Elementary Education Commons^™

Assisting School Level Teams To Identify And Address The Needs Of Struggling Learners Through A Tiered Intervention And Aligned Professional Development Model, Tammy Dionne Person

Theses and Dissertations

The adoption of the IDEA charged schools with the responsibility of identifying students who have disabilities and special needs and then providing them with appropriate educational services so that they progress academically. Schools have adopted, implemented, and revised a variety of screening processes to identify these students. The process of trying to help students who are experiencing difficulties is often referred to as RTI. The RTI framework is comprised of a multi-tiered educational system that outlines instructional practices based on student needs. Many schools have formed teams and devised policies to explore options for student assistance. This study involved designing …

The Intersection Of Influential Reading With Writing In Multimodal Contexts, Grace Rusk Kerr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have touted the importance of teacher self-efficacy on the motivation and achievement of their students (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Bandura, 1994 & 2002; Mojavezi & Tamiz, 2012). When teachers have high levels of self-efficacy (the level at which teachers believe they can affect student outcomes), their students achieve at higher levels and develop increased levels of motivation. By extension, we posit that if teachers have increased self-efficacy regarding their own writing abilities, it will translate into increased motivation and achievement levels for their students in the area of writing. The purpose of this three-article dissertation is to support …

Observations Of A Multi-Component Intervention For Elementary Students With Emotional Behavioral Disorder After Self-Efficacy Coaching, Anna Kristen Bensinger

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) experience more negative student outcomes compared to other special education disability categories, specifically, higher dropout rates, less access to higher education and incarceration. Mathematically, 73% of students with EBD achieve below the 50th percentile on standardized tests (Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, Epstein, & Sumi, 2005). This study focused on the exploration of a multi-component mathematics and behavior intervention targeting student self-efficacy for productive learning behaviors in the general education mathematics classroom setting for elementary students with EBD. Participants for this study were students from two 4th grade classrooms, who have been identified with co-occurring …

Teachers Engaging In Action Research To Increase Learner Agency, Dawn M. Childress

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is designed to explore the perceptions of teachers in a Northwest Arkansas urban elementary school context as they engage in design-based action research to increase learner agency. It is based on the Carnegie Project on Education Doctorate (CPED) framework that includes identifying a problem of practice and engaging in research to address the problem. A problem of practice was identified in this school setting by an incoming school principal following a principal that had been in the school for many years. The new principal, also the researcher in this study, recognized that there was a low level of …

Second-Grade Students’ Perceptions Of Their Classrooms’ Physical Learning Environment, Tsitsi Nyabando

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Guided by the constructivist framework, the focus of the investigation was on second-grade students and their perceptions of their classrooms’ physical learning environment.

A qualitative multiple case study approach was employed, and data were collected through interviews, participant-generated photographs, and observations. Participants in the study were 16 second-grade students in four classrooms in three school districts in Northeast Tennessee. A physical learning environment tool, Assessing the Pillars of the Physical Environment for Academic Learning (APPEAL), developed by Evanshen and Faulk (2019) was used to select classrooms to take part in the study. The tool focuses on dimensions that help observers …

The Convergence Of Negotiated Imaginative Play, Literacy Learning And Kindergarten Common Core English Language Arts Standards, Grace Salinas-Casper

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of strict academic requirements is replacing play as a previously widely accepted developmentally appropriate practice in kindergarten classrooms around the United States, resulting in an imbalance in cultivating the whole child. Research focused on the importance of play in children’s cognitive, linguistic, physical, moral, creative, emotional and artistic development exists. Couched in Vygotsky’s social development theory and the Reggio Emilia principle this ethnographic case study investigates how kindergarteners demonstrate literacy learning, practice and mastery of Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CC.ELA) through imaginative play in a negotiated environment. Research outcomes suggested that negotiated play appears to provide …

Outdoor Activities To Improve Writing, Alyssa Kyllonen

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

An Exploration On Why Parents Choose Catholic Schools, Sara Giza

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

“Though Many We Are One” is one of the mottos of a Catholic school system and is the foundational statement to what Catholic school stand for in the Diocese of the Midwest (pseudonym). My dissertation explores why parents choose alternative education in a Catholic schools. Catholic schools provide the student with the guidance and the ability to grow academically, spiritually, and emotionally. I analyzed the viewpoints of parents, administrators, and pastors within selected Catholic schools in the diocese to determine if there are similar foundational statements among multiple Catholic schools or if each school stands for something entirely different. Interviews …

