<p> Choosing curriculum is an essential part of what teachers do to ensure students are successful learners. Students in rural areas may feel many current educational practices are biased toward urban education or may not see the need for education in their lives. Connecting students to their &ldquo;place&rdquo; through place-based learning may help rural students become engaged learners and active community members. Place-based learning is a curriculum designed around the locations near students. Students help create the curriculum by using essential questions and inquiry. Although often used in science and social studies classrooms, place-based learning may be used in the secondary English language arts classroom. This study looks at the advantages and disadvantages of using place-based curriculum in a rural secondary English language arts classroom and determines what implications there are for using place-based curriculum as a regular aspect of the rural secondary English classroom. Using surveys, interviews, reflective student writings, and observational data of community members and students, this case study shows one rural secondary English language arts classroom&rsquo;s place-based learning experience.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation describes a mathematics curriculum and instruction design experiment involving a series of embodied mathematical activities conducted in two Colorado elementary schools Activities designed for this experiment include multi-scalar number line models focused on supporting students&rsquo; understanding of elementary mathematics. Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) served as a roadmap for the development of models and problem contexts during the design process, and maintained the focus on mathematics as human activity. Key ideas and insights from scholars who have employed embodied, enactive, ecological, multimodal, and inclusive materialist theories of mathematical activity/cognition on spatiality, human vision, and perception also informed the work. Departing from the sedentary approach to U.S. elementary school mathematics learning and instruction, the designed activities intentionally required students to use their bodies and tools in space to coordinate solutions to mathematical problems. As a design experiment, the research took place in two phases over the course of a year. Phase 1 occurred over 17 days in a suburban 2^nd grade public school classroom, and phase 2 consisted of six 55-minute clinical interviews with six student pairs from two 3^rd grade classrooms in an urban public school. Findings from this research included students using the designed models to support mathematical arguments and to increase levels of precision in their mathematical activity. Themes also emerged around the ways that students responded to affordances and constraints of the models, by shifting orientations, authority, and re-purposing and creating new tools. Multi-scalar mathematical models, activities, and activity spaces afforded novel and intentionally embodied ways for students to participate in model-centric mathematical activity.</p><p>

Over the last 40 years, there has been an expansion, what some have termed an “explosion” (Green, 2001) in the provision of Physical Education (PE) related qualifications, both academic and vocational, in English Secondary schools. In the context of the emergence and rapid growth of the 14-19 PE curriculum, a number of issues have emerged for both PE teachers and their pupils (Green, 2008). It is important to consider these issues and the implications for PE teachers and their pupils. This research study explored the perspectives of secondary school PE teachers towards the subject of PE within the 14-19 curriculum. Specifically, the research focused on PE teachers’ perceptions relating to (i) the broader social processes which have influenced the development of 14-19 PE, and (ii) the impact of the development of 14-19 PE for the subject of PE, PE teachers themselves, and their pupils in English secondary schools. 52 semi-structured interviews were completed over a 14 month period. The research participants, from 22 different secondary schools, consisted of both male and female PE teachers who held varying positions in schools, from PE teachers through Heads of PE to Assistant Headteachers and Headteachers. The research participants were aged between 23 to 59 years of age. The level of teaching experience ranged from between 3 months to 38 years, with 616 years of teaching experience between them. The primary data collected from the interviews were analysed both inductively and deductively. That is to say, first, using a ground theory methodology, emerging themes were identified that were ‘grounded’ within the data itself. Second, the sensitizing concepts offered by a figurational sociology perspective were used to interpret and ‘make sense’ of the themes emerging from the data. The key findings from this study have been broken down into two main themes. With regard to the first theme – PE teachers’ perspectives on the development of the 14-19 PE curriculum (in general, and in their schools in particular) – it was evident that there had been an expansion, over the last decade, of the accreditation opportunities available to more pupils, across more schools, through 14-19 PE, with the ‘drivers’ of such change being located within both ‘local’ and ‘national’ contexts. In terms of the second theme – PE teachers’ perspectives of the impact (both intended and unintended outcomes) of the development of PE within the 14-19 curriculum – it was evident that PE teachers’ views centred initially on the benefits of 14-19 PE for their pupils, and their departments and schools. However, it was evident that there were benefits to be had from 14-19 PE for PE teachers themselves, which meant a change in their ‘working climate’, although there were unplanned consequences also. For PE teachers this meant a change in their ‘work demands’. Sociologically speaking, it is suggested that 14-19 PE may be seen to have developed within a context of complex developmental processes, more specifically through networks of interdependency, characterised by power balances/ratios, and which have led to outcomes both intended and unintended. Specifically, it was suggested that the nature and purposes of PE and the role of PE teachers has markedly changed, indeed transformed. From the findings of this study, recommendations are proposed that focus upon policy implications and future developments, particularly in relation to the unintended outcomes of the development of 14-19 PE.

