Educational Methods Commons^™

The Mathematical Disposition Of Middle School Students: An Examination Of Students’ Self-Concept Of Ability In Mathematics, Katrina Leigh Hall

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to answer the following research questions via the lens of social-constructivism: How do middle school students describe their self-concept of ability in math? What teacher/classroom interventions are recognized by students as having an impact on their self-concept of ability? This study specifically addressed the utilization of student voice and the need to recognize self-concept of ability as a separate academic domain in research. The purposeful sampling for this case study consisted of 10 eighth-grade middle school students who participated in both an online survey and a semi-structured interview. The major themes …

The Explorations Program: Benefits Of Single-Session, Research- Focused Classes For Students And Postdoctoral Instructors, Jeremy L. Hsu, Anna M. Wrona, Sarah E. Brownell, Waheeda Khalfan

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

We present an update to Explorations, a program at Stanford University that allows undergraduates in an introductory biology course to explore specialized topics in the biological sciences while providing graduate students and postdoctoral scholars the unique opportunity to develop and teach single-session, research-focused classes. We provide an assessment of eight iterations of the program, using program attendance, student and instructor evaluations, senior exit surveys, course grades, and completion of undergraduate honors theses to assess the impact of our program on students and instructors. Students rated their experiences highly, and most reported that the program had a positive impact on their …

Examining The Decisional Ethic Of Textbook Adoption In Christian Schools: A Collective Case Study, Cecil Phillips

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this collective case study is to examine the decisional ethic Christian school administrators employ when evaluating textbooks for adoption in Christian schools. The study affirms the truism that Christian schools ought to be decidedly Christian and focuses upon textbook adoption practices in Christian schools. A multisite, qualitative research design is employed to examine current practice of textbook adoption among a purposive sample of secondary schools within the Southeast region of the Association of Christian Schools International. The research questions address such administrative leadership factors as organizational values and learning objectives, textbook content criteria and features, and the …

Carrying On With Wayward Sons, Erika Simpson, Henrik Lagerlund

Political Science Publications

With their brains not maturing until their mid-20s, it's time to use a different approach to life and learning with our young men.

Immersions In Global Equality And Social Justice: A Model Of Change, Kevin Guerrieri, Sandra Sgoutas-Emch

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

In the work for global equality and social justice, how should “change” be understood? Who determines what must change or be changed? In the efforts to carry out social change, what is the academy’s relationship with the community, society at large, and the broader world? This article parts from these and other key questions and then proposes a model of change that can be used as a lens for examining any project, program, or organization with the aim of creating positive change that is meaningful, sustainable, and holistic. The article provides both an explanation of the underlying interdisciplinary theoretical framework …

The Spirituality Of Immersion: Solidarity, Compassion, Relationship, Michael E. Lovette-Colyer

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

While the term spirituality can be problematic, obscuring as much as revealing, immersion experiences cannot be understood fully without exploring the contours of what can only be described as spirituality. To the extent that they work, immersions effect change when they speak to the deepest longings of the heart. While manifesting in many different ways, the spirituality of immersion revolves around three major components: solidarity, compassion, and relationship. The spirituality of immersion is a developed relationality, a desire to enter into richer, wider, more expansive relationships with others, which naturally leads into deeper relationship with God.

Reflections On Skipping Stones To Diving Deep: The Process Of Immersion As A Practice, Judith Liu Dr

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

Reflecting upon over 30 years of teaching courses with a community service-learning and engagement component, this article is a personal piece that explores the author’s journey through voluntarism, community service-learning and civic engagement, and how that path has led to embracing immersion as a critical pedagogical practice for community engagement.

Engaged Pedagogy: Reflections From A Barriologist, Rigoberto Reyes

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

This essay offers advice to University faculty and administrators on how best to implement the work of engaged pedagogy and community development work. The author is an established activist and community organizer for the past 40 years. His most important recommendation when doing the work of community engagement is to begin work that starts and benefits the community.

Beyond Behavior, Craig C. Laupheimer

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Teaching to engage students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can inspire the whole classroom and make teaching and learning engaging and exciting. Although teachers and students alike face a challenging educational landscape, much can be done to empower students with special needs. Teaching with the whole classroom in mind with an emphasis on hands on, explorative and inspirational learning experiences to accommodate for these students strengthens and causes student engagement and agency. This article highlights the challenges and potential breakthroughs possible for classroom instruction specifically where the ADHD student is concerned and looks towards teaching mindfulness and empowerment as …

Effective Interventions For Improving Reading Accuracy And Fluency In Children With Dyslexia, Carlea A. Winkler

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

There are a vast number of instructional strategies for teaching students with dyslexia, but successful approaches all share a few key components including, a high degree of structure, intensive and explicit instruction, and a low student to teacher ratio. Additionally, most research-backed strategies fall into one of two categories: programs that target phonological awareness, and programs that target orthographic pattern recognition and morphology. Numerous studies on phonological awareness training and orthographic pattern recognition training have showed positive results. However, more research is needed to understand why some children fail to make significant gains even with intensive intervention, and what factors …

The Effect Of Cross-Cultural Differences On Team Performance Within An Educational Setting: A Mixed Methods Study, Sevinj Iskandarova

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Faculty members’ performance, experience, satisfaction while on a team, and their professional development were investigated to determine the benefits and challenges of cross cultural differences. The sample consisted of full- and part-time faculty members at James Madison University (JMU), located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The purposes of this mixed methods study (online survey and one-to-one interview) were to determine and measure the effect of cross-cultural differences on team performance, highlight advantages and disadvantages of those cross-cultural differences within the team; and, apply the knowledge learned from this study to enhance team performance within an educational setting. The online survey assessed faculty …

The Achievement Gap And Students Living In Poverty: The Role Of Core Self-Evaluation And Transformational Leadership In Teachers, India Harris

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Research has shown that the combination of locus of control, self-efficacy, self-confidence, and emotional stability is a good predictor of life success. Until now, this second order factor, called core self-evaluations (CSE) has only been studied in adults. Findings from this study, showed levels of CSE were significantly and positively connected with academic achievement for middle and elementary aged students. CSE appears to play to a similar role between students and academic achievement as it plays with adults and job performance. In this study, the dimensions of transformational leadership were applied to teacher behaviors and students were grouped based on …

A Correlational Study Of The Motivation And Engagement In Teachers: Experience And Effectiveness, Cynthia Phillips

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

he purpose of this correlational study was to determine if there is a relationship between the motivation and engagement level of induction (first four years) teachers as compared to veteran (five or more years) teachers using the overall score on the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES, 2013) and the Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES-W, 2012) developed by Martin (2012). Teachers from four participating districts located in northeast Georgia were divided into two groups based on years of teaching experience. Both groups participated in an online survey (MES-W, 2012), which collected demographic data as well as responses to the MES-W survey. …

Transitioning First-Career Skills Into A Second Career In Teaching: A Collective Case Study Of Effective Elementary School Teachers, Timothy Simmons

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to understand how first-career skills were utilized by highly effective second-career elementary school teachers in northeast Tennessee. The guiding research question for the study was: How do the skills acquired in a first career affect second-career elementary school teachers? The theories that guided this study were experiential learning theory developed by David Kolb and transformative learning theory developed by Jack Mezirow as they focus on the importance of experience and perspective in the learning process. The sample for this study was comprised of five second-career elementary school teachers, four elementary school …

Teachers’ Experiences Of Georgia’S Early Math Intervention Program: A Phenomenological Study, Rachel Scott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions that K-5 teachers have toward Georgia’s mandated Early Intervention Math Program (EIP) on at risk learners in an elementary school in a rural, North Georgia community. The following questions guided the study: 1. How do K-5 teachers describe their experience with Georgia’s Early Intervention Math Program as an early math intervention for at-risk learners? 2. How do participants describe their experiences with Georgia’s EIP regarding student math preparedness? 3. How do participants perceive the EIP program in comparison to the regular education math program? The setting for this study …

The Use Of Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve Analysis For Academic Progress And Degree Completion, Joshua William Schutts

Dissertations

College student retention and graduation are important to students, institutions, and the community. Institutions must commit to understanding why students persist and depart in order to address student success. As a result, institutions and governmental entities have increased the emphasis they place on using data to improve student success and degree completion. An abundance of research suggests that background factors (such as high school GPA and ACT score) combined with environmental factors (such as one’s major and first semester GPA) are predictive of student success. However, the literature has yet to explore the value of ROC curve analysis as a …

Addressing Student School Refusal Through Effective School, Family And Community-Based Interventions, Robert G. Lyons

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the factors causing school refusal and in-turn diagnose a school-based intervention designed to retain students. This study specifically addressed the use of a teacher mentor intervention for school refusal students as a means of improving attendance, academics, social and emotional well being and improve their overall mindset about school. The focus group for this study was 15 general education sophomore students enrolled in a resiliency program at a large suburban Massachusetts high school. These students selected for the resiliency intervention program met the following criteria: a) all participants are sophomores; …

Educator Perceptions Of Instructional Leadership In The School Improvement Process, Lori Lynne Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to conduct an investigation of educator perceptions of instructional leadership in the school improvement process. Interviews were conducted with educators and an administrator in a small, rural high school in Middle Tennessee. In 2010, the high school was labeled as a low performing school by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE). In 2014, Commissioner Kevin Huffman announced the school was on the TDOE Reward School Cusp List for being in the top 10% of schools based on one-year progress data from the Tennessee Value-added Assessment System (TVAAS) school composites.

Participants of this case …

Grant Writing In Higher Education, Amos Bean

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

The primary aim of this capstone was to elicit feedback from public health and grant writing practitioners and funders in order to gather data that can be used to supplement teachings and readings for a course in the Muskie School of Public Service Masters in Public Health (MPH) graduate program. Two overarching questions served as the basis for this endeavor. The primary question for public health and grant writing practitioners was, “What are the most important lessons you have learned that you think graduate students who are writing their first proposals should know?” The primary question for funders was, “What …

What It's Like To Be A Migrant Worker, Jonathan Harris

Migration in Global Context Symposium

This lesson was used for my seventh and eighth grade students to illustrate the difficulties in a life of a migrant worker. Our school changed our main fund raiser from selling World's Finest Chocolate to Fair Trade Chocolate over concerns of fair wages and conditions for the workers. This lesson, combined with a lesson from the parent volunteers on the business side, illustrated how unfair the conditions and pay were for migrant workers.

