Education Commons^™

Probability And Statistics For Third Through Fifth Grade Classrooms., Melissa Taylor Mckinnon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This document contains a variety of lesson plans that can be readily used by a teacher of intermediate students. This thesis contains two units in Probability and one unit in Statistics. Any educator can supplement this document with any curriculum to teach lessons from vocabulary to concept.

Integration Of Fifth Grade Math And Science Curriculum, Accompanied By Increased Parental Involvement, Produces Higher Virginia Test Scores., Kathy Diane Perkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The National Educational Society, through much research and testing, discovered that American students are not performing as well on the academic level as their counterparts. As a nation the math and science scores fell behind other tested disciplines. The Virginia Department of Math and Science Report Card scores confirm that students are struggling in these areas.

As a resolution to correct this problem a proposal for the integration of fifth grade math and science curriculum accompanied by increased parental involvement was devised. The program involved thirteen elementary students and their parents. Pretesting, math and science labs, worksheets, posttesting, and a …

Teaching Probability And Statistics To English Language Learners In Grade Five., Mary Jo Johnson Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of English Language Learners enrolling in the Washington County Virginia Public School System during the past several years prompted the idea of this thesis. These students are currently mainstreamed in the regular academic classroom. Adapting to their needs is a new challenge in education for teachers in Southwest Virginia. This thesis offers an opportunity for teachers to prepare for a multicultural classroom setting providing English Language Learners with learning strategies necessary to gain confidence in their mathematical ability and academic success in the areas of probability and statistics. Lesson plans have been specifically designed emphasizing teaching strategies, …

The Use Of Science Reform Instructional Methods And Their Effect On 3rd Grade Students' Participation And Attitude Towards S, Heather Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to determine whether the use of science reform instructional methods had an effect on student participation in and attitudes towards science education. The participants in this 12 week study were third grade students. Data were collected using a pre and post attitudinal survey, student journals, a participation log, and a researcher reflection journal. Several conclusions were made. The use of science reform instructional methods did affect student participation and attitudes towards science. Student journals indicated that students enjoyed the use of technology, hands-on science equipment, working in pairs or small groups and the …

The Effects Of Reciprocal Teaching Strategies On Students' Comprehension Of A Seventh Grade Life Science Text, Brooke Bess

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This action research study was conducted with 7th grade life science students at a public middle school in central Florida. The author used Reciprocal Teaching (RT) as described by Annemarie Palincsar and Anne Brown (1984) to examine changes in student comprehension when reading their life science textbook and changes in how the students used the predicting, questioning, and summarizing strategies. The RT strategies ask students to employ 4 strategies: predict what they will read, generate questions about what was read, clarify any ideas that were not understood in the reading, and summarize the main idea of the reading. Students were …

Students' Epistemological Beliefs Of Mathematics When Taught Using Traditional Versus Reform Curricula In Rural Maine High Schools, Glenn T. Colby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study compared students’ epistemological beliefs of mathematics after completing 3 years of a reform-oriented curriculum developed by the Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP) versus a more traditional curriculum developed by Glencoe Mathematics. The Conceptions of Mathematics Inventory (CMI; Grouws, Howald, & Colangelo, 1996) was administered to 11th-grade students in four rural Maine high schools (n=102) to measure student beliefs of mathematics. CPMP was used as the primary textbook series in 2 of the schools, while the other 2 schools used Glencoe Mathematics. A variation of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP; Piburn & Sawada, 2000) and teacher questionnaires were used …

Examining Sociomathematical Norms Within The Context Of Decimals And Fractions In A Sixth Grade Classroom, Marino Nardelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social norms are patterns of behavior expected within a particular society in a given situation. Social norms can be shared belief of what is normal and acceptable shapes and enforces the actions of people in a society. In the educational classroom, they are characteristics that constitute the classroom participation structure. Sociomathematical norms are fine-grained aspects of general social norms specifically related to mathematical practices. These can include, but are not limited to, a student-centered classroom that includes the expectation that the students should present their solution methods by describing actions on mathematical objects rather than simply accounting for calculational manipulations. …

A Case Study Of The Effects Of Inquiry Based Professional Development Through The Use Of A Mentor On An Alternatively Certified, Michelle Thrift

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One alternatively certified elementary teacher was the subject of this sixteen week research study on science teaching self-efficacy. The researcher taught inquiry based student level science lessons to the fourth grade teacher. The teacher participant, in turn, taught those same lessons to her class while the researcher observed and took field notes. The participant responded to specific open ended questions in a journal after each science experience and also completed three interviews with the researcher. Each sequential lesson from the researcher was then modified based on participant needs. The participant completed the STEBI (Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument) as a …

The Influence Of Discourse And Journal Writing On Second Graders' Acquisition Of Multidigit Addition Concepts, Elizabeth Hensley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how second graders use writing and language when they are learning to add multidigit numbers in mathematics class. Second grade students were taught addition conceptually with a focus on sharing their strategies and thought processes with each other during the mathematics lesson. Two social norms were established with students so that sharing information and asking for clarity when they did not understand would be natural and expected. Students kept a daily mathematics journal to answer the class's Problems of the Day. Patterns found in student journals indicated three stages of multidigit learning. …

The Effects Of Increasing Family Involvement On Student Achievement In Scientific Inquiry, Patricia Denoon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that there is a positive correlation with student performance when there are members of the family, primarily a parent, who are actively involved with the student and their education. The following action research plan was designed to determine how increasing parental involvement affected student performance in a scientific inquiry program. This was done by offering "parenting a middle school student" workshops, encouraging family run practices at home, and inviting parents to attend a class with their student. This research was conducted in a large middle school in a central Florida school district with two 7th grade classrooms. …

The Effect Of An Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum On Student Attitudes And Participation, James Perlmutter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed as a collaborative action research study and focused on the use of an inquiry-based unit in an eighth grade honors science class at a middle school with a diverse population in the southeastern portion of the United States in the Spring of 2005. The inquiry-based unit was taught through the use of the electronics unit in Full Option Science System (FOSS). The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of an inquiry based curriculum on the level of participation in, attitudes of, and academic performance of students towards science. This collaborative action research study …