Education Commons^™

Ethnographic Research Of The Impact Of Catalyst Strategies On The Engagement And Relationships Within The Classroom For 6th Graders Versus 2nd Graders In General Education, Casey Poland, Rene Beaird, Amber Keller, Sara Kubicek

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This 2023 study focused on the effectiveness of the Catalyst Approach to classroom management in a second-grade versus sixth-grade classrooms in the same district. The Catalyst Approach is a comprehensive classroom implementation model that includes strategies for getting attention, engaging students, setting up for success, and supporting success. Whole group strategies are emphasized in this approach to aid in building a productive classroom environment (Burns & Brinkman, 2018). Our focus with this study was threefold: to see how the Catalyst Approach affected classroom management, how the Catalyst Approach affected relationships within the classroom environment, and how the Catalyst Approach compared …

An Examination Of Early Childhood Scholars’ Social Emotional Competencies, Monica J. Graveling

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has disclosed valuable evidence about early childhood social emotional learning. This project investigates the recent history of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in America and the impact it is having on young learners in order to improve instructional techniques and foster SEL growth within early childhood children. SEL capabilities influence the overall well-being of young scholars in the present and the future. There is an abundance of early childhood students who lack the SEL skills needed to succeed in education and society. Positive, classroom relationships are beneficial in developing social emotional abilities. Additionally, interactive read aloud experiences and discussions are …

Hidden Power Of "Thank You": Exploring Aspects, Expressions, And The Influence Of Gratitude In Religious Families, Joe M. Chelladurai, Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite, Heather H. Kelly, David B. Allsop

Human Development and Family Studies Student Research

Gratitude has been extensively studied over the past two decades. Among several predictors, aspects of religiosity and spirituality have been consistent predictors of gratitude. To explore the religious motivations and processes that foster the practice of gratitude, we under took a systematic thematic analysis using interview data from a national qualitative project of 198 highly religious families. Participants (n = 476) included mothers, fathers, and children from various socioeconomic backgrounds and from diverse religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds in the United States of America. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the participants’ homes. Data for this study were analyzed using …

Relational Leadership: Reconceptualizing How School Districts Address Teacher Attrition, Nila J. Burt, Joseph R. Jones

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

American education is in crisis. Teacher attrition rates are astronomical and continue to rise post-pandemic. In his executive summary, Pelfrey (2020), a policy and research analyst in the Georgia governor's office, revealed that new teachers are abandoning their careers at steadily increasing rates within the first five years of service. As such, we must further examine teacher retention and the influence of school administrators. In this capacity, this study utilized a qualitative methodology to examine teacher attrition in a high school in Georgia. Specifically, narrative inquiry provided the framework to examine the lived experiences of teachers in this southern school. …

How Two English Language Arts Teachers’ Beliefs And Practices Impact Their Students’ Academic And Emotional Success, Christiana C. Succar

The Qualitative Report

This study commenced as part of a more extensive narrative inquiry about a literacy coach building relationships with two early-career sixth-grade English language arts teachers. The more extensive study revealed a gap in research about the teachers' beliefs and practices and their impact on their students' academic and emotional success. The research questions are: (1) in what ways do two teachers' beliefs and professional knowledge influence their teaching philosophies? (2) How do these teachers' identities influence student outcomes? The two teacher participants took part in interviews, observations, and reflections. By re-storying the data into narratives, three themes from each question …

Teacher And School Leader Perspectives On Factors That Impact Relationships And Recidivism Among Black Or African American Girls: A Mixed Methods Study, Amber Jan Lasalle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate teacher and school leader perspectives on how relationships with Black or African American girls' impacted recidivism in an alternative school setting. The following research questions were used to guide this study to examine the viewpoint of alternative school teachers and school leaders regarding factors that impact teacher and student relationships and preventing recidivism among African American girls: What factors do alternative school teachers and leaders feel contribute to recidivism among Black or African American girls? What are alternative school teachers’ and school leaders’ perspectives on how relationships impact recidivism among Black …

K-5 Elementary Alternative Program: A Case Study, William E. Scheuer Iv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to examine how the K-5 elementary alternative program All Students Can Thrive (ASCT) used student-centered learning practices to influence the whole child. There is a lack of research on K-5 elementary alternative programs, such as ASCT, and specifically those that integrate student-centered learning practices to influence the whole child. Literature does not contain universally accepted interventions that are effective in the elementary alternative setting to help students return to the mainstream classroom setting better prepared to display appropriate behaviors when a student is removed from a mainstream classroom setting due to disruptive behaviors. …

