Students benefit from positive sport experiences in physical education. If designed well, sport provides a social avenue for physical activity and strengthens student achievement in psychomotor (e.g., motor skill), cognitive (e.g., decision-making), and affective (e.g., personal and social responsibility) learning domains. Unfortunately, not all students receive quality sport instruction and many students fail to have positive sport experiences in physical education. The Tactical Games Model (TGM, Griffin, Mitchell, & Oslin, 1997) is an instructional model focused on improving student sport experiences. As a constructivist approach to teaching and learning sport, TGM reshapes sport lessons to allow students to experience small-sided games (Game 1), think critically about games playing (Q & A), practice aspects of playing (Situated Practice), and show improvement in games playing (Game 2). TGM literature includes practitioner reports about involvement (Berkowitz, 1996) and findings that show measures of game performance (e.g., skill execution, decision-making) during a TGM sport unit (Allison & Thorpe, 1997; Turner & Martinek, 1999). Limited data is available to explain how the constructivist nature of TGM influences motivation (Griffin & Patton, 2005; Rink, 2001). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine motivation using situational interest theory (Chen, Darst, & Pangrazi, 1999; Mitchell, 1993) to interpret participant – learning situation (Game 1, Q & A, Practice, and Game 2) experiences during an eight-day TGM Ultimate Frisbee unit. The researcher acted as teacher-researcher and participants were 15 fifth graders (assigned to heterogeneous teams) and Mia, the regular physical education teacher and participant-observer. Data were collected using surveys, learning situation questionnaires, interviews, and systematic observations using the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI, Oslin, Mitchell, & Griffin, 1998). Data analysis incorporated open and axial coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), theoretical comparisons (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), and concept mapping (Rossman & Rallis, 2003). Findings show that participants': (a) participated in daily lessons regardless of gender, goal orientation, skill/effort level, and personal interest in Ultimate, (b) were excited to play games (Game 1, Game 2) because they wanted to move, liked Ultimate, and/or wanted to assess skills/playing, (c) required challenging conditions, positive competition, and/or individual/team success in order to have a positive participant-games playing experience, (d) entered Q & A and Practice expecting to learn something new, (e) stayed interested in Q & A if they received answers, learned facts/rules, and/or felt the discussion helped team, (f) remained involved in Practice if team worked well, task was fun, and/or they learned skill/strategy, and (g) perceived improvements in games playing (e.g., throwing). Mia concluded that participants: (a) were motivated to play, (b) were involved in the different learning situations, and (c) improved games playing during the unit. GPAI scores confirmed that participants improved at least one area of game performance (e.g., skill execution-passing) between Day 3 (week 1) and Day 7 (week 2).

This research study examined the long-term effects of a professional development study tour to Southeast Asia that took place in 2001. Participants included ten public school teachers from Western Massachusetts, which has a significant population of people of Vietnamese and Cambodian descent. Funded by a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant, the purpose of the study tour was to increase teacher awareness, knowledge and understanding of contemporary Southeast Asia so that they could more effectively address the educational needs of students representing diverse cultural backgrounds, particularly immigrant and refugee youth, through the development of culturally relevant curricula and lesson plans. From 2007 to 2009, this researcher conducted a series of phenomenological interviews with nine of the original participants to investigate more deeply how their personal and professional lives were impacted by the study tour experience. The decision to interview using a phenomenological approach was based on the belief that in order to more fully understand how and why individuals constructed meaning(s) from certain experiences, it was essential to have some contextual knowledge of that person’s life, including those formative episodes that helped establish their original worldview. Analysis of study tour impact areas revealed areas of personal and professional growth particularly as it pertained to the development of sociocultural consciousness, cultural understanding, sensitivity and empathy towards students of diverse cultural backgrounds. Another finding was that the experience of being an “outsider” in another country provided the context for teachers to explore and critically reflect on issues related to their own social and cultural identities. Further analyses revealed that the overall impact of the study tour varied based on the participant’s prior intercultural and life experiences. Participants with less experience and practical knowledge of issues of multiculturalism and identity were more likely than their counterparts to come away from the experience with more profound changes to their worldview. This study is theoretically grounded with research in multicultural education, experiential education, transformative learning, global education and study abroad.

The current case study evaluates a program of professional development aimed at engaging two groups of elementary teachers in communities of practice (CoPs) focused on improving teachers' vocabulary instruction and students' vocabulary learning. The professional development program took place over five months in the 2008-2009 school year. The purpose of the evaluation was to evaluate the merit and worth of the professional development program and identify changes that could be implemented by the primary evaluator in future efforts to develop and refine an effective method for teaching teachers about vocabulary instruction. An explanatory case study design was used to achieve a deep understanding of the program using both quantitative and qualitative data analyses. The evaluation measured aspects of collaborative practices engaged in by teachers over the course of the program, as well as teachers' instructional practices and students' learning before and after program implementation. Evaluation questions were designed to explore the theory that teacher collaboration leads to increases in teacher knowledge and skills, which in turn lead to increases in teachers' classroom use of new knowledge and skills, which ultimately lead to increases in student achievement. Overall, the evaluation was successful in that it was able to clearly describe the collaborative practices engaged in by teachers, provide evidence of teacher and student learning, and provide extensive insights into changes and improvements that were then implemented in an extension to the CoP in the same district during the subsequent school year. Additionally, the evaluation uncovered key variables that may act to impede teacher collaboration.

