<p>Students with disabilities are spending significantly more time in the general education setting than they have historically. General education teachers are in need of strategies to enable them to work with these students more successfully. Additionally, research shows that all students could benefit from activities geared toward developing self-determination skills. </p><p> The purpose of this descriptive study was to see if the use of cooperative learning activities could improve the self-determination abilities of general education students and students with an Individualized Education Program in a social studies classroom. Students were given the American Institutes for Research Self-Determination Scale as a pretest and posttest. </p><p> Scores were compared between control and intervention group as well as the subgroups of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and general education students. Data from this study supports the use of cooperative learning activities in the social studies classroom in order to promote self-determination for all students. Recommendations for teachers as well as further research are made as well. </p>

This model proposes an approach for teaching history through drama in education. The program uses the framework of la carpa, a Mexican American theatrical tradition. Participants develop historical knowledge and skills of expression while they learn to use their own lives as a key to understanding the lives of others. In the past two decades in the U.S., drama teachers and youth project leaders have been employing social drama to encourage adolescents to express their fears, frustrations and experiences. As with the tradition of la carpa, the scripts reveal sentiments that may not be able to be spoken safely elsewhere. In contrast to the production of classic, scripted plays, social drama provides participants with the opportunity to create their own material using their own lives as primary resources. In addition to challenging participants aesthetically, the teaching model of la carpa fosters interpersonal development.

<p> <b>Introduction:</b> Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) cause significant distress to millions of Americans and considerable impact to society at large. Stigmatization of mental illness has been identified as the number-one barrier to seeking healthcare and it is unclear to what degree Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) share this negative bias. Education in SUDs for MHPs may play a role in reducing stigma in the treatment of SUD patients. The effect of education in SUDs on implicit and explicit attitude change is investigated longitudinally in a Substance Abuse Counseling MA Degree Program in Psychology. Academic outcomes and student demographic characteristics are assessed. <b>Hypotheses: </b> Implicit and explicit attitudes will change over the study period and will be related at follow-up. Knowledge acquired of SUDs will predict attitude change. <b>Methods:</b> This study was longitudinal, following 20 students over one year of study via assessment at baseline and follow-up. The drop-out rate was 20%, with 16 students remaining at follow-up. Implicit attitudes were assessed included the SC-IAT, explicit attitudes were assessed with the SAAS (general attitudes), DDQ (discrimination), and SDS (social distance). Academic progress was assessed via an Addictions Knowledge Test and the DDPPQ (confidence treating SUDs). <b>Results:</b> No significant change was found for implicit attitudes. Significant change in the positive direction was found for the SAAS. SAAS scores were positively correlated with DDQ scores at baseline and DDQ and SDS scores at follow-up. Both Addictions Knowledge Test Scores and DDPPQ scores and increased significantly over the study period, but they were not significantly related. DDPPQ scores were positively correlated with all explicit attitude measures. <b>Conclusion:</b> The CMHSAC Program was effective in increasing positive explicit attitudes toward SUDs, but it is unclear if personal attitudes actually shifted or if awareness was brought to the problematic nature of stigma instead. Students&rsquo; self-perception of their confidence and competence to work clinically strongly predicted explicit attitude change. Actual knowledge and confidence may not be directly related. Further research is needed to clarify the facets of education that are most effective in stigma reduction. Larger studies should be conducted to further investigate the effect of education on implicit attitudes.</p>

<p> Traditional research often excludes the voices of marginalized populations such as African Americans, who are usually written about instead of being allowed to tell their own stories (King, 2005). This research gives African Americans the opportunity to &ldquo;tell their stories&rdquo; of segregation and integration. Leaving the telling of our stories to others may have already had severe consequences, such as the perpetuation of stereotypes of African Americans, their communities and their academic abilities (Brown, 2009). This research hopes to shine a different light on the cohesiveness of the Black community and the Black academic experiences these participants had during the 1950s-1970s. There were 20 participants identified from yearbooks, social media and snowball sampling; from the 20, nine were selected to be interviewed. All participants were African American, male or female, and were selected based on other criteria such as age and where they attended school between the years 1950 and 1970. The researcher included a personal narrative which orients the reader to the context for events recollected by the participants in this phenomenology utilizing historical narratives based on the researcher&rsquo;s personal experience and oral histories from other African American individuals from the community. Critical Race Theory was used to guide the research to answer how African Americans who attended Black neighborhood schools in a Southeastern Pennsylvania town during the 1950-1970 eras describe the influence of forced integration on their community and the Black academic experience. The findings from this study are that racial and cultural identity and the Black academic experience were important to student connectedness to the participants&rsquo; schools and neighborhood; and the teachers, extracurricular activities and relationships were critical characteristics influencing these participants&rsquo; perceptions of their segregated schools. </p>

