Education Commons^™

The Mindset Classroom Blended Course, Louis T. Papai

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

Northwest Louisiana houses a collective impact organization called Step Forward. It utilizes several networks to create change within the region. Stakeholders of the Middle Grade STEM Network were aware of the impact of growth mindset principles and practices on educators and students’ self-efficacy and needed to train regional formal and informal educators in growth mindset principles and practices. After ruling out available options due to cost, two network stakeholders and myself collaborated to create our own growth mindset training. An initial mini-pilot was conducted in the fall of 2017 followed by a needs assessment and learner analysis. Three primary goals …

The Living Classroom: A Professional Learning Session, Albert P. Buckley Jr.

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

The American public school classroom has begun moving from the traditional furniture of education (hard plastic chairs attached to desks) to flexible mobile furniture as part of a holistic approach to creating a learning environment that enhances learning for its students. This project describes the process derived in the development and delivery of an asynchronous professional learning session aimed at helping teachers acclimate and engage new or adapted physical and psychological attributes to the learning environments in their care. The program is backed with research demonstrating why the progressive classroom improves the learning experience for both students and teachers. The …

Boston Writing Project, Glenn Mitchell, Peter Golden

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Boston Writing Project focuses on the core mission of improving the teaching of writing and improving the use of writing across the disciplines by offering high-quality professional development programs for educators, at all grade levels, K–16 and across the curriculum.

Wipro Science Education Fellowship Teacher Leadership Program, Center Of Science And Math In Context, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The WIPRO Science Education Fellowship (SEF) is a 2 year science teacher-leadership program funded by the Wipro Ltd. Wipro committed $5.1million to COSMIC, over seven-years, to train three (3) cohorts of 180 school teachers, fostering leadership and teaching excellence in science education among K-12 teachers from Greater Boston, Northern New Jersey and Greater New York. Through engagement and collaboration with teams of teachers from different districts, teachers reflect on their own practice and that of their peers through the use of video; they identify opportunities for themselves to take a leadership role within the district, in their building or with …

Necc Early College Program: Third-Year Outcomes, Jack Leonard, Ellen Grondine

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Five-year longitudinal community-based program evaluation reports annually on outcomes for early college program between MA community college and 2 high schools (suburban; urban) for academically average students, grades 10-12. Mixed methodology uses surveys, interviews and quantitative student data to illuminate program design, measure student outcomes , investigate changes in teaching practice and examine effective leadership practices. Three-year results show impressive credit accumulation and improved college readiness skills in students. Strong support mechanisms promote student success. Program is now being replicated in other communities.

The Urban Scholars Program At University Of Massachusetts Boston, David Lemmel

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Urban Scholars provides talented and gifted students—especially those from low income and minority backgrounds—with the resources to develop the skills and self-motivation needed to enter and successfully complete postsecondary education. The program accommodates 120 students, 75 students at the high school level and 45 at the middle school level.

University Of Massachusetts Boston Upward Bound, Lizette Rivera

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Upward Bound is an intensive, year-round college-prep program. Our mission is to assist low-income and / or first-generation college bound high school students in the successful completion of secondary education. We strive to prepare our students academically and socially towards the enrollment and completion of higher education. Upward Bound offers services to students through an after-school program at UMass-Boston during the school year and a six-week summer residential academic program.

Upward Bound Math-Science At Umass Boston, Terri Slater

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS) strives to increase the number of low-income and first-generation college bound students who enroll in and complete higher education programs, majoring in mathematics, the sciences, and computer science. UBMS aims to increase the number who pursues advanced study in these fields. UBMS serves students enrolled in the six academies that comprise the Lawrence High School Complex.

The Talented And Gifted (Tag) Latino Program: Providing Holistic Support To Boston Students In Grades 6-12 Through Programming Focused On The Development Of Academic Skills, Leadership Skills And Community Building, Ilyitch Nahiely Tábora, Institute For Learning & Teaching, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Talented And Gifted (TAG) Latino Program has served the academic, personal and social needs of Boston Public Schools middle and high schools Latino students and English Language Learners since 1985. TAG offers holistic, year-round support to approximately 600 students annually. Boston Public School (BPS) Latino students and English Language Learners (ELL) excel academically, socially and personally, so as to improve their ability to succeed in high school and at the postsecondary level.

