Elementary Education and Teaching Commons^™

The Impact Of Small Group Instruction On The Reading Ability Of Three First Grade Students, Jillian Wilson

Undergraduate Research Conference

This literacy project investigated the impact of small group reading instruction on the reading ability of first graders. During fall 2012, the teacher candidate conducted research in a first grade classroom in a rural East Texas elementary school three days a week for an eight-week period. One purpose of this literacy project was to enable teacher candidates to gain experience conducting reading assessments, planning age appropriate reading lessons, and implementing those lessons in a small group instructional setting. Another purpose was to administer pre and post assessments to monitor the reading development of a group of students.

Development Of A Middle To High School College And Career Readiness Tool And Professional Development For A Northeastern Kentucky School Community, Lowell Shawn Thornbury

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Lowell Shawn Thornbury on April 5, 2013.

Landscapes To Learnscapes: Exploring Schoolyard-Based Education, Emily I. Palena, Caroline T. Spurgin

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis explores schoolyard-based education as a viable and necessary method for rectifying the shortcomings within the American public school system and the Nature-deficit Disorder epidemic. We argue that schoolyard-based education should be fully integrated into the school system, not in the sole form of popularized school gardens, but as a standard teaching method. We show this using extensive research and a case study of three elementary schools in Claremont, California.

Improving Student Achievement Through Feedback, Jennifer L. Mchlachlan

Mathematics Graduate Theses

This paper reviews the current research that exists on feedback given to students in an educational setting. Questions examined were what characteristics make feedback effective, what are the effects on student achievement if feedback is available to students in a math classroom and does timing of the feedback given play a role in its effectiveness. Results showed that feedback is effective if it is descriptive, including both strengths and weaknesses. Feedback given in small doses throughout the learning process, so as not to overwhelm students, has also proven effective. The research shows that the effect of feedback on student achievement …

Principal Leardership Behaviors Which Teachers At Different Career Stages Perceive As Affecting Job Satisfaction, Valari Hill

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of teachers as to how the leadership of their principal affects their job satisfaction. This study collected the view of teachers at different career stages and examined their perceptions and needs. The participants consisted of 12 elementary school teachers at three different career stages (beginning, middle, and late).

Qualitative analysis of the interview data revealed three major themes and nine subthemes.

The first theme reveals that principal leadership style is not consistent and includes the subthemes: (1.1) principals are not successfully sharing their vision with teachers, (1.2) principals attempt …

Shaping Young Women For The Future: A Case Study Of A South African Girls’ School, Colleen Mcgeehan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project seeks to examine the place of private schools in preparing young women for a future in the new South Africa. Specifically, this project focuses on high school learners at South African Girls’ School (SAGS) in Durban, South Africa. By examining ways of learning, succeeding and fitting in at SAGS as well as perceptions of a democratic South Africa and how the learners at this school see themselves fitting into the future of their country, we gain a fuller understanding of what it means to be a citizen of this country for a group that is not often studied. …

How To Read A Poem, Julie Patterson

Articles

Our writer-in-residence offers some insight into how to read a poem.

4 Things To Know About Reading, Libby Duggan

Articles

Parents often ask me what they can do at home to support and encourage reading. I find myself repeating four main ideas, things that reading workshop teachers know that every parent, grandparent, babysitter, school volunteer, policymaker — well, everyone — should know, too.

Letters Of Recommendation: Honesty Remains The Best Policy, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Amid concerns over teacher sexual abuse and other misconduct involving students— although involving a very small percentage of educators—boards should strengthen their policies for evaluating the qualifications of potential teachers, including those with experience, by requesting letters of recommendation after they complete initial state-mandated criminal background checks.

