Education Commons^™

Early Childhood Coursework In The Preparation Of Teacher Candidates For Linguistically And Culturally Diverse Students, Jesus Castellon

Theses and Dissertations

The continual growth of linguistically and culturally diverse students in schools proposes a challenge for teachers to address their academic and linguistic needs. Therefore, it is important to note the preparation of new teachers to address these needs. The purpose of this study is to explore what teacher candidates understand about teaching in linguistically diverse settings. This study reviewed the coursework understanding of three teacher candidates as they progressed through a teacher education program. Coursework was analyzed and coded using the framework of knowledge, skills, and dispositions (KSD’s) to investigate what teacher candidates understood. Commonalties and differences between teacher candidates’ …

Student Perception Of Teacher Response To Student Emotion: Associations With Academic Functioning, Cassandra Marie Matejka

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTSTUDENT PERCEPTION OF TEACHER RESPONSE TO STUDENT EMOTION: ASSOCATIONS WITH ACADEMIC FUNCTIONING

by Cassandra M. Matejka The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2022 Under the Supervision of Professor Dr. Kyongboon Kwon

Due to the increased awareness that emotions have on student outcomes within the classroom setting, gaining insight on the emotional socialization process within the classroom setting may lead to continued improvements within the social-emotional learning curricula in the school environment. The goal of this study was to examine the relation between a teacher’s emotion socialization practices and their student’s academic functioning. Specifically, student perceptions of their teacher’s supportive and unsupportive responses …

Curriculum Adaptations To Teach For Creativity Using A Published Language Arts Curriculum, Barbara T. Prendergast

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine a published language arts curriculum, determine how Anna Craft’s possibility thinking framework could be integrated into the curriculum, and then observe how students responded to the implementation of lessons integrating the elements of possibility thinking. The findings revealed that a teacher can use the possibility thinking elements to encourage creativity while still teaching the objectives of a published curriculum. Creativity development can be encouraged by using a variety of supports that build possibility thinking. The data demonstrated a connection between life experiences and the curriculum through possibility thinking. The …

Impacting Positive Breastfeeding Attitudes Of Prelicensure Nursing Students Using An Evidence-Based Breastfeeding Module, Stephanie D. Uhr

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Robust evidence demonstrates optimal breastfeeding behaviors provide unmatched short- and long-term health outcomes. Therefore, breast milk feeding is more than a feeding decision; it is a significant public health concern. Breast milk is species-specific nutrition for a developing infant. The health impact of providing breastmilk extends to the lactating parent. However, the existing breastfeeding education is often inadequate to support the care of the breastfeeding dyad. The dissertation examines the role breastfeeding plays in prelicensure nursing education and analyzes the use of an evidence-based breastfeeding educational module (EBBM) on breastfeeding attitudes.Method: An integrative review analyzed the current state of …

Impact Of Teacher Cognition On The Implementation Of Social- Emotional Learning Practices For El Students, Madeline Bliske

Theses and Dissertations

There is a well-established achievement and graduation rate gap between English Learner (EL) students and their monolingual English-speaking peers (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). The current study focuses on teacher cognition and characteristics that may impact the likelihood that they will implement culturally and linguistically sustaining (CLS) social-emotional learning (SEL) practices for EL students within their classroom. Specifically, I descriptively analyze whether personal, professional, or school characteristics are associated with teachers’ perception of EL students SEL competencies or implementation of CLS SEL practices. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), I evaluate whether teacher cognition (i.e., behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, …

Transformative Social Emotional Learning: Bridging The Gap Between Teacher Preparation And Student Learning, Jennifer N. Slaughter

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the practices and perceptions of educators implementing a schoolwide SEL curriculum. This study sought to identify aspects that promote and prevent effective SEL programming in schools by answering the following questions: How do educators implement SEL curriculum in a diverse school setting? How do educators’ understandings and beliefs about SEL impact schoolwide program implementation? and What transformative qualities of educators’ knowledge and practices emerge in the examination of their beliefs about SEL? The data for this study was collected through a survey and semi-structured interview with three participants. Three key …