This small scale action research study explored the causes of a theory practice gap in a specialist post registration nursing course, studied in one geographical area in England, and set out to discover how it may be reduced. Educational and nursing literature was studied to focus the aims of the study. Research questions are proposed and investigated using an action research methodology. The action research data is presented in three parts: interviews with the research participants, examination of documentary evidence and the main focus of the study, the action research cycles. Challenges with the chosen methodology were identified early in the study, and a solution was developed which will also serve to add to the evidential basis of the action research cycles which are presented in narrative forin. The study was written in the first person, and acknowledges the researcher's presence and influences within the data. Past and present students, their managers and mentors all contributed to the study, and have all checked the data for validity. The overall aim of the action research approach was to gather data from educational theorists, and those who participated in the course to adapt or change the nursing curriculum to facilitate the students' professional development as ophthalmic nurses. The research was not just about the results achieved in terms of course modifications; it was also about our development as a team of people working together to improve the ophthalmic nursing curriculum with the longer term objective of benefiting patients through the improvement of nursing practice. The research study was focussed on knowledge and the curriculum, and for the purposes of this nursing educational study the curriculum was perceived broadly, as those teaching and learning activities which take place in the university classroom, and more cogently, within the field of nursing practice. The study examined how current educational theories might be used to relate nursing theory and practice and educational policy at local and national level how might be related to a specialist nursing curriculum. It questioned what influence the Lecturer practitioner might have in relating theory to practice and how the role of the mentor might be used to coach higher levels of nursing practice. Key conclusions suggested that nursing lecturers need to continue to press for academic validation of nursing practice. The mentoring relationship is seen as the key in the reification of practice and theoretical knowledge. Well supervised clinical practice was seen as an essential part of learning nursing theory. The significant contributions that Mentors have to make to course management meetings in order that the academic study of nursing and the development of clinical practice are in a reciprocal relationship were demonstrated.

In 2012 the Cleveland Metropolitan School District undertook a major reform effort known as the Cleveland Plan. The foundation of the Cleveland Plan is the transition from a traditional district structure to a portfolio management model. With this major change also came the new Teacher Development and Evaluation System (TDES). This system was designed as a tool for transformative staff development as well as evaluation, but as the early years of TDES implementation focused on understanding and using the new evaluation rubric, the developmental focus took a back seat. Now in the third year of TDES districtwide implementation, district leadership has established staff development as a priority. The portfolio model has unique implications for instruction, central office organization, and instructional leadership, all of which must be considered to create a comprehensive staff development plan. In this capstone I describe my residency in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and my work with a cross-departmental design team to articulate a professional development strategy for the district. I explain the benefits and challenges of engaging teachers and central office staff in strategy development and execution. I conclude with recommendations to keep Cleveland schools on the path toward improved staff development and with lessons for other portfolio districts seeking to improve teaching and learning.

Argumentation skills are essential to individuals’ career prospects in future economies (National Research Council, 2008) and to the success of our democracy. Unfortunately, these skills are often challenging to teach, and there is a dearth of studies addressing “the teacher’s use of specific instructional methods” (Newell, et al. 2011) to promote argumentation skills over time. In my dissertation, I examine how urban public middle school teachers promote text-based argumentation skills in classroom discussion. I draw on data from the Catalyzing Comprehension through Discussion and Debate (CCDD) research project. Specifically, I look at transcripts from enactments of lessons in the Social Studies Generation curriculum, one of the four Word Generation curricula used as an intervention in the larger CCDD study. In the first study, I compare how two co-teachers help small groups of students prepare to argue in a classroom debate. I find that both teachers help students generate claim-evidence connections and counterarguments with “supportive prompting,” but they differ in how they engage with student-generated arguments. In the second study, I examine three different teachers facilitating a classroom debate on the same topic. I identify episodes of talk containing dialogic argumentation during debates and look across classrooms for patterns of teacher actions during these episodes. I find that teachers offer a series of four moves that help students sustain dialogic argumentation. In the third and final study, I investigate what students do in classroom debates in the context of an argumentation-supporting curriculum – what moves they make, what supports they use, and what other strategies they deploy. I find that students use evidence and explain how evidence supports their claims more than what might be expected given previous studies on argumentative classroom discussions. I discuss implications for practice and research in each study.