"We Will Work A Lot And You Are So Loved": Teacher Perspectives On Building Positive Relationships With Students., Geena Constantin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This multiple case study using the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach (Alase, 2017) supported a need to understand the specific realities of student-teacher relationship-building. This investigation allowed a deeper look into four teachers’ perceptions of what it means to build positive relationships with students. This research study added to the literature demonstrating the importance of building strong positive relationships with students built on demonstrations of high expectations and care and driven by mutual understandings and celebration of diverse cultures and identities. Supporting this small group of teachers in investigating their personal beliefs about relationship-building was a step forward in defining …

Increasing Social Awareness Skills In Kindergarten Students, Chloe Dennis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Social awareness is a key component of social-emotional learning and is often underrepresented in kindergarten curriculum. Students who struggle with social awareness are at a greater risk for antisocial behaviors, low academic performance, diminished self-efficacy, low motivation, and low adaptability. Jean Piagets’ cognitive-developmental theory places kindergarten-age students in the preoperational stage of development. At this stage, children are egocentric, exhibit centrated thought, and struggle to use perspective and empathic skills. Kindness, problem-solving, and maintaining positive relationships are all rooted in social awareness and require students to move away from egocentric thinking. I designed a three-part lesson on acts of kindness …

Fostering And Maintaining Relationships: Teacher Education During Covid-19, Jessica Vanvalkenburgh, Aaron R. Gierhart

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This article expounds how our pedagogical practices have changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these effects others have contended with in the education community. The authors share pedagogical strategies they have found to be effective in terms of building and supporting relationships with teacher candidates. They suggest using digitally-mediated teaching and learning strategies, staying connected with students, and badge-based assessment and feedback approaches to build and support relationships with students; examples of the instructional design and implementation strategies are described. The authors propose that when looking forward, teachers at any level may benefit from providing students …

The Impact Of Altering Physical And Human Components In Middle School Mathematics Classes On Assessment Performance, Raina Quinnell

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

"Abstract This action research report explores classroom environment interventions used to improve mathematics assessment scores and the effects of anxiety on those scores. This paper identifies that to increase academic performance on math assessments, a person should consider physical and human components, whether it is within the physical movement in the classroom, teacher-student proximity, or student self-assessment (e.g., attitude, growth mindset, focus/engagement). This research also suggests that teachers and students need to be relieved of the negative effects of pressure in a school’s testing culture. The conclusion gathered from this research suggests that students benefit from increased movement during assessments …

Social-Emotional Learning In The Classroom, Dr. Kaylin Coody Coody

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

This presentation will provide participants with strategies to address Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to better meet the needs of today's learner. Participants will learn about simple, focused, researched-based activities to enhance SEL in classrooms at all levels.

Small Things, Alexandra Byron

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Relationships Between White Teachers And Black Students: A Qualitative Study On The Impact That Culturally Relevant Pedagogy And Positive Relationships Can Have On Student Success, Lindsay Johnson-Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study began as a way to investigate the impact of the relationships that White teachers have on their Black students and what strategies can be implemented to promote success in the absence of a positive relationship. Historical information provides the reader with the basic understanding of why academic deficiencies exist and continue to exist in the Black community and what strategies inside and outside of school can remedy the achievement gap. This qualitative study provides information directly from the students who experienced the inequities as told through interviews and an anonymous survey. The lack of diversity among …

Uncommon And Non-Traditional Urban Relationship Strategies: From Relationship Loss To Relationship Recovery, Lasonya L. Moore

Journal of English Learner Education

With increasing student diversity across our nation, there is a growing need to scale up educational innovations related to building holistic relationships. Many students in K-12 public schools enter educational settings with uncommon and nontraditional ways of building and developing longitudinal relationships that allow students to thrive and not just survive. Specifically, teachers/educators feel ill-equipped and ill-trained to adequately support the increasing number of English learners(ELs) and Exceptional education students (specifically Students of Color (SOC) with emotional and behavioral disorders) identified in inclusive classrooms. Thus, there remains an urgent need to share uncommon and non-traditional strategies to develop and build …

Talk The Talk, Freddy-May Abisamra, Natasha White

Goal 3: Interpersonal Intelligence Narrative

To give students practice having high-stakes conversations in a safe, controlled environment.

