Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons^™

Backbone Of Classroom Instruction, Bilqees Patel

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

New Ways Of Teaching Science, Naheed Anwar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

A Spring Board To Fly, Aafiyat Nazar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Math Barrier, Bilqees Patel

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

It Pays For Teachers To Learn Again, Asghari Ummulbanin

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Mind Your English, Sadia Hanif

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Homework: A Nightly Ritual Beginning In The Elementary Grades, Ann-Marie N. Skaggs

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Homework has become an accepted staple within education in the United States. However, little is acknowledged regarding the influences homework has on students. The purpose of this extended literature review is to look at the influences of homework on students in the elementary grades. The following research on homework was found through books, peer-reviewed journal articles, government reports, magazine articles, and interviews. Within the research, educational, socioeconomic, and parental factors show the largest influence, both positive and negative toward homework. The author discusses future implications to better improve homework's influence on students in the elementary grades. These implications include a …

An Examination Of The Effect Of Constructivist And Cooperative Learning Teaching Techniques On Student Engagement In Social Studies, Dana Olivieri

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to see if teaching students through constructivist and cooperative learning teaching techniques increases student engagement in social studies. Thirteen sixth grade students participated in the investigation. They completed surveys before and after a curricular intervention that consisted of social studies instruction based on constructivist and cooperative learning techniques. During the intervention, the students' engagement was observed by the researcher. The students demonstrated that constructivist and cooperative learning teaching techniques led to an increase in engagement in social studies. Implications for future research and implications for teaching are discussed.

A Poetry Unit For Middle School Students, Dana Louise Longmire

All Graduate Projects

The focus of this project was to review the available research on using poetry as a method for teaching literary terms, enhancing comprehension, and developing creative writing skills. The results of the research show that there is a need for poetry instruction and that including this instruction in the middle school provides remarkable benefits for students. Poetry is suitable for the varying levels of ability found within the classroom. The project includes a guide providing teachers with activities to implement a poetry unit.

An Investigation Of An After-School Science Enrichment Program, Jennifer Lyn Jamison

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate an after-school science enrichment program and its components. The study was conducted in a middle school in the Evesham Township School District located in the Burlington County region of South Jersey. The participants included sixty-one students taken from the four sessions of the science program, three teachers of the program, twenty parents of the students, and the program director. Data sources included interviews held with each of the participants, anecdotal notes recorded in a teacher research journal, and student artifacts. I found positive results in the operation of the program, because of …

Learning Mathematics In English Medium Classrooms In Pakistan: Implications For Policy And Practice, Anjum Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This is an in-depth qualitative study of students learning mathematics in classrooms where the medium of instruction was English which was the second or third language of the learners i.e. they were multilingual classrooms. Moreover, to promote reasoning and learning with understanding, the teachers had introduced group work, mathematical discussion, and mathematics tasks employing everyday contexts and language. Focus of the paper is the complex relationship between the language of instruction and the process of learning mathematics. The study demonstrates that learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms brings added complexity because students moved back and forth from the language of instruction …

A School Art Therapy Group: Helping Eighth Grade Students Decrease Disruptive Behaviors And Increase Coping Skills Before The Transition To High School, Erin Spier

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The transition to high school can be difficult for adolescents, especially those exhibiting disruptive behaviors and poor coping skills. This study was concerned with developing conducting a group art therapy intervention that would help increase coping skills and decrease disruptive behaviors in eighth grade students preparing for the transition to high school. Two girls and four boys from a private school in southeastern Virginia participated in the study after the start of their final semester in eighth grade. The study consisted of 8 sessions conducted on alternating days, twice a week for a four-week period.

During the group art therapy …

Repeated Reading To Improve Oral Reading Fluency, Loretta Lynn Powers

All Graduate Projects

The focus of this project was to review the available research on repeated reading as a method of improving a student's oral reading fluency (ORF), to determine its contribution to the reading process, and to create an implementation guide for middle school teachers to use in their language arts classroom. The results of the research show that there is a need for effective repeated reading instruction. Including this instruction at the middle school level will provide tremendous benefits for students. Repeated reading is an effective way to expose students to short, interesting, fictional and non-fictional texts. The project includes a …

Developing Teachers’ Skills In Thar Desert Area, Sindh, Pakistan, Saeed Nasim, Parvez Pirzado

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

This paper aims to present AKU-IED’s experiences about working in the Thar Desert Area of Sindh. AKU-IED aimed to develop teachers’ skills and to help them provide quality education to the children of the said underprivileged and remote area of Pakistan.

