Education Commons^™

The Relative Age Effect: Ensuring Student Success Regardless Of Birth Month, Geoffrey E. Bruno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study examines the degree to which relative age impacts school performance and achievement for students in Scarborough Public Schools. The relative age effect refers to the impact differences in age among students in the same grade can have on performance in school. Students who turn five in the days just prior to the eligibility date for starting Kindergarten, October 15 in Maine, are nearly one year younger than those who are born in the days immediately after October 15. In addition, some parents choose to delay their child’s enrollment in Kindergarten for one year, a decision called …

Examining The Impact Of Implementation Fidelity Mandates On Instructional Practices In K-8 Settings: A Critical Qualitative Study, Anita L. Hopkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines the landscape of educational practices concerning the implementation of commercial instructional programs in K-8 schools. Commencing with a historical exploration of pivotal educational reforms, including A Nation at Risk, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the research traces the evolution of accountability measures and the consequential emphasis on scripted commercial programs. The central focus of inquiry is the impact of fidelity mandates on teacher autonomy and responsiveness to diverse student needs.

Employing a qualitative research design, this study delves into the attitudes and perceptions of …

How Elementary Teachers Come To Hold And Maintain A Restorative Mindset Toward Students: A Phenomenology, Ashley B. Reynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Elementary school personnel have both an ethical and legal responsibility to shift disciplinary practices away from exclusion and towards restoration. In order to face the adaptive challenge of increasing teacher self-efficacy around behavior management, a restorative mindset can be developed and maintained. The development of a restorative mindset among elementary school teachers has the potential to alter outcomes for the adults who care for students and for systems hoping to retain talented, invested teachers. The purpose of this study was to describe how elementary teachers come to hold a restorative mindset towards students, including the supervisory practices that support teachers …

"We Ultimately Just Need To Connect" Engaging In A Digital World: Perceptions From Families And Educators During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Anne Marie C. Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Henderson & Berla (1994) state “the evidence is now beyond dispute. When schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in school, but throughout life” (p.1). The objective of this study was to explore how the COVID19 pandemic changed the way elementary educators needed to connect and develop relationships with the families of their students. This study addressed the broad research question of how elementary teachers and families perceived their interactions through remote modalities during the COVID-19 pandemic using focus groups from rural central Maine. They also discussed what technology and digital modalities were …

Botanically Inclined: Elementary Students' Knowledge Of Plant Structures And Their Functions Captured In Drawings, Emilie Oesterlin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School gardens provide numerous educational opportunities and many elementary schools in Maine are supporting these nature-based learning experiences. However, there is a lack of information about how school gardens are associated with student learning of plants. This research investigated student knowledge of plant growth and reproduction at a school with a garden and explored how this knowledge is associated with how much time students spend in a garden.

An activity was designed, based on the Next Generation Science Standard performance expectation 4-LS1-1, asking students to draw a plant and label the different structures, including explanations of their functions. The activity …

Agency Of In-Service Elementary Science Teachers During A Global Pandemic, Anica Miller-Rushing

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In-service teachers of science work with unique content and pedagogical experiences. Understanding teacher agency in these circumstances will help researchers understand the actions that these teachers take, actions that are consequential for shaping teaching patterns and supporting the development of students’ scientific practices. The purpose of this study was to understand how the agency of six elementary (K–5) in-service teachers was expressed discursively during a global pandemic. The teachers’ agency was qualitatively analyzed using a case study approach (Yin, 2012, 2017) that applied discourse analysis to identify the ways in which science teacher agency is conceptualized, afforded, and constrained through …

A Quantitative Study Of Mathematics Anxiety In First-Generation Pre-Service Teachers, Wendi Malenfant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many pre-service teachers suffer from mathematics anxiety which can lead to mathematics avoidance, poor mathematics performance, and the potential to pass on mathematics anxiety to their future students. More and more first-generation college students, who also suffer from math anxiety, are attending four-year universities and studying to be teachers. School leaders, educators, and researchers must recognize the serious nature of mathematics anxiety, how it negatively impacts learners, and how the cycle is perpetuated if the root causes of mathematics anxiety are not mitigated, especially in elementary teachers.

This quantitative study, which utilized an anonymous mathematics anxiety survey, examined the prevalence …

The Impact Of Elementary Mathematics Coaches On Elementary Teachers' Attitudes Towards Teaching Mathematics, Samuel R. Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study compares levels of mathematics anxiety and teacher efficacy between inservice and preservice elementary teachers. Prior research has indicated that mathematics anxiety is a common trait among elementary teachers. Mathematics anxiety has also been found to have a negative impact on preservice elementary teachers’ efficacy towards teaching mathematics. To address this challenge, some states have begun hiring elementary mathematics coaches to support elementary teachers. Besides focusing on mathematics anxiety and teacher efficacy, this study also investigated the impacts of elementary mathematics coaches on inservice elementary teachers.

A total of 174 inservice teachers and 51 preservice teachers completed a survey …

A Granular Account Of Student's Understanding Reasoning Within An Everyday And Scientific Contexts, Grace M. Gonnella

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers and educational researchers in the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (Maine PSP) at the University of Maine identified making quality scientific arguments as a struggle for students. Not only is argumentation hard, but reasoning is the hardest component of an argument. Many frameworks have been developed to target teaching about argumentation but do not address how to teach one component of an argument in isolation. Educational practitioners encourage using everyday context to learn about arguments in the scientific context, but there is limited support in what is the best method. The first purpose of this research was to understand a …

Exploring The Ways In Which Highly Efficacious Intermediate Teachers Employ Best Practices In Reading Instruction For Struggling Readers, Terrence P. Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed method study was to build on the earlier efficacy work of Tschannen, Moran, and Hoy (2001) and the reading teacher efficacy work of Szabo and Mokhtari (2004) to add to educational research related to teacher efficacy and reading. This study is specifically focused on the teaching of reading to struggling readers at the intermediate levels. The study was guided by four research questions that focused on the teaching of struggling readers at the intermediate level. Reading teacher self-efficacy levels were established through a survey instrument. In addition, data from two interviews, structured and semi-structured, about …