Browsing by Subject "Classroom management"
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Item Community and the college classroom: an exploration of teacher, student, and classroom variables(2006) Salazar, Tammy Tomberlin; Weinstein, Claire Ellen; Svinicki, Marilla D., 1946-Currently, many colleges and universities are embracing learning communities as a way of addressing the problems of student retention and academic achievement (Chesebro, Green, Mino, Snider, & Venable, 1999). Current research on learning communities indicates that students who participate in a learning community have greater motivation, strategy use, involvement, interactions with other students and with faculty, and academic achievement than those students who are not part of a learning community (Gabelnick, MacGregor, Matthews, & Smith, 1992; Tinto and Goodsell, 1993; Tinto, 1997; Heller, 1998; Chesebro, Green, Mino, Snider, & Venable, 1999; Pike, 1999; Stefanau & Salisbury‐Glennon, 2002). The primary definition of a learning community used in past research is one that exists outside the classroom setting. There has not been sufficient empirical research on a community of learners inside the classroom. This study was designed to understand teacher, classroom, and students variables that play a part in classroom community. The course that was examined in the present study, EDP 310: Individual Learning Skills, meets the criteria for a learning community, in that it contains a small number of students (maximum of 28), promotes active and collaborative learning and knowledge construction, enables students to interact with other students as well as the instructors of the course, ties in different areas of study, and enables instructors to work together to plan and implement classroom activities that promote meaningful learning. Both quantitative instruments and qualitative examination was used. The results showed that students’ satisfaction with their teacher was the biggest predictor of classroom community measured at mid‐semester and that it was the combination of teacher (students’ satisfaction with the teacher), classroom (students’ satisfaction with the course) and student (motivation) variables that was the biggest predictor of classroom community measured at the end of the semester. Overall, the instructor had the most significant impact on classroom community.Item The effectiveness of a classroom-based intervention for social aggression(2007) Schaber, Pamela McDonald; Carlson, Cindy I., 1949-This study sought to determine if a six session classroom intervention coupled with a teacher education program was sufficient to alter behaviors related to socially aggressive behaviors of fourth grade students. The treatment manual for this intervention was developed by Pamela McDonald Schaber and Daniel Hoard (Schaber and Hoard, 2006), following a review of the literature on ecological intervention for overt and social/relational aggression. The objectives of the intervention were to reduce aggressive behaviors through an ecological approach by: 1) educating students on types of bullying (physical and social), the role of the bystander in contributing to bullying, and the consequences for individuals and the classroom environment when bullying occurs; 2) challenging sympathetic attitudes about the appropriateness of bullying; 3) providing students with strategies for intervening when they observe bullying; 4) modeling bystander interventions; 5) giving students an opportunity to practice bystander interventions; and 6) empowering classrooms to develop a code of conduct for working together to reduce bullying. Participants were 71 fourth grade students from a Central Texas elementary school. Participants completed the Social Experiences Questionnaire -- peer-report which is a peer-rating measure of their classmates' frequency of social aggression and prosocial behavior. They also completed the Participant Roles Questionnaire -- self-report to determine how often they engaged in the different roles associated with bullying (i.e., bully, defender, assistant...). The main findings were that social aggression decreased for boys but not girls, and bully behavior decreased for both boys and girls. Unexpected findings were that prosocial behavior decreased from pre-test to post-test, and there were no changes evidenced in defender, assistant, and reinforcer behaviors. Implications and limitations for the findings are provided.Item The impact of elementary school teachers’ beliefs about classroom management on intervention implementation decisions(2015-12) Terrell, Clarissa Lestee; Stark, Kevin Douglas; Carter, JenniferThere is a gap in the research about teacher beliefs as it pertains to how these beliefs guide teachers’ intervention decisions, particularly decisions about classroom management. The proposed study is interested in understanding and exploring how teacher beliefs impact classroom management implementation decisions. While classroom management interventions are used across grade levels, behavior management is a primary concern during the elementary school years. Therefore, the proposed study will be conducted with elementary school teachers. In order to more keenly examine this teaching experience, the proposed study will use a phenomenological approach to discern whether there are overarching themes in how teachers think about classroom management, plan and implement classroom management interventions, adjust to changes in the classroom environment, and represent their beliefs about classroom management in their classroom activities. This information will be obtained through the use of qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and two lived experience descriptions.Item Managing the three-ring circus : a study of student teachers’ understanding and learning of classroom management decision making(2011-05) Cassady, Allison Hanna; Field, Sherry L.Learning to manage a classroom of twenty-two elementary students is often likened to conducting a three-ring circus, particularly in the eyes of student teachers. As they enter the field, student teachers are given their first opportunities to observe and experience the delicate art of managing a classroom. They are faced with the challenges of handling the various aspects of teaching. Concurrently, they are enrolled in various methods courses as assigned by their university teacher preparation program, instructing them in various theories and best practices of their craft. In addition to enduring these challenges, student teachers must learn to think and make decisions as teachers. They are instructed to teach using explicit steps and procedures, yet the decision-making processes necessary for becoming a successful educator and manager are not addressed. Through qualitative case study, five student teachers share their observations and experiences