Masters Theses

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Browsing Masters Theses by Department "Education"
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    BUILDING A CORPUS-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL VOCABULARY MODEL: INTERDISCIPLINARY ACADEMIC WORDS IN UNIVERSITY READING SUPPORT COURSES
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2019) Nelson, Timothy Scott ; Albakry, Mohammed A. ; Magne, Cyrille L. ; Tharp, Terri J. ; Education
    While research demonstrates the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension (Anderson & Freebody, 1981; Guo, Roehrig, & Williams, 2011), many studies suggest wide reading exposure for vocabulary acquisition (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985; Stahl & Nagy, 2006). However, there is compelling evidence for the benefits of direct vocabulary instruction (Elleman, Lindo, Morphy, & Compton, 2009; Laufer & Rozovski-Roitblat, 2015). Due to the volume of vocabulary acquisition that is needed, time considerations and subjectivity can make instructional vocabulary selection seem futile. To overcome these issues, the use of corpora has enhanced the possibilities of identifying high-frequency lexical items in a systematic and more objective manner. Drawing on insights from multiple disciplines, this dissertation adopts a corpus-based approach for the selection and teaching of high-frequency interdisciplinary academic vocabulary in a model that accommodates the needs of students in university reading support courses. The adopted corpus-based model identifies instructional vocabulary with the support of the Word and Phrase Tool (Davies, 2013), a Web interface that allows users to scan texts in order to gain instructional information about their lexical profiles. Considering academic vocabulary to be an interrelated feature of academic language, the dissertation shows how a well-designed empirical selection process can advance the capabilities of instructors in ways that address some valid concerns of earlier word list approaches. The instructional portion of the model is organized around a researcher-developed method called item discussions that uses a graphic organizer for students to record vocabulary explorations that are attentive to known aspects of vocabulary development such as definition, morphology, and synonymy and, additionally, to generate sentences using each term in a context similar to that in which it was encountered. To further investigate the effectiveness of this corpus-based instructional model, a preliminary small-scale experimental study was conducted with students enrolled in two reading support classes at a large university (N = 18). Moderate to strong effect sizes were found for similar-to-instructional context encounters (g = .73) and the full instructional model (g = .95), suggesting that the model offers a promising approach. The discussion includes pedagogical implications and further directions for research and implementation.
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    Cognitive Flexibility and Working Memory's Longitudinal Prediction of Reading Achievement
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) Barnes, Zachary ; Education
    Executive function skills have a direct link to reading comprehension (Carretti, Borella, Cornoldi, & De Beni, 2009). Specifically, cognitive flexibility and working memory have been shown as a significant contributor to reading comprehension (Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2004; Cartwright, 2002). Understanding the link between cognitive flexibility, working memory, and reading achievement would allow researchers and educators to identify students in kindergarten who are at risk of reading difficulty. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K: 2011), cognitive flexibility and working memory were investigated to understand if those specific skills at kindergarten were predictive of reading achievement at the end of grade one, two, three, and four using multiple linear regression while controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and gender. Results showed that working memory and cognitive flexibility were significant predictors for all time points, over and beyond Gender and SES. A second analysis was conducted to analyze the growth of reading achievement, working memory, and cognitive flexibility from kindergarten to fourth grade while investigating if students’ SES impacted the slope and intercept of the growth. Results showed that SES impacted the intercept and slope of cognitive flexibility.
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    EDUCATOR PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING SUPPORTS AND INTERVENTIONS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) Tilley, Joseph M ; Education
    Students today can enter classrooms lacking the social and emotional skills needed to achieve academic and behavioral success in school. As the need for the classroom-based social and emotional interventions and supports grow, the need to identify the perceptions of teachers involved in the identification and implementation of these interventions and supports has also grown. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to collect the perceptions of a group of educators involved in the identification and implementation of social and emotional learning supports and interventions to determine what can be learned and applied to improve this process. A group of teachers at a charter school in Texas were surveyed and interviewed to collect their perceptions surrounding the identification and implementation of social and emotional learning supports and interventions. While the educators in the study reported a strong belief in the need for and importance of social and emotional interventions and supports, they also cited a need for appropriate professional development, training, and support to successfully meet the social and emotional needs of their students. Further, the educators reported a strong desire to address student needs through a more proactive approach, rather than a reactive approach. Finally, the educators reported a desire to be more actively involved in a structured, continuous approach to identifying and implementing social and emotional learning supports and interventions. This research study has implications for both theory and practice. The process of identifying and implementing social and emotional learning supports and interventions can serve as a theoretical framework for future research. In practice, the steps associated with the identification and implementation of SEL can be executed at the institutional level to address student needs. This institutional specific research study provides an opportunity for future related research to be conducted.
