Education Commons^™

Does The Mathematics Level Affect Student Success In High School Physics?, Kassandra Surma

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study was: does the mathematics class level affect student success in high school physics? Topics explored in the literature review include the context of science course sequencing, the history of physics education in the United States, the disconnect between mathematics and physics in education, the mindsets of parents, students, and teachers about mathematics and science curriculum, and educational policies that affect state standards for curriculum, and graduation. Participants’ previous mathematics class level and success in their high school physics course were studied to find any correlation. To accomplish this, participants’ previous mathematics course and …

Factors That Contribute To Success In The Remote English Classroom, Emily Stein

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

in their classes? 2) Which factors do remote teachers believe contribute to success in their classes? In an increasingly technological world, remote classes are becoming more common. With this change in the modality of class also comes a change in teacher characteristics, teaching strategies, and more. Topics explored in the literature review include these changes to teaching due to the remote modality, the successes and challenges of remote teaching and learning, as well as descriptions of remote models in the elementary school language learning context. The study looks more closely at a particular remote English program located in a small, …

Feedback In Practice: The Effects Of Written Feedback And Conferences On Student Writing Scores In Ninth Grade English Classrooms, Anthony Granai

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study was: how can I improve feedback on student writing in order to help students improve their writing skills? Topics explored in the review of the literature include standards, assessment data, writing instruction, written feedback, surface- and content-level feedback, conferences, text-specific feedback and question asking. Students from two sections of Ninth Grade English at a large suburban high school were divided into two groups. Both groups completed two writing assessments. Each assessment was submitted twice. After the first submission of each assessment, each group received feedback from their teacher on their writing. One group …

Concentration: A Pathway To Learning, Habib Amini

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study looks at the observable effects of influences on students’ concentration or engagement in learning in the classrooms of two publicly-funded and one private Montessori elementary schools. Using a phenomenological method of inquiry within the paradigm of qualitative research, the study explores literature and collects data through observations and interviews to determine the nature and origins of these influences in the above selected schools. The findings show three sources of influence affecting students' concentration at varying degrees, depending on the type of the selected school: 1) the duality of objectives, caused by the phenomenon of applying Montessori method in …

Somali Family Priorities And Perspectives Regarding Middle School Engagement, Joanna Fischer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate Somali families’ priorities and perspectives regarding middle school engagement. A survey was used which asked parents to rate the importance of different school engagement efforts, both at home and at school. Parents were then asked to answer open-ended questions regarding school engagement. Findings suggest that Somali parents prioritize those events and activities that directly benefit the child’s academics, more so than events and activities related to school-wide information and involvement. Furthermore, parents asked for better communication, more resources, and more equitable practices from educators. They also saw the importance of the education …

Behind 'Loving Reading': Reading Behavior In Early Adolescents, Rachel White

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

White, Rachel. “Behind ‘Loving Reading’: Reading Behavior in Early Adolescents” (2020).

The research question addressed in this study was: what is the lived experience of loving reading for middle school students? Topics explored in the review included loving reading in popular understanding, reading motivation, reading identity, reading volume and reading in the home. The review also included an overview of affective reading assessments and qualitative understandings of reading attitude. The qualitative research of this study employed the interpretivist paradigm and consisted of interviews with six middle school-aged participants. In the interviews, participants discussed their reading identity, reading habits, reading efficacy, …

Learning Difference/Disabilities And Theatre, Anna Miller-Sherman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Miller-Sherman, A. LEARNING DIFFERENCE/DISABILITIES AND THEATRE (2020)

The research question for this thesis was, how do students with learning differences and disabilities enrolled in a theater class describe their affective and cognitive learning during the class? The aim and purpose of this thesis is to explore how one to three students who are on the autism spectrum or have learning disabilities describe their experience of participating in a theater class. The goal is to understand from their perspective how they experience social learning in a theater class. The Capstone question focused on theater class because of the author's professional role …

Teacher Participation In Extracurricular Activities: The Effect On School Culture, Mikayla Hensch