An Investigation Of Personal And Professional Secondary Traumatic Stress Predictors In Urban School Personnel, K. Leigh Monahan

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the high rates of exposure to potentially traumatic events in childhood, educators may experience high levels of indirect trauma exposure that can lead to adverse consequences, such as Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). STS is a potential “constellation of symptoms that may run parallel to those of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) including symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, arousal, and emotional numbing” (Molnar et al., 2017, p. 130). However, STS remains understudied in the school personnel population. This quantitative survey study explored to what extent a set of professional (i.e., supervisor support, colleague support, trauma-informed practices professional development, professional role) and …

What's Holding Them Back? The Different Voices Of The Adolescent Treble Singer, Genevieve Michels

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent treble singers in choir programs are often overlooked due to their higher numbers compared to non-treble voices. While physically present, treble voiced students at the high school of study, consistently demonstrated lower volume and lighter tone production compared to their non-treble voiced counterparts. This mixed methods research was based on the question: what causes the treble singer to hold back their volume/tone during a choral rehearsal? Literature revealed four areas to consider: singing confidence, voice change, self-confidence, and social influences, which became the basis for a quantitative survey given to sixty-three students across age and grades. Students who "agreed” …

An Examination Of Teacher Beliefs About The Emphasis Of Sight Word Development In Early Literacy Instruction, Alyssa B. Galicia

Theses and Dissertations

In the following inquiry I discuss the beliefs educators have regarding the emphasis of sight words within their classroom. The findings of this qualitative study offer a perspective about the literacy development of students in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. The data of this study was collected from a 45-minute individual interview. Documents with relevance were submitted by the teachers to bring further understanding to the discussion. The results of this study included 3 findings: a) fluency development was seen as an outcome of the development of more essential skills, b) there is more than one approach to instructing sight words, …

An Examination Of Early Childhood Teachers’ Perceptions Of Discussing Race With Children, Sarah Elizabeth Kubly

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines early childhood teachers’ perceptions and practices with regard to talking to young children about race. Through an online survey and an individual interview with two early childhood teachers, I uncovered three findings: a) teachers’ understandings of their students’ racial awareness, b) teachers’ current classroom practices regarding race, culture, ethnicity, and c) challenges teachers faced in talking about race with their students along with possible sources of support. Based on these findings, I concluded that teachers made the decision not to directly confront the issue of race with their students due to feelings of fear and discomfort. …

The (In)Visibility Of Race/Ism In Social Studies Education: Examining Teacher Educators’ Strategies For Addressing Issues Of Race/Ism With Preservice Teachers, Kelly R. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Research highlights that the predominantly white P-12 teaching force in the United States is largely unprepared to teach an increasingly diverse student population about issues of race/ism. This unpreparedness is particularly pertinent in subjects like social studies that are based on understandings of culture and race. Thus, this study seeks to understand how social studies teacher preparation programs are preparing preservice social studies teachers to address and examine issues of race/ism in their practice. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and small stories research, this study utilizes interviews, focus groups, and content analysis of course syllabi to examine social studies teacher …

Understanding How A School District Implements Social Emotional Learning, Steve Plum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an understanding of how a school district implements Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Evidence suggests that SEL positively influences academic growth and achievement (Chernyshenko et al., 2018). Current efforts are focused on developing social emotional domains and measurable competencies that integrate developmental psychology, educational theory, and cultural relevance (Ross & Tolan, 2018). Despite the development of these frameworks, successful widespread implementation is limited in completeness of integration and sustained SEL integration in coursework throughout the school year. Therefore, a need exists for research on implementation practices related explicitly to SEL (Osher …

The Almost Perfect Scale In Medical Students: Model Confirmation, Measurement Invariance, And Differential Item Functioning By Gender, Elizabeth Hollenback Ellinas

