Education Commons^™

How Participation In A Peer-Led Writing Center Impacts Struggling Students’ Self-Efficacy And Motivation, Laura Peterson

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

Many secondary students struggle with writing, both in terms of skill and confidence. This qualitative case study follows six students who have a history of struggling in English Language Arts class as they undergo a tutoring intervention based on the writing center model of peer tutoring. Students were observed in seven writing sessions which took place at multiple stages of the writing process and with informational, narrative, and analytical writing assignments. Through interview and observation, the researcher examines how students’ self-efficacy and motivation shift over the course of the intervention. Students who began with low self-efficacy and low motivation were …

Improving Students’ Confidence And Competence Using Critical Media Literacy Skills In A Secondary English Language Arts Class, Leeanne Kline

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This is a dissertation for a six-week action research study that investigated how self-regulated learning strategies can affect students’ perceived and demonstrated critical abilities in discussing informational media texts in the secondary ELA classroom. This dissertation examines topical research, gaps in the literature, and theoretical frameworks to justify the study. The qualitative action research study implemented a version of the Article of the Week program alongside self-regulated learning (SRL) and student-led discussion strategies to collect data on students’ self-reported levels and observed critical media literacy (CML) skills. The purpose of this study was to build upon existing research on SRL, …

Fostering Reading For Enjoyment In Upper Elementary Students By Developing Connections To Reading And Increasing Self-Efficacy, Patrick Ritt

Culminating Experience Projects

Data shows that fewer students are choosing to read for pleasure. Fostering students’ intrinsic motivation to read and developing skills to personally connect with texts, along with authentic literacy instruction has shown to increase how often students choose to read and for how long they read. Upper elementary teachers should create inclusive libraries, help students connect with interesting texts, develop useful independent reading time, and implement authentic and cross-curricular learning activities as part of literacy instruction. This project will help teachers assess student motivation to read and match students with appropriate and interesting texts. This project also provides methods for …

Latinidad In Summer Reading: A Collaborative Approach To Multicultural Literacy For Latino/A English Learners’ Self-Efficacy In Transitioning To Middle School, Elizabeth Fincher

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative interpretive case study unites literacy education and the field of second language acquisition with quantitative surveys and questionnaires to explore self-efficacy beliefs and literacy learning during transitional experiences of rising fourth through ninth Latino/a/a English Language Learners (LELLs) in a summer reading program. Community Engaged Scholarship in a co-developed summer program with community partner Centro Hispano de East Tennessee frames this research to offer diverse perspectives in curriculum and instructional improvement efforts towards equitable literacy education. How schools and youth-serving organizations support LELLs’ transitional processes in second language acquisition and literacy is shaped by how well teachers and …

"I Can't Say That I Hate It": Reading And Ela Teachers' Experiences With A Scripted Curriculum, Amanda Rigell

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how teachers implemented, modified, or resisted the implementation of a scripted English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum. This critical case study used qualitative interviews to investigate reading and ELA teachers’ experiences with implementing a scripted ELA curriculum in a single school district. Findings include teachers’ observations about the role of the curriculum in their teaching, the role of their self-efficacy as teachers, the role of reciprocal trust between administrators and teachers, and the role of power in the adoption and implementation of the curriculum. These findings may be of interest to school and …

Does The Use Of Digital Storytelling Affect The Self-Efficacy And Writing Ability Of Long-Term English Learners?, Theresa Gonzales

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

When a student enters the public system and speaks a language other than English at home, this student becomes classified as an English Learner (EL). In order to reclassify out of that designation, a student must pass an English proficiency test at the end of the school year, as well as meet the other requirements for that specific district. If a student in the school system has an EL designation for more than seven years, they become classified a Long-Term English Learner (LTEL) student with very specific academic needs. Within the United States, schools will fail to reclassify 30-50% of …

Figuring It Out: The Self-Efficacy And Self-Empowerment Of Secondary Ela (English Language Arts) Teachers Of Writing, Alma M. Vera

