<p> This teacher research study documents the processes used to help students in an all-female, religious-based high school create science fair projects that are personally meaningful, scientifically sophisticated and up-to date in terms of science content. One-hundred sixteen young women in an honors chemistry class were introduced by their teacher to the methods used by science journalists when researching and crafting articles. The students then integrated these strategies into their science fair research through collaborative classroom activities designed by their teacher. Data collected during the process included audio and video tapes of classroom activities, student interviews, process work, finished projects, email conversations and the reflective journaling, annotated lesson plans, and memories of the lived experience by the teacher. </p><p> The pedagogical changes which resulted from this project included the use of Read Aloud-Think Alouds (RATA) to introduce content and provide relevance, a discussion based topic selection process, the encouragement of relevant topic choices, the increased use of technology for learning activities and for sharing research, and an experimental design process driven by the student's personally relevant, topic choice. Built in feedback loops, provided by the teacher, peer editors and an outside editor, resulted in multiple revisions and expanded opportunities for communicating results to the community-at-large. </p><p> Greater student engagement in science fair projects was evident: questioning for understanding, active involvement in decision making, collaboration within the classroom community, experience and expertise with reading, writing and the use of technology, sense of agency and interest in science related activities and careers all increased. Students communicated their evolving practices within the school community and became leaders who promoted the increased use of technology in all of their classes. </p><p> Integrating journalistic practices into the research projects of these honors chemistry students also brought about positive changes in the attitude of the students toward science. The pedagogy implemented was successful at increasing the engagement of the participants in their own learning processes as well as increased interest in science. Moreover, the teacher researcher has expanded her skill set and is transitioning toward a more student-centered classroom. While this study focused on 116 honors chemistry students over the course of three years, it identified changes in practices that can be taken up and examined more broadly by science teachers who include science fairs as part of their curriculum.</p>

<p> Employers highly value college graduates who have strong teamwork and interpersonal skills. In studies focused on employer priorities for college learning sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2008, 2010, and 2013, employers have stated that colleges should do more to prepare graduates to work effectively in a team-based work environment. Equally important is the empirical research which has demonstrated that cooperative learning has the ability to significantly enhance student learning. These benefits include higher academic achievement, better longterm retention of what is learned, enhanced ability to transfer learning from one situation to another and a more positive attitude toward the academic subject being studied. Lastly, the study of teamwork is important to the study of leadership, without a team of followers there is no leadership. Many college and university faculty have students work in cooperative groups and assign team projects in their courses. Unfortunately, most faculty do not realize that the development of effective teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities takes time, education and training. Students need to be taught how to work cooperatively in teams; these skills do not naturally develop on their own. </p><p> The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the differences between what the research literature identifies as cooperative learning and teamwork instructional &ldquo;best practices&rdquo; and what postsecondary faculty in a variety of academic disciplines actually do when employing groups or teams in their courses. An additional research objective was to gain a better understanding of the factors that contribute to any differences discovered. In order to take a first step toward answering these questions a web-based survey of full-time faculty, both liberal arts and professional, employed at ten different Maryland colleges and universities was conducted.</p><p> An analysis of the data collected revealed that a preponderance of the faculty assigned cooperative work and team assignments for student centered reasons; they want their students to learn teamwork skills and course content. Yet the majority of the faculty implement very few of the cooperative learning and teamwork instructional &ldquo;best practices&rdquo; discussed in the academic literature. In other words, students were assigned to course teams with little forethought, preparation, or guidance from faculty and many of the assignments utilized were not properly designed for student group/team learning. The research suggests a majority of faculty harbor misconceptions about how students learn teamwork skills and do not realize that their own knowledge of cooperative learning and teamwork as well as of the best instructional practices was very limited. Lastly, the research uncovered several statistically significant relationships among the use of cooperative groups, team projects and instructional &ldquo;best practices&rdquo; and with faculty teamwork self-efficacy, collectivism values, motivation, attitude and to a lesser degree with faculty teamwork KSAs and demographics.</p><p> By gaining a better understanding of faculty confidence and competence to teach and coach effective cooperative learning and teamwork within their classrooms, colleges and universities will be able to develop meaningful instructional aids, mentoring programs and professional development opportunities which support faculty in the effective facilitation of meaningful group exercises and team projects in their courses. In so doing, the college student&rsquo;s attitude toward future team opportunities will be more positive and the likelihood increased that effective teamwork skills will be developed and more likely transferred to future professional situations.</p>

