Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Middle School Students' Perceptions Of The Gender And Ethnic Gap In Achievement, Marian Elizabeth Hendrickson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used a mix-method approach to determine achievement gap in gender and ethnicity. Quantitative data was collected from the 2008-2009 Arkansas state Benchmark exam to investigate the extent of the gap in the school. Qualitative data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 13 students. The students were asked to explain their perceptions of the gender and ethnicity gap in the school. The use of two methods for this study enabled the researcher to better understand the actual achievement gap that appeared at the school and compare this information to the information provided by the participants. The Quantitative data gathered …

Effects Of Classwide Self-Management Intervention On Second Grade Students’ Social Skills In Physical Education, Elian Aljadeff-Abergel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Maintaining students' on-task behavior and engagement with learning materials is difficult due to factors such as a large number of students and the increasing occurrences of disruptive behaviors in class. Students' acquisition of appropriate social skills can increase the teacher's ability to effectively teach in class and facilitate students' academic success. Self-management (SM) interventions in which students manage their own behaviors can serve as socially and ecologically-valid strategies for enhancing students' social skills in the classroom. Self-management programs have wide empirical support that demonstrates their merit for students' learning of social and academic skills. In school settings, self-management interventions were …

Ready For Life — An Evaluation: Factors Relating To Truancy And Promising Practices, Clayton Nichols, Shenita Harper, Maria Thomas, Mikaela Louve, Christina Vela

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Truancy has been linked to serious delinquent activity in youth and to significant negative behavior and characteristics in adults. Truancy is one of the most common factors leading to dropout and students not meeting graduation standards. Nevada has arguably the highest high school dropout rate in the nation. This evaluation was prepared for Ready for Life: A movement created by Nevada Public Education Foundation (NPEF), to connect youth to school and work by age 25, but can be of use to several audiences. Practitioners who work with struggling students, court representatives and parents, teachers and administrators, and anyone who has …

Cyberbullying In Schools: A Research Study On School Policies And Procedures, Brian Wiseman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A mixed-methods research design first using quantitative then qualitative data was used in order to explore what cyberbullying policies are being employed by principals in the state of Nevada. Electronic surveys were given to all 118 middle school principals in Nevada. Middle school was chosen because it is the age where cyberbullying behaviors are most prevalent. Out of the 118 surveys that were deployed, 66 principals responded. A series of independent t-tests and a chi-squared analysis was conducted using the survey data. The survey concluded by asking principals if they were willing to participate in a one-on-one interview regarding the …

Assisting The Accompanying Partner: A Dramaturgical Explanatory Study Of Dual Career Couples Offices, Christine Promin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study is a mixed methods explanatory sequential design framed in resource dependency theory that uses Goffman's dramaturgical analysis to explore how the dual career couples offices address issues, serve constituencies, and relate to the broader institution. The researcher examined schools with dual career offices by using the Higher Education Dual Couple Network [HEDCN]. In Phase I of the study, the researcher surveyed HEDCN affiliates regarding their dual career offices. In Phase II of the study, three schools from the HEDCN sample were selected through purposeful sampling for site visits which included in-depth, one-on-one interviews, observations, and artifact analysis.

The …

Assessing The Value Of A High School Mentoring Program, Janet L. Downs

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

School-based mentoring programs have recently emerged as a potential method to improve pro-social behavior, academic success, resiliency, a sense of school connectedness, and reduce at-risk behaviors and drop-out probability among youth. This action research study surveyed 142 students to assess changes in student attitudes associated with implementing the first year of a sophomore mentoring program at a semi-urban high school in the northwestern United States. The mentoring program was called the Pathfinder program, a youth-to-youth group mentoring program developed and marketed by Varsity Gold Leadership, Inc. The extent of influence the Pathfinder program exerted over concepts related to school connectedness …

Reading The World In The Word: The Possibilities For Literacy Instruction Framed Within Human Rights Education, Judith M. Dunkerly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this critical ethnography was to investigate the experiences of teachers and students when literacy instruction was framed within human rights education. Informed by critical socio-cultural theory and Freirean concepts of critical literacy and praxis, this study highlights the experiences of two servant leader interns (teachers) and sixteen scholars (student) participating in human rights education sessions within the context of a CDF Freedom School. Data sources included semi-structured and informal interviews, scholar and intern artifacts including multimedia projects, and recorded classroom discussions. Data were analyzed utilizing Michel Foucault’s concept of “regime of truth” in order to examine how …

