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The purpose of this study was to determine some of the bases of character education in United States public schools from 1607 to 1983. Research was conducted concerning persons, organizations, and movements to determine bases for character education. Teaching materials representing a variety of philosophies were also studied. The various bases of character education were grouped under four categories--religious, societal, specific traits, and individually determined. The history of each area was traced in a separate chapter. An attempt was made to include educators and materials representing various philosophies. The summary included some of the trends related to each base, major proponents, and materials. It was concluded that society-based character education has been the most prominent, even among educators who claim to have other bases for their character education. Bible-based character education has also been prevalent, but less so in recent years. Independent thinking as a base for character education has increased in popularity in recent years but is often, in reality, based on society. The trait approach is an approach used mainly in relation to other bases. It was also determined that character education in the United States has changed from mainly a biblical emphasis to more diversified bases. As society has become more pluralistic, a greater diversity of bases has become more acceptable. In addition, few educators adhere strictly to a single base. Most seem to combine bases in varying degrees to arrive at some sort of personalized base for their own philosophy of moral education. Some recommendations for further research and study were given.

In a large, urban district in western Tennessee, African American students perform considerably lower in math, science, and reading than other districts. Several teachers in western Tennessee are using single-gender instruction as a practice, but little is known about its effectiveness in addressing the needs of African American students. Currently, there is a gap in scholarly and practical understanding of the effects of single-gender classrooms on the academic success of African American students in western Tennessee. This exploratory qualitative case study examined the experiences shared by teachers who use single-gender learning to educate African American students in secondary schools in western Tennessee. The social cognitive theory and brain-based learning were used as frameworks in examining the perceived effectiveness of single-gender classrooms, and the guiding research questions were designed to focus on teachers' experiences with single-gender classroom instruction for African American students. Ten teachers using single-gender classrooms to educate African American high school students in the subjects of English, math, or science were interviewed. Data were analyzed using the matrix approach, which led to the identification of 3 themes: learning styles, classroom management, and instructional strategies used in single-gender classrooms. These themes were identified as factors indicating benefits and pedagogical practices participants perceived as effective when used to educate African American students in single-gender classrooms. Insight from this study will enhance educators' ability to reach a population of underserved students, thus affecting social change by reducing racial education disparities among African American students.

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No description available.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore how selected elementary school principals described and defined their world in terms of leadership and management. There were three sub-areas of investigation under this primary purpose: (a) exploring the principals' conceptions about the constructs of leadership and management, (b) exploring the principals' beliefs about the role of their personal philosophies, goals, or values in relation to their practice, and (c) using content analysis to explore the language that principals use to describe themselves, their work and their schools. The theoretical perspective adopted for this study was that organizations are constructed human social entities. The focus of this study was to describe the role of the elementary school principal from the perspective and voice of the participants. The data collection was accomplished using semi-structured interviews of eight selected elementary school principals. Results were presented as narrative description, the principals' stories (hermeneutic representation) and analysis (dialectic) where the transcriptions of the interviews were content analyzed for common themes or patterns. Similarities and differences were explored and conceptions and themes generated from this analysis were compared with the existing literature on leadership, management and the elementary school principalship. The descriptions and analysis provided by this study could be used to inform practice, especially for those involved with the training and education of administrators.

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of teachers in rural locales towards giftedness and gifted education. Gagné and Nadeau’s (1991) Opinions About the Gifted and Their Education was used as the survey instrument. A total of 78 teachers from four public school districts in Kentucky classified as rural participated in the study. The respondents indicated slightly positive attitudes toward the need for specialized instruction for gifted students and the social value of giftedness but slightly negative mindsets towards acceleration. These results as a whole mirrored the findings of several previous studies utilizing the same survey instrument. However, individual teacher’s attitudes varied widely, with some very negative responses and some more positive, rendering the results determined using averaged scores from the full sample a somewhat inaccurate indicator of broad-scope, overall teacher mindset towards gifted education. When comparing the attitudes towards acceleration of teachers who had graduated from the district in which they teach to those who graduated from a district outside of where they teach, a significantly more negative attitude was indicated in teachers who remained within their home districts. Further study is recommended to determine if this could be an influence of more traditional and anti-intellectual mindsets often found in rural communities and if it has any effect on the quality of services and programming opportunities available to gifted students in rural locales.