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the factor structure of two common perfectionism scales – the Almost Perfect Scale – Revised (APS-R) and the Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) - in medical students. It was found that both two-factor models hold for them, albeit marginally for the APS-R. Measurement invariance by gender showed that while configural invariance and metric invariance hold, scalar invariance does not, indicating that the means for men and women may not be meaningfully compared by using these scales. Additionally, several items exhibited differential item functioning, most of which are in the Discrepancy scale of the APS-R. Overall, the SAPS …

Understanding How Manufacturing Employees Learn About Safety, Melissa I. Bloch-Meier

Theses and Dissertations

While millions of workers are injured on the job every year (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019), at least some of these injuries can be attributed to failure to use what was learned during safety training (Safety Partners LTD., 2014). By better understanding workers’ experiences, organizations may be better able to create more impactful safety training programs that will ultimately keep more workers safe. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how manufacturing employees learn about safety. A review of research has shown that empirical studies related to manufacturing employee safety training can be modeled through …

Hybridized Internships And Service-Learning: An Inquiry Into Student, Community, And Higher Education Partner Experiences In A Community-Based Internship Program, Ben Trager

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores a community-based internship (CBI) program, a hybridization of internship and service-learning practices. CBIs are becoming more common in higher education, but literature on the practice of integrating internships and service-learning is scarce. The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of a CBI through an investigation of student, community partner, and university staff experiences and perceived outcomes of the program. Using participatory action research approaches and a thematic analysis of interviews and student course work, this qualitative study occurred in two phases and included 31 participants. The analysis employs frames of private vs public in …

Understanding The Potential Of Anticipation, Teaching, And Response To Struggle In The Learning Of Mathematics, Erin Gae Edgington

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative semi-structured interview study investigated how the opportunity to learn with productive struggle emerges in a teacher’s beliefs, anticipation, planning, teaching, and response to struggle in learning mathematics. In this study, the experiences of student struggle in the teaching and learning of fractions was investigated through the experiences of three fifth grade and one sixth grade teacher. The purpose was to understand how the phenomenon of productive struggle in learning mathematics was impacted by teachers anticipation, planning, teaching, and response to struggle. The central research question asked: What role does productive struggle play in the design and implementation of …

Working Toward “Achievement”: Key Considerations For Providing Access To Equitable Opportunities To Students With Disability Labels, Kyle William Resch

Theses and Dissertations

School personnel are accountable for the academic “achievement” of students with and without disability labels (Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015). In Wisconsin, “achievement” is measured via performance on standardized academic assessments (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction [DPI], 2019). The use of these assessments privileges White middle-class students without disability labels (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Outcomes have been used to shame schools’ so-called poor performance while ignoring other indicators of success such as instilling real-world problem-solving skills, building positive learning communities, using a critical lens, and engaging in social activism (Connor et al., 2019).Many students with disability labels now receive instruction in …

American Indian Culture And Secondary Science Curricula: Examining The Confluence Of Native Epistemologies And U.S. Public Education Science Standards, Molly Anne Wolk

Theses and Dissertations

Innate to the traditional science curricula taught under the auspices of United States public education are a Neoliberal axiology and Eurocentric epistemology (Howard & Kern, 2019) that do not meet the cultural needs of American Indian students (Cobern & Loving, 2001). It is inequitable that American Indian students do not see themselves and their cultures reflected in traditional public school science texts and curricula. At the confluence of often-undifferentiated science curricula and American Indian culture and language, there is a need for a responsiveness that benefits American Indian students. This present study illuminates the research question, “What is revealed about …

The Role Of Emotionally-Supportive Teacher Beliefs And Behavior In Student Aggression, Bridget Garrity Brinckman

Theses and Dissertations

Overt aggression is a pervasive problem in schools. In 2017 alone, the US Department of Education reported over 360,000 aggressive incidents. According to the General Aggression Model, emotion regulation plays a key role in aggression. Teachers play a role in student regulation through their supportive (e.g., expressive-encouragement) and unsupportive (e.g., punitive) responses to students. This study examined the role of the classroom teacher in student aggression. Teacher emotion-focused beliefs about both the reasons for aggression and the effectiveness of emotionally-supportive responses to aggression, were explored. Teacher likelihood of mental health referral for anger and fighting (i.e., an emotion and behavior …

Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis To Select Mathematics Screening Measures In Middle School, Samuel Maurice

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the utility of using cost-effectiveness analysis to select universal mathematics screening measures in middle school. Participants (n=1586) were students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 at two suburban middle schools in Wisconsin. Screening data, including previous year criterion-measure (Wisconsin Forward Exam) scores, fall Measures of Academic Progress scores, and curriculum-based measurement scores were collected in the fall of 2016. Multiple imputation was used to account for missingness, and linear combinations of screening scores were created using receiver operator curve analyses. Costs were calculated based on published standards, the CostOut® Toolkit, and the experience of content experts. Results …

Non-Negotiable: A Case Study Of Implementing Antiracist Education In Two Milwaukee Suburban K-12 School Districts, Jennifer Luken

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

NON-NEGOTIABLE: A CASE STUDY OF IMPLEMENTING ANTIRACIST EDUCATION IN TWO MILWAUKEE SUBURBAN K-12 SCHOOL DISTRICTSby Jennifer Luken The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2021 Under the Supervision of Professor Marie Sandy, PhD

As a racial reckoning and civil unrest permeated 2020 and 2021, many were left asking: How did we get here? By and large, the American public seemed underprepared to understand the context under which these events unfolded. The ability to engage in a critical analysis of race and society oftentimes requires post-secondary education – or the experience of it first-hand – and is mostly lacking in K-12 schools. There …

Anxiety And Social Withdrawal Among Children: Associations With Emotion Awareness And Emotion Regulation Strategy Use At The Intra- And Interpersonal Levels, Janae Ellen Teer

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety and social withdrawal are two frequently experienced internalizing conditions among children. These early-onset challenges are associated with numerous maladaptive outcomes in the academic, social, and psychological domains (Levitt & Merrill, 2009; Long, 2018; Sanchez et al., 2018; Shernoff et al., 2017). While identifying anxious and socially withdrawn children in the classroom is difficult as symptoms generally occur internally, distinguishing between the conditions is perhaps more challenging as the two are closely associated, oftentimes overlapping constructs (Barzeva et al., 2019; Rubin et al., 2009). Particularly, it is unclear whether anxiety and social withdrawal are similarly or differently associated with key …

Exploring The Division Algorithm In Euclidean Domains With Exploding Dots, Nicholas Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

We will give an overview of the representation of place value and arithmetic known as Exploding Dots and use this idea to explore the division algorithm. It is well-known that the ring of integers, the ring of polynomials, and the ring of Gaussian integers are all examples of Euclidean domains and therefore possess a division algorithm. Exploding Dots beautifully illustrates how one can perform division in any base and how this naturally leads us to division of polynomials. We will show how this same idea of having a “base machine” can be used to perform division in the Gaussian integers. …

An Examination Of Whether Grit, Belonging And Institutional Compassion Contribute To Emerging Adult Goal Pursuits And Reduce Pandemic-Related Stress, Cynthia A. M. Schmahl

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTAN EXAMINATION OF WHETHER GRIT, BELONGING AND INSTITUTIONAL COMPASSION CONTRIBUTE TO EMERGING ADULT GOAL PURSUITS AND REDUCE PANDEMIC-RELATED STRESS

by

Cynthia A. M. Schmahl

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, May 2021Under the Supervision of Professor Jacqueline Nguyen, Ph.D.