To give students an opportunity to verbalize what things they want/don’t want in relationships.

Gather Us In: Building Meaningful Relationships In Catholic Schools Amid A Covid-19 Context, Ronald D. Fussell

COVID-19 and Catholic Schools

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic schools in the United States pivoted from traditional learning to a remote learning model to maintain continuity of instruction for students. This pivot has served as a catalyst for academic innovation in many Catholic schools. As Catholic schools turn their attention to the possibility of remote learning in the fall of 2020, it is important now to consider how remote learning impacts interpersonal relationships within the school community. This reflective essay examines implications of relationship building in a remote learning context using Cook and Simonds's (2011) framework for relationships for Catholic schools as a lens. …

Gather Us In: Building Meaningful Relationships In Catholic Schools Amid A Covid-19 Context, Ronald D. Fussell Edd

Journal of Catholic Education

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic schools in the United States pivoted from traditional learning to a remote learning model to maintain continuity of instruction for students. This pivot has served as a catalyst for academic innovation in many Catholic schools. As Catholic schools turn their attention to the possibility of remote learning in the fall of 2020, it is important now to consider how remote learning impacts interpersonal relationships within the school community. This reflective essay examines implications of relationship building in a remote learning context using Cook and Simonds's (2011) framework for relationships for Catholic schools as a lens. …

Passionate About Early Childhood Educational Policy, Practice, And Pedagogy: Exploring Intersections Between Discourses, Experiences, And Feelings...Knitting New Terms Of Belonging, Pam Whitty, Monica Lysack, Patricia Lirette, Joanne Lehrer, Jane Hewes

Publications and Scholarship

We are five early childhood researchers, from across Canada, thrown together amongst a series of alarming discourses, where developmental, economic, and neuroscientific rationales for ECEC drown out alternative theoretical perspectives, as well as personal experience, values, subjective knowledges, and the fierce passion we feel for our work. In the midst of this “throwntogethness” (Massey, 2005), how do we bring our situated knowings and desires to these discursive material relational mashups? How do we engage with the throwntogetherness that is the Canadian ECEC field as we knit together alternative ways of being, doing, and acting, figuring out what resonates in localized …

A New Literacy Coach And Two English Language Arts Teachers Learn Together: A Narrative Inquiry, Christiana C. Succar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literacy coaching is not new to education. Since the 2001 shift in the United States (U.S.) educational policy towards high-quality teacher training, accountability, and student achievement, literacy or reading coach positions have been a core part of the educational institution (U. S. Department of Education, 2003). However, with undefined coaching roles and inadequate coach training early in the initiative, minimal impact on effective teacher development and instructional shifts towards closing the achievement gap occurred (Dole, 2003; International Reading Association, 2004).

In the past ten years, more understanding of literacy coaches’ roles and responsibilities has occurred with the publication of numerous …

From Pink Floyd To Pink Hill: Transforming Education From The Bricks In The Wall To The Connections Of Country In Remote Aboriginal Education., Elizabeth M. Jackson-Barrett, Libby Lee-Hammond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper, we present findings from an eighteen-month research project conducted in a remote community school in Western Australia. The data from this project includes documentation pertaining to the practices of educators engaging with Aboriginal Elders and children on Country. The aim of the project was to document the transformative potential of learning on Country for young Aboriginal children (4-8 years). We discuss our findings in the context of Pink Floyd’s metaphor of formal education being built and maintained as a Wall in which children are ‘just another brick’. We argue that education is an institution that produces and …

Instructional Reading Practices For Third Grade African American Males, Kimberly Dawn Whaley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American males often struggle to read on grade level. However, 3 East Texas Title I schools demonstrated exceptionally high levels of reading proficiency with this population. This study addressed the knowledge gap of understanding the instructional practices linked to high reading achievement of third grade African American males in Title I schools in East Texas. Guided by Ladson-Billings's theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, which builds upon academic success, cultural competence, and development of critical consciousness, and supported by Vygotsky's theory of social and cognitive constructivism, the reading instructional practices of the 3 schools were investigated. Research questions focused on …

Development Of One’S Teaching Philosophy: The Three “R’S” Of Relationships, Relevancy, And Rigor, Mary Bowne

Empowering Research for Educators

A common practice for educators is to develop a teaching philosophy which helps them become reflective practitioners on various teaching and learning strategies. This narrative will address how one faculty member identified common themes within her online and face-to-face classes that held students accountable, yet eager to come to class and learn the important content and develop the unique traits mentioned. Through the use of various data methods and current literature and research available, the author identified three common themes within her teaching and classroom environment. Those themes are identified as the 3 “R’s”: Relationships, Relevancy, and Rigor.

