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- All Subjects: student perception surveys
- Creators: Jordan, Michelle E
Description
As scrutiny of teacher effectiveness increases, there is a greater call for multiple instruments to measure teacher effectiveness and provide robust feedback to support teacher growth and development. Student perception surveys, questionnaires completed by K-12 students about their teachers, have increasingly been used to evaluate teachers and provide feedback. Situated in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFTC) at Arizona State University, this action research study used Attribution Theory, Sensemaking Theory, and research on teacher emotion to 1) document the experiences of pre-service teachers as they related to the administration and subsequent results from a student perception survey (SPS), and 2) examine the influence of two online professional development modules created to prepare teachers for the SPS process and make sense of the results. Teacher candidates participated in the SPS process in their final, year-long residency. Results from the mixed-methods study provided evidence that pre-service teachers had both positive and negative experiences that were influenced by the SPS results they received from their students. Also, depending on the results they received, teacher candidates either attributed the cause of the results to themselves or to characteristics of their students. Results from the study also indicate that teacher candidates use few strategies to make sense of the results and used those strategies to varying degrees. Pre-service teachers indicated that they regarded the modules as helpful in the sense-making process. Furthermore, evidence indicates that pre-service teachers value their students’ feedback.
ContributorsVilla, Lessita Ann Lorin (Author) / Jordan, Michelle E (Thesis advisor) / Beardsley, Audrey (Committee member) / Ribbens, Teressa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The purpose of this action research study was to explore the relationship between growth mindset instruction in a community college success class with student academic effort and achievement, among students enrolled in a developmental reading class. Community college students, especially those testing into developmental classes, face numerous obstacles to achieving their goal of completing a college degree. Research supports that students with a growth mindset - a psychological concept grounded in the belief of the malleability of traits such as intelligence - embrace challenges, exert more academic effort, and achieve more. Fourteen students enrolled in a community college participated in this convergent parallel mixed methods study. A mindset survey was administered three times, at the beginning and end of the semester as well as at Week 3 after initial introduction to growth mindset. Descriptive statistics indicated a slight increase in students’ growth mindset scores by the end of the term. An analysis of variance, however, yielded no statistically significant relationship. Correlational analysis of final mindset scores with effort variables indicated an unexpected result – a negative correlation (p<.05) of growth mindset with time in Canvas (the Learning Management System). An ANOVA using a median split for high vs. low mindset scores indicated an unexpectedly significant (p<.05) positive relationship between missing assignments and a high mindset score. Statistical analysis of mindset with achievement yielded no significant relationship. Qualitative results included data from three journal assignments and semi-structured interviews and suggest that these students could comprehend and support most of the tenets of Growth Mindset Theory. While quantitative results were not significant in the expected direction, triangulation with qualitative data indicated that students’ goal orientation may be a factor in the unexpected quantitative results. This study adds to the growing literature on Growth Mindset Theory by extending it to a new and different population, first year community college students, with reading challenges. Further study is needed to clarify the relationships of growth mindset, malleability of intelligence, and goal orientation with academic effort and achievement over a longer period.
ContributorsBrysacz, Lynn M (Author) / Caterino, Linda C (Thesis advisor) / Jordan, Michelle E (Committee member) / Auten, Marianne A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017