Education Commons^™

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 …

Supporting Students’ Social Emotional Well-Being Using Clay: An Action Research Study, Paul Monroe

Graduate Review

The purpose of this action research study is to examine scholarly recommendations on how to use clay to promote the social and emotional well-being of students in the high school ceramics classroom. This study enacts recommendations and strategies to enhance an existing curriculum to align with my school district’s educational goals of promoting social emotional learning (SEL). This study took place at a high school in Westchester County, New York in the fall of 2021. Data for this study is informed by my interviews with two specialists regarding putting SEL strategies into action, my modification of an existing curriculum as …

Promoting Computational Thinking To Impact The Implementation Of Computer Science, Mikayla Westhoff

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The researchers drove this action research project to integrate Computer Science into the classroom and the effect it can have on computational thinking. The researcher, a fifth-grade teacher in her third year of teaching, utilized Computer Science activities in a science class of 24 students for two weeks while monitoring their progress through Code.org. The study analyzed the correlation between Computer Science and computational thinking. The findings revealed no correlation between the two variables among students with or without a Computer Science background. This project conducted this research to impact the future classroom practices that may implement Computer Science into …

The Benefits Of Parent-Teacher Collaboration On Achievement In The Preschool Classroom, Samantha Frye

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project was conducted to identify a correlation between parent-teacher collaboration and student achievement in the preschool classroom. Baseline data was gathered from the preschool student’s using fall Individual Development and Growth Indicators (IDGI) benchmark scores. Opportunities for parent-teacher collaboration began with monthly newsletters sent out on the classroom webpage, parent-teacher conferences, and signed homework assignments. Parent-teacher engagement was tracked through a tally system. A spreadsheet kept track of the number of communications that parents engaged in, as well as the type of communication. All students were progress monitored within each two week session using the IDGI’s progress …

Evaluating The Impact Of Reciprocal Teaching Embedded Within A Web 2.0 Tool Upon Fifth-Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension During Integrated Readers’ Workshop At A Professional Development School, Aisja Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Historical data showed evidence of repeated poor performance on end-of-year (EOY) state tests (South Carolina Department of Education [SCDE], 2017, 2018, 2019). For this study, 12 fifth-grade students read expository text, employed reciprocal teaching strategies, collaborated face to face and online using a Web 2.0 tool during the reading workshop. The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of reciprocal teaching embedded in the Wakelet Curation Tool, a Web 2.0 tool, on fifth-grade students’ reading for comprehension, reading attitudes, and perceptions of the innovation in an integrated reading class at an urban characteristic (Milner et al. 2018) …

Identifying And Understanding Factors Which Affect Persistence In Academically At-Risk Minority Prelicensure Nursing Students: An Action Research Study, Christina L.K. Eaton

Theses and Dissertations

Increased representation of minority groups is imperative for professions like nursing and education. With the growing rate of minority racial and ethnic groups within the United States, there should be corresponding changes within these professions, however there is not. This action research study seeks to explore the factors that affect persistence in academically at-risk minority nursing students at a small Midwestern Christian University. The main research question for this study asks, “What factors do at-risk minority nursing students identify as affecting their ability to persist in our nursing program?” The use of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Social Ecological Model and Critical Theory …

Explicit Vocabulary Instruction For Fifth Graders’ Vocabulary Knowledge And Reading Comprehension: An Action Research Study, Tonia Bauer, Hengtao Tang

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This action research aimed to evaluate the impact that explicit vocabulary instruction delivered through Schoology had on the vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of fifth graders at an urban elementary school in the southeastern United States. A convergent mixed-method approach was applied. The vocabulary and reading comprehension scores and the learner experience survey accounted for the quantitative data. Furthermore, qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews were analyzed inductively. Findings show that students' vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension significantly increased after receiving explicit vocabulary instruction, and results marked instruction regarding Latin and Greek roots as areas needing attention. For elementary educators, …

