2,094 research outputs found
What's Evidence Got to Do with It? An Observational Study of Research-Based Instructional Behavior in High School Classes
This study examined typical instruction and management in general education classes that are co-taught by a special educator (co-taught CWC), general education classes that are taught by a special educator (adapted), and resource room instruction by a special educator. Over three days, twelve teachers in a middle class urban high school were observed using momentary time sampling relative to four foci: student engagement, transition time, learning arrangement, and instructional activity. On average, across the three settings students were on-task 83.9 percent of all intervals, in transition 4.4 percent of intervals, and teachers were disengaged from instruction during 23.2 percent. Whole group instruction, the least differentiated and effective mode of instruction, consumed the largest portion of observation intervals. If effective differentiated instructional practice is the sine qua non of providing students with disabilities access to general education curriculum, the data provide little evidence to suggest that appropriate instructional practice is frequently used
Improving Secondary Students’ Reading Comprehension Through the Use of Advance Organizers.
This study examined an instructional method that combined scaffolding and Schema Theory to address the reading comprehension of 105 urban high school students. Participants in the treatment condition read a pair of advance organizers and were asked to paraphrase them in writing to stimulate durable memory representation prior to reading the main passages. Students were assessed on their comprehension of both a narrative and an essay to measure treatment effects across text genres. Low level readers were expected to show greater benefits. Both high and low level readers from the treatment group benefited from the advance information on both passages. The results suggest that comprehension may be readily addressed via schema activation through advance organizers paired with cognitive strategies designed to assist with the encoding of information into long term memory
GJR Volume 35 Number 1 Fall 2012
The Georgia Journal of Reading\u27s Fall 2012 issue includes:
Message From the Editors by Lina Soares and Christine Draper (pg.4)
President’s Page by Lynn C. Minor (pg. 5)
Integrating Mathematics and Reading Fluency Instruction in the Primary Grades by Ryan Nivens, Lori Meier, Michael Brikell, and Edward J. Dwyer (pg. 6)
Visual Literacy: A Picture Can Be Worth Ten Thousand Words by Stacy Delacruz (pg. 12)
Using Interactive Whiteboards to Enhance the Writing Process by Laura Ely and Jerilou Moore (pg. 18)
Teacher Influence on Book Selection of Third Grade Students by Shelia Delony and Katie Hathorn (pg. 24)
Schema and Scaffolding: Testing Advance Organizers’ Effect on Secondary Students’ Reading Comprehension by Joshua Cuevas (pg. 29)https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/gjrarchive/1002/thumbnail.jp
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS IN IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Reading comprehension is a challenge for adolescents with learning disabilities, particularly with respect to comprehending expository texts. The present literature review analyzes the importance of using graphic organizers (GOs) to improve reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities (LD). A systematic review was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of GOs to assist middle school students with LD improve their reading comprehension. The review covered 11 studies published between 1990 and 2013, which were coded and analyzed. Of these studies, nine provided evidence that GOs help students with LD with reading comprehension. However, three studies found no significant differences in the performance levels of students with LD. Implications for practice are discussed
The Relationship Between i-Ready Diagnostic and 10th Grade Students\u27 High-Stakes Mathematics Test Scores Heath Andrew Thompson
Twenty percent of the 2013-2014 sophomore class at a Washington high school was failing high-stakes tests, making these students ineligible to graduate. In an attempt to help students identify their academic proficiency with respect to the Common Core Curricular Standards 9 months before the high-stakes exam, the high school recently introduced the adaptive diagnostic software i-Ready. Cognitive learning theories comprised the framework for this study, which posit that learning is dependent on previous knowledge and central to measuring performance levels. The purpose of this quantitative correlational project study was to examine whether 10th grade students\u27 achievement on i-Ready math scores (N = 220) could predict the subsequent high-stakes mathematics scores on the End of Course Exam while controlling for gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The i-Ready emerged as a statistically significant predictor of the End of Course Exam scores with β = .64 (p \u3c .001), explaining R2 = .43 of the criterion variance. Gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status had no significant moderating influence. The project deliverable as a result of this study was a position paper advising the use of the i-Ready as a predictor for the End of Course Exam at the high school under study. The implications for positive social change include allowing educators to use the i-Ready as an early warning system for students in danger of failing high-stakes exams. This study may help identify students at risk of not graduating who could benefit from instructional support
