Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Doing The Work: Using Questions, Tasks, And Sources To Navigate Teaching Contentious Social Studies In Secondary Classrooms, Bonnie Patrice Lewis

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This explanatory case study examines how two secondary social studies teachers use inquiry-based learning to mitigate the risks of teaching contentious social studies in a charged classroom. Research questions included: 1. How do two in-service secondary teachers use inquiry-based instruction to navigate teaching contentious social studies during charged times? 2. What curricular and pedagogical choices were made by the in-service teachers to navigate risk when designing inquiry-based instruction that features contentious social studies during charged times? 3. What curricular and pedagogical choices were made by the in-service teachers to navigate risk when delivering inquiry-based instruction that features contentious social studies …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between Teacher Grit, Technology Self-Efficacy, And Technology Integration, Joshua Jeremiah Shiloh Marsh

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The use of educational technology applications has grown tremendously in the last decade. Instructors are now equipped with hardware and software applications previously unavailable, such as mobile and interactive technologies. These tools can have tremendous impact on students’ learning and teacher practices. Teachers can improve their assessment capabilities through technology integration, provide better learning opportunities for students with learning disabilities, and promote deeper learning practices. Due to these benefits, budgets at the federal, state, and local levels of the United States now have specific allocations regarding technology-related purchases. Nevertheless, barriers remain regarding the effective integration of technologies in public schools. …

The Language Of Power: An Investigation Of How The Macropolitics Of Education Policy Affects The Micropolitics Of Schooling English Learners, Catherine E. Vannatter

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The population of English Learners (ELs) continues to increase across the United States, and these students persistently perform below their native English-speaking peers in measures of academic achievement. Federal government leaders passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, which modified how state and local educational agencies identify, instruct, assess, and reclassify ELs and revised what funding EL programming could receive. In this multiphase study, I investigated how the macropolitics of federal and state policy became enacted in the micropolitics of a mid-sized school district in Kentucky. Through an initial phase of document review followed by a mixed methods …

Standards Do Not Happen In A Vacuum: Local, State, And National Influences On Kentucky Academic Standards For The Social Studies And Curriculum Development, Ryan Douglas New

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This dissertation includes three articles that focus on local, state, and/or national influences on the development and implementation of state standards for social studies. Each article provides insights into how external influences at various levels can mediate the enactment, understanding, and/or adhering of state-level standards.

Article One, “The State of Social Studies Standards: What Is the Impact of the C3 Framework?” (2021) is a national case study that examines the impact the C3 (College, Career and Civic Life) Framework had in influencing the development of fifty state standards and the District of Columbia. The C3 framework pulls together content, concepts, …

Comparing Self-Delivered To Instructor-Delivered Reinforcement During Vocational Instruction For Students With Intellectual Disability Using Video Activity Schedules, Katherine Elise White

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

In this study, an adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of teaching vocational task when using self-delivered reinforcement versus instructor-delivered reinforcement while using video prompting. Participants consisted of four high school students who had been diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. Results indicated that instructor delivered reinforcement was slightly more effective at teaching a vocational task for 2 of the 4 participants. The results of the other 2 participants indicated that both forms of reinforcement delivery were similarly effective.

The Potential Role Of Trauma-Informed Positive Education In The Secondary Mathematics Classroom In Disrupting The Preschool-To-Prison Pipeline, Jessica Michele Doering

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This mixed-methods study considered the potential for trauma-informed mathematics education to disrupt the preschool-to-prison (or school-to-prison) pipeline. Phenomenological qualitative interviews were conducted in conjunction with the use of the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC; Baker et al., 2016) scale to determine teacher perceptions of trauma-informed care practices, their thoughts regarding challenging classroom behaviors and the connection of these behaviors with trauma and the pipeline, and their ideas about how much of an impact teachers can have on students who present with challenging behaviors that might be symptoms of trauma or that might be an indicator of future incarceration. This …

The “Case” For Assessments: An Evaluation Of Case End Of Course Assessments And Teacher Motivation, Andrew Lawrence Hauser

