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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
ABSTRACT
Learning world history has the potential to develop adolescents into thoughtful, active citizens. This is especially true when students are taught in ways that engage them with complex issues and help them make connections between what they learn and their personal goals and experiences. However, instructional time in social studies is limited because of the current emphasis on standardized achievement testing in other content areas. Furthermore, in the specific field of world history, the scope of material covered, coupled with debate over what should be taught, has made it difficult to present a curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to students. As a result, the study of world history may be seen as tangential or incoherent.
The purpose of this action research study was to introduce an innovation aimed at helping students think deeply and find personal relevance in the study of world history. Specifically, visual imagery and reflective journaling were used to help students to become proficient in historical thinking and to fully engage in the study of world history. The study was developed according to a mixed-methods design: the quantitative data collection tools were pre- and posttests and a student survey, and the qualitative data collection tools included discussion transcripts, reflective journals, student-created presentations, and observations.
Results showed that the use of images and reflective journaling enabled students to develop some critical thinking skills, such as making claims, supporting claims with evidence, and considering divergent perspectives. Furthermore, students' awareness of their connections to the world around them increased, as did student performance on tests about historical events and concepts. Unfortunately, students did not reach proficiency in factual knowledge on post-tests in the class, despite these increases. However, this study highlights the benefits of explicitly connecting students to historical thinking through the use of images and journaling that allow students to explore their own thoughts and deductions.
Learning world history has the potential to develop adolescents into thoughtful, active citizens. This is especially true when students are taught in ways that engage them with complex issues and help them make connections between what they learn and their personal goals and experiences. However, instructional time in social studies is limited because of the current emphasis on standardized achievement testing in other content areas. Furthermore, in the specific field of world history, the scope of material covered, coupled with debate over what should be taught, has made it difficult to present a curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to students. As a result, the study of world history may be seen as tangential or incoherent.
The purpose of this action research study was to introduce an innovation aimed at helping students think deeply and find personal relevance in the study of world history. Specifically, visual imagery and reflective journaling were used to help students to become proficient in historical thinking and to fully engage in the study of world history. The study was developed according to a mixed-methods design: the quantitative data collection tools were pre- and posttests and a student survey, and the qualitative data collection tools included discussion transcripts, reflective journals, student-created presentations, and observations.
Results showed that the use of images and reflective journaling enabled students to develop some critical thinking skills, such as making claims, supporting claims with evidence, and considering divergent perspectives. Furthermore, students' awareness of their connections to the world around them increased, as did student performance on tests about historical events and concepts. Unfortunately, students did not reach proficiency in factual knowledge on post-tests in the class, despite these increases. However, this study highlights the benefits of explicitly connecting students to historical thinking through the use of images and journaling that allow students to explore their own thoughts and deductions.
ContributorsShanahan, Carrie (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Liou, Daniel (Committee member) / Schonaerts, Claire (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This action research study focused on the beginning teacher attrition issues plaguing schools today. Specifically, this project explored a way to support out-of-state beginning teachers, who are traditionally difficult to retain. While there is literature on teacher retention, the retention of out-of-state teachers has not been well examined. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Bandura's self-efficacy theories provided a foundational understanding of this group's needs.
This study utilized interactive support sessions for six out-of-state beginning teachers that had five face-to-face sessions and required the teachers to submit weekly reflections between sessions using an iPad and app that allowed teachers to design their reflections using digital images, words, and/or narration. These weekly digital reflections, mapping activities collected during the support sessions, a pre- and post-innovation questionnaire, and interviews provided insights on the impact of these supports, as well as changes that occurred in self-perceptions.
The results of this study indicate the challenge and complexities of being an out-of-state beginning teacher. The data showed that the teachers must first have had their basic needs met before they could fully explore and settle into their new identities and role as the classroom teacher. The data also indicated that intentionally teaching these teachers strategies around resiliency, stress management, and self-advocacy was useful for navigating their first semester. The supportive community that developed within the group emerged as a significant finding, and showed the importance of support structures for new teachers, especially for those who are struggling with both a new job and new community.
This study utilized interactive support sessions for six out-of-state beginning teachers that had five face-to-face sessions and required the teachers to submit weekly reflections between sessions using an iPad and app that allowed teachers to design their reflections using digital images, words, and/or narration. These weekly digital reflections, mapping activities collected during the support sessions, a pre- and post-innovation questionnaire, and interviews provided insights on the impact of these supports, as well as changes that occurred in self-perceptions.
