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

Bridge Over Troubled Water: Creating An Ecology Of Transformative Care For Students At Risk Of Their Promise, Cherina O. Betters

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The teacher-student relationship is multidimensional and fluid. This is especially true for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Educational leaders in the public school setting cannot control which students enroll at their school sites. The only thing teachers, as educational leaders in K-12 public education, have complete control over is the environment they create in their classrooms. Among those student groups most reflecting few gains on state and federal reports of proficiency data are students who typically come from backgrounds besieged with challenges or from historically underserved and marginalized communities. In this transcendental phenomenological study, the phenomenon investigated was how …

Intention, Questions, And Creative Expression: An Antidiscriminatory Diversity Statement, Hannah S. Bright

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Supporting education that reflects diversity involves maintaining awareness of one’s personal positionality, creating safe and inclusive learning communities, and using creativity and choice to empower and honor student voice and individual development. When working in educational settings, teachers may involve students in selecting relevant materials, and follow their lead in creating critical dialogue about salient factors of identity.

Middle Level Preservice Teachers Experience A Natural History Arts-Integrated Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit, Carolyn A. Weber, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

Curricular demands and best practices for middle school require interdisciplinary units. Arts integration can provide motivation and a new pathway to learning. This unit focused on inquiry into the natural history of artifacts and rocks recovered from the exposed subsoil of an area near Cedar Falls, Iowa that had been bulldozed as part of subdivision development. The described unit involved preservice teachers in exploration of all subject areas (language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies) with arts-integrated projects (agate watercolor painting, stone tool graphing, acrylic polymer clay agate keyring making, and stone tool drawings). The content area activities for social …

Elementary Administrators' Exploring The Factors That Promote Or Inhibit Reading Achievement, Ashley Holder, Linda Wilson-Jones, Brian Phillips, Paris Jones, Jerry D. Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that promote or inhibit the reading achievement of elementary children. The participants for this study were administrators who were employed at eleven Title I schools in North Carolina. The study used a qualitative design and collected data by phone interviews with elementary administrators.

Several recurring themes and patterns surfaced from the data gathered from the eleven participants. However, the overarching themes that promoted reading achievement were (a) family support, (b) early literacy exposure, and (c) teacher effectiveness and expectations. The reoccurring themes that inhibited reading achievement were (a) lack of …

Digital Media Production To Support Literacy For Secondary Students With Diverse Learning Abilities, April Marie Leach

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Producing digital media is a hands-on, inquiry-based mindful process that naturally embeds Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into literacy instruction, providing options for learning and assessment for a wide array of students with diverse learning abilities. Video production learning experiences acknowledge the cognitive talents of some students labeled “disabled.” For some, the discovery of personal abilities activated when learning through the production process may motivate deeper learning. Although challenges of access, quality of teacher preparation and assessment strategies represent significant challenges, digital media production learning experiences offer diverse learners a rich, socially interactive environment that models open communication and …

Managing Race And Race-Ing Management: Teachers’ Stories Of Race And Classroom Conflict, Sherry L. Deckman

Publications and Research

Little is known about how novice teachers construct and interpret classroom management moments—instances when they perceive their ability to maintain order and promote sanctioned behavior is tested—in a way that contributes to or challenges racial bias. Using data from a hybrid, online/in-person professional development course for beginning teachers, I find two patterns of connecting race and classroom management. Teachers in this study tended to share stories either about “managing race”—narratives about deescalating racial tension or reproaching transgressors of racial colorblindness—or “race-ing management”—stories that read race into incidents in such a way as to reveal latent racial dynamics. Further, these patterns …

Student-Centered Approaches To Teaching Grammar And Writing, Lindsay J. Jeffers

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article questions the continued reliance on traditional approaches to the teaching of grammar, particularly the memorization of parts of speech and grammar rules. Years of studies show that grammar instruction out of the context of writing is detrimental to students. Despite much progress toward student-centered instruction, traditional methods of teaching grammar are still a cornerstone of writing instruction in many English classes. The article suggests more effective, student-centered approaches that focus on students developing as writers and readers. Through modeling and inquiry, students focus on writing as a craft and make choices as writers. It’s essential that research about …

Perceptions In A Changing World: Teachers' Attitudes Toward The Implementation Of Educational Innovations, Joy Jones