<p> Choro is a traditional Brazilian music that began in Rio de Janeiro during the latter half of the nineteenth century. A virtuosic instrumental music, choro developed through Brazilian interpretations of European dance genres, especially polka and waltz. Participation by both amateur and professional musicians characterizes choro's traditional pedagogy, a reflection of informal and formal learning processes and contexts. At the turn of the twenty-first century, choro schools now offer venues for defining and validating the tradition as well as inspiring an atmosphere for innovation and creation. Inherent within the concept of tradition is the dichotomy of continuity and change. This study exposes how institutions negotiate the past and present through a comparison of current and historic pedagogy and modes of learning. Choro institutions use traditional and innovative modes of learning to support and enhance the genre's current practice through community organization, which sustains and contributes to its continued performance. Chapter one focuses on defining choro music, first discussing the etymology of the word 'choro,' followed by a survey of choro's history and review of choro literature. The chapter concludes with an explanation of this investigation's purpose. In chapter two I posit the notion that a music community practices and performs choro. Biographies and stories of choro's past and present community members reveal how they learned choro. The chapter ends with an analysis of the processes that establish and reinforce the community. Chapter three examines how people learn choro. I offer prevailing learning perspectives&mdash;acquisition, participation, and knowledge creation&mdash;and establish categories for modes of learning&mdash;formal, non-formal, and informal&mdash;to define the processes and contexts involved in learning choro. Chapter four discusses the musical codes that characterize choro, what the choro community describes as a musical language. The chapter ends with a description of the curriculum at Escola Portatil de Musica, the school case study used for this dissertation. Chapter five is the summation and conclusions, revealing why musicians learn choro music.</p>

<p> This study addresses how my freshman world history students come to understand controversial issues as provocative within the secondary social studies classroom, and in what ways does their engagement with provocative issues influence their understanding of the content and the world around them. In addition, this research study seeks to discover in what ways does the teaching of these provocative materials inform and influence my curricular decisions, my pedagogy, and my relationship with my students. The three research questions were established to guide this study. </p><p> 1. How do my world history freshman students come to understand provocative materials in regards to the historical content? </p><p> 2. How does my students' engagement with these provocative materials influence their understanding of historical events and the world around them? </p><p> 3. In what ways does the teaching of these provocative materials inform and influence my curricular decisions, my pedagogy, and my relationship with my students? </p><p> Self-Study methodology was selected as a way to personally explore and examine my students understanding of provocative issues as well as my instruction. Grounded theory was utilized exclusively as a coding and analyzing device. To address these questions, thirteen student participants were selected for this study based on the criteria assumed by the questions. Data was collected from individual interviews, group interviews, student blog posts, and my own journal. </p><p> As the data was analyzed and coded, nuanced constructs of the students' thinking began to coalesce on three distinct perceptions of provocative issues which evolved into the findings of this study. The first finding involved students who advocated for the inclusion of provocative issues. Their rationales for this inclusion were; <i>Real World Phenomenon, Provocative for Grade Sake, Provocative for Interest Sake.</i> A second finding involved a student who opposed the inclusion of provocative issues. This student's rationales were labeled <i>Oppositional.</i> The first two findings were partnered with the six students' rationales. The third finding involved the other seven students who had a varying range of nuanced articulation, varied their opinion across time, or lacked a clear robust rationale. This finding was labeled developing rationales. These students' perspectives were labeled <i> other voices.</i> </p><p> In addition to the student data, journaling was utilized to explore my own rationale for using provocative issues within my world history classroom. These journals provided a space for reflection on my practice in regards to the teaching of provocative issues, thus addressing my third research question. The journals, like the other data sources, were coded using grounded theory as the main analytical device. Upon completion of the data analysis of my journals, themes began to emerge that progressed into findings. The self-study findings were categorized as; <i>The Closed Space of Sexuality, The Banality of Violence,</i> and <i>Anti-Americanism Linked to Racism to Foster Critical Thinking. </i> </p>

<p> Giftedness is typically defined as above-average ability, task commitment, and creativity (Renzulli, 2012). However, this definition is socially constructed and leans on the literacy practices of the dominant culture. Understanding various contributors and barriers to giftedness (Suboknik, Olszewski-Kubilis, &amp; Worrell, 2012) can help identified students interrogate their own assumptions about their positions in the school system as well as those of teachers and peers. Since the gifted support classroom is relatively immune from the curricular pressures of the regular education classroom, it provides an ideal context for students to use various literacy practices to reflect on the complex dynamics of the public school system including the ways in which dominant literacies are valued over others generally and in regards to giftedness identification and services. </p><p> This practitioner-research study followed six gifted fifth-grade readers through a four-month long weekly Book Club as they used literacy and dialogue to reflect on, construct, and critically consider their academic identities. An inductive approach was used to generatively code responses and analyze the data. Using literature and informational text, the work supported students in using a critical lens to articulate their academic identities, consciously contemplate the expectations placed upon them in the school setting, and consider the implications of their positioning in that context. They engaged in social practices that aided in and demonstrated comprehension and agency, resulting in their re-conceptualizing the notion of giftedness. In addition, participants viewed giftedness through the perspective of culture, ethnicity, and language. Students' transaction with and dialogue surrounding various text types served as a way to challenge the socially constructed notions of giftedness and the structures that support such definitions.</p>

