Health Science Curriculum for Early Childhood: Teacher Implementation and Impact on Child Health Knowledge

This dissertation contains two secondary quantitative data analyses studies. In the first, implementation of the WannaBee Healthy? Be Smart! Be Active! Be a Leader! health science curriculum was examined to expand understanding about teacher usage of an integrated health curriculum. Specifically, researchers assessed the amount of activities within each curriculum domain (i.e., books, creative expressions, language/literacy, math, science) and the number of activities within each theme of the lessons (i.e., nutrition, physical activity, sleep) utilized by participating teachers. Prior to implementation, teachers (N = 68; M age = 35.5 years old) attended a one-hour training where use of the curriculum and supplemental material toolkit were exhibited. Participants were instructed to implement the curriculum over the course of a month and directed to record lessons implemented on a teacher usage checklist, indicating a “Y+” if they taught the lesson and would likely teach it again, a “Y-” if they taught the lesson, but would not likely teach it again, and an “N” if the lesson was not implemented. An overall total number of activities and a total number of activities within each curriculum domain (e.g., language/literacy) and within each theme (e.g., nutrition) was calculated using a frequency analysis. Results show that more than 20% of reporting teachers (n = 10; 21.8%) implemented all or almost all (i.e., 49 or 50 lessons) of the curriculum’s 50 activities. Children had more exposure to the book domain and the theme of nutrition, with less engagement in the domain of math and sleep-themed lessons. Based on the results of the first study, the second study examined the association between the dosage of the WannaBee Healthy? curriculum implementation within each classroom (i.e., frequency use of curriculum domains; frequency use of lesson themes) and child health knowledge outcomes (e.g., USDA MyPlate accuracy). Explicitly, is the dosage and type of content implementation directly associated with student’s gain in knowledge and the ability to successfully identify the following: (1) food from each of the five food groups, (2) healthy plate that includes all recommended food groups, (3) food origins, (4) four activities that increase heart rate, and (5) sleep, healthy plate, and physical activity as behaviors needed to keep our body healthy. Researchers utilized the information from the teacher usage checklist to determine dosage and content implementation of lessons. Pre- and post-assessments were randomly conducted on 252 pre-kindergarten (17.9%) and kindergarten (82.1%) students (M age = 5.02) whose parents had provided consent. Pearson correlations identified strong, positive correlations regarding implementation across the curriculum and within the domains and themes. A series of One-way ANOVAs were conducted, identifying a significance in outcomes of at least one child assessment and in both health themes (i.e., nutrition, physical activity). However, overall findings indicate that curriculum dosage alone was not related to changes in child health knowledge. Further testing did not show a significant difference in association between changes in child knowledge when controlling for time between pre- and post-assessments. Results suggest the effectiveness of the WannaBee Healthy? curriculum is not based on curriculum alone

Design for Living Complexities

Lectures from a 12-session course that addresses the intersection of design with critical thinking. Design in this course means intentionality in construction, which involves a range of materials, a sequence of steps, and principles that inform the choice of materials and the steps. Design also always involves putting people, as well as materials, into place. This happens by working with the known properties of people, as well as the known properties of material, and trying out new arrangements to work around their constraints (at least temporarily). Critical thinking, as I define it, involves understanding ideas and practices better when we examine them in relationship to alternatives. Design cannot proceed without the idea that there are alternatives to the current way of doing things, even if you have not yet found those alternatives, or have not yet found the best ones, or have not yet been able to put them into practice. So critical thinking is in design from the start. Alternative designs are exposed and explored during the course through multiple lenses. First, design is explored through historical cases that illustrate how things have by no means always been the way they are now. Second, the class does archaeology of the present to shed light on what we might have taken for granted, relegated as someone else’s responsibility, or deferred to someone who is a specialist. Third, the class compares how things are arranged in different organizations and different cultures. And finally, through their own design sketches, students examine ill-defined problems in cases of real-world living complexity that invite a range of responses

A Nation at Risk: Obesity in the United States

Provides a statistical sourcebook of facts to illustrate how prevalent obesity has become and examines the factors that contribute to the patterns of unhealthy eating and insufficient physical activity

