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Eric.ed.gov – Choosing a STEM Path: “Course-Sequencing in High School and Postsecondary Outcomes”

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The College Ambition Program (CAP) model was developed to support high schools in preparing their students to enter STEM fields. CAP includes four programmatic components: mentoring, course counseling and advising, college-related activities and workshops, and teacher professional development and instructional support. This study is part of a larger project that will test the overall effectiveness of the CAP intervention model that is concluding its first year of implementation and data collection (2010-2011). Currently, two experimental schools and two control schools will be included in the analysis. Data will be collected from school records, student surveys, and merged with state data. Each component of the intervention has specific measures for assessing relative value for increasing college attendance and STEM interest among students who are college ready, but do… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Parent Engagement Representatives (PERS), 2015-2016. Research Educational Program Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Parent, school, and community engagement is widely established as a collaborative strategy to improve the school experience and educational outcomes for children and youth (Epstein & Sanders, 2006; SEDL, 2013; Weiss, Lopez, & Rosenberg, 2011; Barr & Saltmarsh, 2014). Consistent with this viewpoint, the Houston Independent School District (HISD), through the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Department, initiated the Parent Engagement Representatives (PERs) program. The PERs program is funded by the Title I, Part A Parent Involvement grant. The program was aligned with the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships. This home to school partnership model incorporates activities that are designed to enhance parent/teacher conference participation and parent awareness of district and community programs and resources. PERs partnered with school staff at 20 HISD elementary, middle, and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Talking Science in an ESL Pre-K: Theory-Building with Realia

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: What is realia and theory-building? Tim Kinard and Jesse Gainer explain that when students explore using “realia,” they are not just being exposed to abstract concepts or text on a page, they are using “real-life” objects to build understandings of the natural world while they builds vocabulary about it. Handling and discussing real-world objects (acorns, pine cones, flowers, bones, antlers, dirt), in both the first language of the students, as well as a second language learned in school, builds vocabulary quickly as students engage in meaningful communication with scaffolds bridging first and second languages. The use of “realia” and other visuals are one way to provide ESL students opportunities for meaningful communication in English. Creating strategic partnerships that pair ELLs with native English speakers is another effective… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – InterMath[14]–Professional and Cognitive Development through Problem Solving with Technology

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: InterMath, a five-year effort funded through the National Science Foundation, is a statewide Internet-based project with the goal of designing and implementing a series of workshops and ongoing support programs that feature contemporary applications of technology and mathematics pedagogy in the middle grades. Technology is used to deliver the curriculum through Web-based materials and to explore the mathematics using cognitive tools such as dynamic geometry software, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators. Objectives of InterMath include: strengthening the middle school teacher’s knowledge and understanding of mathematics; providing a support structure (online and in-school) to aid teachers in implementing and integrating technology tools for doing mathematics; and providing a structured in-service curriculum that follows Georgia’s Quality Core Curriculum objectives as well as reform efforts expressed in publications by the National… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Learner-Centered Professional Development Environments in Mathematics: The InterMath Experience.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this paper is to examine two InterMath pilot workshops and how they were able to meet the goals of learner-centered professional development. The paper focuses on the experiences of the learners, offers insights from each case as well as across cases, and provides suggestions to improve the experience for later learners. The data reported in this paper came only from the workshops and interviews with the teachers and the instructors. Several findings emerged that spanned across both cases. Support and interaction became very intertwined in the cross-case analysis. Another support/interaction issue that appeared was the overwhelming number of procedural questions that were asked by the participants. Finally, while the researchers provided every opportunity for collaborative learning, few teachers chose to engage in it. There… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Finding “Mathematics”: Parents Questioning School-Centered Approaches to Involvement in Children’s Mathematics Learning

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper reports on a study of parental involvement in children’s mathematics learning in the context of a series of workshops carried out in four primary schools in the United Kingdom. Previous research suggests that, while there are high correlations between parental involvement and positive student outcomes, it can be difficult to raise student achievement via parental involvement interventions. We suggest that part of the reason for this, at least in relation to mathematics, is that parents experience considerable difficulties in negotiating school-centered definitions of and approaches to mathematics. We employed a design and analytic approach informed by Derridean concepts including decentering and différance. We encouraged parents to work with their children to “find the math” in everyday life and activity. A significant component of the discussion… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Changing Mindsets: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Changing Mindsets project sought to improve academic attainment by supporting pupils to develop a growth mindset: the belief that intelligence is not a fixed characteristic and can be increased through effort. Previous research (Good et al., 2003; Blackwell et al., 2007) has suggested that holding this belief enables pupils to work harder and achieve better results. The project consisted of two separate interventions: (1) an intervention that taught pupils directly about the malleability of intelligence through six workshops, which were delivered by undergraduates from the University of Portsmouth, and four further sessions delivered by two local organisations: the Education Business Partnership, and Pompey Study Centre (now called Portsmouth in the Community); and (2) a professional development course that trained teachers on approaches to developing and reinforcing… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Online Teacher Training: The Early Childhood Technology Integrated Instructional System–Phase 3

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Legislation, research, and practice support access to technology by young children with disabilities. Yet barriers to technology use–lack of training, inadequate funding, failure to acknowledge technology as a relevant issue, or disbelief that technology can positively impact young children with disabilities–often prevail among many disciplines important to early childhood teams (Barnett, 2001; Healy, 1998; Hutinger, Hall, Johanson, Robinson, Stoneburner, & Wisslead, 1994; Pressman, 1999). The purpose of this study is to present the findings from the Early Childhood Technology Integrated Instructional System (EC-TIIS)–Phase 3 project. EC-TIIS utilizes nine online workshops (Adaptations, Computer Environment, Curriculum Integration, Emergent Literacy, Expressive Arts, Family Participation, Math, Science, and Social Studies, Software Evaluation, Technology Assessment) to assist teachers’ use of technology with children with special needs. It was also designed as a… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Partnering with Parents: Using Cap Kits to Support Learning Activities at Home

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The idea of using plastic bottle caps to enhance children’s literacy and math skills was introduced in a pre-kindergarten methods and field class at West Chester University. We wanted an essentially cost-free way to create fun, hands-on, educational games for young students to learn basic skills supporting the Common Core State Standards (adopted by 45 states, www.corestandards.org/in-the-states). University education students began bringing plastic bottle caps, packaging them into kits, and taking them into local schools to help children learn. We have now not only formalized the Cap Kits program, but we have also conducted dozens of teacher trainings and parent workshops and have given away thousands of Cap Kits. By placing these materials into the hands of children, we are giving them manipulatives that can be used… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Creative Futures: Act, Sing, Play. Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Act, Sing, Play (ASP) offered music and drama tuition to Year 2 pupils. The aim of the programme was to evaluate whether music workshops had a bigger impact than drama workshops in terms of pupils’ maths and literacy attainment. The evaluation was based on the hypothesis that participation in high-quality music instruction promotes educational attainment over and above instruction in other artistic pursuits (see Schellenberg, 2004). The ASP programme was developed specifically for this trial and ran from September 2013 to June 2014: 909 pupils participated in 19 schools across London, Essex, Sussex and Coventry. In each participating Year 2 class, pupils were randomly allocated to one of three groups: violin or cello workshops (ASP-strings), singing lessons (ASP-singing), or drama workshops (ASP-drama). The two music groups (strings… Continue Reading