This dissertation examines the merits of grit and belonging for emerging adults’ collegiate goal pursuits and the influence of institutional compassion amid COVID-19 challenges and stress. Participants were traditional full-time, undergraduate students ages 18-24, recruited from a national sample using Qualtrics, an online survey tool (N = 258; 60% women; 47.31% White, 18.46% Black/African American, 17.31% Asian, 10.77% Hispanic/Latino/a/x). Participants completed a survey …

Learners’ Experiences Of Written Complexities Development Through Discussion Board Activities In Chinese As A Foreign Language Class, Xiaorong Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examines learners’ experiences in the development of written complexities during Discussion Board (DB) assignments in an Advanced university level Chinese class. Discussion Board was chosen as the avenue for written complexity development because it provides learners a supplementary space with additional time and opportunities for low anxiety writing. The data collection for this study came from two sources, DB posts and interviews. This study seeks to fill gap in the literature in two ways: one, this study proposes a measurement of written complexities that consists of propositional complexity, lexical sophistication and accuracy. Second, this study highlights …

A Pulse On Language Equity In First-Grade Urban Classrooms, Deborah N. Kuether

Theses and Dissertations

Students of color are the majority in many U.S. urban public schools, yet U.S. education policy and practice continue to be centered largely on White, middle-class, monocultural, and monolingual norms of educational achievement (Alim & Paris, 2017). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to learn more about the teacher decision-making process and the extent to which first-grade mainstream teachers include culturally and linguistically sustaining practices during literacy instruction. Evidence using the foundations of the critically conscious teacher framework (Joseph & Evans, 2018) and of the role of language and culture as a medium in teaching and learning (de Jong …

Evidence-Based Practice Or Practice-Based Evidence? A Qualitative Examination Of School Psychologists’ Implementation Of Trauma-Informed Interventions, Abigail Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

Children who experience traumatizing life events are reported to be at greater risk for behavioral and emotional impairments that can diminish school performance. To address this, school psychologists can implement trauma-informed evidence-based interventions (TI EBIs), or treatments with an empirical basis that support the unique psychosocial needs of traumatized children in schools. However, a research-to-practice gap is described as negatively impacting school psychologists’ implementation of empirically-based direct intervention services. The present study aimed to examine the TI EBI implementation experiences of 16 novice school psychologists with regard to the distinct barriers and facilitators experienced within the in vivo school context, …

Latinos Raising Academically Gifted Middle School Students: Parental Academic Socialization And Consejos, Martha Aracely Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study sought to understand how Latino parents use parental academic socialization (Hill & Tyson, 2009) and consejos (Delgado-Gaitán, 1994; Alfaro et al., 2014) as forms of home-based parental involvement to converse about education. A phenomenology approach was used to research and analyze data to describe the lived experiences of Latino parents raising academically gifted children middle schoolers while engaging in academic discourse. This study used semi-structured interviews with sixteen Latino participants who were US-born (n=7) and Mexico-born (n=9) from a large urban school district in a Midwestern city. The following major themes emerged: 1) parental academic socialization, …

Examining Virtual Mathematics Instruction: A Comparative Case Study Of In-Service Elementary Teachers With Mathematics Anxiety And Mathematics Teaching Self-Efficacy, Telashay Swope-Farr

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics Anxiety (MA) and Mathematics Teaching Self-Efficacy (MTSE) have been reported as factors related to teachers’ mathematics instruction. This study investigated MA and MTSE in in-service elementary teachers’ virtual mathematics instruction. A comparative case study design was used to understand the relationship between MA, MTSE, and their virtual mathematics instructional practices. Two in-service elementary teachers from an urban public charter school district in a large metropolitan city in the Midwest participated. I employed qualitative methods to examine the results from the Abbreviated Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (AMAS), an adapted version of a researcher-developed instrument called the Mathematics Teaching and Mathematics …

Complexity Of Gamification, Kompalli V M Jwala Seethal Chandra

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces ideas for determining the Complexity of Gamifying the learning of a task/skill. We have taken three different tasks: Learning of L2 Languages (Non-mother-tongue languages), Learning about Food preparation and Learning of Physical exercises and applied our ideas to identify the complexity of gamifying them. To further supplement our idea, we have taken few existing popular gamified tasks by 3rd party companies and addressed the complexity of making them, using our ideas, and how adding new features to them, will increase the complexity. In summary, our work presented in this thesis is useful in practice for estimating a …