Education Commons^™

The Centrality Of Claim-Making In The Social Studies Classroom: Teaching For Claim-Making With The Persuasive Claim Framework, Ryan Anders Lewis

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This dissertation includes three articles that focus on the importance of claim-making and argumentative writing in social studies classrooms. Each article highlights various aspects of the claim-making process by introducing ways for teachers to help students write better claims, highlighting the importance of claim-making within the extant social studies literature, and analyzing the results of centering the claim-making process in a preservice teaching methods program.

Article One, “What’s in a Claim: A Framework for Helping Students Write Persuasive Claims?” (2021), is an article written for practicing teachers. As part of a larger discussion on the challenges of implementing the dimensions …

Moral Foundations And Student Perceptions Of Academic Dishonesty: A Mixed Methods Study, Carla Spires Hargus

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This mixed methods study explored students’ hypothetical choices of behavior in a series of ten academic vignettes. In addition, it examined student judgments of academic behaviors as acceptable or dishonest. Finally, it compared scores on the Moral Foundations Questionnaire-2 to the importance of factors that might influence student behavioral choices in real world scenarios and explored the differences in perceptions among demographic groups.

Twenty-five undergraduate students participated in the study. In a semi-structured interview, each student discussed ten academic vignettes: predicting their own hypothetical behavioral choice, judging target behaviors as honest or dishonest, and identifying factors that would most influence …

Cold Calling In The Classroom: Exploring Student Perceptions Of Instructor Communication Using The Face Negotiation Theory, Cynthia Chinazo Nnagboro

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Using face negotiation theory (Ting-Toomey, 1988) as a theoretical framework, this dissertation sought to determine students’ perceptions of instructor communication during classroom discussions where instructors use cold calling tactics. According to FNT, students perceived that self-construal determines their face concern as either self, other/mutual face. Therefore, an instructor must determine the best facework strategies to prevent face loss during classroom discussions to maintain optimal student outcomes in communication satisfaction and motivation to participate. This was accomplished by using 8 hypothetical vignettes, a pilot test and an experiment that measured face threat, face support, student communication satisfaction and motivation, intention to …

Doing The Work: Using Questions, Tasks, And Sources To Navigate Teaching Contentious Social Studies In Secondary Classrooms, Bonnie Patrice Lewis

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This explanatory case study examines how two secondary social studies teachers use inquiry-based learning to mitigate the risks of teaching contentious social studies in a charged classroom. Research questions included: 1. How do two in-service secondary teachers use inquiry-based instruction to navigate teaching contentious social studies during charged times? 2. What curricular and pedagogical choices were made by the in-service teachers to navigate risk when designing inquiry-based instruction that features contentious social studies during charged times? 3. What curricular and pedagogical choices were made by the in-service teachers to navigate risk when delivering inquiry-based instruction that features contentious social studies …

Teachers’ Sustained Culturally Responsive Practices Three Years After Participation In Professional Development, Brittany Manion

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Teacher professional development (PD) on culturally responsive practices (CRP) provides teachers the opportunity to increase their knowledge and change their practices to better support students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This study sampled from a year-long intensive PD on effective instructional practices for English learners (ELs). Grounded in transformative and situated learning theories, this study was designed to understand teachers’ sustained CRP and their experiences four years after participating in a CRP PD. Several questions were investigated in this study: What CRP do teachers sustain? What are factors and supports related to teachers’ sustained implementation? What challenges do teachers …

Transplanted Appalachians’ Perspectives Of Culturally Relevant Topics/Texts And How These Topics/Texts Aid In Their Reading Comprehension, Kathryn E. H. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

The purpose of this research study was to understand Transplanted Appalachians’ perspectives of culturally relevant topics/texts and how these topics/texts aid in their reading comprehension. This culturally relevant study was framed using Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, Barton and Hamilton’s (1998) literacy as a social practice, and Rosenblatt’s (1994) transactional theory. Research participants included five transplanted Appalachian adults from the Central Appalachian Region. The research methods included one introductory interview, four think-alouds, four post think-aloud interviews, and four Cultural Relevance Rubrics. Results from the data sources revealed the participants strongly related to six cultural themes including: community, authentic Appalachian experiences (e.g., …

Supporting The Covid Freshmen: An Exploratory Study Of The Teaching Aspects That Supported The Executive Functioning Of Undergraduate Freshmen During Covid-19, Jennifer Lynn Pusateri

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Transitioning from high school to higher education is one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. But, for the undergraduate students who were freshmen during the fall of 2020 (in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic), this predictable stress was compounded by additional stressors related to the pandemic. While there were undoubtedly many teaching factors that made learning more difficult during the pandemic, there were also many aspects of teaching that these freshmen found helpful. This exploratory study of secondary data sought to discover which aspects of teaching were most helpful to the COVID Freshmen (the students who …