Matching Items (79)
Description
ABSTRACT Research literature relating to the use of humor as a teaching method or curricula specifically designed to include humor was reviewed to investigate the effects of humor on student learning in various environments from elementary schools to post-secondary classrooms. In this multi-method study, four instruments and a humor treatment were selected to test the hypothesis that students who receive humor-embedded instruction would perform better on assessments than students who did not receive humor instruction. These assessments were analyzed to show student growth in achievement and memory retention as a result of humor-embedded instruction. Gain scores between a pre- test and two post-tests determined student growth in achievement and memory retention. Gain scores were triangulated with student responses to open-ended interview questions about their experiences with humor in the classroom. The gain score data were not statistically significant between the humor and non- humor groups. For the short-term memory gain scores, the non-humor group received slightly higher gain scores. For long-term memory gain scores, the humor group received higher gain scores. However, the interview data was consistent with the findings of humor research from the last 20 years that humor improves learning directly and indirectly.
ContributorsMcCartney Matthews, Melissa Lee (Author) / Danzig, Arnold (Thesis advisor) / Satter Anderson, Kelly (Committee member) / Davey, Lynn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Career and technical education was founded on the common practice of apprenticeships integrated into the public schools at the beginning of the 20th century as manual arts, which continued to evolve into a culture and practice of its own as vocational education, and into what is now career and technical education,with an evolving focus on college and career readiness. This study sought to collect and compare the perceptions of superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and deans who were affiliated with ten Northeastern Arizona high schools, which were members of Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) to seven similar sized high schools in rural Arizona, which were not affiliated with NAVIT. The NAVIT schools were members of the Joint Technological Educational District. The member schools were required by intergovernmental agreement to operate their career and technical education programs by specific guidelines and curriculum.This study also compared the combined average academic achievement of the 2011 CTE concentrators of the NAVIT high schools, the non-NAVIT high schools, and all Arizona statewide CTE concentrators. Both NAVIT and non-NAVIT administrators were administered a survey, designed to measure perceptions of college/postsecondary preparation, career guidance and counseling,academic tracking, and curriculum. Results revealed that both NAVIT and non-NAVIT administrators were supportive of career and technical education, but for different reasons. The NAVIT administrators tended to view students in career and technical education programs as more mainstream, with college opportunities. The non-NAVIT administrators supported career and technical education as a system of programs that offered students opportunities for success, whether college bound or not. A significant number of NAVIT and non-NAVIT administrators opted for no opinion responses for several potentially controversial survey questions, which suggested discomfort with the topics. The academic achievement of the NAVIT, non-NAVIT, and statewide CTE concentrators as measured by the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards pass rates were marginal between groupings. The statewide average was highest, followed by NAVIT, and non-NAVIT. Recommendations for further research include conducting personal interviews of administrators to better assess leaders' perceptions of career and technical education and their influences on the academic and postsecondary career successes of students.
ContributorsHaussman, Charles E (Author) / Spencer, Dee Ann (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Mckinnon, Jeri (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT Native American students from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community have attended Stapley Junior High, one of 13 junior high schools in the Mesa Unified School District, since its doors opened in the fall of 1994. Over the years a variety of instructional practices have been used in an effort to improve academic outcomes for these students, who have posed a challenge to traditional educational methods. Interviews were conducted with eight educational professionals, including teachers, administrators, and a tutor who worked with these students on a daily basis. They each responded to the same series of questions, providing their insights based on first-hand interactions and knowledge. The interviews revealed factors that influenced student academic success, including caring, trust, communication, tutoring, and administrative support. Factors posing challenges to student success were identified as attendance, parental support, and gangs and drugs. In-school influences were arts and sports, friendship, inclusion, and behavior. Out-of-school influences were home and family, the concept of time, and educational considerations. The conclusion is that this is a complex problem, fueled by the proximity of the reservation to a major metropolitan area, the gang culture that is prevalent in the Salt River community, poverty, attendance issues, and the impact of parental involvement and support. The things that made a difference at Stapley Jr. High included staff who demonstrated caring by establishing trust and getting to know students on a personal level, teachers who were consistent and held students to a high standard, and teachers who were flexible with regard to time.
ContributorsWilliams, Sidney (Author) / Appleton, Nicholas (Thesis advisor) / Duplissis, Mark (Committee member) / Spencer, Dee (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
African American students are one of the historically disadvantaged groups by the public education system. Related to this phenomenon is the overrepresentation of African American children in special education due to disability diagnoses, which has been referred to as disproportionality. It has been hypothesized that disproportionality is due to poverty or a cultural mismatch between primarily white, middle-class teachers and African American students. Using a sample of African American children in special education from Memphis, Tennessee, this secondary data analysis explored the relationship between children's behavioral and educational outcomes and their environment, efficacy beliefs, and the impact of an intervention, the Nurse-Family Partnership. This study also explored differences in children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors by self-report, children's mothers and children's teachers. Using multiple imputation and regression analyses, the results indicated the following: 1) children's self-efficacy and number of hours in special education were associated with children's academic achievement, 2) mothers' and teachers' ratings of children's behaviors differed from children's self-report of their behaviors, 3) African American boys are more likely to experience acting-out behaviors, while African American girls are more likely to experience anxiety and depression, 4) children were less likely to experience anxiety and depression if their mother believed that she had control over circumstances in her life. These findings are discussed in light of Brofenbrenner's ecological systems theory and Bandura's social cognitive theory.