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine teachers’ attitudes toward the implementation of educational innovations - with an explicit focus on social and emotional learning (SEL) and new teacher mentor (NTM) programs. Because teachers are primarily responsible for absorbing new information and implementing educational programs directly to students, their attitudes may influence how the program is perceived, the program’s delivery, and may also impact the program’s outcomes. Support for novice teachers is often regarded as necessary and warranted in many schools, and researchers unfailingly reveal findings that demonstrate the effectiveness of SEL; specifically in traditional school settings (Slaten, …

Minding The Gap: Mentor And Pre-Service Teachers’ Ability Perceptions Of Content Area Literacy Instruction, Treavor Bogard, Mary-Kate Sableski, Jackie Marshall Arnold, Connie L. Bowman

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

This mixed method study compared how student teachers rated their ability in implementing components of content area literacy compared to their clinical educators’ perceptions of the student teachers’ actual performance. The researchers collaborated with K-12 clinical educators to develop a scaled survey to rate level of skill in four components of content literacy instruction. 112 clinical educators (CEs) and 183 student teachers (STs) representing five teacher licensure programs completed the survey. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance measured the effect of Role (CE and ST) and Teacher Licensure Program on ability perception. Results indicated that Role and Program each significantly …

Effects Of Teaching Level, Subject Area, And Degree On Grades 5-12 Educator Learning Modes, Meredith Young (Jones)

College of Education Dissertations

The purposes of this dissertation were two-fold. First, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects by subject area taught between educators in high schools versus educators in middle schools on the Abstract Conceptualization, Active Experimentation, Concrete Experience, and Reflective Observation learning modes measured by Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory in one central Arkansas school district. The independent variables for Hypotheses 1-4 were educator teaching level (high school versus middle school) and subject area taught (mathematics/science, literacy/social studies, and other). Second, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects by degree level between educators in high schools …

Turbine Engineer: E-Stem Lesson (Power Point), April Haight, Lesia Lennex, Justin Elswick

Department of Middle Grades and Secondary Education Research & Publication Archives

Turbine Engineer: E-STEM Lesson PowerPoint presentation by April Haight, Lesia Lennex and Justin Elswick at the annual conference of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education held at the Kentucky Dam State Village Resort Park in Gilbertsville on September 9-10, 2017.

Turbine Engineer: E-Stem Lesson, April Haight, Lesia Lennex, Justin Elswick

Department of Middle Grades and Secondary Education Research & Publication Archives

Turbine Engineer: E-STEM Lesson Power, a paper presented by April Haight, Lesia Lennex and Justin Elswick at the annual conference of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education held at the Kentucky Dam State Village Resort Park in Gilbertsville on September 9-10, 2017.

Creating A Water Turbine In Solidworks, April Haight, Lesia Lennex, Justin Elswick

Department of Middle Grades and Secondary Education Research & Publication Archives

Creating a Water Turbine in SolidWorks a handout that accompanied the presentation made by April Haight, Lesia Lennex and Justin Elswick at the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education held at Knetucky Dam State Village Resort Park in Gilbertsville on September 9-10, 2017.

Successful With Stem? A Qualitative Case Study Of Pre-Service Teacher Perceptions, Stacie H. Nowikowski

The Qualitative Report

This research is a qualitative case study of pre-service teachers’ experiences with a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) module during a middle level interdisciplinary course in the teaching of mathematics and science. Data were collected through document analysis of participant reflection journals (during six distinct stem tasks) and college curriculum as well as an analysis of researcher observations of the STEM activities. While the first and last tasks were reflective and designed to identify pre-existing STEM experiences and post-module knowledge, respectively, the other four STEM tasks simulated student-centered STEM activities common to the middle level classroom. The data were …

New Horizons In A Next Generation School: A Case Study Of Rural Alabama Middle School Students In A Transformational Initiative, Jack Lamey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to understand non-mastery for students in the mBolden Academic Model at Piedmont City Middle School (PCMS). The following research questions guided this study: How does the mBolden Academic Model influence student success at Piedmont City Middle School? Furthermore, this study has answered the following sub-questions: What internal factors affect student success and failure in the mBolden Academic Model? What external factors influence success for students in the mBolden? This study examined a bounded set of students at a rural school in Northeast Alabama that implemented a mastery-based, blended learning model. Data collection included …

An Examination Of The Factors That Influence The Transfer Of Learning Among K-12 Educators Participating In Professional Learning Communities, Charcelor C. Mccullum