<p> This paper describes a teacher's action research within the place-based education (PBE) program at Forest Grove Community School (FGCS), a first through eighth grade public charter school in Forest Grove, Oregon. It seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in delivering the skills, knowledge, values and internal locus of control necessary to promote stewardship and citizenship among students. A review of literature discusses the factors that contribute to the development of stewardship and citizenship, and how the philosophy of place-based education supports these factors. The researcher uses mixed methodology to gather diverse data regarding the school's program and its impact on the student body, and a collaborative action research approach to examine the program's strengths and identify areas for development. Instruments utilized for data collection include a survey administered to students and parents, teacher reflections, student work samples, and records of professional development meetings. An evaluation of the PBE program details the strengths and potential areas of development revealed through research. The conclusion presents several recommendations to the school for enhancing stewardship and citizenship development among students.</p>

<p> This qualitative research study brings to light the need for a Critical Race Theory approach to early childhood education. Ten early childhood educators were interviewed and asked about how they teach about race and racism with their students. Four major findings are identified and described within the study, Devaluing Children's Ability; Ethnic Identity and Cultural Belonging; Critical Race Turning Points; and Challenges of Teaching About Race and Racism. Critical Race Turning Points is new, innovative conceptual tool and model that describes motivations of educators that work towards positive, social justice oriented change in their teaching. Conclusions recommended in this study include: the need to for a professional organization for early childhood educators working for racial and social justice, a mandate for more consistent education levels for early childhood educators, and inclusion of topics of race, racism, and social difference in early childhood education curriculum.</p>

<p>Abstract This dissertation examines the ways in which the incorporation of a multimodal social semiotic curriculum into a university composition class provided non-traditional options for learning that brought about agentive and empowering identity shifts in students who were labeled as academically underprepared for college level work. Building on a body of research that challenges the dominant discourse of deficit through a view of literacy and of learners as a complex and context-related social practice, this qualitative study employs ethnographic methods to track and document the self-affirming transformations in student's identities as manifested in their written, multimodal, and discoursal performances. The data collected from this study indicates that students' perceptions of self and of potential for academic success within the University were influenced by prior institutional labels and were exacerbated by feelings of marginalization brought on by placement into a University support program. In order to counter the sense of deficiency that usually accompanies such labeling practices, a transformative pedagogical approach designed to invoke change was practiced with the aim to create a learning environment which countered the rigidity of an autonomous view of literacy and instead, embraced a view of literacy that was sociocultural and ideological in nature. To this end, curricular choices were made in an effort to offer students alternative, non-traditional methods of demonstrating their individualized ways of meaning making. The data indicated that a multimodal infused pedagogy and interactions with multimodality served to reveal, track, capture, and document the ways in which identities shifted and changed with the resultant finding of an increased sense of academic achievement and agency in students as identity transformation took place. In addition, significant instances of students' acquisition of agency through self-generated writing and consequent successful repositioning were documented. In light of these findings, I encourage and endorse the assimilation of non- traditional transformative and multimodal practices into the 21st Century college composition class.

<p> This study was conducted to contribute a qualitative inquiry regarding the role of teachers in the education of children who were born into the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty (ITP) cycle in Latin America. Education is key to help students pull themselves out of poverty and yet the drop-out rates in primary school among children born into poverty in Latin America remains high. The purpose of the case study was to discover and describe how teachers can foster agency in students born into poverty. Agency is ability to initiate and carry out activities on one's own. The research focused on teachers' beliefs and assumptions about their students, the teachers' methodologies, the students' expressions of agency, and the construction of a Christian identity in the students. </p><p> Data were collected through focus groups interviews with 3^rd and 4^th grade students, teacher interviews, and observations in a Christian elementary school affiliated with Latin America ChildCare and Fundaci&oacute;n PIEDAD located in a zone of social vulnerability in San Jos&eacute;, Costa Rica. </p><p> Four practices within the educational community emerged from the data as promoting agency within students: (a) the use of adaptive constructivism techniques in education, (b) a focus on agency in the identity development of the students, (c) the use of narrative for meaning making in the lives of the students, and (d) the fostering of an experiential spirituality among the students, teachers, and staff. </p><p> Recommendations for further research include longitudinal studies of students born into poverty, the role of agency in fostering school retention in secondary school, and studies of intrinsic motivations of students born into poverty.</p>

<p>The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore lived experiences of 8 North Carolina secondary teachers who received professional development and implemented concept-based instruction (CBI). Guided by adult learning theories including andragogy, transformational learning, and constructivist theory, interview questions addressed adults as self-directed learners who integrate learning as needed in daily situations, adults who reflect on personal perspectives to overcome misconceptions and institutional change as a result of a shift in beliefs, and adults who gain knowledge by making sense of new learning through individual experiences. The study reveals (a) teachers&rsquo; perceptions of the adequacy of professional development, (b) teachers&rsquo; self-assessments of progress in implementing CBI, (c) teachers&rsquo; perceptions of consistency in implementation across classrooms, and (d) supports and barriers that influenced the implementation of CBI. Study participants recognized CBI as the basis for the organization and structure of the units and lessons used to promote student engagement and understanding around concepts. The study findings indicate the degree of implementation of CBI depends on individual understanding and the level of priority to use CBI recognized by school leadership. Recommendations directed toward educational leaders encourage the organization of a comprehensive professional development design to include administrative support of teacher implementation of new instructional strategies. </p>