Elementary Education Commons^™

A Literature Review Of Multicultural Education Practices To Support Marginalized Communities, Karleigh Ferrell

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to provide an overview of the current literature surrounding multicultural education practices that effectively support students from marginalized communities. Today’s classrooms are the most diverse and expansive that they have ever been in terms of the student population, but this is not yet reflected in employed public school teachers. So, it is crucial that teachers and public schools are culturally competent and prepared to implement multicultural education practices. Teachers that are culturally competent and that utilize multicultural education strategies have a higher sense of self-efficacy and less risk of burnout, and students of all identities have better …

Growing Character: A Model For Incorporating Sel & Social Justice In Agriculture Education, Sergio Corona-Munoz

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This work is meant to serve as a model for how educators can use pedagogies such as social emotional learning and social justice education to expand traditional agriculture education. The work done here provides curriculum outlines meant to guide educators through the process while also providing some context and examples of real world applications.

Collaborative Teaching And Inclusion In Northeast, Tn, Sherianne Pigeon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Collaborative teaching is a commonly used, research-based method to support inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. However, there is a lack of research describing current teachers’ experiences with and perceptions of collaborative teaching and inclusion. Results from a survey disseminated to teachers in Northeast TN school systems revealed that 64.3% of respondents have either never co-taught a class or have co-taught only one or two classes. Additionally, respondents agree that collaborative teaching is beneficial to support inclusion, enhance delivery of instruction, improve teacher relations and improve classroom management. However, teachers expressed collaborative teaching is more …

Developing The Beginning Prototype For A Children’S Book Series For Creative Curriculum, Valerie Palmer

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Developing the Beginning Prototype for a Children’s Book Series for Creative Curriculum

Creativity is increasing in popularity and demand in our 21st Century world. It is among the top five most desirable traits that employers are seeking in employees. Some educational institutions abroad have adapted a creative curriculum and have seen much success in student achievement and performance. Yet in America’s educational institutions are not with this new era of creativity. When in actual fact the majority of American schools reject and counter this concept of creativity in the classroom. There are exceptions to this statement for example Charter Schools …

Effects Of Recess On Educational Outcomes In Elementary School Children, Katelyn Whitham

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction: Because physical activity is beneficial for physical and mental health, the declining opportunities to implement adequate recesses in schools are devastating for children. If educational outcomes are positively affected by increased recess time or quality, schools are more likely to receive funding for programs and resources that support this renovation to recesses, providing research in lacking topics. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to find related, academic articles for cross examination of data collected on the effects that recess has on educational outcomes so that schools may use this as a resource to receive funding to increase …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of School Counselor Antiracist Social Justice Practices, Stephanie Deonca Smith-Durkin

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Decades after the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, the push continues to make schools a safe and welcoming environment for Black and Brown students. Black students in particular are continuing to be oppressed and marginalized in PK-12 educational settings. Accounting for approximately 15% of public PK-12 students, Black students comprise 13.7% of all students who receive out-of-school suspensions in 2017, are 16% of the special education student population, and are more likely to attend a school with less resources (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2021; Ramsey, n.d.). …

Barriers Middle School Students Face In The Pandemic: Addressing And Overcoming Them, Fatine N. Oliveira

Senior Honors Projects

The Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on all factors of society, many still unknown. One of the obvious effects has been how it affects children in school. Middle school students are a part of this unique moment in history. The pandemic and its move to virtual learning has created a lasting impact on middle schoolers’ social skills at the most important time in their development. Quarantine required children to be incredibly isolated from their peers and life activities, in general. Instead, many were overexposed to social media which hindered their ability to interact with peers. I have chosen to …

The Importance Of Parent-Teacher Communication And Collaboration And How To Enhance Them For Various Types Of Families, Madeleine O'Neil

Senior Honors Projects

An educator is defined as someone who provides instruction to others. What this definition does not include is how the role of a teacher or educator goes far beyond merely providing instructions and teaching others. In order to be effective, teachers must learn how to adequately communicate and collaborate with their students, other education professionals, and families. Especially in the education field, teachers must learn how to communicate and collaborate with each student’s family to help create positive, productive, and beneficial professional relationships.

