Janet Y. Tsai, Jacquelyn F. Sullivan, Denise W. Carlson

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Today’s college-aged students are graduating into a world that relies on multidisciplinary talents to succeed. Engineering college majors are more likely to find jobs after college that are outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, including jobs in healthcare, management, and social services. A survey of engineering undergraduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder in November 2012 indicated a desire by students to simultaneously pursue secondary teacher licensure alongside their engineering degrees: 25 percent ‘‘agreed’’ or ‘‘strongly agreed’’ that they ‘‘would be interested in earning grades 7–12 science or math teaching licenses while [they] earn [their] engineering …

Central Virginia Ews: Identifying Middle And High School Indicators Of On-Time Graduation With An Early Warning System, Ryan D. Yarzebinski

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between different variables and whether a student attained an on-time graduation outcome. A retrospective cohort study was conducted within a single school division in central Virginia serving a population of 8,338 students. The organizational structure of the school division was unique as it is comprised of two combined schools and two high schools fed by a separate middle school.

The study utilized logistic regression and ROC analysis to identify the variables most predictive of graduation for use in an EWS. The model was designed to be predictive in nature and …

Hidden Challenges Of Novice English Teachers In A Korean Independent School: Through An Ethnographic Lens, Ju Seong (John) Lee

The Qualitative Report

This study aims to unravel challenges experienced by two novice English teachers in a Korean independent school, the steadily growing education sector worldwide. The author spent 13 months in the participants’ natural environment, observing and collecting data through observation field notes, interviews, questionnaires, and cultural probes. A grounded theory approach was adopted to guide the recursive data analysis and identify the themed findings – personal factors (e.g., unrealistic expectations) and sociocultural factors (e.g., school policy and structure). These findings suggest that novice English teachers should obtain accurate information about their new school and actively seek formal and informal support from …

"Resisting From Within": (Re)Imagining A Critical Translingual English Classroom, Kate Anna Seltzer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This ethnographic case study of an urban, linguistically diverse English classroom explores what happened when space was made for students both to voice their experiences living amidst ideologies that marginalize their language practices and identities and to resist such ideologies through writing that pushed monoglossic boundaries. Intensive one-on-one work with a high school English teacher led to the creation of a year-long curriculum that emphasized metalinguistic inquiry and discussion, linked language, power, and identity, and modeled the ways that writers and other artists take linguistic risks in order to critique monoglossic language ideologies.

Over the course of the year, students …

Embodying Rhythm Nation: Multimodal Hip Hop Dance As A Site For Adolescent Social-Emotional And Political Development, Lauren M. Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology, specifically values analysis, to learn more about how being involved within Hip hop dance communities positively relates to adolescent development. Adolescence was defined herein as ages 13-23. The study investigated Hip hop dance communities in terms of cultural expertise (i.e. novice, intermediate and advanced/expert) to look specifically at dance narratives (i.e. peak experience narratives and “I dance because” essays) and hip hop dance performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to (1) explore how adolescents use multimodal Hip hop dance discourse for social-emotional development and critical consciousness, and to (2) understand how values …

Professional Friction: Racialized Discourse And The Practice Of Teaching Art, Jessica Kirker

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Language is crucial in situating our selves and others. Discursive patterns create alliances or factions, establish hierarchies, and subjugate individuals or groups. In this autoethnographic study, I consider how I, as a White woman teaching art, participate in, maneuver, and manipulate spoken and unspoken racialized discourses within the context of a high school with a diverse population of students. Through the data collection process of journaling over one school year, I recorded reflections on conversations, speeches, and written communication with, between, and regarding teachers, students, parents, and school administrators.

I employed discourse analysis on these texts and draw upon Critical …

Review Of The Literature: Impact Of Music On Children With Special Needs

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Music helps children with special needs improve their socialization skills.

Culture, Inner-City Education And Improving Economic Growth In Birmingham, Alabama, Leroy Abrahams

Capstone Collection

Perhaps the greatest reminder of the economic inequities in American society is the drastic deficiencies in educational outcomes, based on class and race. Birmingham, Alabama, vividly portrays this reality. Families with means send their children to private schools and/or concentrate in the suburbs, leaving largely poor, and oftentimes, predominantly minority in densely populated crime-ridden areas with suboptimal schooling. The schooling patterns are clearly reflected in the economic outcomes, though Black are a majority in the city they are vastly underrepresented in the middle to upper middle class, while grossly overrepresented among those in poverty. These inequities are often mirrored in …

Reimagining Ability, Reimagining America: Teaching Disability In United States History Classes, Maya L. Steinborn

Master's Projects and Capstones

In service to the FAIR Education Act (2012) and the awareness-raising mission of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008), this project reviews historical and educational literature about disability in the United States and provides a curriculum guide for teaching Human Rights Education (HRE) and disability studies (DS) at the high school level in California. This project traces the historical development of deficit attitudes toward disability back to the colonial era, uncovering the dichotomy between the vast resources in DS and the ableist omission of disability from K-12 curricula. Survey data and interviews further show how teachers …

Integrating Language And Content Instruction: A Linguistic And Cultural Guide For Content-Area Teachers Of Asian International Secondary School Students In The Us, Joy R. Suzuki

Master's Projects and Capstones

As more and more international Asian ESL high school students seek an education at private American high schools, where students spend most of their time in content-area classrooms, it is imperative that content-area teachers understand the important role they play in their students’ linguistic development and cultural adjustment. The purpose of this project is to provide teachers of content-area classes with an easily accessible professional development opportunity, including tools they need to help their international ESL students achieve linguistic and academic success and guide these students through a rewarding cross-cultural experience. As supported by second language acquisition theory, with the …

Perceptions Of Effective Pedagogical Practices And Classroom Management Strategies: A Cross-Case Analysis Of Four Middle School Teachers, Igor Gusyakov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to identify and describe the pedagogical practices and classroom management strategies of consistently effective and successful teachers as evidenced by teacher perceptions and observations.

Four middle school teachers from two middle schools within the same school district were selected to participate in the study. The teachers were selected based on their effectiveness identified by their supervisor. The teachers were interviewed about their own perceptions as to what effective pedagogical practices are, based on their teaching experience. The teachers were also observed in their classrooms.

The key findings of the study indicated the importance of stablishing classroom procedures, …