The Courage To Critique Policies And Practices From Within: Youth Participatory Action Research As Critical Policy Analysis. A Response To “Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School”, Anjale Welton

Democracy & Education

This response to “Buscando la Libertad: Latino Youths in Search of Freedom in School” by Jason G. Irizarry demonstrates how youth participatory action research (YPAR) as an instrument of subverting oppressive school policies and structures is a form of critical policy analysis (CPA). As an evolving method, CPA acknowledges the absent voices in policy, questions policy inequities, fosters empowerment, and influences policy. Youths who engage in YPAR, as demonstrated by Project FUERTE, have the courage to critique school policies that have the power to alter their educational trajectories, which offers more hope for change than scholarly elites who critique policies …

Confronting Power: Success Isn’T Everything—But It’S Not Nothing Either. A Response To “Beyond The Catch-22 Of School-Based Social Action Programs: Toward A More Pragmatic Approach For Dealing With Power”, Joel Westheimer

Democracy & Education

Fehrman and Schutz contend that the fine balance between having students experience real-world obstacles to social change and having them learn how to navigate around those obstacles can be achieved by having adults both pre-select community action projects that are both possible and meaningful to ensure a modicum of success, and jump in and redirect wayward efforts when necessary to get them back on a trajectory aimed at a positive outcome. I agree. I also suggest that other factors are significant as well, namely the purposeful nurturing of a sense of community and hopefulness. Finally, I point out that adult …

Students Have Their Own Minds. A Response To “Beyond The Catch-22 Of School-Based Social Action Programs: Toward A More Pragmatic Approach For Dealing With Power”, Matthew Goldwasser

Democracy & Education

In response to the authors’ work on finding a more pragmatic approach to dealing with power, this commentary calls into question the possibility of a preestablished agenda by the researchers, who struggled to engage high school students. There might have been a case of overly ambitious expectations at work; also, the authors confess to being in the school only once a week and that their students were themselves struggling to find their place in a new charter school with an emphasis on social action. This response challenges the authors to reexamine their wish to engage students with institutional power by …

Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School, Jason Irizarry

Democracy & Education

Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study of Latino high school students engaged in youth participatory action research (YPAR), this article describes students’ quest for freedom in schools, locating their struggle within a larger effort to realize the democratic ideals of public schooling. Using Latino/a Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, the author demonstrates how popular discourse around the “achievement gap” often obscures the oppressive policies and practices implemented by educators that limit freedoms necessary for educational and personal development and profoundly influence the identities and life trajectories of Latino youth. The article concludes with an exploration of YPAR as …

Beyond The Catch-22 Of School-Based Social Action Programs: Toward A More Pragmatic Approach For Dealing With Power, Darwyn Fehrman, Aaron Schutz

Democracy & Education

This study examines a two-year effort to engage groups of inner-city students in community engagement projects at Social Action Charter High School, SACHS, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In this project, graduate student volunteers coached small groups of students working on community change projects, collecting data on what happened over time. Kahne and Westheimer (2006) identified a key challenge to projects of this kind. On the one hand, social action projects seem able to enhance students’ belief in their own capacity to solve community problems only if adult allies make sure the students do not encounter any significant barriers to success, although …

Schooling For Democracy, Nel Noddings

Democracy & Education

There is a widespread movement today to prepare all students for college, and it is promoted in the name of democracy. I argue here that such a move actually puts our democracy at risk by forcing students into programs that do not interest them and depriving them of courses at which they might succeed. We risk losing the vision of democracy that respects every form of honest work and cultivates a deep appreciation of interdependence.