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    Effects of Adapted Self-Regulated Strategy Development and Focused Vocabulary Instruction for Second Language Adolescents
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) Fields, Robin Stacy ; Education
    Writing is a skill that has increased in significance for both researchers and classroom teachers due to changes in recent standards. Currently, many high school English Language Learners (ELLs) are struggling to master this priority skill. A strategy that has been shown to be effective for adolescent writers is Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). Although this strategy has been researched with a variety of populations, it has yet to be studied in ELL high school students. An additional effective practice for ELL older student writers is providing feedback during the writing process. However, the most effective method of instruction is uncertain. This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of an adapted SRSD method as compared to business as usual method on quality and accuracy measures among ELL adolescents. This study used an experimental, randomized control design using both researcher created and standardized measures. Results indicated that students in the treatment group statistically significantly improved over the business as usual control group on all quality measures. For accuracy (i.e., grammar, punctuation, sentence level errors), a small effect (g = 0.35) was reported when using researcher created near-transfer measures. Educators have several concerns when teaching ELL adolescents, but two main issues are the lack of time between students entering school and graduation and the ability to teach students the complex skill of writing in a second language. Therefore, results suggesting an improvement in writing quality using adapted SRSD in a short period of time is promising. However, research will need to continue to be conducted to identify the most effective accuracy level (i.e., grammar, punctuation, sentence level error) for this diverse population.
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    IMPACTS OF SOCIOECONOMIC AND ELL STATUS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2019) Li, Daren ; Kim, Jwa K. ; � Oslund, Eric L. ; Elleman, Amy ; Jin, Ying ; Education
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of English language learners (ELL) and socioeconomic status (SES) on Matthew effect or compensatory trajectory by analyzing students’ English language arts (ELA) test scores. This study applied the concept of the Matthew effect or the compensatory trajectory in the ELA proficiency tests with the latent growth modeling (LGM) method in order to examine the existence of “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer” phenomenon in the longitudinal data. This examination allowed researchers to analyze ELA scores’ growth patterns from students with different ELL and SES status by discerning the relationship between the starting point (intercept) and rate of changes (slope). In this study, data were taken from three tests for 4th-grade and 8th-grade students in the 2014/2015 academic year. The test items were constructed based on Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which provided uniform guidelines for standardized multiple-choice items. The results showed that LGM provided an adequate model-data fit for ELA scores. The LGM analysis indicated that ELL and SES had different impacts on the Matthew effect or the compensatory trajectory for different grades. Implications for ELL teaching instructions and literacy assessment were discussed.
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    MORPHOLOGICAL WORD CHUNKING VS SYLLABLE TYPES: UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO APPROACHES TO POLYSYLLABIC WORD READING INSTRUCTION FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STRUGGLING READERS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2019) Louden, Perry Franklin ; Education
    Middle school is often the last place where students are taught basic reading skills such as phonology, morphology, fluency, and comprehension before they move on to high school where reading is predominately focused on understanding, analysis, application and evaluation of content area material. In addition, middle school students are exposed to texts with complex structure and an increasing number of multisyllabic words. RTI has attempted to close the gaps for struggling readers, with the goal of bring them closer to grade level. This study focused on whether intensive multi-syllabic word interventions in middle school improve low-frequency word recognition skills and reading fluency. Two alternative word reading programs were examined for their effectiveness with middle school struggling students. One program was phonological based and focused on teaching syllable types while the other program was morphological based and focused on teaching word chunking strategies. The duration of each program was 4 weeks long in order to keep it in line with current interventions used in a RTI setting. Despite a large amount of previous research confirming the merits of both phonological syllable type and morphological word chunking strategies, the results of this study were mixed, with none of the research questions being confirmed. However, effect sizes suggested interesting trends regarding the potential benefits of an intervention based on syllable types. Implications for current approaches of middle school short intensive RTI tier programs are discussed. In particular, some middle school RTI research is showing a trend towards a longer RTI program with the goal of making struggling students more proficient readers over the long term of a full school year or even several years instead of several short tier level movements within a single school year. Future research should not only focus on the best strategies for middle school students struggling with reading such as phonology and morphology, but moreover, how to best implement RTI over time to give these students the best possible future.