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

How does teacher involvement in extracurricular activities affect overall school culture in high schools? This case study sought to examine high school teachers’ perceptions about their participation (or lack thereof) in extracurricular activities as well as their perceptions about whether participation in extracurricular activities has an impact on school culture. Using a mixed-methods approach, data revealed that teachers see their own extracurricular involvement as a positive way to build relationships with their students and that participating in extracurricular activities could be a beneficial way to build a positive school culture. However, teachers often struggle to participate due to time constraints …

Impacts Of Positive Behavior Interventions And Strategies Programs On Educator Practices, Charles O’Donnell

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Positive Behavior Interventions and Strategies has been a driving force in reshaping educator responses to student behavior and promoting equity since 1997. As a non-prescriptive initiative that varies across settings, implementation styles and effectiveness can also appear differently. In its overall aim to keep students out of the school-to-prison pipeline and promote positive behavior management techniques over punitive ones, PBIS has caused many educators to re-evaluate old attitudes about school discipline and learn new, more effective and equitable strategies to set students on the path to greater behavioral self-management and success. This action research encapsulates educator attitudes about PBIS on …

Student-Teacher Relationships In An Alternative Setting, Stefanie Soukup

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This capstone explores how positive and negative relationships can make a difference in an alternative learning setting and how they impact student’s academic performance and classroom behavior. The paper researches three theories that can impact a student’s relationship with their teacher, those theories are: Attribution Theory, Noddings Theory, and Attachment Theory. A research study that consisted of a student survey and an examination of student’s grades to see if there is a connection between the students' feelings and them passing or failing classes. Ultimately, this study helped identify a connection between the two. Finally, the final chapter of this paper …

Social Studies Teachers’ Successes And Challenges In Creating Race-Conscious Curriculum, Emma Nicosia

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the ways that social studies teachers enact racial literacy in order to center race in their curriculum. The study is situated within the existing literature of culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, critical race theory and their applications in social studies education, and racial literacy. Employing a qualitative case study approach, the study is grounded in critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). Six teachers and two curriculum administrators in a single school district were interviewed. Additionally, participant-observations and analyses of teachers’ curricular materials occurred. In order to analyze the data, I inductively put several theories relating …

Administrator Role In Successful Volunteer Based Reading Programs, Heidi Frye

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research addressed in the capstone considers programs that utilize volunteer reading programs using tutors from the community to work with elementary students who need extra support to reach grade level reading goals. The research question is: How do administrators of elementary schools implementing volunteer reading tutoring programs describe their role in the program’s success? The thesis considered research of Stanovich and Torgesen around the needs of struggling readers and of Wasik and Slavin about the essential elements in volunteer tutoring programs aimed at increasing student reading achievement. The research utilized qualitative semi-structured interviews with two administrators working in buildings …

Trauma, Trust, And Academic Achievement Stories Shared By High School Dropouts, Vicci Una Johnson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study is based on interviews with twelve adults who dropped out of high school before earning their diploma. Participants were asked several semi-structured open-ended questions. The Primary research question is: How do adults earning their high school diploma describe what stopped them from graduating on time? The participants shared stories of family trauma. The Secondary research question is: Who did you trust in your family or at school to ask for advice or help with any issue? Nine of the twelve participants responded they would not trust a parent, teacher, counselor, or school social worker to advise …

A Content-Integrated Translingual Literature Curriculum For Chinese-Speaking University-Level Efl Learners, Croix Clayton

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper was to outline a new translingual model of post-secondary EFL curriculum for Chinese-speaking English language learners. The curricular guide presents a content-integrated literature syllabus aimed at building competence in both communicative and critical-creative domains. A translingual coursework, which may involve code-switching, translanguaging, translation in language teaching (TILT), and World Englishes contact literature, is argued to uniquely benefit Chinese-speaking EFL learners on the road toward English and higher-order thinking competence. The curriculum utilizes the Tang-era poetry of Du Fu, and the modern prose of Ha Jin as content for lessons on the English article system, phrasal …

Early Childhood Education In Ethiopia: A Case Study With Implications For Ethiopian Immigrants, Fadila Adam

