Secondary Education Commons^™

The Middle School Transition: Exploring Student Perceptions On The Transition From Elementary To Middle School, Cody T. Weed

Education Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand middle school students’ perceptions of their transition from elementary school to better learn the interactions and dynamics that unfold between them and their immediate environment. The middle school transition is a pivotal developmental phase marked by significant logistical, academic, and social–emotional challenges. Grounded in transition theory, the 4S framework, and stage-environment fit theory, this research explores the interactions between students and their new environment. Utilizing an embedded design mixed-methods approach, this study surveyed sixth-grade students at a public middle school in Eastern Washington. The goal was to illuminate students’ needs and concerns …

10 Things We Love/Hate About Ai For Writing Instruction, Jenelle Williams, Katherine Cottone, Brian Dalton

Michigan Reading Journal

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the educational landscape, its role in writing instruction elicits both enthusiasm and apprehension among educators. This article, “10 Things We Love/Hate About AI for Writing Instruction,” explores the complex dynamics of integrating AI tools into the teaching of writing. Drawing from classroom experiences, educator reflections, and student interactions, it highlights the benefits of AI—including personalized feedback, increased writing fluency, and support for diverse learners—while also acknowledging concerns such as diminished student agency, ethical implications of authorship, and overreliance on automated systems. By presenting a balanced perspective, the article invites educators to critically examine how …

An Exploration Of Teacher Exodus In Predominantly African American Secondary Public Schools Amid Covid-19, Keith Demond Ford

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

For some time, K-12 teachers across America have been resigning from classrooms in large numbers. Like many of the nation’s communities, schools in American neighborhoods of color have seen an overwhelming amount of teacher resignations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to existing literature, education’s traditional systemic norms and health protocols which were initiated during COVID-19 motivated classroom teachers to leave their jobs. This qualitative study uses a phenomenological methodology as it discovers that an interrelatedness of factors influences six participants to resign from their classroom teaching roles at predominantly African American middle and high schools during and immediately following …

An Examination Of The Current Status Of Middle School Agricultural Education And Perceptions Amongst State Ffa Leaders, Alex Holman, Timothy Alexander Holman Jr.

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Middle school agricultural education programs were first officially recognized within the National FFA Organization in 1988 when 7th and 8th grade students were granted FFA membership. This study was conducted to examine the current status of middle school agricultural education programs and the perceptions of state FFA leaders across the United States, especially with the recent addition of 5th and 6th grade students being granted membership. Using a mixed-methods survey distributed to 52 state FFA leaders in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the study gathered enrollment data, participation opportunities, and perceived advantages and disadvantages associated …

An Examination Of Middle School Enrollment And Participation In The National Ffa Organization, Melanie Dorminey

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Middle school agricultural education programs and opportunities for middle school students to be members of the National FFA Organization were first made available in 1988. The Perkins V Act of 2018 provided the first federal funding to support middle school career and technical education programs. In conjunction with the federal funding provided by the Perkins V Act of 2018, the National FFA Organization adopted a national middle school membership affiliation program where middle school FFA chapters could pay a flat fee for all students enrolled in middle school agricultural education courses over the traditional membership of paying per individual student. …

Exploring Compassion Fatigue Among Core Subject Middle Grades Teachers: A Quantitative Study, Michelle L. Hickey

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Research has shown increased rates of attrition among K-12 teachers since 2021, with middle school teachers being the most dissatisfied. Burnout and job-related stresses are cited as the main causes of teachers leaving the classroom. Teachers experience the same or higher levels of job-related stress as nurses, doctors, EMTs, and social workers while receiving little or no training about compassion fatigue. This study examined compassion fatigue among a sample of core subject middle school teachers from one upstate South Carolina school district. An online survey, informed by a review of current literature, revealed moderate levels of compassion fatigue among the …

Bridging The Gap: Fostering Emotional Expression Through Teaching Strategies In The Middle School Choral Classroom, Jacob Brown

