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Full-Text Articles in Education
Intermediate Teachers' Perceptions Of Reading Instruction Strategies And Professional Development Needs, Barbara Jean Joyner
Intermediate Teachers' Perceptions Of Reading Instruction Strategies And Professional Development Needs, Barbara Jean Joyner
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
In 1 urban Tennessee school, students in Grades 3 through 5 had not met adequate yearly progress in reading for the past 5 years. The purpose of this case study was to explore teachers' perceptions of current district-recommended teaching practice in reading. The research questions related to current instructional strategies, teaching practices, challenges, and perceptions of current instructional strategies and changes needed to improve students' reading achievement. This study was grounded in the constructivist theoretical framework of Vygotsky. Twelve educators from Grades 3 through 5 and a reading specialist participated in this study. The data were collected from interviews, minutes …
Improving Literacy For Diverse Low Socio-Economic Status Middle School Students, Vivian Fowler Means
Improving Literacy For Diverse Low Socio-Economic Status Middle School Students, Vivian Fowler Means
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
In an urban district, Surfside School personnel were concerned that student literacy proficiency levels were low during 2011-2014 and teachers had not been able to close the achievement gap despite a focus on literacy practices and literacy professional development (PD) provided by the district. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and administrators in relation to the best instructional practices for increasing self-efficacy when teaching literacy skills and related literacy PD for teachers. Knowles' andragogy theory and Vygotsky's social learning theory formed the theoretical foundation of this study, which hold that PD should provide …
Integration Of Place-Based Education Into Science Classes From Prekindergarten Through Grade 5, Terri Adele Wade-Lyles
Integration Of Place-Based Education Into Science Classes From Prekindergarten Through Grade 5, Terri Adele Wade-Lyles
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
In a large urban district in Ohio, 29.2% of Grade 5, 28.7% of Grade 8, and 45.7% of Grade 10 students passed the state test in science. School district administrators formed a community partnership with local science institutions in order to provide students with hands-on place-based learning experiences intended to improve science academic achievement in PK-Grade 5. The purpose of this qualitative program evaluation was to determine the level of implementation of that place-based program by examining the efficacy of the teachers' embedded professional development and their experiences with the training components. Bruner's theory of cognitive development was used to …
Meeting The Unique Needs Of Teachers Of Students At Risk Of Not Graduating, Meike Lee Mcdonald
Meeting The Unique Needs Of Teachers Of Students At Risk Of Not Graduating, Meike Lee Mcdonald
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Teachers who are not adequately prepared to teach struggling students often seek employment elsewhere rather than be ineffective with those students. When teachers leave the classroom, this has a vast impact on student learning. For the past 9 years, a high school in the southeast United States for students at risk of not graduating has had an average annual teacher turnover rate of 31.25%, nearly twice the national rate of 15.9%. The purpose of this study was to learn the kinds of training and knowledge teachers believed would help them to succeed in teaching students struggling to graduate. Constructivist theory …
Internet Technology As A Means Of Delivering Reading Instruction In The Content Areas, Kimberly Rose Pintok
Internet Technology As A Means Of Delivering Reading Instruction In The Content Areas, Kimberly Rose Pintok
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Due to students not meeting minimum proficiency levels in reading, a central Florida middle school that was rated an A school for 4 years consecutively dropped to a B rating during the 2012-2013 school year and was 10 points away from dropping to a C rating in the 2013-2014 school year. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe classroom implementation of Internet technology in a middle school classroom in an attempt to address the steady decline in reading scores. Guided by Piaget, Dewey, and Vygotsky's social constructivist view of education, this study explored if and how teachers used …
General Education Teachers' Perceptions About Teaching Students With Autism In Urban Schools, Sabrina Denise Evans
General Education Teachers' Perceptions About Teaching Students With Autism In Urban Schools, Sabrina Denise Evans
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are included or mainstreamed in general education classrooms, yet general education teachers receive little, if any, formal training for working with children with ASD. The conceptual framework for this study was differentiated instruction, which is a best practice intended to improve educational experiences for children diagnosed with ASD. The purpose of this research study was to explore general education teachers' perceptions of providing differentiated instruction to these students. The research questions examined teachers' perceptions of barriers that can affect their ability to differentiate instruction in their classrooms and strategies teachers use to facilitate …