Jewish Time Jump: New York, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Jewish Time Jump: New York (Gottlieb & Ash, 2013) is a place-based mobile augmented reality game and simulation that takes the form of a situated documentary. Players take on the role of time traveling reporters tracking down a story “lost to time” to bring back to their editor at the Jewish Time Jump Gazette. The game is played in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, New York City. Players’ iPhones become their time traveling device and companion. Based on the player’s GPS location, players receive digital images from their location from over a hundred years in the past as well …

Understanding Second Grader’S Computational Thinking Skills In Robotics Through Their Individual Traits, Youngkyun Baek, Dazhi Yang, Yibo Fan

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigated the relationship between the personal traits and computational thinking skills of second graders within the context of robotics activities. The hypothesized model showed that learning preference, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy were the main predictors of coding achievement and computational thinking skills, while no direct relationship was found between learning preference, intrinsic, or extrinsic motivation. The final path analysis revealed that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation predict self-efficacy, self-efficacy predicts coding achievement, and coding achievement predicts computational thinking skills. Another important finding was the strong impact of self-efficacy on coding achievement as well as computational thinking skills. Results are …

Teacher Perceptions Of Assessments In Character Education: A Case Study, Sarah Hickman

Senior Honors Theses

Since the time of Aristotle, educators have emphasized character as a necessary part of a student’s education, and currently, many states mandate character education by law. Because of this historical and legal emphasis, there is a growing discussion on the necessity of assessments in character education to ensure that character education programs are effective. While there is research on the large-scale effectiveness of programs with different assessments, there is little research about how teachers perceive assessments and measurements in character education. This study was conducted to begin to address this gap in the research. Through the research design of an …

Leading For Excellence: Leadership Behaviors That Cultivate A High-Achieving School Environment, Kristen Belknap

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed-methods study was to determine the degree of importance for the 12-step principles proposed by Harvey et al. (2014) to create a K–12 school environment that fosters high student achievement as perceived by public school elementary principals. A secondary purpose was to explore and describe the leadership strategies for implementing the 12-step principles proposed by Harvey et al. to create a K–12 school environment that fosters high student achievement as perceived by public school elementary principals.

Methodology: An explanatory mixed-methods study was completed to examine the degree of importance each of the 12 leadership …

Beating The Odds: High-Growth Schools Based On The Act Aspire Examinations, Serving Low-Income Communities, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

We choose to focus on student growth for these OEP awards because we think it is a better reflection than proficiency rates of how the school is impacting students. Growth is calculated at the student level, and essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement …

Environmental Explorations: Integrating Project-Based Learning And Civic Engagement Through An Afterschool Program, Rachel Farmer, Nakayla Greene, Kristen H. Perry, Cindy Jong

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This study examined the Community Super Investigators Club, through which we aimed to apply mathematics and literacy skills by using project-based learning (PBL) to investigate elementary students’ interest in learning how to improve the environment for animals. PBL is a teaching method used to improve critical thinking skills around a project that is based on students’ questions. The study used a mixed-method design to examine the following research questions: How do students engage in PBL on topics relevant to their community in an afterschool club? How can critical math and literacy skills be integrated with community engagement? How did the …

The Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics Program: Thinking Globally In A Regional Context, Unicef, Southeast Asian Ministers Of Education Organization (Seameo)

Assessment and Reporting

The Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) program is a regional assessment that aims to set a common approach to assessing the learning outcomes of students at Grade 5. As an alternative to international large-scale assessments and national assessments, SEA-PLM has developed a set of assessment and survey instruments for the Southeast Asian region. Designed to be a system-level monitoring tool of educational quality and equity, SEA-PLM covers four domains: mathematics, reading, writing and global citizenship. The assessment also includes questionnaires that gather important contextual information from students, parents, teachers and school principals. A key feature of the SEA-PLM assessment …

Multilingual/Translanguaging: Narrative Writing Through Authentic Language, Lucia E. Brea

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

The Case For Joy In Learning: Teacher And Students' Perceptions Of Flow Experiences In Upper Elementary Classrooms, Rhonda Stern

