Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons^™

Dialogue Within Professional Learning Communities And Its Impact On The Professional Growth Of Teachers In The Elementary School Setting, Melanie Spradley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The implementation of professional learning communities is a professional development practice that uses collaborative interactions within a constructivist framework to increase teacher and student learning. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the question of how the dialogue of grade level meetings within professional learning communities impacts the professional development of teachers using the constructivist theory of learning as the conceptual framework. The researcher gathered data through hour-long interviews over a 4-week period with 6 learning community participants, one from each of the 6 grade levels at the elementary school research site. A thematic analysis of the …

The Relationship Of Self -Evaluation, Writing Ability, And Attitudes Toward Writing Among Gifted Grade 7 Language Arts Students, Lisa Dement

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous research has indicated that literary skills performance in reading and writing for middle school students has declined. There remains an important gap in the current literature regarding the decline in literary skills, which is a good predictor of the potential for students to drop out of school. The goal of this study was to determine if the use of self-evaluation influences students' writing ability and their attitudes toward writing. Using a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design, and over the course of 10 weeks, the researcher administered a writing pre- and posttest, as well as a pre- and posttest Writing …

The Effects Of School Climate On Teacher Efficacy And Retention In High-Poverty Schools, Debbie Lambeth

Theses and Dissertations

High-poverty schools must have teachers who believe they can make a difference in the lives of the students. Teachers with high self-efficacy tend to have the desire to make that difference in the life of a child and persist in the face of adversity. School climate plays an important role in building teacher efficacy and persistence in high-poverty schools. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the school climate created by a comprehensive school reform model, teacher efficacy and teacher persistence in high-poverty schools. The findings revealed a statistical significance between teacher efficacy and teacher persistence. …

The Effects Of Teacher Race In The Elementary School On Student Achievement Test Scores, John Stortz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The racial and gender composition of elementary school teachers does not match those of the students and this may be contributing to an inequity of achievement scores between African American and European American students. This ex post facto causal comparative study compared three levels of elementary school diversity personnel staffing on Grade 4 African American student Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores and differences between male African American scores and female African American scores in a suburban Atlanta county. Nine intentionally selected elementary schools were chosen representing 3 racial diversity personnel staffing levels including 39% to 50%, 25% to 27%, and …

The Perceived Trust Of Elementary And Middle School Principals And Leadership Attributes In An Abbott District In New Jersey, Eva M. Ogens

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Principal's Role In Affecting Student Reading Achievement, Kathleen J. Beecher

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Backbone Of Classroom Instruction, Bilqees Patel

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Principal Leadership And Its Perceived Influence On Teacher Morale In Elementary Schools., Anne Runyan Littleford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to construct a theoretical framework explaining the connection between principal leadership practices and the phenomenon of teacher morale. The study also focused on principal leadership practices and the perceived effects that style has on how teachers feel about themselves and their jobs. First, a review of extant literature defined what constitutes effective leadership in school related environments. Second, the researcher defined teacher morale, both high and low, and how it relates to work performance. Third, the researcher attempted to explore how teacher morale and the leadership style of their principals relate.

This qualitative …

Preferred Coaching Behaviors Of Male And Female Basketball Players: Gender And Level Of Competition, Ryan Kettler

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate similarities and differences in coaching preferences among male and female basketball players based on gender and level of competition. Participants were 20 male and female basketball programs (2 NCAA Division I Teams, 4 High School Teams, and 4 Middle School Teams). The ages of the players ranged between 12 -24 years of age, with males and females having a comparable age distribution. The instrument used to collect data was the revised Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) athlete preference version (Zhang & Jensen, 1997). The results of the statistical analyses using a two …

Principal And Teacher Perception Of The Understanding And Facilitation Of The Implementation Of Cognitive Instructional Strategies To Improve Reading, Gwendolyn Battle Lavert

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle and high school principals' perception of their understanding and facilitation of the implementation of cognitive instructional strategies in the classroom to improve reading. The study also investigated the English/language arts chair or language arts teacher's perception of their principals' understanding and facilitation of the implementation of cognitive instructional strategies to improve the reading. The population for the research was public high school principals and teachers grades 9-12, and middle school principals and teachers grades 6-8. A total of 121 surveys were returned providing a 38% return rate. The data were analyzed …

Leadership-Influenced Practices That Impact Classroom Instruction Related To Writing: A Case Study Of A Successful Elementary School, Barb Johnson

Dissertations

This research studied the practices of educators at an ethnically diverse suburban elementary school which had demonstrated success in the area of student writing, even among at-risk students. The overall research goal was to examine to what extent and how leadership-related practices impacted classroom instruction in a manner that helped produce successful writing scores. A case study approach was used to explore four key leadership-related practices (supervision, curriculum, professional development, and knowledgeable leaders) and their impact on classroom literacy-based instructional strategies.

