ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Education
- Creators: Hermanns, Carl
Description
Parent involvement is a concept that is used to describe the ways schools attempt to connect with parents for the educational benefit and support of students. Schools engage in strategies and invest in programs to increase parents’ involvement at and with the school, employ personnel to support parents, and develop workshops aimed at supporting parents’ understanding of academic content as well as to develop partnerships between parents and teachers.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how parents viewed themselves as partners with their children’s teachers and what they believed their roles were in their children’s education. This qualitative study was conducted through interviews with parents who were recommended by school staff as having above-average or below-average involvement. Ten parents in a low-income public school in the southwestern United States were selected for an initial interview, and four of those ten were chosen as focal parents for additional rounds of interviews. All three rounds of interviews took place over a four month period in the spring. The interviews were used to document and analyze how parents viewed themselves and the roles they have in their children’s schooling.
The findings from this study illustrate the similarities in behavior, attitude, and self-view between parents recommended by school staff as having above-average and below-average involvement. Additionally, this analysis describes how effective partnerships between home and school (including current teachers, former teachers, and school support staff) can help support parents as lifelong advocates for their children. When parents are intentionally made to feel vital as partners in their children’s schooling, their confidence in their ability to support their children’s education is strengthened.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how parents viewed themselves as partners with their children’s teachers and what they believed their roles were in their children’s education. This qualitative study was conducted through interviews with parents who were recommended by school staff as having above-average or below-average involvement. Ten parents in a low-income public school in the southwestern United States were selected for an initial interview, and four of those ten were chosen as focal parents for additional rounds of interviews. All three rounds of interviews took place over a four month period in the spring. The interviews were used to document and analyze how parents viewed themselves and the roles they have in their children’s schooling.
The findings from this study illustrate the similarities in behavior, attitude, and self-view between parents recommended by school staff as having above-average and below-average involvement. Additionally, this analysis describes how effective partnerships between home and school (including current teachers, former teachers, and school support staff) can help support parents as lifelong advocates for their children. When parents are intentionally made to feel vital as partners in their children’s schooling, their confidence in their ability to support their children’s education is strengthened.
ContributorsQuirk, Jennifer (Author) / Powers, Jeanne (Thesis advisor) / Hermanns, Carl (Committee member) / Uxa, Nancy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
To develop critical reasoning skills potentially advances students' ability to critically consume information, make informed decisions, and actively participate in a democracy. An inquiry-based pedagogical approach to science teaching remains an effective means to develop critical reasoning skills. Participating in scientific inquiry requires students to generate arguments and test alternative hypotheses using experimental evidence. Scientific inquiry demands that students use their critical reasoning skills. Unfortunately, many teachers fail to allocate an adequate amount of time for genuine experimentation in science classes. As a result, science classes often leave students unprepared to think critically and apply their knowledge in a practical manner.
The focus of this study was to investigate the extent to which an inquiry-based professional development experience, including a two-day summer workshop and 18 weeks of follow up Professional Learning Community (PLC) support, affected the attitudes and pedagogical skills regarding scientific inquiry among six high school biology teachers. A concurrent mixed methods, action research design was used to measure changes in teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and skills regarding inquiry-based pedagogy was measured throughout the 22 weeks of the study. A survey instrument, card sorting activity, classroom observations using the Reformed Teacher Observation Protocol (RTOP), individual interviews, and PLC observations were used to gather data. Results indicated the professional development was effective in transforming the participating teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and skills regarding inquiry-based pedagogy.
The focus of this study was to investigate the extent to which an inquiry-based professional development experience, including a two-day summer workshop and 18 weeks of follow up Professional Learning Community (PLC) support, affected the attitudes and pedagogical skills regarding scientific inquiry among six high school biology teachers. A concurrent mixed methods, action research design was used to measure changes in teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and skills regarding inquiry-based pedagogy was measured throughout the 22 weeks of the study. A survey instrument, card sorting activity, classroom observations using the Reformed Teacher Observation Protocol (RTOP), individual interviews, and PLC observations were used to gather data. Results indicated the professional development was effective in transforming the participating teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and skills regarding inquiry-based pedagogy.
ContributorsBlechacz, Sarah (Author) / Hermanns, Carl (Thesis advisor) / Judson, Eugene (Committee member) / Bostick, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
ABSTRACT
It is critical for students to be provided with opportunities to learn in settings that foster their academic growth. It is equally important that schools endeavor to be a place where students’ social and emotional needs are met as well. However, due to lack of funding, over-testing, inappropriate evaluation measures, and other persistent policy pressures, our public schools have often resorted to a focus on raising standardized test scores through direct instruction with an increasingly narrowed curriculum. As a result, schools have often become places in which students, rather than being seen as valued future members of a productive society, are part of the bleak statistics that shine a spotlight on how our schools have failed to motivate and connect with the students of today. Consequently, many educators have come to believe they are not influential enough to make a significant difference, and have resigned themselves to accepting their current situation. The problem with this thinking is that it minimizes the purpose of the job we promised to do – to educate.
The innovation I implemented and describe in my dissertation can be characterized with one word – dialogue. Dialogue that occurs for the purpose of understanding and learning more about that which we do not know. In this innovation, I endeavored to demonstrate how social learning by way of dialogic discussion could not only support students’ academic growth, but their social and emotional growth as well. Results from the data collected and analyzed in this study suggest social learning had a highly positive impact both on how students learned and how they viewed themselves as learners.