Children and Disaster Education: An Analysis of Disaster Risk Reduction within the School Curricula of Oregon, Texas, and the Philippines

For the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in the intensity and frequency of disasters. This has created a growing interest in the issue of disaster risk reduction among the global population. Past research has shown that proper planning and the use of protective measures can reduce the effects of a disastrous event. Preparedness is not only the responsibility of a nation’s government or relief agencies, but also of every member of the community, including the vulnerable population of children. The United Nations has called for disaster risk reduction education to be implemented in schools around the world. Providing children with disaster education is the first step towards creating a culture of preparedness and fostering responsible citizens within the community. Through the examination of public school curricula in the Philippines, Oregon, and Texas, this research aims to explore the level of disaster risk reduction implementation and identify potential gaps. Results of this study show that disaster risk reduction education is present within the curriculum framework, but there are still many elements from the UNICEF/UNESCO best practices checklist that are not being fulfilled. Governments, education agencies, and teachers could use this research to determine how to fill these voids

Big data for monitoring educational systems

This report considers “how advances in big data are likely to transform the context and methodology of monitoring educational systems within a long-term perspective (10-30 years) and impact the evidence based policy development in the sector”, big data are “large amounts of different types of data produced with high velocity from a high number of various types of sources.” Five independent experts were commissioned by Ecorys, responding to themes of: students' privacy, educational equity and efficiency, student tracking, assessment and skills. The experts were asked to consider the “macro perspective on governance on educational systems at all levels from primary, secondary education and tertiary – the latter covering all aspects of tertiary from further, to higher, and to VET”, prioritising primary and secondary levels of education

Becoming a Principal: Access Factors for Females

Guided by Standpoint Theory, researchers conducted this case study to identify factors influencing access to Oklahoma’s secondary school principalship for four female first-time principals. Regardless of equity legislation and increasing numbers of females with advanced degrees, the numbers of men and women who hold secondary school administration positions continue to be disproportionate to their numbers in the teaching profession. Three standpoints emerged: In the transition from teacher to administrator, each participant was nurtured by another individual; male sponsors were their primary encouragers; and participants had strong emotional investments in the schools and communities of their employment. Aspiring female principals should cultivate strong support systems, seek out mentors, and strengthen their professional networks. Accepting stepping-stone administrative positions may be an essential starting point for aspiring female secondary principals; administrative skills can be gained through internships, assistant principal positions, and administrative positions in lower grade levels

Agent and subject of discipline: How the novice teacher experiences the techniques of power

This phenomenological study explored how five elementary school teachers experienced their first year of teaching as both the subject and agent of discipline. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s conceptualizations of power, discipline, and resistance, the investigator analyzed interview data that focused on questions concerning how novice teachers establish their own classroom management techniques, what norms they followed and resisted, as well as how and when they complied (or did not) in order to gain membership into their school/teacher community. Analysis indicated that, although novice teachers expressed many concerns, they largely complied with the norms established institutionally for managing student behavior, and with those affecting their own teacher behavior. However they did resist some of the norms that concerned teacher accountability. This study and its analysis of the institutional and discursive power evident in the lives of novice teachers suggests a need for teacher education programs to better prepare student teachers for the issues of power and discipline that will mark their professional lives and those of their students

A Portrait of Latino Children: The Gap with Non-Latinos in Massachusetts

Latino children are one of Massachusetts\u27 fastest-growing segments of the population. However, evidence suggests that the social and economic context in which Latino children live does not adequately support their development and overall wellbeing. Nearly a third of Latino children in the United States live in very low-opportunity neighborhoods as defined by a scale of educational, health, environmental, and socioeconomic outcomes. Compared to non-Latino children, Latinos are more likely to grow up in households below the federal poverty threshold and less likely to have a mother with at least a Bachelor\u27s degree. The research included in this report aims to highlight the challenges that Latino children faced before COVID-19 and provide a baseline for future research on this vital segment of Massachusetts\u27 population