<p>Sociological and cultural analysts have noted the reticence of public secondary schooling to recognize and build academic activities around the participatory culture in which adolescents are so readily involved (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton & Robison, 2009). Despite the Common Core State Standards having required students to demonstrate they can maximize technology to perform a range of skills involving targeted specialized research, organized writing, and visually intentional presentation (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA], Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010), very few classrooms have followed through. The avoidance and or failure of these educational technology integrations in secondary subject content classes raised questions. A survey of the literature showcases the many ways in which technologies were not fully matched to the tasks, expectations, or teacher skills. The mystery of epic technological classroom can be resolved if we apply the lens of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1986; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) which speaks about the interactions and alignment tensions among these three areas. When one has applied this TPACK lens we can best understand a range of surveyed literature that speaks to disconnect among technology affordances, teacher pedagogies, and requirements of content knowledge. Among a range of TPACK research emerges a sub-set that advocates for the value of cognitive scaffolding through hard scaffolds and soft scaffolds (Saye & Brush, 2002). Previous research has suggested the hard scaffolds can offer a built pedagogy filled with student project expectations and that soft scaffolds can provide specific practices support that is customized and relevant for participants. This research study engages in design-based research to refine hard and soft scaffolds to support high school social studies students through a multi-phase oral history project. Engaging 2 sections of students at a progressive public high school, the researcher engaged in a two-iteration cycle of design activities between November 2014 and March 2015. A student work digital portfolio was turned in after students used the first iteration scaffolds. After a teacher-provided analysis of student work using the researchers provided rubric, tweaks were made to the scaffolds. A post-interview with participant teachers provided further refinement.

This study focuses upon decision-making in criminal appeal cases by an intermediate appellate court. Criminal appeals from two trial courts, the Leon and Gadsden Counties Circuit Courts, in the state of Florida were analyzed. These cases were appealed to the First District Court of Appeal during 1979-1988. A total of 495 cases were appealed from the two trial courts during this period. The primary purpose of this study is to test the following hypothesis: There is no statistically significant difference in the type of counsel who filed the appeal and the decision of the appellate court. In addition to testing the stated hypothesis, other hypotheses are tested. These include whether the race of the defendant, the mode of disposition at trial court, and the defendant's bond status at sentencing are predictors of the decision of the intermediate appellate court. / The major premise of this study is that courts can be viewed as political institutions. This study commences with a discussion of the political founding of the American judiciary system. Thereafter, a detailed discussion of the political nature of the access to judicial power, judicial decision-making, and judicial policy-making is given. It was found type of counsel is statistically insignificant in predicting the decision of this intermediate appellate court. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 0814. / Major Professor: Marc G. Gertz. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Largely anecdotal evidence suggests that pregnancy is a time when drug-addicted women often display an increased receptivity to public information, drug treatment, and other supportive interventions. Yet little research has examined systematically the process of information seeking among pregnant, drug-addicted women, despite its relevance to efforts to prevent the use of drugs during pregnancy. / This study uses Dervin's Sense-Making theory and method to investigate information seeking among pregnant, drug-addicted women from an alternative perspective than that characterizing traditional thinking about public health information and audiences. In particular, the study explores critical views of the goals of public communication campaigns, the nature of information, and the relationship between institutions and their publics. Through in-depth Sense-Making interviews focusing on moments during their pregnancies when respondents felt concern for themselves or their fetuses, specific aspects of the information-seeking process are explored, including: the situations in which respondents sought information, the types of questions respondents asked in these situations, and the ways in which respondents used the answers they constructed. The potential benefits of the Sense-Making approach for research and the development of helping and information systems are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-12, Section: A, page: 3675. / Major Professor: C. Edward Wotring. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

