This study examined the influence of instructional technology on Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) vocabulary acquisition and the intrinsic motivation language learners present while learning vocabulary in a second language. A quasi-experimental design helped determine the impact of the instructional technology intervention using Quia and Quizlet to learn vocabulary over direct instruction. A nonrandom convenience sample of (N = 47) participants was divided into the experimental group (n = 25) and control group (n = 22). Data was collected from face-to-face interactions. Participants were secondary Spanish two students, ages 14–17, and from a north Texas public school. I taught 10 lessons over 10 days during a 30–45-minute instructional technology or direct instruction activity independently. The findings revealed whether the strategies, (a) instructional technology or (b) direct instruction, have a significant impact on Spanish vocabulary acquisition and student intrinsic motivation. The study's findings were derived from independent t-tests, which indicated that using instructional technology did not impact vocabulary acquisition over participants learning through a direct instruction method. Student intrinsic motivation was also not impacted. The analysis determined no significant impact between instructional strategies or the student's intrinsic motivation while learning vocabulary in a second language. While this study provides practical …

The rapid expansion of computers and digital technology requires citizens to be digitally literate. Teachers must prepare students for a digital world despite the lack of consensus on a definition or its components. This multiple case study explored the digital literacy instruction and interactive decision making of teachers with varied levels of expertise. Each participant completed a survey and the General Decision Making Style Questionnaire prior to a series of interviews and classroom observations. Findings from a qualitative analysis of the data suggest variations in the use of digital literacy components during instruction and that skills are related to one another. Findings also indicate similarities and differences in interactive decision making and teaching expertise behaviors related to instruction. Based on these findings, recommendations to better promote digital literacy are directed toward teachers, administrators, teacher preparation institutions, and future researchers. Current events emphasize the need for increased efforts in turning the key of digital literacy for students.

A considerable amount of research has been done surrounding education in classrooms from kindergarten to Grade 12, but little research has been done surrounding early childhood education (ECE) beginning with birth to age 4. As a result, research is needed that examines interventions aimed to improve the quality of early childhood education for young bilingual learners at the earliest stages of schooling. The present study examines current efforts to serve the specific population of young bilingual children entering classrooms in an urban school district in North Texas. The focus of this study includes the access and examination of quality ECE programs (defined by the extent to which bilingual children have access to bilingual education programming). The present study also observes the visibility of young bilingual children who receive services that are responsive to their characteristics, experiences, and specific needs. Lastly, this study used a multiple regression analysis to examine the Kindergarten Early Assessment test that has been put in place to measure the school readiness performance of bilingual children in this urban district. Specifically, the analysis included program type, language of assessment, socio-economic status and gender variables.

This inquiry is an autoethnography of my experiences as a Black American male serving as a methods of social studies instructor to preservice teachers. Although some may deem this study as subjective, I have embraced that designation to provide insider information to others that face intersectionality and to inform institutional practices in teacher education programs.

This quantitative methods study explored the knowledge, attitudes and practices of PK-5 teachers on the use of technology applications in the classroom. The Texas State Board of Education has set in place standards for technology applications that require the use of technology applications across all grades. Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published new guidelines on the use of technology by children. However, it is the responsibility of teachers to implement and embed these standards, while also paying attention to the recommendations of the AAP. I developed a survey that provided demographic information, and included 12 items to measure the knowledge, attitudes and practices of teachers of technology applications in the classroom. Participants included 251 PK-5 teachers from three different districts in a South Texas region. Multiple regressions were conducted for each of the constructs produced by a factor analysis. Knowledge and attitudes presented no statistically significant results from individual teacher characteristics, but there were statistically significant differences on attitudes by districts. The regression analysis for practice reported a statistically significant difference between teachers that held a master's degree and those who did not. I conclude that technology applications implementation in the PK-5 classrooms is still developing and evolving, …

For decades, urban public schools have been plagued by systemic and structural challenges that continue today. Scholars, policymakers, and the general public have pointed to problems of learning in urban schools and to low expectations for urban students' learning, but little attention has been given to how urban students themselves conceptualize learning. This study sought to fill the void by asking a group of urban students about their views of learning. A phenomenographic approach was employed to examine the qualitatively different ways in which 20 urban elementary fifth-grade students expressed their conceptions of learning and of their learning approaches. Consistent with phenomenography, the study was intended to understand the collective expressions of individuals' conceptions regarding a phenomenon, and emphasis was on the mapping of variation across the conceptions. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions, conducted individually, elicited the students' conceptions of the meaning of learning and their learning approaches. In a "search for meaning" approach, analyses were based on students' transcribed responses forming a pool of quotations. These quotations were divided first into "what" and "how" categories—"what" is learning and "how" does learning occur—and then into subcategories. The results were a set of categories organized in a two-level hierarchy. The three …