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research study analyzed early childhood education in Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to find out about early childhood education in Ethiopia in order to effectively support Ethiopian families in St. Paul, Minnesota. The following are the research guiding questions: 1) What are the early childhood teaching methodologies being used in the Ethiopian education system? 2) What are the teachers’ qualifications in Ethiopian early childhood education? 3) What are teachers’ perceptions of early childhood education in Ethiopia? Studies from the Center on the Developing Child found that learning in early childhood sets the foundation for future learning and …

Monitoring Program Effectiveness & Educational Outcomes For Minority-Language Students In Two-Way Spanish Immersion Programs, Jessica Wallace Neukirch

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Two-way Immersion (TWI) provides the most equitable educational outcomes for minority-language learners (Marian, Shook & Shroeder, 2013; Thomas & Collier, 2012). Due to the continued achievement gap between White and Latinx students in the United States (NAEP, 2019), this research study addresses how school districts and/or individual immersion sites monitor program effectiveness and fidelity of implementation to ensure equitable educational outcomes for minority-language learners. First, the characteristics of well implemented TWI programs are outlined along with effective monitoring tools for monitoring program effectiveness and fidelity of TWI implementation. Data show that TWI programs inconsistently monitor TWI implementation especially in the …

Utilizing The Teaching/Learning Cycle, Assessment For Learning And Talk, Read, Talk, Write Strategies To Improve Text Cohesion And Noun Phrase Expansion: A Case Study Of A Long-Term English Language Learner, Christine Dietz

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Commonly used EL supports, such as sentence stems may help students complete one writing task, but do not promote a deeper understanding of the language that would allow students to generalize language patterns across assignments. Through the exploration of the research questions: 1. “What instructional strategies build the metalinguistic knowledge necessary for ELLs to successfully produce and revise their writing?” 1a. “How effective is the teaching learning cycle when it is paired with Assessment for Learning Strategies ? ” 2a. “How effective is the teaching/learning cycle when it is paired with the Talk, Read, Talk, Write framework?” this case study …

What Is The Significance Of Reading Aloud To Middle School Aged Students In The Language Arts Classroom As Measured By The Star Reading Assessment?, Samantha Alme

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study is: what is the significance of reading aloud to middle school aged students in the language arts classroom as measured by the STAR Reading assessment? Topics explored in the review of the literature include components of literacy-specifically children’s literacy, language arts curriculum, as well as the importance and effectiveness of classroom read alouds. A cohort of nearly 30 students in fifth and sixth grades were observed on how well they comprehended children’s novels while reading independently and while reading with teacher guidance and interaction. While one class completed a read aloud novel study …

Growth Mindset Language And Literacy In The Kindergarten Classroom, Kari Helfinstine

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This capstone addresses the following research question: How can using growth mindset language impact students’ beliefs about their literacy ability in Kindergarten? It follows one teacher’s experience with teaching and modeling growth mindset language to a classroom of Kindergarten students. The author examines the research around the growth mindset philosophy (Dweck, 2006) and the benefits of using growth mindset language with students. This qualitative study examines how using growth mindset feedback with students affects their ability to believe in themselves as a literacy learner. Data for the study includes a pre and post interview with participants and observation data. The …

Crisis In Education: Roles And Solutions, Matthew Springer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

After deciding to pursue a career in education and regularly reading, seeing, and hearing the laments of educators and the general public about education, this project developed. The idea that education is bogged down, lags in innovation, and is chaotic drove a qualitative study to uncover the true state of education, whether it is truly so awful, and whether it is still worthy of pursuit. A literature review laid a foundation for the study. Then, six education professionals were intereviewed, and their experiences and beliefs were synthesized. This researcher concludes that, yes, education has its issues; and, there are struggles …

Strategies To Develop Effective Problem Solving Habits For English Learners In A Problem-Based Learning Classroom, Iain Lempke

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this thesis was, how do students with varying levels of English proficiency respond to identified teaching strategies noted in the research literature that support them with developing a “problem-model approach” to solving mathematics word problems? It draws on the work of Hegarty et. al (1995) who defined the term “problem-model approach” as “trying to construct a mental model of the situation being described in the problem and plan their solution on the basis of this model”. It documents one teacher’s attempt to teach the Read-And-Think Math strategy as described by Nessel and Graham (2006) to …