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the factors that either support or inhibit learning transfer among educators within K-12 professional learning communities (PLCs) as well as to obtain a better understanding of how adult education principles relate to teacher learning and job satisfaction within this environment. Although research regarding professional learning for educators within the K-12 setting is available, much of this research is not focused directly on adult education principles and often fails to examine learning transfer. The present study addresses both areas using a two-phase exploratory sequential mixed methods approach to obtain both qualitative …

Modeling Inquiry-Oriented Instruction Of Beginning Secondary Science Teachers, Lyrica Lucas, Elizabeth B. Lewis

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

New national science education standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, in the United States (US) promote inquiry-based instruction through an integrated emphasis on scientific practices and disciplinary content. Thus, it is important for beginning science teachers to reach proficient implementation of reformed teaching practices by the end of their induction phase in order to become effective science teachers. Yet, extant science education research studies on development of beginning teachers’ classroom practices is rare. In this study, we collected data from a longitudinal study of science teachers from two teacher preparation programs - a bachelor’s program with teacher candidates who had …

The Good Behavior Game: Effects On And Maintenance Of Behavior In Middle-School Classrooms Using Class Dojo, Komila Dadakhodjaeva

Dissertations

Classroom management is one of the key components for successful instruction and affects both instructors and learners. Although most frequent discipline strategies in schools involve punitive actions, research suggests that using positive statements to teach and reinforce desirable behaviors is more appropriate and effective. A form of a group-oriented contingency that focuses on desirable behaviors is a positive variation of the Good Behavior Game (GBG). The GBG has been used widely in its original form, focusing on undesirable behaviors, and more research is needed on its positive version. Another strategy that can be used within classrooms is Class Dojo, a …

Setting The Standard For Project Based Learning: A Proven Approach To Rigorous Classroom Instruction, Michael Dias, Laurie Brantley-Dias

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

No abstract provided.

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Educational Games That Keep Score Of Cooperative Performances, Theodore Alden Wohlfarth

Dissertations

The scoring systems used in traditional sports and games are founded on the zero-sum premise that players are on opposite sides and one side can win only if the other side loses. These scoring systems may be effective at nurturing zero-sum mindsets and providing data for assessing performance in win-lose relationships. If so, games that use different scoring systems can be used to facilitate the development of collaborative mindsets, nurture win-win skills between diverse groups, and enable objective self-assessment of performances in non-zero-sum events when engaging with those on “other sides.” Although economic game theory has rich reservoirs of research …

Engaged Learning: Impact Of Pbl And Pjbl With Elementary And Middle Grade Students, Sharon Dole, Lisa Bloom, Kristy K. Doss

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

This study used structured online interviews with teachers to examine the impact that inquiry-based teaching methods had on their students. The research question was the following: What are the effects on student learning and motivation as a result of teachers using problem-based and project-based learning? Interviews were conducted with 36 teachers, followed up by telephone interviews with four teachers. Participants had taken a hybrid course consisting of four weeks online followed by a one-week intensive field experience facilitating problem-based and project-based learning with children in grades 1–9. Student-related themes that resulted from the data analysis are grouped under the main …

Analysis Of A Stem Education Professional Development Conference For Pre-Service Educators, Keeta Holmes, Pamela Atkinson-Hamilton, Tiffanni Durham, Gloria Hardrict-Ewing, Deborah Heisler, Christina Hughes, Rosalinda Williams, Lane Walker, Christopher Young-El, Amy Dooley

Dissertations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are attracting increased attention in education. The iSTEM 2017 conference was a professional development program designed to acquaint pre-service teachers with interdisciplinary, research-based STEM instructional strategies that can transform traditional classroom instruction into dynamic learning environments.

The STEM Education Scholars (STEMES) is a Learning Community of Practice, housed in the College of Education, at a midsized mid-western public research university. The program of study focused on designing a professional development program for future Pre-K12 teachers. The iSTEM 2017 conference presented by the STEMES Community of Practice sought to inform pre-service teachers of STEM …

Central Virginia Ews: Identifying Middle And High School Indicators Of On-Time Graduation With An Early Warning System, Ryan D. Yarzebinski

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between different variables and whether a student attained an on-time graduation outcome. A retrospective cohort study was conducted within a single school division in central Virginia serving a population of 8,338 students. The organizational structure of the school division was unique as it is comprised of two combined schools and two high schools fed by a separate middle school.