The results of this study indicate the challenge and complexities of being an out-of-state beginning teacher. The data showed that the teachers must first have had their basic needs met before they could fully explore and settle into their new identities and role as the classroom teacher. The data also indicated that intentionally teaching these teachers strategies around resiliency, stress management, and self-advocacy was useful for navigating their first semester. The supportive community that developed within the group emerged as a significant finding, and showed the importance of support structures for new teachers, especially for those who are struggling with both a new job and new community.
ContributorsOlson-Stewart, Kelly (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Liou, Daniel (Committee member) / Hargrove, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Given the profound influence that schools have on students’ genders and the existing scholarly research in the field of education studies which draws clear implications between practices of schooling and sanctioning and promoting particular gender subjectivities, often in alignment with traditional norms, I conduct a critical ethnography to examine the practices of gender in one eighth grade English language arts (ELA) classroom at an arts-missioned charter school. I do this to explore how ELA instruction at an arts charter school may provide opportunities for students to do gender differently. To guide this dissertation theoretically, I rely on the process philosophy of Erin Manning (2016, 2013, 2007) to examine the processual interactions among of student movement, choreography, materiality, research-creation, language, and art. Thus, methods for this study include field notes, student assignments, interviews and focus groups, student created art, maps, and architectural plans. In the analysis, I attempt to allow the data to live on their own, and I hope to give them voice to speak to the reader in a way that they spoke to me. Some of them speak through ethnodrama; some of them speak through autoethnography, visual art and cartography, and yet others through various transcriptions. Through these modes of analysis, I am thinking-doing-writing. The analysis also includes my thinking with fields – the fields of gender studies, qualitative inquiry, educational research, English education, and critical theory. In an attempt to take to the fields, I weave all of these through each other, through Manning and other theorists and through my ongoing perceptions of event-happenings and what it means to do qualitative research in education. Accordingly, this dissertation engages with the various fields to reconsider how school practices might conceive the ways in which they produce gender, and how students perceive gender within the school space. In this way, the dissertation provides ways of thinking that may unearth what was previously cast aside or uncover possibilities for what was previously unthought.
ContributorsSweet, Joseph David (Author) / Carlson, David Lee (Thesis advisor) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Durand, E. Sybil (Committee member) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In college, students are continuously learning and maturing, prompting transitions, as they grow to enhance their academic, vocational, and personal development. As such, institutions of higher education must also consider how to support students in these transitions. At the Teachers College at Southwestern University, 59% (N=86) of students in Educational Studies, a non-certification major, transitioned from teacher certification majors. In an ecology that centralizes students pursuing teacher certification, students majoring in Educational Studies do not receive the adequate support, particularly in addressing their concerns and curiosities regarding their future career trajectories.
This qualitative study drew on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological models of human development and Moos’ ecology model as the theoretical underpinnings to examine how students cultivated adaptability amidst the transition of changing majors. On the forefront of support as students change majors, this study utilized academic advising to highlight a career advising program designed with an ecological approach to reimagine academic advising support in proactive and responsive ways.
Findings from a grounded theory approach suggested students adapted through a network of support, network of information, and network of self-concept. The career advising program designed to draw upon multiple systems in one’s ecology capitalized on the reciprocal dynamic between an individual and their ecology. Cultivating adaptability addresses economical, societal, and personal goals and needs, economical, societal, and personal needs.
This qualitative study drew on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological models of human development and Moos’ ecology model as the theoretical underpinnings to examine how students cultivated adaptability amidst the transition of changing majors. On the forefront of support as students change majors, this study utilized academic advising to highlight a career advising program designed with an ecological approach to reimagine academic advising support in proactive and responsive ways.
Findings from a grounded theory approach suggested students adapted through a network of support, network of information, and network of self-concept. The career advising program designed to draw upon multiple systems in one’s ecology capitalized on the reciprocal dynamic between an individual and their ecology. Cultivating adaptability addresses economical, societal, and personal goals and needs, economical, societal, and personal needs.
ContributorsFong, Raquel (Author) / Liou, Daniel Dinn-You (Thesis advisor) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Dawes, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This action research project centered on a group of instructional technology professionals who provide support to instructors at a public university in the United States. The practical goal of this project was to increase collaboration within the team, and to encourage alignment of the team’s efforts in relation to the university’s proposed redesign of its general education curriculum. Using the communities of practice perspective as a model for the team’s development, participants engaged in a sixteen-week activity in which they studied and discussed aspects of the proposed curriculum, and then used that knowledge to observe classes and compare the extent to which classroom pedagogy at the time aligned with the aims of the proposed curriculum. This qualitative action research study then explored how the team used these experiences to construct knowledge and the extent to which the group came to resemble a community of practice. Additionally, this study explored the changes that took place in the group’s capacity to interpret instructional environments. The first major finding was that the group’s identity changed from being one characterized by relationship management with their clientele to one that aligned with the institution’s instructional priorities and could be projected into the future to devise coordinated plans in support of those priorities. A second major finding was that the team developed a group-specific language and a rudimentary capacity to interpret instructional environments as a group.