The study participants included two leaders and fourteen teachers from a single elementary school located in a metropolitan Michigan …

A Spring Board To Fly, Aafiyat Nazar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

It Pays For Teachers To Learn Again, Asghari Ummulbanin

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Standardized Testing Emphasis On Teaching And Learning In Kindergarten Through 12th Grade In United States Schools: East Tennessee Principals' Perspectives., Terri Dodge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The pressure to perform on standardized tests in the United States has become intense. Increased accountability has caused principals to think about their perceptions of standardized testing with regard to accountability measures, test validity, use of test data, impact of testing on the curriculum, and stress related to testing. The purpose of this study was to investigate kindergarten- through 12th-grade principals' perceptions of standardized testing. The study included 91 principals of Title I and nonTitle I schools located in 8 rural East Tennessee school districts. Data were gathered using a survey instrument to determine principals' opinions of standardized testing.

There …

Perceived Leadership Practices Of Principals-Coaches And Principals-Noncoaches., Tony Edward Tipton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of self-reported leadership practices using the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory between high school principals in North Carolina who were coaches with those principals who were not coaches. This quantitative study was conducted using a survey-design method in which all 368 public high school principals in North Carolina were given the opportunity to participate. A Principal Demographic sheet along with the 2003 edition of Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) Self- Form was used to gather information regarding the principals' perceptions of their leadership practices. The response rate …

Children’S Hopes And Fears, Bernadette L. Dean, Shazia Solangi

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Restoration Vs. New Construction: How To Make The Right Decision, Timothy J. Ilg, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Restoration or new construction? That is a dilemma that educational leaders, particularly superintendents and school business officials, have had to wrestle with for years. In the past, state regulations often dictated whether school buildings should be renovated or torn down to make way for new construction. State reimbursement guidelines favored new construction over restoration for public school development by either withholding funds or denying the full state support for restoration projects. In fact, some states established complex formulas that mandated new construction if the cost of restoration exceeded approximately two-thirds of the new construction costs.

Reversing the mindset among many …

Playing It Safe In Secondary School Athletic Programs, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

School business officials play a critical role in ensuring that district assets are protected and that students and staff have a safe environment in which to learn and work. In their role as risk managers, school business officials work closely with the board of education and fellow administrators to identify and track potential risks, develop plans to mitigate those risks, and perform regular risk assessments to determine how risks have changed.

Some risks are inherent in all school systems. For example, students on the playground, buses on the roads, chemicals in the science labs, even food in the cafeteria pose …

A Study Of Career Preparation Activities Used In Michigan’S Public High Schools, Brian L. Pyles

Dissertations

This study assessed the status of Michigan's Career Pathway high schools 2 years after state Career Preparation funding was terminated early, in order to determine the institutionalization of Career Pathway activities. In particular, this study examined the use of Career Pathway curriculum guides, Educational Development Plans (EDPs), student Career Pathway designations, student career assessments, work-based learning activities, alternative scheduling, college credits earned in high school, instructional strategies, teacher professional development, and Career Pathway high school planning committees. This study also ascertained the perceived helpfulness of having students declare a Career Pathway and using EDPs as a guide in the selection …

No Child's Intelligence Left Behind: The Impact Of Instrumental Enrichment Training On Teacher Belief Systems, Jeanne Marie Zehr

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods research project provided quantitative and qualitative assessments on the impact of Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (F.I.E.) training on the belief systems of American educators, specifically on the extent of belief in the modifiability of intelligence. The two-way ANOVA conducted for the quantitative research portion of the study compared the results of five groups of educators with various training experiences with Instrumental Enrichment. The second independent variable, years of experience in teaching, had three levels: 0 to 5, 6 to 30, and 31 +. The dependent variable consisted of epistemological belief in learning ability on a continuum from na'ive …