Communication should be ongoing and should be carried out in a manner that works for both the …

Make Time For Movement: 5-Minute Exercise Breaks In The Classroom, Catherine O'Donnell

Senior Honors Projects

Picture yourself back in elementary school. Have you ever struggled to finish an assignment no matter how hard you tried? You may have felt antsy, unfocused, or completely exhausted from the constant thinking and brain power it takes to complete a full six hour school day. What could you have done to regain focus and energy to continue learning? An exercise break! As an Elementary Education major and certified Group Exercise fitness instructor, I aspire to combine my passion for teaching and fitness by bringing exercise into the classroom. For my project, I have designed 5-minute movement breaks that follow …

The Correlation Between Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, And Phonics Skills And Effective Readers In First Grade., Olivia N. Didio

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

The purpose of this study was to get insight related to the literacy instruction and the connection between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics for fluent reading. The research includes examinations of students' prior knowledge of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics decoding skills, along with their ability to read grade level text. Students received daily instruction in literacy through modified Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study in reading, writing, and phonics. Some adaptations and supplemental resources were used to support this curriculum. As the data was collected the instructor made adjustments to the instruction to fill gaps in phonological awareness, …

The Effect Of Flipped Instruction On Special Education Preservice Teachers' Perceptions, Cynthia C. Massey, Selcuk Dogan, E. Anthony Muhammad, Eric Hogan, Cindy N. Head, Jackie Heeyoung Kim

Elementary & Special Education: Faculty Publications

This study analyzes the flipped instruction model used in three special education educator preparation courses to examine which components preservice teachers perceived most contributed to their content knowledge, motivation, and engagement (n=50). Weekly pre-class asynchronous assignments included the use of educational technology tools such as an interactive e-textbook site, Perusall, and online academic activities such as Khan Academy to strengthen their content knowledge. This allowed more time for a student-centered approach during synchronous instruction to incorporate tools such as Nearpod, Pear Deck, Flipgrid and digital badges to strength-en their motivation and engagement. Data were collected through a post-course survey; results …

Self-Efficacy Development In Elementary-Aged Learners Through Dance As An Algorithmic Thinking Tool, Niva Shrestha

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a transdisciplinary approach in teaching computational thinking through dance to elementary-aged learners, with primary attention to females. With limited literature available on how pre-adolescents begin to construct conceptions of computer science and other engineering domains, including potential career pathways, the incentive of this project was to leverage a day camp for about 20 rising 3rd - 5th-grade learners to assess their identity development in computer science. Modules that teach computational thinking through dance paired with Unruly splats (block-based programmable electronic gadgets) were implemented. By conducting pre-and post-surveys and a …

Fostering Creativity In Education Including Natural Environments: A Course On Creativity For Children In Colombia, Tatiana Ortiz-Pradilla

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project is a contribution to the field of creativity and education. The project aimed to connect the research-based knowledge on how natural environments enhance creativity and put it in the service of creativity education for children. The main objective was to design a prototype of a course outline of a continuing education course on creativity that leverages the knowledge of the connection between creativity and natural environments for children between 7 and 12 years old in Medellín, Colombia, South America.

Increasing Social Development For 5th Graders, Akito Aromin

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Elementary school kids in 5th grade had social development being enhanced before the year 2020. The pandemic hit in 2020, causing the social development of children to falter. There have been more negative effects on social development in children, impacting their regulation of emotions, respect, and even forming friendships to have troubling effects. This is expressed because of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), ceasing any real-life events or schools to halt for a bit and moving to remote learning for the time being. This paper outlines how social development in 5th graders was impacted, providing research needed on how you can increase …

Preventing Behavior Problems Among Elementary School Students, Carena Wills

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Behavior problems among elementary school students has become the leading disruption in classrooms today. Behavior is a key factor in the functionality and tone of a classroom, which, in turn, affects the learning atmosphere for all students. Behavior problems also have increased the probability of high school dropout and students forming other behavior disorders. With the proper preventive measures taken, the decrease and improvement of student behavior can impact a student's life. This capstone project investigates the key causes of behavior problems and the kinds of measures that would help prevent these problems. This project further examines the importance and …