Afterschool Program Effects On English Learners' Reading And Teachers' Reading Curriculum Perceptions, Helen Marie Mayfield
Afterschool Program Effects On English Learners' Reading And Teachers' Reading Curriculum Perceptions, Helen Marie Mayfield
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
This project study addressed the problem of 3rd grade English language learners (ELLs) not passing the state mandated reading test at the same rate as other students between 2009 and 2013 in Georgia. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of an elementary school's afterschool program (ASP) on ELLs' reading achievements and to investigate 3rd grade afterschool teachers' perceptions of the reading curriculum using a mixed methods explanatory sequential design. Schema theory, the framework used to guide this study, indicated prior knowledge and experiences are necessary to comprehend new ideas or concepts. Prior knowledge and experiences can …
Differentiation For Content Area Literacy: Middle School Teachers' Perceptions And Practices, Beth Ann Oswald
Differentiation For Content Area Literacy: Middle School Teachers' Perceptions And Practices, Beth Ann Oswald
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Recent studies support the use of differentiated instruction (DI) to improve literacy in content area classrooms. At the same time, research has found that few teachers implement DI purposefully or consistently. Accordingly, a case study design was used to explore middle school content area teachers' understanding and implementation of DI for content literacy at a site where it is an integral component of the response to intervention (RTI) process. The conceptual framework for this study was principles of differentiation, as defined and discussed by Tomlinson. Research questions were framed to examine how middle school content area teachers defined and implemented …
Teachers' Perspectives On Reading Interventions Implemented To Low Achieving Second Graders, Kendra Yvette Coles-Hart
Teachers' Perspectives On Reading Interventions Implemented To Low Achieving Second Graders, Kendra Yvette Coles-Hart
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
In a Mid-Atlantic school district, the administration of standardized assessments begins in third grade. Over the past 3 years, these assessments revealed that an average of 37% of third graders in the local district did not possess necessary reading skills, although over 86% of this group received intervention support in second and third grade. It is unclear how effective the implementations of various interventions are in instruction with struggling second graders to prepare them for the rigors of third grade. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to explore the perspectives of 9 second grade teachers on research-based interventions …
Social Studies Teachers' Use Of Differentiated Instruction To Help Struggling Learners, Nicole Waid
Social Studies Teachers' Use Of Differentiated Instruction To Help Struggling Learners, Nicole Waid
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Students in a local rural northeastern high school have demonstrated decreasing academic performance in social studies courses for the past 5 years. The purpose of this bounded qualitative case study of the local social studies department was to investigate how social studies teachers and administrators for grades 7-12 describe differentiated instruction (DI) and professional development in DI. This study was grounded in the zone of proximal development, which stressed the importance of providing instruction at students' instructional levels, and DI, which emphasized tailoring instruction to address students' needs. Three research questions focused on how social studies teachers and administrators viewed …
Characteristics Of Effective Reading Language Arts Teachers In Closing The Achievement Gap, Latasha Price Bassette
Characteristics Of Effective Reading Language Arts Teachers In Closing The Achievement Gap, Latasha Price Bassette
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
This study examined an urban school district in the southern United States that continued to experience student achievement gaps despite the implementation of initiatives as the African American Success Initiative. The school leadership needed a deeper understanding regarding what strategies were successful with closing the achievement gap. Using Gay's theory of cultural responsive pedagogy, the purpose of this study was to identify inward attributes, outward strategies, and professional development perceptions of teachers with no achievement gap among ethnically diverse students. Employing an instrumental case study design, 8 middle school reading teachers who closed the reading achievement gap were interviewed; these …
Teachers' Perceptions Of An Integrated Third Grade Curriculum's Effects On Students' Reading Achievement, Charlene Lane Bazemore
Teachers' Perceptions Of An Integrated Third Grade Curriculum's Effects On Students' Reading Achievement, Charlene Lane Bazemore
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