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focused on intrinsic motivation in elementary schooling, with Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory and the conditions and dimensions leading to optimal learning, serving as the theoretical framework. This qualitative case study investigated: 1.) How do teachers create flow-producing learning experiences for upper elementary students and 2.) How do upper elementary students experience flow in their daily school lives. Fieldwork included observation, collection of work product, and interviews of thirteen students and two exemplary teachers. Students were also asked to take digital photos of artifacts or spaces that related to their learning, and that they were proud of or found exciting. …

Conceptual Models For Integer Addition And Subtraction, Nicole M. Wessman-Enzinger, Edward S. Mooney

Faculty Publications - College of Education

In this article, we report the findings of a study conducted with 6 Grade 8 students in the United States. The students posed stories for open number sentences involving addition and subtraction of integers. We analysed the stories posed by the students to build models that describe the conceptual structures behind these posed stories – the conceptual models for integer addition and subtraction. These four conceptual models for thinking about and using integer addition and subtraction include Bookkeeping, Counterbalance, Relativity, and Translation, and are generated from the students’ posed stories. We also provide profiles of conceptual model use for two …

Using Inquiry In Teacher Professional Learning To Build Efficacy For Writing Instruction, Jacqueline B. Koonce, Melissa Brooks-Yip, Kathleen Gibson

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Whitacre (2019) and Curtis (2017) found that participants’ efficacy impacted their writing instruction and ability to engage students. We share our experiences with a professional development program aimed to improve teacher efficacy and literacy of elementary teachers. In this professional learning network, the Study of Early Literacy (SOEL), a higher percentage of teachers reported to a Hanover Research survey that they felt less confident in teaching writing than other areas of literacy. To address this need, one of the authors developed a subgroup to specifically address the teaching of writing with an inquiry-based action research component. Most of the teachers …

The Relationship Between Teachers’ Understanding And Implementation Of Differentiated Reading Instruction And Third-Graders’ Reading Achievement Scores, Diedre L. Capers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlational study was to determine whether the predictor variables, teachers’ perceived understanding and implementation of differentiated instruction, as measured by the Understanding and Implementation of Differentiated Instruction survey, had a relationship to the criterion variable, third-grade students’ reading achievement, as measured by the mClass: Reading 3D Text Reading and Comprehension Test. Using convenience sampling, third grade teachers from six rural North Carolina counties were invited to participate in the study. Data from 54 third grade teachers who consented to participate were analyzed using a Pearson product moment correlation. The results of this study indicated that a …

Mathematical Dispositions Of Novice Upper-Elementary Teachers: A Phenomenological Study, Leslie Anne Soltis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the mathematical dispositions of novice upper-elementary teachers by exploring their experiences as teachers of mathematics in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Ball’s theory of mathematical knowledge for teaching and Bandura’s self-efficacy theory guided this study. The research project sought to answer the central research question: How do novice upper-elementary teachers perceive and describe their experiences teaching mathematics? Data, in the forms of audio diaries, individual interviews, and online focus groups were collected from a purposeful sample of 10 novice upper-elementary teachers. Data analysis followed a systematic procedure …

Recognition And Positional Identity In An Elementary Professional Learning Community: A Case Study, Christopher G. Wright, Rasheda Likely, Kristen B. Wendell, Patricia P. Paugh, Elizabeth Smith

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Professional learning communities are typically conceived of as spaces for reducing teacher isolation, supporting informed and committed teachers, and fostering student academic gains. Focusing on a professional learning community that supported the teaching and learning of engineering in elementary schools, we also conceived of this learning environment as a space for negotiating a teacher-of- engineering identity. Calling attention to emergent issues of power and status through a lens of positional identity, this article examines a Black female educator’s sense of self as a teacher-of-engineering and how this perception was informed by participation in the professional learning community. Findings reveal that …

African Centered Education, The Maji Shujaa Online Academy: A Descriptive Case Study, Beverly Jackson

Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive case study framed by African centered theory, is to advance the knowledge about the online African centered educational programming, Maji Shujaa Academy. The researcher is the Chief Executive Officer( CEO) and lead teacher/lead developer of online educational media for the Academy. Considerable private African-centered educators with enterprenueural spirit have advanced and created online African centered global educational programming for the students of Africa and African Diaspora population groups today. Yet the available literature is shallow with regard to the workings of online African centered educational programming. This study explores in which the online Academy makes …