The Effects Of Covid-19 On Early Childhood Mental Health Development, Taylor Ybanez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

A child’s development is of the highest importance to any person that has the opportunity to teach them. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many people, especially developing children have struggled with their mental health development. With the lack of resources and outreach opportunities, some of them had to be left alone for a good portion of their time during their stay-at-home orders due to not being allowed to attend school. This senior capstone is to bring awareness of the toll COVID-19 has taken on children’s development in terms of their emotional, physiological, and physical well-being. The findings offer some …

Impact Of Positive Classroom Environment On Elementary School Students’ Learning, Marisa Contrada

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

When students are asked if they like school or not, their answer is typically negative for the reason that they don’t feel comfortable in the classroom. Classroom environment is where their mindset could be changed. Classroom environment has not been a prominent topic of discussion. This senior capstone research report was designed to shed light on the importance of classroom environment. Through the use of literature review, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and anonymous student survey, positive classroom environment has a tremendous impact on students learning. This senior capstone examines the importance of classroom environment as well as strategies in creating …

Parent Volunteers And Covid-19: Balancing Necessity, Enthusiasm, And Caution, Jarrod Myers

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus issue addressed in this Capstone Project is how the pandemic disrupted parent volunteering in schools. Parent volunteering is an essential issue for schools because parent involvement is essential for student success. An evidence-based argument is offered that schools struggled to staff the void left by parent volunteers. The three primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were parents, school leadership, and teachers. Parents make up the volunteer pool; teachers know what kind of assistance classrooms need, and school leadership creates policies. Three themes emerged from analyzing the data and explored ways to reintroduce parents to a school campus. Parent volunteers make …

Nature-Based Education For Elementary Students With Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Kayleigh Morrison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There are several advantages to including a nature-based curriculum and outdoor learning into state standards, and the consequences of students who do not have access to outside learning and activities can be severe. The term “Attention Restoration Theory” (ART) was coined by psychology professors Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in 1989 and claims that exposure to nature can improve mental fatigue and concentration. This senior capstone examines Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory and academic studies rooted in its philosophy as it applies to nature-based curriculum and outdoor learning. There are certain advantages for students who are exposed to a nature-based curriculum and …

Using The Raap Strategy To Promote Communication Skills For Students With Multiple Disabilities, Hannah Millard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the RAAP strategy on students with multiple disabilities and their ability to produce multi-symbol messages. Using a single-case, multiple probes across participants design, 4 students with multiple disabilities participated in this study. They were taught how to answer reading comprehension questions through the RAAP strategy and access to a communication/core board.

Results indicated a functional relation between the RAAP strategy and the student’s multisymbol messages. Three of 4 students increased their multi-symbol messages and made progress with the intervention as it was planned. One student needed the intervention to …

The Study Of Morphological Awareness For English Learners, Jane Beeninga

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

English Learner (EL) students in American schools are becoming increasingly common, but there does not seem to be enough support for these students. This is causing EL students to fall behind in content areas such as reading (Richards-Tutor et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to investigate what barriers are keeping EL students from succeeding in reading. After identifying a need for vocabulary instruction, the researcher will be conducting a morphological awareness intervention to improve EL students’ ability to figure out unknown words. Morphological awareness is the understanding of a word’s smaller units such as prefixes, suffixes, and …

Challenging Student Behaviors And Teacher Well-Being, Dannah Steele

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Classroom management is a necessary component of a teacher’s classroom in order for students to learn in a safe environment. When a teacher is unable to manage his or her classroom because of dangerous and disruptive behaviors, it can be physically dangerous and impede the learning of others. Teachers frequently exposed to challenging behaviors experience high levels of stress that transcends into their personal lives. The purpose of this study was to determine how administrators can better support teachers who experience high levels of stress incurred from working with students who exhibit challenging behaviors in the classroom. Data collected through …

The Sel Implementation Monkey: Identifying Factors That Serve As Barriers To The Successful Implementation Of Sel In The Classroom And School Setting, Aron Dody

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that served as barriers to the successful implementation of social and emotional learning in the classroom and school setting. This study utilized a reflective case study approach concerning USD 417’s social and emotional learning implementation journey.

