Secondary Education Commons^™

Using Avatars To Address Teacher Self-Efficacy, Chancey Bosch, Trevor Ellis

Journal of Global Education and Research

Technology-enhanced learning continues to provide opportunities for increased interventions in educational programing. For teacher education programs, novelty pales in comparison to providing meaningful instruction and enduring outcomes. The use of avatars has provided integration of research evidence that increases intended behaviors; however, research is lacking on teacher self-efficacy change via an avatar experience. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and avatar use in a teacher education program. A relational study using both parametric and non-parametric designs for four different samples indicated a significant relationship between avatar intervention and teacher self-efficacy in classroom management, …

Counterstories Of Black High School Students And Graduates Of Nyc Independent Schools: A Narrative Case Study, Kahdeidra M. Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public youth resistance movements in 2019 and 2020 exposed the entrenchment of racism, sexism, heteronormativity, and classism across New York City independent schools (NYCIS). In order to support the imminent need for schools to provide effective diversity, inclusion, and equity supports that address broad issues of school climate, relationships, and pedagogy, there is a need to better understand the specific, hyperlocal experiences of Black/African Descendant (BAD) students, who occupy several unique, unexplored spaces in educational research. The following four research questions helped to conceptualize the experiences that support and hinder the academic success and long term well-being of BAD students …

Relationships Between Sports, Physical Activity Participation, And Phys-Ed Gpa: Results And Analyses From A National Sample Of Asian American Students, Howard Z. Zeng, Raymond E. Weston, Juan Battle

Publications and Research

Relationships among sports, physical activity (PA) participation, and educational outcomes have been studied in various venues, however, used a longitudinal method with a national sample of Asian-American High-School Students (AAHSS) was barely covered. This study employed the latest National High-School Longitudinal Study data (Participants, N = 950); hierarchical regression modeling and intersectionality theory examined, analyzed, and evaluated the relationships among sports, PA participation, and the outcomes on the physical education grade point average (Phys-Ed GPA). Moreover, the demographics factors impact on the participants' Phys-Ed GPA was also analyzed and evaluated. The primary results included: 1) the female students who participate …

Developing A Theater Skills-Based Workshop To Facilitate Exploration Of Self-Identity For Young People, Natasha N. Goss

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis will explore the premise of a working outreach platform comprised of experiential methodology, and practical tools and strategies to serve the intended audience. The paper presents an in-depth example of a workshop curriculum created for middle-school aged youth, (12-14 years old), who may struggle with self-esteem, understanding their self-worth, and making responsible decisions. The work explores two intersecting ideas that 1) poor self-concepts and misperceived thinking can lead youth to behave negatively and make detrimental decisions, and 2) theater involvement can produce a theater-based skillset capable of combating those poor self-concepts and misperceived thoughts and changing the trajectory …

Setting Empirically Informed Policy Benchmarks For Physical Science Teaching, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Ana Rivero, Lyrica L. Lucas, Aaron Musson, Brandon Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In the United States, research on beginning science teachers provides little guidance regarding empirical minimum levels of discipline-specific science coursework for sufficient subject matter knowledge to teach science. Accordingly, in this study we analyzed secondary physical science teachers' science coursework for subject matter knowledge (SMK) and resulting misconceptions of chemistry and physics concepts. Findings were compared with state-level science teacher certification policies. Participants had either: (a) completed a master's level teacher preparation program with an undergraduate degree in science, (b) completed an undergraduate teacher preparation program with a minor degree or more in science, or (c) were undergraduate students enrolled …

Transnational Latinx Youths’ Workplace Funds Of Knowledge And Implications For Assets-Based, Equity-Oriented Engineering Education, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Jorge Acosta-Feliz

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

Due to economic inequality in society, millions of Latinx high school youth work after-school jobs and summer jobs in order to provide additional income for their families. The purpose of this qualitative study, conducted with transnational Latinx youth, was to identify the engineering-related skills and bodies of knowledge they developed and applied while in different workplaces. This study is framed in complementary theories of funds of knowledge, Vygotskian theories of mediated action, and theories of resistant capital. Specifically, this study is based in the premise that youth can develop engineering-related funds of knowledge through tool-mediated, goal-directed activities jointly conducted with …

Understanding High School Assistant Principals’ Perspective Of Standardized Testing Policy For English Language Learners In Maryland, Jae Won Hwang

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Given federal and state mandates, school administrators in the United States are often held responsible for enacting standardized testing policies in their school settings. Standardized testing requirements apply for all students attending school including ELL (English Language Learner) students. However, a review of the literature finds that standardized testing for ELL students is problematic when schools interpret testing scores as some indication of content knowledge mastery. At the current time, content-area standardized testing policies and practices in public schools are not consistent with what we know about second language development. What is missing in the existing research is an examination …