Teaching for social justice is the attempt by classroom teachers to use their position in the classroom to promote social and educational reform within and despite current educational conditions and mandates. However, while a growing number of K-12 teachers have published anecdotal reports of their attempts to teach for social justice in secondary classrooms (e.g., Bender-Slack, 2007; Christensen, 2000; Singer, 2005), there is great variability among these accounts, and scant evaluation of their impact on specific academic, behavioral/motivational, and attitudinal outcomes (see Grant & Agosto, 2008; Kelly & Brandes, 2008; Poplin & Rivera, 2005). This qualitative study addresses this research gap by offering a concrete framework for teaching for social justice that is informed by multiple education reform traditions (including democratic education, critical (Freirian) pedagogy, multicultural education, culturally responsive education, and social justice education) and associated with positive academic, behavioral/motivational, and attitudinal outcomes. Next, I present the results of a constructivist grounded theory analysis examining how twenty-four English Language Arts teachers conceptualize teaching for social justice, as well as a content (lesson plan) analysis detailing how they operationalize the practice through the use of standards-based curriculum. Findings indicate that secondary ELA teachers define teaching for social justice as having three primary dimensions: curriculum, pedagogy, and social action. These priorities are reflected in their curriculum, which addressed all four strands of the Massachusetts ELA Curricular Frameworks (Language, Reading and Literature, Writing, and Media) and a range of social justice topics. Additional study findings examine challenges associated with teaching for social justice, the impact of teachers’ identities and school contexts on their social justice practice, and variance in how teachers conceptualize and implement teaching for social justice according to their sociopolitical emphases. This study has several implications for policy and practice. Specifically, this study challenges critics’ attempts to portray social justice education as poorly aligned with academically rigorous content-area instruction (e.g., Will, 2006), offers curricular guidance to pre- and in-service teachers interested in transforming their own practice, and lays the foundation for future empirical research related to how teaching for social justice affects student outcomes.

In this current era of postmodernity, globalization, and new technological and social conditions, new approaches to literacy teaching are being introduced and examined. Studies that explore complexities of language teaching and learning in discourses of postmodernity as they relate to college contexts are significant for educators, researchers, and policy makers. This study employs a critical ethnographic lens to examine Arabic teaching and learning practices in one college campus in the United States post 9/11. It explores the dialogic construction of critical literacy events in the Arabic classroom where modern and postmodern discourses collide. Three questions guide the research: who are the students of Arabic and what are their investments in learning Arabic, how do uses of the Arabic language textbook shape curriculum instruction in the Arabic foreign language classroom in contexts of late modernity, and how can teachers of Arabic instantiate critical dialogues and allow a space for negotiated interpretations of modern textbooks in late modern classrooms. To address these issues, the study draws on post structural and sociocultural theories of language. To analyze ethnographic classroom data, the study adopts broad analytic strategies from interdisciplinary critical language approaches (Dyson, 1993; Fairclough, 2001; Janks, 2010; Rampton, 2006). Analysis of the data shows that the Arabic language learners relate to the social world through a mosaic of identities and investments influenced by contexts of postmodernity. The data also points to the role of the teacher in opening a space for the construction of plural voices of language learners that disrupts traditional perspectives of schooling. Implications of the study point towards a need for a new pedagogy that embraces new literacy practices informed by contexts of postmodernity. With new channels of multimodal communications, heterogeneous multicultural societies, and contexts of globalization, foreign language teaching and learning at the college level is in need for vital update that meets the new challenges (Byrnes, 2010; Kramsch, 2009; New London Group, 1996).

The purpose of this qualitative case study describes and analyzes the perspectives of five elementary classroom teachers using the application of movement in their classrooms and the learning through movement perspective of two children from each classroom. The study looked at the relationship between teachers' abilities to construct movement-based active learning experiences for their students, and how students responded to this method of learning. The research design involved in-depth interviews with five teachers and ten children beginning September 28, 2007 and ending in November 2007. The interviews were structured and unstructured, audio-recorded, transcribed and then coded. Three observations of each classroom were also audio-recorded, transcribed and additional reflections were notated in field notes. Each teacher and their selected students were treated as a case study in and of itself. Once each study was analyzed as a case, a cross-case analysis was used to develop a more sophisticated description. To increase trustworthiness and to minimize common threats to validity, triangulation, member checking, and peer debriefing were used by the researcher. The researcher discussed the findings as they related to the three research questions that guided the study's purpose: (1) To what extent do the selected teachers use movement to engage students in the active learning process? (2) To what extent can the selected teachers assess when the children derive meaning of classroom concepts using a movement-based active learning process? (3) To what extent do selected teachers change their teaching based on movement-based active learning? The data revealed that students were motivated to learn and were engaged when teachers provided movement-based active learning in a safe environment that embraced problem solving and allowed students to make choices. The data also revealed that the teachers were more aware of student's success or need for remediation when watching their movement, listening to their interactions, and asking facilitating questions. Finally, the teachers changed the way they taught when they have the desire, comfort, and understanding of the new teaching process. Each teacher in this study wanted to continue the use of movement-based active learning and find additional ways to use it in other curriculum areas.