Education is one of the cornerstones of our country. Educational opportunities that help meet the academic and social-emotional needs of students should not be seen as a privilege but rather as a fundamental right for all students. Equally, the right to express one’s thoughts, opinions and ideas is a foundational element in our democratic society. Failing to connect with our students and teach them how to exercise these rights in our classrooms is to fail ourselves as educators.
It is critical for students to be provided with opportunities to learn in settings that foster their academic growth. It is equally important that schools endeavor to be a place where students’ social and emotional needs are met as well. However, due to lack of funding, over-testing, inappropriate evaluation measures, and other persistent policy pressures, our public schools have often resorted to a focus on raising standardized test scores through direct instruction with an increasingly narrowed curriculum. As a result, schools have often become places in which students, rather than being seen as valued future members of a productive society, are part of the bleak statistics that shine a spotlight on how our schools have failed to motivate and connect with the students of today. Consequently, many educators have come to believe they are not influential enough to make a significant difference, and have resigned themselves to accepting their current situation. The problem with this thinking is that it minimizes the purpose of the job we promised to do – to educate.
The innovation I implemented and describe in my dissertation can be characterized with one word – dialogue. Dialogue that occurs for the purpose of understanding and learning more about that which we do not know. In this innovation, I endeavored to demonstrate how social learning by way of dialogic discussion could not only support students’ academic growth, but their social and emotional growth as well. Results from the data collected and analyzed in this study suggest social learning had a highly positive impact both on how students learned and how they viewed themselves as learners.
Education is one of the cornerstones of our country. Educational opportunities that help meet the academic and social-emotional needs of students should not be seen as a privilege but rather as a fundamental right for all students. Equally, the right to express one’s thoughts, opinions and ideas is a foundational element in our democratic society. Failing to connect with our students and teach them how to exercise these rights in our classrooms is to fail ourselves as educators.
ContributorsOhanian, Jennifer Lyn (Author) / Hermanns, Carl (Thesis advisor) / Jordan, Michelle (Committee member) / Durden, Felicia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Student voice has been an inactive component of public education since its conception. Educational practitioners and stakeholders create, define, and uphold federal, state, and local policy centered on growing student educational outcomes. However, most often students are not provided space or opportunities to actively engage with policy or decisions that directly impact their educational experiences. To boost student voice, this action research study explored school participatory budgeting’s impact on student engagement with school decision-making, civic engagement, and leadership development at Arcadia High School. School participatory budgeting (SPB) is an innovative civic learning tool designed for students to learn democracy in action through the process of participating in the student voice committee on campus, developing proposals, and voting to fund improvement projects that build a stronger school community. This study utilized a parallel-results convergent MMAR that involved collecting both qualitative and quantitative data simultaneously, analyzing them separately, and integrating results into study findings. Participants included eight students that were members of the student voice committee. Study participants completed pre- and post-surveys as well as participated in a focus group. The study and intervention were supported by Mitra’s Pyramid of Student Voice and The Social Change Model.
Results of the study indicated that school participatory budgeting had a positive impact on students’ engagement with school decision making, civic engagement, and leadership development. Results also revealed that participants were able to lead change for collective student voice, engage civically through real world application, encourage participatory democracy over elite democracy, and increase both communication and collaborative skills. Furthermore, an integration of quantitative and qualitative data was presented, along with connections to the existing research questions and literature. Additional discussion centered on the limitations of the study, implications for practice, future cycles of research, and recommendations for educational practitioners.
ContributorsJohnson, Sara Anne (Author) / Ott, Molly (Thesis advisor) / Hermanns, Carl (Committee member) / Sackos, Milissa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
ABSTRACTLeading change is one of the most daunting tasks for K–12 site leaders. It is well established that the site leaders’ influence on student learning is profound, and the importance of implementing changes to improve practice is paramount. This action research study aimed to examine how a research-based professional development and coaching program could impact site leaders’ attitudes, beliefs, practices, and the teachers’ perceptions. The study occurred over 14 weeks at a public elementary school. The intervention contained two professional development sessions, which included learning and planned implementation of research-based strategies and weekly coaching sessions once the school year started. The theories that supported this study included change leadership, distributed leadership, transformational leadership, social cognitive theory, sensemaking, and literature on veteran teachers.
A mixed methods action research design using quantitative and qualitative data was gathered simultaneously through a pre- and postintervention collection. Data was gathered from Monday Memos, a staff meeting observation, staff meeting agendas, coaching field notes, the Staff Perception Survey, and interviews which were all used to analyze then address the research questions. During the qualitative data analysis, the codes were categorized, and themes were examined to determine any shifts from the initial data compared to the postintervention data. Due to the small sample size and lack of data normality on the Staff Perception Survey, instead of a conventional t test, the more conservative nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test was applied to assess pre-to-post differences. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between the pre- and postintervention survey among individual items or collective construct items (i.e., teacher voice, shared vision, removing obstacles, and building culture).
The results suggest that there was a shift in how the site leaders conceptualized their role as a leader of change through the coaching program intervention. It was expanded, hopeful, and the site leaders saw the increased weight of their role in the impact of leading change. Further, through the research-based coaching program, site leaders changed their practice regarding their consistency and both expanded and shifted change strategies. In conclusion, limitations give perspective while implications for practice and research provide for an exciting future.
ContributorsBaldwin, Jennifer Sue (Author) / Judson, Eugene (Thesis advisor) / Hermanns, Carl (Committee member) / Plough, Bobbie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022