Search Constraints
Filtering by:
Department
Education
Remove constraint Department: Education
Collection
Thesis
Remove constraint Collection: Thesis
« Previous |
1 - 10 of 1,903
|
Next »
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
- Creator:
- Barajas, Daniel E.
- Description:
- Continuation high schools serve students for multiple reasons. Among them are low credit attainment, excessive absences, probation status, and discipline problems. Students in these programs often have many educational gaps. In the state of California, continuation high schools have been an educational option for this vulnerable student population since 1919. This segment of the school system seeks to offer students with diverse educational challenges and obstacles a second opportunity to complete their education. Presently, there is little research connected to the success of continuation high school graduates’ level of persistence in any type of higher education. This study examined the influence teacher-student relationships had on a particular group of continuation high school students who, in spite of challenges associated with continuation-education deficit mindset, were able to attain academic success in higher education. The study sought to explore how the practices of comprehensive high school sites intersected with those of a specific continuation high school. Social Capital and Critical Race Theory provided the conceptual lens to analyze teacher–student relationships. The researcher captured students’ and teachers’ perceptions in order to analyze how their interactions and relationships could be strengthened to ensure student academic success and provide continuation high school students with options upon high school graduation.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Boylen, Sarah C.
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: This research study hopes to address the negotiation of important aspects in teaching such as how to foster inquiry and literacy while adhering to standards, specifically the Next Generation Science Standards, and if those standards allow for student epistemic agency in secondary science classrooms. The future of science education lies in teachers instilling in their students the skills that will help them gain scientific literacy and student agency in the classroom, and beyond. For the purposes of this study, a framework was developed around scientific inquiry and literacy, while negotiating varying pedagogical approaches, along a theorized spectrum of increasing student agency. The framework is a tool to help educators visualize a variety of pedagogies as they relate to important characteristics of stages of inquiry that could offer increasing epistemic agency for their students. This research study intends to shed light on the perspectives and opinions of a selected group of high school life science teachers and some of their students in regards to these approaches to teaching a controversial, or Socioscientific Issue (SSI), in the science classroom. The student outcome goals that were considered were critical thinking, personal decision making, ethical questioning, outreach and “social justice” as activism. The three classrooms include one Sheltered Learning biology class and one Advanced Placement biology, both at the same high school, and one Integrated 3-4 biology class in a neighboring County. Within and across the three different classrooms, how do participating teachers, and their students’ perceive, or view, (a) varying approaches toward using a controversial, or Socioscientific Issue (SSI), such as GMOs, in secondary science classroom, and (b) activities designed for the science classroom that have the end goals of outreach, social justice or activism, on or off campus? Finally, how does student preference compare to the proposed theoretical framework set forth in this study? Procedure: This mixed-method study is a one-phase embedded design approach; where quantitative data is the secondary data that was collected while qualitative data was being audio recorded during teacher and student interviews. Four activity “scenarios” were designed, along with interview questionnaires, and used as tools and guides during teacher and student interviews. Three high school life science teachers and 13 of their students were interviewed to investigate their perspectives on using the four different activity scenarios which would explore the topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as food. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. Findings: Overall, two classes preferred Activity 1; critical thinking in the lab, whereas one classroom preferred Activities 3; outreach and 4; activism, although students had a variety of responses as to why. All three teachers and many students agreed that outreach and activism are important. However, teachers believed that activities that stayed in the classroom were more feasible that activities that left the classroom. Teachers were fairly accurate when predicting their students preferred activity scenario. All the participants said that GMOs as food would be a good topic for learning science in the classroom. Teachers and students felt that activities that are controversial, or that might cause conflict in the classroom, are acceptable for learning at school. Those who were asked felt that conflict can be managed and usually does not leave the classroom. When the varying perspectives within classrooms were reflected on the spectrum, new ideas about what student epistemic agency and scientific literacy are emerged. Conclusions: Student epistemic agency can be defined in many ways, including what the students want to do most. However, agency through varying teaching approaches and a variety of student outcome goals can bring different forms of agency to students while doing inquiry in the science classroom. Finally, students may come into the classroom with prior experiences that give them a different “position” when negotiating a controversial, or socioscientific, type issue. Implications for teaching practice involve balancing factors that are within our control, such as activity planning and pedagogical approach, with factors that are out of teachers control, such as the starting point of a student’s position when they enter the classroom for learning. This starting point position can have large impacts on a student’s perceptions, and willingness, to “like” activities Finally, teachers play a large role in how learning can happen in the classroom, as well the school and society that they lie within.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Taylor, Mary
