Study and teaching (Secondary)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher retention and student achievement as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) Math Developmental Scale Scores (DSS). This study examined the impact of teacher transience on high school student math scores over a three-year period and considered the effect of teacher years of experience in relation to transience and achievement. For the purposes of this study teachers were identified into the following four classifications: Stayers, Within District Movers, Cross District Movers, or Beginning teachers. The findings indicated that students of beginning teachers scored significantly lower on the ninth grade math test than students of teachers in the other three classifications. At the 10th grade level there was no significant difference among the teacher transience groups. Based upon the findings, the following conclusion resulted from the study. Since an analysis of the data indicated that teacher retention is likely to improve ninth grade student score gains on the FCAT Math assessment, it is recommended that High School administrators carefully review the teaching assignments of ninth grade math teachers, especially in this era of high stakes testing and accountability.

This ethnographic study investigated teacher leadership and professional learning in a secondary mathematics department. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews, observations, and document analysis. It is the social aspect of the school environment and specifically, the subject department, which presents an opportunity for teachers to learn and share their expertise with one another in an informal setting and for teacher leaders to emerge using their expertise and close proximity to affect the learning of colleagues. Teachers were asked to share their thoughts on leadership and learning within their department. A narrative was written to give the reader a better understanding of the day-to-day practices, behaviors, and habits of the teachers in the department, creating a holistic picture of the culture studied. ... teacher leadership is experienced informally through teachers sharing and talking about their practice. Teacher leadership is also experienced outside the department when teachers have opportunities to lead school professional development seminars and to practice leadership through role modeling. Professional learning is experienced one-on-one, as well as formally and informally through colleagues and organized workshops. Implications for administrators, department and team leaders, and policy implementation are discussed. This study may contribute to the development of teacher leadership and professional learning, which ultimately may lead to improving student achievement.

This mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between Advanced Placement (AP) social studies teachers' utilization of academic course blogs and student achievement. Simultaneously, the study examined the participating teachers' perceptions on the use of course blogs and other social media as supplemental learning resources. The study further explored a possible moderating effect of the social studies subject on student achievement and a possible moderating effect of students' previous academic blog usage on student achievement within the study. Quantitative data were collected from students' pre-tests and unit tests scores and analyzed for statistical significance. Qualitative data were collected through teacher-generated notes during the blogs, individual interviews, and a follow-up focus group interview. The results of this study indicated that there was no overall significant difference in student achievement between the blogging and non-blogging groups. On the contrary , a significant interaction between the social studies subject area and the use of academic course blogs was found when examining student achievement. However, this practical interaction was revealed to be a weak one. Further findings indicated that there was no significant interaction between students' previous blog usage and academic achievement during the study. From the qualitative data, participating teachers perceived the course blogs to be potentially advantageous for students and themselves, yet expressed frustration when implementing the course blogs with their students. Instead, they endorsed the academic use of Facebook, a resource that some students from two participating courses separately utilized instead of (or in addition to) the course blogs during the study. Teachers further expressed concern about relinquishing their subject knowledge and AP expertise to readily available course content on the Internet. Implications and suggestions for future f or AP social studi

Proficient reading is a necessary skill for a quality life. While educators would like to believe that most students master the art of reading and can understand what they read, national reports indicate that learning to read and becoming a skilled reader is not mastered by all (No Child Left Behind Act, 2001 ; NICHD, 2000a). One component of successful reading is the ability to read a text with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (Pinnell et al., 1995) reported that 44% of the nation's fourth grade students were not able to read at an acceptable level of fluency that was considered necessary for comprehension. Since the publication of that report, research has shown that with direct instruction and remediation of fluency, students in the elementary grades can increase their reading rate. One of the most common fluency intervention techniques is repeated readings (Samuels,1979). However, most of the studies completed include ele mentary students and were focused on increasing their reading rate. Some students are arriving at the secondary level with reading problems which include fluency and comprehension. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of repeated readings on the rate, accuracy, and comprehension of students with disabilities at the secondary level. This study involved a total of 35 students with learning disabilities in grades 6-9. A quasi-experimental design was used for this study. The treatment group received a total of 20 sessions of repeated reading with immediate feedback., goal setting, and independent practice with graphing of reading rate. The comparison group continued their reading instruction with no fluency intervention.The results indicate that this combination of repeated readings had a significant influence on reading rate only.

This quantitative study investigated the relationship between high school social studies teachers' reading professional development through Project CRISS: Creating Independence through Student-Owned Strategies (CRISS) and the implementation of active reading strategies in the classroom. Quantitative data were collected through an online survey in order to provide a comprehensive picture of high school social studies teachers' self-reported classroom practices relating to the use of active prereading, during-reading, and postreading strategies. Additionally, the survey asked teachers to self-report their observations of student independent implementation of the same active reading strategies. These data were used to provide an in-depth look that expanded on high school social studies teachers' self-reported classroom practices relating to reading. The results of this study indicated that there was no significant relationship between teachers' reading professional development through CRISS and their self-reported classroom practices in the implementation of active pre-, during, and postreading strategies. Further findings indicated no significant relationship between teachers' reading professional development through CRISS and their self-reported observations of student independent implementation of the same active reading strategies. Lastly, there were no correlations that indicated that years teaching in the classroom moderated these relationships. Implications and suggestions for future research were offered for future reading professional development for secondary teachers and educational researchers who intend to utilize survey instruments.