Mentor Text Writing For Language Immersion Students, Jessie Sheldon

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study was: How does the research recommend using mentor texts to support primary Spanish immersion students while engaged in independent writing activities? More specifically, the study examines students’ engagement with writing and use of punctuation, regular present verb tense and regular past verb tense. A qualitative action research method was used as this study took place in an educational setting. During a four month period this study examined how the implementation of mentor texts affected the writing and engagement of 21 second grade Spanish immersion students. Participants were asked to complete a pre-and postintervention …

Impacting Student On-Task Behaviors Through Classroom Based Physical Activity And Movement, Katelyn Allen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this thesis study was: How do different amounts of physical activity and movement implemented into a suburban kindergarten classroom setting impact student on-task behaviors? The literature topics researched and reviewed before conducting this study were on physical activity and movement, classroom management histories, classroom behaviors, and classroom physical activity. In this study, the mixed methods design was used in monitoring and collecting data with the quantitative method as the main approach and the qualitative method as the secondary. Over a five-week period, 16 kindergartners in a suburban classroom participated, and were monitored, before and after …

Perceptions Of Literacy Coaching Program Indicators Of Success By Key Stakeholders At International Schools, Stephanie Lott

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Literacy coaching is widely regarded as an effective form of job-embedded professional development. The majority of the current literature on literacy coaching has focused on factors contributing to the effectiveness of such programs in public schools in the United States. However, relatively little attention has been given to the transfer of these factors as facilitating the success of coaching programs in the understudied context of international schools. This qualitative study originally sought to explore coaching specifically directed literacy, but evolved to examine instructional coaching more broadly from data collected in two international school settings in the European Union. Data from …

Exploring Student Engagement In Kindergarten Literacy Centers, Bryna Wiens

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gather information about the characteristics of literacy centers associated with high student engagement in my kindergarten classroom, exploring the guiding research question: what characteristics of literacy centers correlate with engaged, self-directed learning? The majority of the current research about literacy centers points to why independent literacy work is necessary, yet potentially problematic as students tend to be less engaged when working independently versus when under direct instruction with the teacher. Limited research has been conducted to examine the characteristics of centers that are associated with more engaging independent literacy work for kindergarteners, which …

How Can A Local Government Implement Environmental Education For Immigrant Communities That Live In Apartment Buildings?, Kirsten Wahlberg

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This project addressed the research question: How can a local government implement environmental education for immigrant communities that live in apartment buildings? Six multifamily properties were recruited from three different cities from Hennepin County located in Minnesota to help overcome barriers towards recycling. The total amount of households, or units that participated were 535. Research methods included implementing best management practices including; color-coding trash and recycling containers and adding labels with images to all trash and recycling dumpsters. Educators also attempted to coordinate in-person education events including going door-to-door and a recycling informational presentation. Translators, or “influencers” were identified at …

Facilitating Communication And Parent Engagement Among Somali Families Through Smart Phone Technology, Thomas Tesch

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Through a case study research design, this study focused on the day-to-day use of the multi-featured Remind application and its impact on parent-school communication. The research qualitatively assessed how the use of a smart-phone application designed for parent-school communication facilitates both communication with and parent engagement by Somali families in the United States. The participants were parents of 6th grade students at our school. The 5-week study used participant responses from two questionnaires and interviews with two of the seven participants as the central research data. The research examined the dynamics of daily and weekly use of the Remind app …

Searching For A Vision: Understanding Educational Equity In Rural Minnesota, Jessica Murphy

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The level of clarity and commitment to educational equity varies from district to district and is different in a rural district as opposed to an urban district. The purpose of this dissertation study is to clarify the educational equity work in a rural setting for myself and others. This qualitative study utilized grounded theory analysis and autoethnography1 to answer the primary question of What are the skills, dispositions, and content knowledge that equity specialists in rural Minnesota describe as being effective to better prepare them in their work toward achieving educational equity? The study focused on perspectives shared from equity …