Education Commons^™

Ideas: Inquiry-Based Dynamic Earth Applications Of Supercomputing, Seeing The Big Picture With Information Technology, Bruce E. Segee, Yifeng Zhu, Peter O. Koons

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The goals of the project were to increase the level and volume of information technologies in the classroom and to promote inquiry-based learning. The project was tightly integrated with the Maine Learning Technology Initiative that puts a laptop computer into the hands of every 7th and 8th grade student and teacher. It was also tightly integrated with the University of Maine Supercomputer. Through the use of technology, students were able to ask “what if questions and find and visualize the answers to their questions. The focus of the inquiry was dynamic Earth modelling. This included geological evolution of the earth …

School Culture: A Survey Of Two Eastern Kentucky Middle Schools, John D. Goble

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

An applied project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Education Specialist at Morehead State University by John D. Goble on December 13, 2013.

How Does Student Understanding Of A Concept Change Throughout A Unit Of Instruction? Support Toward The Theory Of Learning Progressions, Brian Jay Dyer

Dissertations and Theses

This study documented the changes in understanding a class of eighth grade high school-level biology students experienced through a biology unit introducing genetics. Learning profiles for 55 students were created using concept maps and interviews as qualitative and quantitative instruments. The study provides additional support to the theory of learning progressions called for by experts in the field. The students' learning profiles were assessed to determine the alignment with a researcher-developed learning profile. The researcher-developed learning profile incorporated the learning progressions published in the Next Generation Science Standards, as well as current research in learning progressions for 5-10th grade students …

The Influence Of Classroom Management, Administrative Support, Parental Involvement, And Economic Factors On The Retention Of Novice Teachers, Katrina Moody Dwyer

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of selected factors upon the intent of novice teachers to remain in the classroom. Teachers are leaving the profession in numbers that have prompted significant concern among policymakers and administrators. Many qualified college students are not considering the field of education as a potential career (Petty, 2007). Given that attrition rates among teachers are higher in their earliest years within the profession, it is essential to identify factors that contribute to the satisfaction and retention of novice teachers (Stockard & Lehman, 2004).

The primary data for this study were obtained …

Protecting Youth From Health Risk Behaviors, Alina Baltazar, Kathryn Conopio, Jacqueline Moreno, Larry Ulery, Gary L. Hopkins

Faculty Publications

Between the ages of 13 and 25, youth go through major psychosocial changes—forming their own identity, becoming independent of their parents, establishing intimate friendships and relationships, struggling with academic goals, and eventually starting a career and even a family. During this time, they can experience difficulties adjusting to these changes and the stresses that ac - company them, and as a result, make behavioral choices that are dangerous and even life destroying. To avoid destructive choices, young people need support from significant others throughout this stage of their lives. What can educators, parents, and church and community leaders do to …

An Investigation Of The Factors That Motivate K-12 Christian School Teachers To Participate In Professional Development And The Relationship To Job Satisfaction And Retention, Bonita Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study was conducted to advance knowledge by examining the reasons that motivate teachers to participate in professional development and the relationship to teacher job satisfaction and retention in Christian-based K-12 Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) member schools. The study contributes to the literature in the field because of very limited research on Christian-based schools, especially with regards to professional development, job satisfaction and retention. The study was a quantitative, non-experimental, correlational research design using two instruments, i.e., the Participation Reasons Scale (PRS) and the Job Satisfaction/Retention/Demographic Survey. The PRS scores indicated that the motivating factors for teachers to …

Perceived Impact Of Character Education Program At A Midwest Rural Middle School: A Case Study, Sandra Jean Goss

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today there exist a concern for the safety and success of students in the public education system. Families, educators, and community members are concerned with the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of students in an environment where incidents of violence are growing. Events like the school shootings at Jonesboro, Arkansas, and at Columbine High School left our nation concerned with the problems within the school system. Many believe that character education can be an effective solution. The purposes of this study are to describe key elements of one school's character education program, and to determine the impact that this program …

Classroom Teachers Learning To Navigate The Internet For Increasing Student Critical Reading And Writing Skills: A Mixed Methods Study, Meleah S. Mcculley

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this mixed methods case study was a three-month professional development workshop designed to guide junior high school classroom teachers as they learned to integrate new literacies skills into their curriculum. The participants were all educators in one district that was in the process of transitioning to the Common Core State Standards and the SMARTER Balanced Assessments. Significant gains were obtained in teachers’ self-reported personal technology knowledge and technology experiences during the study. Along with the gains, factors were seen that might impede teachers from learning about or using the Internet for academic purposes.