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    Music Specialist Attitudes Toward Music Integration of Core Curriculum Areas
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) Simmons, Jonathan Jason ; Education
    This is a study of the attitudes of music specialists toward curriculum integration. Muhammad (2007) stated that the attitudes of teachers could affect the entire school culture. Shriner, Schlee, and Libler (2010) researched how the study of standards and the ability to save time with integration improved the teacher's attitude towards curriculum integration. Bresler (1995) placed curriculum integration into four categories- the subservient approach, co-equal/ cognitive approach, the affective style, and the social integration style. Each of these approaches places different emphasis on how the curriculum integration is completed. How does a music specialists’ attitude affect how and if he/she will perform curriculum integration? Colwell and Berke (2004) stated that with training music specialists felt more comfortable with curriculum integration, but they had less intention to insert other subjects into their music curriculum. Jenkins (2012) detailed that with better training, the arts magnet school teachers felt better prepared to integrate other curriculums into the music curriculum lessons over their peers that taught music in regular schools that did not receive the training on curriculum integration. Bush (2007) studied the differences in professional development preferences between the general music specialists, choral teachers, and the band teachers and found that general music specialists were more likely to take a professional development course on curriculum integration than their performance-oriented peers. This study researched if there are differences in the attitudes toward curriculum integration between the general music specialists and the performance specialists of choral and band/orchestra specialists based on the levels of elementary school, middle school/junior high school and high school. The study was conducted in a school district in Tennessee and through the Tennessee Music Education Association. The current research study did find differences in attitudes curriculum integration based on level taught and subject taught in which a positive attitude towards curriculum integration was seen. Additionally, the training that participants had received before the study was not sufficient to meet their needs to integrate core subjects into the music curriculum.
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    PERCEPTIONS OF THE RESPONSE TO AN INTERVENTION PROGRAM IN AN ELEMENTARY K-4 SCHOOL SETTING
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) YOUNG, Tori Ogle ; Education
    RtI is a three-tiered program that uses data collected from benchmark assessments and progress monitoring (Fuchs, et al 2008). Tier I includes all children, and it is the level that all students would like to achieve. Tier II includes children who show minor gaps in their abilities in reading, and they require specific intervention to help close the learning gaps. Tier III includes children who require extensive instruction to fill major gaps in the student’s learning process. The level of intervention to be used is based upon the specific learning needs for each child. If growth is not achieved after a certain amount of time, then the child can be referred for further testing in the Special Education Program to determine the possibility of a learning disability. This study designed a survey tool to quantitatively measure the perceptions of teachers in regards to the challenges and effectiveness of RtI. In a K-4 school, the experience of teachers varies greatly within the culture of the school. Some teachers have many years of experience while others have very little experience. Within this small school approximately 12% of teachers have five or fewer years of teaching experience, and 88% of teachers have more than five years of teaching experience. Although significant evidence exists with regards to the effectiveness of RtI, less investigation has been done into teacher perceptions about RtI during its early phases of implementation. This descriptive correlational study was created to use survey data to assess teacher perceptions of the impact that the RtI program has in the elementary classroom. The researcher designed a survey tool to quantitatively measure the perceptions of teachers in regards to the challenges and effectiveness of RtI. Using this information, the survey evaluated the perceptions of RtI currently being used in the school. This study compared the views of veteran teachers and new teachers to allow comparison as another form of evaluation of the RtI program. Among the educators at this school, there were varying perceptions of the RtI program, but they had yet to be formally documented.
