Elementary Education Commons^™

Early Exposure/Long-Term Gains: Encouraging Underrepresented Middle School Students To Pursue Stem Careers, Trinetia Respress, Owen Johnson, Londee Boyd, Twianie Roberts

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

Preparing middle school students in STEM for their transition to high school and ultimately for post-secondary endeavors requires early exposure to STEM subjects. This early exposure not only builds a foundation for the ever-changing skills that are needed for the workforce, but also boosts student achievement and test scores (STEM Education Works, 2021). The MUREP project focuses on increasing the number of underrepresented minority students interested in STEM fields. The purpose of this study is to examine underrepresented minority middle school students’ attitudes toward STEM and their expressed interest in STEM post-secondary subjects and careers after participation in the MUREP …

Digital Game-Based Learning Activities In Primary Grade Mathematics Achievement, Chris Anderson

Graduate Teacher Education

The research paper has gathered and analyzed research from online databases to find how digital game-based learning activities were used in mathematics and how it influences the affective domains of academic engagement, motivation, and academic self-perception. The paper aims to inform primary educators of the benefits and limitations of digital game-based activities in primary mathematics. Digital game-based learning has positively influenced students' academic engagement through interaction, play, and effort, which had a positive effect on their mathematical achievement. Increased motivation felt by students when doing digital game-based activities resulted in higher mathematical achievement and an increase in learning more mathematics …

Self-Study Portfolio Jessica Hanig, Jessica Hanig

Master of Education in Teacher Leadership Portfolios

No abstract provided.

One Font Doesn’T Fit All: The Influence Of Digital Text Personalization On Comprehension In Child And Adolescent Readers, Shannon M. Sheppard, Susanne L. Nobles, Anton Palma, Sophie Kajfez, Marjorie Jordan, Kathy Crowley, Sofie Beier

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Reading comprehension is an essential skill. It is unclear whether and to what degree typography and font personalization may impact reading comprehension in younger readers. With advancements in technology, it is now feasible to personalize digital reading formats in general technology tools, but this feature is not yet available for many educational tools. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of character width and inter-letter spacing on reading speed and comprehension. We enrolled 94 children (kindergarten–8th grade) and compared performance with six font variations on a word-level semantic decision task (Experiment 1) and a passage-level comprehension task (Experiment 2). …

Teachers’ Experiences With Providing Multi-Tiered Student Support For Students With Borderline Intellectual Functioning: A Qualitative Case Study, Teresa Davis Kelso

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand the obstacles that rural public school teachers encounter while delivering Multi-Tiered Student Support interventions for students with borderline intellectual functioning. The central question guiding this study was: What are the experiences of rural South Carolina public school teachers tasked with providing Tier III interventions for students with borderline intellectual functioning? The theory guiding this study was Bandera’s self-efficacy theory in that teachers are more effective when they are confident in their ability to use appropriate strategies and materials. The setting for the qualitative study was in a small rural district …

Game-Based Learning In Elementary Mathematics, Sophia Greenfield

Graduate Teacher Education

This paper analyzed 15 primary, peer-reviewed research articles about how to integrate game-based learning in elementary mathematics to increase conceptual understanding. The purpose of this paper was to inform teachers about how to integrate digital and traditional games, including factors to enhance effective implementation, in a way that increased conceptual understanding. Key factors were gleaned from the articles that had a significant impact on the effectiveness of game-based learning. In Chapter Two, traditional and digital games were divided into two sections to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of each method. These benefits and drawbacks were compared in the Appendices to …

Fostering Reading For Enjoyment In Upper Elementary Students By Developing Connections To Reading And Increasing Self-Efficacy, Patrick Ritt

Masters Projects

Data shows that fewer students are choosing to read for pleasure. Fostering students’ intrinsic motivation to read and developing skills to personally connect with texts, along with authentic literacy instruction has shown to increase how often students choose to read and for how long they read. Upper elementary teachers should create inclusive libraries, help students connect with interesting texts, develop useful independent reading time, and implement authentic and cross-curricular learning activities as part of literacy instruction. This project will help teachers assess student motivation to read and match students with appropriate and interesting texts. This project also provides methods for …

Implementing Social Emotional Activities Into The English Language Arts Curriculum, Allison M. Sherbel