- Description:
- This study focused on both the voice and experience of successful Black students in higher education as well as the factors, both internal and institutional that they perceive as contributors to their success. This research is important because while a breadth of research exists that examines Black students and their relationship to higher education, much of it is framed in a deficit-based line of inquiry. As a response, and inspired by critical race theory (CRT) and Harper’s (2012) anti-deficit achievement framework (ADAF), this study focused on successful Black college students’ stories and what might be learned from them. The literature shows that Black students bring a variety of strengths and abilities to their higher education experience that merit further attention by both researchers and educators especially since these students achieve in spite of the challenges so widely documented in the deficit-based literature. Using a narrative research approach, this study identified eight high-achieving students and explored their experiences, their success, and the factors they perceived as contributors to their achievement. Additionally, this study sought to highlight the students’ experiences as a counternarrative to the existing discourse, add to the existing body of asset-based research and inquiry, enlist study participants as partners in the research process, facilitate their storytelling and amplify their voices. Data collected from eight semi-structured interviews and photojournal entries was restoried and coded for themes that yielded rich and meaningful insight into the strengths successful Black students bring to research and practice. The findings of this study reinforced those of the other asset-based researchers highlighted within this study and strengthen the need for more studies of this type. Study findings also included stories that were the result of the collaboration between researcher and participant as well as the themes that provided insight into their perceptions of the factors contributing to their success. Lastly, participants showed themselves to be willing and capable partners in the research process and offered a wealth of information that informed assertions relevant to research and practice. Among these were the importance of early influences, the students’ strengths, the importance of their peers, and the ways that their lived experiences can inform a higher standard of research inquiry and care in the higher education setting.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Hellams, Ruth E.
- Description:
- “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr Dissatisfaction with the current state of the nation’s public schools continues to reveal itself through repeated efforts to transform the traditional, long-standing core elements known as the “grammar of schooling” (Tyack & Tobin, 1994). Generational rhetoric on the failed state of traditional public education and a drive for equitable outcomes for all students serve as guideposts for many school reform efforts. It is the need to reveal the systems and structures supporting changes to the traditional architecture of schools that has inspired me to conduct this research. This dissertation explores how a nontraditional high school, nested within a traditional district, supports and sustains its nontraditional model. Through a case study approach this research utilized interviews with administrative and teaching staff and an analysis of key documents, policies, and practices. Central to this study was an examination of the school’s core values and the practices of competency-based education (CBE) that served to shape and influence the school’s direction and nontraditional model. Emergent themes from this research were analyzed through the lens of Fullan and Quinn’s (2016) Coherence Framework and their four identified drivers for systems improvement. Findings illustrate that school structures which intentionally foster relationships and build opportunities for teacher collaboration contribute to the long-term sustainability of school reform and help influence and shape a school’s direction. Furthermore, clarity of expectations for teaching and learning, when outlined in a school’s mission and vision statement, can serve as guideposts for long-term sustainability. Guidance and support with respect the CBE model was especially important. Lastly, these findings underscore the importance of site leadership in maintaining balance between the needs of the school and the district as essential to sustaining the school’s nontraditional approach. By identifying factors and conditions serving to sustain the school’s nontraditional approach, the findings of this study can assist others who seek to change the traditional architecture of schooling currently dominates most schools.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Cabuto Lopez, Nadia
- Description:
- All students need their teachers to implement culturally sustaining curricula specifically targeted to their needs. Unfortunately, this need is not always met, especially with minority students. This project seeks to address the needs of Spanish heritage language learners at the high school level; it consists of a unit of study developed specifically to help meet the needs of these heritage language learners by helping them learn about their own heritage culture while strengthening their academic language skills in Spanish. Students first explore important historical figures that helped shape the Hispanic world, and practice and improve their oracy skills by creating and delivering a presentation. Then, the unit strengthens students’ written language by guiding them to create persuasive paragraphs and then an essay. The topics that pertain to persuasive writing include La Quinceañera and the Dream Act. The unit concludes with an extension activity that asks students to write a letter to Congress in favor of the Dream Act, DACA or another social cause of their choice, as instilling sociopolitical consciousness in students is another goal of this project. Students utilize what they learned about persuasion to write their letters. The unit employs the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) and the TLC (Teaching and Learning Cycle) methods to make the content accessible and create scaffolds along the way. Research needs to be conducted to determine the curriculum’s effectiveness on improving student self-image, self-confidence in the language skills, and to measure the impact of sociopolitical consciousness in students.