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of teacher-elicited expression strategies (i.e. emotionally evocative metaphor, technical elements through modeling, body of the conductor, understanding the emotional content) on the emotional expressivity of my middle school choral students. Using a mixed-method approach, data was collected through surveys of students' self-evaluations of the expression strategies, and their overall value of expression before and after learning processes that emphasized emotional expressivity. I found that each teacher-elicited expression strategies impacted student expressivity positively. Concrete strategies (i.e., body of the conductor and technical elements through modeling) were highly effective, particularly in my beginner and intermediate choirs, while …

Incorporation Of Citizen Science In Classrooms To Enrich Learning, Ryan Moellendick

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper explores the use of citizen science experiences as a method of enriching content in middle school and high school science classrooms. This article explores my own experiences working with the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative and the application of available citizen science experiences in the classroom in alignment with Ohio's Learning Standard's for Science.

Supporting Students In Transition To And From High School, David Naff, Jamelle Simmons, Meleah Ellison, Shelby Garofalo, Laura Thoene, Kim Dupre, Sooyeon Moon, Karli Johanson, Paul Harris, Martin Darby, William L. Parker, Tracy Booker, Janel Miley, Mysia Perry, Xun Liu, Maggie Szydlowski, Ahmed Abbas

MERC Publications

This report is part of a two-part series focused on supporting students in transition across PK-12 education. Specifically, it explores transitions into and out of high school school. The report includes a synthesis of recent peer-reviewed literature, analysis of publicly available data (with a specific focus on Virginia and the metropolitan Richmond region), and summary of relevant federal, state, and school division-level policies. It answers the following questions:

1. What are key considerations for supporting students in transition to and from high school in the MERC region?

2. How do federal, state, and division policies guide support for student transitions …

Understanding How Social Media Influences Student Engagement Within The Classroom: Middle Grades Students' Perspectives., Anthony Dawyne Myrks-Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the concept of student engagement and participation through the lens of middle school students. Studies and research show that overall student engagement amongst middle school-aged students is the most unengaged period throughout students' K-12 educational journey. Today's students live in a completely different generation from their guardians and parents due to the technology component, including smartphones making the element of social media more accessible. Social media is a platform that helps people communicate through various applications, and middle school students engage and participate in various social media applications daily. Student engagement is a critical component within education …

To The Middle School Talent Show Kids, Oona M. Abrams

New Jersey English Journal

This poem pays homage to the courage it takes to "show up, get up, and stay up," affirming middle schoolers' collective potential to dream audaciously and shape the world.

Enhancing Writing By Increasing Metacognitive Skills Through Socratic Seminars In A High Poverty Middle School Social Studies Classroom: An Intrinsic Case Study, Kirsten Hickingbottom

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to better understand the role metacognitive skills play within classroom settings to increase students’ writing through Socratic Seminars. A predominant question guided this study: Can improving student metacognition through the repetitive use of questioning techniques in Socratic Seminars lead to improved writing skills? This question, along with four additional research questions guided the research. There is a need for more activities that promote metacognition due to its correlation with academic achievement, critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and perceived self-efficacy (Keus, 2020). The significance of this study was to examine a method of …

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 …

Making The Middle Matter: Considering Project-Based, Experiential, And Work-Based Instructional Strategies With Middle School Teachers, Trishauna Pulos

Theses and Dissertations

Middle school is about the growth, potential, and change of adolescents. Students at the middle school age level, generally ages 10 to 14, struggle with the dynamics of making the transitions from recess and active learning in elementary school to multiple teachers, bigger workloads and campuses, and larger student populations (Alexander et al., 1969; Howell et al., 2016). For this study, the instructional practices, and strategies of project-based, experiential, and work-based learning are researched including challenges, measurements of growth and success, and recommendations for future educators using these instructional delivery methods (Dincer, 2021; Flannery & Smith, 2021; Kalkan & Dagli, …

Design Thinking’S Effect On Empathy Development In Middle School English- Language Arts, Kim Starkey

Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the impact of Design Thinking on students' empathy development in middle school English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. The study involved two middle school instructors with eight classes, implementing Design Thinking, Reader's Workshop, and traditional ELA curriculum in different combinations (n =102) and two control classes (n =27).