Creeping Judicialization In Special Education Hearings?: An Exploratory Study, Perry A. Zirkel, Zorka Karanxha, Anastasia D'Angelo

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Teacher Perceptions Of Bullying Prevention: A Comparative Analysis Of Teacher Perceptions Of Bullying Prevention Programs, Diana Howell

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

School bullying has often been tacitly minimalized as a rite of passage—an unfortunate but common experience among children. In the past few years there has been an increasing awareness of school bullying as a catalyst of school violence. Parents, school boards, and administrators are understanding and taking more seriously the negative impact that bullying has on victimized students and are actively looking for ways to reduce incidents of such violence. This research provides a discussion of bullying behavior and an examination of teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of bullying prevention programs in their schools. If teachers do not feel that …

A Call To Action For Restoring Trust, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

If you have been following the recent impasse between the Richmond School Board and school administration and Mayor Doug Wilder and his administration, you will notice that very different stories are being told -- each side trying to find a receptive audience.

Portrait Of Rural Virtual Schooling, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Over the past two decades, distance education has become a reality of rural schooling in Newfoundland and Labrador. In this article, I provide historical background into the challenges facing rural schools in the province and how distance education was introduced to address that challenge. I also describe how that system of distance education evolved from a system that used the telephone lines and bridging technology to one that uses a combination synchronous and asynchronous system delivered over the Internet. Finally, I examine recent literature concerning the nature of today’s secondary students that would need to avail of this system and …

Least Common Multiple Of Teacher Leadership Styles: Implication For Classroom, Khalid Mahmood

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

In a school, a teacher, as a leader, interacts directly with the students to develop their cognition for a desired outcome. At the same time s/he also forms a caring relationship with them not only to guide them academically but also socially and spiritually. Students also have certain capacity for their own learning. This capacity to large extent influences by teacher’s role in the classroom. Hence three factors have major influence to shape effectiveness of a classroom. In the study reported in this paper, combinations of these factors were sought and presented in three dimensional models. Eight different combinations (models) …

Developing Teachers’ Skills In Thar Desert Area, Sindh, Pakistan, Saeed Nasim, Parvez Pirzado

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

This paper aims to present AKU-IED’s experiences about working in the Thar Desert Area of Sindh. AKU-IED aimed to develop teachers’ skills and to help them provide quality education to the children of the said underprivileged and remote area of Pakistan.

Women In Educational Leadership: A Comparison Of Kenyan And Pakistani Women Educational Leaders, Jane F. A. Rarieya

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

Though literature on educational leadership is expansive, most of it is related to the social and organisational structure of educational systems in the western world, thereby giving an impression that western models of leadership are universal. Hence, there is need to study school leadership in non-western countries because perspectives of educational leadership have been taken almost exclusively from western literature and practice. Women in educational leadership are in a minority in Pakistan and Kenya, as is the case in many parts of the world. Whilst a number of writers have attempted to identify and categorise some of the internal and …

School Improvement In Multi-Grade Situation (Sims): An Innovation Of The Pdcc, Jalal Wali Khan

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

Professional Development Center, Chitral (PDCC), since its establishment in Chitral, is committed to work with its partner education providers for the improvement of quality of teaching and learning in schools. PDCC believes that effective teaching and learning in primary, acts as a foundation stone for higher education, but currently it does not happen in majority of our primary schools. Multi-grade situation in primary schools is one of the many reasons of low quality education. School Improvement in Multi-grade Situation (SIMS) was piloted in five schools aiming to improve the current Multi-grade Teaching (MGT) situation in schools. This study intended to …

Action Research—A Means Of Continuous Professional Development In A Rural Context: Possibilities And Challenges, Razia Fakir Mohammad, Roshni Kumari

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

This paper presents our findings from a research initiated to support teachers’ continuous development through action research in the rural context of a developing country. The study investigated the experiences of seven teachers and teacher educators from the rural context of Pakistan, who spent nearly six months undertaking action research projects as part of a follow-up strategy for a university based teacher education programme. After the completion of the university-based programme, the participants had gone back to their respective institutes and were expected to initiate action research projects in order to implement new knowledge/learning. It was also a strategy to …

Status Of Teachers And Teaching: Conclusions, Implications And Recommendations, Anjum Halai

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.