This thesis presents a visual art curriculum designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades six and seven over the duration of a nine-week session in a public middle school. It is intended as an instructional resource for middle school visual arts teaching practitioners to guide their sixth and seventh grade students to develop greater proficiency towards the mastery of drawing skills with activities that promote those skills at the time when many learners often express great interest in learning to draw more realistically. The study and practice of drawing allows invaluable opportunity for students to learn to analyze, sustain focus and concentration, compare and contrast, observe closely, expand upon ideas in a creative manor, and utilize the combined efforts of our two most powerful human tools; our minds and our hands.

This study is situated at the confluence of three calls for research within mathematics education: 1) work using novel approaches for studying students’ understanding of nonlinear meanings of multiplication; 2) work using discrete mathematics to explore social issues related to equity; and 3) work at the intersection of mathematical learning and critical race consciousness—specifically, social justice mathematics initiatives that explicitly address racism and the learners’ perspectives. The design research methodology of the study with 8th grade students provides practical curricular and pedagogical steps for doing work at the intersection of mathematical learning and race and racism; offers domain-specific learning insights; and merges theory and practice in conceptualizing the multiple complexities of learning and development in situ to create new possibilities for a more just mathematics education. Findings from this study offer insights at the intersection of the evolution of students’ establishment of nonlinear meanings of multiplication and critical race consciousness development. Specifically, this study identifies two schemes that students use to establish a nonlinear meaning of multiplication (SARC Scheme and RA Scheme), illustrates students’ growing racism awareness, and highlights how these initiatives can be mutually supportive in helping to normalize conversations about race and racism.

No description available.

Many students feel that studying social studies is boring and not relevant to their lives. In social studies, the most common method of instruction is the transmission model in which the textbook becomes the curriculum and the teacher transmits knowledge through lecture. In the participatory model of instruction, the teacher facilitates student-led literature discussion groups utilizing narrative and expository trade books with the textbook as a resource. Previous research has indicated that instructional methods may affect student attitude and achievement; however, there is limited empirical research that is definitive on which instructional method is significantly better for students. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of literature-based instruction with lecture-style instruction on student achievement and attitude toward social studies. Participants included 76 Grade 8 U.S. History students from two middle schools in a southern state of the United States. Of these 76 students, 28 were in the experimental group and 48 were in the control group. All students were administered a content knowledge test and an attitude toward social studies survey before beginning the unit of study and again after the conclusion of the unit. To analyze the data from content knowledge, a repeated-measures analysis of variance was used with the difference scores serving as the dependent variable. Results showed that there was not a significant difference in content knowledge difference scores from pretest to posttest between students taught through literature-based instruction and those taught through lecture-style instruction. To analyze the data from the attitude survey, the two groups’ difference scores were compared on a repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance. The results indicated that two of the nine constructs tested showed a significant difference from the pre-study survey to the post-study survey which were: (a) attitude toward social studies and (b) student perception of the usefulness of social studies. The findings from this study suggest that when students are taught social studies through literature-based instruction, they are more likely to have significantly higher attitudes toward the subject and find relevance to their own lives than when they are taught through lecture-style instruction using only the textbook.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare student achievement, as assessed by the ABC (Accountability, Basics, Local Control) end of grade tests, of students in different sized schools and of different socioeconomic backgrounds. The population consisted of 379 middle schools in North Carolina. Data were gathered from the 2006-2007 school year. Several t-tests for independent samples, analyses of variance, and chi square analyses were used to identify relationships between variables. The measures of growth used were the change ratio, which is used to determine high growth status and mean growth, which is used to determine expected growth or no recognition status. No recognition is the designation given to those schools that do not meet expected growth. The study showed no significant relationship between school size and academic growth status. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the observed proportions and the hypothesized proportions of different sized schools in terms of academic growth status. There was a significant relationship between socioeconomic status and academic growth status; high socioeconomic status schools had higher change ratios and higher mean growth than did low socioeconomic status schools. The study showed a significant difference in the observed and hypothesized proportions of the growth levels; high socioeconomic status schools had more schools designated high growth than no recognition and low socioeconomic status schools had more schools designated no recognition than high growth. The results of this study indicated that as educators in North Carolina continue to focus on achievement levels of all students, particular attention should be paid to those schools with higher percentages of students receiving free or reduced price meals. To narrow the academic gap between students in high and low socioeconomic status schools, attention should be given to the particular needs and traits of children from high poverty backgrounds. Educational practices that recognize and remove the barriers associated with those needs should be implemented. Regardless of socioeconomic status, educational methods in all schools should reflect current research of best practices for increasing all students' achievement.