Masters Theses

Over the last decade social emotional learning has revealed itself to be an important element in students' academic growth. Social emotional learning requires students to learn the skills necessary to effectively communicate with others as well as maintaining a positive classroom environment, where all students feel supported, safe and heard. When students become more connected to their own emotions, they are developing an essential skill that will help them inside and outside of the classroom. Research shows that implementation of social emotional lessons can improve both immediate and long-term social-emotional ability as well as academic growth. Despite this research, teachers …

Culturally Diverse Literature And Social Inclusion In Elementary Classrooms, Amanda Works

The Kabod

This qualitative study explored the use of culturally diverse literature in correlation to social inclusion, which is crucial for students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being. The purpose was to identify if culturally diverse literature could effectively promote social inclusion in diverse classrooms.

Presented at the National Collegiate Research Conference at Harvard University, January 2023.

See Senior Honors Thesis.

Preparing For Pandemics: Lesson Plan Design For Children In Elementary School, Daniella Rivera, Enkhtsogt (Steve) Sainbayar, Saleem Choudry, Brittany Vaughn Pierce, Roxana Nouri-Nikbakht, Joy H. Lewis D.O., Phd

Intellectus

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated distance learning to attenuate the spread of the virus, and school-aged children were particularly affected by this change. Because of their age and education level, children generally lacked understanding about the pandemic and the preventive measures necessary to prevent the spread of this and other infectious diseases. It is unknown how many schools nationwide incorporated disease-prevention education in their curriculums during the pandemic. Therefore, developing distance learning interventions that convey these topics at their level of understanding is important to improve health literacy and raise their awareness of factors that positively influence health.

Objective: To …

The Impact Of Repeated Reading Intervention On Oral Reading Fluency For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd) In Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Al Naji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence rate of learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has risen concurrently with their inclusion into public schools in Saudi Arabia. Being in schools, they face academic challenges, particularly in reading. This increased rate evokes the importance of implementing valuable strategies to keep up the academic skills of those students. These students require Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs), which have been demonstrated crucial for their reading development. Nevertheless, limited research has been done on examining the efficacy of EBPs used to enhance the reading skills of learners with ASD, especially their Oral Reading Fluency (ORF). This study used an effective approach …

The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Volume 2, Edition 7, August 2023, Bailey Feit, Tammy Mittelstet

CASNR L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter

The purpose of this L.I.N.K.S. newsletter is to provide a monthly update of opportunities and resources for K-12 schools to connect with the University of Nebraska's CASNR Food, Energy, Water, and Societal Systems (FEWS²) programs and partners.

Included in this edition:

K-12 curriculum and resources

Nebraska Game and Parks Wildlife Education

United States Forest Service Environmental Education

Upcoming events

Experience the Power of Red Visit Day

Panhandle-REEC Career Day-Scottsbluff

Eastern Nebraska World Food Prize

Cultivando Caminos (Cultivating Pathways) Conference

NJAS State Science Fair

Career exploration - pathways for students who like technology

UNL School of Natural Resources: Agronomy and Horticulture, …

Visual Literacies And Young Children’S Writing: Creating Spaces For Young Children’S Voices And Engaging In Authentic Writing Experiences, Elizabeth Presto

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Young children engage in multimodal written expression. The research in this study explores the spaces that were created, and the stories created by children in an after-school comic club. The club utilized the Writer’s Workshop model to support the Being a Writer program that is used in the Ocean View School District (Ocean View School District is a pseudonym). I created a supplemental writing program that utilized visual literacy instruction and taught the lessons in the club. The theoretical framework incorporated developmentally appropriate writing instruction, visual literacy elements, and sociocultural theory. This study employed an action research methodology with multiple …

Exploring Family Experiences In Supporting Children’S Literacy Development During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Sarahlee Desir

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, drastically changing teaching and learning. Children were immediately placed in emergency remote learning, and parents became facilitators of their children’s learning while children were in their virtual learning space. This study explored families' experiences with literacy development for children in second to third grade during the Coronavirus pandemic to learn how changing school experiences influenced family functioning around in-school and out-of-school literacy engagement activities. The study addressed these research questions: How did families support their children's changing and evolving school experiences during the Coronavirus pandemic? (a) In what …