Women @ Work Program, Eleanor Brown, Raymond Tse, Apurva Mehta

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The St. Mary’s Women @ Work program partners with the Department of IT at UMass Boston to provide young women with a path to self sufficiency. It does so by placing these youth for a 3 month period, in a real-work environment where they get paid and receive hands-on practical training.

Navigating The Complexities In Teaching, Marie Levey-Pabst

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

As a student in the Critical and Creative Thinking Program I have learned about ways of thinking that have greatly impacted how I teach my high school students as well as how I think about my own teaching. Over the past year I have sought out teachers to interview to help me expand my understanding about how teachers make thoughtful decisions given the complex realities they face. Through analyzing these teachers' reflections on their thoughts and experiences I have discovered ways of opening my own thinking as well as patterns in productive teacher thinking that could help many other teachers …

Social Action Teaching: Engaging Middle School Students In Knowing And Doing In The Social Studies Classroom, Alyssa Hinkell

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

For the past three years I have had countless opportunities to engage in rich thinking around teaching and learning. As a member of the Critical and Creative Thinking Program (CCT) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston I have been able to reflect on these experiences in the context of my own teaching, applying what I have learned to enrich my own craft. Over the past eight months I have devoted this thinking to a teaching method I call Social Action Teaching. This method has helped to engage and motivate my seventh grade students and I believe, if applied elsewhere, can …

Original Curriculum For Encouraging Meaningful Community Service In High School Students, Elizabeth H. Naylor

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In this paper I have explored the importance of community service experiences and ultimately created a guide for implementing a high quality and meaningful community service program at the high school level. This paper begins with an initial discussion of my personal experiences in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, when I discovered firsthand the importance of personal reflection and sharing. I have defined community as a group of people with common place and common interest. Community service is an action within the community that betters the community in some way. The reader will find examples of communities coming together to …

Rationale And Provisional Lesson Plans For Learning High School Science Through Discovering Dialectically And Creatively, Jean Rene

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

A host of studies on students' understanding of science has revealed that persistent topic-specific misconceptions loom over wide groups of learners. However, in the literature, scant consideration is given to high school students' over-arching misconceptions. Those are erroneous conceptions about the nature of science that tend to be resistant even after traditional instruction. Those large-scale misconceptions lay at the frontier of philosophical standpoints and are likely to inhibit students' ability to construct conceptions aligned with accepted scientific views. This synthesis contends that educators can better address high school students' large scale misconceptions at the conjunction of interconnected scientific notions and …

Have Your Π And Eat It Too! Using A Course Website To Facilitate Student-Centered Learning And Improve The Effectiveness Of The High School Mathematics Experience, Jeffrey Bretsch

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommends that teachers provide their students with opportunities for student-centered learning. This often occurs in the form of discovery learning, hands-on learning, and interdisciplinary learning. These types of learning experiences fall under the umbrella of the educational theory of constructivism. Constructivism, in short, asserts that meaningful learning occurs when students actively construct their own understanding, making connections and drawing their own conclusions in response to genuine experiences. Many educators would agree that this type of learning is the ideal, but is not generally feasible due to the broad nature of the mathematics curriculum …

Whatever Happened To Lisa Simpson? An Exploration Of Female Adolescent Development Through Problem Based Learning, Amy Perrault

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

As a teacher for the past six years in a girls’ school, I have met and had the chance to interact with hundreds of adolescent girls. Over time I have come to realize how much adolescence seems to have changed since I was in their shoes. The media inundates them with messages about what is cool, hip, and acceptable—music videos, fashion, and the internet provide the frame of reference against which today’s young woman compares her own self worth. While girls have always looked to society’s standards to help them develop as individuals, at no time in history have the …

Teaching Economics In United States History: One Teacher Shares Some Lessons, Kathleen S. Bullock

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This paper addresses the value and benefits of teaching economics in U.S. History at the high school level. Some of the challenges it presents such as curriculum style, teacher qualifications, assessment and accountability, pacing, and developing thinking skills for a theory-based course are discussed. I also offer activities with accompanying worksheets and graphic organizers that may assist teachers in meeting these challenges. The activities include tariffs, a run on the bank, monopolies, and recessions as an introduction to basic economic principles that are important in teaching U.S. History. A set of graphic organizers on The Civil War demonstrates how economics …

Geometry In Action: A Curriculum Unit Utilizing Dynamic Geometry Software To Enhance Students’ Comprehension, Cynthia A. Mignini

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The paper identifies two critical obstacles to student success in a traditional geometry classroom and examines the role dynamic geometry software can play in overcoming these obstacles.