<p> Teacher education researchers have argued that teacher candidates must learn to attend to students&rsquo; disciplinary thinking if they are to improve student learning. In history education, such attention must focus on student thinking about evidence because interpretation of evidence is at the heart of historical discourse. This study explores how four teacher candidates who had learned to attend to students&rsquo; historical thinking in a social studies methods course engaged in the practice of eliciting, interpreting, and responding to that thinking during their internships.</p><p> Data collected over a nine-month period included observations of candidates in their methods courses, a pretest administered before the methods course, observation of at least four lessons per candidate in the internship, interviews with teachers after each observed lesson, and analysis of methods coursework. Case study analyses indicated that two of the candidates elicited, interpreted and responded to students&rsquo; historical thinking while another did not, and a fourth did so only under certain conditions. The cross-case analysis showed that although all of the candidates used methods course tools in the internship, some were unable to use these tools to elicit students&rsquo; historical thinking.</p><p> While three of the four candidates noticed historical thinking and considered that thinking in determining an instructional response, what candidates noticed was limited to the scope of their instructional objectives. Only one candidate consistently responded to student thinking in evaluative ways, and all four struggled to deliver responses that maintained a focus on student reasoning. Instead, candidates preferred to demonstrate their own reasoning, either by building on a student idea or simply as a means to make a point not directly related to a student idea.</p><p> This study highlights the interconnected nature of eliciting, interpreting, and responding to student thinking and offers insight into how teacher educators can facilitate attention to student historical thinking. It also points to factors that are important for the development of this ability including candidate disciplinary knowledge and the social contexts of learning. Furthermore, this study provides a framework and analytical tools that can enable future researchers to examine this phenomenon more deeply.</p>

The purpose of this study was to extend the research of Matousek (1996). In his study he identified fourteen character traits, that public school teachers felt should be taught in public schools. This study was designed to look at how fifth grade teachers who teach social studies describe character education and how character education is enacted in their social studies classes. The second part of this design involved a comparison of two teachers in their social studies classes at two different schools. To accomplish the purpose of this study the following methodology was used: eight teachers were interviewed, four were selected for an initial observation, a second interview of these four teachers was conducted, two teachers were selected for in-depth observations and a final interview; data were collected using interviews and observations. The findings on how the teachers in this sample describe moral/character education are grouped into six categories. Those categories are: inculcation, values analysis, praise and rewards, the use of literature, teacher being an example, and community. Observations in the two fifth grade social studies classes produced findings on how character education is enacted in the classroom. In the final chapter I put forth some questions to ponder. This was done to stimulate further thinking and research in the field of moral/character education.

<p> This study attempted to determine whether students participating in a summer camp learn more about a fifth grade history concept of social studies, the Reconstruction Era, via a theater arts production. Data collected for this qualitative study included pre- and post-test drawings, scripted comments, student interviews, teacher interviews, daily observation checklists of the summer camp, and a culminating student performance. The data set was used to investigate the research question, "What are the effects of theater arts instruction of social studies content on fifth grade students' learning of the U.S. Reconstruction Period?" This study also sought to address the following research sub-questions: (1) What factors contribute to students' success in writing a historical script? (2) What factors contribute to students' success in performing their own written play? (3) How does theater arts instruction influence students' accuracy of learning major characteristics of the historical concept of Reconstruction?</p><p> This study took place in June 2011 in an elementary school in southeast Georgia. The total sample for this study was 11 students who had finished fourth grade in May 2011 and were entering fifth grade in August 2011. Two teachers for the summer camp were also used, both of which had just graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Middle Grades Education and received their Georgia teaching certification in May 2011.</p><p> Results indicated a growth in accuracy of knowledge about the Reconstruction Era. Results also indicated that the students specifically enjoyed the summer camp because they got to learn the social studies content through theater arts. Students associated their growth in learning the Reconstruction Era with learning the content through theater arts instruction. At the end of the summer camp students wrote and performed a final production associated with segregation, a concept learned in the camp associated with the Reconstruction Era. The students wrote the play based on the 2010 remake of the 1984 movie, <i> The Karate Kid,</i> in which segregation of an African American child was evidenced upon his arrival to China. Students spent most of their time, during the summer camp, writing the script for the final performance. </p>