Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Impact Of Professional Development On Primary School Teachers' Practices And Student Engagement, Tracy Hartley Clark

Curriculum and Instruction (Ed.D.) Dissertations

Prioritizing student engagement in the classroom, where students want to learn more and be challenged, can lead to future success. This study investigated the effectiveness of providing teachers with professional development focusing on student engagement. The study utilized a mixed-method methodology that examined the effects of professional development on student engagement levels. The participants were 19 teachers who attended professional development at ABC Primary School. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were used to test the study's hypotheses. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through observations before and after the professional development sessions. The data collected was used to determine whether …

Imagination To Innovation: Design Thinking For Young Learners, Lindsey Herlehy, Cassandra Armstrong

Publications & Research

Design thinking is the intersection of engineering design and social-emotional learning. Today’s learners must be empathetic problem solvers capable of defining problems and designing appropriate solutions to meet the needs of the user. In this session, participants will experience design thinking through literature-based scenarios appropriate for early learners. They will analyze and compare their own models to those of others and compose a lesson that will engage students in the design thinking process.

Families Engineering Together In Communities And At Home: Facilitation Guide, Amber Simpson, Adam V. Maltese, Peter Knox, Jungsun Kim, Jing Yang, Sawsan Werfelli, Kelli Paul, Monika Mayer

Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership Faculty Scholarship

In this publication, we present a program that serves as a bridge between families and learning environments of all kinds, and provides a pathway for engineering design to be incorporated into the everyday lives of families and kids. Supporting families in their home environment, the program offers a fun and approachable introduction to thinking about engineering and bringing these concepts to life. Conversation and engagement between children and caregivers is so important during elementary school years - this program encourages families to think about, discuss, and experience engineering in a fun and accessible way in their home and community environments. …

A Home For Leo, Marcella More

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

● Students will make decisions, such as raising hands or taking turns. ● Students will use collaborative techniques and active listening skills when engaging in discussions in a variety of situations. ● Students will use a combination of drawing, dictating, and or writing, provide factual information about a topic.

Beginnings: How Families Come To Be, Heather Bourgeois

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

 The student will compare children and families from the book "Beginnings: How Families Come to Be" with what families looked like and did in the past.  The student will explore the concept of family diversity by comparing and contrasting the characters’ experiences.  The student will recall information about the book to answer questions about family diversity.

Drawn Together, Paityn Pohren

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Families, Families, Families!, Amanda Sanchez

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

Students will write a personal narrative about their families using a logical sequence of events, transitions, and an ending. ● Students will improve their writing as needed by planning, revising and editing. ● Students will present their writing about their families using complete sentences, appropriate volume, and clear pronunciation.

A Shelter In Our Car & Uncle Willie And The Soup Kitchen, Christina Fluegel

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The student will compare and contrast the themes in A Shelter In Our Car and Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen. ● The student will define homelessness and know how it can affect people in their community. ● The student will demonstrate how citizens can volunteer to support members of their community.

Carmen Learns English, Ashley Beckstrom Dokter

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The Student will be able to identify and describe the main story elements in Carmen Learns English. ● The Student will be able to identify and explain the moral of Carmen Learns English. ● The Student will be able to present information orally using complete sentences and appropriate volume.

Gay & Lesbian History For Kids: The Century-Long Struggle For Lgbt Rights, James Bunch

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

● The Students will utilize timelines to understand the history of the LGBT community. ● The Students will use primary and secondary sources to understand the challenges faced by the LGBT community throughout history. ● The Students will identify ways of being a good citizen including, acceptance, inclusion, and developing an appreciation of equity. ● The Students will use digital writing tools to collaboratively plan, draft, and revise a writing. ● The Students will use context clues, figurative language, word relationships, reference materials, and/or background knowledge to determine the meaning of multiple-meaning and unknown words and phrases.

Lovely, Mackenzie Cates

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The student will be able to identify descriptive words in a text. The student will be able to explain descriptive words in a text. The student will be able to ask and answer questions about words they don’t know. The student will be able to communicate with their peers about descriptive words orally using complete sentences.

Chocolate Me, Abigail Singh

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The students will show respect and kindness to classmates. ● The students will identify and explain the moral of self-acceptance and individuality in the story in the story Chocolate Me.

There's Only One You, Carrie Binkley

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

The students will explain why it is important that everyone is unique. ● The students will identify the parts of print (book title, author, illustrator) and their roles. ● Students will use uppercase and lowercase letters to write their name. ● Students will create a self-portrait through the use of a multitude of mediums. ● Students will share their self-portraits and explain why they are unique.

I Grew Up Indoctrinated, Consuelo Ferschweiler

Whittier Scholars Program

My capstone project is looking at homeschooling as an educational path. I started with researching homeschooling and studies done to show the affects, outcomes, and comparisons of homeschooling with other methods commonly used such as Public or Private schools. I then read a few books and material that fall into the memoir and researched memoir genre, such as Educated, to understand how the voice and gain familiarity of memoir writing and the process of researching into your own life and history.