Dissertations

Knowing how to write well has been linked to college and career success and learning to write well is reliant on the effectiveness of highly prepared teachers of writing. However, secondary ELA (English Language Arts) teachers of writing report that they were not prepared to teach writing in their pre-service teacher preparation programs or in-service professional development. Based on personal experience, such educators engage in their own professional learning in the teaching of writing to meet their students’ needs (grades 9-12). This explanatory sequential mixed methods study sought to identify the professional learning choices made by in-service secondary ELA teachers …

Approaches To Narrative Instruction For Second Language Learners, Mathew Peters

MA TESOL Collection

Narratives have reemerged as a dominant form of rhetoric over the last fifty years. This dominant use of narrative discourse has only increased with the rise of social media. Walther Fisher (1987) proposed the narrative paradigm as a unifying theory of human communication. His major claim is that people are inherently storytellers and that people use a narrative rationality and a logic of good reasons to inform their beliefs, values, and actions. This paper utilizes his theories, along with recent findings in neuroscience, to establish an argument for greater inclusion of narratives into second language teaching. Narratives can have a …

Implementing Content Literacy And Disciplinary Literacy: A Mixed Methods Study Of Middle School Teachers' Pedagogical Dispositions, Madison Weary

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Researchers uphold that teachers' beliefs toward reading influence their planning and implementation, and that content area teachers are often reluctant to implement literacy strategies and skills within their instruction (Ness, 2009; Nourie & Lenski, 1998; Richardson et al., 1991). Much of this reluctance stems from teachers’ lack of familiarity with content area and disciplinary literacy or misconceptions surrounding instruction that supports literacy implementation (O’Byrne et al., 2020). However, within the field of literacy, there are tensions between the implementation of content area versus disciplinary literacy (Graham et al., 2017).

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school content …

Exploring The Influence Of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (Pals) In Increasing Reading Comprehension Of Grade-Level Biology Text And Biology Self-Efficacy In Students With Learning Disabilities: A Formative Experiment, K. Lea Priestley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study used a formative design experiment framework which does not answer a research question but addresses a pedagogical goal. The goal of this study was to determine the influence of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) on the reading comprehension of grade-level biology text and biology self-efficacy with students diagnosed with learning disabilities. As a result of this intervention, it was expected that students would better understand biology text and feel better about themselves as a biology student.

Students were separated into pairs, or dyads, with each pair having a stronger reader and a weaker reader. These dyads participated in …

Predicting Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Content Area Reading: A Multiple Regression Analysis, Fatih Destebasi

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The main purpose of this study was to predict secondary and middle school pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in content area reading by using demographic, academic achievement, literacy methods courses, faculty support, preparedness for content area reading, and attitudes toward teaching reading in content classrooms as variables. Based on that purpose, this study was guided by the following research question: What are the predictors of secondary and middle school pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in content area reading among variables from verbal persuasion of teacher education faculty, preparedness for content area reading, attitudes toward teaching reading in content classrooms, number of literacy method courses, …

Literacy Coaching Serving As A Way To Create Self-Efficacy In Educators, Stifle Teacher Burnout, And Improve Student Achievement Scores: A Framework For Coaching, Jamie L. Grant

Award Winners

Current legislation and push for higher student achievement has teacher expectations at an all-time high. Highly skilled teachers can significantly affect student growth, however more and more highly qualified teachers are leaving the field due to lack of appropriate support within their classrooms. This project argues for the importance of literacy coaching to create a collaborative and supportive environment for teachers. Literacy coaches are able to support teachers’ best literacy practice, create an environment of collaboration, and provide ongoing and supportive professional development for the classroom teacher. This collaborative environment and ongoing support can combat teacher burnout and help teachers …

An Analysis Of High School Students' Self-Efficacy In Second Language Acquisition Through Digital Language Lab Learning: Exploring New Pathways To Proficiency, Lorna A. Fairess