Family, School, And Forms Of Capital, Sonja Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation contains three separate but related papers, each with a different focus. In the three papers, I sought to gain a deeper understanding of how different forms of cultural and social capital appeared in the relationship between families and schools. The first paper covers an interview study exploring how teachers in elementary school understood and used email to facilitate partnership with parents, a form of social capital that has the potential to benefit families from all class backgrounds. The second paper investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status, bonding social capital and cultural capital; I tested whether social capital affected …

From Preparation To Practice: A Qualitative Study Examining The Perceptions Of General Education Teachers, Kemba Ayanna Allen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Teachers are certified either by a traditional university-based program or an alternative route to certification program. Graduates transition into teaching from diverse backgrounds and bring with them various experiences and predetermined expectations and visions of the profession. Teacher education preparation curriculum traditionally has included exposure to pedagogy and theory. These programs amass many underprepared students, which results in graduates who are underexposed to pedagogical best practices.

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) approach to teaching views learning spaces as sites for knowledge-building, innovation, and inquiry. According to the SoTL, the educator looks carefully and critically at students’ learning …

Engagement Opportunities At The United Way Of Greater Lafayette, Yechan Lim

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The United Way of Greater Lafayette is a non-for-profit that works to serve the community through programs, outreach, engagement, and fundraising. The United Way facility acts as a hub for many programs including Read to Succeed, Kindergarten Countdown Camp, and Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA). These programs help to address issues in the local community and provides volunteers opportunities to make a difference, while obtaining technical skills. YeChan Lim is a recent Master’s graduate in the Environmental and Ecological Engineering program.

Purdue Students In Tanzania: Establishing Connections Through 10 Years Of Service-Learning, Laura Duke, Madison Busch

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

For ten years, Dr. Jill Newton has coordinated the Maymester in Tanzania program and has created a highly successful and compelling program. Her aim for this program was to create a mini Peace Corps experience for Purdue University students, seeing as she has herself served as a Corps member in Papua New Guinea. One of the most impactful and rewarding components of this program is the service learning opportunities she encourages. Purdue University students attending this program have received a total of over $23,000 in service learning grants to date towards bettering the communities they interact with daily while on …

Weather Courtyard: Reflections On Interactive Stem Learning Spaces, Ryan Day

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

In this article, the author discusses his experiences in service-oriented engineering developing an interactive weather station for DCES students. Day details this process and the lessons learned over the course of the project development, as well as the project’s influence on his aspirations for a career in civil and environmental engineering. To provide substantive takeaways from the project, he concludes by reviewing the benefits of interactive STEM learning spaces in the instructional environment and links them to the impacts of the weather station project on the community.

An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Implementing Citizenship-Readiness Standards In The Elementary Social Studies Curriculum: A Case Study Of A School District In New Jersey, Dezoray Moore

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how elementary schools prepared students to become lifelong learners as it relates to meeting citizenship readiness initiatives. Traditionally, schools use standardized assessments aligned with college- and career-readiness standards to measure student achievement in the reading, writing, and mathematics curricula. This study sought to examine alternative assessments aligned with citizenship-readiness standards to measure student achievement in the elementary social studies curriculum. A qualitative case study using five elementary school principals to obtain their perceptions of the elementary social studies curriculum was highlighted. An extensive analysis of common themes emerged concluding the need for educators to provide students with …

Storypath: A Powerful Tool For Engaging Children In Civic Education, Margit E. Mcguire, Laurie Stevahn, Shari Wennik Bronsther

Democracy & Education

This article explains why elementary school children need civic education, identifies common obstacles that frustrate efforts, then describes how the Storypath approach can provide all students with opportunities for powerful civic learning. An actual application in a culturally diverse fourth-grade classroom illustrates how children grappled with Seattle’s affordable housing issue as they created and enacted Storypath’s five components, namely setting, characters, context, critical incidents, and concluding event. It also demonstrates how Storypath effectively integrates social studies content, literacy skills, and social-emotional learning (SEL) through cooperative small-group episodes that produce meaningful and memorable lived experiences for …