Education Commons^™

Place, Purpose, And Practice: A Case Study Examining Rural Teachers’ Sense Of Community And Its Impact In The Classroom, Faith Beyer Hansen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In an era in which education policy directs schools towards economic outcomes and away from local and/or community goals, this research is rooted in the notion that place matters (Howley & Howley, 1995). More specifically, this study examines what impact a rural teacher’s sense of community has on her experiencing both the broader community, the community of her individual classroom, and on her practice.

This collective case study followed six teachers in one rural middle school in the mountain west. Participants were nominated using a Sense of Community Index (SCI-2) and fell into the following categories: teachers with a low, …

Single Mothers In College: The Effect Of Selected Variables, Rickey Booker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Single parent mothers who are currently in poverty may find it difficult to find routes out of poverty and/or even to enrolling in college. Little empirical research has been conducted on low-income single parent mothers who attempt to enroll, persist and graduate college. The current research has shown that single parents are at a high risk of dropping out of college because of many barriers including poverty related issues. This study examined women who had at least one child or dependent, were in poverty, and were first time beginners in college. The purpose for conducting this study was to identify …

Mathematically Gifted Students' Experiences Of Challenge With Cognitively Guided Instruction, Kim Krusen Mccomas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined to what extent and in what ways mathematically gifted students were challenged in two elementary classrooms taught by exemplary teachers using the principles of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). The two case studies included a third grade class and a fourth/fifth split grade class, with five mathematically advanced participants from each grade. A top tier and a second tier of mathematically advanced students were identified, with the top tier of five students identified as mathematically gifted. Classroom observations of CGI math lessons, interviews with students and teachers, and analysis of students' problem-solving strategies were conducted over a five …

A Qualitative Case Study That Explores The Use Of Visual Thinking Journals In An Urban Arts Magnet High School, Shannon E. Machina

Art Education Projects

This qualitative case study research project investigated the question, “What can be learned from a study that explores how an art teacher uses visual thinking journals and how students respond to the use of visual thinking journals in an urban arts high school setting?” The participants of this study were the art educator Mrs. Carlson and the students enrolled in her ninth grade Graphic Design and 12^th grade Advanced Drawing and Painting courses. Over an eight week period data was collected and analyzed utilizing constructivist pedagogy to investigate the variety of ways high school art teachers and students …

A Qualitative Participant Observation Study Investigating The Use Of Web 2.0 Technologies In One High School Visual Arts Classroom Using A Social Constructivist Lens, Nicholas R. Napierala

Art Education Projects

This qualitative project studied the benefits of Web 2.0 technology in one high school visual arts classroom using a participant observation stance. I examined an advanced art class through a social constructivist lens, with student’s ages from 16-18 years. I implemented several lessons teaching the students how artists display ideas within their artwork, through having the students use the blogging service Tumblr and the video sharing Web site YouTube. In analyzing the student’s interactions with their peers and their experiences with the technology, the project revealed that using the technology benefited their learning. I collected data from a variety of …

A Qualitative Action Research Project Documenting Student Perceptions Of The Effects Of Visual Culture On Identity, Jessica M. Miccichi

Art Education Projects

I have conducted a qualitative action research project focusing on student perceptions of the impact of visual culture on teens including popular media. Students especially in high schools are bombarded with visual imagery through various technology sources. While working with high school juniors and seniors I noticed a rise in teen pregnancy and sexual confusion among this population. I wondered how much their exposure to sexually explicit imagery effected their identity and choices.

I started off planning research through a feminist and engaged pedagogical lens, specifically adhering to bell hook’s (1994) principals of “holistic teaching”, which focuses on emotional as …

Qualitative Research In Teaching Diversity In A Non-Diverse High School Setting Using Contemporary Art, Robin L. Reczek

Art Education Projects

Abstract

This qualitative action research study examined the effects of introducing diverse contemporary artworks into a non-diverse educational setting. For 3 months, 18 female high school students explored a range of artists, art styles, and artworks, in aid to discovering their own diverse qualities as well as the diversity of their classmates. Through participatory action research, I investigated how diverse contemporary artwork impacted student actions, discussions, and artworks. With the assistance of the transformative learning theory, I expected to convert students with non-accepting diversity views into unbiased young women. My research included data gathered from an assortment of alumni interviews, …

A Participatory Action Study Investigating Implementing Democratic Teaching Practices In An Eighth Grade Art Classroom Using Critical Pedagogy, Kari M. Achatz