This quantitative and qualitative case study examined the educators' perceptions of both the goals and unique aspects of the foundations for success (FFS) curriculum model. Specifically, this study was designed to explain the experiences of 55 early childhood educators and administrators who all had similar exposure to the FFS curriculum model. This study sought to understand the educators' perceptions of the specific goals of using pertinent curriculum and instruction terminology and the parallel process of content language, connecting the importance of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and learning standards and readiness for kindergarten. In the same way, the perceptions of the unique aspects of the value based curriculum, the use of reflective supervision and the use of design thinking were gathered and interpreted. This study looked closely into program successes, challenges and future implications of the FFS curriculum model. This study also considered the extent to which future implementations of the model could change the current interdependent relationship between early childhood education and the primary grades. The researcher analyzed the perceptions, utilizing the Likert-value survey instrument responses, the open-ended survey responses, along with the focus group responses to triangulate the findings. Common themes shared across all data collection were evaluated and …

The schoolhouse is a place in which messages for student consumption are typically found with classroom lectures, text, and activities. As with any social setting, however, the communication is not confined to one space but extends, in this case, to hallways, common spaces, and exterior of the building. One of the most common practices for the delivery of messages to students within the schoolhouse is through visual signage. Visual signage can traverse disciplines encompassing concepts from the fields of communication, semiotics, language, literacy, and even interior design. In an effort to understand the impact these signs have on student populations this dissertation asks the question: How are signs within public high schools produced, consumed, and influential to persons in contact with intended messages that are presented in public school spaces? The study utilizes ethnography to describe the production, consumption, and influence of fixed signs in the interior hallways and common spaces at three public high schools in Texas. At each campus, student volunteers, one from each grade level, provided their individual course schedule to follow their daily route from class to class at their particular high school. Post these observations these students engaged in focus groups to discuss the various …

The past decade has become rife with an eagerness to integrate new digital technology into teaching. While there have been decades of research done on the importance of curriculum and pedagogy on student engagement, findings of actual technology integration are scarce. Moreover, what does it take to engage students in classroom activities and lessons when technology is introduced? The purpose of this study was to explore how digital technology, when integrated into classroom teaching and activities, impacted the students-classroom engagement based on the interim-cognitive, meta-cognitive, motivational, and behavioral markers. This was explored in a Texas public high school across the four core classes (English, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Data was collected in the form of observational field notes, transcripts of recorded lessons, and Likert-scaled surveys. Thematic analysis was used in analyzing qualitative data, Pearson’s correlation of those components found by factor analysis verified three of the five themes identified from the thematic analysis with statistical significance. The findings suggest that mere use of technology does not have a profound impact on student engagement. Instead, technology tends to amplify the existing classroom culture and social norms agreed upon between the teacher and their students. Texas teachers and students are also …

Given issues in education concerning teacher shortages, the omnipresence of alternative certification programs and the growth of online programs in higher education, this study investigated teacher retention for 77 secondary education teachers who completed an online teacher preparation program in Texas. Teacher retention was examined from 2003-2013 and investigated the influence of factors such personal characteristics, working conditions and school setting characteristics on teacher retention. Data was collected electronically utilizing a survey instrument designed by two teacher education experts and I. A total of 21 variables and two open-ended questions were investigated using the survey instrument. Exploratory factor and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify a multi-factor model for teacher retention utilizing the participants' survey responses. These analyses yielded evidence of the program's effectiveness in preparing teachers for long careers. Specifically, the areas of program support, field experience, and classroom management were statistically significant factors that contributed positively to teacher retention. Additionally, variables outside the program, were examined. These factors included personal characteristics, working conditions, and school setting factors. The predictor model accounted for 56% of the variance; F (17, 54) = 3.015; p = < 0.001. In particular, working conditions contributed to 41% of the variance associated …

Receptive bilinguals have been in a dilemma of knowing just enough Spanish to write and aurally comprehend the curriculum at the beginning-intermediate levels of a Spanish language course. This dichotomy in classrooms with mixed-ability learners has created a need to reconsider placement and pedagogical structures tailored for these students in foreign language courses. Thus, this descriptive study examined the perceptions of receptive bilinguals, drawn from two secondary Spanish courses regarding receptive bilinguals’ language use, personal Spanish language abilities and confidence, personal beliefs about the language, and contentment with the course. For this study, 31 participants were selected from two public high schools in a suburb of a large metropolitan area in north Texas. Two surveys, a listening assessment and an online questionnaire, were administered at the end of the academic year. The Likert questionnaire items were analyzed using SPSS software, while open-ended questions were coded for recurrent themes. Analyses revealed four major findings. First, with regard to influence on language use, participants’ grandparents created the most interaction with the Spanish language when compared with the other family groups. In addition, Spanish influence through television, literature, radio, and music contributed to students’ early childhood Spanish learning. Second, as to language preference, …

