Browsing by Subject "Middle School"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item An eighth grade curriculum incorporating logical thinking and active learning(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Kobiela, Marta AnnaWith the increasing stress on teachers and students to meet and raise mathematics standards in schools, especially in the secondary level, the need for strong curricula and supporting materials for teachers has grown. A good curriculum, however, must do more than align with state standards and teach to the state exams; it must encourage students to enjoy mathematics. In an effort to help ease the plague of math anxiety, this thesis presents an eighth grade curriculum, called MathTAKStic, not only directly aligning with the Texas state standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge Skills (TEKS), but also encouraging students to pursue higher level thinking through active learning and logical thinking. To test the curriculum and find out its usefulness, several lessons were taught at a middle school. Although the scores of those learning with the curriculum were not always better than others, MathTAKStic led to a greater increase in students?????? performance compared to those who were not exposed to the lessons, an increased interest in math and a plethora of ideas for the future. These results were concluded based on a comparison of students?????? scores from the previous year to the current year on the Texas standardized test. Overall, the increase in passing scores of MathTAKStic students preceded other classes in the same school.Item Middle Class and Middle School: Does Opportunity Knock for African American Students?(2012-12-10) Mooney, Patricia 1960-Closing the achievement gap between African American and White students continues to challenge educators in both urban and suburban contexts. Teachers and administrators in America are overwhelmingly White, and have limited training, if any, in understanding cultural differences or developing culturally responsive practices and policies. More importantly, racism and deficit thinking impose invisible barriers that inhibit the success of African American students. This Problem of Practice explored the existing achievement gap between African American and White students at Keller Middle School, a Title I campus in southeast Texas. Using a qualitative research methodology, campus data, policies, and practices were examined through the lens of societal racism, institutional racism, and deficit thinking. Three fundamental themes were revealed in this study: 1) White teachers and administrators believed that African American students were not successful in school because they (or their families) had internal defects that impeded learning; 2) African American parent and student participants had deficit beliefs about other African Americans and used defensive othering as a coping strategy; and 3) African American students and parents perceived themselves as successful and attributed that success to a high motivation to achieve. Recommendations are given to address the gap in achievement for African American learners in middle school.Item Prospective and Practicing Middle School Teachers' Knowledge of Curriculum for Teaching Simple Algebraic Equations(2012-11-28) Ma, TingtingKnowledge of curriculum is a significant component of mathematical knowledge for teaching. However, clearly understanding knowledge of curriculum requires further refinement and substantial research. This study consists of three papers that aim to explore prospective and practicing middle school teachers? Knowledge of Curriculum for Teaching Simple Algebraic Equations (KCTE). The first paper reviews trends in and the evolution of standards and policies and synthesizes significant findings of research on mathematics curriculum and Knowledge of Curriculum for Mathematics Teaching (KCMT). Through this synthesis, the paper examines policy changes and research relevant to mathematics curriculum and KCMT and anticipates future research approaches and topics that show promise. Building on the context provided by the first paper, the following two papers investigate KCTE from the perspectives of prospective and practicing middle school mathematics teachers. For the second paper, data was collected from a convenience sample of 58 prospective middle school mathematics teachers and a subsample of six participants. The findings of this study identify patterns of key mathematical topics in the teaching sequence of simple algebraic equations, compare the participants? sequences with experts?, reveal participants? orientations toward KCTE, draw connections between participants? KCTE and their knowledge of content and teaching, and establish relationships between participants? KCTE and their knowledge of content and students. Four middle school mathematics teachers participated in the third study. The results indicate that state-level intended curriculum is the most prevailing component of participants? KCTE. Furthermore, from a vertical view of curriculum, participants? awareness of their students? lack of basic mathematical knowledge impacted their KCTE. The paper also identifies the role of the state-level intended curriculum in participants? KCTE, alternative approaches to curriculum implementation that participants used to respond to the multiple intelligences of their students, and the participants? lack of lateral curriculum knowledge in KCTE. Together, these three papers offer a closer look at KCMT with a focus on simple algebraic equations. This research broadens our understanding of prospective and practicing middle school teachers? KCMT and discusses implications for professional development.Item Teacher Sensemaking of Student Discipline Practices in a Small Town Texas Middle School(2013-12-10) Russell, William F.This study examined teacher decision making regarding issuing student referrals using qualitative case study methodology. A single middle school was used for the case study to locate all data under a single institutional culture. A purposeful sample of six teachers was chosen, and each teacher was interviewed. These interview data sets were analyzed using Weick?s sensemaking theory regarding how individuals decide to resume flow of activities in a process once the flow has been disrupted. This theory was applied to the specific situation of how teachers resolved misbehavior within a classroom. Research participants were asked to describe the factors influencing teachers? decisions to write a referral for misbehavior, the benefits students receive from receiving a referral, and faculty responses to escalating misbehavior in their classrooms. This study attempted to give voice to teachers? reflections of attending to common classroom misbehavior and to find differences among teachers with different rates of student referrals. Participating faculty were generally satisfied with their referral rate and were effective in resuming the flow of classroom instruction after student disruptions. Although faculty members reported similar procedures for attending misbehavior, each instructor used these procedures in strikingly different ways.Item The Effects of Bilingual Placement and Middle School Transition on the Sense of School Belonging in Hispanic Students(2011-10-21) Ney, Emilie A.Because bilingual programs provide a secure environment likely to promote school belonging, it was hypothesized that Hispanic students in a bilingual program would experience higher belonging than those in regular education and that they would experience a steeper drop in belonging at the transition to middle school. Participants were 277 Hispanic and White elementary and middle school students who were followed longitudinally from grade 4 to 6. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to compare the mean levels of school belonging across groups and measure the change in school belonging at the transition. Results suggested that Hispanic students both in bilingual and in regular education had higher belonging than White students and that groups did not differ in their change in belonging at the transition to middle school.