Art Education Projects

This qualitative action research study investigated the question "What might an eighth grade art classroom look like in practice? For eight weeks, 20 middle school students participated in a democratic art classroom. Using a theoretical lens of critical pedagogy I employed democratic teaching practices and asked students to create a work of art based on a social issue that they were passionate about. Through the course of this study students used their art as a way to voice their concerns about social issues and social injustices in the world. My research included data gathered from student interviews, student response papers, …

A Qualitative Multi-Site Case Study: Components, Strengths, & Benefits Of Studio Production In Traditional Public High Schools, Kristy M. Tartaglia

Art Education Projects

My own experiences in the visual arts lead me to a personal understanding of their importance and an interest in arts education advocacy. In order to advocate for the visual arts one must know what the arts teach and how to talk about those benefits. The lack of research on what is taught in the visual arts makes discussing the benefits difficult. Hetland, Winner, Veenema, & Sheridan (2007) began to close this gap with their findings of eight Studio Habits of Mind (develop craft, engage and persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, stretch and explore, understanding the art world) being taught …

Participatory Action Research Using Critical Pedagogy To Study Environmental Consciousness In A High School Art Classroom, Jennifer L. Licata

Art Education Projects

This qualitative participatory action research study explored the question, “How might the introduction of a campaign to raise environmental consciousness in a high school art classroom impact art students and their artworks, other students in the school, and the local community?” This study was conducted in an all female catholic high school. One Studio in Art One class and one Studio in Advanced Digital Media class comprised of 15 students in grades 9-12 participated in the study. The data was collected and analyzed over a period of eight weeks. Guided by the lens of critical pedagogy, my focus was …

Social Issues: A Qualitative Case Study Revealing The Importance Of Activism In The Middle School Art Education Classroom, Vonessa L. Toczynski

Art Education Projects

I began this qualitative case study on art activism in the Art Education classroom because I wanted to find the benefits of employing an activist curriculum in an art classroom. I also wanted to learn methods and strategies for this type of teaching. I choose two middle school art teachers and seventy of their sixth and seventh grade students in six of their art classes. Both teachers had been teaching for over five years and said they incorporated social issues and contemporary art, as well as encouraged activism in their art room. In this study, I was an observer participant …

Attitudes, Knowledge, And Experience With Dropout Prevention Strategies Of Mississippi Teachers And Administrators, Harold Kirk Lucky

Dissertations

Mississippi has been overly burdened with a high dropout rate for generations but in 2007 began a program to correct this problem based on the requirements of No Child Left Behind that requires all school to reduce their dropout rate. The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes, knowledge, and experiences of Mississippi teachers and administrators with the State of Mississippi’s dropout prevention efforts and ultimately determine if they are supportive of the dropout prevention efforts. The study used a questionnaire designed by the researcher. A total of 386 questionnaires were returned from school districts across the six …

A Critical Analysis Of Job-Embedded Professional Learning Within A Distributed Leadership Framework, Ashley Jimerson Campoli

Dissertations

Leadership style and professional learning have been linked to student achievement. Studies have linked leadership styles such as distributed leadership to job-embedded professional learning. However, research is mixed when these two constructs are related to student achievement.

This study evaluated the relationship between distributed leadership and jobembedded professional learning. This study also evaluated relationships among jobembedded professional learning, distributed leadership, and third-grade achievement scores.

The study involved third grade mathematics teachers and school administrators in 46 elementary schools in the state of Georgia. Pearson’s bivariate correlation test was used to explore the relationship between job-embedded professional learning and distributed leadership. …

A Qualitative Study On The Experiences Black Adolescent Females Have With Cyber-Bullying In An Urban High School Environment, Paul Miller

Education Doctoral

This study examines and analyzes the effects of cyberbullying among adolescent Black females in an urban setting. This population is largely excluded from Digital Youth Culture (DYC) research within cyberbullying literature (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006), even though such research is clearly warranted. To understand school violence, students must be viewed as social actors, experiencing the negative ramifications of DYC in school. These ramifications result from an imbalance of power generated through the use of aggressive tactics designed to damage a teen’s reputation, social status, and emotional well being. Currently, no research reports how cyberbullying manifests itself in an urban context, …

Factors Affecting Private School Choice, John Herman Hartsell Sr.

Dissertations

This study explored the underlying factors that influence parents’ choices of educational institution for their children in private schools in a southern United States coastal city. It also explored why parents chose the specific private school their child is currently enrolled in and their satisfaction level with teacher, parent and student relationships. Parental satisfaction with the overall instructional program and the services provided was also explored in this study. Data was collected from parents with students currently enrolled in one of two different private schools with input from 253 parents.

