This study sought to build on existing research in the areas of student extracurricular activity participation, school identification, and improvement of student achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of extracurricular activity participation and school identification upon one another and their combined and individual contributions to the goal of student achievement.;The study was conducted using archival data from the 2009-2010 school year along with data from a survey that target extracurricular activity participation and school identification. Data were analyzed for a sample of 314 students out of a population of over 900 in Grades 6, 7, and 8 from two different middle schools. Students were given a survey at the start of the 2010-2011 school year, after being promoted to Grades 7, 8, and 9. The survey results provided the researcher with a school identification and extracurricular activity participation score for each student. These scores were compared to achievement data comprising the end-of-year grade point average and the mathematics and reading Virginia Standards of Learning scaled scores.;The results of the study indicated that there was a mild relationship between students' participation in extracurricular activities and their identification with their school. The findings revealed no significant relationships between students' participation in extracurricular activities and any of the achievement measures, or between student school identification and academic achievement.

Thesis (M.Ed.) -- University of the North, 1978 / Refer to the document

Aim: This study aims to clarify the role of Lutheran confessional theology in informing and shaping policy and practice for Australian Lutheran school education. In doing this, it also seeks to provide another step in the on-going process of developing for Australian Lutheran schools a comprehensive theoretical framework that reflects insights from both Lutheran confessional theology and educational theory and research. Scope: The thesis begins with the presupposition that education is a value-laden process and that schools need shared beliefs and values to function effectively. In the current scenario of change in society in general and in education in particular, such a common vision is difficult to maintain. However, Australian Lutheran schools begin with theology as the starting point for their value base. This means that they can share a common vision drawn from God's revelation in Scripture. However, this theology needs to be expressed in such a way that it can be brought into dialogue with educational theory and research in order to develop insights relevant for determining the nature and purpose of Australian Lutheran schools. Since Lutheran theology sees itself as 'confessional' in nature, and since the Lutheran Church defines itself in relation to its confessional writings, the Book of Concord (1580) is taken as the theological basis for this thesis. While the Book of Concord could be seen as containing documents from a different era, nevertheless it is still the accepted theological basis of Lutheranism and any attempt to provide a theoretical framework for Australian Lutheran schools would need to be consistent with its theology. Before examining the theology of the Book of Concord, the study briefly traces the development of Lutheran schools in Australia and the aims and purposes for which they were established. The role of theology in motivating the establishment of those schools is also considered. The rapid expansion of Australian Lutheran schools during the past three decades is then investigated for the purpose of identifying current issues faced by these schools which need to be addressed through insights from Lutheran confessional theology. The study then turns to the Book of Concord in order to summarise major emphases of Lutheran confessional theology. This is done to identify critical Lutheran theological perspectives which need to be brought into dialogue with the educational challenges faced by Australian Lutheran schools in the current context of rapid social, cultural and educational changes. The central teaching of the Book of Concord, the doctrine of justification by grace through faith on account of Christ, is examined first. This is followed by theology of the cross, law and gospel, the perspective of the 'two kingdoms' and the individual as saint and sinner. Throughout this process, the dialectic nature of Lutheran confessional theology is emphasised. In bringing these major teachings of the Book of Concord into dialogue with the educational issues identified earlier in the thesis, a number of implications are developed for Australian Lutheran school education. In particular, the Australian Lutheran school is considered as a 'confessional community' and examined from the perspective of the 'two kingdoms'. Other educational issues are explored, including Lutheran anthropology of the individual, the place of the Bible in Lutheran schools, the role of the law in Lutheran schools and the implications of 'theology of the cross' for life in the church and the world. Conclusions: In attempting to clarify the role of Lutheran confessional theology for Australian Lutheran school education this study deduces that theology and education exist in a process of 'dialectic dialogue' with each other, 'listening to each other' but also retaining certain levels of dialectic tension as each side responds to the other. However, this study also emphasises the dialectic nature of Lutheran confessional theology which must be preserved in order to avoid the danger that only one side of the theological tension will be considered in the dialogue with education. Thus this study concludes that if Lutheran confessional theology is to play its vital role in developing a comprehensive theoretical framework for Australian Lutheran school education, then a 'double dialectic' needs to be maintained - the dialectic tension within Lutheran confessional theology in dialectic dialogue with educational theory and practice. In this way balance can be maintained in developing insights into the nature and purpose of Australian Lutheran school education based on Lutheran confessional theology.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / Education in NSW reflects world-wide trends that promise changed practices through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), to assist students attain capabilities expected of an educated population in contemporary society. Most recently, the use of the Internet has become a major priority for NSW government schools, with the expectation that students will increasingly participate in online learning activities. As educators grapple to find evidence of changed practices and extended or enhanced learning experiences for students, attention has turned to new forms of activity that have emerged within the online environment. This thesis explores the implementation of online projects as one such emergent form. The study focuses on the experiences of students and the practices of classes, with a view to asking how the online projects reconstruct the learning environments and activities of classes, how they contribute to the learning achievement of students and to the effective use of Internet technologies in K-12 school settings. A collective case study approach was used to reveal multiple views of online projects implemented in five NSW schools. Particular value is attached to the viewpoints of students and to professional dialogues with teachers that contributed insights into what was occurring in the classes and what was achieved as a result. Meanings have been drawn from each case to build a better understanding of the phenomenon of online projects as a whole. The study draws on social constructivist and project-based theoretical perspectives, with their widely accepted claims to benefits for students of authentic, learner-centred, participatory learning. The thesis argues that online projects can stimulate and support learning activities that produce these known benefits, while recognising constraints that exist in every-day classes. The online projects present a disruptive force within classes, changing the nature of activities and forcing a shift in the roles of both teachers and students, and of the technology itself, making it subservient to the learning intentions. Findings for students relate both to participation and learning effects. Strength of student engagement and the value of authentic learning activities emerged as notable features of the online project experience. Rather than accepting these claims as sufficient outcome of the projects, this thesis identifies attributes that promote student engagement. It examines what constitutes authentic activity for school students, especially younger ones, and how a sense of authenticity is established in learning tasks. It particularly explores the contribution of online presentation of the projects to the benefits and constraints identified. The study has significant implications for education systems and teachers, and for the design and implementation of online projects as part an effective online learning provision for schools. In the highly conflicted area of investment in ICT and the search for purposeful learning uses of the Internet, online projects present a teaching and learning approach that can deliver some of the much-acclaimed potential – primarily because they promote changes in practice that are concerned with much more than just the use of the technology.

