published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study investigated the effect of a goal-based intervention package on future goal-setting for junior secondary school students on their future goal commitment, self-efficacy, and values related to academic learning. Participants were 85 newly admitted secondary one students in a local mainstream secondary school in Hong Kong. A self-report questionnaire was used to measure the strength of future goal commitment, perceived instrumentality of learning, self-efficacy, intrinsic value and extrinsic value of academic-related activities. Results indicated that the future goal-setting intervention package is effective in guiding students set their future goals, and in strengthening their future goal commitment, perceived instrumentality of learning, self-efficacy and intrinsic value of academic-related activities. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This thesis develops a discipline-based ceramic instruction using art history, art criticism, aesthetics and art production, which will be used to train Nigerian junior secondary school ceramic teachers. Concepts of discipline-based art education, materials, and techniques of ceramics production will be used to make a systematic, sequential, written curriculum of activities that will be used in the class.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a junior high school leadership program on the academic success and leadership development of its at-risk student participants. A secondary purpose, based on impact, was to evaluate the program as a potential school-based model for adolescent at-risk intervention. The leadership program investigated in this study is unique in three ways. First, the program is in a magnet school and the student population is heterogeneously mixed as to ethnicity and socio-economic status. Second, enrollment is open to all students. Third, its curriculum goals meet research-based criteria for effective intervention practices and leadership development. Academic success indicators associated with at-risk students included achievement, conduct, attendance, and school engagement. Leadership development indicators included leadership practices students had experienced and leadership positions students had held. The design of this post hoc study was the comparison of two groups of high school students who qualified as "at-risk" during their junior high years. Data collection included district or campus reports for cumulative attendance rates, grade point averages, and conduct demerits, as well as student survey responses for school activities, leadership practices experienced, and leadership positions held. Results of multivariate and univariate inferential analyses show the leadership program had a slight positive impact on the achievement and leadership experiences of at-risk student participants. Descriptive data analyses indicated a positive trend toward better conduct from program participants as well. The program did not have a significant impact on attendance, school engagement, and leadership positions students had held. While the program met criteria for effective at-risk intervention as well as exemplary leadership development, results were mixed, so evaluation of the leadership program as a model for at-risk student intervention is inconclusive. Further longitudinal research is recommended with a larger sample, using pretest and posttest measurements, group comparisons, and determination of short term and long term effects.

Over the past twenty years, an increasing amount of research has been devoted to the study of student engagement within the field of educational psychology. This led to a growing body of research touting the benefits of engaged learning—from increased student achievement to more positive school experiences for learners. However, the literature is characterized by competing theoretical frameworks and multiple definitions of the construct of student engagement. Additionally, few works seek to capitalized on the expertise of classroom teachers to hone and develop what is known about engagement from the theoretical perspective. The current study used qualitative methodology to observe and interview master teachers, as defined by their designation as a National Board Certified Teachers, to learn how expert teachers define student engagement and how these conceptualizations match up to current theoretical frameworks. It also examined the sources for their professional knowledge of student engagement. The individual teachers defined student engagement through the presence of interest, engaged behaviors, social interaction, real world connections, strategic thinking, and positive student-teacher rapport. As a group, their answers support a four-dimensional construction of student engagement including affective, behavioral, cognitive and social engagement, which aligns well with one of the major theories of engagement within educational psychology. These teachers’ beliefs include an emphasis on real world connections to learning within cognitive engagement, and student-teacher rapport within social engagement that has yet to be explored deeply in the literature. Teachers identified multiple sources for this knowledge including experience, peer interactions, the NBCT process, and guidance from school leaders. While some noted formal professional education as a source, they saw classroom experience reflective and embedded professional development as more formative. This work shows these master teachers arrived independently at constructions for student engagement close to those proposed by the research community. It supports a meta-construct of student engagement that includes affective, behavioral, cognitive and social processes, and calls for greater theoretical advocacy within the study of engagement to help more teachers fully conceptualize student engagement without the need for trial-and-error learning and extensive classroom experience.

The general purpose of this study is to investigate the status of the mathematics teachers in the secondary schools of Kentucky. It is in detail a study to ascertain (1) the educational qualifications of Kentucky mathematics teachers; (2) the salaries of these teachers; (3) the teaching experiences and tenure of the mathematics teachers; (4) the number and kind of mathematics courses being offered in our secondary schools.

This study was conducted to identify certain effective practices currently being utilized in teaching multiple activity industrial arts classes. The study was concerned with those practices being used in middle school, junior high school, and intermediate school general shop classes where multiple activities were being taught.

The problem of this study was a comparison of two methods of teaching life career planning to junior high school students. In this study, the experimental group was taught by means of the Life Career game, and the control group was taught by a teacher-directed technique using more traditional methods and materials.

Students in an inner city junior high school in North Central Texas participated in a study whose purpose was to examine the effect of training in test item construction on their later test performance. The experimental group underwent twelve weeks of instruction using the Test Item Construction Method (TICM). In these sessions students learned to develop test items similar to those on which they were tested annually by the state via the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The TICM aligned with state mandated test specifications.

The writer, an art teacher of some experience, has felt the need for more easily accessible and more definite and tangible information concerning printed material which could be used by the junior-high-school art teacher in carrying on a program of creative art experiences. This research, "An Evaluation of Art Publications", was made in an attempt to meet this need.