I have been looking back on my education of growing up homeschooled and writing scenes from those memories, …

Science Club, Maryam Sule, Tyler Gaspers

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Afterschool Club called Science Club introduces basics STEM concepts to kids using direct learning like experimenting. Teaching prominent scientists with their significant impact on STEM.

知源育利用のガイド, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

知源育を応用するための様々な角度からのヒントを学ぶことができるガイドです。実勢んをしながら、時々このガイドを参照することで、より高いレベルでの実践が可能になるでしょう。

Introduction To A Universal Performance Improvement Method (Chigen-Iku), Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This brief article introduces a universal performance improvement method called Chigen-iku, which has been developed carefully and extensively over more than 25 years through more than 100 individual and group projects based on the principles that were selected through my doctorial study in the field of Instructional Psychology and Technology.

Preservice Elementary Teachers Conceptions And Self-Efficacy For Integrated Stem, Deepika Menon, Deef A. A. Shorman, Derek Cox, Amanda Thomas

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Educational reform efforts have emphasized preparing highly competent and confident preservice teachers to deliver effective K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instruction. Self-efficacy is a key variable that influences motivation and performance, and therefore it is necessary to support the development of preservice teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy. This mixed-methods study investigates how preservice elementary teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy is shaped during their participation in a newly redesigned STEM semester consisting of three concurrent methods courses (science and engineering, mathematics, and technology methods courses). The quantitative data sources included the Self-efficacy for Teaching Integrated STEM instrument administered as …

Green Genius, Zoe Zingler

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

No abstract provided.

Cookie, Lindsay Massa

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Ladder To The Moon, Bryce Connelly

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Blended, Devin Johnson

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Esperanza Rising, Alexis Bass

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

A Different Pond, Daniele Spano

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story Of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, Jordyn Rizzo

Diverse Families Bookshelf Lesson Plans and Activities

No abstract provided.

Coding Protocol: Early Math Interventions In Informal Learning Settings: Attention To Literacy, Hannah Carter, Gena Nelson, Peter Boedeker

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this document is to provide readers with the coding protocol that authors used to code 51 studies that met inclusion criteria for a systematic review. This systematic review focused on how literacy is incorporated into informal math intervention studies for children in preschool to third grade. We investigated what types of literacy activities were integrated, how literacy was a part of data sources collected, and in what ways literacy was mentioned explicitly by authors in research reports. We coded studies in this systematic review to answer the following research questions: (1) How is literacy incorporated? (2) What …

A Culturally Sustaining Book Club: The Examination Of African American Students' Motivation And Literacy Achievement, Brittney C. Jones

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Culturally sustaining pedagogy includes centering students’ cultural identities, languages, and practices in the classroom. Such practices have had positive effects on the reading achievement and motivation of African American students. In particular, communalism and interdependence are cultural themes that are preferred by African American students and parents. Book clubs are a long-standing literacy activity that centers student voices and social interactions as the basis of student learning.

This mixed-methods intervention study was conducted to determine the effects of a culturally sustaining book club on second and third-grade African American students’ motivation and reading achievement at a Title I school as …

Thinkmed: Inspiring The Future Of Stem, One Project At A Time, Steven Trinh, Lauren Dudley

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

ThinkMED is a nonprofit initiative offering a four-week curriculum specifically designed to develop critical thinking and encourage evidence-based decision making. Each week’s content material revolves around the use of a ThinkBOX science kit containing four (4) wet-lab experiments designed to supplement the curriculum. Each experiment is formulated to be inclusive of all California Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) K-5. At the end of each week, students get the opportunity to speak with university professors & scientists from a multitude of subject areas including chemistry, anatomy, computer science, physiology, and bioengineering. ThinkBOXes are donated to children and families who do not …

Curiosity, Motivation, Autonomy, And Lifelong Learning In Education And The United States Marine Corps, Cynthia Malmquist

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and autonomy-supportive teaching all promote lifelong learning in both the classroom and Marine Corps. Humans are all born with curiosity. Children inherently practice forms of intrinsic motivation. Most would agree that they do not like being micromanaged - they enjoy a sense of freedom when completing tasks. Despite this, many students learn in a controlling environment and many Marines work under controlling leaders. Though a large amount of time is spent on learning through the first 18 years of life, lifelong learning does not come naturally and is not commonly practiced. The research and ideas discussed below …

Oral History: A Tool For The Elementary And Middle Classroom, Jessica Keiser

Senior Honors Theses

Modern historical instruction requires educators to cover broad expanses of history and prepare students for standardized testing. In the push to meet state standards and cover the vast curriculum in short periods of time, many educators have begun to teach to the textbook. Much to the detriment of students, this educational practice has favored periodization and content quantity over the development of crucial historical skills. Rather than adhering to popular education trends, teachers can consider implementing oral history projects within their elementary and middle school classrooms. Oral history is a methodology that employs first-hand accounts to teach about key historical …