Middle School represents a period of transition for the students. This transition is present not only in physical change, intellectual change, and emotional change, but also in terms of the type of reading instruction these students receive. One approach to reading instruction moves from a direct approach focusing on specific skills, to a functional approach of how to apply those skills in the content area classroom. The latter approach is process oriented, and focuses on learning the content by reading and participating in relevant learning activities. The focus of this study was to examine the interaction which takes place among textbooks, instructors, and students in the area of Social Studies within selected middle schools. Three phases were involved in this study. Phase one: Grade six Social Studies textbooks were evaluated using the Singer Reading Inventory, which evaluates the areas of organization, explication, conceptual density, metadiscourse, and instructional devices within a given textbook. Phase two: Visitations to five middle school Social Studies classrooms were conducted over an eight week period in an effort to determine the types of instructional strategies employed by teachers. Phase three: Academic achievement was measured by publisher provided examinations, teacher prepared examinations, or an aggregate of daily scores. Hypothesis one: Social Studies textbooks which are more considerate will result in greater student achievement. This hypothesis was rejected. The achievement of students was inversely related to the results of the evaluation of the textbooks as determined by the Singer Reading Inventory. The rejection of this hypothesis must be qualified in terms of the content the subareas of the Singer Reading Inventory measured, and the type of information the student had to acquire in order to perform well academically. Hypothesis two: Teachers who employ more strategies which are of a functional process approach will enhance student achievement in the content areas. This hypothesis was retained. The preceeding findings may be partially explained by considering the possibility that some classroom instructors compensate for the inadequacies of textbooks by providing more effective strategies and activities which enhance the interaction of information exchange within the classroom. / Graduation date: 1990

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-124). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-124). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-159) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-185).

This study investigates the effects that enrollment in a year’s social studies teacher training program emphasizing global education has on preservice social studies teachers’ teaching behaviors. A qualitative research effort supported by quantitative approaches was employed. A researcher-made questionnaire, the Social Studies Internship Inventory (SSII), was utilized along with classroom observations by a participant-observer. Subjects taking the SSII included all student teachers completing their internships in secondary social studies education during the 1988-1989 academic year. For the observational portion of this study, six subjects were selected from among the aforementioned group. Their student teaching placements were in a mixture of urban, suburban, and inner-city schools at both the junior and senior high school levels. Findings include: much of global education relies on the ability of the teacher to recognize a "critical teaching moment"; a curriculum that emphasizes a global perspective may depend more on the teacher than other curriculums; daily newspaper reading increased significantly between the beginning of the academic year and the end of the internship; a reversal occurred in the popularity of the television and newspaper as the main source of information over the course of the academic year (television news was watched more at the beginning? newspapers consulted more by the end); at the beginning of the study, 20% of the future teachers belonged to a professional organization; by the end of the program, 96% had memberships; though both the discrete and infusion approaches to global perspectives in education have their respective merits, a blending of the two was most effective; the role of the cooperating teacher seems to be crucial in imparting global perspectives to the student teacher; the university supervisor, who was trained in global perspectives, had an effect on the interns’ teaching; an unexpected finding was the great amount of student-talk observed; teachers who were most successful in teaching from a global perspective emphasized critical thinking skills and civic responsibility.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-228).

Thesis (M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / This study aimed at exploring the experiences of Social Sciences teachers in secondary schools with regard to the implementation of the evolving curriculum policies in schools. In order for the study to be successful, a comprehensive literature review was done, and not only teachers, but also Curriculum advisors and circuit managers were selected and interviewed for the researcher to gain insight of the daily experiences in schools as they work with teachers on daily basis. The interviewees were from the Capricorn District in Mankweng circuit. The researcher used data collection instruments in a form of questerviews and individual interviews. The instruments were guided by the objectives of the study. The sampling was made in this cluster taking into cognisance its vastness, since it consists of 5 circuits which are Mankweng Circuit, Kgakotlou Circuit, Mamabolo Circuit, Lebopo Circuit and Dimamo Circuit. The total number of schools in all the circuits is 62. The study focused on the chosen high schools which comprised 2 schools per circuit and a minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 teachers per school were interviewed. One circuit manager and curriculum advisor were also interviewed in the study. The study’s findings revealed that there is a lack of thorough training. This is in spite of the fact that the department hosts a series of briefings which do not seem to achieve the expected outcomes due to the limited time allocated. In the view of teachers, training serves as a cornerstone for the implementation of the curriculum policies. Findings also showed that teachers were overloaded due to low enrolment as many children prefer schools with a good infrastructure which many rural schools lack. Poor enrolment results in limited teachers who are overloaded as they end up having to teach many subjects. Since teachers are partners in education, the study made recommendations that teachers be given enough training to overcome implementation challenges. Teachers should also further their studies in order to improve their knowledge regarding curriculum changes. The universities should also serve as partners in empowering teachers with policy developments. Lastly, teachers should be assessed more often on curriculum policies to avoid the incorrect implementation of policies

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2005. / Advisors: Alicia R. Crowe, Shawn Fitzgerald. Keywords: teacher education; mobile computing; handheld computing; social studies education; attitudes. Includes survey instrument. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-128). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Aug. 24, 2006). Advisors: Alicia R. Crowe, Shawn Fitzgerald. Keywords: teacher education; mobile computing; handheld computing; social studies education; attitudes. Includes survey instrument. Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-128).