Integrating children's literature and mathematics is a popular strategy used by many teachers to meet the Standards for mathematics education as outlined by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). At this time literature on integrating math and literature focuses on books, lesson ideas and students' responses. What led teachers to decide to integrate these two subjects, and an articulated theoretical grounding for this strategy, is largely absent in current literature. The purpose of this study is to answer the following questions: How does a teacher come to implement integrating children's literature and mathematics as a strategy for designing mathematics instruction? and Is integrating children's literature and mathematics a teaching strategy that is constructivist and/or brain compatible? Constructivist theory informs us that individuals construct and co-construct knowledge; each of us builds or creates knowledge from our experiences. What we learn is directly related to what we experience and the interplay between old and new experiences; how we make meaning. Brain-based learning theory weaves together knowledge of how the human brain functions and the design of learning experiences that are brain compatible. I chose these two theories in particular to identify connection between practice and theory and because they are widely recognized by educators as grounding for effective educational practice. To answer the two research questions, I designed two case studies. Each case study focuses on a veteran elementary school teacher in the process of integrating children's literature and mathematics as a strategy for designing mathematics instruction. Primary sources of data for the case studies are interviews with the teachers about their decision-making process, and the observation and analysis of integrated math and literature lessons for theoretical grounding. Based on the data collected I found that the two teachers who participated in this study each came to integrate children's literature and mathematics through participation in professional development. The integrated children's literature and math lessons I observed and analyzed met the theoretical criteria for constructivism and brain compatible learning. Use of children's literature and the teachers' lesson design are key aspects of theoretically grounding lessons that integrate children's literature and mathematics.

National efforts to reform public schools in the last few decades have focused mainly on tests and mandates, rather than teacher quality, and have been generally unsuccessful. What teachers know and can do directly impact what students learn. Unfortunately at a time when the student population is growing, and good teachers are most needed, young teachers are leaving the profession because of problems they encounter. To keep promising new teachers in the profession, we need to identify the problems and provide the support that will help them succeed. This study investigated the instructional, curricular, classroom management and collegial problems new teachers encounter. It also explored what new and experienced teachers consider important characteristics of a mentoring program intended to help new teachers teach effectively. The sample included 158 new and experienced teachers in eight elementary school districts in Western Massachusetts. The resulting data provided evidence that new teachers experience difficulties in many aspects of teaching during their first year. Classroom management presented the most difficulty followed by curricular, instructional, and collegial issues. Experienced teachers also reported similar problems. With both new and experienced teachers, however, the extent to which individual teachers experienced these problems varied. The mentoring components chosen by new and experienced teachers related closely to the problems identified. Based on the data, guidelines for a mentoring program to meet the flexible needs of new teachers were presented. Four recommendations for further research were advanced: replication studies to extend the generalizability of this investigation; inquiry into additional teacher competencies to be included in teacher preparation programs; an investigation into the preparation of experienced teachers for mentoring; and an exploration of induction practices that should be integrated into wider school reform efforts. The effective mentoring of new teachers is an important step toward teacher quality and ultimately student achievement. When we enhance the capacity of teachers to explore and develop effective solutions to their students' individual learning difficulties, we improve schools in the most fundamental way, increasing the chances for both students and teachers to succeed.