The Role Of Aesthetics In Classroom Design: Implications For Engagement And Equity, Giuliana Barraza

Master's Theses

The desire for achieving greater equity in education has been a prevalent topic of research, with many studies indicating that the current education system in this country is designed in a way that exacerbates initial inequities and has a negative impact on student motivation and engagement (EOCD, 2012). While existing scholarship mostly discusses equity and engagement through the lens of curriculum and instruction, the power of physical classroom environments and aesthetic elements present in those environments is less explored. With student populations becoming more diverse, there is a greater need for new tools for teachers to utilize in pursuit of …

Modeling Functions: Modified Falling Ladder Task, Nakia Salam

Symposium of Student Scholars

Modeling Functions: Modified Falling Ladder Task

By the time students graduate from high school, the knowledge of functions has shifted from a conceptual understanding to a procedural approach, where the understanding of functions is based upon memorized computational steps that can’t be modeled. A focus on the computational aspect of functions can have a long-term effect on students’ ability to understand the meaning of functional relationships, negatively affecting their overall ability to reason mathematically. Without educators making a conscious decision to recognize the value of modeling and force its’ inclusion, there are few opportunities to experience the application of functional …

Carolina African Runner Peanuts: Connecting African And Alabamian Agricultural History, Abby West, Gary Padgett, Matthew D. Campbell

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social Studies has the potential to impact STEAM education in unrealized ways. It can have this impact by being meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. This article examines teaching about Carolina African Runner peanuts and the history of Alabama’s agriculture. The introduction of peanuts to Alabama and the enslavement of African people cannot be removed from a lesson such as this – nor should it. It is through value-based education that social studies contributes the most to STEM and STEAM lessons. This article is significant in that it demonstrates a history lesson that is active rather than passive. This article …

The Counterculture Generation: Idolized, Appropriated, And Misunderstood, Rina R. Bousalis

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Students today possess the impression that all members of the 1960s-70s counterculture generation, or hippies, were long-haired radicals who engaged in deviant behavior. This is attributable to the way media has portrayed youth from this era. Contemporary youth have appropriated the counterculture style without understanding the movement. Businesses transformed the hippies into symbolic commodities, thus reducing their historical significance. This paper describes the implications of this shift and how educators should go beyond the emblematic symbols to teach the counterculture movement in a meaningful way.

Legislated Love And Loyalty: An Analysis Of State Patriotism Statutes, Benjamin R. Wellenreiter

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State statutes require students to engage in patriotic exercises and to learn the concept of patriotism. Through emphasis on ceremonial exercises, requirement of specific document study, framing of patriotism as a character trait, and language regarding civic engagement, state statutes promote various conceptualizations of patriotism. Rarely fitting into a dichotomic framework of either authoritarian or democratic patriotism (Westheimer, 2006, 2009), statutes emphasize varying levels of maintenance of status quos or acknowledgement of societal flaws. Identified were four patriotism statute categories related to the degree to which they maintain status quos or acknowledge societal flaws: active maintenance of status quos; ceremonial …

Inquiry: Tragic Journeys Of Enslaved African People Exposed Through Shipwreck Archaeology, Janie Hubbard

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article describes an inquiry lesson, recommended for upper elementary and middle level students. One primary aim of the lesson is to explore shipwreck archeology to focus on the overseas journeys of enslaved African people during the transatlantic slave trade. A second aim is for students to recognize how the slave trade’s exploiters caused sustained damage to the principles of Black equality, producing systemic racism for centuries and into contemporary times. In this lesson, students inquire and discover nuanced information about the historic slave trade by studying clues from sunken slave ships. Students begin by closely observing artifacts found in …

Covid-19 And Racial Justice In Urban Education: Nyc Parents Speak Out, Kelly Brady, Mieasia Edwards, Whitney Hollins, José Luis Jiménez, Wendy Luttrell, William Orellana, David Rosas, Nga Than

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic and global calls for racial justice surfaced tremendous inequities and revitalized the debate about schooling and its purpose. NYC Parents Speak Out is a public engagement project, based on an interactive survey and interviews that records and reflects NYC family educational experiences during the unprecedented school year of 2020-2021. Our research collective, comprised of researchers, parents, advocates, teachers, and school leaders from the Urban Education Ph.D. Program at The Graduate Center (CUNY) identified three key recommendations based on research findings: to improve communication through family and community engagement; give greater attention to social-emotional and mental health; and …

The Motivation And Attitude Of Arab Heritage Children And Their Parents’ Perspectives Toward Learning Arabic, Nada Naji

