Elementary Education Commons^™

Goal Setting In Kindergarten: Motivating Young Learners To Be Successful In Learning Sight Words, Ashley Brudvig, Taylor Anderson, Jarrett D. Moore

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of goal setting as a motivator for kindergarten students in learning grade-level sight words. This study was conducted over a 6-week period in two Midwestern kindergarten classrooms. The participants in the experimental group were trained in self-setting goals and participated in weekly check-ins and bi-weekly assessments. Themes in motivation were documented using a reflection survey and anecdotal notes. Student growth was tracked using sight word assessments and growth charts. Data suggested participants who set goals achieved higher gains than participants who did not set goals.

Pilot Study Of The Dynamic Early Literacy Framework For Implementation Of Science Of Reading Aligned Instruction, Jaclyn Galbally Ph.D., Nancy Scharff

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

A growing, research-based consensus supports addressing our nation’s literacy crisis through instruction aligned with the Science of Reading (SoR). We recognize, however, that the complexity of SoR content, alongside the multiplicity of instructional decisions and practices, and the unique features of each classroom and school, make simple implementation designs unlikely to achieve desired results. To guide schools in developing higher levels of SoR-aligned early literacy instruction, we developed the Dynamic Early Literacy Framework (DELF). The DELF primarily serves as a framework to guide inquiry and innovation of SoR-aligned early literacy drivers, while documenting progress as well as identifying change priorities. …

Development Of Educational Quality Mapping Instruments (Ip-Snp) In West Java, Rina Mutaqinah, Bambang Sumintono, Yanti Triatna

International Conference on Assessment and Learning (ICAL)

Decision-making must be based on valid data, as well as decision-making in the field of education. It is very important to have a valid instrument, therefore it is necessary to develop an educational quality mapping instrument that can measure the achievement of the quality of education. This instrument was developed based on educational quality standards, namely the competency quality of graduates, content, process, assessment, educators and education personnel, infrastructure, management, and financing. The purpose of this study was to obtain an instrument that has high validity. The educational quality mapping instrument (IP-SNP) uses a rating scale, collecting data through a …

National Assessment Of Educational Progress (Naep) Results 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee

Policy Briefs

The National Center for Education Statistics has released this year’s NAEP results which measure nationwide student performance in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. NAEP is administered nationally to a representative sample of students from all 50 states, so acts as a standard measure of student performance across states and time. In this policy brief will examine Arkansas’ 2022 results and examine score gaps between student groups.

The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Edition 9, October 2022, 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 Partners website is live

Curriculum and classroom resources for all levels

Eye on curriculum and resources

Idena Nebraska Ag Expo career exploration event

Teacher opportunities

Link to list of new partnerships

Ask an expert

Students experiences: Student internship opportunities with USDA NRCS and Scholarships available

Eye on CASR research: Commodity marketing for high school students

Send your students …

Impacts Of The General Music Classroom On Social-Emotional Learning, Nicole Geerdes

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research project was to gain insight into students’ social-emotional learning and the impact of general music class on it. The researcher utilized a dependent samples T-test with four sections of third-grade students gathering data with a check-in and check-out form on their emotional zone, using Kuypers, L. (2022) Zones of Regulation. The researcher is a general music teacher (transitional kindergarten through fifth grade) in her nineteenth year of teaching. The findings of this study showed that more than half of students came to music class in a focused and ready-to-learn state. The observations kept by …

Goal Setting: Impacting Teacher Candidate Growth In Residency Practicum Prior To Student Teaching, Shantel Farnan, Victoria Seeger, Sue Wood, Greg Rich

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Educator preparation programs and school districts continue to strive to meet their commitment to better prepare future teachers for entry into the field of education. For more than 100 years, beginning as a normal school, a midwest university has had a strong reputation for the preparation of teachers. After a significant revision to the curriculum to one driven by competencies, this university increased field experiences for teacher candidates, including a culminating year out called Residency Practicum and Student Teaching. Over the course of the undergraduate program, candidates work toward achievement of competencies assigned throughout the coursework and aligned to state …

Engaging Children With Animals Increases Their Awareness Of Their Footprint On Earth, Brett Foster

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Teachers should reserve time in their classrooms to connect curriculum to animals and environmental topics. Connecting core subjects like writing, reading, or even math to animals builds student investment in learning as they can connect the topics of animals to their lives. Animals are all around us and are a topic that students naturally spend a lot of time with and can easily identify in the world around them. There are several benefits of incorporating animals into the curriculum, including an increased sense of empathy, an awareness of their environmental impact, and an investment in their community.