- Resource Type:
- Graduate project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Carvajal, Claudia
- Description:
- Success for students begins for students in kindergarten, where they must acquire strong literacy skills. These literacy skills are inclusive of the foundational skills students require for reading and writing. Research supports reading failure is higher for English Language Learners, low-income families, and ethnic minority groups (NELP, 2009). Additionally, Latinx parents have reported facing many barriers when learning the skills and strategies to help their children (Durand, 2011; Quiocho & Daoud, 2006; Thurmond, 2020). Moreover, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic these concerns have been exacerbated, and low- income parents report they are concerned their children are falling even further behind (Menansce Horowitz, 2020). The inequities of the digital divide are now more apparent than ever, after it was reported that hundreds of thousands of students still lacked the basic digital tools and skills (Thurmond, 2020). In order to address these issues this project was created with the purpose of educating Latinx parents with literacy and digital skills they can utilize to help support their children using Google Classroom. These workshops bring to the forefront as well as integrate Latinx parents’ funds of knowledge, in order to support their children’s learning. These Latinx parent workshops consist of ten workshops to utilize parents’ Funds of Knowledge and integrate the skill sets parents possess in order to support learning digital literacy skills and strategies. Furthermore, Latinx parents will learn about digital tools and devices available to them through Google Classroom in order to continue supporting their children at home.
- Resource Type:
- Graduate project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Medina, Chloe
- Description:
- By way of qualitative data, the researcher looked at the experiences of a community of educators during a series of professional development offerings. The purpose of the sessions was to unpack the ways in which the intersectional identities of individual educators impact how they show up in their work and interact with students, families, and colleagues. Based on the premise that educator bias is a significant contributor to the widely documented opportunity and achievement gaps in education, the researcher sought to determine what might happen when educators explicitly take on those issues in the spirit of critical self-reflection. The specific question being considered was: In what ways might explicit professional development about identity, bias, and critical self-reflection impact the beliefs and behaviors of a community of educators? The scope of the research was confined to a select group of educators who work for one school system and attended the same professional development series. The intention was to determine how a diverse group of educators experience a specific professional development and make meaning of those experiences. As a result, the researcher was able to determine several themes that emerged from those experiences and make recommendations for how to move forward with effective learning opportunities for educators to promote equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students. Adult Learning Theory, Critical Race Theory, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and Cultural Proficiency are applied to the date to interpret the experiences and determine a path forward.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Senn, Michelle
- Description:
- Educators know that supporting all learners' motivation and engagement is both a fulfilling and challenging process as students come with unique personalities, interests, experiences, strengths, and needs. This is particularly true at the middle level where students are developing rapidly and are charged with more significant responsibilities at school and home. Middle school teachers working to increase student motivation and foster meaningful literacy learning in their classrooms and schools can benefit from evidence-based guidance on optimally using the finite instructional time they have with students. The purpose of this project is to provide a curriculum and instruction planning guide to help middle level teachers plan and deliver motivating, evidence-based literacy curriculum and instruction, informed by self-determination theory (Deci et al., 1991). The guide was written with teachers’ own motivational needs in mind and aims to be a practical resource they can use, individually and collaboratively, to meet their teaching goals. It includes planning templates, recommendations, rationales, and links to resources.
- Resource Type:
- Graduate project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Carlson, Brenda
- Description:
- As sixth graders begin to navigate the academic and social challenges of middle school, it is important for teachers to offer guidance and resources for parents and caregivers to continue to support their child’s literacy development. A partnership between families and schools has never been more important than during the current health crisis we are now experiencing. In addition, today’s technology provides teachers the opportunity to inform and support parents/caregivers in new and different ways. The purpose of this project was to create a website/blog for sixth graders' parents and caregivers as a resource to support their children in their continued literacy development. The website/blog includes family-friendly tips, links, videos, and articles. The blog features pages on the following topics: Books, Reading, Writing and Parenting/Caregiving. Linked to each of the pages are example posts that provide information or strategies for them to engage their sixth-graders in literacy activities at home. As new posts are added to the blog each month, it will be a form of ongoing support and communication for parents and caregivers to utilize throughout the year.
- Resource Type:
- Graduate project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Mello, Monica
- Description:
- The purpose of this project is to create a Spanish Mathematic curriculum to use in a fifth grade Dual Language One-Way Immersion program. As Common Core State Standards (CCSS) exceed the cognitive demands of listening, speaking, reading and writing in all content areas, dual language education programs demand curriculum that aligns both content and language standards beyond Spanish Language Arts. Language learners are challenged to meet CCSS expectations in a second language and teachers struggle to find the necessary resources to do so. The designed curriculum aligns Mathematical CCSS and mathematical practices with Spanish Language Development standards and language practices. The designed unit explicitly teaches Spanish academic conversational skills through four student centered real world activities. This unit is intended to be used at the beginning of the school year as supplemental instruction in an effort to address students' struggle to sustain an academic conversation in the program's targeted language, Spanish. The curriculum provides Spanish language teachers with a Spanish mathematical curriculum that allows students the opportunity to apply learned mathematical concepts to real world situations while developing their Spanish oral and written proficiencies.
- Resource Type:
- Graduate project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education