Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, School of Education and Human Development, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2005. / Title from second page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [2], v, 117 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-97).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2009. / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 141-144).

This study examined implementing the online website Khan Academy as a primary resource for mathematics instruction. Participants were high school students aged 15-18 years enrolled in the traditional mathematics courses of Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. A pre-test/post-test research design was implemented over the course of a six-week period of instruction. I wanted to examine whether Khan Academy was associated with positive learning outcomes over the six-week period as compared to measures of normalized growth. Additionally, I asked whether a beta program to personalize instruction on Khan Academy was associated with statistically significantly better outcomes compared to the regular Khan Academy course sequences alone. To address my questions, I randomly assigned students into treatment and comparison groups. As a measure of learning growth, I used the Northwest Education Assessment’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) to establish a pre-treatment baseline and again at the end of the program to measure learning growth. I compared before and after means. Overall, I found that students in both groups showed overall positive growth, statistically significantly different from normal expected growth. However, I did not find a statistically significant difference between the two groups. In terms of practical implementation, the results of this study suggest that use of Khan Academy as a primary instructional resource is associated with positive learning outcomes in this data set. Further study with larger sample sizes to confirm these preliminary results is recommended.

Despite efforts to reduce the occurrence of physical aggression in traditional school environments, some students persist in engaging in physical aggression and are assigned to alternative education programs as an alternative to expulsion. However, relatively little is known about the types of services that school counselors provide to help these students. This case study investigated the services that school counselors provide to the young children attending disciplinary alternative education programs in a public-school district in central Florida. The participants consist of two school counselors who provided services to the students assigned to the alternative disciplinary programs and two district-level administrators of the alternative programs. The school counselors provided responsive services to meet the immediate needs of the students in the alternative programs. These included individual counseling, multi-tiered systems of support and crisis intervention. The counselors also provided interventions to teach students appropriate social skills, decision-making skills, responsibility, and self-regulation. In addition, the school counselors provided indirect services to students by collaborating with parents and stakeholders which include teachers, social workers, administrators, and community agencies. This case study includes multiple sources of data: (a) face-to-face semi-structured interviews, (b) observations, (c), artifacts, (d) documents, (e) field notes, and (e) member checks. Nine descriptive categories emerged from the data analysis: (a) Reasons assigned, (b) Process of placement, (c) Counselors’ experience, (d) Services and interventions, (e) Assessments, (f) Theoretical orientation, (g) Barriers to providing services, (h) Counselors’ perceptions regarding outcomes, and (i) Counselors' recommendations for future practice. Surprisingly, the case study’s findings reveal that the school counselors believed that the services they provide do not meet the students’ needs. This case study contributes to the body of knowledge about this under-researched population of counselors and under-served population of students by examining the unique experience of school counselors providing services to students who engage in physical aggression. Implications for further research, policy, and practice are presented.

Because of a perceived increase in school related violence, a political reaction occurred in Missouri that led in 1997 to the Missouri Safe Schools Act. This new law significantly changed school disciplinary policy and allowed administrators to move large groups of students to alternative education programs, or expel them to the streets. The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn from students who attended at least one year in an alternative education program about their experiences. I interviewed 26 former students and another 14 former students entered into the conversation by posting their thoughts on a Facebook site for alumni of a specific alternative program. The 40 former students shared common stories that indicated their confusion, a misuse of power by the school district, and a lack of due process surrounding the events that led to their suspensions. At the same time, they shared many stories of relationships, kindnesses, and empathy that they experienced from the alternative school teachers and administrators. Results point to the need for families to educate themselves (and sometimes resist) arbitrary decisions made by school personnel, and the importance of teacher and administrator selection for alternative school programs.

Working within a Social Cognitive Career Theory framework, the study explored outcomes associated with participation in a dual-enrollment (high school and community college) College Transition Support Program (CTSP). The study used three data points over a nine month period to explore whether participation in the CTSP was associated with changes in college self-efficacy, education-related future aspirations and goals, perceived barriers, perceived support, locus of control, depression, anxiety, academic achievement-related expectations, academic achievement-related fears, and academic achievement-related expectation-fear balance, as well as college persistence and cumulative college GPA. Repeated measure responses of a group of 34 CTSP students were contrasted with a group of 34 students in a non-equivalent comparison group. Baseline data for a group of 207 non-CTSP alternative high school students were also used to test for selection bias for both of the longitudinal groups. Doubly multivariate repeated measures analysis of variance (DMRM-ANOVA) procedures were conducted. Multivariate results suggested that participation in the CTSP was associated with positive, statistically significant growth in the weighted linear combination of outcome variables. Repeated measures univariate analyses were also conducted to provide more detail. CTSP participation was associated with growth over time on several positive student outcomes, including college self-efficacy, education-related future aspirations and goals, academic achievement-related expectation-fear balance, academic locus of control, and college persistence/retention. In addition, CTSP students earned significantly higher cumulative college GPAs over their first year at the community college.

This research seeks to show the ways of male social performance by students in educational environments in which they are more likely to question the traditional model of masculinity (TMM) that characterizes the man as a different and superior being than the woman. As a way to approach to that phenomena, we have decided to study a private, secular, mixed and «alternative» school (characterized by promoting democratic values), because previous research showed evidence that these schools actively challenge gender stereotypes. We found that the male performance of the students reproduces, at the very least partially, the TMM model. The measures used by the school to promote gender equality were useful to promote practices that took distance from some TMM issues (suchas emotional expressiveness) but are not sufficient to ensure that other aspects of TMM will not be reproduced (such as the tendency of male domination or gay rejection). / Esta investigación busca conocer las formas masculinas de actuar que construyen los alumnos en ámbitos educativos donde es más probable que se cuestione el modelo de masculinidad tradicional (MMT, por sus siglas), que caracteriza al varón como un ser diferente y superior que la mujer. Estudiamosun colegio privado, laico, mixto y de orientación «alternativa» (caracterizada por promover valores democráticos), porque investigaciones previas muestran indicios de que estos colegios pueden cuestionar activamente estereotipos de género. Encontramos que las formas masculinas de actuar que los alumnos construyen reproducen de forma parcial y problemática el MMT. Las medidas tomadas por el colegio para promover la equidad de género propiciaron que los alumnos asumieran algunas prácticas distanciadas del MMT (en aspectos como la expresividad emocional), pero son insuficientes para garantizar que no se reproduzcan otros aspectos del MMT (como la tendencia al dominio o el rechazo a los gais).

Thesis aims to find out whether or not it is possible to implement Montessori principles of education into economical subjects on High schools. Parst of the Thesis are also preparations for teaching of economical subjects with Montessori principals. At the end reader can find out more information about methods, forms, content, didactic aids and didactic technique which can be used to implement Montessori principles appropriately. Author used several different experimental methods like experimental teaching, self-reflection of the practitioner, questionnaire survey in the class where experimental teaching took place and didactic test for pupils who participated in experimental teaching. As a result, implementation of Montessori principles is possible and has advantages (better atmosphere in class, better way to achieve educational goals) and disadvantages (problems with fixation).