Previous critical thinking studies dealt primarily with results of programs presented ancillary to academic subjects. Notable educators in the field have advocated for assessing efforts to infuse, through direct instruction, critical thinking skills and processes across the content areas. This study constitutes such an evaluation and demonstrates that infusion warrants further investigation. An extensive review of the literature pointed to agreement among educators as well as business leaders that improving the quality of student thinking is a fundamental objective as we prepare our students for the workplace of the twenty-first century. Students must be prepared to gather, evaluate and apply information for effective problem-solving. Two similar communities in a North Carolina school district were compared. One taught critical thinking via infusion; the other did not teach critical thinking. The researcher interviewed three teachers whose classes served as the experimental group. A post test survey was administered to teachers of the experimental group. Teachers' anecdotal comments suggested that learning was observed in the thinking skills taught and that the infused instruction strategy would be the one of choice for further instruction. An assessment instrument was developed in two forms, a pre and a post test format, and administered to students in experimental and control groups. Open-ended prompts were utilized for data collection and analysis. Direct instruction in decision-making and comparing and contrasting was presented to students in the experimental group. Rubrics were constructed so that raters could measure prompts holistically. A "t" test was performed and results were analyzed for gains. The difference between pre and post test decision-making scores was statistically significant at the.001 level. However, the difference between pre and post test compare and contrast scores was not statistically significant. Given the discrepancy between teacher testimony and experimental and control group achievement data, possible explanations were offered. Further study could include address additional variables, different modes of assessment, number and type of practice sessions between pre and post testing, comparison between results utilizing the direct infusion strategy versus add-on programming, expansion to other thinking skills, depth of internalization of learning, and teacher preparation and professional development opportunities.

One fundamental purpose of American education is to provide an equal and quality education for all children. Unfortunately, evidence that schools are failing to meet this important challenge is abundant. One barrier to equal educational opportunity is the practice of ability grouping, which is widespread despite research showing that it does not consistently benefit any group of students and may be detrimental to students in lower-ability groups. Teachers favor ability grouping, but little is known about why. Two major research questions guide the present study: (1) How do Coalition elementary schools group students for instruction? (2) What do Coalition elementary school teachers perceive are the effects of existing grouping practices on student learning? The study employs qualitative research methods to describe the practices and perceptions of a particular group of principals and teachers in relation to school and classroom grouping. Data are drawn from 47 interviews with principals and teachers representing Grades K-6 in 12 elementary schools associated with the Coalition for School Improvement. Data show that principals in all 12 schools attempt to create heterogeneous classes. However, teachers create groups within classes to reduce the heterogeneity of student abilities in some subjects. Usually, reading is taught in ongoing, similar-ability groups. Most other lessons are introduced to entire classes and are followed by ad hoc similar-ability groups for a specific skill lesson or mixed-ability groups for peer tutoring or cooperative learning. Teachers defend similar-ability groups on instructional grounds, usually to maintain appropriate content and pace in reading and math. They defend mixed-ability groups because of social benefits to children, usually in science and social studies. Teachers' perceptions of groupings' effects on students' personal development are mixed. The study concludes that within-class ability groups operate with different learning conditions for different groups. Teachers hold unexamined assumptions and are remote from research linking grouping and student learning. Grouping decisions also are influenced by forces outside of teachers' control, including mandates, norms, and requirements

The classroom environment has a powerful influence on learning, and children's perceptions of that environment influence their behavior. This study examines the perceptions of sixth grade students who are the most and least academically successful regarding how they perceive their classroom environment and those factors within it that enhance or inhibit learning. Data gathered in this research indicate that there are significant disparities in how the most and least successful students perceive their classroom learning environment. The most successful students perceived the classroom environment as more affiliative and task focused, perceived their teachers to be more trusting, caring, and supportive, and perceived that they had more choice in how they learned. In contrast, the least successful students perceived the class to be more teacher controlled and competitive. In spite of the differences in friendship and support perceived by study participants, both groups of students were able to provide clear examples of teaching approaches and classroom conditions that they perceived increased or inhibited their learning. This study also includes students' suggestions for changes that would increase their learning. The findings in this study are consistent with the research and literature reviewed from the fields of education, psychology, and business regarding conditions that are likely to enhance learning. The major implications of this study are that teachers need to: (a) be able to form caring, supportive relationships with all students, (b) create safe, non-threatening environments where learning is less competitive and students are encouraged to form supportive relationships with one another, (c) provide students with interesting, challenging work that engages them, while supporting and encouraging students' efforts, (d) develop a large repertoire of effective instructional approaches to meet the diverse learning needs of students, (e) keep current with the knowledge base, (f) ask, and listen to students to understand how they learn best, and (g) seek professional experiences that will help them reflect on how they can improve their practice. Finally, a number of recommendations are proposed for use by teachers, administrators, organizations that provide pre-service and in-service opportunities, educational policy makers, and other parties interested in assisting teachers and schools increase student learning.

