Education Commons^™

Teacher Reaction To Change In The Lutheran Elementary School: A Grounded Theory Approach, Kim D. Marxhausen

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Schools, and the teachers and administrators who work in them, need the flexibility to adapt to current student needs. Past research has focused on organizations and plans for change; little research has been done on individual teacher reaction to change situations leaving a gap in the literature. The goal of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore how individual teachers, in LCMS Lutheran elementary schools, react when presented with change. Data were collected through interviews involving an event history calendar to facilitate memory. A theoretical sampling process was used to collect and analyze data utilizing a constant comparative method. …

Using Embedded Institutes As Professional Development To Create A Culture Of Writing Excellence, Melanie K. Farber

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following thesis addresses the problem of creating a culture of writing excellence at a large, urban school. I will show how the Embedded Institute model helped our school to reconsider our professional development model and to create writing leaders across the content areas. The thesis will make the argument for something larger than test scores through qualitative feedback from teacher participants.

Adviser: Robert Brooke

Geographical Literacy, Attitudes, And Experiences Of Freshman Students: A Qualitative Study At Florida International University, Daniela F. Ottati

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the geography literacy, attitudes and experiences of Florida International University (FIU) freshman students scoring at the low and high ends of a geography literacy survey. The Geography Literacy and ABC Models formed the conceptual framework. Participants were freshman students enrolled in the Finite Math course at FIU. Since it is assumed that students who perform poorly on geography assessments do not have an interest in the subject, testing and interviewing students allowed the researcher to explore the assumption.

In Phase I, participants completed the Geography Literacy Survey (GLS) with items taken from …

Towards More Effective Teacher Professional Development Initiatives, Laura Sebastian Hooks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) legislation have forged new school accountability measures and led to a sharp increase in demand for teacher professional development (TPD). However, data revealed that there is a disconnection between the training that teachers receive and its implementation, limiting its impact on student achievement. This qualitative case study's purpose was to reveal major barriers to TPD implementation and provide suggestions for crafting more impactful TPD. Based on the social constructivist foundation, this study sought to address the factors that increase teachers' receptiveness to more effective teaching techniques. It …

College Leve Inqury Learning's Influence On Later Science Thinking Behavior, Eric Gordon Chesloff

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Society needs scientists who can collaborate to become keener analysts so that they might better inform citizens. College students who are well educated in science are likely to become better analysts. The purpose of this grounded theory constructivist-oriented study was to illuminate the influence of undergraduate freshman inquiry learning on thinking skills in science courses during the senior college year. The conceptual framework involved the 3 components of the cognitive learning cycle: exploration, concept invention, and application. Research questions concerned college seniors' perceptions of their freshman process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) experience in general chemistry and its influence on their …

School Violence And Teacher Resiliency At A Midwest Elementary/Middle School, Jounice Blackmon Wright

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate, from the perspective of teachers, the possible effect of school violence on teacher resiliency. School violence has been studied with respect to student behavior and academic success, as well as socioeconomic influences, but not with respect to teacher resiliency, as expressed by teachers themselves. Resiliency theory was the conceptual framework. Participants were all teachers of Grades 2-8 at an elementary/middle school in the Midwest. Twelve in-depth interviews were transcribed into text data and analyzed for common themes. Using NVivo, Version 10, I was able to more easily manage the volumes of …

Formative Program Evaluation Of A Professional Learning Community In An Urban Elementary School, Cherie Laverne Ameyaw

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a professional learning community (PLC), school personnel participate in focused collaboration to improve adult learning and facilitate student achievement. Implementation of a PLC is often haphazard and not evaluated for effectiveness, resulting in poor implementation. This study, a PLC-specific qualitative formative program evaluation, addressed a lack of documented PLC effectiveness at a local urban elementary school in the southern United States. The purpose of this project was to determine how teachers described the functioning of their PLC. The conceptual framework for the study was Hord and Tobia's 6 characteristics of a PLC. The research questions focused on how teachers …

A Phenomenological Study Of Ged Graduates Meeting College Readiness Standards At A Community College, Kelley Mischel Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study was designed to understand the experiences of General Educational Development (GED) graduates enrolling into a community college. Research had not been conducted to explore the experiences of GED graduates completing the 2014 version of the exam and transitioning to college. Guided by Schlossberg's college transition theory and Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, this phenomenological study included 11 participants who described their experiences through written narratives and interviews. Participants described their experiences of being an adult education student while preparing for the exam, the steps within the GED test preparation they considered important to matriculation toward college enrollment, and …

Teaching Culture Perception: Documenting And Transforming Institutional Teaching Cultures, Erika Kustra, Florida Doci, Kaitlyn Gillard, Catharine Dishke Hondzel

Catharine Dishke Hondzel

An institutional culture that values teaching is likely to lead to improved student learning. The main focus of this study was to determine faculty, graduate and undergraduate students’ perception of the teaching culture at their institution and identify indicators of that teaching culture. Themes included support for teaching development; support for best practices, innovative practices and specific effective behaviours; recognition of teaching; infrastructure; evaluation of teaching and implementing the student feedback received from teaching evaluations. The study contributes to a larger project examining the quality of institutional teaching culture.