ContributorsBean, Kristen (Author) / Segal, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Arcoleo, Kimberly (Committee member) / Gerdes, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The present study examined the relations between indices of parental involvement (parental aspirations, expectations, help with schoolwork, home learning and language materials) and children's academic achievement in a sample of 291 kindergarten-2nd grade children. Children's academic achievement was assessed with the Woodcock Johnson and parents reported on expectations, aspirations, help with schoolwork, home learning and language materials. Latent Growth Curve Models were used to test whether there was growth in the parent involvement variables and whether growth in the parent involvement variables predicted growth in academic achievement. The intercept for parental expectations was the only intercept to predict the intercept of academic achievement. Rates of growth in parental expectations, parental help with schoolwork, and home learning materials predicted rates of growth in academic achievement.
ContributorsSeeley, Bridget Granville (Author) / Valiente, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Arzubiaga, Angela (Committee member) / Eggum, Natalie D (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
I examined the role of children's or teacher's effortful control (EC) in children's academic functioning in early elementary school in two separate studies. In Study 1, I tested longitudinal relations between parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions in kindergarten, children's EC in first grade, and children's reading or math achievement in second grade (N = 291). In the fall of each school year, parents reported their positive or negative reactions and parents and teachers reported on children's EC. Standardized achievement tests assessed achievement each spring. Results from autoregressive panel mediation models demonstrated that constructs exhibited consistency across study years. In addition, first-grade EC mediated relations between parents' reactions (i.e., a difference composite of positive minus negative reactions) at kindergarten and second-grade math, but not reading, achievement. Findings suggest that one method of promoting math achievement in early school is through the socialization of children's EC. In Study 2, I examined relations between teachers' EC, teachers' reactions to children's negative emotions, the student-teacher relationship (STR), and children's externalizing behaviors or achievement among 289 second-graders and their 116 teachers. Results from mixed-model regressions showed that negative reactions and teacher-reported STR mediated relations between teachers' EC and math achievement. In addition, teacher-reported STR mediated links between teachers' EC and externalizing problems across reporters and between teachers' EC and reading achievement. Tests of moderated mediation indicated that a high-quality STR was negatively associated with externalizing problems and high levels of teachers' negative reactions were negatively related to math achievement only for students low in EC. In tests of moderation by social competence, teachers' reports of high-quality STRs tended to be negatively associated with externalizing problems, but relations were strongest for students not high in social competence. For students low in social competence only, children's reports of a high-quality STR was related to lower reading achievement. These results highlight the utility of considering whether and how teachers' own intrinsic characteristics influence classroom dynamics and students' academic functioning outcomes.
ContributorsSwanson, Jodi Michelle (Author) / Valiente, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Bradley, Robert H (Thesis advisor) / Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Much has been written regarding the dire educational state of most schools in rural America. This case study profiles two elementary school principals (preK-6) in rural New Mexico whose schools achieved adequate yearly progress (AYP) for the 2009-10 school year. The focus of this study centered on specific characteristics of the school cultures addressed by the principals, and instructional best practices routinely incorporated by teachers into the daily curricular program that have produced successful student outcomes and earned each of their schools AYP standing for the 2009-10 academic year. The methodology used to determine research findings was performed in three parts: Principals of AYP rural New Mexico schools were asked to complete an online survey on educational leadership according to the standards and functions of the Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). The respondents chose either Almost always, To a considerable degree, Occasionally, Seldom, or Never according to the degree they deemed the leadership function necessary to the successful operations of their schools. The survey results were arranged into tables preceded with explanations and statistical analysis. Interviews were conducted with the two rural elementary school principals along with selected teachers and parents from each school. The researcher made on-site visitations and kept notes of the observations and interactions with staffs from each school. The main findings of the study arose from the results of the surveys and interviews conducted with individuals from the two focus schools. The researcher arranged data according to the leadership categories that emerged from the interviews. The survey results were divided into two categories: favorable (Almost always and To a considerable degree) and unfavorable (Occasionally, Seldom, and Never categories). The results for each leadership standard and related function were reported in terms of statistical significance according to frequency counts in the two categories. Finally, there is a review of current literature focused on principles of educational leadership and rural education, demographic information about the profiled schools, and conclusions with further recommendations for future studies.
