The Impact Of Verbal Discourse On General And Special Education Students In The Ninth Grade Algebra I Classroom, Lauren Raschen

Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to determine if there was a difference in using verbal discourse methods in the Foundations of Algebra/Algebra I for the general and special education population.  This study was done in the collaborative classroom where the results of general education and special education students were compared.  The researcher also compared the results of the verbal discourse formative assessments to determine which type of verbal discourse made the greatest impact of conceptual understanding of mathematical operations using a quantitative study.  The data was collected for two formative assessments and compared using the multiple linear regression …

Integrating Humanities Into Cybersecurity Education: Enhancing Ethical, Historical, And Sociopolitical Understanding In Technical Training, Joseph Frusci

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The increasing complexity of cybersecurity challenges necessitates a holistic educational approach that integrates both technical skills and humanistic perspectives. This article examines the importance of infusing humanities disciplines such as history, ethics, political science, sociology, law, and anthropology—into cybersecurity education. Through a pilot course developed for Staten Island Technical High School, aligned with the New York State K-12 Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards, students were introduced to an interdisciplinary curriculum that combined technical cybersecurity training with historical analysis, ethical reasoning, and sociopolitical context. The results of pre- and post-course assessments demonstrated significant improvements in critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and …

Leveraging Social Practices In The 11th Grade American Literature Classroom: Video Games As Texts, Alora Moser

Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study explores the effectiveness of using a video game as a text in high school narrative instruction, testing Lave and Wenger’s (1991) situated learning theory, which posits that learning is a by-product of social interaction. This study seeks to bridge the gap between literacy practices at home and in school (Beavis, 2014; Ladson-Billings, 1995), effectively acknowledging students’ cultural capital, including multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996) and affinity spaces (Gee, 2013) in privileged academic settings such as the Georgia Milestones American Literature End of Course assessment. 11^th grade American literature students in a suburban Georgia high school were …

Perceived Factors Impacting Teachers’ Pedagogical Decision-Making Pertaining To The Use Of Pbl In The Classroom: A Dissertation, Amanda Slaughter

Dissertations

There is a consistent body of research evidence citing the potential of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a viable instructional tool to raise student engagement with challenging content (Saye & Brush, 2017; Strutchens and Martin, 2017; Wynn, 2015). According to the National Council for the Social Studies, “The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world” (NCSS, accessed 2023, March 1, para. 2). Scholars like Engle (1960) called for instructional strategies that raised the …

Beyond The Classroom Walls: Examining Educational And Social Outcomes Of Cross-Curricular Peer Observation In Secondary Schools, Jacinda Miller

Dissertations

This qualitative case study involved a sample of middle school teachers participating in a cross-curricular peer observation of teaching (POT) program. The study aimed to explore the experiences of these teachers in the POT program, focusing on its impact on teaching pedagogy and partner relationships. Data collection methods included a demographic questionnaire, writing prompts, feedback forms, observation of feedback meetings, interviews, and a researcher journal. The findings demonstrated that cross-curricular peer observations are perceived as an effective form of professional development among this group of middle school teachers, benefiting both the observer and the observed. Participants acquired and implemented new …

The Influence Of Misconceptions On Pedagogical Choices Of Secondary Science Teachers: An Embedded Case Study, Tracey Beyer

Dissertations

This case study, using phenomenography within science disciplines, examines how educators' experiences with misconceptions affect teaching methods in high school physics, chemistry, and biology. Based on constructivist and interpretive theories it highlights that personal experiences shape learning and involve continuously reconstructing knowledge. The shared misconceptions of 13 educators across science disciplines reveal how those experiences influenced both their content knowledge and instructional practices. The findings indicate that educators who openly acknowledge and learn from their past experiences with misconceptions are better equipped to recognize and address gaps in understanding, an asset to furthering student learning. This research highlights the importance …

Empowering Female Voices In The Ela Classroom, Jacqueline Gurliaccio Vance

Dissertations

This study aims to understand how women’s voices can be empowered in a high school English Language Arts (ELA) class. Through the use of female authors and female protagonists in the classroom texts, this study seeks to understand if implementing female-driven texts enhances female students’ literary experiences, empowers the personal identities of female students, and shapes female students’ perspectives of themselves and their peers. This case study includes female students in twelfth grade AP Literature class.

