Current Issues in Education (E-Journal, Arizona State University)
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Children's Stereotype Threat in African-American High School Students: An Initial Investigation
Get PDFStereotype threat refers to the risk associated with confirming a negative stereotype based on group membership. We examined this effect in a sample of African-American high school students. Stereotype threat was manipulated by presenting a visual spatial reasoning test as (a) diagnostic of mathematical ability or (b) a culture and gender fair test of mathematical reasoning. Support was found for the general effect, and while tests of the effect of the manipulation on anxiety and perceptions of ability and expectancies for success were statistically inconclusive, the data trended in the predicted direction. Implications related to the high-stakes testing of African-American students are discussed
School Reform through a School/University Partnership
Get PDFThis is a study of a reform effort to improve mathematics achievement in an elementary school through a partnership with a university. The partnership involved collaborating with university faculty to provide and plan research based professional development. The purposes of the study were to determine if the instructional practices of the teachers changed, if the delivery of staff development changed, and if student achievement improved over a six year period. The research methods used to answer these questions were both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative methods utilized were: interviews, pre and post classroom observations, and observations of grade level meetings. The quantitative components were the pre and post administration of the Missouri Teacher Survey of Classroom Practices: Mathematics and the analysis of test scores on the statewide assessment from 1999-2004. The results indicated some change in instructional practices, significant increases in staff development and collaboration, and increased student achievement in mathematics
Understanding Hypertext in the Context of Reading on the Web: Language Learners' Experience
Get PDFThis paper explores second language readers' understanding of hypertext in the context of reading on the web from a qualitative research paradigm. A total of six undergraduates English as second language (ESL) students voluntarily participated in this study. The results showed that students' understanding varied depending on the presentation of hypertext readings. The findings suggested that students saw hypertext as a valuable bank of information when they were exposed to linear hypertext. When they encountered the non-linear hypertext, they perceived it as a maze and experienced disorientation. It is concluded that neither computer nor text reading skills alone are an adequate basis to start using hypertext technology in language classrooms
Use of the Transcendental Meditation Technique to Reduce Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by Reducing Stress and Anxiety: An Exploratory Study
Get PDFThis exploratory study tested the feasibility of using the Transcendental Meditation® technique to reduce stress and anxiety as a means of reducing symptoms of ADHD. Students ages 11-14 were taught the technique, and practiced it twice daily in school. Common ADHD inventories and performance measures of executive function were administered at baseline and three months later. Results showed statistically significant reductions in stress, anxiety, and improvements in ADHD symptoms and executive function
Teacher Training, Sexuality Education, and Intellectual Disabilities: An Online Workshop
Get PDFThe focus of this study was to assess the impact of an online workshop on teachers knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy beliefs toward sexuality education and intellectual disabilities. A pretest-post-test group design was implemented for this study. Sixty-eight teachers were randomly assigned to one of two training conditions or a control group. Results demonstrated that teachers in both training groups, information and information/reflection, scored significantly higher compared to the control group on the Knowledge toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Questionnaire, the Attitudes toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Survey, and the Self-Efficacy toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Survey. Teachers in the information/reflection group scored the highest of all three groups on the Attitudes toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Survey
Connecticut's New Teacher Evaluation Process: The Concerns and Experiences of Educators in Two Pilot Districts
Get PDFThis paper provides select results from a study that examined public school personnels concerns about implementing Connecticuts new teacher evaluation process. Data were gathered from educators in two districts involved in a statewide pilot of the new process. To examine change over time, study volunteers completed an Internet-based survey twice: in the beginning of the school year and at the end of the school year. A subsample of participants also participated in a focus group at the end of the pilot school year. Results reveal a shift in concerns from a focus on self and tasks to improving the process. At the same time, the level of commitment to implementing the process as experienced in the pilot decreased somewhat
Veterans as Teachers? A Literature Review of Inhibitors and Enablers for Veterans to Complete College and Veterans as Teachers.
No full textWith almost two million veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, many of them may be coming to American colleges and universities as a result of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. These veterans have lucrative education benefits available to them, such as the Montgomery GI Bill, Post-9/11 GI Bill and, if they joined from Texas, the Hazlewood Exemption. With the shortage of teachers in high-needs schools and in areas of need, such as math and science, veterans provide a population from which to draw teachers. Research on military veterans becoming teachers indicates that they exhibit the characteristics sought in effective teachers. This literature review provides a short history of veterans education benefits, reviews the inhibitors and enablers for veterans to complete college, and reviews the literature on veterans as teachers. This literature review informs the discussion of policy on campuses as well as decisions that are made.  
Preservice Elementary School English Teachers' Involvement in Remedial English Education as Their Field Experience: Challenges and Implications
No full textThis study analyzed 24 pre-service elementary school English teachers design and delivery of remedial education to the fifth and sixth graders in the collaboration between the university pre-service teacher education program and the local elementary school in a city in northwest Taiwan. The pre-service teachers were encouraged by the elementary school fifth and sixth graders improvement in English and their positive attitude toward learning English. However, these pre-service teachers lacked insufficient competence and skills in classroom management, teaching small groups, carrying out class activities, and using the target language. Scheduling of the remedial education as pre-service teachers field experience should be taken into consideration for collaboration between elementary school English teachers and language teacher education programs. A model on the effective collaboration between elementary school English teachers and the language teacher education program is recommended
Reframing the Self in an International Learning Context: The Experience of International Students with Disability
Get PDFIn teaching and dialoguing with international students with disability we often had to struggle with questions such as: What is the nature of student experience? And how are we supporting international students with disability articulate transformative perspectives of the self? This paper, which is based on a qualitative case study of two international students with a disability at McKenzie University (a pseudonym) Melbourne, Australia, is written to provide insider accounts and provoke understanding into how Bourdieus notion of habitus, capital and field can be expanded to account for the conscious transformations that the students made in recalibrating themselves in their new fields. The paper calls for nuanced reading of how transformation of the self constitutes ongoing reframing of the habitus as a way of detaching oneself from dominant prescriptions of disability within ones field. We ask our readers to consider how this detachment brings into being new formation of the self and capital to the students. Finally we bring a reflective reading to the data as a critical moment of practice and to reclaim our understandings of disability not as inability, but as complicated socio-political construct that needs to be contested. It is within these contested spaces that we can gain the strength to give marginalized selves the voices they need to move beyond margins of tertiary education.
An Examination into the Validity of Secondary School Entrance Scores in Predicting the Academic Success of Secondary Aged Students
Get PDF The Barbados Secondary School Entrance Examination (BSSEE) is used to allocate students to secondary schools in Barbados. However, this means of allocation has always been contentious. Therefore the aim of this study was to establish the predictive validity of the BSSEE in relation to the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC). Academic achievement was measured using students performances on the BSSEE and CSEC. The sample included 252 students across Barbados (130 males, 122 females). The results showed that the BSSEE accounted for 29% of the variance for this sample. Additionally, the means of female students were higher on both the BSSEE and CSEC, but only a statistically significant difference was obtained on the BSEEE. The BSSEE should be used in conjunction with other assessment scores as a fairer means to allocate students. Furthermore, the BSSEE should be used as a diagnostic tool for remediation