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Full-Text Articles in Education
Improving Students’ Confidence And Competence Using Critical Media Literacy Skills In A Secondary English Language Arts Class, Leeanne Kline
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, …
Principal Supervisor Professional Learning In A Community Of Practice., Jessica Rosenthal
Principal Supervisor Professional Learning In A Community Of Practice., Jessica Rosenthal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Principal supervisor professional learning is an area of educational professionalism that is under-researched and under-developed (Casserly et al., 2013). Because K-12 students deserve to have the best leaders possible impacting their school experience, K-12 principal supervisors need professional learning that strengthens their ability to coach and evaluate K-12 principals (Waters & Marzano, 2006). This study utilized a principal supervisor community of practice as a form of role-specific professional learning. Semi-structured interviews occurring before and after four community of practice convenings along with transcripts from the convenings were used to answer questions that explored principal supervisors’ characterization of a community of …
Stem Educators’ Perceptions Of Gender Bias And The Contributing Factors That Persist For Women In Stem Education, Haleigh Nicole Kirkland
Stem Educators’ Perceptions Of Gender Bias And The Contributing Factors That Persist For Women In Stem Education, Haleigh Nicole Kirkland
Theses and Dissertations
Social influence from society holds the key to social norms that influence students and their future aspirations. Gender bias is considered one of the influencing factors that affects the decisions of female high school students on participating in STEM education. This descriptive study describes the key factors that STEM educators perceived as influential for female high school students' participation in STEM education. The research questions of the study included: (1) What are high school STEM educators’ perceptions regarding gender bias in the STEM School of Study cluster at Skyler High School and (2) What factors do high school STEM educators …
What Are They Thinking?: A Qualitative Study Of Secondary Students’ Critical Thinking In Online Classes, Scott Allan Nolt
What Are They Thinking?: A Qualitative Study Of Secondary Students’ Critical Thinking In Online Classes, Scott Allan Nolt
Theses and Dissertations
This action research study emerged in response to students’ struggle to understand what critical thinking is and teachers’ corresponding struggle to develop students’ critical thinking skills. In my role as an instructional designer, I studied student and teacher reactions to interdisciplinary course design that used disciplinary inquiry, problem-posing, and concept-based online learning. The primarily qualitative study focused on students’ reflections across five different social studies and English courses, along with interview data from their teachers and post-course survey data. Exploring how students experience instruction designed to develop their critical thinking skills and how instruction in critical thinking impacts students’ critical …
Empowering Teachers To Support Mtss Students: An Action Research Study, Sahalija Dentico
Empowering Teachers To Support Mtss Students: An Action Research Study, Sahalija Dentico
Theses and Dissertations
In 2018, the elementary school where I serve as an instructional interventionist adopted a data-based multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Although our process has evolved over the years, I saw room for improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this action research study was to improve the MTSS process at my school, specifically by addressing teachers’ lack of awareness of their role. Framing the study with a combination of social cognitive theory and curriculum ideologies, I explored 12 English language arts teachers’ perceptions of the MTSS model, curricular views, and sense of self-efficacy. Through a two-phase, mixed-method approach, I investigated how sharing …
Autonomous Professional Learning Through Practitioner Inquiry: A Study Of Growth Plan System Experiences, Daina Kelly Gaputis
Autonomous Professional Learning Through Practitioner Inquiry: A Study Of Growth Plan System Experiences, Daina Kelly Gaputis
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The need for quality science education has long been established, but despite reform after reform, it remains a current concern. What we know as good teaching is not happening, perhaps because there is an increase in science teachers using alternative certification programs to enter the field. This lack of formal training causes teachers to have a reliance on professional learning opportunities to learn about reform-based science education. Unfortunately, traditional forms of professional learning are often inadequate, so newer professional learning designs have been established. Some of these newer designs, such as practitioner inquiry, offer teachers autonomy over how they assess …
The Closing Of One Black Box, The Opening Of Another: A Self-Study Of How An Instructional Coach Makes Decisions, Andromeda L. Hightower
The Closing Of One Black Box, The Opening Of Another: A Self-Study Of How An Instructional Coach Makes Decisions, Andromeda L. Hightower