Theses and Dissertations

Students are often faced with barriers acquiring a second language due to various factors such as language anxiety, learning differences, and a lack of speaking time with the language. The purposes of this qualitative study were to: a) determine students' perceptions of the effectiveness of a digital language lab on their self-efficacy in second language acquisition at the secondary level, and b) discern teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the lab as well as recommendations for best practices in teacher training and implementation. Twenty-seven Italian and Spanish students and 12 world language teachers from two fairly rural high schools in …

English Language Teacher Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Michael James Karas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates English language teacher self-efficacy beliefs. Based in Bandura’s (1997) sociocognitive perspective, teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, their beliefs about their capabilities to enact various teaching tasks, have been shown to be impactful on numerous aspects of teachers’ professional lives. Research in both general education and language teacher education has shown that more efficacious teachers are often more motivated, exert a greater effort when teaching, have a higher morale, and can even positively impact their students.

Drawing on survey data from N = 571 participants across a variety of English language teaching contexts, this thesis takes an integrated article format …

A Mixed Methods Study: The Impact Of Self-Regulated Learning On L2 Writing And Strategy Use, Mohammed Almazloum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This convergent mixed methods study aimed to find out how a self-regulated learning (SRL) instructional intervention could impact the Palestinian students’ second language (L2) writing and strategy use. L2 writers face common writing challenges, including but not limited to a lack of competences, effective writing approach, proactive planning, motivation, and self-efficacy (Hammad, 2016). Helping the students to overcome their challenges, improve their L2 writing, and become self-regulated writers was an expected outcome of the study. The study was informed by the social cognitive theory of SRL that views successful writers as proactive and self-regulated learners. In the quantitative part, a …

Agency, The Uncanny, And Strangeways: An Autoethnographic Journey Through An International Wunderland., Roberto T. Ollivier

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The African diaspora and postcolonial studies author George Lamming writes in his book “The Pleasures of Exile” that the Caliban character from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” “cannot be revealed in any relation to himself-for he has no self which is not a reaction to circumstances imposed upon his life” (Lamming, 1992, p. 107). One could argue that the only hope this half-human half-monstrous creature, or for that matter, any of us have to find peace, lies in the attempt to find resolution through the metaphorical slaying of our respective pasts. Like Caliban, many of us are never …

An Examination Of Elementary Preservice Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs For Teaching Reading, Michele Miller Schaich

Education Dissertations and Projects

In the United States, an alarming number of students cannot read proficiently, though there is best-practice research on how to effectively teach readers at all levels. This study examined the impact teacher preparation courses as well as the student teaching experience had on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for literacy instruction. An extensive review of the literature revealed there is not a large body of research that is literacy content-specific and focused on the preservice teacher efficacy. This study is significant in that the process of teacher preparation in universities is one of continuous improvement. Professors of teacher preparation courses must rely …

First Year Teachers' Use Of Technology In Literacy Instruction: A Case Study, Emily Kearns Burke

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this case study is to determine how first year teachers describe their teacher preparation and use of technology to teach literacy. This is achieved by considering how teachers’ descriptions demonstrate self-efficacy, identify challenges and obstacles, and distinguish benefits of technology integration in literacy instruction. As the understanding of literacy broadens to include alternative forms of print and technology, school districts are investing significantly in technology and yet teachers are often not using technology in their practices. For these reasons it is necessary to examine first year teachers’ perceptions of their own prior training, their current technology use …

An Examination Of Relationships Of Reading And Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Standardized Placement Test Scores, And Diverse Community College Students' Perceptions Of Those Relationships, Ann Woolford-Singh

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Social cognitive theory explains the role that one's level of confidence plays in the accomplishment of a specific task. According to Bandura (1982, 1995), self-efficacy beliefs should align with performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing standardized placement test scores of diverse community college freshmen. Additionally, this study sought to understand the sources of these students' reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs through the descriptions of experiences they feel have influenced those beliefs.

There were three major research questions: (1) What is the strength of the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing …