Student Perceptions Of Writing: Effects Of Small Group Writing Intervention, Lauren Ramsey

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined fifth-grade students and how they perceived themselves as writers before and after the implementation of small group writing instruction. The researcher used pre- and post-surveys, journal entries, head notes, and focus groups to collect data from the students and herself as the researcher. To analyze the qualitative data, the researcher used the constant-comparative method and created level 1 and 2 codes. For quantitative data, descriptive statistics was used to graphically represent the data. The goal of this study was to understand if small group instruction would cause a shift in student perceptions about themselves as writers. After …

Staar Preparation: How It Affects The Perceptions Of Third-Grade Students, Taylor Whitworth

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Test preparation is a hot button topic in education today. Many studies have looked at students’ and teachers’ perceptions after the administration of the STAAR test. This study investigated third-grade students’ perceptions of the STAAR before and after previous-form test preparation interventions. The researcher used observations, surveys, and interviews to collect data. The data was analyzed using the constant comparative method and descriptive statistics. The author found five major themes that answered the two original research questions. Most students had negative perceptions of the STAAR test prior to intervention, and these often stemmed from information from family members. Overall, the …

Noteworthy Notes: Student Perceptions Of Online And Paper Notes, Hannah Hamaker

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Notetaking is an often overlooked but important factor of student learning. Studies that have focused on notetaking in the past have highlighted performance over perceptions. This study investigated the importance of fifth-grade students’ perceptions of online and paper notetaking. The researcher collected data through pre- and post-surveys, interviews, observation field notes, student artifacts, and a data tracker. The researcher analyzed the data collected using the constant comparative method and a primary and secondary coding scheme. The resulting secondary codes were the copying process, features of online notes, features of paper notes, and use of notes. Findings suggest that students vary …

How Doctoral Students In A Formal Leadership Program Conceptualize Followership: A Mixed-Methods Study, Katy J. Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this exploratory mixed-methods study was to determine how doctoral students in a formal leadership program conceptualize followership. The methods used to conduct this analysis included distributing a Qualtrics (released in August 2022) survey and conducting one-on-one interviews with a sample of degree-seeking doctoral students within a formal leadership program. The researcher collected quantitative and qualitative data addressing students’ followership style, leadership attitudes and beliefs, and perceptions of followership. These data were analyzed concurrently using a triangulation design. A total of 67 students completed the survey, and seven students were interviewed. The findings revealed that the participants employ …

The Effectiveness Of Using Behavior Specific Praise Versus General Praise For One Elementary-Aged Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Angie Slusar

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The purpose of this study was to look at the effectiveness of general praise (GP) versus behavior specific praise (BSP) on increasing on-task behavior and decreasing the behavior of hitting in an elementary-age child with autism spectrum disorder. The researcher conducted a single function functional analysis to confirm that hitting was maintained by access to adult attention. The researcher used an alternating treatment design to compare GP and BSP as behavior change interventions. The researcher observed an educator working one-on-one with an elementary-aged child with autism. In each condition, the educator gave the praise that corresponded with the condition, to …

Percepción De Docentes En Integración De Herramientas Tecnológicas Utilizando El Modelo Picrat En Una Institución De Nivel Superior, Marangely Perez Montalvo

Theses and Dissertations

Este estudio tuvo como propósito analizar la percepción de los profesores sobre el modelo de integración tecnológica PICRAT y cómo este evalúa los niveles de reemplazo, amplificación y transformación que se le realizan a las herramientas tecnológicas para lograr una interacción pasiva, interactiva y creativa con el estudiante durante el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Se utilizó un enfoque cuantitativo con un diseño transeccional no experimental con un alcance descriptivo y correlacional. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 23 profesores universitarios que imparten al menos un curso de manera remota en el nivel académico de maestría con especialidades en Ciencias de …

Playful Learning: The Disposition Of Architecture As Pedagogy, Alyssa Franklin

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Education is a vital foundation of a society. The standard of today’s school environment is built upon the pedigree of the factory schools from the nineteenth century. However, elementary age children require a flexible, engaging, and creative learning environment that the standard school environment does not provide. Learning is a dynamic and innovative action. Architecture should mirror the learning that it supports through providing spaces that allow for flexibility, engagement, accessibility, and attraction. Children are transformed by the spaces they are in, spaces that will leave lasting impacts on the cognitive development of the children, spaces that can be playful …

Culturally Responsive Strategies To Support Multilingual Learners, Liz Shanks, Mackenzie Weakland

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Teachers must develop pedagogical practices to meet the needs of the growing number of multilingual learners in K-12 classrooms. Our inquiry- based research study analyzed ways that teachers can implement pedagogical strategies that are culturally responsive to multilingual learners. Thematic analysis of recent academic studies, class observations, and an interview with a language specialist affirm a set of culturally responsive instructional practices in the classroom that lead to the academic success of multilingual learners. These practices included teacher attitudes, translanguaging, and thinking routines to assist in English language acquisition. K-12 teachers, administrators, and community leaders working with multilingual learners can …

Project Cps: Curriculum Content + Creative Problem Solving = Successful Integration, Kathleen C. Frazier

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The goal of my master’s project is to empower teachers to unlock the Creative Problem Solving potential in their students and open the door to a world of possibilities by providing strategies, resources, and support to integrate CPS into their teaching practice.

To achieve this, I have designed a book that presents an original and engaging

imaginative characters to foster an immersive and interactive learning experience that will capture the imagination of both students and teachers.

Meet the Spirit of Creativity, represented as E. Paul Torrance, along with four Creative Problem Solving Characters who will guide teachers and students through …

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, …

A Teaching Unit Plan For Introducing Engineering In 1st-2nd Grade Classrooms, Claudia Smith

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The field of engineering, and specifically chemical engineering, is projected to increase significantly over the next 10 years. Engineering programs require students to have a strong foundation of math and science. Students in the United States are often underprepared to enter these programs, and the majority of high school students are not interested in pursuing a career in the STEM field at all. For this project, a unit teaching plan was created to introduce students to the field of engineering, providing a foundation for their upper-level STEM classes, and encouraging them to consider engineering as a career in the future. …

Teaching Story Problems To First-Grade Students Utilizing A Variety Of Differentiated Instructional Strategies And Assessment Methods, Shelby Decker

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies implemented throughout a math unit in a first-grade classroom. The capstone will report the effectiveness of two instructional strategies and two assessment methods that were integrated into a math unit that focused on students’ understanding of story problems with a missing addend or subtrahend. The math unit had 13 lessons taught over four weeks between the pre- and post-assessment. Based on student data, students’ understanding and performance increased throughout this unit by using a variety of differentiated instructional strategies and assessment methods. In this capstone, I will report what the instructional strategies …

Using Student Goal Setting And Individual Student Conferences To Increase Academic Achievement In Mathematics, Amanda R. Mcnamee

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on an elementary school in the Midwest region of the United States; this community serves as a regional center of education, commerce, and health care. Participants in this study are a classroom of 17 fifth grade students; 35% girls and 65% boys. The school district in this study recently adopted a new mathematics curriculum, Bridges. In using this new mathematics curriculum, the teachers have noticed that many of the fifth-grade students are consistently scoring in the red on the assessments. This research study will investigate whether implementing goal setting and individual student conference sessions will …

Strategies To Aid Multilingual Learners In Academic Language Acquisition In Elementary Science And Mathematics Classes, Mikayla Grumbacher, Sophia Sladic

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

This qualitative inquiry research study surveys academic language acquisition strategies for teachers of multilingual learners in elementary science and mathematics classes. We paired readings of recent peer-reviewed journal articles with video observations of three elementary school teachers and an interview with a Director of English as a Second Language for a county in Virginia. Thematic analysis helped us identify similar strategies across the different studies, classroom observations, and interview. Our findings suggest that utilizing sensory and interactive supports are especially helpful strategies for teachers seeking to help multilingual learners in academic language acquisition.

Perspectives On Movement In The Classroom And Strategies That Keep Students Engaged, Darley Desormo

Honors College Theses

Within this study, the question of “what are teachers’ rationale for incorporating kinesthetic learning in the elementary classroom '' will be addressed. The purpose of this study is to gain insight from elementary teachers’ perceptions and their rationale on the use of movement-based learning in the classroom. To examine further into this research, interviews were conducted. Participants of the study were elementary classroom teachers. During seven online meetings, the researcher interviewed using consistent guiding questions asking elementary teachers about their implementation and rationale of movement-based learning in their classroom experiences. The researcher also asked questions to gain an understanding of …

Development Of The Emirati Child Adaptation Scale (Ecas) For Assessing The Behavioral Adaptation Skills Of Children With And Without Disabilities In The Uae., Ousha Almuhairy, Efthymia Efthymiou, Hala Elhoweris, Mahmoud Alshathly, Abdelaziz Sartawi

All Works

Behavioral problems cause limitations in the social skills of children without disabilities and affect the functionality of children with disabilities. The Emirati child adaptation scale (ECAS) was developed in the UAE to provide reliable and valid information on the behavioral adaptation skills in children with and without intellectual disability (ID). The scale’s item pool consists of 651 items that identify behavioral adaptation deficits across the 10 domain–skill areas of communication, pre-academic, listening, social, self-care, self-orientation, motor skills, operational society, life, and health and safety. The scale was administered to 1542 children with disabilities and 920 children without disabilities. The scale …

K-12 Teachers’ Perceptions Of Preparedness And Training To Provide Instruction And Support To English Language Learners, Rebecca Doxsee

Ed.D. Dissertations

The increased number of English language learners in the general education classroom created the need for teachers to be knowledgeable about how to instruct and support English language learners. Due to the minimal extant literature related to K-12 teachers’ preparedness and training, specifically regarding English language learners, the purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to examine the perceptions of Tennessee K-12 teachers related to preparedness and training to provide instruction and support to English language learners in the general education classroom. I emailed the questionnaire to 63 potential participants and received questionnaire responses from 44 (69.84%) K-12 teachers. I …

Student Behavior Ratings And Response To Tier 1 Reading Intervention: Which Students Do Not Benefit?, Wilhelmina Van Dijk, Christopher Schatschneider, Stephanie Al Otaiba, Sara A. Hart

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

Core reading instruction and interventions have differential effects based on student characteristics such as cognitive ability and pre-intervention skill level. Evidence for differential effect based on affective characteristics is scant and ambiguous; however, students with problem behavior are more often non-responsive to core reading instruction and intensive reading interventions. In this study, we estimated the range of students' behavior ratings in which a core reading instruction intervention was effective using a data set including 3,024 students in K-3. Data came from seven independent studies evaluating the individualized Student Instruction (ISI) Tier 1 reading intervention and were pooled using integrative data …

The Effects Of Family Size And Birth Order On Students' Social Emotional And Cognitive Development, Mary Watson

Honors Projects

This project sought to analyze and understand the differences in student’s cognitive and social emotional development based on their number of siblings (also referred to as family size) and birth order. To accomplish this, a 130-question survey was created and emailed to approximately 125 teachers. 27 survey responses were received, which is a response rate of approximately 21.6%. The response data was categorized by only child, oldest child, youngest child, child with one or two siblings, child with three or four siblings, and child with five or more siblings. Though the responses were varied, the data showed that oldest children …

Teaching Angle As Turn Using A Code.Org Lesson, Stacy K. Boote, Terrie Galanti

UNF Faculty Research and Scholarship

Elementary school students use physical manipulatives (e.g., pattern blocks) to make sense of the geometry and measurement ideas in a Code.org block-based programming lesson.

A Middle-Class Mother's Journey On Navigating The Educational System: The Impact Of Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, And Class In Schools, Amy A. Hunter

Dissertations

This is a qualitative autoethnographic study of a Black mother in the Midwest region as she navigates the educational system for her children. This is a research document that informs the reader of the impact of racism and the intersectional identity of race, gender, and motherhood. The importance of intersectionality is highlighted in this research, and so it is that the mother is middle-class to articulate that poverty, access to resources, or the educational attainment of the mother are not necessarily mitigating factors for the treatment she receives within the educational setting. Moreover, is serves as a guide for other …

The Impact Of Supplemental Phonemic Awareness Lessons On Phonological Awareness And Spelling Development Among Kindergarten And First Graders, Crystal Olinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Reading is a developmental process that builds on complex cognitive processes and starts long before children enter school. This present study investigated the impact of supplemental phonemic awareness lessons on phonological awareness and spelling development among kindergarten and first graders. The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP-2) measured phonological awareness. The Kindergarten Inventory of Developmental Spelling (KIDS) measured spelling development in kindergarten students. The Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) measured spelling development in first grade. Participants in the treatment group received 16 weeks of weekly word study instruction and 10-15 minute daily phonemic awareness instruction. A mixed design full factorial ANOVA …

The Usage And Impact Of Act 1240 Teacher Licensure Waivers In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Policy Briefs

Act 1240 of 2015 allows Arkansas school districts to petition for waivers allowing for the employment of teachers who are not licensed under the standard procedures of the state. Since the program’s inception in the 2016-17 school year, the number of teachers employed under Act 1240 waivers has increased, with the Arkansas Department of Education reporting 836 teachers hired using Act 1240 waivers in 69 districts during the 2021-22 school year. This represents approximately one quarter of the districts within the state, but only approximately 2 percent of the nearly 40,000 teachers employed last year.