This study examined the extent to which human sexuality topics are covered in Florida middle school science classrooms and the process by which curricular decisions are made regarding human sexuality education on a county-wide basis. Primary data included interviews with county-level administrators who oversee curricular decisions related to the middle-grades science curriculum or health curriculum in twelve school districts within the state. These districts represented four geographic locations and districts of various sizes. Administrators from four of the twelve studies in the sample chose to provide information regarding their human sexuality education curriculum. In two cases, teacher leads were identified and were interviewed to understand the implementation of the curriculum within the classroom. Additional data were collected from the district curriculum guides for human sexuality education and the adopted middle-grades science textbook for each county. The interview and documentary data were analyzed by comparison to established criteria for a comprehensive human sexuality education curriculum. The analysis revealed that the scope of human sexuality education varied considerably within the sample and that much of the curricula in place failed to include topics and activities that have been identified as important in a successful human sexuality education program. These findings are limited because few counties chose to fully participate. Additional research is clearly needed to examine the effectiveness of existing human sexuality education curricula in Florida. In addition, research is needed to understand the characteristics, values, and beliefs of successful human sexuality education instructors across the state.

The focus of this research was to shed light on factors contributing to global international rankings in mathematics released by the 2011 administration of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. This study focused on factors contributing to the global ranking of international scores in mathematics. Although students in the United States performed below students in the other sample countries (Singapore, Japan, and the Republic of Korea), American students scored within one standard deviation of the top performer, the Republic of Korea. The study also revealed that although other countries had their brightest and most advantaged students participate in the assessment, participating students in the United States were disproportionately disadvantaged to the proportion of United States' citizens. Another contributing factor of student success revealed in this study was the size and form of government and financing of the participating countries. While Singapore, the Republic of Korea, and Japan have education systems governed and financed by national governments, the United States education system is primarily governed and financed by 50 state governments.

No description available.

No description available.

A main goal of mathematics educators is to guide students in becoming better problem solvers; however, the recipe for successful problem solving is complex due to the varying factors that play a role in the problem solving process (Schoenfeld, 1992). There is a limited amount of research that examines problem solving when students work on non-routine problems outside of the classroom; therefore, the goal of this study is to use secondary data analysis to discover what factors (Schoenfeld, 1992) relate to problem solving on non-routine unconstrained tasks of students in the middle grades. Identifying the factors that relate to successful unconstrained non-routine problem solving can help mathematics teachers and policy makers make more informed decisions about curriculum and instruction in order to enhance problem solving aptitude. Using Schoenfeld’s (1992) theoretical framework for mathematical behavior, the following question set the groundwork for the current study: What resource (computational skills and heuristics), control (self-regulation), and belief/affect factors (demographics, motivation, and anxiety) both individually and collectively relate to unconstrained non-routine mathematical problem solving? The research question is answered in a series of three stages that examines how the factors relate to a) problem correctness, b) correct problem set-up, and c) problem completion. Results suggest that higher levels of self-regulation, and SES status predict problem completion; higher self-regulation, ability beliefs, and SES predict correctly setting-up the problem; and higher levels of anxiety and stronger computational skills predict solving the problem correctly. Reasons for the patterns of results are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research to extend on the current findings. / Math & Science Education