After fifteen years of education reform efforts since the publication of A Nation at Risk, a single most effective system of educating elementary school students has not yet emerged. What have emerged are several models of instructional practice and student grouping that show some promise. Is our inability to agree on a single best system for all our students mean that there is no one best system? Recent attention to providing choices for families has fueled this debate. This case study examines a suburban school district's twenty-six year history with an open enrollment system of choice. Little attention has been paid in the literature to intradistrict choice as a way to restructure public schools. By documenting the journey of this district's attempts to offer choices to its families, a context has been set in which a discussion of this option within public schools can take place. Several questions guided this study in order to provide the reader with a context in which this discussion can take place: (1) How did choice start (i.e., what precipitated it, who was involved in making it a reality)? (2) What are the choices that are offered, and how do parents and staff make them? (3) How has it evolved over time? (4) What enables it to continue? (5) What inhibits it from working as well as it could or should? (6) How do the participants feel about the choice system? (7) How does it impact the community as a whole? (8) Does the reality of choice live up to the promise? (9) How will this study inform future discussions? These questions are answered in the context of a review of the education reform literature. The study includes classroom observations, participant interviews, and document review. The data gathered through this process provide a thematic analysis of the issues inherent in an open enrollment system. From this context, implications for other school districts are discussed. The stories of the participants will bring added insight to the practical issues of design and implementation of a choice system for public elementary schools.

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary students' perspectives of a constructivist approach to enhance their knowledge about stress. Participants were fifth grade students in an elementary school in the northeast. Data collection included a pretest-posttest, teacher reflective journal and student interviews. A multiple choice pre-test was administered to students to obtain information about students' knowledge of stress. The pre-test was followed by a four day unit that focused on the concept of stress employing a constructivist approach. The four day unit was monitored in two ways. First, a daily reflective journal was recorded by the teacher about each lesson. Second, students were interviewed at the end of the unit regarding their perceptions of learning through a constructivist approach. A post-test was administered to evaluate students' knowledge. Data analysis for the pre-test consisted of descriptive statistics. The teaching reflective journal and students' interviews were analyzed using constant-comparison. An overview of the results of the study indicates that students reported increased self awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the feelings of others, and enhanced appreciation of human relations from the unit. Other findings indicate that the females scored higher on the pre and post test than the males. Both the individual groups of males and females improved as a result of the unit. The implications of this study may provide educators with insights into the possible effectiveness of a constructivist approach to teaching various health concepts.

In recent years there has been increasing attention to the field of family literacy. A number of qualitative and ethnographic studies (Taylor, 1982; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988, Paratore, 1999, 2001 Auerbach E. R., 1989, 1995; Rogers, 2002) have documented the importance of the family in the acquisition of literacy within the context of the home. These two case studies of Denise and Shrieffe address the question of whether and how parents who are introduced to reading strategies in a family literacy program use these strategies in their own home when they read with their children. The use of a qualitative paradigm (Teale, 1986) enabled me, as a family literacy teacher-researcher, to document the home teaching by these two parents and to generate broad questions that would help describe these reading interactions. This study suggests several conclusions. First, a reading intervention designed by a family literacy teacher for parents who are enrolled in a family literacy program needs to take into consideration a parent's personal literacy needs as well as any fabricated literacy support strategies a parent displays when interacting with his/her children while reading. Second, parents not only adopted the reading strategies to use as they read with children at home, but also adapted the strategies, changing them to better meet their own child's literacy needs and stage of literacy development. Third, parents transformed themselves from silent observers of their children's literacy learning to active participants in it, reading with their children and offering them reading support. Fourth, school-based literacy instruction transferred from the school to the homes of the families by the family literacy teacher-researcher, added new understandings to the home literacy environments of both families. Lastly, the role of teacher-researcher required me to attempt to understand complex questions about the intersections of reading and families' lives by using rich qualitative methods of analysis. This study contributes to a further understanding of family literacy reading as a way to help shape parent/child literacy interactions and ultimately, the parent and child's literacy learning. This study also has implications for curriculum design in family literacy programs in the United States. That is, to advocate for a family literacy teacher expanding her role to include responsibilities of modeling literacy strategies and skills in the homes of the parents and children as well as introducing children's literature and other learning materials.

