Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Sherri Martinie / This study examined the impact grading policies have on students’ mindsets in urban Midwestern middle schools. The components of this quasi-experimental, causal comparative survey research relied on the grading policies in place at the school level and the students’ reporting of their mindset. Data was collected using a questionnaire containing eight Likert-type questions from the Implicit Theories of Intelligence scale (Dweck, 2006), as well as additional questions seeking the students’ perceptions of grading practices implemented in their buildings. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, t-tests and ANOVA tests were run measuring the impact that a variety of perceived grading practices had on students’ mindset levels. The findings from the research demonstrated no statistically significant differences between the mindset levels of students from schools with different grading policies. Further analysis revealed inconsistencies between student perceptions of the grading practices and the schools’ actual stated grading policies. It appears standards based and traditional grading practices, although specifically stated at the building level, appear to have blended together in the large school district, which may have led to the inconclusive results. Of significance was the finding that students perceived to understand the meaning of their grade, even if it is misaligned with the schools’ policy, reported a growth mindset in comparison to students that reported they did not understand their grade. These findings begin to explore the impact grading practices have on students, especially during the transition from traditional to standards based grading. Further research is needed to fully examine the transition between grading practices and students’ perceptions of those policies. When students’ perceptions of the standards based grading policy do not align with the actual policy, it is assumed that it will have no impact on students’ mindset levels. Future research would seek to understand ways in which educators making a transition from traditional to standards based grading can seek clarity of policies, seek accuracy of implementation and monitor students’ perceptions in alignment with the policies and practices.

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No description available.

This dissertation study compared the three most common pathways of traditional preparation for novice middle level teachers (elementary, middle level, and secondary) and attempted to answer the central question of which group felt best prepared for middle level teaching. Selected novice teachers from each of the three pathways were interviewed and asked to reflect on their preparation program. All participants were graduates of the same large, urban, public university. Data were collected using an interpretivism paradigm and analyzed using the constant comparative method. The state has recently redesigned its certification structure and teacher education institutions have redesigned their programs to reflect these changes. This study sought to discover if the restructuring resulted in greater feelings of preparedness among novice teachers. This study was exploratory, but initial findings indicate that there was very little difference in feelings of preparedness among the three pathways for teaching at the middle level with respect to program components and understanding of the needs of middle level adolescents. There was limited difference among the three pathways with respect to content preparation. This poses an interesting policy question: If the state’s intent in restructuring the certification tiers was to ensure more prepared teachers for the middle level and this exploratory study shows little difference in feelings of preparation, was the decision to restructure teacher certification a worthwhile endeavor? The study offers possible programmatic changes to increase feelings of preparedness as well as ideas for further research around this topic. / Educational Administration

Education for adolescents in middle-level schools is a topic of great interest for many educators. Reaching a consensus on what constitutes an effective education for middle-level learners has been a challenge. The purpose of this study was to contribute to this discussion. Although the study was designed to report on effective middle schools, the respondents reported their perspectives on good middle schools. The findings of this study about good middle schools may be beneficial to middle-level educators that are interested in improving educational environments and outcomes for the adolescent learner. A cross-case study methodology was used to investigate the perspectives on a good middle school of teachers and administrators in two middle schools in a school system in a southeastern state. Seventeen face-to-face interviews were conducted with a researcher-developed protocol, and document analyses were conducted. Data were analyzed with the constant comparative method. The perspectives of the participants were organized into ten categories of what they believed constitutes a good middle school: culture, personnel, the needs of diverse adolescent learners, organizational structures, transitions, instructional practices, parental involvement, curricular aspects, physical environment, and progress. The teacher and administrator perspectives on a good middle school were analyzed in three ways: (a) a descriptive analysis of the characteristics of a good middle school as viewed by the teachers and administrators of Dorchester Middle School and J. K. Walters Middle School; (b) a comparison of the characteristics of a good middle school as viewed by teachers and administrators of the two schools and the characteristics of a good middle school as identified by the National Association of Secondary School Principals Council on Middle Level Education in 1985, the Association for Middle Level Education in 2010, and the Carnegie Corporations Council on Adolescent Development in 1989; and (c) a comparison of the characteristics of a good middle school identified by the teachers and administrators of Dorchester Middle School and the characteristics of a good middle school identified by the teachers and administrators of J. K. Walters Middle School (pseudonyms). Middle school educators have struggled with the nature of an appropriate education for middle-level learners for decades. When combined with other studies of the perspectives on middle-level schooling of practicing teachers and administrators, those who work with middle-level learners every day, the data in this study may help in efforts to reach a consensus on the elements that should be a part of a good middle school. / Ed. D.