Motivating English Language Learners By Integrating Their L1 And C1, Badequnzhu Badequnzhu

MA TESOL Collection

The subject of this research paper is the use of first language (L1) and culture (C1) of the learners in the process of learning English in an EFL classroom in a specific teaching context. The researcher used different teaching methods and approaches in a Tibetan secondary school context: the Silent Way, Desuggetopedia, Cooperative Learning, Way of Council and Total Physical Response. Implications of this action research can be used in the classroom to raise learners’ motivation to lower affective filters allowing deeper and more profound input of the target language, thus to improve communication and comprehension of the target language …

Putting The Heart Back Into Writing: Nurturing Voice In Middle School Students, Barbara Ruben, Leanne Moll

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

To gain a deeper understanding of young adolescent motivation and developmental needs as the nation plunges ahead with the national Common Core Standards and their implications for writing instruction, the authors of this article pondered five questions as they studied their own middle school writing team: (1) What intrinsic motivators drive these young students to write? (2) What components create a nurturing writing environment? (3) How can we understand student motivation so that we can nurture student interest in writing within the constraints of large classes and mandates to address Common Core Standards? (4) For students who are already intrinsically …

The Effects Of Teacher Preparation Programs On Novice Teachers Regarding Classroom Management, Academic Preparation, Time Management, And Self Efficacy, Dolores Carr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examines the national concern regarding types of teacher preparation programs (traditional, alternative) and their effects on classroom management, academic preparation, time management, and self-efficacy of novice teachers. What are the decisions and influences that determine highly qualified teachers; can these traits be learned? Does the type of training a teacher receives determine his/her effectiveness? Who determines the standards for teacher preparation programs? What are the challenges facing teacher preparation programs? Who will be responsible for reform and improvement? A review of literature provides direction in answering these questions. The findings uncovered that the type of teacher preparation programs, …

Teacher, Researcher, And Accountability Discourses: Creating Space For Democratic Science Teaching Practices In Middle Schools, Cory A. Buxton, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Martha Allexsaht-Snider

Democracy and Education

This study explores the role of competing discourses that shape current practices in U.S. schools and how professional development efforts can support teachers and researchers in finding ways to reinsert more democratic processes into their collaborative work. We examine the case of one research and professional development project with the goal of supporting middle school science and ESOL teachers in fostering more meaningful science learning for all their students but especially their English language learners. Using Gee’s notion of big-D discourses and Fairclough’s notion of interdiscursivity, we trace how the Discourse of accountability, the Discourse of science teaching, and the …

Envisioning Education Reform In Khyber Pakhtun Khwa, Zulfiqar Ali Shah Zulfi

Zulfiqar Ali Shah Zulfi

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Teachers' Planned Questions On Opportunities For Students To Reason Mathematically In Whole-Class Discussions Around Mathematical Problem-Solving Tasks, Sarah Elizabeth Enoch

Dissertations and Theses

While professional developers have been encouraging teachers to plan for discourse around problem solving tasks as a way to orchestrate mathematically productive discourse (Stein, Engle, Smith, & Hughes, 2008; Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2009) no research has been conducted explicitly examining the relationship between the plans that teachers make for orchestrating discourse around problem solving tasks and the outcomes of implementation of those plans. This research study is intended to open the door to research on planning for discourse around problem solving tasks.

This research study analyzes how 12 middle school mathematics teachers participating in the Mathematics Problem Solving …

The Academic Impacts Of Attending A Kipp Charter School In Arkansas, Caleb P. Rose

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

KIPP Delta College Preparatory School (KIPP: DCPS), an open-enrollment charter school, opened in 2002 in Helena, Arkansas. Since its opening, KIPP: DCPS students have consistently outperformed their peers in the Helena/West Helena School district, and moreover, recent test scores suggest that white students and minority students are achieving at the same rate, essentially eliminating the achievement gap that persists between whites and minorities elsewhere in the state. In fact, KIPP's achievement record was so influential that when Arkansas lawmakers instituted a cap on the number of open-enrollment charter schools in the state, they made an exception for KIPP, essentially allowing …

Recruitment And Retention Of Kindergarten Through Grade 12 African American Male Educators In Rural Environments, Shannon Tre'mario Jernell Lewis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African American male teachers represent a disproportionately low number of educators in the American public school system. This lack of representation has implications for understanding, interacting with and educating the growing population of students of African descent in public schools. In addition, all students benefit from experiencing African American males in classrooms for cultural and educational reasons. For these reasons, recruiting and retaining African American males for careers in education is imperative.