ContributorsLang, Andrew (Author) / Gee, Elisabeth (Thesis advisor) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Hogan, Kelly (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Since the field of Physical Education carries a broader role of physical activity promotion, it is important for Physical Educators to take leadership roles in Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP) in schools. Hence, it has been emphasized that Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs may need to prepare PETE majors adequately to promote physical activity beyond quality Physical Education programs in schools. The purpose of this study was to explore the current extent of CSPAP preparation in PETE programs (e.g., curricula and practices).
The first phase of this study comprised a nationwide survey study on PETE programs’ curriculum and experiences for CSPAP implementation. A total of 144 programs completed the online survey about curriculum and learning experiences for the CSPAP components. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, chi-square statistics, and analysis of variance were used to analyze data. Findings indicated that 107 of 144 PETE programs (74.3%) had no learning experiences for CSPAP. The prevalent type of learning experiences was incorporating CSPAP components in the existing courses. Field experiences were not frequently used for CSPAP preparation. PETE personnel expressed the utility of field experiences as an ideal CSPAP learning experience.
The second phase of this study addressed PETE majors’ perceptions and learning experiences related to CSPAP in PETE programs. Fourteen PETE students from six programs participated in this study and shared their experiences in PETE programs. Data were collected through a short survey, one formal interview, field images, document gathering, and a follow-up survey. Descriptive statistics, constant comparison, and analytic induction techniques were used to analyze the data. Evidence from interviews, photos, and documents revealed three common themes: a) introducing CSPAP through courses, (b) lacking programmatic experiences in CSPAP implementation (i.e., practice doing it), and (c) interpersonal skills (e.g., communication or cooperation) as a key for CSPAP but limited preparation. Participants’ perception of the role of Physical Educators as physical activity directors evolved during their training.
Expanding existing courses for CSPAP preparation would be a feasible way to introduce CSPAP framework. Additional efforts to include hands-on learning experiences for all CSPAP components in PETE programs should be made.
The first phase of this study comprised a nationwide survey study on PETE programs’ curriculum and experiences for CSPAP implementation. A total of 144 programs completed the online survey about curriculum and learning experiences for the CSPAP components. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, chi-square statistics, and analysis of variance were used to analyze data. Findings indicated that 107 of 144 PETE programs (74.3%) had no learning experiences for CSPAP. The prevalent type of learning experiences was incorporating CSPAP components in the existing courses. Field experiences were not frequently used for CSPAP preparation. PETE personnel expressed the utility of field experiences as an ideal CSPAP learning experience.
The second phase of this study addressed PETE majors’ perceptions and learning experiences related to CSPAP in PETE programs. Fourteen PETE students from six programs participated in this study and shared their experiences in PETE programs. Data were collected through a short survey, one formal interview, field images, document gathering, and a follow-up survey. Descriptive statistics, constant comparison, and analytic induction techniques were used to analyze the data. Evidence from interviews, photos, and documents revealed three common themes: a) introducing CSPAP through courses, (b) lacking programmatic experiences in CSPAP implementation (i.e., practice doing it), and (c) interpersonal skills (e.g., communication or cooperation) as a key for CSPAP but limited preparation. Participants’ perception of the role of Physical Educators as physical activity directors evolved during their training.
Expanding existing courses for CSPAP preparation would be a feasible way to introduce CSPAP framework. Additional efforts to include hands-on learning experiences for all CSPAP components in PETE programs should be made.
ContributorsKwon, Ja Youn (Author) / Kulinna, Pamela H (Thesis advisor) / Van Der Mars, Hans (Committee member) / Beardsley, Audrey A (Committee member) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
High schools throughout the country posit leadership as one of the characteristics they develop while students are with them. All too often though, this leadership development is limited to those in title positions of leadership or is only accomplished through informal training mechanisms. The challenge for educators is to develop leadership that can critically address community problems, a challenge that is made more difficult in a broader social environment that is becoming politically, economically, and racially more polarized. This action research study investigated how high school students understand transformative leadership as one way to address this problem.