Contributions from elementary education to the practice and reality of critical thinking are rare, largely because attempts in basic education to elucidate a concept of critical thinking have a hard time breaking through the elusiveness and indeterminacy that characterize the history and reality of the concept. This situation is due to, and a consequence of, the difficulty of delimiting critical thinking from related fields, such as metacognition, higher-order-thinking, problem solving, informal logic, reasoning skills, and decision making, to name a few. Texas school authorities designed and put into practice a battery of tools to evaluate critical thinking through the assessment programs TAKS and STAAR, without taking a position regarding the indeterminacy problems of the content of critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the pieces of the critical thinking model imparted to Texas elementary school children since 1999 and continues today. The findings indicate that the critical thinking model implemented in Texas elementary schools is a particular version of a skills-only approach of critical thinking that follows the classical logical paradigm, consisting of two sets of complementary skills. This model acquaints students with the components and structure of five types of arguments while it fails to substantiate …

This mixed-methods study examined the extent to which teacher performance and student performance measures correlated, and to understand which specific practices of mathematics teachers in Grades 3-5 related to student performance. Research was conducted at five elementary schools in a large, urban north Texas school district. Data sources included component scores and recorded evidence from observation rubrics, interviews with campus administrators, and value-added modeling (VAM) student growth scores. Findings indicated a modest relationship between teacher performance levels and student performance levels. Lack of access to individual teacher VAM data, per district policy, might have impacted the strength of the relationship. Interviews with administrators and an examination of the evidence cited in the observation rubrics identified specific practices associated with highly rated mathematics teaching. Differences in administrators’ experience levels with both mathematics instruction and the observation instrument might have influenced rubric scores and the level of specificity shown in evidence statements.

This study investigated the beliefs of teachers at a particular elementary campus in North Texas during its first year of implementation of a social emotional curriculum regarding teaching social emotional skills and the influence of those beliefs on their classroom practices. The study drew from the works of Dewey and Bandura in the development of a framework for teacher decision making. A case study design incorporating multiple cases within the case study utilized a mixed-methods approach for data collection and analysis. Ten teachers volunteered and participated in the quantitative data collection, and four of those ten participated in the qualitative data collection through interviews and classroom observations. Data collection methods also included a demographic survey, a questionnaire on teacher beliefs about social emotional learning, and a self-ranking scale of practices related to teaching social emotional skills. Results indicated that although all participants believed social emotional skills instruction was part of their duties as teachers, their practices in teaching social emotional skills varied. Additionally, there was a mismatch between participants’ self-identified practices and the practices that were observed during the study. Administrative support for program implementation was high, but did not necessarily translate to effective practices during the first year of …

The purpose of this study was to construct portrayals of teachers7 work conceptions in various career stages from the stories they told and the metaphors they used to describe the ways in which teachers learned about their work. Specifically, the study included preservice teachers, first-year teachers, third-year teachers, and teachers with more than four years of teaching experience at the elementary and secondary school levels. Thirty-five elementary and secondary school teachers from the North-Central area of Texas participated in this study (nineteen inservice and sixteen preservice teachers). Qualitative techniques were employed to collect data. The preservice teachers filled out a questionnaire and wrote short stories about their preconceptions of their first year of teaching. Inservice teachers were interviewed using a short questionnaire and a long interview schedule. Nine inservice teachers participated in a storytelling workshop/focus group session. Group stories based on predetermined scenarios were constructed, tape-recorded and transcribed. The focus group session was videotaped and transcribed. Fifteen categories emerged from the analysis of the data: cyclical, ritualized, hierarchical, reciprocal, developmental, experiential, reflective, cumulative, body of knowledge, folkloric, individualized/personalized, order/control/manage, disciplinarian, facilitative, and replicative. These categories represent a summary of the constructs, images, contextual maps and metaphors held by these teachers …

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze how Homecourt, a nondirective support group at a public high school in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, operates and how it affects students.

