The study conducted was an archival review of school detailed incident discipline records and description of the school-wide proactive discipline plan developed at an elementary school. The study examined the effects of sequential changes in a proactive school-wide discipline plan. Initially, the baseline data consisted of a full year of school without a proactive school-wide discipline plan. This allowed an assessment of the variation in referrals that occurred across a school year. Subsequent years were assessed in relation to this baseline, and the effects from year to year compared to other years. After the baseline year, substantial changes were made by implementing a school-wide proactive program. In later years, variations were made in the school-wide proactive plan that improved its delivery efficiency. The changes were not major changes but were variations of the original intervention program. Thus, this was a program evaluation on a school-wide basis, incorporating multiple nonconcurrent time series essentially forming an A -- B design with maintenance of improvements under conditions which varied slightly from year to year. The data revealed a higher rate of incidents among ESE and Pre ESE students (students who were later staffed into an ESE program) students then their basic education peers in the primary grades. The data revealed that while the support decreased over time the school-wide mean of incidents increased. The data did not show any decreases in behaviors which would be described of low impact, and there was not a decrease in incidents which would be described as high impact over the course of the evaluation. This study showed that continued behavioral support for teachers may be needed for decreases in incidents over time as well as a possible need to increase attention to students who are at risk behaviorally in order to intervene prior to an ESE placement.

The literacy skills that students develop in preschool are an imperative aspect of school readiness and later academic success. Research has established that some students begin their educational experience at a disadvantage due to the low socioeconomic status (SES) of their family and, as a result, low levels of conversation between parents and children, restricted access to books, and low values placed on literacy. Past research supports that shared book reading is one of the most beneficial activities in which teachers can partake in order to optimize their students’ language development. The Head Start program is intended to alleviate the SES gap by providing a high quality education to preschool students. However, as measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), Head Start teachers are failing nationally in the area of Instructional Support, or implementing curriculum effectively in order to promote language and cognitive development. This study was designed to provide a book reading training to Head Start teachers in order to increase their level and frequency of Cognitively Challenging Talk with their students. Results found that Cognitively Challenging Talk increased as a result of the training as well as the amount of words the teacher utilized; Less Cognitively Demanding Talk and Managing Interaction variables, or classroom management aspects, were not significantly changed

Professional development is an essential component to maintaining quality teaching in mathematics and science (Monk, 1994; Milken, 2000; Loucks-Horsley et al, 2003). University mathematics and science faculty have been subject to criticism regarding professional development and teaching practices (CSMEE, 2000; NRC, 1999; NSES, 1996). Undergraduate students in secondary pre-service Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teacher training programs adopt the models that they have experienced as learners in the university setting (NRC, 1999). This qualitative case study followed a team of three research faculty, one lecturer, one master teacher, and two graduate teaching assistants who team taught an upper level inquiry- based science research methods science course in a STEM teacher preparation program in the College of Natural Sciences at a large public Midwestern research university. Course instructor dialogue between members was recorded, transcribed and triangulated with teaching sequences, course materials, and student interaction during two semesters. The study detailed how faculty members’ and graduate teaching assistants’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about teaching and learning were confronted, challenged, and transformed using interdependent disquisition via regular weekly meetings and team teaching practices. Examples of actual dialogue and meeting characteristics are presented compared and discussed against best practices in science education. Four themes emerged from the data: (1) students’ inquiries drive the conversation, (2) confrontations sort out what works from what doesn’t, (3) leadership seems to contribute to learning opportunities for the team and (4) humor indicates the divergent creative abilities of the members of the team and engaging in humorous episodes facilitates learning between team members. Students were directly connected to team members’ developmental processes. This analysis suggests that measurable professional development opportunities exist in team meetings for science faculty and graduate teaching assistants when team teaching inquiry based undergraduate science courses. / text

No description available.

The purpose of this study has to describe and analyze the change processes experienced by Mexican social studies high school teachers is their classrooms after having been trained in the use of cooperative learning through small work groups. After the training, two teachers implemented this instructional method. The investigation was conducted in two urban high schools from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Mexico. The participants in the training program were made up of 14 teachers from 3 different high schools. Two of these teachers were selected by the researcher to put into practice this educational approach. The selected teachers were then observed for four weeks and analyzed in the difficulties that they faced in implementing this teaching method, the changes experienced in their teaching practices, and the changes produced in their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior with respect to their teaching practices. The data collection was gathered through teachers questionnaires after the training course and through interviews and classroom observations during the implementation of cooperative learning. Therefore, the analysis of this investigation was carried out through qualitative methods.

The purpose of this study was to explore what happened when literature and literature discussions were added to an eighth-grade history curriculum. I examined what occurred in the process of change as the teacher and researcher negotiated a new curriculum with the students, and what the effects of literature were on the historical understandings of middle school students. The theoretical framework of this study is embodied in the social constructivist theory of learning and the transactive theory of reading as explained by a reader-response perspective. It rests on the premise that approaching history through literature and encouraging an aesthetic stance toward the response to historical literature will enable students to enter into the process of historical inquiry. During this year-long classroom study the researcher, acting as a participant observer, gathered a variety of data including field notes, student journals, audio tapes of the small group literature discussions, student self-evaluations, and teacher interviews. The data were analyzed by developing and describing initial coding categories from the data, refining or adding to the categories as the analysis process continued, and counting frequencies for the various categories which emerged. The findings suggest that change is challenging and complex. There was a creative tension in the process with some factors that promoted teacher and curriculum change and other factors that acted as obstacles to change. Although each factor played an important role in the change process, the key to change was in the collaboration between teacher and researcher. It was in the conversations and collaboration between teacher and researcher that change was invented. In addition, the findings suggest that reading the historical literature, writing in their journals, and working out their understandings in small groups was well-received by students. They enjoyed this way of doing history and used the different activities to work their way into meaningful engagements with history. Student responses included: (1) purposeful retellings, (2) numerous connections among books, movies, historical themes, and life experiences, (3) thematic statements, (4) wonderings and wanderings, and (5) historical understandings that integrated facts and stories.