Voices Of The "Served": Community Resident Perspectives On International Service-Learning In Peru., Adam C. Stieglitz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to capture and share community resident perspectives on international service-learning (ISL). Community resident voice is largely underrepresented in ISL scholarship and practice. Conversely, research on student outcomes is ubiquitous, which generally makes student benefit a predominant consideration in ISL program design. Consequently, scholars have criticized ISL programs for being inherently extractive and even an embodiment of modern-day colonialism. This study aims to address this critique by offering a robust representation of community residents’ perspectives for how to responsibly design ISL programs. This study used action research methodology to capture community resident voices who participate …

Latina Preservice Teachers Embodying Teacher Identity Through Improvisation, Zulema Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Latina preservice science teachers make the transition from science student to teacher is scant. This study aims to address this gap by exploring improvisation as a pedagogical tool in order for Latina pre-service teachers make meaning of the transition from student to teacher and what this might mean in terms of identity.

According to Pool et al. (2011), “[u]sing arts-based instruction in a preservice teacher program has promise for fostering better pedagogical decisions to benefit learners at every level.” (p. 9). The purpose of this case-study is not only to fill a gap in the literature but also to explore …

Exploring The Impact Of Workshops And A Mini-Project In Student Teachers Becoming Qualitative Researchers, Junjun Muhamad Ramdani, Elih Sutisna Yanto, Melisa Sri, Rahmat Djunaedi

The Qualitative Report

Drawing on Vygotsky's "space framework" (Harré, 1984; Mostofo & Zambo, 2015), this article reports the findings of our action research project that examined student teachers' beliefs and behavior changes while completing a qualitative research project. Our research question was, "to what extent do student teachers change their beliefs and behaviors about qualitative research (QR) after participating in a two-workshop series of qualitative designs in language classrooms and doing a mini-project?" The participants of this study were eight student teachers at an Indonesian university, and the research data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The study's findings show that student teachers …

Dynamic Sight Translation: A Simultaneous Interpreting Strategies Driver, Kun Yan, Zhongwei Song

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This paper reports on eliciting anticipation strategy, a common strategy in simultaneous interpreting (SI) via sight translation (ST). A new ST variant, the dynamic type, was designed in a modular and progressive manner to facilitate the trainees’ transition into SI at the early stage of learning. The new tool was used and tested under a framework of action research that was conducted continuously over 3 years. Despite some limitations, the longitudinal study finds that the newly designed set of exercises is not only a skill development and transfer enabler but also a contributor to eliciting SI-related strategies. This article explains …

Preschool Number Of The Day, Christine Shepard

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project was completed by a researcher was interested in the preschool math curriculum. More specifically, in the numbers and how their relationships including one to one counting and producing the amount when given a number in preschool. This researcher has taught preschool for 7 years. The students were able to participate in the study. One class of students did not receive the number of the day lessons, while the other students received the lessons throughout the entire school year. The study was part of our learning standards aligning to the Iowa Early Learning Standards and Gold Teaching …

The Forgotten: The Internalized Effects Of School Specific Slow Violence, Kala Jones

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to its nuanced character traits, slow violence has been allowed to persist within our society for centuries, resulting in impacts that have historically reached catastrophic proportions. With a focus on the education realm, this study describes the impact of school specific slow violence on marginalized communities. The purpose of this study was three-fold: (1) It sought to investigate how school specific slow violence has impacted the lives of Black and Latinx folx, (2) to explore how survivors of school specific slow violence made meaning of the experiences, and (3) investigate its influence on co-researchers’ agency via activism as we …

Transforming Learning Communities, Transforming Ourselves: A Qualitative Investigation Of Identity Processes In A Participatory Action Research-Themed Undergraduate Course, Julia Sara Dancis

Dissertations and Theses

In contrast to the dominant, post-positivist approaches to research in psychology, participatory action research (PAR) programs aim to democratize knowledge production and participate in social action through explicitly value-based and politicized agendas. Despite the inclusive nature of this work, college students are often left out of PAR collaborations and rarely even exposed to this frame of research. The handful of researcher-educators who have conducted participatory and action-oriented research with undergraduate students report a range of benefits for students, their universities, and the surrounding communities, confirming its importance. Left unaddressed are the key identity processes that unfold during knowledge production and …

Reflective Practice Through Dialogic Interactions: Togetherness And Belonging Within A Collective Of Efl Teachers In Mexico, Patricia Marie Anne Houde