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of participation in a Supplemental Instruction (SI) program on student test performance in a second-level developmental mathematics class in a four-year university setting. This research deviated from past research on Supplemental Instruction in that it examined effects of the program at the end of each test block rather than at the end of the course only. The quasi-experimental design was precipitated by an inability to control factors of participation and limited sample size. Test data were analyzed using analysis of variance; final course grades were analyzed using chi-square.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether school-based decision making (SBDM) impacts student achievement. Specifically, the study involved determining if the degree of teacher involvement in SBDM across eight decision dimensions differed between schools that demonstrated the most and schools that demonstrated the least district improvement in student achievement. The population consisted of elementary schools in a large urban school district with more than ten years of SBDM implementation. Student achievement scores from 1993 to 1995 were examined for all 68 elementary schools. Based on degree of improvement for fourth grade scores over the three years, 15 schools from the 25% most improved and 15 schools from the 25% least improved were selected for study. Schools from the two extreme-groups sample were matched on five demographic variables. The Teacher Involvement Participation Scale—TIPS-2 (Russell,1992), an instrument for measuring the degree of SBDM in eight different decision dimensions, was given to all certified personnel at each school. A return of 575 surveys represented 63% of the sample schools' staff. Two short questionnaires were administered to principals and SBDM teams to collect descriptive data. Findings, using MANOVA followed by univariate tests, indicated significant differences between groups in six of the eight …

The involvement of teachers, parents, and administrators in shared decision making is a critical component in recent attempts to implement site-based decision making in Texas schools. This involvement is usually maintained through the school council, which is the sanctioned forum for discourse as defined by Texas laws. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and analyze the content and patterns of decision making discourse in three Texas elementary school councils. The research questions focused on (a) council member role descriptions, (b) training, (c) patterns of deliberation, and (d) varieties of issues discussed. A total of 44 council members participated in the research. Observation, interviews, structured group interviews, decision-making inventories, and documents were used to collect data from December 1992 until January 1994.

This paper examined the process followed in the selection and establishment of an inner-city Professional Development School located in a large, North Texas school district.

The purpose of this study was to determine if appraisers using the TTAS in Texas perceived themselves as being objective in the evaluation process. The population for this study was 213 appraisers, both elementary and secondary, chosen randomly from four educational service areas in four regions of Texas. Data were obtained from a 25-item questionnaire mailed to the appraisers. The organization of this study includes a statement of the problem, the research questions, a review of the literature, the methods and procedures used to collect the data, the analysis of the data, and a summary of the findings, conclusions, implications, and recommendations for additional research. Data from the 213 returned questionnaires were treated with the chi-square test of independence. The analysis of data revealed the following: 1. Regardless of the level, elementary or secondary, of the administrator, the majority of respondents held the same views. 2. Regardless of the region of Texas from which the respondents came, the majority of respondents held the same views. 3. Regardless of the number of years of experience of the appraisers, the majority of respondents held the same views. 4. The majority of respondents felt they are objective in their use of the TTAS. …

In 1983, the report A Nation at Risk catapulted school reform to the forefront of national attention. The State of Texas responded with legislation dictating curriculum and instructional time. Failure to accomplish the desired improvement in student achievement caused these mandates to be eased. In lieu of the mandates, the Texas legislature and the Texas Education Agency have set expectation standards called academic indicators. Local districts and campuses must utilize site based decision making (SBDM) to determine how each campus will meet the set standards. Dealing primarily with curriculum roles and responsibilities, this study details perceptions of principals and teachers as SBDM was being implemented in a suburban school district serving 25,000 students. Data were gathered utilizing a structured interview and a follow-up telephone interview. Addressed in the study are perceptions of: (a) role changes, (b) responsibility changes, (c) needed improvements in the implementation process, (d) teacher empowerment, (e) positive and negative elements, and (f) student achievement.

In this study, six research questions were addressed: (1) Does a teacher who has a spiritual calling have a different motivation (self, interaction, task) to his/her work than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (2) Does a teacher who feels a spiritual calling have a different locus of control (internal, external) than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (3) Does a teacher who has a spiritual calling have a different degree of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (4) Does a teacher who has a spiritual calling have a different sense of voluntary commitment in the longevity of his/her work experience than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (5) Is there a different concentration of teachers who have a spiritual calling in public or parochial schools? (6) Does the public or religious school affiliation make a difference in research questions #1 through #4? A Teacher Motivation Inventory was compiled using The Orientation Inventory by Bass, Rotter's Internal/External Locus of Control, Maslach Burnout Inventory by Maslach, Jackson, and Schwab, a Researcher-made Spiritual Calling Inventory, and longevity questions. Tukey HSD post hoc comparisons …

Conflict is inevitable in school and in life. Many children lack skills necessary to resolve daily conflicts constructively. Without knowledge of positive ways to manage conflicts, violence may result. Limited research suggests that involvement in a peer mediation program may have a positive influence on children. This study assessed effects peer mediation training and mediation experience had on student mediators. The pretest-posttest, control-group, and quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of a year long peer mediation program implemented in a suburban elementary school.