Researchers, theoreticians, and teacher educators often treat the strategy of providing students with choices related to their curriculum as a simple one and individual studies generally consider only a few variables. In practice choice provision is a complex strategy that cannot be isolated from the institutional and instructional contexts within which it is utilized and many teachers do not use it well or often. This dissertation describes an analytical action research case study designed to provide a holistic, in-depth examination of the contexts, processes, structures, and outcomes of academic choice provision for a fourth grade teacher, Ann, and her students as they developed their use of this strategy over one school year. In order to address practical problems of choice provision as they arose and to support the teacher in her development of expertise with this strategy, the researcher worked as a supporter, and facilitator for the teacher and structured interactions with her based upon Stringer's (1999) look, think, act cycle for action research. This process was documented through classroom observations, interviews with the teacher and students, and collection of documents. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin's (1998) methods for developing grounded theory. An inter-related set of contextual factors influenced the nature of Ann's work and its outcomes as well as her interpretations of key concepts related to academic choice provision. These factors included (a) time pressures, (b) high stakes testing, (c) required curricula, (d) students' prior knowledge, and (e) teacher support. Ann's development of academic choice was characterized by her efforts to find and enact an optimal balance between student and teacher input into the curriculum within contextual pressures that worked both for and against such a balance. Within this central theme Ann grappled with (a) treating academic choice as peripheral versus integral to the curriculum, (b) focusing on student products versus student learning processes, and (c) nurturing student dependence versus independence. Choice provision was associated with a high degree of student engagement including enjoyment, on task behavior, and increased individual initiative.

The purpose of this study is to determine middle school teachers' thoughts on ability grouping. Specifically, this study identifies the reasons that teachers retain (R group) or eliminate (E group) ability grouping practices. Data from thirty-one teachers were categorized through the use of qualitative research methodology. This study focuses on three research questions: (1) What do middle school teachers perceive to be the advantages of ability grouping? (2) What do middle school teachers perceive to be the disadvantages of ability grouping? (3) What alternative grouping practices do middle school teachers utilize to replace ability grouping? Teachers who support ability grouping do not believe what they read and hear about ability grouping. For them, ability grouping may not be the best way to work with young adolescents in schools, but it works reasonably well and they do not believe another way of grouping is worth the effort, or works any better. They may not want to change for a variety of other reasons. Their beliefs may limit thinking or they may not want to invest the time, energy, and thought necessary to alter ability grouping practices. These ideas, coupled with the notion that teaching ability grouped classes is easier and change is difficult, form the basis for their perceived advantages of ability grouping. R group teachers state as many disadvantages of ability grouping as they do advantages. E group teachers are more adamant in their perceptions. They state fewer advantages of ability grouping, and many times more disadvantages. They believe that non-ability grouped methods, coupled with other teaching methodologies, are effective ways to teach middle school students. Sixteen of seventeen teachers interested in eliminating ability grouping had taught in both ability grouped and non-ability grouped classrooms. The opposite was true for the teachers who wished to retain ability grouping. Only one of the fourteen R group teachers had taught both ability grouped and non-ability grouped classes. This suggests that to be supportive of eliminating ability grouping in classrooms, teachers must use both types of instruction. Teachers who have chosen to eliminate ability grouping in their schools and classrooms have bridged the gap between acceptance of the status quo and taking action. Their actions are based upon a strong belief that they can be successful and benefit all students, both academically and socially.