as they met the challenges of learning to manage a classroom, focusing upon the need for sound decision making skills. Data for this investigation was taken from observations, interviews, reflections, and archived documents. Cross-case analyses revealed that participants felt anxious and unprepared when managing a classroom and lacked the decision-making skills necessary for successful management. The themes and findings derived from the data suggest that a great deal of management learning and decision-making skills come from time in the elementary classroom in conjunction with explicit teaching and conversations concerning these skills. Likewise, the relationship between the cooperating teacher and the student teacher, the authority the student teacher possesses in the classroom, as well as the teaching philosophies held by both greatly affect the successful acquisition of management decision-making skills. This study holds implications for the preparation student teachers receive, with regard to classroom management decision making, in their field-placement classrooms and university teacher preparation programs.Item Middle school teachers, certification, classroom management, and student discipline : a study of early career teachers in Central Texas schools(2015-05) McMurrey, Allen Lamar III; Valenzuela, Angela; Reddick, Richard J; Holme, Jennifer J; Saenz, Victor BThere has been a substantial amount of research conducted that has studied teacher quality in regards to the types of certification training that a teacher received to become a highly qualified teacher. Within the research literature on this subject were arguments that supported both sides of the traditional teacher certification versus alternative teacher certification debate. While many studies have looked at test scores and student achievement as the most important aspects of teacher quality, this study explored the relationship between teacher quality as it related to type of teacher certification and their classroom management and student discipline beliefs and practices. Taken into account were the very real consequences of teachers mismanaging their classrooms by over disciplining students many of whom were disproportionately economically disadvantaged, minority, at-risk, and special education students. This study investigated traditionally certified teachers and alternatively certified teachers in four central Texas urban and suburban school districts that each served a high number of economically disadvantaged and at-risk students. The schools that were used were all middle schools. The literature that was used to develop this study revealed variances in how traditionally certified and alternatively certified teachers are studied and how they are perceived. The literature also revealed how classroom mismanagement via overuse of disciplinary referrals and suspensions for minor, discretionary infractions has had a detrimental effect on the academic outcomes of the most vulnerable students in our public schools. What this study does is add to the existing literature on teacher certification and teacher quality. How it was significant was that it stepped away from the more traditional, standardized test result based, or value added models of teacher certification studies by focusing on classroom management and discipline beliefs and practices of teachers new to the profession. This was a unique study in that it focused on the certification training and classroom management and student discipline beliefs and practices teachers new to the profession teaching in both urban and suburban middle school classrooms which served high numbers of poor, at-risk students. The study involved using a take home survey that asked teachers to provide basic demographic data about themselves, their certification programs, their challenges as new to the profession teachers, and how they felt about teaching in general. Included in the study were teacher’s responses to video scenarios of students breaking discretionary rules which they viewed in a face to face meeting in their own classrooms. The data from these were examined to discern whether or not there was a discernible difference in the way each group of teachers felt about their preparedness to teach and how they rated the infractions played out in the student video scenarios.Item Power and caring embodied through bilingual preservice teachers' choice of participant structures(2016-05) Wall, Dorothy Jeanne; Palmer, Deborah K., 1969-; Rodríguez, Haydeé M; Callahan, Rebecca M; Martínez, Ramón A; Menchaca, MarthaPower and Caring Embodied through Bilingual Preservice Teachers’ Choice of Participant Structures is a qualitative multicase study about the ways in which three Mexican-origin preservice teachers drew from their pedagogical philosophies of authentic cariño to make sense of their choice of participant structures in bilingual student teaching contexts. This dissertation project drew from a larger study investigating seven Latin@ preservice teachers’ choice of participant structures in one-way and two-way dual language pre-kinder and kindergarten classrooms from the same bilingual education cohort at a large public Texas university in a medium-sized city. Guided by a critical framework that weaves together sociocultural literature on multilingual learning environments, LatCrit theory, and pedagogy as authentic cariño viewed through a lens of power as caring relations, the goals of this project were two-fold: 1) to explore the types of participant structures that bilingual preservice teachers were implementing during their student teaching semester and 2) to investigate their sensemaking process around those decisions of which participant structures to implement. Findings revealed that the three maestr@s implemented a variety of participant structures in their one-way dual language student teaching placements, and that they made sense of these choices guided by their pedagogical philosophies of authentic cariño that they had constructed through their life experiences. Additionally, their mentor teachers’ choice of participant structures and degree of alignment with the maestr@s’ philosophies, the supportive space of the post-observation conference, and the maestr@s’ perceived competencies with classroom management intersected with the participant structures that they chose. These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of factors that bilingual preservice teachers consider when selecting the ways that their students may actively participate during a lesson, but also that their identities, past experiences, and pedagogical philosophies really do matter. This work has important implications for teacher preparation in bilingual and ESL contexts, teaching, and policy in supporting the use of empowering participant structures for emergent bilingual students.