I have focused …

Perceptions Of Elementary School Parents Regarding Family And Community Engagement In The Community Partnership Schools™ Model, Shena D. Kiper

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

This study provides an overview of the literature of Florida’s only Community Partnership Schools™ model, as a strategy to enhance family and community engagement in low performing high poverty elementary schools. More specifically, the focus of this study was to determine to what degree parents perceived the effectiveness of family and community engagement strategies within the school. The positive correlation between family and community engagement on student achievement has been well documented. Such partnerships provide additional resources to help students who live in areas where cultural and economic factors erect barriers that adversely impact learning. Although several studies have been …

Teaching Elementary Mathematics With Educational Robotics, Yuling Zhuang, Jonathan K. Foster, Annamarie Conner, Barbara A. Crawford, Tim Foutz, Roger B. Hill

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

Current education reforms call for engaging students in learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in an integrative way. This critical case study of one fourth grade teacher investigated the use of educational robots (ER) not only for teaching coding, but as an instructional support in teaching mathematical concepts. To support teachers in teaching coding in an integrative and logical manner, our team developed the Collective Argumentation Learning and Coding (CALC) approach. The CALC approach consists of three elements: choice of task, coding content, and teacher support for argumentation. After a cohort of elementary teachers completed a professional development course, …

Exploring Elementary Student And Teacher Perceptions Of Stem And Cs Abilities, Scott R. Bartholomew, Vanessa Santana, Jessica Yauney

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

Curriculum, legislation, and standards across the nation are quickly evolving to incorporate computer science and computational thinking concepts into K-12 classrooms. For example, many states have passed legislation requiring computer science to be included in every school’s curriculum. Most states, however, report high shortages of qualified computer science teachers, meaning, teachers without extensive training will be required to integrate these concepts into their classrooms—a daunting task for most teachers without the necessary background and experiences. This paper reports the impacts of a thirteen-week intervention in a local elementary school designed to introduce computational thinking skills to 4^th and 5 …

Evaluating A Suite Of Strategies For Reading Graphic Novels: A Confirmatory Case Study, Maribeth Nottingham, Barbara J. Mcclanahan, Howard Atkinson

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This article describes a qualitative study conducted by two researchers who are teacher educators and a literacy coach in a private school. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of a set of strategies for reading and teaching about graphic novels by examining the responses of three elementary-grade teachers in a reading workshop environment to a semester-long professional development. Challenges both expected and unexpected were encountered but results overall were positive for teachers. In addition, they provided guidance to researchers for using the strategies introduced in the professional development in further studies.

Local Norms And Gifted And Talented Identification In Arkansas: Can It Help Improve Student Diversity?, Bich Tran, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Jon Wai

Arkansas Education Reports

In the past decades, the gifted and talented (G/T) community has wrestled with an important question about improving equity: How can we best use research to increase student diversity in G/T education? There are many suggestions for answering this question but using local norms, where students are selected based on comparisons with others from a similar school context using traditional measures, has attracted much attention. In some districts, using local norms and universal screening has greatly improved student diversity, whereas, in other districts, the findings have been unclear. Thus it seems useful to study local contexts. In this study, we …

Standing Their Ground: How A Field Supervisor Helped Student Teachers Implement Classroom Management Strategies That Work, Anita B. Sunseri, Mary Anne Sunseri