The Adolescent Empathy Measure (AMES) and rubrics for analyzing student writing samples were used to assess changes in empathy. The AMES was given before and after the interventions, and the writing samples were analyzed before and after the interventions as well. The findings indicate …

The Shared Experiences Of Educators In Grades 7–12 Who Implement Lessons In Social–Emotional Learning Curriculum, Heathre C. Palige

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

Social–emotional learning (SEL) is used in public school classrooms throughout the United States. The problem that this researcher addressed in this study was that minimal understanding exists of the lived experiences of teachers who implement SEL in Colorado public schools in Grades 7–12. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and to provide a clearer understanding of the lived experiences of six educators who implement SEL in Grades 7–12 in Colorado public schools. The study fills a gap in literature in understanding the experiences of teachers who use SEL in middle and high school. The literature review …

Equity In Learning Opportunities For Middle School Students: Connecting Communities And Transportation Through Gis, Tom O’Brien, Ben Olson

Mineta Transportation Institute

Geographic information systems (GIS) is part of an in-demand career skillset that can lead to safer streets in California communities. This project included a three-session bootcamp that introduced middle school students to transportation via GIS and gathered assessments on their awareness of transportation as a career pathway. The project built upon CSUTC TRANSPORTS’ Year 4 project, “K–12 Special Investigation Project: Mapping E-Commerce Locally and Beyond.” The bootcamp for this project was coordinated in partnership with Rio Hondo College, which provided the instructor and connection to the students at the Mountain View Unified School District in El Monte, CA. The bootcamp …

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

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

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

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 …

Investigating Correlations Among A Growth-Mindset Intervention, Students’ Math Anxiety, And Students’ Math Self-Efficacy, Anna Grace Chamberlain

Honors Projects

This paper details the methodology, data, and conclusions of a research study investigating the correlations among a growth-mindset intervention, math anxiety, and math self-efficacy. The study found that teaching students about mindset through an intervention approach did not make a significant difference in students’ math anxiety or math self-efficacy. Teacher-centered factors are discussed as having a greater impact on students’ math anxiety and math self-efficacy.

Impacting African American Student Achievement In The Middle School Stem Classroom By Teaching Mathematics Through Arts Integration And Design Thinking, Robert Lippert, Tjuannia R. Seals

Dissertations

Middle school is a transitional period in which many students experience content-specific teachers, travel between classrooms, and explore extracurricular activity options for the first time. Historically, African American middle school students have not fared well in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) on standardized assessments, performing significantly below their Caucasian counterparts in mathematics and science. From the beginning of their academic careers, a lack of access to quality teachers, excessive use of direct instruction strategies, and a lack of resources in their school communities, contribute to their overall apathy towards the subject matter and factor into their underperformance. As a …

The Not-So-Silent Period: Testimonios Of Recently Arrived Latinx Students, Teri M. Hutchinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore and amplify the experiences of recently arrived Latinx¹ students as interpreted through their testimonios in educational borderlands. Through increasingly xenophobic discourses around immigrants and their children (Pérez Huber, 2015), U.S. public schools have become entrenched borderland spaces wherein the humanity of recently arrived students is voided through silencing them with labels of linguistic deficiency and cramming them into one-size-fits-all educational programming (Fine et al., 2007; Flores & Rosa, 2015). There is demand for research that explores the experiences of these children, especially in light of their continued marginalization through neoliberal programming …

Everyone Is On Their Phones: Eighth Graders' Struggle With Social Media In School, George Weinhardt

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This qualitative study examined social media in the school setting from the point of view of eighth-grade participants. This study implemented a focused ethnography, examining a group of individuals’ perspectives on a focused area of their shared culture. Using critical theory, this study examined qualitative data with the concepts of structures, subjectivity, and power at the confluence of social media and school for eighth-grade students. Qualitative data were collected using five semi-structured focus groups, artifact analysis, fieldnotes, and memos. The findings highlighted that eighth-grade students acknowledge that there is a struggle between social media and school. This struggle alters their …