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the unstable circumstances in the Middle East in the last decade, a large number of immigrants from Arab origins immigrated to non-Arab countries. This immigration created a new generation of Arab heritage learners who want to learn the Arabic language as a heritage language for different reasons. This study investigates the motivation and attitude of Arab heritage children between 10 and 16 years of age and their parents’ perspectives toward learning Arabic as a heritage language in host countries. 143 participants (92 parents, 51 children) living in 17 different non-Arab countries have participated in this study. The method …

Media Literacy Instruction In Today’S Classrooms: A Study Of Teachers’ Knowledge, Confidence, And Integration, Tracy A. Mcnelly, Jessica Harvey

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Teachers play a critical role in helping to ensure that students leave school with the skills needed to not only be critical consumers of media, but to also be thoughtful and knowledgeable producers of mediated messages. Despite the important role of teachers in media literacy education, we still know very little about teachers’ knowledge of and experiences with media literacy in the classroom. This information is a critical piece in understanding how to best support teachers as they integrate media literacy education within PreK-12 classrooms. The current study seeks to add to the growing body of research in this area …

Where Image And Text Meet Identity: Gifted Students’ Poetry Comics And The Crafting Of “Nerd Identities”, Michael L. Kersulov, Adam Henze

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article reports on a study of how a class of fifteen- and sixteen-year-old gifted high school students “mixed” the media of poetry and comics to unveil and interrogate (what they called) their “nerd identities.” Both co-authors constructed and co-taught a class within a literature-based comics course that led students through various writing processes that focused on the visual and textual properties of poetry and comics. Researchers asked: How may gifted students use poetry and comics to write about identity? How can the mixing of poetry and comics contribute to media literacy education? Using their poetry comics to connect their …

The Right To Education At The Gates Of The University: The Role Of The University Of San Francisco In The Transformation Of Bay Area Schools, Maximilian Cordeiro

Master's Theses

The right to education, understood from a lens of transformational human rights, is not being fulfilled for youth of color in the Bay Area, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods like the Western Addition and Hunters Point, where high school and college graduation rates are significantly lower for Black and Latino students than for their white counterparts. The systemic barriers to educational attainment for people of color are rooted in legacy of Jim Crow-era segregationist policies, but they only exist today because they have been preserved in contemporary “race-neutral” policies and practices. This ongoing racial inequality in education has incurred a …

The Effects That A Flipped Classroom Has On Engagement And Academic Performance For High School Mathematics Students, Jordan Geraets

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Flipped classrooms continue to spark educator’s attention and curiosity as an alternative to the traditional teaching and engagement in a classroom, especially during the time of a global pandemic. New, innovative technology has allowed for educators to be able to evolve their classrooms into new learning environments. Research into how flipped classrooms can impact mathematics classrooms and how students engage and perform differently than in a traditional mathematics classroom was expanded on in this study to determine what benefits there could be for students and how effective the teaching model can be in a class where students often struggle. As …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Undergraduate Debt And Graduate School Enrollment For Stem And Business-Related Fields, Stephanie Mayer

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

There is a major limitation in this field of literature with limited studies conducted on the factors influencing graduate school enrollment for STEM and business fields after the 2008 Great Recession. During the Great Recession of 2008, approximately 2.8 million students decided to go back to school and pursue a master’s degree. Since then, the cost of a four-year college degree increased by 25 percent and student debt increased by 107 percent (NCES, 2019). STEM and business fields increased by 15 percent during the Great Recession of 2008 in graduate degree programs, graduates, and workforce demand (Anderson, 2013; Okahana & …

Gradeless Learning: The Effect Of Eliminating Traditional Grading Practices On Student Engagement And Learning, Eric Sanders

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

In order for students to learn at high levels, there must be high expectations and strong feedback. Although traditional grading seems to be an inherent part of the educational system, there are multiple purposes for grades which often causes frustrations for both teachers and students. There is a need to expand the research on grading and its effect on both student learning and motivation. This action research study centered on three research questions: 1) What effect does the elimination of traditional grading practices have on student engagement in learning? 2) What impact does the removal of traditional grading practices and …

Impacts Of Concurrent Enrollment Offerings On Minnesota High School Programming: A Qualitative Exploration Of High School Administrator Perceptions., Erica Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Concurrent enrollment plays an increasingly important role in dual credit program options throughout Minnesota public schools. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to discern any shared phenomenon among public high school administrators in schools where concurrent enrollment is offered. This dissertation was framed by two research questions: 1) Share your rationale for why your school is offering concurrent enrollment courses. 2) From your perspective, how does concurrent enrollment participation impact your student body?