As crucial as letters of recommendation are in the hiring process, litigation demonstrates that some education leaders fail in their duty to safeguard children from sexual predators. Cases arose when officials provided undeserved positive reference letters for teachers who engaged in sexual misconduct with students—teachers who moved on to other school systems where …

Urban Pds Partnership: Preparing Teachers For Social Justice, Connie L. Bowman, Rachel M. B. Collopy, Jamie Bentley, Elizabeth Cameron, David A. Taylor

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

We believe that for urban schools to meet their goals and mission — in the way the DECA is modeling — takes a partnership among many stakeholders. One such partnership that supports DECA, and might buttress other schools and students — and simultaneously help to enact a social justice ideal — is a school-university connection. DECA was founded as a Professional Development School (PDS), with the school and university developing a reciprocal relationship with a shared focus on the preparation of new teachers, the enhancement of high school students' achievement, school and university faculty members' professional development, and collaborative inquiries …

An Examination Of Academic Growth Of Minority Elementary Magnet School Students, David Wayne Snapp

Education Dissertations and Projects

This research was designed to examine the difference in student performance between minority magnet school students who live in the residential area for those magnet schools and minority students assigned to a non-magnet residential school. This difference in performance was measured by scale score differences from the North Carolina End-of-Grade tests in reading and math after the sample scores were converted to z scores using the state mean and standard deviation for the given years in the study. Performance growth was measured for students who were in the third grade in 2009-2010 and remained at their school through the fifth …

Summer Reading Loss: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Parent Development And Home-Based Summer Reading, Morgan V. Blanton

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact of parent development on rising third graders' summer reading losses as measured by the difference in May and August oral reading fluency scores. Title I parents and students from three schools in a rural North Carolina school district participated in a parent development session that focused on reading strategies to use at home. Parents and Title I teachers were in contact during the summer via telephone or face-to-face and students kept a reading log in order to collect data regarding reading routines. Quantitative data were collected using a pretest/posttest …

Attitudes And Beliefs Of Upper Elementary Teachers Regarding The Teaching Of Cursive Handwriting, Dorothy Myers

Education Dissertations and Projects

This study surveyed current third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in two small school districts in the southeast. One school district has initiated a technology initiative in its elementary schools. The other school district involved in the study incorporates technology but does not have a specified technology initiative. This dissertation was designed to provide information about the attitudes and beliefs of current third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade teachers about the necessity of teaching cursive handwriting. Many schools today either no longer teach cursive handwriting or do not spend the amount of time teaching cursive handwriting as in years past. With the age …

Theory Guided Professional Development In Early Childhood Science Education, Soo-Young Hong, Julia C. Torquati, Victoria J. Molfese

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The importance of early and developmentally appropriate science education is increasingly recognized. Consequently, creation of common guidelines and standards in early childhood science education has begun (National Research Council (NRC), 2012), and researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have shown great interest in aligning professional development with the new guidelines and standard. There are some important issues that need to be addressed in order to successfully implement guidelines and make progress toward accomplishing standards. Early childhood teachers have expressed a lack of confidence in teaching science and nature (Torquati, Cutler, Gilkerson, & Sarver, in press) and have limited science and pedagogical …

Elementary Teacher Perceptions Of Teaching Practices That Foster Creative Thinking In Students, Jessica Roy

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Divergent thinking is a 21st century skill that allows individuals to create innovative ways to alleviate societal burdens by finding new solutions to old problems. However, creativity is often overlooked or ignored in the classroom environment because the rigid atmosphere of authority does not allow for the simultaneous use of multiple cognitive abilities. What can teachers do, or are they doing, to ensure that divergent thinking is fostered in their classrooms? Three surveys were administered to 32 elementary school teachers to determine if there is a disconnect between what teachers believe fosters creativity with actual practices within the classroom. Survey …

The Teacher-Student Writing Conference Reimaged: Entangled Becoming-Writingconferencing, Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Mindy Legard Larson