Over the past decade, the lament that 'we need more male primary school teachers' has flourished in media and populist discourse, within education systems and in government inquiries in both Australia and the rest of the Western world. Whilst this discourse commonly assumes that more male primary teachers will benefit both boys in schools and society in general, other important considerations are silenced and overlooked and attention is seldom paid to the experience of male primary school teachers. This study explores the experience of male primary school teachers and the prevailing societal discourses about them. It focuses on their experience of crossing over into a career that is commonly regarded by society as 'women's work', and charts the advantages and disadvantages they face as a result of their maleness. The understandings that are found within this study are informed by relevant literature and by data emanating from media discourse analysis, statistical analysis and life history interviews. As a result of examining the relevant literature and data, this study has found that the experience of male primary teachers is likely to be complex, contradictory and problematic. Whilst some of their experiences are similar to those of female primary teachers, this study only focuses on the part of their experience that differs from female teachers and is the direct result of their maleness. Their choice to cross-over into women's work such as primary teaching appears to yield a unique and complex mixture of experiences that are poorly understood by both themselves and others. In particular, it is apparent that they experience a vexing combination of advantages and disadvantages as a result of being a male in women's work. This study has identified eight categories of disadvantage and four categories of advantage that the males experience. The various sources of literature and data have differing constructions as to whether the males are advantaged and / or disadvantaged. Most commonly, the sources privilege either the disadvantages or the advantages and silence the other. More rarely, they acknowledge and accommodate both. On the whole, the disadvantages are better articulated, understood and documented than the advantages, which are often silenced and ignored. In order to fully explore the experience of male primary teachers, this study has also sought to identify the prevailing societal discourses and debates about them and to examine whether they are affecting the experience of the males. Information about societal discourses was found in the literature, media and life history interviews, with media discourse providing the most significant and comprehensive data. After examining these prevailing discourses about male primary teachers, this study has found that they have an enormous impact on the experience of male primary school teachers. However, in contrast, the study has shown that the experience of male primary school teachers is not contributing to, informing or shaping either societal or media discourses. As a result, these discourses can be seen to be largely inaccurate, unreflective and unproductive because they do not reflect the experience of male primary teachers. This examination into the experience of male primary teachers makes an important contribution to knowledge because there are so few Australian studies of males who cross over into women's work or on the sexual division of labour in contemporary Australian society. Whilst the study produces many more questions than it supplies answers, it nevertheless results in extremely important understandings about the experience of male primary school teachers and crossing-over into non-traditional work. In particular, the study reveals the problematic nature of their experience and the complex experiences, advantages and disadvantages that they face as a result of their maleness. It also charts the unhelpful ways that prevailing societal debates and discourses about them have been constructed. It points to the need for new and more sophisticated societal debates and discourses about male primary teachers that will accommodate the complexity of their experience. It is therefore anticipated that these findings will make an important contribution to understandings about the experience of male primary teachers and to the development of more informed societal discourses about them. Most importantly, the study will provide a language and framework to enable the issues that have been identified about the experience of male primary teachers to be adequately addressed within education policy, teaching practice and teacher education strategies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-152).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Education, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

