Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Inclusive Education For All: Identifying Teacher Beliefs About Working With Students With Disabilities, Chelsea Sharek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs K-12 teachers have when working with students with disabilities in a rural Pennsylvania school district. This study aimed to identify if teachers’ personal beliefs created biases about their students and school systems; thus, forming barriers and preventing an inclusive education when working with disabled students. Instrumentation for this quantitative study is the Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) survey. Findings suggest that some teachers at Sunnyside School District (pseudonym) hold personal beliefs that could create biases about their students and school system that may form barriers when working with …

The Impact Of Noncognitive Skills On Student Achievement In Elementary-Age Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Karen Garmon

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has created one of the largest disruptions in educational history. The impact on learning loss and social-emotional well-being from the pandemic threatens to compromise achievement outcomes for an extended number of years. Previous research has proven relationships between grit, growth mindset, self-efficacy, and academic achievement (Duckworth, 2016; Duckworth et al., 2007; Dweck, 2008), but little is known about the validity of noncognitive constructs and academic achievement in elementary-age students, particularly how the relationship between these variables affected student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to determine if noncognitive traits had a relationship …

“Now I Feel Like I’M Supposed To Make Mistakes”: Changing Student Perceptions Of Mistakes, Ellison Lunde

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined how second-grade students in a GT-clustered classroom perceived making mistakes. The researcher implemented literature discussion circles focused on growth mindset and making mistakes as an intervention to improve student perceptions. She collected data through surveys, field notes, and student focus group interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method to look for recurring themes as well as descriptive statistics in the case of numerical data. Three major themes emerged including struggles with mistakes, internal processes, and benefits of mistakes. Statistics confirmed that the intervention effectively improved the perceptions of almost every student and that GT students …

Teaching Growth Mindset To Second Grade Students, Whitney Hahn

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Growth mindset is a buzz word in the field of education. The purpose of this study was to observe and understand what would happen when students were presented with growth mindset lessons in the classroom. Additionally, the researcher wanted to know how students perceived using a growth mindset. This study took place in a gifted and talented classroom, composed of a unique grouping of students: those identified as gifted, high-achieving students, and typical students. Responses from each grouping were included. Data was collected through student artifacts, student surveys, student and teacher interviews, observations, and journaling. Three major themes emerged from …

The Importance Of Introducing Growth Mindset To Childcare Professionals, Jenn Hall

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In this day and age, many children are guided through school by instructors and leaders which evaluate their capabilities. This guidance can include phrases such as, “you draw so well!” or “you’re really good at ____”. The use of evaluative comments is a dilemma because it could potentially sort children into different ability groups, which could cause children to feel down on themselves when put in such situations.

Early care and education teachers use praise often with young children. However, many teachers may not realize that this praise is evaluative and may make children think their abilities are fixed and …