ContributorsTom, Deborah F (Author) / Humphreys, Jere T. (Thesis advisor) / Spencer, Dee A. (Committee member) / Appleton, Nicholas A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT The present study was designed to examine factors that led to the academic success of two rural secondary schools in New Mexico. The primary focus was on the characteristics and behaviors of leaders in two high-achieving rural schools and how these factors might have contributed to achievement of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in school year 2009-10. The secondary focus of the study concentrated on the characteristics of the rural environment of the schools and what role, if any, school location might have contributed to AYP. Of the approximately 820 public schools in New Mexico, 42 (30%) of secondary schools designated as "rural" achieved AYP in 2009-10. 2 of the 42 secondary schools, were selected for the study. Tara High School and Twelve Oaks Middle School, located in separate New Mexico villages, were identified as achieving the AYP in the 2009-10 school year through demographic and statistical data collected primarily from the New Mexico Public Education Department. The location of the two rural secondary schools along with the willingness of their principals to participate met the research criteria for being a descriptive case study to define any causal relationships between leadership practices and rural settings that resulted in achieving the AYP for student achievement. The researcher conducted interviews regarding leadership with two rural school principals, twelve secondary teachers, and seven parents. There was no direct contact with students in the study. Additionally, the researcher conducted on-site observations of both schools and conducted an on-line leadership survey for principals of the two rural schools and an additional 8 principals for data purposes only. Among the 3 data sets, the researcher found that there was complete unanimity as to the common characteristics of high-achieving schools located in rural communities influencing student achievement: culture, motivation, instructional leadership, empowerment, school leadership, trust, and community involvement. The twelve teachers and seven parents were unanimous that the two principals maintained a positive demeanor, visibly demonstrated care, supported and openly dialogued with the teachers to make their own classroom decisions, maintained an open-door policy, and modeled professional behavior.
ContributorsIron Moccasin, Shawl D (Author) / Humphreys, Jere T. (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas A. (Committee member) / Spencer, Dee A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Females and underrepresented ethnic minorities earn a small percentage of engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States, earn an even smaller proportion of master's and doctoral degrees, and are underrepresented in the engineering workforce (Engineering Workforce Commission, [2006], as cited in National Science Foundation, 2012; United States Department of Education, [2006], as cited in National Science Foundation, 2009a; United States Department of Education, [2006], as cited in National Science Foundation, 2009b). Considerable research has examined the perceptions, culture, curriculum, and pedagogy in engineering that inhibits the achievement of women and underrepresented ethnic minorities. This action research study used a qualitative approach to examine the characteristics and experiences of Latina students who pursued a bachelor's degree in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU) as part of the 2008 first-time full-time freshman cohort. The researcher conducted two semi-structured individual interviews with seven undergraduate Latina students who successfully persisted to their fourth (senior) year in engineering. The researcher aimed to understand what characteristics made these students successful and how their experiences affected their persistence in an engineering major. The data collected showed that the Latina participants were motivated to persist in their engineering degree program due to their parents' expectations for success and high academic achievement; their desire to overcome the discrimination, stereotyping, and naysayers that they encountered; and their aspiration to become a role model for their family and other students interested in pursuing engineering. From the data collected, the researcher provided suggestions to implement and adapt educational activities and support systems within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering to improve the retention and graduation rates of Latinas in engineering at ASU.
ContributorsRobinson, Carrie (Author) / Mcintyre, Lisa (Thesis advisor) / Hesse, Marian (Committee member) / Ganesh, Tirupalavanam G. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this study was to answer the question, "What are the experiences of students who have completed the Achievement Academy program?" In collecting data to answer this question, a series of clarifying questions also emerged: "What are the cultural, academic, and personal costs and benefits associated with being a part of Achievement Academy?"; "How have students defined or redefined their cultural, social, academic, and personal identities because of Achievement Academy?"; and "In what ways have the students used their surroundings and experiences to overcome preconceived notions of either what they were capable of or general expectations of those around them?" While there have been studies undertaken to examine students' experiences in both public school and private school academic programs, there is currently no research on the unique academic program and partnership of Achievement Academy with both public and private schools. This study provides direct insight from a participant focus group and individual participant interviews of students that attended Achievement Academy. A phenomenology research methodology was used to collect the data and Critical Race Theory (CRT) was used as the lens through which the data from the focus group and interviews were analyzed. This analysis resulted in three distinct findings in the research data: peers, program environment, and the presence of a mentor or positive role model are the major influencing factors for their success both in Achievement Academy and afterwards. First, the Achievement Academy students' peers in the program had a strong positive influence on how they viewed and defined themselves. These interactions allowed some students an opportunity to re-evaluate and recreate their identities and allowed validation of identity for others. Second, the Achievement Academy program, and more specifically its stated mission and practices, also provided a strong positive influence on their success. Third, the presence of a mentor or role model was instrumental to their success. The program's emphasis on empowerment and enrichment also created opportunities for students to stretch themselves academically, socially, and culturally.
ContributorsCalleroz White, James (Author) / Brayboy, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Neck, Christopher (Committee member) / Boyle, Charlotte (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012