Does A Co-Learner Delivery Model In A Mathematics Methods Course Affect Pre-Service Teacher Candidates’ Self-Efficacy In Teaching Mathematics?,, John J. Ribeiro, Denise Demagistris

Teacher Education

This study is related to a previous study (Ribeiro, 2009) that examined teachers’ perceptions of teaching self-efficacy. In the first study the sample consisted of two groups of teachers that took the same professional development course in mathematics. The comparison group took the course in their school district with other teachers and the experimental group took the course with pre-service teachers in a university classroom. After completing the course, both groups were measured in three dimensions of teaching self-efficacy: student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom climate. Findings indicated that although both groups had significant gains in self-efficacy toward teaching mathematics …

Character Education Seeking The Best Of Both Worlds: A Study Of Cultural Identity And Leadership In Egypt., Rania M Rafik Khalil, Nevien Mattar

English Language and Literature

No abstract provided.

Resistance Meets Spirituality In Academia: "I Prayed On It!", Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications

We describe the lived experiences of a Black Woman educational leader who has studied and worked in the academy and in the field of K-12 education. This partial life history, excavated through the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), illuminates the social construction of race and the pervasiveness and permanence of racism. We determined through a series of interviews that the participant's resilient resistance is guided by critical spirituality so that circumstances and people who challenge her also confront this source of power. Her lived experience, from student to faculty member, conveys the challenges and opportunities she faces and adds …

Keeping The Lid On Charter Schools: Capping And The Politics Of Education Reform In Connecticut, Lesley A. Denardis

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

Charter schools, public schools that operate with greater autonomy than their traditional counterparts, first opened in Minnesota in 1991. Between 1991 and 2010, they spread to 40 states and the District of Columbia. In recent months, they have received renewed policy attention under the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competitive federal grant program which rewarded states for educational innovation including the creation of charter schools. While experiencing impressive growth, charter schools lag behind traditional public schools in size and in number, accounting for only 2.9% of the total public school population nationwide. State factors that are predictive of a …

Unlv Magazine, Cate Weeks, Afsha Bawany, Gregean Wingert, Shane Bevell, David Wrobel, Tony Allen

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

“Se Ha Levantado La Bandera Mapuche”: La Identidad Del Estudiante Mapuche Y Cómo Se Relaciona Con El Perfil De Egreso Del Establecimiento Intercultural, Gale Stafford

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Liceo Intercultural Técnico Profesional Guacolda tiene como fondo histórico la necesidad de la educación y apoyo para personas mapuches. El Liceo se plantea como metas el desarrollo de una especialidad y también el fortalecimiento de identidad mapuche de sus estudiantes. Sin embargo, proporciona una educación intercultural para apoyar a los mapuches. Este aprendizaje se identifica más por el afecto docente al alumno y también la contextualización del aprendizaje occidental anterior y presente con lo mapuche. Se estudian el perfil de egreso del estudiante mapuche versus los estudiantes actualmente a través de su aprendizaje de lo intercultural y lo mapuche, …

The Escola Do Campo João Sem Terra: A Look Inside The Process Of Making Education Relevant In The Landless Worker’S Movement Settlement 25 De Maio., Owen Grooms

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper explores the process of implementing the goals of the Escola do Campo João Sem Terra within the Landless Worker‟s Movement of Brazil (MST), a social movement pushing for agrarian reform that is establishing a network of schools in its communities, of which the newest branch is the Educação do Campo concept, which involves establishing high schools based around the reality of students in the campo, or countryside. As the first of these Escolas do Campo, João sem Terra is experiencing the difficulties of this process in becoming such a different school. The school has issues with the state, …

Be True To Yourself ... Be Confidently You, Amber Ford

Women's Empowerment Week

No abstract provided.

The Degree Qualifications Profile, Lumina Foundation

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

The need for a Degree Profile

Higher learning has taken on new importance in today’s knowledge society. To succeed in the contemporary workplace, today’s students must prepare for jobs that are rapidly changing, use technologies that are still emerging and work with colleagues from (and often in) all parts of the globe. The challenges that graduates face as citizens during their lives are similarly complex and also are affected by developments around the world.