Women In Educational Leadership: A Comparison Of Kenyan And Pakistani Women Educational Leaders, Jane F. A. Rarieya

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

Though literature on educational leadership is expansive, most of it is related to the social and organisational structure of educational systems in the western world, thereby giving an impression that western models of leadership are universal. Hence, there is need to study school leadership in non-western countries because perspectives of educational leadership have been taken almost exclusively from western literature and practice. Women in educational leadership are in a minority in Pakistan and Kenya, as is the case in many parts of the world. Whilst a number of writers have attempted to identify and categorise some of the internal and …

Action Research—A Means Of Continuous Professional Development In A Rural Context: Possibilities And Challenges, Razia Fakir Mohammad, Roshni Kumari

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

This paper presents our findings from a research initiated to support teachers’ continuous development through action research in the rural context of a developing country. The study investigated the experiences of seven teachers and teacher educators from the rural context of Pakistan, who spent nearly six months undertaking action research projects as part of a follow-up strategy for a university based teacher education programme. After the completion of the university-based programme, the participants had gone back to their respective institutes and were expected to initiate action research projects in order to implement new knowledge/learning. It was also a strategy to …

Teacher Mentoring Programme: A Vehicle To Support Professional Development For Improving The Quality Of Education In Districts Of Sindh And Balochistan Of Pakistan, Rakhshinda Meher, Asghari Ummulbanin, Ghazala Mursaleen

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

In general practices it is noticed that there is greater improvement in teacher’s performance if they refresh themselves by attending different professional development programmes. They start rethinking about their role as effective teacher and how to support novice teachers. In order to support the novice teachers and develop them professionally there is a need of quality teacher education programme. Literature reveals that “Teacher mentoring programs have dramatically increased since the early 1980s as a vehicle to support and retain novice teachers. The vast majority of what has been written about mentoring focused on what mentors should believe and do in …

Enhancing And Sustaining Teacher Professionalism In Pakistan, Meher Rizvi, Bob Elliott

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper presents a conceptual framework for fostering teacher professionalism in Government primary schools in Karachi, Pakistan. The framework identifies various stages for enhancing and sustaining teacher professionalism. These stages have been derived from in-depth multiple case studies of four Government primary schools in Karachi where reforms have been occurring. In order to enhance and sustain professionalism among the teachers they need to be provided with opportunities to expand their capabilities and, consequently, the reform managers will need to encourage them through various stages of development. Amongst the various stages are those of involvement, initiation and engagement and developing collaborative …

Reconsidering Teacher Professional Development Through Constructivist Principles, Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Constructivism has been discussed from multiple perspectives, including philosophical, psychological, social, and educational. These perspectives, of course, overlap when we shape what we do in the day-to-day realities of teaching and learning. The perspective that I bring to this chapter describing the professional development of teachers is that constructivism is a theory of learning that suggests that individuals make meaning of the world through an ongoing interaction between what they already know and believe and what they experience. In other words, learners actively construct knowledge through interactions in the environment as individuals and as members of groups.

It is from …

Increasing Pre-Service Teacher Science Test Success With A Tutorial Cd, William Robertson, Brian Giza, Stephanie Kuehne

Selected Works Temporary Series

Pre-service teachers often perform poorly on high-stakes state certification exams. Noting that there were a few particular items and concepts that seemed to be the most problematical, the authors developed a n HTML and flash-based tutorial CD that contained supplementary video and reference materials designed to assist the prospective teacher in preparing for the exam. Research subjects were studied for their preparation for self-regulated learning, as well as language environment, content background, and other factors. Data from scores on the teacher certification exam was correlated with CD use and demographics to identify the effectiveness of the CD tool as an …

El Uso De Preguntas Y Descubrimiento En El Contexto De Química, William Robertson

