0

Eric.ed.gov – An Analysis of the Effects of an Academic Summer Program for Middle School Students

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This report examines the implementation and effects of the academic summer program for middle school students offered by Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL). BELL’s middle school program serves rising sixth- through eighth-grade students who are performing one to two years below grade level. The goals of the program are to increase students’ literacy and math skills and to enhance their social development. Overall, the findings from this study indicate that BELL mounted a fairly well-run and well-staffed five-week summer program in summer 2012 and that students attended at a high rate even though the program was voluntary. The pattern of impact estimates suggests that, on returning to school in fall 2012, BELL students may have had stronger math skills than they would have had otherwise, equivalent… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Passport Reading Journeys [TM]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Brief

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Literacy skills are critical to students’ academic achievement and setting them on a path to successful high school graduation and readiness for college and careers. “Passport Reading Journeys” [TM] is a supplemental literacy curriculum designed to help improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, word study, and writing skills of struggling readers in grades 6-12. Lessons incorporate both teacher-led instruction and technology, including whole-class and small-group instruction, independent reading, video segments, and independent computer-based practice. The curriculum includes a series of two-week, ten lesson instructional sequences on topics in science, math, fine art, literature, and social studies. Each sequence is themed as an expedition or journey for students. This What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) report, part of the WWC’s Adolescent Literacy topic area, explores the effects of “Passport Reading Journeys” [TM]… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Passport Reading Journeys [TM]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Literacy skills are critical to students’ academic achievement and setting them on a path to successful high school graduation and readiness for college and careers. “Passport Reading Journeys” [TM] is a supplemental literacy curriculum designed to help improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, word study, and writing skills of struggling readers in grades 6-12. Lessons incorporate both teacher-led instruction and technology, including whole-class and small-group instruction, independent reading, video segments, and independent computer-based practice. The curriculum includes a series of two-week, ten lesson instructional sequences on topics in science, math, fine art, literature, and social studies. Each sequence is themed as an expedition or journey for students. This What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) report, part of the WWC’s Adolescent Literacy topic area, explores the effects of “Passport Reading Journeys” [TM]… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Integrated Science and Math for Junior High Teacher Preparation: Staff Development as a Continual Process.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper presents a project description of efforts to improve preservice teacher education programs. The project focuses on two aspects. The first aspect probes Auburn Junior High School eighth-grade students and Auburn University preservice teachers, while the second probes Auburn Junior High School faculty and Auburn University faculty. The necessity of starting professional development before certification as a teacher is advocated. Two interdependent timelines of the project are provided. (YDS) Link til kilde

0

Eric.ed.gov – The Predictive Role of Teaching Styles on Omani Students’ Mathematics Motivation

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The current study explored the effects of two teaching styles, authoritative and authoritarian, on students’ mathematics motivation. The two motivational constructs examined were intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Data were collected from 425 Omani 8th grade students (males = 202/females = 223, mean age = 13.44, SD = 0.79). Through two questionnaires, students reported their perceptions of their math teachers’ teaching styles, and their own motivational orientation towards mathematics. Multiple regression models were used to analyze the data. The findings suggest the two teaching styles play a role in predicting students’ mathematics motivation. An authoritative teaching style seems to be the better predictor of the two motivational constructs, when compared with an authoritarian style. Eighteen percent of the variance was accounted for in the intrinsic motivation model, compared… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – How Non-Linearity and Grade-Level Differences Complicate the Validation of Observation Protocols

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Teacher evaluation is currently a major policy issue at all levels of the K-12 system driven in large part by current US Department of Education requirements. The main objective of this study is to explore the patterns of relationship between observational scores and value-added measures of teacher performance in math classrooms and the variation in these relationships across grade levels. While the MET analyses used a single composite score consisting of a simple average of the eight component scores of the protocol, in our work we treated each component separately since each measures a separately definable aspect of classroom practice. Specifically, across all the components, the authors pose the following questions: (1) Do the relationships between observation scores of math teachers and their value-added scores tend to… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Parent Involvement, Academic Achievement and the Role of Student Attitudes and Behaviors as Mediators

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Previous research shows inconsistent relationships between parent involvement and academic achievement and often asks why such inconsistencies occur. The research proposes a theoretical model that separates parent involvement into those practices linking parents to children and those practices linking parents to other adults in the school environment. The researcher hypothesizes that parent-child (i.e. discussion and monitoring) and parent-school (i.e. educational support strategies and Parent Teacher Organization involvement) practices will differentially affect student attitudes (educational expectations), behaviors (absenteeism, homework, truancy), and achievement (math and science). Using a national survey conducted in the United States of schools and students, the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88), The research estimates a series of hierarchical models to test the direct and indirect effects of parent involvement on student attitudinal, behavioral and academic… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – New Perspectives on Problem-Solving: Autonomous Math Learning Behavior and Math Achievement.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Autonomous Learning Behavior (ALB) as mediators between internal and external influences and performance on high level cognitive tasks was proposed as a possible explanation for gender-related differences in mathematics. This study developed a measure of ALB by drawing on teachers’ working knowledge and the literature on problem-solving, including self-regulatory and metacognitive strategies. The Math Assessment Project Questionnaire was used to assess students’ awareness of their behaviors in a mathematics class and a non-routine word problem solving was used to measure the ALB. Students’ confidence and achievement were also collected as data. No gender differences were found on the math achievement measures, the ALB questionnaire, or the confidence measure on two-tailed t-tests. However, the inclusion of the interaction term between gender and confidence showed a significant rise in… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Pathways to STEM Initiative (PSI): Evaluation Report for an Investing in Innovation (I3) Development Grant

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the Pathways to STEM Initiative (PSI) on students and science teachers and to describe the level of PSI implementation. One group of middle schools participated in PSI, which included project-based science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) coursework; extra-curricular STEM opportunities for students; and teacher professional development. A multivariate matching algorithm was used to identify a comparison group of schools that received the participating district’s standard science curriculum. The students in the study schools were 62% Hispanic/Latino, 17% Black/African American, and 12% White. Additionally, 23% of the students were English language learners. The study compared students’ science achievement and teachers’ beliefs about science and attitudes toward STEM across the treatment and comparison schools and assessed the fidelity… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Some Ways to Get a Piece of Pi Day Action

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In many parts of the world, Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (3.14), but because of the day-month ordering of dates in Australia, and because March is very close to the start of the academic year, Australians prefer to celebrate Pi (Approximation) Day on 22 July (22/7). Thirty-eight Year 8 students (aged 13-14 years) from two local high schools in Canberra, Australia, joined ESTeM Maths and Education staff on July 22, 2014, to celebrate Pi Day. This article describes the activities in which the students participated during the Pi Day celebration. The organizers of the activities selected six activities that met a combined criteria of feasibility, pedagogical soundness, and pedagogical appropriateness for the Australian school system. Time constraints were a significant factor in selecting activities. The… Continue Reading