Recognizing the economic and societal importance of higher levels of learning, national leaders, policymakers, analysts and major philanthropies have called for a dramatic increase in the …

The Quality Imperative: Match Ambitious Goals For College Attainment With An Ambitious Vision For Learning, Board Of Directors Of The Association Of American Colleges And Universities

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

Facing an avalanche of evidence that the United States no longer leads the world in postsecondary attainment, educational leaders at all levels have begun a far-reaching effort to increase significantly the number of students entering and completing higher education. This is a top priority for the Obama administration, for policy leaders and philanthropy, and for colleges and universities.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities welcomes and strongly supports the emerging national commitment to expand appreciably both access to college and successful completion. We are especially concerned that higher education provide equitable access and expanded opportunity for groups and communities …

Avatars, Blabberize, And Cell Phones: Abc's Of The Digital Age [Paper], Kay S. Gandy, Rebecca Stobaugh

School of Teacher Education Faculty Publications & Presentations

The Digital Age is revolutionizing education. Educators need to be well-trained on the variety of technology tools available. Technology tools captivate the interest of students and encourage high-levels of engagement. Often, the daily lives of students are rich in technology, while teachers lack the knowledge or skills to integrate technology into the curriculum. Two university teacher education professors will share innovative technology tools to enhance instruction. The tools were modeled in education courses for preservice teachers and transferred into K-12 classrooms. Technology tools included: Skype, PhotoPeach, Prezi, Blabberize, Xtranormal, Poll Everywhere (voting with cellphones), Tagxedo, GPS, and GIS. For example, …

Loving The World And Our Children Enough--Nurturing Decidedly Different Scientifc Minds, By Design, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

Wise world-shaping and problem-solving requires that we and our children think in decidedly different, integral and wise ways. This transformation requires a fundamental shift in consciousness and the emergence of global minds that can creatively live into a new worldview of an interconnected planet and a sustainable and interdependent human family. "The fullness of our humanity and the sustainability of our planet rest with the nurturing of decidedly different minds."

Strategic Directions For Gettysburg College Update & Upcoming Major Facilities Projects, March 2011, President's Office

Reports from the President’s Office

The four central themes of Strategic Directions-Engagement, Distinction, Access and Connection-remain the best guideposts to lead us towards our goals and aspirations for Gettysburg College. However, the current context does require us to sharpen our focus, prioritize further, and better capitalize on opportunities and synergies. [excerpt]

Applications Of The Theories Of Mikhail Bakhtin In Science Education, Jason Delgatto

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the work of Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin (1895 – 1975), and more specifically, how his theories on language in a social context apply to science education.  In response to ongoing concerns regarding declining student achievement in the sciences, this paper follows a growing trend to integrate perspectives from the fields of language, anthropology and sociology, in order to reform science instruction and improve student scientific literacy.  Bakhtin’s major theories around dialogue, and his views on the celebration of carnival, are presented through an analysis of secondary resources that …

Critical Race Theory And Education: Mapping A Legacy Of Activism And Scholarship, Kafi D. Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This chapter explores the intellectual origins and historical precursors of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a lively branch of critical social theory. One of the goals of this work is to help novice educational scholars learn more about the history of CRT and to specifically see how it is used by contemporary scholars in the field of education to address a range of equity issues. The chapter begins by contextualizing contemporary discourse on race and education. It then chronicles the life work of key individuals whose antiracist, anti- colonial ideas and actions helped lay the foundation for the body of legal …

Youth Initiative Hector’S Helpers: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering November 11, 2010 – February 10, 2011, Hector's Helpers

Anti-littering Programs

The Hector’s Helpers program provides an opportunity to bring environmental education and foster a sense of stewardship to students. We supply a once a week hands-on curriculum which includes a litter clean-up fieldtrip. Students learn general environmental concepts such as community, conservation, recycling, and litter prevention. They will also have access to Geographic Information Systems and Podcast technology. Through the use of GIS and Podcasts we hope to get community members to collect data and prevent litter and desert dumping. The students also participated in a marketing campaign for the Adopt-A-Block initiative. By participating in the Hector’s Helpers program, the …

Strategic Directions For Gettysburg College Update, February 2011, President's Office

Reports from the President’s Office

Much has changed since the Strategic Directions for Gettysburg were articulated in 2007. We have had transition in the leadership of the College in key positions including the president, the provost, and the vice president for development, alumni and parent relations. The economy has shifted seismically and in ways we certainly would not have predicted in 2007. Demographic projections related to the diversity of high school students and their geographic distributions have become a reality. The emergence of online learning opportunities and for-profit education, together with a high unemployment rate and significant increases in student financial need, have created a …