Session 11: Relationships And Conflict, Bruce Robertson

Gateway's Pilot Year

All relationships have conflicts (even Norby) because conflict is simply a disagreement. With this in mind, students experience conflict with parents, professors, friends, and roommates. This session will introduce some basic relationship definitions and walk students through how to handle and resolve conflict. After this session, students will know what to do when they experience conflict and be challenged to see conflict as an opportunity to improve rather than damage their relationships.

Bridged: An Autoethnography Exploring How An Alternative School For "At Risk" Middle And High School Youth Overcame The Achievement Gap, Michael Koeniger

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this autoethnographic study was to discover how an alternative school for at-risk students, bridged the achievement gap. It used autoethnographic approaches to examine the factors that have led to the successes of an urban school. In this study, 19 graduates of Eastend School (all participant and institutional names are replaced with pseudonyms), three parents and six current and former staff members participated in unstructured, individual interviews and shared their experiences. Autoethnographic field notes were composed. Documents and artifacts relating to Eastend School were collected and studied. The collected data were generally coded and specifically coded until themes …

The Art Of Making Conversation: Learning The Skills Small Talk, Kelly L. Mckay-Semmler, Shane Semmler

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Although “small talk” is often dismissed as trifling and superficial communication, the ability to converse comfortably with potential relational partners in initial interpersonal encounters is foundational to building closer relationships. In this assignment, students enhance their interpersonal communication competence through the application of six small talk guidelines in two peer-to-peer conversations and in a capstone conversation with the instructor one-on-one. This assignment is appropriate for a variety of communication courses, including the basic course, interpersonal communication, and courses in professional communication, as it develops students’ skills in active listening, self-disclosure, nonverbal immediacy, and anxiety/uncertainty management in interpersonal communication with strangers.

When All Hope Is Gone, Trust Then Believe: “At Risk” Or “At Potential"?, Erica C. Pooler, Barbara Kirby-Bentley Dr.

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The Cards of Life, when all hope is gone; trust then believe forces educators to view students differently. The notion that we can’t teach students until we truly begin to know them and they begin to trust us is challenged. The fact that our actions have to align with our words and meaningful conversations and relationships must be established in the classroom. At Risk or At Potential? Every school across the nation have students that struggle, academically, socially or behaviorally. There are a variety of reasons as to why? We can no longer ignore these students and pad the numbers …

An Examination Of Relationship Factors Contributing To Student Persistence In Ing Run For Something Better, Brice Leon Sampson Cockfield

Theses and Dissertations

There is sufficient empirical evidence that children are more unfit now than ever before in the history of the United States. Defeating childhood obesity is a critical agenda issue for the First Lady Michelle Obama as the medical community and the United States at large continually cite research that obesity, poor nutrition, and low physical activity may affect children’s cognitive and physical outcomes. Much of the research in this area is quantifiable and measurable through body mass index, the number of repetitions of certain exercises, and physical stamina. As schools search for solutions to address this epidemic, school nutrition and …

The Effects Of Relationship-Driven Classroom Management, Lisa M. Laasch

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

Abstract This study was initiated to determine the effects of relationship-driven classroom management on positive behaviors in the lower elementary classroom. The research was conducted in a rural public Montessori school. Students were carefully observed to determine behavioral norms. Next, they were invited to participate in a survey to establish their current perception of positive relationships within their school and particularly with myself as a guide. Subsequently, I conducted a family survey, recorded daily observation of positive behaviors, and collected samples of student work during the research period. Finally, I re-administered the students survey to determine if they believed their …

G08-1817 Successful Transitions For High Conflict Families, Cindy Strasheim

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

High conflict families experiencing divorce and turmoil may find it difficult to think things through, unable to separate themselves from the problem to logically solve it. This 2008 NebGuide points out common distresses of divorce on children, including visitation and shared custody, and how interactions can occur more calmly.