Using publicly available data from …

Partnering Pre-Service Teachers With First-Grade Writers: An Exploration Of Giving Effective Feedback, Kelly N. Tracy, Lydia J. Foust

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Feedback is a critical component of teaching and learning (Black & William, 1998; Hattie, 2009). Thus, it is essential for pre-service teachers to have a clear understanding of how to give effective feedback, including on student writing. This article describes a collaborative partnership project between a first-grade teacher and a teacher educator focused on giving students feedback on their writing. Using the online tool Flipgrid, the project brought together 15 first graders and 27 pre-service teachers enrolled in a writing methods course in an effort to offer on-going feedback to the first graders as they were in the process of …

Difficulties Facing Teachers In Teaching Mathematics To Students With Learning Disabilities In Light Of Corona Pandemic And Proposed Solutions From The Teachers' Point Of View, Laial Mohammad Damrah

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

The study aimed to reveal the difficulties facing teaching students with learning disabilities in Mathematics in light of Corona pandemic and proposed solutions to them from the point of view of their teachers. To achieve this goal, the analytical descriptive approach was used, the study tool (questionnaire) was distributed randomly on a sample of 58 teachers was chosen out of 123 (47% of the study population) from all resource rooms in 5 directorates in Amman (26 male and 97 female teachers) for the academic year 2020/2021 to respond to a questionnaire items. The result showed that the most problems facing …

Mindfulness In Education: Why Every School Should Be Teaching It, Ashley L. Baer

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Were you ever asked to pay attention in school? As an educator have you asked students to pay attention? Compare that to how many times you were taught or taught a student to pay attention. Most likely the answer is never. Mindfulness is explicit attention building and emotional regulation. Learn how and why you should create a mindful breathing culture through short experiential practices, activities, and games including breathing activites, and movement.

Exploration Of Motivations For Adopting A Four-Day School Week Or Year Round Calendars: Evidence From Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Kate Barnes

Policy Briefs

This brief provides an overview of the motivations for Arkansas school districts adopting a four-day school week or year-round calendar. In addition to examining these motivations, this brief provides an overview of the districts adopting non-traditional calendars and policy recommendations for districts and communities considering changing calendars.

We Wanted To Do Something Innovative: Exploring Motivations Of Arkansas Districts Adopting Four-Day School Weeks Or Year-Round Calendars, Kate Barnes, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

Recent legislation has allowed Arkansas school districts increased flexibility to adopt a non-traditional calendar. Act 688 introduced four calendar options for districts: a traditional calendar, a four day calendar, a year-round calendar, and an alternate calendar based on the number of instructional hours.

During the 2022-23 school year, 33 school districts throughout the state adopted new calendars. The motivations behind why districts adopted new calendars were unclear. This report aims to identify the rationale behind why these districts moved away from the traditional calendar.

This report uses data gathered from interviews with twenty-three superintendents in districts that selected non-traditional calendars …

Book Review: Teaching With A Social, Emotional, And Cultural Lens, Shauna Mayer

Essays in Education

Successful teachers are continually looking for ways to improve student achievement. Nancy Markowitz and Suzanne Bouffard write about how the incorporation of teaching through a social, emotional, and cultural lens allows students to be successful inside the classroom. The authors provide several tips, tools, and research-based strategies that align with the Anchor Competencies Framework. The book prepares new teachers, and provides new insights for current and veteran teachers.

Challenge-Based Learning & Steam Curriculum, Diana Lockwood

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

STEAM education is being integrated into elementary schools as a way to engage more students in creativity, hands-on learning, and problem-based learning also referred to as Challenge-Based-Learning (CBL). This article focuses on elementary educators’ curriculum design for STEAM and presenting students with open-ended questions phrased as a challenge as a way to raise student interest and achievement (DeJarnette, 2018; Hunter-Doniger, 2018). When students received challenges to solve, they felt more open to sharing their ideas since there was more than one potential right answer (DeJarnette, 2018; Drake, 2012). When implementing CBL, teachers act as facilitators using a constructivist approach as …