Dismantling Anti-Blackness In Teacher Education: Centering Black Epistemologies To (Re)Construct Elementary Language Arts Education For Linguistic And Racial Justice, Jasmyn Kymberly Jones

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Black students and their linguistic resources are undervalued, disdained, disrespected, and disregarded in language arts classrooms. Not only is Black Language often ignored in English language arts instruction, but language more generally remains largely hidden within elementary ELA. Elementary ELA educators are tasked with teaching a vast array of skills, content, and concepts. So, teacher education programs are responsible for ensuring that preservice teachers leave prepared to take on the task of cultivating language arts classrooms that foster students’ literacy development. However, traditionally, literacy teacher education and the ELA curriculum has maintained white mainstream English as the standard for which …

Analyzing The Influence Of Mathematics Intervention Teacher Actions On Students' Mathematics Identities: An Examination Of Bipoc Student Perceptions And Past Learning Experiences., Sydni P. Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines mathematics education's past and present state in the United States, emphasizing mathematics intervention instruction. This dissertation includes a complex and critical analysis of intervention practices and historical and structural inequities based on race present in these interventions and mathematics education. In combination, it examines the construct of mathematics identities, their role in student success with mathematics, and trends surrounding mathematics education and its impact on populations of students of color. Using Critical Race Theory as an underlying framework and Critical Counter-Narrative as a methodology, it argues a need for marginalized student voices to be present in the …

Strategies To Increase Engagement In K-12 Stem Programs Among Bipoc Students Grades 3rd – 8th, Denisha C. Griffey

Dissertations

The WIRE Youth Development Programs, housed within the Lewis Walker Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI foster two enrichment programs geared towards strengthening the gap in academic knowledge through STEM/STEAM activities. Since its inception, WIRE has impacted over 1,000 youth grades 3-8 among the BIPOC population through its programs, most notably the WIRE Math and Science Summer Camp and Saturday Academy. In 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many K-12 education school systems switched to remote learning. As a result of this transition, there was a decrease in access …

Exploring Academic Opportunities For Military-Connected Students: A Systems Theory Approach, Georgia Mckown

All Dissertations

Military-connected children experience frequent disruptions to their daily lives as a result of military lifestyle demands like frequent relocations and service-related separations from their service member parent. These disruptions impact all areas of their lives including their homes and schools. While the body of research concerning military-connected children’s experiences at school has grown over recent decades, little is known about specific individual and contextual factors that may serve as assets or constraints. Knowing more about specific factors that influence school experiences for military-connected youth is a critical step in promoting and scaling home- and school-based interventions.

This three-paper dissertation begins …

The Relationship Between Discipline-Specific Subject Matter Knowledge And Discipline-Specific Science Teaching Efficacy Of Elementary Teachers, Douglas Ball

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because a teacher's confidence in their ability to teach science is associated with instructional methods and their persistence in the face of challenges, improving science teaching confidence becomes critical for improving science teaching of young children. Science teaching confidence also varies by discipline for elementary teachers: physical science teaching confidence tends to measure lower than life science. This discrepancy leads to elementary teachers engaging in less effective science teaching practices with physical science than life science. A teacher's subject matter knowledge influences their confidence in their ability to teach that subject. Subject matter knowledge impacts science teaching confidence because when …

How Middle School Students Describe And Explain Their Elementary Science Experiences, Tryna Knox

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to elicit students' voices to examine elementary science experiences to better understand foundational learning. The grounding philosophy and framework of phenomenology guided this work as I sought to capture the lived elementary science experiences of students. I administered a handwritten science autobiography to 52 middle school students at a private middle school in a suburban southwestern community. Utilizing a hermeneutic analytic approach, I learned that middle school students describe and explain elementary science experiences in many interesting ways. For example, students shared a preference for participating in hands-on, active, or engaged learning experiences over …

Understanding The Role Of Parent-Teacher Communication In Motivating Elementary School Students: A Case Study, Brittany Rose Powers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand parent-teacher communication and its role in motivating students in elementary school. The work was guided by the following central research question and two sub-questions: CRQ) How do parent-teacher relationships motivate students? SQ1) How does a met or not met basic need dictate the motivational outcomes of students? SQ2) How do elementary school students perceive the role of parents and teachers in their motivation to learn? A qualitative research design was used to gather individual experiences and participants’ perspectives. The multiple case study design allowed many participants to share varying perspectives …