Journal of Practitioner Research

Many new teachers struggle with implementing effective classroom management strategies to deal with student behavior. This study examined the role a university field supervisor played in supporting three student teachers in the area of classroom management. The author used cognitive coaching techniques to help her student teachers devise classroom management strategies to address students behavioral issues. These coaching strategies included eliciting student teachers’ input about students’ specific behavior problems and their strategies for dealing with their students’ behavior. As a result, student teachers developed classroom management strategies to help students with behavior problems follow the classroom rules and engage with …

“Math Talks Are Like An Alarm Clock Waking You Up”: Language’S Crucial Role In Mathematics, Gabriella M. Wasser

Journal of Practitioner Research

Whole group math talks, or number talks, are a common practice to get students talking about their own understanding of mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to implement math talks in small group settings to see what would happen, specifically to students’ conceptual understanding as well their general perceptions of math talks. This study took place in a fourth-grade math classroom, and math talks were implemented with the whole class for a week and then moved to small groups for the remaining three weeks of the study. During the study, a pre-and post-assessment was given, field notes were …

Arkansas Student Discipline Report, Kaitlin Anderson, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This report examines student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. Using ten years of de-identified student- and infraction-level data from 2011-12 to 2020-21, provided by the Arkansas Department of Education, our research identifies a number of key trends and outcomes related to student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. This work builds upon prior versions of this report.1 While the data are only limited to the infractions and consequences reported by schools, and while we do not estimate causal effects of any policies or programs, this work includes some key findings relevant for educators and policymakers in the state.

An …

The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Edition 8, September 2022, 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:

Curriculum and classroom resources for all levels

Eye on curriculum and resources

K-12 Partners website is live

Ineda Nebraska Ag Expo career exploration event

Teacher opportunities

Link to list of new partnerships

Ask an expert

Eye on CASNR research: Eric Knoll

Student experiences

Sens your students to campus: Husker weekday visit

Success stories: University TAPS Program coming soon

Teaching Euclidean Geometry Using Proof And Dynamic Geometry Software, Cheryl Stoddard

Mathematics Graduate Theses

This paper examines incorporating proofs and dynamic geometry software when teaching Euclidean geometry to produce deeper understanding of geometric relationships for middle and secondary level students. The utilization of technology through classroom investigations and activities has shown to have an impact on the achievement scores on posttests and in the development of mathematical proof.

A Study Of The Implementation Of Multi-Tiered System Of Supports In One School, Ranya Elhady

Dissertations

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is designed to help schools identify struggling students. This study aimed to determine the perception of MTSS through the lens of kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers and teacher leaders who participate in the school-wide MTSS process. The context of this inquiry was one elementary school in a large urban district where teachers had implemented MTSS for several years. I used a mixed methods research design. A survey of classroom teachers with Likert scale items and open-ended questions and data from a focus group interview of teacher leaders provided quantitative and qualitative data. I found a disconnect …

A Longitudinal Analysis Of The Development Of Mandarin Chinese In Fourth Grade Chinese Immersion, Robin E. Harvey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many studies have confirmed the benefits of dual language immersion programs. Research into reading and writing development in these programs, and particularly in Chinese immersion, is less common. In this dissertation, an attempt is made to address this gap in research by exploring the literacy development of fourth grade Chinese immersion students. Participants were 70 students, the entire fourth grade of an urban Chinese immersion school in the northeastern U.S. The school had recently made several curricular changes. They were adopting a practice of freewriting, or independent writing. In freewriting, students are encouraged to write as much as they can …

A Qualitative Study Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Teachers Of Color In Predominately White K–12 Environments, Torine S. Champion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the lived experiences of teachers of color and identify commonalities within the lived experiences of teachers of color employed in predominately White K–12 schools. This study utilized interpretive phenomenological analysis as viewed through the White racial frame lens. There were 15 participants that were included in this research study. Participants were teachers of color with at least 5 years of teaching experience in predominately White K–12 environments. Data collection procedures included confidential virtual, semistructured interviews that included specific information the researcher wanted to explore. Six themes were revealed: (a) cultural advocacy, …

Parent Survey 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid

Arkansas Education Reports

In late 2021, the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas administered a survey about education topics to a representative sample of 500 Arkansas parents of school-aged children. The students of these parents attended traditional public schools (66%), public charter schools (10%), public magnet schools (4%), and private schools (7%). Eleven percent of parents reported that their child was homeschooled, and 2% reported that their child attended school through a virtual platform.