This dissertation investigated the reasons African American males do not select careers in education given the history of this career and its prominence for people of African descent. …

Northeast Tennessee Educators’ Perception Of Stem Education Implementation, Kristin Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A quantitative nonexperimental survey study was developed to investigate Northeast Tennessee K-8 educators’ perceptions of STEM education. This study was an examination of current perceptions of STEM education. Perceived need, current implementation practices, access to STEM resources, definition of STEM, and the current condition of STEM in Northeast Tennessee were also examined. The participating school districts are located in the Northeast Region of Tennessee: Bristol City Schools, Hamblen County Schools, Johnson City Schools, Johnson County Schools, Kingsport City Schools, Sullivan County Schools, and Washington County Schools. Educational professionals including both administrators and teachers in the elementary and/or middle school setting …

Exploring Critical Literacy Through Teachers’ Professional Learning, Christina Marie Ramirez-Nava

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

With a huge focus on professional development as a method to increase knowledge and skills, one-shot initiatives or flyby in-services bombard the teaching field. Moreover, with the increase of diversity, such as second language needs, children of poverty and other social issues in schools, a focus should be on implementing a critical stance through teacher collaboration

Critical literacy aims to make the unknown known and fight injustices, but many teachers are not aware of this ideology. Simply reading articles and books about critical literacy will not necessarily lead to a critical stance, pedagogical revolution, or engaging learning for students. Working …

A Phenomenological Investigation Into The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Teachers Who Have Persisted In The Teaching Profession, Shana Market Norton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of 12 secondary school teachers from public secondary schools in northern Georgia regarding their feelings about self-efficacy and why they have persisted in the teaching profession. The research questions centered around their perceptions on how self-efficacy influences the academic achievement of their students, on what personality characteristics they feel teachers add to their positive or negative self-esteem in teaching, and on what factors they identify as influencing their professional self-efficacy in teaching. Teacher self-efficacy, the belief in oneself to succeed at completing a task, is a key factor in retaining teachers. Four data …

Examining Middle School Students' Statistical Thinking While Working In A Technological Environment, Melissa Arnold Scranton

Theses and Dissertations

Examining Middle School Students' Statistical Thinking

While Working in a Technological Environment

Melissa Arnold Scranton

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how students think in a technological environment. This was accomplished by exploring the differences in the thinking of students while they worked in a technological environment and comparing this to their work in a paper and pencil environment. The software program TinkerPlots: Dynamic Data Exploration (Konold & Miller, 2005), a construction tool that middle school students use for data analysis was the technological environment. In both environments, types of critical, creative, and statistical …

Why Do Indiana Pre-Service Technology Education Majors Choose The Profession, Traves L. Freeland

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to look at the factors that influence pre-service technology education majors to choose to become teachers. The pre-service teachers of three Indiana technology education teacher preparatory programs were given an internet survey to collect demographic data and determine what factors influence current pre-service teachers. The results of this study were compared to the results from a study done by Harris (2007). The findings resulted in similar factors that were the most common identified as being influential. Those factors included personal interest or hobbies, high school or middle school teacher, and past experiences in …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of An Intervention Mathematics Class For Low Achieving Middle School Students In Northwest Georgia, Johnnie Coats

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

High-stakes testing has become crucial in public education, requiring students to meet increasingly higher standards, regardless of their ability levels. This causal-comparative study sought to determine the effectiveness of an intervention mathematics course in the middle school setting for at-risk, sixth grade students. The Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) math scores of 143 at-risk students enrolled in a remediation mathematics course were compared to scores from a control population of 143 at-risk students who did not participate in the class. Math scores from the 2008 administration of the CRCT test were used as covariates, and comparisons were made using …