The Perception Of The Implementation Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy To Support Black Male Students In Mathematics – A Case Study, Chiquita Granville

Dissertations

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is a method of education that promotes an inclusive and empowered learning environment by acknowledging and valuing students varied cultural origins. CRP is especially important for tackling the ongoing achievement discrepancies encountered by high school Black Male students in the context of mathematics instruction. This abstract emphasizes the value of culturally sensitive instruction in enhancing black male students' mathematics learning results and experiences.

This research will examine the difficulties faced by Black male students in Mathematics classes, including prejudice, a lack of cultural representation in the curriculum, and a lack of relevance between the subject matter and …

Humanizing History: Empowering Educators To Navigate Difficult History Through Museum-Led Professional Development, Andrea Miskewicz

Dissertations

As museums increasingly serve as educational hubs, this research examines how teachers' participation in such programs contributes to their perceived efficacy for teaching topics of difficult history. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study utilizes a survey with quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate changes in teacher self-efficacy before and after a museum-led intervention. With a pre and posttest design, this study provides deeper insights into participants' experiences and challenges. Preliminary findings suggest museum-led professional development has a significant positive impact on teachers’ perceived self-efficacy, highlighting the resources and opportunities museums have available and the importance of humanizing history in social …

Finding Focus: Authentic Inquiry And Composition In The Third Space, Noah Brewer

Dissertations

This research seeks to better understand the attitudes and dispositions of advanced-level English Language Arts students toward the activities of academic research and writing, and to explore the ways that critical pedagogies focused on authentic inquiry and composition interact with these attitudes. The project draws upon research in student motivation, sociocultural definitions of literacy, and theories of hybrid identity in order to discover the potential impact of engaging students in critical reflection on their own meaning-making practices, and of curricular and pedagogical choices aimed at making the lessons of the classroom more relevant to the demands of real-world literacy practices …

Thoughts, Conflicts, And Feelings Of Ela Teachers’ Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Matthew Osborn

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many complications and challenges for educators. There is a need to document and describe teacher experiences during this time to determine common themes that may inform future educational practice. This study utilized narrative inquiry to examine the lived experiences of five secondary ELA teachers during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three themes concerning how teachers perceived their students, work demands, and self were identified through several rounds of coding and thematic analysis. The findings and conclusions of this study contribute to developing a shared understanding of what happened in secondary education during the various …

Promoting Civic Engagement And Knowledge Amongst Middle School Adolescents Through Simulation Based Teaching Models, Karrie Palmer

Dissertations

Public schools, and education in general, were founded on the principles of preparing young people to participate in civic life as active and informed citizens. Yet, civic competency scores are consistently low and demonstrate that students are not prepared for the civic engagement required of them when they leave school. The purpose of this quasi-experimental mixed methods study is to determine if participation in simulations and utilizing experiential learning theory while teaching the government standards will lead to a greater understanding of civics, and a positive improvement in students’ beliefs and values regarding civic engagement beyond the classroom. While the …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Technology Professional Development And Implementation In An Urban Middle School: A Case Study, Valeria Williams

Dissertations

This qualitative case study focused on understanding teachers’ perceptions of technology-based professional development sessions and the impact of technology requirements on their decisions to remain in or exit the teaching profession. The study involved seven middle school teachers with varying teaching experience and technology backgrounds. Participants shared their insights through journals, interviews, and document notes, which were then organized into themes reflecting their responses to the research questions.

The findings revealed key themes such as the structure and availability of professional learning sessions, facilitators’ positive impact, teachers’ emotions during and after training, optional learning strategies, and how these factors influence …

Understanding Chemistry Concepts Through Analogies And The Frayer Model, Ashley A. Walls

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how high school Honors chemistry students create and learn from analogies that were created using the Frayer Model. Pragmatism, analogies in science, and Reality Pedagogy served as the theoretical foundation of this study. A phenomenography method was used to answer the following research questions: What connections do high school honors chemistry students make when using analogies relating chemistry concepts to their prior knowledge, interest, or hobbies? What are high school honors chemistry students’ perceptions of the use of the Frayer Model for analogy creation? How do high school honors chemistry students of …

The Causes Of Teacher Burnout And Its Impact On The Personal Lives Of Teachers, Neisha Williams

Dissertations

Abstract

This qualitative study focused on the experiences of high school teachers in the state of Georgia, United States. The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the reasons why high school teachers experience burnout and how the occupational burnout impacts their personal life. This study was also conducted to fill the gap in the literature and gain insight on the burnout teacher perspective on what causes burnout and what actions need to be made at various (local, district, and state) levels to help manage or eliminate burnout entirely. The theoretical framework used for this study …