A qualitative, constructivist, phenomenological study was conducted using semi-structured interviews across a mix of seven rural and urban Minnesota school districts. The participants included seven …

How Teaching Virtues Became A Movement. A Book Review Of The Rise Of Character Education In Britain: Heroes, Dragons, And The Myths Of Character, Judith L. Pace

Democracy & Education

How did character education become so popular? What does its curriculum look like? And what is its educational impact? Lee Jerome and Ben Kisby answer these and other questions in a bold and brilliant book. Focusing on the character education movement in Britain, they dissect its theoretical foundation, explain its ascendancy, analyze its curricula, and examine its results. The authors construct a compelling argument that character education clashes with education for democracy.

Character education claims to be a panacea for improving individual children’s life chances as well as an array of societal problems. But with its deeply flawed ideology, curricula, …

La Carranga Como Identidad Cultural Local Y Regional Del Departamento De Cundinamarca Y Boyacá– Colombia, Karen L. López

Honors Program Theses and Projects

“Somos hablares, historias copla, canto y poesías, eso es lo que les traemos, eso es la carranguerita, sinfónicamente hablando, un canto hermoso a la vida”. Estas son las palabras con las que inicia algunas de sus presentaciones en público Jorge Velosa, el hombre más influyente y reconocido de la música carranguera. Este ritmo musical es muy importante porque por medio de su letra expresa ideas, valores, y lazos de identidad únicos de la comunidad campesina. También, es un estilo de música colombiana que busca la sonrisa de la gente, muestra cómo convivir en paz con la naturaleza, y es la …

How The Covid-19 Pandemic Affected High School Student Mathematical Anxiety During Distance Learning., Ryan Christiansen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Mathematical anxiety is the stress associated with an insecurity in a student’s own ability to solve a math problem (Beilock & Willingham, 2014). This stress can cause students to perform below their ability and put in motion a dislike for math that can last a lifetime. In the spring of 2020, a sudden interruption in learning, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, caused students to be separated from their teachers, setting up a situation in which students were not as fully supported as usual, and mathematical anxiety potentially increased. The previous research on students being separated from their teachers on …

Understanding School Dropout: An Analysis Of The Underlying Causes And Their Significance In Building Meaningful Interventions, Kelli K. Stewart

Counseling Psychology | Master's Theses

This paper is a review of research regarding high school dropout rates and trends in the United States. Findings on the underlying reasons students are dropping out and analyzing this data can help implement widely accessible multi-level support systems in the schools and design sensible policies to aid students with emotional, and learning disabilities. While building these policies, it is essential to be mindful of our student populations' ethnicity and socioeconomic factors and their educational implications. This paper will address the leading causes for withdrawing before obtaining a diploma (early traumas, homeless, foster and juvenile justice youth, emotional and learning …

Incorporating Social Media Into The Classroom: A Case Study On How Tiktok Can Be Immersed Into Classroom Pedagogy, Sara Solomon

Education | Master's Theses

My research project focuses on the use of TikTok embedded within classroom pedagogy and how it can be used as a tool to support academic and social emotional wellbeing. There is a lack of research investigating how social media can be incorporated into the classroom to make up for potential academic losses, including the inevitable social/emotional needs of adolescents that need to be addressed due to the ramifications of COVID-19. In my research, I question ways in which students see this tool as supporting their wellbeing, in what ways parents see this tool as supporting their child's wellbeing, and why …

Overcoming The Void: Obstacles To Authentic Culturally Relevant Teaching, Lindsay Rowe

Education | Master's Theses

This study explored how teacher perceptions of professional development (PD) on culturally relevant teaching (CRT) and a lack of student voice impede authentic implementation of CRT. Culturally relevant teaching involves utilizing student backgrounds and voices to shape curriculum and pedagogy. However, a review of the literature revealed that student voice is largely missing in CRT research. Additionally, teacher responses to PD were not frequently discussed in studies exploring implementation of CRT. The purpose of the study was to better understand student desires for education and teacher responses to PD on CRT. Research was conducted at a 7-12 public school in …

The Fear Of Missing Out Phenomenon And Belongingness In Secondary Students, Minnie Mcbride

Education | Master's Theses

In the networks of student lives and the pervasive presence of social media in their lives, there is an increasingly important need to understand the dynamics that affect students’ well being and availability to being present with learning. This qualitative study sought to understand how FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Przybylski et. al, 2013, p. 1841), impacts students of color at one independent secondary school in Northern California and has been documented as having an impact on learning, health, and safety. The researcher …

Theatre During Covid-19: Perceptions Of High School Students And Teachers, Marissa Lizette Trujillo

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

COVID-19 changed the way theatre was done in a high school setting. Students were required to wear masks and physically distance, and some even did theatre remotely. Doing theatre with limitations was especially difficult because the face and body play a vital role in helping actors tell a story. In this study, the researcher sought to understand what the perceptions of high school theatre students and teachers were while doing theatre during COVID-19. A survey, two focus group interviews, a group interview, and an individual interview were used to collect data, as well as observations in three theatre classes and …