<p> There is little written about the use of foundational courses in high school science. This study seeks to identify if a foundational course in high school biology improves student outcomes as measured by Biology I EOC exam proficiency scale scores and student growth. Efforts were made to determine differences in cognitive skill areas and affective/conative skill areas as students progress from the foundational course of Greenhouse Biology (GH Bio) to Biology I. Three years of test score data from over 15,000 student participants are evaluated, as well as extant survey data from biology teachers and district student scheduling personnel. Findings from the study indicate GH Bio does make a difference in academic outcomes in students taking the foundational course before taking the Biology I course, and subsequently, the Biology I EOC exam. Findings also show there are cognitive, affective, and conative differences between the GH Bio students and their non-GH Bio peers while in Biology I. The study also seeks to determine why some students are scheduled for GH Bio and others are not. Findings indicate there are variances as to the reasons and intent for scheduling students into GH Bio. Some students who could benefit from the course are not being scheduled into the course.</p>

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Theresa A. O'Keefe / In this dissertation, I argue that Bible education is best understood as training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture. I explore this pedagogical model by reflecting on my experience as a Bible instructor at Cristo Rey New York High School, an inner city Catholic school. The goal of a Cristo Rey education is the integral liberation of students. In the language of liberation theology, to be "integrally liberated" is to survive and to thrive on all levels - material, cultural, psychosocial, and spiritual. Learning to improvise responsibly with Scripture helps students to grow in integral liberation. It helps them develop the capacity to perceive and to act with greater freedom, discernment, and commitment. It helps them to handle and interpret the Bible in ways that are creative, critical, and true. Here being true means more than being factually accurate; it means being true to the text, being true to the needs of one's interpreting community, and being true to the inner promptings of God's Holy Spirit. Responsible improvisation connects Biblical interpretation with artistry, with problem-solving, and with the construction of counter-cultural spaces. The dissertation supports a pedagogy for improvising responsibly with Scripture in several different ways. In the first chapter, I explain my proposal and the teaching experiences on which it is based. The first half of the chapter introduces the Cristo Rey setting within which I developed the Biblical pedagogy theorized and refined in this project. The second half begins to locate and unpack that pedagogy in terms of academic disciplines and relevant terms. I explain more concretely what I mean by "training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture." I also describe what I mean by "integral liberation," and by "interpretations that are creative, critical, and true." Chapter Two answers the question: "Why consider teaching a program of training?" I use the theory of Situated Learning to outline the religion classroom as a place of training, where students learn to master different interpretive practices in the midst of intersecting communities. I show how my model accurately reflects the teaching and learning dynamics of high school classrooms. A situated learning perspective helps educators identify specific areas where their interventions can help students become better, more responsible Scriptural improvisers. Chapter Three answers the question, "How can you train students for improvisation?" In this chapter, I correlate my educational model with the popular educational technique known as Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). TO brings together critical pedagogy and creative expression to help participants improvise artful and liberating social actions; it has proven both powerful and enduring in a broad range of class and cultural settings. I use TO as a generative metaphor to help teachers imagine more deeply and richly what training students for responsible improvisation might look like. Chapter Four steps back to take in a broader perspective. It answers the question, "Is this pedagogical model coherent? How does it all hang together?" In this chapter, I use the Pragmatist theology of Donald Gelpi, SJ as an overarching framework. I relate the concepts of "interpretation," "creativity," "responsibility," and "norms" with each other, and with a theology of God's Holy Spirit. Using Gelpi's semiotic realism as a conceptual framework shows how my pedagogy is not only conceptually coherent, but also convincingly rooted in the Christian intellectual tradition. Chapter Five presents a detailed example of teaching the Bible for responsible improvisation. It outlines the process of preparing and teaching a chapter from the Gospel of Matthew - specifically, Mt 13, the "Parables Discourse." This chapter argues that a warrant for improvising responsibly with Scripture can be derived from the Gospel itself. In short, I argue that "training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture" is a justice-grounded, empirically accurate, pedagogically compelling, intellectually coherent, and eminently Christian approach to teaching the Bible in Catholic schools. I conclude by discussing the implications of such a model in the context of Catholic educational ministry and ministerial training. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of adolescent depression in an exploratory manner. Although recent literature has attempteo to address the nature and prevalence of childhood and adolescent depression, there is a considerable lack of research within the school context. This study attempted to redress this imbalance. A sample of 20 schoo, counsellors/guidance teachers, who are members of the Transvaal Education Department Association for Counselling and Guidance participated in the study. Their role in terms of recognition and management of depression was recorded in the form of a questionnaire designed specifically for this study. A further section included individual case studies which aimed at enhancing our understanding of some of the inner conflicts experienced by adolescents who encounter depression in various forms.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / Recent work on Hispanic immigrants has consistently shown a decline in educational attainment over generations-since-immigration despite the fact that advanced education is currently presented in the public arena as the foundation for economic mobility (Telles and Ortiz). This study investigates the seeming contradiction of Hispanic youth's disengagement from the system that is presented as the pathway to increased economic achievement. The dissertation is based on findings from a qualitative study consisting of in-depth interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic data collected during an 18 month stay in a small, semi-rural, largely Hispanic, community in New Mexico, where the local high school has a graduation rate of 55%. Refuting claims that school disengagement emerges from either low ability or "leveled aspirations," the findings of this study indicate that young people's decisions are based largely on the advice that they are given regarding the economic utility of post-secondary schooling. Lacking this advice these young people determined it was not worth the risk of time out of the labor market, money, and effort that advanced schooling required. The findings of this study argue that one of the key reasons these young people disengage from school stems from the failure of any institution or individual to make it clear to students how educational credentials connect to occupational opportunities. Thus, a number of young people who have had some success at school still choose to leave because they are unconvinced that educational credentials are actually economically useful. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: David Scanlon / Classroom accommodations are a primary means of providing an appropriate education for students with disabilities. While there is value in student involvement in the accommodations process, the process continues to be teacher-driven, so we need to teach students to be strategic in selecting and utilizing their own accommodations. This problem holds true across disabilities, and students with visual impairments are no exception. The Student Self-Accommodation Strategy (SSA) was developed to support students with high-incidence disabilities in strategically selecting and utilizing their own accommodations. This study investigated SSA learning and performance for students with visual impairments and how learning the SSA impacted their classroom accommodation practices. The learning experiences of four students with visual impairments were compared using comparative case studies (Cresswell, Plano Clark, Gutmann, & Hanson, 2003) within a sequential explanatory design (Hanson, Creswell, Plano Clark, Petska, & Creswell, 2008). Mixed methods data were collected before, during, and after strategy instruction pertaining to accommodations knowledge and practices, strategy learning and performance, metacognition and self-regulated learning, and student perceptions of the SSA. Cross-case analysis revealed key findings regarding strategy instruction, strategy learning and performance, and metacognition and self-regulated learning. These key findings have implications for educating students with visual impairments and future research on the SSA. Ultimately, this study indicates that the SSA is a valuable tool for strategically selecting and utilizing accommodations; however, characteristics of individual students and their learning environments have a considerable impact on the development of strategic thinking. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