Rhetoric Vs. Reality: A Critical Analysis Of Georgia’S Official Curriculum For United States History, Haley Dawkins

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

As there has been an increasing focus in education on standards-based instruction and accountability through standardized assessment, it is extremely important to analyze the standards closely. This study sought to explore and understand whose voices, experiences, and perspectives are represented and prioritized in the curriculum through the analysis of state standards and additional curricular resources. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory, this qualitative content analysis was designed to examine three of the curricular resources developed by the Georgia Department of Education to investigate how the Georgia United States History curriculum addresses race, racism, and representations of communities and individuals …

How Participation In A Peer-Led Writing Center Impacts Struggling Students’ Self-Efficacy And Motivation, Laura Peterson

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

Many secondary students struggle with writing, both in terms of skill and confidence. This qualitative case study follows six students who have a history of struggling in English Language Arts class as they undergo a tutoring intervention based on the writing center model of peer tutoring. Students were observed in seven writing sessions which took place at multiple stages of the writing process and with informational, narrative, and analytical writing assignments. Through interview and observation, the researcher examines how students’ self-efficacy and motivation shift over the course of the intervention. Students who began with low self-efficacy and low motivation were …

“I Forget To Enjoy The Book”: A Narrative Analysis Of Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Their Real Selves And Ideal Selves As Readers, Brittany Mcwhorter

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

In the present study, the researcher sought to understand student perceptions of themselves as readers compared to their ideal selves as readers. This is in response to personal experience with struggling readers, as well as GADOE data showing the magnitude of the issue surrounding struggling readers at Mountain Middle School (MMS). The data collected included student drawings and accompanying interviews. Findings revealed that students placed their perceptions of self within specific classroom situations and settings, which reveals the complexity and contextual nature of perception of self as a reader. Though individual stories and experiences were unique, six major themes emerged …

Effects Of Adaptive Learning Technologies On Mathematics Achievement In Low Ses Settings, William Roberts

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

Low socioeconomic status is linked to poor mathematical achievement (NCES, 2019 & Barr, 2015). Furthermore, students in rural settings exhibit mathematical incompetencies (Harmon & Wilborn, 2016). One possible remedy is adaptive learning technology (AT). These are computer programs that determine what a student already knows about mathematics (or other content areas) and then identify areas for growth to increase a student’s knowledge about a topic such as Geometry or Algebra 2. Although not necessarily taking a teacher’s place, an AT can aid the teacher by allowing multiple students to be in multiple different places all within the same classroom. This …

Characterizing The Adolescent Male Reader: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Reading Lives Of 12th Grade Boys Enrolled In Ib Language A: Literature, Marsha French

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

The problem this research seeks to understand is the intersection of the gender achievement gap in reading and the gendered practices of “the school” as a powerful social institution. This project draws upon the studies of the 1990s-2000s in order to discover the potential impact of the social, cultural, and political movements and shifts that began in 2017. Most earlier research into adolescent male readers was conducted from a deficit perspective. This study explores the reading lives of boys who are positioned at the end of their K-12 public schooling career and are finishing their second year in IB (International …

Improving Students’ Confidence And Competence Using Critical Media Literacy Skills In A Secondary English Language Arts Class, Leeanne Kline

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This is a dissertation for a six-week action research study that investigated how self-regulated learning strategies can affect students’ perceived and demonstrated critical abilities in discussing informational media texts in the secondary ELA classroom. This dissertation examines topical research, gaps in the literature, and theoretical frameworks to justify the study. The qualitative action research study implemented a version of the Article of the Week program alongside self-regulated learning (SRL) and student-led discussion strategies to collect data on students’ self-reported levels and observed critical media literacy (CML) skills. The purpose of this study was to build upon existing research on SRL, …

Cultural Classroom Competencies: White Female Social Studies Teachers’ Preparedness And Support To Interact With, Engage, And Teach The Global Majority, Ashley Lamar

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine White female social studies teachers’ experiences of how they were prepared to engage, interact, and teach students of the global majority. Teachers who identified as White and female and teach any social studies discipline served as the five participants for this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The data were analyzed using the Atlas AI software to identity and record specific codes and themes within the data. Overall, the data showed that the participants were not highly prepared for the cultural diversity of the public school classrooms …

Creating Inclusive Classrooms With Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Melissa Kane