School leaders in a Virginia urban school district designed and implemented a reading-infused integrated curriculum to address Grade 3 students' struggles to read and comprehend grade-level text. Informed via a constructivist approach, the curriculum integrated the core subjects, reading, and service learning for developing competent readers, thinkers, and problem solvers. This instrumental case study focused on 13 Grade 3 teachers' perceptions of the integrated curriculum in regards to their students' reading achievement. Qualitative data were collected from face-to-face interviews, students' progress of work documents, and the district's integrated curriculum unit. Open coding was employed to analyze the data. Inductively, triangulated …
The Perceptions And Experiences Of General Education Teachers Toward Cotaught Inclusion Classes, Beth Milhoan Feustel
The Perceptions And Experiences Of General Education Teachers Toward Cotaught Inclusion Classes, Beth Milhoan Feustel
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
This project study addressed the low rate of general education teachers volunteering to coteach inclusion classes at a large urban high school in southeastern Georgia. This low volunteer rate caused administrators at this school to assign general education teachers, who did not opt in, to coteach inclusion classes. Teachers' efficacy was negatively impacted when they were required to teach classes that they did not volunteer to teach. The model of cooperative teaching advanced by Bauwens, Hourcade, and Friend's work served as the conceptual framework for this intrinsic case study. The purpose of the study was to examine how general education …
Teachers' Perceptions Of The Reading Achievement Gap Between High-Achieving Students And Below-Basic Students, Helen Anne Iaconelli
Teachers' Perceptions Of The Reading Achievement Gap Between High-Achieving Students And Below-Basic Students, Helen Anne Iaconelli
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Atlantic Avenue Elementary School (AAES) experienced reading achievement gaps between high-performing students and below-basic students within the school reading curriculum and balanced literacy framework. Vygotsky's theories of scaffolding and zone of proximal development served as the framework guiding this project, which used a qualitative case study design to explore reading teachers' perceptions of the ways in which they were addressing this reading achievement gap. Individual interviews, classroom observations, and lesson plans were the sources of the qualitative data collected from 6 reading teachers. The data were coded manually using emerging and constant-comparative strategies to identify common themes. The themes that …
The Impact Of The Sra Corrective Reading Program On Standardized Testing, Tony Oyola
The Impact Of The Sra Corrective Reading Program On Standardized Testing, Tony Oyola
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The implementation of effective reading programs for special education students is paramount for school success due to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the reauthorization of Individual with Disabilities Education Act. One local school implemented the Science Research Associates Corrective Reading Program (SRACRP) because their special education students did not meet the required proficient or advanced reading scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). The purpose of this quantitative within-group study was to determine if special and regular education students demonstrated growth in reading comprehension after the implementation of the SRACRP. The theoretical foundation …
Supporting Elementary Teachers In Effective Writing Instruction Through Professional Development, Whitney Nash Young
Supporting Elementary Teachers In Effective Writing Instruction Through Professional Development, Whitney Nash Young
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for writing have created a challenge for teachers at an urban elementary school as they struggled to provide effective writing instruction to support the rigorous expectations of the standards. The purpose of this study was to explore elementary teachers' lived experiences of instruction and better understand instructional writing procedures and strategies. The conceptual framework of this study was based on Dennick's work for incorporating educational theory into teaching practices, which combined elements of constructivist, experiential, and humanist learning theories. Research questions investigated how teachers perceived the impact of the CCSS writing standards on their practice …
Countering Student Apathy To Increase Student Engagement, Rebecca Ann Schou
Countering Student Apathy To Increase Student Engagement, Rebecca Ann Schou
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
At a suburban elementary school in Maryland, 3 years of data revealed that the school is grappling with the problem of student apathy. While there is a growing body of research on apathy and its effects on student achievement, few researchers have examined the problem from the perspective of the apathetic student. The purpose of this qualitative case study, grounded in the social learning and cognitive development theories of Vygotsky and Piaget, was to explore student apathy and the learning environment at the target school through the perspectives of 8 former students and their parents. The research questions focused on …