<p> As student learners become exposed to more technology, they drive change in their learning environments. The United States Department of Education and Georgia Department of Education responded with national and state technology plans to better support the Digital Natives of this century. Local school districts and schools equipped educators in this study through portable and mobile tablet/laptop carts, student response devices, data/video projectors, and/or interactive TVs/white boards. In this multisited, multiple case study, three middle grades English/Language Arts educators honored connections between content, pedagogy, and technology. Through narrative vignettes, within-case and cross-case analysis of data, and interpretation and implications of findings, the researcher described how technology-based learning impacts the learning environment of student learners and their educators in middle grades English/Language Arts instruction and how those experiences impact learner autonomy. The researcher desired the findings to be of value to educators and others whose decisions regarding professional development, instructional practices, and instructional resources influence the learning experiences for educators and their student learners.</p>

<p> Internet Memes transverse and sometimes transcend cyberspace on the back of impossibly cute LOLcats speaking mangled English and the snarky remarks of Image Macro characters always on the lookout for someone to undermine. No longer the abstract notion of a cultural gene that Dawkins (2006) introduced in the late 1970s, memes have now become synonymous with a particular brand of vernacular language that internet users engage by posting, sharing and remixing digital content as they communicate jokes, emotions and opinions. </p><p> For the purpose of this research the language of Internet Memes is understood as visual, succinct and capable of inviting active engagement by users who encounter digital content online that exhibits said characteristics. Internet Memes were explored through an Arts-Based Educational Research framework by first identifying the conventions that shape them and then interrogating these conventions during two distinct research phases. <?Pub _newline>In the first phase the researcher, as a doctoral student in art and visual culture education, engaged class readings and assignments by generating digital content that not only responded to the academic topics at hand but did so through forms associated with Internet Memes like Image Macros and Animated GIFs. In the second phase the researcher became a meme literacy facilitator as learners in three different age-groups were led in the reading, writing and remixing of memes during a month-long summer art camp where they were also exposed to other art-making processes such as illustration, acting and sculpture. Each group of learners engaged age-appropriate meme types: 1) the youngest group, 6 and 7 year-olds, wrote Emoji Stories and Separated at Birth memes; 2) the middle group, 8-10 year-olds, worked with Image Macros and Perception memes, 3) while the oldest group, 11-13 year-olds, generated Image Macros and Animated GIFs. </p><p> The digital content emerging from both research phases was collected as data and analyzed through a hybrid of Memetics, Actor-Network Theory, Object Oriented Ontology, Remix Theory and Glitch Studies as the researcher shifted shapes yet again and became a Research Jockey sampling freely from each field of study. A case is made for Internet Memes to be understood as an actor-network where meme collectives, individual cybernauts, software and source material are all actants interrelating and making each other enact collective agencies through shared authorships. Additionally specific educational contexts are identified where the language of Internet Memes can serve to incorporate technology, storytelling, visual thinking and remix practices into art and visual culture education. </p><p> Finally, the document reporting on the research expands on the hermeneutics of Internet Memes and the phenomenological experiences they elicit that are otherwise absent from traditional scholarly prose. Chapter by chapter the dissertation was crafted as a journey from the academic to the whimsical, from the lecture hall to the image board (where Internet Memes were born), from the written word to the remixed image as a visual language that is equal parts form and content that emerges and culminates in a concluding chapter composed almost entirely of popular Internet Meme types. </p><p> An online component can be found at http://memeducation.org/</p>

<p> ELs are a marginalized population in American schools. They are denied a just, equal, and inclusive education. Those whose primary language is other than English are segregated from the other students in school and prevented from enrolling in courses that would allow them to meet prerequisites for college applications.</p><p> This qualitative case study examining the impact of elective courses on ELs' achievement demonstrated that these students were capable of the same achievement as, if not better than, their English-proficient peers. They demonstrated fewer behavior incidents, achieved increased test scores, and maintained grade point averages higher than those of other ELs. Their teachers and administrators viewed them favorably and supported their enrollment in elective courses. </p><p> This small sample of ELs has demonstrated that they are capable of academic achievement and supports the call to permit their enrollment in elective courses. Schools are obligated to provide them with college and career readiness opportunities, and electives would facilitate this preparation.</p>