<p> Achievement data collected within a standards-based education are susceptible to validity concerns, one of which is the alignment of the standards, assessments, and instruction. While educational policies compelled by Standards-Based Reform have begun to address increasing the alignment of standards and assessments, fostering instructional alignment is overlooked. But a Professional Learning Community, which promotes a similar but internally developed standards-based education, encourages practices that foster instructional alignment through collaboration driven by norms. This dissertation used the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum data set in an exploratory quantitative methodology to link the reform efforts with the principal intention to provide educators with accepted alignment practices towards maximizing the validity of the achievement data, examining instructional practices, and ultimately increasing student learning. First, demographic data were reduced to four components that reasonably represented a professional learning community using a reviewer question reduction process and a Principal Components Analysis. Second, the components were incorporated in a fixed-effects regression model to explore the extent to which the components predict instructional alignment based on the years of experience, the grade band, and the survey year. The results varied with the model being statistically significant in all but one group and the regression coefficients and variability explained by the model were both small. However, notable finding included that the variability explained by the model was highest for the less than one year of experience group, components in English were largely positive statistically significant, components in mathematics were infrequently positive statistically significant, and a component composed of professional development questions in mathematics was a negative predictor for experienced teachers and primary teachers. While the finding indicate alignment practices can be predictive of instructional alignment, they also are suggestive that inconsistent implementation of the Professional Learning Community hinders maximizing the use of alignment practices.</p><p>

<p>The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) highlight the importance of students? conceptual understanding, mathematical reasoning, and problem solving in order to prepare students for college and careers. However, the success of this reform effort largely depends on how teachers actually design and implement instruction based on the goals of the new standards. In particular, teachers? concerns about the reform have a significant effect on this change and the implementation of reform curricula. While there exists an increasing amount of research on reform efforts, many questions still remain regarding the implementation of the CCSSM and teachers? concerns. The purpose of this qualitative dissertation study is to investigate the concerns teachers have regarding the implementation of the CCSSM and how those concerns relate to the enactment of their curricula. This study also explores how teachers address the mathematical shift of rigor defined in the CCSSM in connection with the tasks they use and types of questions they pose to their students. This research involved case studies of three Algebra 1 teachers. Each teacher was observed during three different lessons on linear/non-linear functions. Pre- and post-observation interviews were conducted both before and after each lesson was taught. In order to determine how teachers addressed the mathematical shift of rigor, three different analyses were conducted. Mathematical tasks in the teacher guided notes and lesson enactment were explored in conjunction with teacher questions and the use of the eight mathematical practices. Observations and interviews were used to examine how teacher concerns connect to their implementation of the CCSSM. In particular, cases based on the teacher interviews and videos were compared to one another to explore possible reasons why the teachers address the mathematical shift of rigor differently. Findings suggest a complicated relationship exists between teacher concerns and their intended and enacted curriculum. The results of this study showed that teachers at all stages of concern are not providing cognitively demanding lessons nor are they addressing the mathematical shift of rigor. Only during review lessons did two of the three teachers increase the cognitive demand of the tasks and questions they posed during the enactment of their curriculum. Regarding teacher concerns, different factors seem to take account for the complicated relationship between teacher concerns and their enacted curricula. First, the teacher with self concerns had a lack of content knowledge. This teacher was not able to adjust her intended curriculum, followed the textbook closely and had a difficult time addressing student misconceptions. The teacher with management concerns tended to express her students? low abilities in doing mathematics. This teacher thus focused on student ability, only slightly modified the intended curriculum and provided only low cognitive demand tasks and questions. Finally, the teacher with impact concerns had a high interest in student learning. This teacher was able to alter her intended curriculum based on student questions and misconceptions. However, her tasks and questions remained at a low cognitive demand for two of the three lessons. This study has implications for curriculum developers and professional development providers, as well as teachers and school administrators to help ensure the success of reform curriculum.

Pygmalion est-il une realite dans les ecoles, comme le suggerait la recherche de Rosenthal et Jacobson, parue en 1968, "Pygmalion in the classroom. Teacher expectations and pupil's intellectual development"? Une synthese de la litterature qui a porte sur les attentes des enseignants et les effets de ces attentes sur le developpement des eleves a ete entreprise dans le but de repondre a cette question. Les resultats de deux cent trente-deux (232) recherches nord-americaines qui ont etudie les attentes des enseignants aux niveaux elementaire et secondaire ont ete analyses. Les recherches ont ete regroupees antour de trois grands aspects qui ont ete consideres par les chercheurs, a savoir la formation des atentes des enseignants, la communication de ces attentes dans la relation educative et les effets de ces attentes sur le developpement des eleves. Comme methode d'analyse des resultats des recherches, nous avons utilise une approche criteriee, fondee sur le pourcentage de recherches dont les resultats convergent. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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