The Coaching Principal: Building Teacher Capacity Through The Texas Teacher Evaluation And Support System (T-Tess), Nathan R. Templeton, Kent Willis, Lavelle Hendricks

Education Doctorate Faculty Works

In response to mandates from the United State Department of Education, Texas revamped its educator evaluation systems to better support teacher professional growth. This best practice research informs practitioners of strategies to build teacher capacity through the leadership coaching attributes necessary for effective implementation of the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS).

Citation: Templeton, N., Willis, K., & Hendricks, L. (2016). The Coaching Principal: Building Teacher Capacity Through the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS). International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 8(4).

A Case Study To Discover The Factors Impacting North Georgia School Leaders' Choices In Assignment Of Co-Teaching Partnerships, Donna Cherveny

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Assignment of co-teaching partnerships fails to be recognized fully in the current base of literature. Literature documents the impact of teachers on educational environments and student success, hiring choices of school leaders, and the implementation of co-teaching; however, literature is lacking at the junction of these topics. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to discover the factors that impact choices of North Georgia school leaders when assigning co-teaching partnerships. Participants included 13 school leaders from 7 North Georgia school districts who are responsible for assigning co-teaching partnerships. Results of the study demonstrate that personal characteristics, professional experiences, …

Student-Teacher Connection, Race, And Relationships To Academic Achievement, Timothy Brian Mabin Jr.

Dissertations

Urban, primarily minority and low-SES students continue to lag behind their suburban white non-low SES counterparts in terms of academic achievement. Some previous research suggests that strong bonds between teachers and students help such students succeed. This study therefore sought to investigate any relationships between student-teacher connection, race, and academic achievement.

Student perceptional data on student-teacher connections (i.e., a teacher caring about them) and student achievement data in the areas of math and reading from 3,359 high school students within a large urban Midwestern school district was examined. In addition, the race/ethnicity of both the students and teachers were examined …

Building Successful Academic And Behavioral Programs For At-Risk Youth: Low And No Cost Options, Jeannette Hallam

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

In order to effectively educate all students and make progress in closing the achievement gap, we must look at two areas for school improvement: positive relationships, and school policies and procedures. Participants in this group will walk away with strategies for building positive relationships, reducing the drop-out rate, and assisting students in meeting their goals. Participants will also learn how to evaluate current policies and procedures that may be restricting student growth or achievement through data awareness.

Rigor Demystified, Now What?: Applying & Aligning Webb’S Depth Of Knowledge To Literacy & Math Instruction., Barbara Serianni, Kelly Brooksher

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

After exploring the four levels of cognitive rigor in Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) and the alignment to the Common Core. Participants will further engage in hands-on activities designed to model the application of DOK in the content areas of literacy and mathematics to improve instructional alignment, increase student engagement, and ensure appropriate rigor in classroom activities and assessment.

Word-Slam Stories As Venues For Stimulating Learning And Developing Agency With Urban High School Students, Elite Ben-Yosef, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio

The Qualitative Report

Word-slam was used with our high school urban students as instrument and method to elicit engagement with learning and develop agency through personal storytelling. The word-slam text (as it appears on YouTube and in hard-copy format as well) was chosen due to its being a personal story and an alternative, artistic and critical form of text that our students could relate to directly as the format and content were relevant to their lives and experiences. By using the text as a mentor text and studying the author’s craft together, students were able to write, rewrite and develop their own word-slam …

Dear Officer Bogash: Policing Black Bodies On College Campuses, Jordan S. West

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Students' Critical Reflections on Racial (in)justice

Pre-College Deaf Students’ Understanding Of Fractional Concepts: What We Know And What We Do Not Know, Keith Mousley, Christopher Kurz

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Mathematical knowledge and skills are crucial to success in academics and the workplace. The Common Core State Standards emphasizes fraction teaching and learning in elementary school. This mixed-method study explores fraction concept understanding among 14 deaf and hard of hearing participants between the ages of 8 and 16, as quantitatively measured by their ability to describe the properties of fractional numbers, convert between fractional numbers and their visual representations, and determine the order and equivalence of fractional numbers. Furthermore, the qualitative study was supplemented by interviews with the deaf participants and surveys with their parents and teachers to examine use …

Advisement: From Bank Street To Binghamton, Margaret Yonemura

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

The author describes her experience of adapting the Bank Street advisement model to a new master's program in early childhood/elementary education at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

The Advisement Process In School Reform, Esther Rosenfeld

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

As the new Teacher Director at Central Park East II elementary school, the author chose to adapt Bank Street's advisement model to the staff development work at her school. She suggests that the process may be appropriately applied more broadly in efforts at school reform.