A central finding in this research is that parents who …

The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration And Student Achievement, Sandra Reid Ervin

Dissertations

NCLB mandates have placed a strong sense of responsibility on educators to ensure that all students are performing at their optimal academic levels. The collaboration of educators is needed as the accountability for student performances increases. At the school level, collaboration and a focus on instruction influence productivity, morale, teacher retention and ultimately, student achievement. The role of the administrators is to provide a collaborative culture where teachers are empowered to analyze and work together to solve problems. Administrators should provide time and space for the teachers to collaborate.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to ascertain the relationship …

Legal Discourse, Conceptual Metaphors, And Basic Writing Programming: A Study Of Ayers V. Fordice, Joyce Olewski Inman

Dissertations

In what ways does legal discourse influence our perceptions of students labeled as basic writers and these students’ perceptions of themselves? How does standards-based discourse affect student writers’ abilities to define themselves in academe? This dissertation involves an examination of legal and public discourse surrounding Ayers v. Fordice, one of the most prominent desegregation cases in higher education, in an attempt to answer these questions. Its intent is to explore how conceptual metaphors prevalent in these discourses affect our understandings of basic writing programming in the state of Mississippi but also in the field of composition more globally.

My …

The Reported Needs Of A Teacher Mentoring Program, Kimberly Myers Tillman

Dissertations

The following study was conducted in four public school districts in south Mississippi and involved a combination of 167 administrators, mentors, and novice teachers. The purpose of this study was to measure the reported needs of a teacher mentoring program as perceived by novice teachers, mentor teachers, and administrators. An additional purpose of the study was to examine administrators’ perceptions of how alternate route and traditional route teachers differ in their needs of a teacher mentoring program.

Two multivariate of analysis (MANOVA) tests were conducted to measure the differences among novice teachers, mentors, and administrators in their perception of what …

Teachers' Perceptions Toward Required And Self-Directed Professional Learning, Marla Kay Lambert Hutton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the opinions of elementary, middle, and high school teachers concerning teacher required or self-directed professional learning. Additionally, the study investigated differences in teaching experience, professional development in a series compared to in a single meeting, workshop, or conference, rather than ongoing professional learning, and whether the teachers’ perception for professional learning is similar to their administrators’ perception for teachers’ learning.

Research findings indicated there was a relationship between teachers’ preference for professional learning and their years of teaching experience and their level of teaching (elementary, middle, …

Correlations Among School Belonging And Self-Reported Factors Associated With Students' School Success, Stacey Mechelle Mcguire Lee

Dissertations

This study examined correlations among student sense of school belonging and the classroom learning climate, previous academic achievement, frequency of disciplinary sanctions, and participation in extracurricular activities. During August of the 2011-2012 school year, the Middle School Student Sense of Belonging Questionnaire was completed by a sample of 264 eighth grade students enrolled in three middle schools from three different school districts located in the coastal south. The sample.s mean school belonging score was 3.56 with a standard deviation of 0.81. Findings of this study suggest statistically significant positive correlations exist among student sense of school belonging and the learning …

The Effects Of Changing From A Traditional Mathematics Curriculum To An Integrated Mathematics Curriculum On Student Mathematics Learning In Georgia, Catherine Lynn Mallanda

Dissertations

In 2005, the state of Georgia adopted a new integrated mathematics curriculum, the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), which included a task-based approach for instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if the new Georgia Performance Standards for mathematics increased students’ mean mathematics Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores or induced changes in the distribution of students’ scores on the PSAT/NMSQT. In addition, it was determined whether the level of course the student took, the type of implementation of the GPS curriculum or the preparation for implementation affected the PSAT/NMSQT scores. The results of the study indicated …

Establishing Construct Validity Of The Biology I Subject Area Testing Program In Mississippi, Christy Michelle Hollis Philippoff

Dissertations

Science education has undergone many revisions since it was permanently embedded in the country's educational curriculum at the end of the 19th century. Some of these revisions occurred as a direct result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This legislation placed more accountability on schools than ever before by requiring that all students pass a series of standardized tests (USDE, 2010). High schools in Mississippi require four areas of standardized testing: English II, Algebra I, U.S. History, and Biology I (Wroten, 2008). The focus of this study is the Biology I Subject Area Test.