The Perceived Impact Of A Global Pandemic On The Academic Achievement And Social-Emotional Health Of Students In The Title I Elementary Classroom: A Phenomenology, Tiffany Nicole Paige

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study explored the perceived impact of the global pandemic on students' academic achievement and social-emotional health in Title I elementary schools in Northcentral Georgia. The central research question driving this research sought to explore teachers' experiences with perceived student achievement and overall social-emotional health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theories of behaviorism and social learning guided this study as the researcher’s goal was to identify how COVID-19 has impacted students academically, as well as taking a more rigorous look at the social-emotional wellbeing of students who have experienced numerous educational changes due to the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic …

A Transitional Program From Elementary To Middle School, Savannah S. Shontere

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

I created a program to promote a smooth transition from elementary to middle school for the students at Bradenton Christian School (BCS). Following my literature review and needs assessment, the program was designed to provide students with the tools and strategies needed to feel prepared for middle school, foster friendships, and advocate for themselves and their peers. Following the program implementation, I created educational resources for the faculty at BCS to continue the program in the future.

The Relevance And Benefits Of Moral Intelligence To Servant Leadership, Kong Wah Cora Chan

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

Moral intelligence has a better chance of fixing morality-related issues instead of bandaging them and addressing the servant leadership best test stated by Greenleaf (1977/2002). Prudence—mature moral intelligence—is one’s skillful act in making the best, most caring alternative among all possible choices based on moral wisdom (Bradshaw, 2010). Morally intelligent people are conscious of aligning their values, goals, and actions with the universal principles of integrity, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness (Lennick and Kiel, 2011). Such an alignment leads to purposeful living and organizational success. Borba (2001) advocated for building moral habits of empathy, conscience, self-control, respect, kindness, tolerance, and fairness. …

Boosting Confidence In Kindergarten Writing: How To Assist Kindergarten Emergent Writers Through Developmentally Appropriate Practices In Phonics And Writing, Amy Martin

Masters Projects

For a kindergarten student, writing can be exhausting and difficult. For a kindergarten student, writing can also be imaginative and fun. Kindergarten students have a lot of stories to tell and words to write, they just need tools in their toolbox in order to do so. Writing, especially in the younger grade levels, often takes a back seat to other subjects. Unfortunately, this leaves many words unwritten, skills unpracticed, and minds unimaginative. This project aims to create a resource for teachers to use within their designated writing time specifically focusing on developmentally appropriate practices and pulling from the intertwined skillset …

An Introduction To The Algebra Revolution, Art Bardige

Numeracy

Bardige, Art. 2022. The Algebra Revolution: How Spreadsheets Eliminate Algebra 1 to Transform Education; (Bookbaby) 135 pp. UNSPSC 55111505.

The Algebra Revolution: How Spreadsheets Eliminate Algebra 1 to Transform Education argues that Algebra 1 can be eliminated by teaching mathematics through spreadsheets. Such a change would eliminate the greatest roadblock to student achievement.

Bee Busy, Tallgrass Prairie Center, University Of Northern Iowa

Open Educational Resources

Lessons adapted form the book Keepers of the Earth : Native American stories and environmental activities for children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac focusing on pollination and seed formation in plants for grades 2 through 5.

Friend For All Seasons, Tallgrass Prairie Center, University Of Northern Iowa

Open Educational Resources

Lessons adapted form the book Keepers of the Earth : Native American stories and environmental activities for children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac focusing on the seasons and the way plants react to the changes for grades kindergarten through 5.

Taking Flight: North By South, Tallgrass Prairie Center, University Of Northern Iowa

Open Educational Resources

Lesson adapted form the book Keepers of the Earth : Native American stories and environmental activities for children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac focusing on the migration of birds and the flyways in North America for grades 6 through 8.

Wildflower Season, Tallgrass Prairie Center, University Of Northern Iowa

Open Educational Resources

Lesson adapted form the book Keepers of the Earth : Native American stories and environmental activities for children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac focusing on the life cycle of wildflowers for grades Kindergarten through 2.