Teaching Thinking Skills In The Content Area: A Workshop For Secondary School Teachers, Evelyn Ryan

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This thesis presents a curriculum for a workshop on teaching thinking skills in the content area designed for secondary school teachers. In-service time for the workshop is twenty hours. The first fifteen hours are scheduled for one week in the summer. Two follow-up sessions, each two and a half hours in length, are scheduled during the school year. The purpose of this curriculum is to establish a foundation for skillful thinking-purposeful thought that is aware not only of its objective but of its own processes. In order to accomplish this purpose the workshop has two goals. The first goal is …

Student Held Misconceptions Regarding Area And Perimeter Of Rectangles, Susan M. Carle

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Students enter the classroom with individual schemas, based on their experiences and ideas, which influence the reception, interpretation, and recollection of new information. Effective teachers must understand the implications of these existing schemas. As an experienced classroom teacher, the author finds students often manipulate and apply new information well in class, only to forget or alter the material a few weeks later;. When misconceptions are woven into schemas, they interfere with reception of information. This thesis examines specific student-held misconceptions about the area and perimeter of rectangles and the process of their identification and eradication. Identification of the misconception is …

Teacher As Researcher: A Two-Tiered Model, Barbara B. Nelson

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This thesis focuses on an investigation I undertook to enhance my effectiveness to teach mathematics, a subject to which I was assigned, but for which I had not been formally trained. It describes my attempt to construct knowledge through the clinical interview method as to how middle school students construct knowledge about integers and think about the knowledge they are constructing. On one level, I was attempting to learn how students come to understand the concept of integers; on a level, I was creating an understanding of how a teacher can construct knowledge about the construction of knowledge. This two-tiered …

Thinking About Grammar In The Middle School: A Study And Recommendations, Jennifer Ault Simmons

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The study involved 53 sixth graders in a small, rural town in southeastern Massachusetts. Its purpose was to identify some of the grammatical concepts held by these students. The survey is presented. Briefly, these students lack understanding of basic grammatical concepts (such as the subject/verb relationship and subject versus object). These and other misconceptions indicate that students do not understand the role of word function in language. A central finding about students' attitudes toward grammar study is that students do not realize that they have intuitive knowledge of their native language. Although students are not sure what grammar is, most …

Using Stress Management To Promote Critical Thinking, Robert L. Schoenberg

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This paper examines the effects of distress upon critical thinking and offers a variety of stress management techniques to enhance critical thinking skills. A major theme throughout this paper is that one cannot think clearly when one is distressed. The harmful effects of distress upon critical thinking are discussed in the content of the works of several authors in the field of stress management and cognitive psychology. Several different types of stress reduction techniques are presented and discussed. The critical thinking skills of metacognition, frame of reference and methodological believing are reviewed with a focus on how stress management can …

Merging Instruction In Thinking And Writing, Victoria L. Morse

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Two largely independent bodies of literature exist on both teaching to promote students' critical and creative thinking abilities and teaching to promote the shift between novice and more expert writing. The author looks closely at both bodies of literature and merges common principles to create an extended curriculum unit designed to teach simultaneously toward expert thinking and expert writing. The unit contains such diverse activities as: 1) an acrostic puzzle; 2) reading articles on themes related to Hamlet; 3) the use of dialectical notebooks; 3) an explicit investigation into the nature of problem solving; 4) using emphatic role-playing to bring …

Dorchester: The Community Teaches, A Resource Book Of Information And Activities, Institute For Learning & Teaching, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Institute for Learning and Teaching Publications

We have prepared this manual of resources and activities so that Dorchester teachers and children can explore their community. We have done so in the belief that community studies can be a valuable addition to the curriculum. They involve children in thinking about and taking part in the affairs of their community. Through community studies, children in the process of becoming citizens can learn how to participate in and have an impact on their community. In this time of widespread apathy, despair, and resignation about community problems, education for citizenship is a top priority.

When children are learning about their …

Alternative Concepts Of Geology And Time In Secondary Science Education, Ralph K. Calitri

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This study examines students’ concepts of time and geologic processes and probes for alternative conceptions in these areas which would be of relevance for science education.