This qualitative case study examines the influence of a whole language methods course on a preservice teacher's ideas and student teaching performance. In addition it explores significant problems the participant had when she attempted to apply theory in practice and the influence of block instructors, classroom teachers, primary school students, and block classmates on the participant's development in whole language. The study took place during the participant's whole language block semester at the University of Arizona in Tucson, in which preservice teachers learned teaching methods in language arts, reading, and social studies through both classroom sessions and a practicum, at Borton Primary Magnet School, whose principal was a well-known proponent of whole language education. The participant's apprenticeship classroom teacher utilized an integrated curriculum in a holistic paradigm. The study continued until the participant finished her student teaching in the same classroom. The data included exchange journals, videotapes, field notes, audiotapes, oral interviews, documents, memos, and photographs. K. S. Goodman's five pillars of whole language and Cambourne's eight optimal conditions for learning were used as frameworks for the data analysis. The results of the analysis were presented in chronological and analytical descriptions. The chronological description portrayed the stages of the participant's growth in whole language during the block semester and her attempts to translate theory into use during student teaching. The analytical description elaborated the results of the data analysis within the two whole language frameworks. The results of this study emphasize the importance of immersion in whole language in order to develop in whole language, the value of the transactional paradigm in teaching and learning, and the power of a community of learners.

The present dissertation is a synthesis of whole language education guided by an action research perspective with the main purpose of developing a series of articles to introduce whole language to Chinese teachers. It falls into two parts: the first part provides the background information about language and education in Taiwan, and the second part is a whole language program for Chinese teachers. Part I discusses the purpose and research questions of this dissertation with an emphasis on current issues of educational reform in Taiwan. Part II is designed to be a resource book of whole language education. It consists of four sections of two to three chapters each. Each chapter stands by itself and all together offer a whole language framework. Section one, Roots of Whole Language, focuses on general and specific philosophical elements of whole language. Section two, Connection to Related Theories, highlights the relationship between the theory of whole language and the practice of literacy education in Taiwan. Section three, Research Applying Whole Language to Chinese Literacy and Education, consists of three qualitative research studies. Section four, A Whole Language Classroom, discusses how a teacher translates her educational beliefs into classroom practices. The arguments are illustrated with examples from the Experimental Textbooks and instructional methodologies in Taiwan with the purpose of making connections between theoretical frameworks related to whole language and educational research in Taiwan. In summary, this dissertation explores whole language from interrelated perspectives. It offers a personal interpretation of whole language that builds up connections between the whole language movement as has been developed in the United States and Chinese literacy education as it is practiced in Taiwan. The major concern of this work is to share information about whole language with Taiwanese teachers and invite them to adapt whole language in their local contexts.

This purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how four Mexican American male adolescents perceive their literacy within and outside of school. Particular attention is given to the literacies found in the family, gang, school, and juvenile court communities. Initially, the four Mexican American male adolescents who participated in this study were students in my alternative classroom. Later, I officially advocated for them and their families in the educational system. I worked with each participant for four years. Each participant is a member of a gang and has struggled with being successful in school. The ethnographic case study design of the research, enabled me to examine each participant's literacy story. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews, participant observation and field notes, and the gathering of written and visual artifacts such as school assignments, personal journals, individual tags, personally written raps, and photographs. Data were organized into "case study data bases" and each participant's story contributed to a larger discussion of the individual communities in which the four members participated. The research revealed that all four participants come from rich literacy environments and that the social and political roles of literacy varied within the different communities. These multiple roles controlled the participants' use of literacies to navigate within the educational and juvenile court systems.

Στην παρούσα έρευνα καταγράφονται οι απόψεις επιμορφωτών του Περιφερειακού Επιμορφωτικού Κέντρου Πάτρας, σχετικά με θέματα που αφορούν το ρόλο τους καθώς και με την έννοια της αποτελεσματικότητας. Διερευνώνται οι απόψεις τους για τον επιμορφωτικό ρόλο, τα προβλήματα που συνδέονται με αυτόν, ο προσανατολισμός της δράσης τους, τα προβλήματα που αφορούν τους επιμορφωνόμενους ως νεοδιόριστους εκπαιδευτικούς, η ανταπόκριση των Περιφερειακών Επιμορφωτικών Κέντρων στα λειτουργικά προαπαιτούμενα της εκπαίδευσης και στις ανάγκες των εκπαιδευτικών. Παράλληλα επιχειρείται η διερεύνηση των απόψεων των επιμορφωτών για την αποτελεσματική επιμόρφωση, τον αποτελεσματικό εκπαιδευτικό και το αποτελεσματικό σχολείο. Διαπιστώνεται ο θεσμικός προσανατολισμός της δράσης και των απόψεών τους ως προς τους άξονες της έρευνας. / The present survey registers the opinions of Peripheral Training Centres trainers, with respect to subjects relating to the training role, as well as to the concept of effectiveness. The trainers’ opinions about the training role are researched, as well as about relevant problems. Furthermore, the orientation of their action is researched. The trainers state their opinions about the problems concerning new teachers. Likewise, they convey their views on the response of Peripheral Training Centres to the functional prerequisites of education and to the needs of teachers. Correspondingly, a research of trainers’ opinions is undertaken with reference to effective training, effective teacher and effective school. An institutional orientation of their action is ascertained, as well as of their opinions, with regard to the hubs of the survey.