The Qualitative Report

This study tackles the lack of collective models to analyze teaching practices by employing a bottom-up and collaborative approach for engaging in Reflective Practice (RP) for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in a Mexican context. The Collective Accompaniment Model (CAM; Guillemette, 2014) served to develop reflection with peers at the same hierarchical level, allowing for reflection to evolve over time. The research question was “What are the contributions of other colleagues’ interactions to support reflective practice via collective accompaniment with EFL teachers in Mexico”? The methodology employed during the inquiry was action research (AR) with nine EFL teachers …

Exploring Vulnerability And Risk In An Action Research Writing Group: A Cooperative Inquiry, David Coghlan, Vivienne Brady, Denise O'Leary, Geralyn Hynes

Books/Book Chapters

This article describes how, the authors, as members of an action research writing group, responded to a comment about feeling vulnerable in risking bringing their work-in-progress to the group and in giving feedback to colleagues by adopting a cooperative inquiry approach to explore vulnerability and risk in the group. In cooperative inquiry group members act as both co-researcher and co-subject in the inquiry and action. The article describes the evolution of the group and how the topic of exploring risk and vulnerability emerged. The group’s exploration is grounded in the theory and practice of cooperative inquiry that gives voice to …

School Leadership Support: Understanding The Experiences Of Elementary-Level Teachers During A Global Health Pandemic, Kathleen M. Crawford, Pamela Wells, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Kristen N. Dickens, Katherine Fallon

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this study was to better understand how the current COVID-19 global health pandemic has professionally and emotionally impacted elementary-level teachers. Teachers experienced diverse challenges during this unprecedented time with a rapid shift from in-person to online learning. Two overarching themes emerged based on participant experiences: abandoning best practices and increased stress and emotional pain. Implications for practice included the need for school leaders to evaluate the current level of support being provided to teachers and assess areas of need to support professional and emotional growth with the backdrop of the pandemic. We encourage future research with all …

Writing To Learn: A Course Design And Educational Resources, Geoff Keston

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Higher education students write in many courses, but often as only a small part of a class and without guidance about how to use writing to learn. This paper describes the design of a dedicated course, Writing to Learn, in which students practice many genres and study the science of learning. A focused approach to using writing as a way to learn aims to give students extensive and diverse practice, which isn’t done in many published case studies. And making ideas from psychology, neuroscience, and the theory of pedagogy a part of the course content shows students why and how …

The Art Of Audiencing: Visual Journaling As A Media Education Practice, Theresa Redmond

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Using qualitative methods with an action research design, the author investigates uses of visual journaling as a media production opportunity in an undergraduate media literacy class. Through visual journaling as an arts-based inquiry process, students engaged in production, creating and sharing graphical representations of their emerging media literacy knowledge and perspectives. Findings illuminate visual journaling as a way of audiencing that cultivates agentive knowledge building, active negotiation of learning, and student-centered expression in the context of media literacy education. Visual journaling as a method of production results in a manageable and creative maker experience that augments learning, inviting students to …

Redesigning Literacy: Our Story, Johannah D. Baugher, Victoria Seeger

Educational Considerations

This manuscript details efforts to redesign a graduate literacy program guided by two, full-time faculty members to better meet candidates’ needs in an online learning environment supported with relevant and current curricula. Through professional literature, intentional curriculum, and authentic field experiences, program coursework is closely linked, easily allowing candidates to see and experience relationships across course content, better aligning with K-12 instructional practices. As a result of candidates’ completion of this program, they are steeped in best literacy practices and interventions, which equip them to celebrate their autonomy in philosophical beliefs as it relates to their identity as a literacy …

Imagining Otherwise: Designing And Implementing A High School Writing Center, Sheldon Cale Krieger

Dissertations

This study explored the work of planning and opening a new high school writing center in a school with a student population predominantly of students of color. The action research study occurred over the first twelve weeks of the writing center opening to better understand how such work might begin to disrupt oppressive systems and structures inherent in the school site as well as education at large. The arts-based methodology included daily reflective journals, a series of four collages, and document analysis. The study utilized critical imagining as its theoretical framework by combining tenets of critical race theory (CRT) with …