In 2012, the Austin Independent School District implemented a ten-year Creative Learning Initiative to develop every school in the district into an arts rich school. However, research on arts richness presents varied descriptions of what an arts rich school looks like and lacks student voices. This MFA Thesis documents an applied project utilizing an arts based research process to explore student beliefs about the value of the arts and arts richness at the middle school level. In the document, I analyze student beliefs about the value of the arts through modified grounded theory from a data set including a performance, a playscript, group discussions, surveys, and my personal field notes and reflections. I find that the students share a similar understanding with published research of overall categories describing arts richness, including quantity of arts opportunities, quality of artistic and educational programs, and school climate. They deepen the perspective researchers present on school climate in arts rich schools, offering specific ways in which the arts invite a positive school climate. I conclude the document with reflections on defining arts richness, the arts based research process, and areas for further consideration as schools move toward creative learning for the 21st century. / text

Esta pesquisa desenvolveu-se com o intuito de analisar, conforme a concepção de Chartier (1990), as representações que se construíram dos alunos e da literatura pelo viés da seleção e apresentação dos textos literários nos livros didáticos de Língua Portuguesa, em dois diferentes períodos históricos. Para isso, selecionaram-se livros publicados no Estado de São Paulo entre os anos de 1976 a 1996, destinados às antigas quintas e sextas séries do ensino de primeiro grau. Pretendeu-se ainda analisar, sob a perspectiva discursiva bakhtiniana, os diálogos que se estabeleceram entre os modos de seleção e de apresentação dos textos literários nos manuais e os discursos acadêmicos, pedagógicos e oficiais que propunham, nesse(s) período(s), novas concepções de língua e de ensino. Para o desenvolvimento da análise, consultaram-se as coleções didáticas que atendiam aos interesses da pesquisa e que se encontram disponíveis no acervo LIVRES (Banco de dados de Livros Escolares Brasileiros (1818-2005)) da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FEUSP). Os livros que compuseram o corpus da pesquisa foram reunidos em dois grupos, tendo como referência os documentos oficiais que se encontravam em voga no período de publicação dos manuais: os Guias Curriculares (1975) e as Propostas Curriculares para o ensino de 1º grau (1986). A opção por assim agrupar as coleções atendeu à hipótese de que, por terem sido elaborados com base no que se discutia a respeito do ensino, os documento consistiriam em materiais de apoio para se perceber os diálogos entre os textos apresentados nos manuais e os discursos circulantes nos dois momentos históricos observados. Consultadas as coleções didáticas do acervo, elegeram-se duas obras de cada período, as quais foram consideradas representativas pelo fato de apresentarem os autores literários mais referenciados em seu período de publicação. Foi com base na análise dos textos desses autores, sobretudo modernistas e contemporâneos, que foi possível vislumbrarem as representações da literatura, ora apropriada enquanto texto ou mensagem portadora de conteúdos, ora concebida como um trabalho construído de forma dialógica e situado num contexto. A respeito da representação dos destinatários dos manuais, principalmente os alunos, notou-se que, por vezes, eram projetados segundo uma imagem infantilizada, e, noutras, eram considerados competentes para construir sentidos e refletir diante dos textos que lhes eram apresentados por meio dos manuais. / This research was conducted in order to find, according to the ideas of Chartier (1990), representations that were made of students and of literature, by selecting and presenting literary texts in Portuguese language textbooks. We selected books published by the Department of Education of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 1976 to 1996, aimed at students of the former fifth and sixth grades of middle level education. Our intention was also to analyze, from Bakhtin´s perspective, approaches adopted in the selection and presentation of literary texts in textbooks and academic, pedagogical and official documentation, which proposed, during that period, new methods for language and teaching. For the purpose of analysis development, we consulted textbook collections related to our research, which are available at LIVRES (Brazilian Schoolbooks Database) library (1818-2005), at School of Education, Sao Paulo University (FEUSP). Documents comprising the research corpus were organized in two groups, having as reference the official documents available at the time of the textbooks publishing: Guias Curriculares (Curriculum Guides, 1975) and Propostas Curriculares para o ensino de primeiro grau (Curriculum Proposals for Elementary and Middle Level Education, 1986). Our choice to group the collections as such was based on the hypothesis that, as they were guidelines developed according to what was discussed about teaching at the time, they consisted of support documentation to understand the dialogue between texts presented in textbooks and approaches adopted during those two historical moments observed. Having consulted the collection textbooks, we chose two pieces of work for each period, which were considered representative, because they had the most often referenced authors during their literary publication periods. Based on the analysis of the texts of those authors, especially modernist and contemporary authors, we were able to check literature representations, either adequate as text or \'message\' bearing content, or a piece of work dialogically constructed and in context. Regarding representation of the manual recipients, especially students, we noted that sometimes they were projected with a somewhat childish image, and sometimes considered competent to construct meanings and reflect on the texts and dialogues that were presented to them by the textbooks.