This mixed-methodology study examined the effect of using Electronic textbook highlight and animation tools on the knowledge and comprehension achieved by10th grade students. Eighty-two students enrolled in a regular World History course were purposefully selected and assigned to 1 of 4 groups: (a) Highlight, (b) Animation, (c) Highlight-and-Animation, or (d) Comparison. A One-Way ANCOVA with a Bonferroni Adjusted Alpha was used in analyzing the results of the knowledge and comprehension World History pretest and posttest that were administered. A Factorial ANCOVA with a Bonferroni Adjusted Alpha was used in analyzing the influence of the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) moderator. Using the eEdition World History textbook tools of highlight and animation did not significantly impact the World History knowledge and comprehension scores achieved by participants and the participant's SRI level did not significantly moderate the relative effectiveness of the conditions. Interview data from 3 Student Focus groups and 1 Teacher Focus group were analyzed with an open exploratory coding strategy. The resulting classification code of "ease of use" was characterized by: (a) time required to learn to use the tools, and (b) time to complete the tasks. A second code, "choice" was characterized by: (a) choice of instruction tools, and (b) choice in monitoring and assessing student activity. The focus groups indicated that they would use the tools in the future due to benefits such as the ability to modify the information to match their learning and instructional preferences. They also stressed that more instruction on the use of eEdition tools was needed.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the biology content, instructional strategies, and assessment methods of 100 biological science websites that were appropriate for Grade 12 educational purposes. For the analysis of each website, an instrument, developed from the National Science Education Standards (NSES) for Grade 12 Life Science coupled with criteria derived from the Web-based Inquiry (WBI) for Learning Science instrument (Bodzin, 2005) and other pertinent published educational literature, was utilized. The analysis focused on elucidating the appropriateness of the biology content, instructional strategies, and assessment tools of selected websites for facilitating the biological science education of Grade 12 students. Frequencies of agreement and disagreement of the content of each selected website with criteria included in the data collection instrument were used for alignment determination of the content of each website with the NSES. Chi-square tests were performed by Microsoft Excel to determine the statistical significance of differences of actual and expected 85% frequencies of alignment of the analyzed website parameters with indicators of alignment to NSES. Chi-square tests indicated that at a 0.05 level of significance there was an overall difference between the actual and expected 85% frequencies of alignment of biology content, instructional strategies and assessment methods with website indicators of alignment with the NSES (p < 0.05). Chi-square tests also indicated that there was a significant difference between the actual and expected frequencies of alignment of analyzed categories (biology content, instructional strategies, and assessment methods) of the sampled websites with website indicators of alignment with the NSES (p < 0.05).

The purpose of this proposed research study was to identify actual teaching practices/instructional strategies for online science courses. The identification of these teaching practices/instructional strategies could be used to compile a set of teaching practices/instructional strategies for virtual high school and online academy science instructors. This study could assist online science instructors by determining which teaching practices/instructional strategies were preferred for the online teaching environment. The literature reviewed the role of online and face-to-face instructional strategies, then discussed and elaborated on the science instructional strategies used by teachers, specifically at the secondary level. The current literature did not reflect an integration of these areas of study. Therefore, the connectedness of these two types of instructional strategies and the creation of a set of preferred instructional practices for online science instruction was deemed necessary. For the purpose of this study, the researcher designed a survey for face-to-face and online teachers to identify preferred teaching practices, instructional strategies, and types of technology used when teaching high school science students. The survey also requested demographic data information from the faculty members, including years of experience, subject(s) taught, and whether the teacher taught in a traditional classroom or online, to determine if any of those elements affect differences in faculty perceptions with regard to the questions under investigation. The findings from the current study added to the literature by demonstrating the differences and the similarities that exist between online and face-to-face instruction. Both forms of instruction tend to rely on student-centered approaches to teaching.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether statistically significant differences existed between high school Honors Physics websites and those of Advanced Placement (AP) Physics in terms of web-design, National Science Education Standards (NSES) Physics content, and NSES Science Process standards. The procedure began with the selection of 152 sites comprising two groups with equal sample sizes of 76 for Honors Physics and for Advanced Placement Physics. The websites used in the study were accumulated using the Google[TM] search engine. To find Honors Physics websites, the search words "honors physics high school" were entered as the query into the search engine. To find sites for Advanced Placement Physics, the query, "advanced placement physics high school," was entered into the search engine. The evaluation of each website was performed using an instrument developed by the researcher based on three attributes: Web-design, NSES Physics content, and NSES Science Process standards. A "1" was scored if the website was found to have each attribute, otherwise a "0" was given. This process continued until all 76 websites were evaluated for each of the two types of physics websites, Honors and Advanced Placement. Subsequently the data were processed using Excel functions and the SPSS statistical software program. The mean and standard deviation were computed individually for the three attributes under consideration. Three, 2-tailed, independent samples t tests were performed to compare the two groups of physics websites separately on the basis of Web Design, Physics Content, and Science Process. The results of the study indicated that there was only one statistically significant difference between high school Honors Physics websites and those of AP Physics.

The purpose of this research was to explore middle school leaders' perceptions of the reasons girls' enrollment levels in science courses during high school declines and if the advice given to middle school girls may be perpetuating the diminished enrollment of girls in science courses as they move from middle school to high school. The study explored the contributions of expectancy and role theory using a qualitative method. Data analysis found that cultural influences on middle school girls' career goals emerged as a significant influence on school leaders' perceptions. Instructional methodology and cultural, gendered assumptions of women in science were found as themes in middle school leaders' perceptions that further shaped the advice to girls to enroll in high school science courses. The study provided information that clarified how middle school leaders can maintain the academic pathway for girls in science as well as recommendations for further study.