In an effort to …

The Effects Of Simplified Schema-Based Instruction On Elementary Students' Mathematical Word Problem Solving Performance, Houbin Lewis Fang

Dissertations

This study is an evidence-based mathematical intervention in word problem solving for elementary students. One of the purposes of teaching mathematics is to help students apply mathematics to real life situations. As we know, teaching word problem solving is a very suitable format for this purpose. Schema-based instruction (SBI) is one of the most supported methods for teaching word problem solving. In the current literature, there are four steps in SBI: identifying the problem type, applying corresponding method, determining an operation, and solving the problem. The problem with the current SBI is that there are no agreed-upon definitions for word …

Causal Attributions Of Nontraditional Students In A Developmental Mathematics Course At A Two-Year College, Jacob Dasinger

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between exam grades and students' causal attributions of their grades in a developmental mathematics course at a community college. Also investigated were differences in causal attributions of grades between Traditional and Nontraditional students. In addition, among Nontraditional students, differences based on gender were examined. The sample consisted of 331 completed questionnaires from 24 sections at a southern community college in the Spring 2010 semester.

The instrument used was a self-report questionnaire consisting of four parts: (a) demographic data section; (b) seven questions to determine students' classification; (c) short …

A Critical Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Administrative Rules For Gang-Related Activities In Middle And High Schools, David Thomas Chiprany

Dissertations

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported that 35 percent of middle school students and 45 percent of high school students say that there are students who are affiliated with gangs or who consider themselves to be affiliated with gangs in their schools (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Jones, 2010). Gangs are increasingly violent and criminally involved and their impact on the school environment negatively influences student performance (National Gang Center, 2010a). As juveniles engage in criminal activity, the justice system has developed a set of laws and consequences in an effort to suppress the behavior. Schools followed the lead …

Leadership Practices That Promote Increased Student Achievement In Secondary Schools, Billy Ray Jones

Dissertations

The purpose of the following study was to determine the degree to which the perceptions of teachers and school level administrators may differ, and the effects of these perceptions on student achievement as measured at the school level by the school’s accountability score reported in the form of the Quality Distribution Index (QDI). This index ranges from 0 to 300 and is used in the state of Mississippi to assign schools to one of seven accountability labels. Schools may be classified as one of the following depending on their QDI score: star, high performing, successful, academic watch, at risk of …

Principals’ Perceptions Of Readiness For Their Evolving Roles In High-Stakes Environments, Angela Marie Huff

Dissertations

Principals are leading schools during an evolving time where preparation may not have prepared principals fully for the task of school leadership. The past decade has revealed an escalation in the disapproval of principal preparation programs and participants in these programs insist that these schools be held accountable (Levine, 2005). However, in revamping preparation programs, one must focus on student selection, curriculum and course content, pedagogical strategies, internships, and field experiences (Orr, 2006). Some have suggested that the job of principal may have become impossible for all but a few super leaders (Lashway, 2003). The requirements of the job may …

Leading Schools To Increased Reading Achievement: An Investigation Into Effective Reading Instruction, Patricia Anne Alford

Dissertations

This study investigated the effectiveness of two models of middle school reading instruction as measured by mean scores of middle school students on a state criterion-referenced test. Two cohorts of students were repeatedly compared over a three year period: students who received reading instruction as a core content class (Intervention A) and students who received reading instruction through content-area courses of math, social studies, science, and language arts (Intervention B). The independent variable was the reading program implemented and the dependent variables were the scale scores on the Reading portion of the CRCT test. A mixed model analysis of variance …

The Relationship Between Attitude And Anxiety Toward Teaching Science In Pre-Service Elementary Teachers And The Use Of Science Olympiad Events, Allison Armstrong Downing

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the anxiety and attitudes of pre-service elementary teachers toward teaching science and the use of Science Olympiad events in an elementary science methods course. The participants were 34 pre-service elementary teachers enrolled in the Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 trimesters in the course Science in the Elementary School at a private university in south Mississippi. Attitude toward teaching science was measured using the Revised Science Attitude Scale. Anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y). Data collection involved participants taking pretests for attitude and state anxiety on …

Teacher Collaboration And Student Achievement, Cordie E. Wimberley

Dissertations

This study was conducted to explore the relationship between teacher collaboration and student achievement. The pedagogical model espoused by Howland and Picciotto (2003b) defined teacher collaboration as a pedagogy that involves two or more teachers who regularly discuss teaching and learning, including learning activities, lesson plans, assignments, pacing, course design, evaluating, and revising the program. Five hundred twenty three school districts were invited to be part of this study. Then, 100 public school districts were randomly selected from 201 responses to an online survey addressed to Professional Development Chairpersons in Missouri. School districts were divided into two groups, collaborative and …