Education Commons^™

Helping High School Students Succeed Academically By Meeting Their More Basic Needs, Karen Eyler Martin

Theses and Dissertations

In this action research, I seek to show the connection between breakfast consumption and student academic achievement. Students skip breakfast for a variety of reasons, including not allowing enough time and not having enough resources for it. Others eat what they can obtain, including snack foods that are highly processed. In addition, school districts have gotten away from making their meals from scratch, and instead, use a third-party catering service that often serves food that is cheap and easy to heat up, which often means it is highly processed and does not have the same nutritional content as whole foods. …

A Mixed-Methods Investigation Into The Factors Impacting Middle School Academic Motivation, Paul Ambrose Hammond Iv

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most important tasks of schools is to foster and grow the achievement motivation of students. However, middle school is a time period which frequently sees a downturn in students’ levels of engagement. In this action research study, the causes of this downturn in motivation are investigated by drawing out the voices of the students themselves regarding their educational experiences and viewpoints. Using the expectancy-value theory as the primary lens, the researcher employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate the causes of declining academic motivation at his school through the perspectives of three students with exceptionally high levels of …

Impact Of Flipped Learning On High School Students’ Motivation, Cognitive Load, And Perceptions Of Flipped Approach For Learning Science, Lucas Charles Conner

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of flipped learning using self-paced video on students’ motivation, cognitive load, and science content learning in an Earth Science course at a small rural high school in southwestern Virginia. Scientific interest and proficiency among students in the United States have been low. This has significant implications for students’ future career prospects. At the same time, the predominant method of science instruction, the single-paced lecture, presents its own limitations for student learning and motivation. Single-paced methods can limit the accessibility of instruction for students, limiting the development of critical scientific …

The Motivational Impact Of A Digital Student Response Tool During Text-Dependent Writing Instruction In A Concurrent Middle School Classroom, Lisa Marie Cobb

Theses and Dissertations

While the Common Core State Standards initiated the instructional shift that promoted technology to achieve a student-centered, process-oriented blended reading and writing classroom, the COVID 19 pandemic demanded innovative technology applications in K-12 public schools. This qualitative, phenomenological action research study explored the motivational effects of a digital student response system tool used to facilitate reading and writing instruction in a seventh-grade ELA concurrent classroom. Overall, using a student response tool to facilitate the text-dependent writing process positively impacted students’ self-determination.

Incorporating a digital student response tool as a facet of a formative assessment system promoted the efficient use of …

Virtual Interactive Notebooking With Gifted Learners In An Inquiry-Based Social Studies Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Action Research Study On Higher-Order Thinking And Student Motivation, Brandy Cooper Meyers

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods action research was to implement and evaluate the use of virtual interactive notebooks with gifted students in a 4th-grade social studies classroom. Specifically, this study focused on two overarching research questions: (a) how does the implementation of virtual interactive notebooks in an inquiry-based, constructivist learning environment impact the use of higher-order thinking skills (according to Webb’s Depth of Knowledge) of gifted learners in a fourth-grade social studies classroom and (b) how does the implementation of virtual interactive notebooks in an inquiry-based, constructivist learning environment impact motivation of gifted learners in a fourth-grade social studies …