Selected Works Temporary Series

This article, written in Spanish, describes the impacts of an effort to increase the teaching abilities of a group of Chemistry Peer Leaders working with undergraduates in fundamental Chemistry classes. The provided abstracts, in Spanish and English, describe the overall approach and the results obtained from the study done in the fall of 2005. A partnership between the College of Education and the College of Science at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) which was developed in order to strengthen the pedagogical methods within the context of chemistry content for student Peer Leaders. The goal was to enhance …

Field-Based Science Education With A Community Service Learning Focus, William Robertson

Selected Works Temporary Series

Field-based program of studies for future teachers provides opportunities for powerful learning through a dialectical union of reflection and action. Methods courses in academic disciplines are linked with seminars and coursework on community partnerships, critical pedagogy and culturally responsive education. This article illustrates the processes of planning, implementation and evaluation of this approach, highlighting the impacts of community service learning on parents, families, students, and schools with a focus on validating native language literacy, increasing parental involvement and providing conceptually correct science education. The project indicates that two-way dual language programs with a strong parent engagement component can help improve …

Increasing Pre-Service Teacher Science Test Success With A Tutorial Cd, William Robertson, Brian Giza, Stephanie Kuehne

Departmental Papers (TE)

Pre-service teachers often perform poorly on high-stakes state certification exams. Noting that there were a few particular items and concepts that seemed to be the most problematical, the authors developed a n HTML and flash-based tutorial CD that contained supplementary video and reference materials designed to assist the prospective teacher in preparing for the exam. Research subjects were studied for their preparation for self-regulated learning, as well as language environment, content background, and other factors. Data from scores on the teacher certification exam was correlated with CD use and demographics to identify the effectiveness of the CD tool as an …

Making Latin Concrete: Strategies For Teaching Latin Through Material Culture, Patrick Beasom, Lynne. Kvapil

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We decided to address the issue of incorporating archaeology and material culture into classes devoted to Latin literature last spring, while Patrick was teaching Latin and Lynne was teaching Roman Civilization. Both of us were confronted with the danger of losing the interest of students who once had a burning desire to learn about the ancient world. Our aim is to offer up some suggestions for ways that, through collaboration between specialists in philology, history, and archaeology, we can keep the Classical world dynamic and relevant.

Research Summary: Characteristics Of Exemplary Schools For Young Adolescents, P. Gayle Andrews, Micki M. Caskey, Vincent A. Anfara Jr.

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two dangers are associated with any list purporting to include the characteristics of exemplary schools for young adolescents. One danger is a perception that the list is exhaustive—that it includes everything that needs to be considered. In reality, a list cannot capture the subtleties and complexities of schooling. A second danger is that each component will be seen as somehow self-contained, something that can be addressed in isolation. Instead, research demonstrates that the characteristics listed above are “an interacting and interdependent group of practices that form a unified whole… [that] must be dealt with holistically, systemically, to ensure success” (Jackson …

Role Of Reflection In Facilitating Teachers For Gender Sensitive Political Literacy Instruction, Sadaf Furqan

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper is written around the study that was initiated to analyze the challenges that students especially girls face in being developed as leaders in the political sphere. It was carried out to understand how a teacher educator could facilitate gender sensitive political literacy instruction in schools through action research. Reflection is embedded at every stage in Action Research. Reflection helps teachers in shifting the focus from what they teach to what students learn. The research process involved exploring, understanding and reflecting on teachers’ current perceptions and practices of gender sensitive political literacy instruction. Later, teachers were facilitated to teach …

New Jersey Public Middle School Grades 7-8 Non-Tenured Teacher Perceptions Of Instructional Strategies That Impact Student Engagement, Jeanette M. Baubles

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Quality In Education: Teaching And Leadership In Challenging Times. Vol. 2, Sajid Ali, Meher Rizvi

Books

No abstract provided.

Quality In Education: Teaching And Leadership In Challenging Times. Vol. 1, Sajid Ali, Meher Rizvi

Books

No abstract provided.

Lights Up! On Teaching Hints For Novice Theatre Educators, Chelsea Cunningham

Honors Program Theses

With Playhouse interns coming from a variety of learning and teaching backgrounds, it occurred to me that there was a need for training that introduces all of these new, young teachers to working with all groups of students, grades K-12, in the theatre. Thus, I have created Lights Up!, a resource stripped of educational psychology jargon that is meant to help theatre students teach and to help education majors acquire the skill of using theatre as a tool.