Faculty Publications

This analysis is experimental: we attempt to read data with the work of Karen Barad and in doing so ‘see’ teacher-student writing conferences (a common pedagogy of US elementary school writing) as intra-activity. Data were gathered during teacher-student writing conferences in a grade five US classroom over a six week period. One conference between a researcher and a male Latino student, a Student of Labels, is diffracted. Reading and writing and thinking with Barad disrupts our habitual ways of privileging language as representational. Rather, we consider the material-discursive practices of schooling that produce what comes to matter, leading …

Searching For Methodology: Feminist Relational Materialism And The Teacher-Student Writing Conference, Mindy Legard Larson, Donna Kalmbach Phillips

Faculty Publications

Using feminist relational materialism as a theoretical map, this paper seeks to reimage traditional case study methodology through the use of diffractive methodology. Reading and writing data diffractively is to refuse to privilege teacher and student talk and to instead study how material-discursive practices intra-act as phenomenon. To do this, we developed question-sets based upon Barad’s (2007) work to interrupt our habits of thinking in regard to a teacher-student writing conference. These question sets provoke our thinking with data from fourth grade teacher-student writing conferences. We play with diffractive methodology highlighting one teacher-student writing conference as intra-activity. Experiencing the teacher-student …

Making The Work Interesting: Classroom Management Through Ownership In Elementary Literature Circles, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Ryan Flessner's contribution to "Breaking the Mold of Classroom Management: What Educators Should Know and Do to Enable Student Success".

Strengthening Student Achievement Through Family Learning Events, Jacquelin Ann Charlton

All Graduate Projects

Families and educators both have a great influence on a student's academic success. When the relationship between home and school is strained, students miss out on some of that success (Harris & Goodall, 2008). Parental influence is an important factor in a child's education, but parental engagement in their learning is even more important (Ho Sui-Chu & Williams, 1996). However, some parents may feel unwelcome or unneeded at school (Williams, Williams, & Ullman, 2002), so it's the educator's responsibility to understand and encourage parents to become more engaged in student learning. Hosting family learning events at school can build a …

Exploring The Role Of The Principal In Elementary Teacher Retention And Migration As Perceived By Elementary Teachers In Rural School Districts Of North-Central Pennsylvania, Diana L. Barnes

Dissertations

Problem. Teacher migration and attrition are costly to educational institutions and negatively impact students' education. Teachers migrate to other positions and/or leave the profession for different reasons. Research of literature indicated that one influence on the teacher's decision to migrate to another position or to leave the profession is lack of principal support. This sequential mixed-methodology study explores elementary teachers' perception of the relationship between principal support and teacher retention and migration in the rural elementary schools of north-central Pennsylvania.

Method. To explore the role of the principal, this sequentially mixed-methodological study used a focus group to identify elementary teachers' …

Accessing The Inaccessible : Educational Development And Improvement Programme (Edip) An Extenstion Of The Diamir District Gilgit-Baltistan : A Case Study, Mola Dad Shafa, Haider Fancy

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.

Primary And Secondary Distance Education: Expanding The Knowledge Base In The Schools Sector, Michael Barbour, Keryn Pratt

Education Faculty Publications

The use of distance education at the primary and secondary levels began in New Zealand around 1922 with the introduction of The Correspondence School (Barbour, 2011a). The roots of web-based or online distance education in the schools sector trace back to 1993, and have been firmly entrenched in the nation’s schools sector since 2002 (Davis, 2010). With the implementation of the Rural Broadband Initiative and Ultra Fast Broadband in Schools programmes, there is an opportunity to develop research-based initiatives to leverage the learning potential provided by this increased connectivity. However, to date there has been little published research on the …

Youth Development And Education In Pakistan : Exploring The Relationship, Dilshad Ashraf, Takbir Ali, Anya Hosain

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper provides a critical examination of the inter-linkages between youth education, development, empowerment, and engagement in Pakistan. Currently, the majority of the population falls within the youth age bracket of 15-24 years. The country stands at a critical juncture, where it can capitalize on this demographic dividend for transformational and sustainable socioeconomic growth. However, this paper argues that there is inadequate intersection and convergence between Pakistan’s national and provincial Education and Youth policy frameworks. An indepth overview of current trends in terms of quality of education and access to and participation in various forms of education programmes indicates that …