The research questions for this study were: 1. What factors or conditions serve as barriers to the implementation of SEL in the classroom and school setting? 2. What resources or supports would lead to increased fidelity amongst teachers in the implementation of SEL in the classroom and school setting?

The reflections and data were used …

How Does Parental Involvement Shape Kindergarten Readiness In One Title 1 Classroom?, Kiristen Moriah Boles

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to explore the role parental involvement plays in Kindergarten readiness in Title 1 schools. The theoretical foundation used to support this research was Epstein’s 6 model construct of parental involvement. For this study, a compilation of qualitative and quantitative data was used based upon the question being researched. The target sample was 20 Kindergarten students in a Title 1 elementary school along with 20 of the parents. The data collected was composed from scores from state assessments, teacher created assessment data, a parent climate survey, and parent communication logs.

The results suggested …

Phenomenon-Based Instruction In The Elementary Classroom: Impact On Student Engagement And Achievement In Science Content Learning, Chris Taylor

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Phenomenon-based teaching is a multidisciplinary instructional approach based on student inquiry and problem solving. Students investigate and solve their own questions by applying what topics are relevant to the problem. The goal of phenomenon-based learning is to prepare learners to solve problems in real life. Instead of passively learning abstract or disconnected concepts, phenomenon-based instruction provides student’s rich and meaningful context to the subject by actively engaging them to discover knowledge and skills required to solve the problems. Phenomenon-based instruction gives students the opportunities for discourse, argumentation-using claims with supporting evidence, and making sense of the material being covered, ultimately …

Hands-On Stem: Chemistry, Physics, And Other Science Resources For K-12 Education, Lisa Ahlberg, G. Brendan Cross

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Steam Explores Project Based Assessments, Erica Luvone, Loretta Radulic, Joe Mondanaro, Nicole Acevedo, Erika Dent, Ann Rhodes

STEM Month

This year, our approach to STEAM explores project based assessments in the disciplines of science and social studies. Students work in groups to produce projects that showcase work and proficiency. These projects are presented, displayed, discussed, and revisited or revised at student discretion.

Re-Examining Writer’S Workshop For Emergent Writers In Kindergarten For The Inclusion Of Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Taylor C. Randall

Masters Projects

Writing’s importance in the classroom has been pushed aside by the recent push for reading and math instruction (Cutler & Graham, 2008). In early childhood classrooms, the amount of time spent on writing is limited and early childhood teachers are feeling unprepared to address the needs of their students (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Haland, Home, and McTigue, 2018; Korth et al., 2017; Pelatti, Piasta, Justice, and O’Connell, 2014). From a theoretical perspective of social constructivism, social cognitive theory, and emergent literacy, teachers will build on what students already know and can do and support within the social constructs of the …

How Rhythm Affects Prosody, Mckenzie Ward

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Music interventions and how they benefit reading fluency have been researched, but there is more to be done in discovering the benefits of rhythm and prosody. This quantitative research study looked at how rhythm-based interventions affect student prosody in a second-grade classroom. Data were gathered from a music experience survey, a prosody pre-assessment, and a prosody post-assessment. The music intervention in this study involved three rhythm-based interventions called “DeeDee games.” This research analyzed and compared the growth between the prosody pre-and post-assessments and the results between students with musical backgrounds and students without musical backgrounds. This study found insufficient evidence …

Curiosity, Motivation, Autonomy, And Lifelong Learning In Education And The United States Marine Corps, Cynthia Malmquist

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and autonomy-supportive teaching all promote lifelong learning in both the classroom and Marine Corps. Humans are all born with curiosity. Children inherently practice forms of intrinsic motivation. Most would agree that they do not like being micromanaged - they enjoy a sense of freedom when completing tasks. Despite this, many students learn in a controlling environment and many Marines work under controlling leaders. Though a large amount of time is spent on learning through the first 18 years of life, lifelong learning does not come naturally and is not commonly practiced. The research and ideas discussed below …