The study utilized logistic regression and ROC analysis to identify the variables most predictive of graduation for use in an EWS. The model was designed to be predictive in nature and …

Middle School Teacher Beliefs About Classroom Diversity And Their Influence On Differentiated Instructional Practices, Marcus Fredrick-Lynn Wenzel

Dissertations and Theses

Diversity across U.S. classrooms is on the rise which is leading to renewed calls for teachers to meet individual learning needs. Studies indicate the failure to address individual learning needs can lead to higher rates of student disengagement, off-task behaviors, and diminished learning outcomes. Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that meets the growing diversity of individual learning needs by considering students' readiness, interest, and learning styles. Differentiated instructional approaches help teachers meet individual learning needs by allowing them to modify instruction as needed. However, despite the apparent benefits of differentiated instruction, teachers are hesitant to abandon other educational …

Embodying Rhythm Nation: Multimodal Hip Hop Dance As A Site For Adolescent Social-Emotional And Political Development, Lauren M. Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology, specifically values analysis, to learn more about how being involved within Hip hop dance communities positively relates to adolescent development. Adolescence was defined herein as ages 13-23. The study investigated Hip hop dance communities in terms of cultural expertise (i.e. novice, intermediate and advanced/expert) to look specifically at dance narratives (i.e. peak experience narratives and “I dance because” essays) and hip hop dance performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to (1) explore how adolescents use multimodal Hip hop dance discourse for social-emotional development and critical consciousness, and to (2) understand how values …

Escribiendo Para Desahogarme: Release And Resistance In A Middle School Bilingual Writing Workshop, Carla Espana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines a teacher’s language ideologies, their impact on curriculum modifications and bilingual Latinx middle schoolers’ storytelling, to understand how a bilingual pedagogy builds on their cultural and linguistic resources. This qualitative study was conducted in a sixth grade writing workshop class in New York City as the focus teacher taught the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Personal Narrative Unit of Study. The first two findings center on the factors that influence a teacher’s stance on language practices and bilingual pedagogy, and how these contributed to curriculum modifications that included using students’ full linguistic and cultural repertoires, integrating …

Stayers, Leavers, Lovers, And Dreamers: Why People Teach And Why They Stay - 2004 Barbara Biber Lecture, Marilyn Cochran-Smith

Occasional Paper Series

Marilyn Cochran-Smith delivers the Barbara Biber Lecture at Bank Street College in memorial of her legacy as a researcher, scholar, and leader in progressive education. Cochran-Smith focuses on what lies at the heart of teaching and learning on an individual level as well as what it will take to improve the current state of urban schools. Her main points address teacher retention and differences among generations of teachers.

Professional Friction: Racialized Discourse And The Practice Of Teaching Art, Jessica Kirker

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Language is crucial in situating our selves and others. Discursive patterns create alliances or factions, establish hierarchies, and subjugate individuals or groups. In this autoethnographic study, I consider how I, as a White woman teaching art, participate in, maneuver, and manipulate spoken and unspoken racialized discourses within the context of a high school with a diverse population of students. Through the data collection process of journaling over one school year, I recorded reflections on conversations, speeches, and written communication with, between, and regarding teachers, students, parents, and school administrators.

I employed discourse analysis on these texts and draw upon Critical …

Literacy Tutoring Strategies Of America Reads University-Level Tutors, Mauricio Cadavid

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore, study, outline and describe tutoring strategies applied by American Reads (AR) tutors and non-America Reads (nAR) tutors helping young tutees develop early literacy skills. There is limited research on the implementation of effective tutoring strategies during one-on-one tutoring with elementary school children in terms of early literacy development. Most of the literature is split between peer tutoring and program tutoring. This lack of research presents a particular challenge when it comes to identifying an effective tutor and effective tutoring methodologies. Using a qualitative approach, this study utilizes survey data, session recordings, and …

Music Education And Its Impact On Students With Special Needs, Sarah V. Foley

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Using music in a setting that includes students with special needs can have an effect on student communication and socialization. A review of the literature indicates that little is known about the effect of music on student's academic performance and behavior. Overall the research indicates that using music in a classroom, particularly with children with special needs has a positive effect on communication and socialization. Additional studies are needed to document the effect of music on student learning.