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This is a qualitative phenomenographic study that uses the theoretical frameworks of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) (Paris, 2012), Intergroup Contact Theory (Allport 1954), and Social Constructivism (Smagorinsky, 2007) to evaluate how 7^th grade students at a Title I middle school in the Southeastern United States experience the phenomenon of peer relationships in the context of a CSP writing unit. Students created, peer edited, and shared multimodal “Where I’m From” (Lyon, n.d.) poems in intentionally created groups. The researcher collected data via participant interviews, participant journals, and a researcher reflection journal. Findings indicated that students developed a better understanding of …

High School Student Narratives Of Error Analysis: A Qualitative Investigation Into Literacy For Geometry Learning, Dean Petti

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This narrative inquiry aimed to relate student narratives to error analysis of Geometry problems as a form of literacy implementation. Teachers need to develop a deep understanding and application of mathematics content through qualitative research to find connections to practice (Enderson et al., 2010). Geometry is a worthwhile subject to understand our world from various perspectives and to spur our imagination with constructing objects based on properties undergoing dynamic changes. However, teachers and researchers often wonder why most secondary students need help with the significance of learning and applying Geometry concepts. Literacy implementation bridges students' narrative experiences and relevance to …

Rural Voices: A Photographic Journey Of The Intersection Of Place And Reading Identity In Rural Adolescents, Gena Brown

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

Researchers have long been documenting the decline in reading habits of Americans, particularly adolescents and young adults. Reading for pleasure has been declining for the last three decades. Young people claim that reading is boring and irrelevant to their fast-paced, largely digital lives. In the past two decades, the decline of reading has captured wide attention, but most of that attention has been focused on urban and suburban settings. A gap exists in the research when it comes to rural students and their reading habits. Using photo elicitation, I gained an understanding of reading identity as it relates to rural …

Tracking And Mathematical Identity For Rural Adolescent Students Of Color, Joseph Melvin Kelly

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

Tracking, or segregating students into varying levels of a course based on their mathematical ability and prior performance, is truly a social justice issue as it perpetuates racial injustice, widens the income gap, and does not foster equality (Gamoran, 2016). This is even more prominent for students who are socio-economically disadvantaged or minoritized. Also, dividing students into a group by their academic ability may cause them to self-label as inferior to upper track students (Ansalone, 2004). In addition, many students who enter tracked systems end up staying there throughout the course of their academic career with no mobility to move …

The Relationship Between Teacher Burnout And Physical Activity Among High School Teachers, Jonathan Davis

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

Teaching at any level is a high-stress profession, and high levels of stress may result in increased rates of teacher burnout. The implications of teacher burnout are related to physical and emotional health problems for teachers, reduced student academic performance, and increased rates of teacher migration and attrition. One strategy for mitigating teacher burnout is to increase levels of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between level of physical activity and teacher burnout among high school teachers. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-23) were used to determine levels …

Student Engagement In Junior High World Languages Classes, John Brittain

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

This study is a qualitative case study that sought to explore the perspectives of World Languages students and teachers on student engagement in relation to the teachers’ instructional choices. Five kinds of engagement and three components of Self Determination Theory were studied in relation to student behavior. The study involved eighth and ninth grade students who are currently taking a course in a World Language in a junior high school. The researcher used interviews, classroom observations, and focus groups to collect data. The data was analyzed using a combination of computer software and analysis by hand. The findings showed that …

Investigating The Pedagogical Content Knowledge Of Georgia 6-12 Science Teachers In Relation To Conservation Of Mass, Lyric Portwood

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

The Law of Conservation of Matter is a crosscutting concept in science that has implications for all disciplines of science. Conservation of Matter concepts are interwoven into all middle school and high school science courses both within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE). For students to become scientifically literate, teachers of science must be able to articulate the content accurately to students and anticipate student difficulties and misconceptions in understanding the content. In order to ensure that students successfully learn said content, science teachers must possess both content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. …

The Art Of Sketchnoting In A High School Language Arts Classroom, Rachael Bourne

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This case study addressed how visual note-taking (sketchnotes) impacted students' learning in an English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze if sketchnoting was a useful tool that students could use to deepen their understanding of concepts learned in ELA. Data from student examination of their own sketchnotes, teacher/researcher examination of the sketchnotes, and interviews were analyzed by identifying quality of work, themes, and assessment questions. The interview questions focused on student experiences with sketchnotes, test score outcomes, and student emotions towards sketchnotes. The examination was a document analysis of sketchnotes parallel to student …