Using a hermeneutic orientation, this qualitative study investigated high school students’ (N = 8) understanding of transformative leadership. Situated within a leadership class open to any 11th or 12th grader, participants engaged with a community-based, service-learning project as a method to enact their leadership in a meaningful way. The use of Catholic Social Teaching as a way to frame the service-learning project allowed for a direct connection with the school’s Catholic identity and mission. Data sources included reflection journals, interviews, focus groups, and a researcher observation journal.
Findings from the study suggest that high school students understand and enact transformative leadership through participation in a service-learning project. Participants understood transformative leadership to different extents, indicating that transformative leadership develops in different stages. These results, along with implications for future research, are discussed.
Using a hermeneutic orientation, this qualitative study investigated high school students’ (N = 8) understanding of transformative leadership. Situated within a leadership class open to any 11th or 12th grader, participants engaged with a community-based, service-learning project as a method to enact their leadership in a meaningful way. The use of Catholic Social Teaching as a way to frame the service-learning project allowed for a direct connection with the school’s Catholic identity and mission. Data sources included reflection journals, interviews, focus groups, and a researcher observation journal.
Findings from the study suggest that high school students understand and enact transformative leadership through participation in a service-learning project. Participants understood transformative leadership to different extents, indicating that transformative leadership develops in different stages. These results, along with implications for future research, are discussed.
ContributorsSorkin, David Jan (Author) / Liou, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Frabutt, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Though National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in Arizona have been identified as leaders on a national level, they do not have comparable opportunities to lead within their local contexts or engage in leadership and collaboration activities that align with Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standard 10. The purpose of this sequential, mixed-methods study was to explore how the development of a teacher leadership community of practice for NBCTs might influence their perceptions of themselves as leaders. Social constructionism, action research, and communities of practice guided the innovation and a mixed-methods approach was used for data collection and analysis. Data illustrated NBCTs’ dichotomous feelings about leadership on local and national levels. Findings revealed that NBCTs need continued professional learning opportunities, beyond National Board Certification, to resolve feelings of isolation and fully meet all of the leadership and collaboration indicators for InTASC Standard 10. Participating in a teacher leadership community of practice (a) provided a professional learning opportunity for NBCTs, (b) improved NBCTs’ perceptions of teacher leadership and helped them define it as an active process of learning, reflection, and action, and (c) increased NBCTs’ readiness to take action as teacher leaders within their local contexts to evoke positive change.
ContributorsAdams, Alaina (Author) / Marley, Scott C. (Thesis advisor) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Allen, Althe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This action research study (a) explored how institutionally labeled “at-risk” Latina/o students described their experiences in an opportunity to learn environment within an academic intervention program, (b) examined how these students experienced caring relationships with their teachers in an opportunity to learn environment when compared to their other core academic classes, and (c) investigated how school leaders created conditions to further support these students’ academic success on a larger scale. This action research study utilized a sequential phenomenological qualitative approach. Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Care theory served as the theoretical frameworks for this study. The blending of these theories worked to push Latina/o students’ narrative reflections to emerge as constitutive and instructive voices speaking back against the inequalities in the educational setting, and offered counterstories about the caring dynamics of Latina/o students in the classroom. Participants included high school students identified as “at-risk” and in an academic intervention class
ContributorsVillena, Breanna (Author) / Liou, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Tefera, Adai (Committee member) / Vasquez-Robles, Veronica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Assessments at the international, national, state, and local levels demonstrate that students’ reading scores in Arizona lack growth. Current trends in education encourage teachers to engage in close reading as a strategy to help improve reading efficacy. The close reading process helps students learn how to analyze complex text. A mixed method study examined the effect of ten weeks of instruction in close reading on the reading comprehension skills of fifth grade students. Also examined were any differential effects of close reading on literary versus informational texts. Students in an upper income public school community were taught the specifics of close reading procedures approximately four days per week for about 30 minutes daily. Research-based procedures for close reading strategies were followed. Students self-reported changes in their use of strategies prior to receiving close reading strategies and again post-instruction. Six students were interviewed and responded to journal questions concerning their use of the close reading strategies to ascertain how they made meaning from text. Results suggest that close reading was beneficial in helping students to make academic achievements in overall reading comprehension, as well as growth in literary content. Data also reflected that students used close reading strategies to make meaning out of the text and used it to influence their overall reading comprehension. The discussion focused on the triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data and analyzed connections to current research. Also explored were implications for practice and future research, as well as limitations and the role of the researcher.
ContributorsVictor, Laura (Author) / Caterino, Linda C (Thesis advisor) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / McNeil, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017