Educators are pressed to take seriously their obligation for improving success in school for failure-expectant children and for changing the means used to achieve learning outcomes. This dissertation describes the processes, activities and suggested strategies for integrating staff development, parent outreach and after-school skill support for a small group of low-income Black children targeted for retention at the fifth grade. The project comprised three elements: an after-school skills development/homework hurdle program; a staff development program focusing on encouraging high teacher expectations for all children and a parent outreach program. The project sought to enable minority, failure-expectant children to experience success. Teachers practiced positive interactional and support skills designed to demonstrate an understanding of how their behaviors and expectations impacted on student achievement. The after-school project and staff development component incorporated characteristics drawn from the effective-schools research, such as: (a) the principal's leadership and attention to the quality of instruction, (b) school climate contributing to teaching and learning, (c) high expectations for performance of all students, (d) teachers committed to bringing all children to at least minimum mastery, and (e) assessing and monitoring student achievement. The project had positive effects on student achievement as measured on standardized tests and report card grades, as well as student behaviors. Teachers held higher expectations, practiced effective teaching strategies, and interacted more with colleagues and parents. Educators have a strong knowledge base for school improvement activities among current staffs, but there are no fixed methods or standard blueprints to explain how to combine people, ideas and programs to create a setting that meets all the diverse needs presented by poor and minority children with a history of limited academic achievement. Viewing change as a process, the after-school project directly assisted at risk students in ways that helped teachers modify their strategies and organizational routines to meet educational needs of Black, failure-expectant children. With commitment and accountability for success, learning outcomes increased through staff development, parent outreach, attention to learning readiness, social competencies, and mastery of basic skills. Failure-expectant students came to think of themselves as capable of learning; and their gains helped teachers see the importance of positive expectations. The principal also increased a repertoire of school improvement strategies.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of vocational education as a process for social control in the United States and Portugal, emphasizing the contributions of industry and the corporate world through educational partnerships. Specifically, the study examines how vocational education is perceived by educators and corporate leaders, and role of industry in either promoting social mobility for students or perpetuating social control. The study also analyzes the 1990 Carl D. Perkins Act and the 1986 Portuguese educational reform. This study uses a comparative/qualitative case study research methodology that includes historical research in vocational/technical education in the two countries, and analysis of data collected in interviews that reflect the perceptions of the interviewees in vocational education.

In Somali secondary schools and in the Somali secondary science teacher education program the science curriculum is organized and taught under difficult conditions. The problem of selecting an effective program has not been adequately addressed. Science is taught directly to students as content knowledge and the way science is taught is the legacy of two educational systems, the colonial and the Koranic. The Somali secondary level schools further lack systematic curriculum development and tradition and experience in science teaching. The researcher in this study investigated through a literature review what, of all the science content that could be taught, is most essential to be taught in Somali secondary schools and in the Somali secondary science teacher education program. As a result of the literature review it was concluded this most essential science content, the "essence of science," is "science as a way of knowing." The researcher further investigated through a survey questionnaire and an in-depth interview authored by the researcher and through a Nature Of Science Scale (NOSS) developed by Kimball (1967) the perceptions of a selected group of Somali ex-science teachers who are now in North America regarding the following issues: (a) The most essential aspect of science that should be part of every secondary school science course; (b) the most essential science content for a secondary science teacher education program in an African country like Somalia; (c) the most important goals for the teaching of science at the secondary school level; (d) the most desirable consequences of science instruction at the secondary school level and in the secondary science teacher education program; and (e) the nature of science. In the study it was concluded that there was a mismatch between these perceptions of the Somali ex-science teachers and what was revealed in the literature review as the essence of science, science as a way of knowing.

This study was purposed to understand the experiences of a group of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTA) working in a college remedial mathematics program which emphasized constructivist problem solving. Data were collected from four sources: in-depth and post interviews with the UTAs, interviews with the co-working instructors, interviews with two students from each of the UTA's class, and classroom observations. Results were presented in two ways: (a) UTAs' stories were told in individual profiles, detailing their experiences learning math from early school years and their teaching math in the current context; and (b) from the perspective of their four tasks (asking constructivist questions, classroom circulation, homework grading, and working in the Study Center), describing their successes and difficulties. Three important results were surmised from the data. First, UTAs' past experiences with math had a large effect on how they perceived their own math abilities and the way they thought that math should be taught. Second, the use of constructivist approach to teaching and learning was effective in changing UTAs' perceptions of what math was and how it could be learned; however, it also added pressure to these UTAs in their work with their students. Third, because of the contructivist emphasis, UTAs experienced early on impact and task concerns as well as personal concerns. Suggestions for preparing training program's for similar populations were advanced.