Researchers have shown that movement increases brain function, improves mental health, supports cognitive development for students, and reduces sedentary time, all which can influence overall health. Research concerning learning with intentional movement is limited. In the United States, Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are being mandated, and teachers are challenged to teach the standards creatively and to maximize time used for instruction. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences and perceptions of elementary general education (GE) teachers who taught CCSS using a kinesthetic learning plan (KLP). Bandura's self-reinforcement and social learning theories provided the conceptual framework; the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis were used to structure the study. Research questions were framed to understand how the teachers experienced teaching the KLP and their perceptions related to how students learned the CCSS. Data were elicited through individual interviews with 11 GE teachers from primarily rural areas in the western part United States. In vivo coding and iterative analyses revealed themes and findings. Themes included teacher understanding (confidence and comfort), implementing resources (creativity and resourcefulness), teacher feelings (pressure and success), making the mind-body connection, and teacher beliefs and perceptions about their practices. Teachers perceived KLPs as useful in teaching the CCSS and experienced support for expanding their teaching practices. Positive social change implications include helping teachers maximize instructional time and helping students achieve standards and address health needs.

The purpose of this study was to examine the financial portfolios of near-retiree women and compare their assets to near-retiree men. This study also investigated how economic and demographic factors were associated with the probability of holding aggressive assets and the level of savings. Socioeconomic variables were used to create a profile of the investment behaviors and to examine the level of savings among near-retiree women and men. Specific variables key to the study included household income, age, marital status, education, race, and self-reported health of near-retiree women and men. The descriptive statistics indicated that overall, average levels of all asset categories for the female group were much lower than they were for the male group among near-retirees. According to the findings of this study, women tended to invest in safer assets such as CDs, savings bonds, and T-bills rather than in more aggressive assets such as stocks, business assets, and real estate assets. The results from both the logistic regression and Ordinary least squares regression analyses indicated that gender had no statistically significant impact on the investment and savings behavior among near-retirees aged 51 - 64. However, household income, age, marital status, education, race, and the self-reported health status of near-retirees were all significant determinants of the investment and saving behavior among near-retirees aged 51 - 64. For example, near-retirees, with higher income, older, married, higher education, Whites, and in good health, were more likely to own aggressive assets and reported higher level of savings as compared to other near-retirees. This study also explored socioeconomic factors associated with the level of savings among near-retiree women aged 51 - 64. The findings of this study indicated that household income, age, education, and race were significant determinants of the level of savings among near-retiree women aged 51 - 64. The results of the OLS regression analysis showed that women with lower income, younger, less education, and non-Whites reported lower levels of savings than did other women. Implications of the findings, limitations of the current study, and suggestions for future study were presented in the final section. (88 pages)

The advent of positive psychology has increased awareness of factors that lead individuals to thrive in life, allowing for a more comprehensive model of mental health service delivery. However, while measurement and understanding of character strengths and well-being have improved over the last decade, the interaction of these factors with social risk factors is not entirely understood. The current study analyzed an archival dataset consisting of self-report data from 425 high school students, to examine the extent to which high school students' specific character strengths (i.e., social competence, self-regulation, responsibility, and empathy) are associated with positive psychological outcomes (i.e., gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope), and moderate the relationships between positive psychological outcomes and relational and overt peer victimization. All measured character strengths were positively associated with life satisfaction and hope except for empathy, which was negatively associated with both in multivariate analyses. Social competence and self-regulation were positively associated with gratitude. Relational victimization (but not overt victimization) was inversely associated with life satisfaction and gratitude, and indirectly predicted hope as mediated by gratitude. Gratitude and hope predicted life satisfaction in both models, and served as partial mediators of character strengths and relational victimization. For overt victimization, social competence served as a protective factor and self-regulation served as a risk factor to gratitude. For relational victimization, self-regulation served as a protective factor to gratitude. Implications for research and practice are discussed.