A Restorative Justice Book Club For Secondary Classrooms, Mary M. Mcconnaha

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Schools face several challenges in creating meaningful community relationships, and the breakdown of these relationships causes harm to students, teachers, and administrators. Many schools have turned to restorative justice practices as a way to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, reduce discipline referrals, increase graduation rate, and strengthen the school community (Evans & Lester, 2013; Winn et al., 2019; Weaver and Swank, 2020). However, Winn (2013, 2018) and others have proposed that the principles of restorative justice can be embedded into the English Language Arts curriculum. In this paper, I describe a restorative justice book club unit for early adolescents that is …

Why Do Students Attend Stem Clubs, What Do They Get Out Of It, And Where Are They Heading?, Margaret R. Blanchard, Kristie S. Gutierrez, Kylie J. Swanson, Karen M. Collier

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This research investigated what motivated and sustained the involvement of 376 students in culturally relevant, afterschool STEM clubs at four rural, under-resourced schools. A longitudinal, convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used to investigate participants’ participation in and perceptions of the clubs, their motivations to attend, and their future goals, over three years. Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) served as a guiding theoretical and analytical framework. Overall, students who attended the clubs were African American (55%), female (56%), and 6th graders (42%), attended approximately half of the clubs (43%), and agreed with quality measures on the STEM Club Survey (M …

Genrefication: Making Children's Collections Accessible, Kurt Axt

Resources for Educators

[From Introduction]

Most people who have home libraries have no need to classify their collections. They have one or maybe several bookcases, perhaps separating fiction from nonfiction, grouping fiction by genre or format, nonfiction by subject. They may even keep their Outlander books together and not mix them up with their Alex Cross books. But only a rare bird would alphabetize their fiction by author or organize their nonfiction by the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress (LC) classification systems. Likewise, if their small child has a bookcase in his or her bedroom, it is probably an unsorted mass of …

A Qualitative Study Examining The Literacy Experiences Of Male Middle School Students Inside And Outside Of School, Ari Raymond Colondres

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

A literacy gap is a difference between a person’s ability to read for understanding and meaning-making and their anticipated ability to read for their grade level. A larger proportion of males are at least one or more years below grade level in reading ability compared to their female peers. This reading difference is called the gender literacy gap. Students over one year below grade level are at an increased risk of dropping out of high school and face the possibility of diminished lifetime earnings. Gender, low levels of motivation, low socio-economic status, low engagement, and school perceptions of literacy are …

Influence Of Restorative Practices On The Middle-School Classroom, As Reported By Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study, Julia Y. Andrews

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle school teachers’ perceptions of the influence that restorative practices have on the middle school classroom environment. For the purpose of this study, seven middle school teachers were selected who have implemented restorative practices in their middle school classrooms to provide feedback. Findings suggest that overall restorative practices have a positive influence on the classroom. The findings from this study can be used with teachers, administrators, counselors, parents, and school and district support staff to help create a positive campus culture between students and adults in middle school classrooms. The …

Student Preferences About Student-Teacher Communication And Student Perceptions Of Teacher Presence In An Online Middle School, Kyle M. Doty

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative survey study was to determine how middle school students in fully online language arts courses perceived their teachers to be present and what methods of communication with the teacher middle school students desired. The purposive sample was composed of 100 sixth and seventh grade language arts students from a large virtual school in the southeastern United States. Student responses were overwhelmingly skewed, and results from the survey indicated a statistically significant finding. Students in online middle school find their teachers to be present and desire to be communicated with using text messages first and …

Teacher Experiences In A Community-Based Rural Partnership: Recognizing Community Assets, Tawni Paradise, Malle R. Schilling, Jake Grohs, Jordan L. Laney

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

The purpose of this research study is to understand teacher experiences throughout their second year of engagement in the Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools partnership. This partnership is an assets-based community partnership in a rural environment between middle school teachers, regional industry, and university affiliates that is focused on implementing recurrent, hands-on, culturally relevant engineering activities for middle school students. This qualitative study uses constant comparative methodology informed by grounded theory on teacher interviews to capture both teacher experiences in the partnership as well as teacher-identified assets in their classrooms and school communities. Using the …