Esta pesquisa desenvolveu-se com o intuito de analisar, conforme a concepção de Chartier (1990), as representações que se construíram dos alunos e da literatura pelo viés da seleção e apresentação dos textos literários nos livros didáticos de Língua Portuguesa, em dois diferentes períodos históricos. Para isso, selecionaram-se livros publicados no Estado de São Paulo entre os anos de 1976 a 1996, destinados às antigas quintas e sextas séries do ensino de primeiro grau. Pretendeu-se ainda analisar, sob a perspectiva discursiva bakhtiniana, os diálogos que se estabeleceram entre os modos de seleção e de apresentação dos textos literários nos manuais e os discursos acadêmicos, pedagógicos e oficiais que propunham, nesse(s) período(s), novas concepções de língua e de ensino. Para o desenvolvimento da análise, consultaram-se as coleções didáticas que atendiam aos interesses da pesquisa e que se encontram disponíveis no acervo LIVRES (Banco de dados de Livros Escolares Brasileiros (1818-2005)) da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FEUSP). Os livros que compuseram o corpus da pesquisa foram reunidos em dois grupos, tendo como referência os documentos oficiais que se encontravam em voga no período de publicação dos manuais: os Guias Curriculares (1975) e as Propostas Curriculares para o ensino de 1º grau (1986). A opção por assim agrupar as coleções atendeu à hipótese de que, por terem sido elaborados com base no que se discutia a respeito do ensino, os documento consistiriam em materiais de apoio para se perceber os diálogos entre os textos apresentados nos manuais e os discursos circulantes nos dois momentos históricos observados. Consultadas as coleções didáticas do acervo, elegeram-se duas obras de cada período, as quais foram consideradas representativas pelo fato de apresentarem os autores literários mais referenciados em seu período de publicação. Foi com base na análise dos textos desses autores, sobretudo modernistas e contemporâneos, que foi possível vislumbrarem as representações da literatura, ora apropriada enquanto texto ou mensagem portadora de conteúdos, ora concebida como um trabalho construído de forma dialógica e situado num contexto. A respeito da representação dos destinatários dos manuais, principalmente os alunos, notou-se que, por vezes, eram projetados segundo uma imagem infantilizada, e, noutras, eram considerados competentes para construir sentidos e refletir diante dos textos que lhes eram apresentados por meio dos manuais. / This research was conducted in order to find, according to the ideas of Chartier (1990), representations that were made of students and of literature, by selecting and presenting literary texts in Portuguese language textbooks. We selected books published by the Department of Education of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 1976 to 1996, aimed at students of the former fifth and sixth grades of middle level education. Our intention was also to analyze, from Bakhtin´s perspective, approaches adopted in the selection and presentation of literary texts in textbooks and academic, pedagogical and official documentation, which proposed, during that period, new methods for language and teaching. For the purpose of analysis development, we consulted textbook collections related to our research, which are available at LIVRES (Brazilian Schoolbooks Database) library (1818-2005), at School of Education, Sao Paulo University (FEUSP). Documents comprising the research corpus were organized in two groups, having as reference the official documents available at the time of the textbooks publishing: Guias Curriculares (Curriculum Guides, 1975) and Propostas Curriculares para o ensino de primeiro grau (Curriculum Proposals for Elementary and Middle Level Education, 1986). Our choice to group the collections as such was based on the hypothesis that, as they were guidelines developed according to what was discussed about teaching at the time, they consisted of support documentation to understand the dialogue between texts presented in textbooks and approaches adopted during those two historical moments observed. Having consulted the collection textbooks, we chose two pieces of work for each period, which were considered representative, because they had the most often referenced authors during their literary publication periods. Based on the analysis of the texts of those authors, especially modernist and contemporary authors, we were able to check literature representations, either adequate as text or \'message\' bearing content, or a piece of work dialogically constructed and in context. Regarding representation of the manual recipients, especially students, we noted that sometimes they were projected with a somewhat childish image, and sometimes considered competent to construct meanings and reflect on the texts and dialogues that were presented to them by the textbooks.