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Despite the efforts of traditional and alternative teacher education programs (i.e. pre-service teacher education) in the United States, teachers frequently report feeling unprepared by the time they begin teaching full time in the classroom. Teachers with low levels of self-efficacy are correlated with lower job satisfaction, higher levels of stress and anxiety, and lower student achievement gains in the classroom. To assist with ameliorating these gaps, schools, districts, and private distributors provide training opportunities for teachers once they have begun the job (i.e. in-service teacher training) in the form of teacher professional development. Mainstream professional development approaches are traditionally simplistic …
If Not Me, Then Who? A Study Of Racial And Cultural Competence In A High School English Department, Dianna Sox
If Not Me, Then Who? A Study Of Racial And Cultural Competence In A High School English Department, Dianna Sox
Theses and Dissertations
While the student population in U.S. public schools is diversifying, the teacher population and curriculum remain monochromatic. This action research study grew from the observation that racial and cultural content and discourse were absent from the English classrooms in my suburban high school due to a perceived lack of teacher cultural competence. Through this convergent mixed-method study, grounded in critical race theory, whiteness, and cultural competence, I sought to examine the factors that contribute to racial silence and improve teacher cultural competence in order to transform our classrooms into more racially and culturally just spaces. Surveys, independent reflections, focus group …
Student Engagement Action Research A Focus On Culturally Relevant Instructional Methods, Amia Dixon
Student Engagement Action Research A Focus On Culturally Relevant Instructional Methods, Amia Dixon
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this action study was to determine the impact the use of culturally relevant instructional methods (researcher created term) would have on student achievement and student motivation. The use of culturally relevant teaching methods is rooted in culturally relevant pedagogy first introduced by Gloria Ladson-Billings and culturally responsive teaching practices first introduced by Geneva Gay. The study implemented an intervention cycle that modified the fourth-grade curriculum by differentiating lessons based on learning style, incorporating an “activator” that connects to the students’ culture and builds background knowledge, allowing student choice for instructional text, increasing the use of culturally relevant …
Multisensory Phonics Instruction In Struggling Readers, Amanda M. Dixon
Multisensory Phonics Instruction In Struggling Readers, Amanda M. Dixon
Theses and Dissertations
This paper describes a problem of practice that arose from a lack of consistent, systematic phonics instruction within a small rural school with a large percentage of students not mastering skills in a way that builds the needed foundation for reading. To address this problem, action research was conducted through a mixed methods approach to determine the impact of multisensory Orton-Gillingham based reading instruction on a small population of students’ phonetic development and how this specific type of instruction affected their attitudes about reading. In an attempt to collect quantitative data, this study was guided by two research questions: How …
Applying Organizational Learning Theories To Continuous Improvement Practices Through Self-Study Methodology To Better Reflect Upon And Understand Factors That Influence School Improvement Efforts, Morgan Daniel Gallagher
Applying Organizational Learning Theories To Continuous Improvement Practices Through Self-Study Methodology To Better Reflect Upon And Understand Factors That Influence School Improvement Efforts, Morgan Daniel Gallagher
Dissertations
The purpose of this self-study is to better understand and address the factors that influence continuous improvement efforts led by the researcher/practitioner. To this end, this study applies Bolman and Deal’s 4-frame model of organizational learning lenses to school improvement indicators on the Illinois 5Essentials Survey. Through taking Bolman and Deal’s Online 4-frame Self-assessment, I am able to identify the organizational learning lens least integrated into my own leadership worldview. The organizational learning lenses that comprise Bolman and Deal’s 4-frame model are the structural, symbolic, human resource, and political lenses. I then apply core tenets of my least integrated lens …
Intercultural Competence In The Esl Classroom: Challenges And Successes, Breno Santos Rodrigues Pereira
Intercultural Competence In The Esl Classroom: Challenges And Successes, Breno Santos Rodrigues Pereira
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
This action-based research study investigated the challenges and successes involved in the teaching of intercultural competence in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. Most studies on intercultural competence take place in English as a foreign language classroom, and very few are centered on ESL instruction. It is this gap in the research that motivated the present study, in which the following research questions were posed: 1) How do targeted training practices in the classroom promote the development of intercultural competence as demonstrated by quantitative data?; 2) What challenges are associated with teaching intercultural competence to ESL learners?; 3) …