A Handbook Of Learner-Centered Projects To Suppliment Fifth Grade, Social Studies Curriculum, Charre Margaretha Burnum

All Graduate Projects

This handbook has been created in an effort to assist teachers with establishing a hands-on, learner-centered environment. The purpose of this handbook is to assist educators with teaching fifth grade, Social Studies curriculum. This handbook will help teachers to organize fifth grade expectations into thematic, learner-centered, intrinsically motivated projects that will allow for a well-planned, teacher facilitated, and educational experience. This is more than just a how-to manual; it includes the theoretical and empirical basis thesis for using thematic, cross-curricular projects, to enhance student retention, motivation and independent learning.

“Why Don’T We Learn Like This In School?” One Participatory Action Research Collective’S Framework For Developing Policy Thinking, Mayida Zaal, Jennifer Ayala

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This article explores the ways in which schools and communities can create conditions whereby youth can develop and strengthen policy thinking as they pursue advocacy, action, and participatory policy making. Based on a participatory action research (PAR) project created to address the implications of New Jersey’s high school graduation requirements, this framework engages young people in critical policy analysis. Utilizing PAR as a critical pedagogy, we consider the curricula and structures that could nurture policy thinking, as we involve young people in deep critique, analysis, and knowledge production towards community concerns. We describe four dimensions of policy thinking and propose …

Educating The Children Of Immigrants In Old And New Amsterdam, Maurice Crul, Jennifer Holdaway, Helga A.G. De Valk, Norma Fuentes, Mayida Zaal

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Because many migrants to the United States and Europe have limited formal education, school systems are challenged to avoid the reproduction of inequality in the second generation and to enable the children of immigrants to enjoy the opportunities available to their native-born peers. This study assesses how well two school systems meet this challenge by considering the experience of second-generation Moroccans in Amsterdam and Dominicans in New York City (originally known as New Amsterdam)—two groups that differ in terms of ethnicity and religion, but who share a similar socioeconomic position. The parents in both cases are predominantly low-wage labor migrants …

Teaching Children According To Learning Preference, Anne J. Derby

Senior Honors Theses

Several learning preferences describe students learning preferences. Learning sequence influences teaching order. Contemporary lecture-based, small group based, and activity-based methods for teaching are evaluated for which learning preferences are most compatible with each teaching method. Products can aid the teacher and student in their respective roles during the lesson. Other resources can instruct the people who lead the lesson in the classroom.

Effects Of Response Cards On The Disruptive Behavior Of Students, Leslie S. Singer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This study examined the effects of response cards (RC) on student disruptive behavior, responding, and accuracy of responding during whole-class guided-reading instruction in a first-grade classroom. The authors combined two baseline conditions with an alternating treatments design and then replicated the effects across four teacher-nominated students. The first baseline condition was the teacher's typical instruction format, where one student who raised his/her hand was called upon to respond to the teacher's question. The second baseline condition (BL') was the same as the first baseline with an additional control for the number of teacher-delivered questions to the class per session. …

Exploring Mathematical Knowledge In Elementary Teacher Candidates With The Use Of Classroom-Based Artifacts, Erica Paige Gillentine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Clinical Practicum Experience To Prepare Teacher Candidates For Early Literacy Instruction, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to explore teacher candidates’ tutoring experiences within a university clinical practicum to acquire an understanding about how their unique interactions with struggling readers and research-based methodology contribute to their pedagogical understandings of literacy instruction.

This article spotlights teacher education and addresses the question of how teacher educators can guide teacher candidates in putting theory into practice with early readers. The author describes a scaffolded clinical practicum in which preservice teachers have the opportunity assess, teach and reflect on their work with children.