This is a multiple case study of the ways middle grades social studies teachers, as curricular-instructional gatekeepers, may make decisions to provide their gifted students with purposeful differentiated instruction. More specifically, this study explores what teachers believe they should do to instruct gifted students, in what ways teachers prepare and adapt curriculum and instruction for gifted students, and how instruction for gifted learners can take place in a middle school social studies classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and supportive visual evidence, six middle grades (6-8) social studies teachers disclosed in what ways they differentiate their middle grades social studies curriculum and instruction for their gifted adolescent learners. Through Hatch’s (2002) Inductive Analysis model, findings were recorded and presented in the form of individual teacher observation and thematic cross-case analysis. Findings suggest that middle grades social studies teachers take into consideration factors that influence their curricular-instructional beliefs, directly affecting the decisions they make in terms of curriculum selection, instructional delivery, and the methods of differentiation employed to meet the needs of their gifted students. Much of what teachers planned, prepared, and adapted was often influenced by the needs of their students, but also addressed mandates of their school and district agendas. This conflict between meeting the needs of both students and administration resulted in gatekeeping that often favored administration, while reducing the frequency of best practices for middle level gifted students in social studies classrooms. Implications for the study include how teacher confidence, or the lack there of, effects instructional practices. Time constraints in middle level curriculum pacing and increased assessment also limited opportunities for rigorous, relevant, and differentiated social studies instruction for gifted students. Middle level social studies teachers of gifted call for clearer and more illustrative descriptions of what the academic ceiling for gifted social studies might look like in general. There are distinctive contrasts between models of differentiation and neighboring concepts of individualized and personalized learning. While in theory differentiation is meaningful, middle level social studies teachers find it difficult to implement methods of differentiation in their classroom with desired frequency. There is a distinctive bond between the fields of social studies, English Language Arts, and research skills. Middle level social studies teachers of gifted seek greater opportunities for meaningful professional development options. Lastly, there is a call among middle level social studies teachers for the inclusion of gifted initiatives in teacher education programs. Topics that could be explored for future research include a continued effort to expound applicable gatekeeping practices, the provision of purposeful professional development and learning for teacher populations, continued application and practice of differentiation in the field of social studies education, increased inclusion of social studies in the elementary classroom, the awareness and servicing of gifted learners in the middle school social studies classroom, and the increased inclusion of gifted populations with undergraduate and graduate social studies education programs.