Early Numeracy Instruction for Students with Moderate and Severe Developmental Disabilities
Competence in early numeracy skills highly correlate with success in mathematics in later years; however, many students, including students with moderate and severe disabilities, lack a sound foundation in early numeracy skills. For this population, the gaps in skills widen as students progress through academic years, making it more difficult for students to access the general curriculum, and consequently, students exit school without the skills needed for the 21st century. This article provides a conceptual model for teaching early numeracy skills to elementary students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities, as well as pilot research in both special and general education settings. Limitations and suggestions for future research are included
A Quantitative Study of Learning in the School Cafeteria Using Educational Placemats
This study investigated if there was a difference in student achievement after participants were exposed to educational placemats in a school cafeteria for four days each (four different placemats). Also, the student’s gender and ability grouping was considered in relation to achievement. This study included 49 ability grouped third grade students in an elementary school in south Mississippi. Students were pre-tested with researcher-made math instruments before the educational placemats were introduced and post-tested afterwards. For research purposes, some placemats served as a control and did not relate to the pre-test and post-test content. Statistical measurements of the differences were derived from a mixed model ANOVA in SPSS statistical software. Overall, two of the hypotheses proposed a significant interaction of condition (pre-test and post-test) by either gender or ability group. Neither of these interactions was significant for the math placemats. However, after being exposed to math placemats, post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores across genders and groups. In contrast, after exposure to the control placemats, post-test scores across genders and groups were lower than pre-test scores and did not differ significantly. As a result of these findings, the researcher recommends methods principals should consider that allow students to be exposed to educational content in the school cafeteria and other non-traditional learning areas of the school
Differentiation According to Educators: Using the Delphi Approach
Differentiation is a well-known and popularly endorsed aspect of teaching. However, the lack of effective adoption and implementation of it as a practical classroom strategy suggests some uncertainty relating to the definition and indicates the challenge or difficulty of effective implementation.
This study sought to investigate primary school teachers’ understanding of the idea and explores the educational concept through the Delphi technique, which uses both qualitative and quantitative methods (open-ended survey responses, Likert scale questions, semistructured questions and response to summaries of previous rounds). The main research question for the study is ‘what definitions can be generated in regard to the teaching and assessment strategies associated with differentiation among a group of teachers working in a similar environment?’, a series of secondary questions explore further aspects of teachers’ thinking about differentiation. Four rounds of surveys following the Delphi methodology were completed by 19 primary school teachers. A series of different questionnaire types were used to enable a panel of teachers to reach a final consensus by analysing and refocusing each subsequent round of survey questions.
The data collected in each round produced a total of 38 teaching and 20 assessment strategies relating to differentiation. The final round led to 32 teaching strategies and 15 assessment strategies reaching consensus. This left a six teaching and five assessment strategies that did not reach consensus.
A key to developing a better understanding of concerns among educators may be through the process of creating a shared definition by practitioners and not relying upon handed-down terms and definitions. By engaging teachers with an opportunity to jointly create, discuss, and reflect upon the meaning and strategies of complex pedagogy like differentiation through active consensus-building such as the Delphi methodology, schools and professional development leaders can address misconceptions and develop and reinforce a shared understanding and common vocabulary that enables collegial support to be timely, effective, and more importantly, understandable for the educator. While such consensus-building efforts like this research project are time-intensive, they are also valuable because the process allows teachers to engage in professional discourse that is meaningful for the teacher and perhaps better suited to support ongoing professional development efforts for increased implementation. This implementation of a best practices pedagogy like differentiation may,in turn, help improve student learning, which is ultimately the end goal of any educational endeavour
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