Arkansas Parent Survey 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

The Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas administered a survey on education topics to a representative sample of 500 Arkansas parents of school-aged children in late 2021 and addressed a variety of education-related topics.

Public Charter And District Public Schools In The Mountain West, 2019-2021, Zachary Billot, Kristian Thymianos, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet explores data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) report, “Voting With Their Feet: A State-Level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Trends.” Specifically, we examine enrollment trends for district public schools and public charter schools in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years.

What Can We Learn From The Different Understandings Of Mathematical Literacy?, Svein Arne Sikko

Numeracy

Mathematical literacy, quantitative literacy, numeracy, matheracy, disciplinary literacy, and content-area literacy are among a plethora of terms used to link mathematics and literacy. In addition to this abundance of terms, the content of the terms is not precise, and in some cases the terms are used interchangeably. I delve into this landscape and dissect the meaning of each of them. From such an analysis of mathematical literacy, numeracy, and quantitative literacy, we learn about the importance of quantitative practices and elementary mathematics in society, including both how mathematics is necessary for everyday life but also how it can be used …

Girls In Stem! Elementary Afterschool Six-Week Curriculum, Jess Li, Samavi Rafique

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

No abstract provided.

Building Racial Literacy Through Relational Trust, Teacher Solidarity, And Antiracist Praxis, Tanya E. Friedman

Theses and Dissertations

Schools in the United States continue to dramatically under-educate students with marginalized identities. Although professional development for teachers regularly fails to develop the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and commitment needed to interrupt educational inequities and ensure all students thrive, scholarship on teacher learning has identified promising practices such as critical inquiry groups for social justice which can foster teachers’ capacity to interrupt inequitable instructional practices and school policies. (Gorski & Dalton, 2020; Manfra, 2019; Peters, 2016). The three manuscripts in this dissertation explore the experience of a CIG comprised of seven teachers working in an urban elementary school that serves multiply …

Restorative Pedagogies In Primary And Secondary Education: A Review Of Selected Literature, Gwynn Alexander

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Student Scholarship

Purpose

Restorative justice is a philosophy and set of practices aimed toward centering student well-being and positive social relationships in the classroom. Restorative pedagogies offer an approach to teaching/learning that seeks to remedy persistent patterns of punitive and exclusionary school-based practices.

Design, Methodology, and Approach

In this literature review, I employ a constructivist grounded theory approach to first define restorative pedagogies, then offer key themes that emerged across the body of literature. I introduce key foundational texts with a focus on the proliferation of research in the last decade. Lastly, I present critiques and limitations in the body of literature …

The Effects Of Critical Literacy Theory On Listening Comprehension And Student Engagement, Jay Girvan

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The purpose of conducting this study is to better understand and assess the current critical literacy practices of classroom teachers and to gain a better understanding of how well these strategies increase engagement and reading comprehension of texts, especially those that address social justice issues. As outlined by the principles of critical literacy theory, teachers are encouraged to help readers understand the author’s intent. By comparing read-alouds not using critical literacy strategies and others with the preferred approach, researchers will be able to examine the differences in both student engagement and listening comprehension. Alongside anecdotal records and post reading comprehension …

Black History In The Early Childhood And Elementary Classrooms: Teacher Beliefs And Practices, Shannon Mccormack

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Educators across the United States have struggled with meaningfully yet appropriately addressing race within History and Social Studies lessons at the Early Childhood and Elementary level. Previous research has revealed the importance of these conversations and the benefits that learning accurate history has for students of all racial backgrounds. The literature has also revealed the discomfort and apprehensiveness that educators may feel while confronting and teaching about our nation’s complex and often grim history. The purpose of this research was to analyze teachers’ beliefs and comfortability regarding addressing race in the classroom and how that translates to their teaching practices. …