Mentoring: A Grounded Theory Study Examining How The Relationship Between The Mentor And Mentee Becomes Mutually Beneficial, David Martin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This grounded theory qualitative study examined the mentee/mentor relationship between five first year teachers and their five assigned mentors in a school district in Central Florida. To generate a model that seeks to explain how and why a mentee/mentor relationship changes and evolves from that of a single directional stream of information to that of a bidirectional stream which benefits the professional development of both parties, the grounded theory approach was utilized. Three forms of data were collected: interviews, focus groups, and participant journaling. This data along with artifacts and documents describing the school setting and the use of mentors …

The Impact Of Selected Initiatives On The Reading Criterion Referenced Competency Test Scores Of African-American And Disadvantaged Students In Grades 3, 5, And 8, Eric Fuller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to examine the impact of selected research-based whole-school reading reform programs, Success for All (SFA), Core Knowledge, and Direct Instruction (DI) on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) reading scores of African-American students and students from disadvantaged subgroups in Grades 3, 5, and 8 in a large urban school system. The target sample consisted of 61 elementary schools and 16 middle schools. Student data consisted of 3,533 data points for African-American students and 7,550 data points for disadvantaged students attending reform and non reform schools respectively. A causal-comparative research design was the methodology …

Integrated Theater Arts And Strategies (Itas) Program And Its Impact On Teachers’ Integration Of Theater Arts Strategies In Targeted Literacy Skills, Cayce J. Cummins

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Visual and performing arts can be taught in isolation or integrated with other core content subjects such as literacy, math, science, and social studies. Jersey City Public Schools (JCPS) implemented the Integrated Theater and Arts Strategies (ITAS) program beginning in the 2008-2009 school year and lasting through the 2010-2011 school year with eight targeted schools. Visual and performing arts standards exist in both the state’s core curriculum standards and national standards. Despite these existing standards, implementation is minimal in JCPS. JCPS plans to develop and implement the ITAS program for targeted schools with sixth and seventh grade students. Language Arts …

The Relationship Of Culturally Responsive Instruction And The Reading Comprehension And Attitude Of Struggling Urban Adolescent Readers, Rona M. Olukolu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Culturally responsive instruction refers to the identification of relevant cultural aspects of students’ lives and infusion of these into the curriculum. This instructional approach assumes that a culturally appropriate curriculum can potentially motivate, engage, and lead students to higher rates of achievement.

This quasi-experimental study (N=44) investigated the relationship of culturally responsive instruction and the reading comprehension and attitude of struggling urban adolescent readers. The study incorporated the use of culturally responsive instruction using culturally relevant literature (CRL), the Bluford Series Novels, as authentic texts of instruction. Participants were seventh grade reading students at a Title I middle school …

Survey: Teacher Education In Private Sector, Nelofer Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Thresholds Of Knowledge Development In Complex Problem Solving: A Multiple-Case Study Of Advanced Learners’ Cognitive Processes, Treavor Bogard, Min Liu, Yueh-Hui Chiang, Yueh-Hui Vanessa Chiang

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

This multiple-case study examined how advanced learners solved a complex problem, focusing on how their frequency and application of cognitive processes contributed to differences in performance outcomes, and developing a mental model of a problem. Fifteen graduate students with backgrounds related to the problem context participated in the study. Data sources included direct observation of solution operations, participants’ think aloud and stimulated recalls as they solved the problem, as well as solution scores indicating how well each participant solved the problem. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze stimulated recall and think aloud data. A set of thirteen cognitive …

Resisting The Neoliberal Ambush Of Public Education. A Book Review Of Educational Courage: Resisting The Ambush Of Public Education, Brandy S. Wilson

Democracy and Education

This is a review of the book Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education.

Why Ask Why: An Exploration Of The Role Of Proof In The Mathematics Classroom, Joanna Rachel Bartlo

Dissertations and Theses

Although proof has long been viewed as a cornerstone of mathematical activity, incorporating the mathematical practice of proving into classrooms is not a simple matter. In this dissertation I aim to advance research on proof by addressing this issue. In particular, I explore the role proof might play in promoting the learning of mathematics in the classroom. I do this in a series of three articles (organized as three chapters), which are preceded by an introductory chapter. The introductory chapter situates the remaining chapters in the context of mathematics education research. In the second chapter I explore what the literature …