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    Teacher "talk back": Exploring the dynamics between practice and value-added evaluation policy
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) Astor, Emily ; Education
    ABSTRACT The accountability movement in education since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has produced value-added evaluation policies in the United States that have resulted in discord and undesirable responses among many teachers. Despite investigations into the validity of value-added evaluation policies and descriptive reports of teachers’ responses to value-added evaluation, education research has shed little light on the effects of implementation processes of value-added teacher evaluation policy. The study draws from inhabited institutionalism and sensemaking research that suggests teachers and other actors within schools incorporate institutional values and norms into their own practices based on their understanding of the goals or tasks dictated by the policy, their organizational contexts and their professional identity. This study addresses the central question: What theoretical model can explain how teachers have adapted their practices in response to teacher value-added evaluation policy implementation? This qualitative study investigates how teachers adapt their practices in response to value-added teacher evaluation policy by discovering and documenting the self-reported beliefs, perceptions, experiences, and practices related to value-added teacher evaluation among a theoretical sample of teachers (n=19) across a single public-school district in Tennessee. In-depth interviews, member checks, and a process framework was used for analysis. A grounded theoretical model was constructed to describe and relate how (a) the macro-level, structural conditions of teacher evaluation, (b) the phenomena that arose from the structural conditions, and (c) the particular contextual conditions and components of teachers’ personal histories interact to influence teachers’ adaptations. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice and policy, specifically how teachers, schools and school districts exercise agency in how policy is implemented and how value-added evaluation policy creates a tension between cultural ideologies of accountability and teachers’ lived experiences of vulnerability.
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    The Influence of Argumentative Discourse on Pre-Service Teachers’ Alternative Conceptions of Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2019) Barker, Heather ; Smith-Walters, Cindi ; Barlow, Angela T. ; Butler, Kyle ; Mangione, Katherine ; Wright, Stephen ; Education
    Mediocre science achievement and poor STEM graduation rates have prompted educators to reexamine their traditional focus on factual memorization and seek more effective instructional strategies. One such reform-oriented instructional practice is argumentative discourse. Argumentative discourse is student-driven, reasoned argumentation to promote deliberation, inquiry, and learning about scientific concepts. This qualitative multiple–embedded case study examined the impact of argumentative discourse-based lessons on pre-service teachers’ alternative conceptions about the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Participants engaged in small group tasks and discussions to choose claims, develop arguments, and defend those arguments based on provided evidence. Three groups of pre-service teachers were examined in detail. These groups had been formed based on the participants’ epistemic beliefs about science, with one group having primarily constructivist beliefs, one with moderate beliefs, and one with beliefs that were more traditional. Conceptual changes were analyzed at the individual level and at the collective group level. Most participants’ individual alternative conceptions were noticeably reduced, while their accurate conceptual knowledge increased. Those with more constructivist epistemic beliefs experienced marginally better conceptual change results. The results of this study add to the literature regarding argumentative discourse’s potential to effect lasting conceptual change in pre-service teachers learning science content.
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    The Relationship of Reading Strategies and Content Knowledge in Models of Integrated Instruction
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2019) Talbert, Summer Katherine ; Education
    Integrating reading instruction and content area curriculum has been suggested as a method of improving students’ reading comprehension and access to content knowledge. Less clear are the specific practices that should be used across the curriculum to improve comprehension and build knowledge simultaneously. The two studies in this dissertation use different methodologies to contribute to a body of research on how to best integrate reading strategy instruction and content learning to improve both reading comprehension and general academic achievement. The first, an experimental design, seeks to determine the effect of teaching inferential strategies while building knowledge using informational text. The second uses meta-analytic techniques to determine if the practice of integrating science and literacy instruction is associated with higher effect sizes, both overall for measures of science and literacy achievement, and when particular literacy and science practices are present in the intervention. Both studies seek to systematically answer questions about the relationship of background knowledge, reading comprehension, and content learning.