The Infinity Mirror: Learning To Lead Through Action-Oriented Inquiry, Robert D. Evans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation-in-practice is a reflective self-study exploring the lived experience of the current researcher as a leader of Lesson Study (LS) over 2 years. Drawing on the concepts of perspective and engagement articulated by Wenger-Trayner and Wenger- Trayner (2016) in their Learning in Landscapes of Practice conceptual framework, the study is organized around the primary critical question: How has my perspective on what it means to be a teacher leader been transformed through my engagement with LS in the context of a US community of educational practice? Working within the paradigm of first person action-oriented inquiry, the method of self-study …

Positioning Dispositions In Initial Teacher Education: An Action Research Approach, Qilong Zhang, Joanne Hayes, Rawhia Tehau-Grant, Roberta Skeoch, Lois France, Ke Jiang, Ruth Barnes

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In spite of debate, ambiguity, and tension around teacher dispositions, in the past over two decades, the place of dispositions in initial teacher education (ITE) has been widely supported among policy makers and researchers. Specifically, debate on whether dispositions are teachable has largely given way to action to foster dispositions. Adopting a two-cycle participatory action research design, this study explored ways to teach the first-year teacher candidates’ dispositions in an early childhood ITE programme in New Zealand. The intervention included eight focus dispositions and corresponding strategies to teach each focus disposition. Data collection methods included student self-assessment surveys, individual and …

Action Research As Evidence-Based Practice: Enhancing Explicit Teaching And Learning Through Critical Reflection And Collegial Peer Observation, Renee Crawford

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: In an era where teachers are increasingly being asked to demonstrate evidence of their impact, action research is identified as a practical and critically reflective research approach for enhancing explicit teaching and learning. Using a historical perspective, foundations for reflective practice and action research in educational contexts are explored. A discussion of the processes and techniques that may be employed, including how collegial peer observation is embedded to strengthen application is provided. An action research model, encapsulating the approach discussed, demonstrates its practicality for teachers to engage in critically reflective practice and provide an evidence-base for their work. As …

Individualized Professional Development, Thea Dirton

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

A one-size-fits-all professional development program may not be beneficial to all of the staff in an educational setting. The following professional development program offers an alternative solution to traditional professional development methods, by allowing teachers to determine the strategies that they want to implement into their classroom. The implementation of these strategies and the reflection that goes along with it in the form of action research, allows staff members to determine which methods are most beneficial to them and the students in their learning environment.

Preservice Teacher Action Research : Making Meaning And Generating Knowledge Through Inquiry, Rachel Ginsberg

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study, situated in a large state university, investigated how the experiences of preservice teachers conducting action research in their full-time clinical placements as part of a seminar course in a teacher education program fostered a critical teacher inquiry stance. I examined how action research allowed preservice teachers to generate personal and educational knowledge and how their inquiry influenced the ways in which they thought about how teachers make meaning and generate knowledge. Using critical teacher inquiry as a framework allowed a critical lens that prioritized the need and importance of viewing teachers’ inquiry in the classroom as a …

Research In Action: Impacting Library Communities With Field-Based Projects, Elizabeth A. Burns

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Our library and information studies (LIS) program is grounded in the principals of social justice, leadership, and authentic practice. One way candidates of the program meet these ideals is through participation in a required internship. During the internship students complete an independent project on site at their internship location.

Using Elliot’s (1991) steps of action research, the students in the internship course identify an issue, collect or use data to inform action, analyze the findings, and reflect on the results. An initial needs assessment is conducted. This includes establishing a rationale to inform practice. Students then implement a hands-on response …

"For Me, For Us, For Them": The Impact Of Wise Feedback On Ninth Grade Ela Students, Teachers, And Classrooms, Mary L. Newton

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Feedback from teachers is critical for student academic success, but is all feedback created equal? Within this critical participatory action research study, a teacher and her students in ninth-grade English language arts (ELA) classes in a suburban high school endeavored to transform their mindsets and practices related to giving, receiving, and implementing feedback through a culturally responsive approach known as wise feedback. Through effective, targeted feedback of wise feedback, all students can build their self-efficacy by knowing how to improve their work through the guidance and support of their teachers. Building teacher self-efficacy in providing wise feedback was critical to …