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) End of Course (EoC) assessments are summative assessments used to evaluate the CASE curriculum. This quantitative study explored the effects teacher motivation has on student performance on CASE EoC assessments. CASE teachers (n= 55) who participated in the study responded to the 28-item CASE End of Course Assessment Teacher Motivation Questionnaire on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The researcher conducted a Pearson r Correlation test to determine a relationship between questionnaire mean values and secondary student assessment data. Results from the study outline frequency of responses, perceived value and expectancy mean values, and correlations …

Bridging The Gap: Effects Of Dual Credit College Algebra On Postsecondary Education Outcomes, Karen S. Heavin

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The contraction of the blue-collar economy is slowly rendering the high school diploma obsolete as an entry-level requirement for middle class employability. Over the last 40 years, jobs requiring some sort of postsecondary education or post-high school credential increased from 28% to 62%, while lower-skilled jobs, traditionally filled by high school graduates or those without a high school diploma, decreased from 72% to 38%. As automation slowly replaces the blue-collar workforce, it is critical that our educational system provides all students the necessary tools to successfully complete a postsecondary degree or credential.

This study examined two groups of graduating high …

Predicting Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Content Area Reading: A Multiple Regression Analysis, Fatih Destebasi

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The main purpose of this study was to predict secondary and middle school pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in content area reading by using demographic, academic achievement, literacy methods courses, faculty support, preparedness for content area reading, and attitudes toward teaching reading in content classrooms as variables. Based on that purpose, this study was guided by the following research question: What are the predictors of secondary and middle school pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in content area reading among variables from verbal persuasion of teacher education faculty, preparedness for content area reading, attitudes toward teaching reading in content classrooms, number of literacy method courses, …

“Checking Off Boxes”: Teachers Describe Civic Education In World History: A Mixed Methods Study, Carly Claire Muetterties

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Scholars have long identified fostering democratic citizenship as a primary purpose of public schooling in the United States, meaning schools should intentionally prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed for active, informed democratic civic life. Furthermore, global interconnectedness has reshaped needed knowledge to participate in civic life. History is often identified as subject content well suited to address civic education and prepare students for citizenship. Though scholars point to a connection between world history and civic education, there is little empirical research studying how civic education informs teachers’ curriculum and instruction in world history. The purpose of this explanatory …

Effects Of An Anchored Career-Focused Curriculum On The Knowledge And Attitudes Of At-Risk High School Students, Megan E. Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Students with disabilities (SWD) face an unfavorable employment future because many drop out of school at a disproportionate rate. The employment outlook for SWD who graduate from high school is also a concern because current studies show that only about half of them find jobs. In addition, most jobs they do find are entry level and low paying. One predictor of post-secondary success is career awareness. The purpose of this study was first to develop a curriculum especially designed for teaching career awareness of SWD and then to test its effects with a pretest-posttest randomized trial. Results indicated that the …

Reviving The Rules, Roles, And Rituals Of Resiliency, Don Offutt

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This descriptive case study of a historical period in education in the Commonwealth of Kentucky identifies the resiliency factors utilized by the first class to desegregate the Bowling Green, Kentucky, public school system. The participants in the study were members of the first African-American class to integrate the Bowling Green school system in 1965.

Critical Race Theory provided the tenets undergirding the research study. The qualitative research methods included conducting semi-structured interviews with participants; studying documents and artifacts from the era; having conversations with community members and educators; and collecting, archiving, and housing Bowling Green African-American education documents, artifacts, and …

Student Help-Seeking Behaviors And Teacher Instructional Practices: Examining Their Relationship With U.S. Student Mathematics Achievement, Michael C. Osborne

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Even though the United States (U.S.) spends, on average, more money per student than most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, it continues to lag behind its international peers in mathematics achievement. This study, which responded to the call for educational reforms that improve the mathematics achievement of U.S. students, aimed to examine the issue of student help-seeking behaviors and teacher instructional practices as they interact to affect student mathematics achievement. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) defines student help-seeking behaviors as the ways in which students have a propensity to depend on the knowledge and intellect …