How do upper secondary schools work with image to compete online? Through meso-discourse analysis we have analyzed the descriptions of 147 schools offering university preparatory programs in Stockholm County, at one of the larger online information portals for upper secondary education (gymnasium.se). Such information portals have lately seen a tremendous growth in traffic, yet received scant scholarly attention. Our findings suggest that schools work with image mainly by drawing from four distinct image archetypes, which we have metaphorized as The Springboard, The Democratic World Citizen, The Nanny, and The Pedagogical Peacekeeper. These images were tweaked and combined in various ways by schools to project an image to their desired student audience. We also found that different school types used the archetype images with slight variation. Further implications, such as the performative aspect of image work and possible future research on competition in upper secondary education, are discussed.

<p> This study investigates the influence of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program on participants who have taken it as an elective course for at least one year in high school and who have gone on to complete at least two years of higher education. Participants describe their experiences in terms of the way they saw/see themselves as learners, as students and as members of communities. Using a narrative inquiry approach to analysis and a poststructuralist theoretical framework influenced by Judith Butler&rsquo;s work in the field of gender identity, participants&rsquo; experiences are examined with an eye toward the ways in which their AVID participation had a role in the way they perform their identity and how they see themselves as acting and reacting in the performative aspects of their home selves, high school selves and college selves. In examining the narratives of participant experiences, particular attention is paid to the ways in which they mold their views of themselves and others&rsquo; views of them into a set of values that, in their telling, sets them apart from who they had been and from others similarly situated who did not have the AVID experience (the high school self). It also sets them apart from their families (the home self), whose lack of knowledge and understanding of the process of becoming first-generation college students inhibited their ability to understand and effectively advocate for their children. It did, however, connect them to the kinds of cultural capital that would improve their ability to perform as higher education expects of undergraduates (the college self). </p><p> The findings of this research center on the interplay between internal agency and external influence as they combine to create participants&rsquo; views of their own identities and can be seen through their attitudes and actions as they pursued undergraduate degrees. An implication of this work is the idea that AVID serves as a bridge of sorts which connects the agent desiring to be with the society which expects it to be. This is brought forth as participants describe their progression through AVID and college and the changes they underwent in their perceptions of themselves first as novitiates in the academic world, then as junior partners and finally as capable doers of deeds who had not yet come to appreciate the incompleteness of their agency. </p><p>