Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item COMPUTATIONAL THINKING IN THE ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM: HOW TEACHERS APPROPRIATE CT FOR SCIENCE INSTRUCTION(2021) Cabrera, Lautaro; Clegg, Tamara; Jass Ketelhut, Diane; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers and policymakers call for the integration of Computational Thinking (CT) into K-12 education to prepare students to participate in a society and workforce increasingly influenced by computational devices, algorithms, and methods. One avenue to meet this goal is to prepare teachers to integrate CT into elementary science education, where students can use CT by leveraging computing concepts to support scientific investigations. This study leverages data from a professional development (PD) series where teachers learned about CT, co-designed CT-integrated science lessons, implemented one final lesson plan in their classrooms, and reflected on their experience. This study aims to understand how teachers learned about CT and integrated it into their classroom, a process conceptualized as appropriation of CT (Grossman et al., 1999). This dissertation has two parts. The first investigates how teachers appropriated CT through inductive and deductive qualitative analyses of various data sources from the PD. The findings suggest that most teachers appropriated the labels of CT or only Surface features of CT as a pedagogical tool but did so in different ways. These differences are presented as five different profiles of appropriation that differ in how teachers described the activities that engage students in CT, ascribed goals to CT integration, and use technology tools for CT engagement. The second part leverages interviews with a subset of teachers aimed at capturing the relationship between appropriation of CT during the PD and the subsequent year. The cases of these five teachers suggest that appropriation styles were mostly consistent in the year after the PD. However, the cases detail how constraints in autonomy to make instructional decisions about science curriculum and evolving needs from students can greatly impact CT integration. Taken together, the findings of the dissertation suggest that social context plays an overarching role in impacting appropriation, with conceptual understanding and personal characteristics coming into play when the context for CT integration is set. The dissertation includes discussions around implications for PD designers, such as a call for reframing teacher knowledge and beliefs as part of a larger context impacting CT integration into schools.Item Do K, 1, 2 teachers who participated in a year long math course have less teacher math anxiety than those who did not participate?(2014) Reed, Kara Lianna; Kivlighan, Dennis; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in a Year Long Math Course (YLMC) for professional development would reduce teacher personal or professional math anxiety. Through a quantitative study using the McAnallen Anxiety in Mathematics Teaching Survey, the researcher measured the personal and professional math anxiety of participants and analyzed the data to determine if teachers who participated in a year -long math course had less anxiety than those who did not participate. All teachers involved in the study were considered generalists at the elementary level. Through use of the McAnallen Anxiety in Mathematics Teaching Survey, the study provided data that could be used to inform professional development training for pre-service and in-service elementary teachers. The study could also be used to support strengthening of mathematics programs in pre-K through 12 education.Item Picturebooks as Visual Literacy: The Influence of Illustrations on Second-Graders' Comprehension of Narrative Text(2008) Gerrard, Emily Elizabeth; O'Flahavan, John F; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study poses the following research question: "How does change in text type as text contains more illustrations and fewer words influence second-graders' comprehension of narrative text?" Eleven second-graders read three texts each and completed a series of oral reading comprehension tasks. The three text types varied in terms of the proportion of words to illustrations available in the text: written-only text, combination of written and illustrated text, and illustration-only text. The researcher interviewed each participant three times, once for each text type. Participant scores from the retelling and comprehension questions portion of the interview were analyzed in addition to participant's responses to the retrospective think aloud portion of the interview. Quantitative results from the retellings and comprehension questions suggest an overall trend indicating that illustrations have a positive effect on second grader's comprehension. Qualitative data for individual participants from their retrospective think alouds confirm this trend.Item Perspectives on Parent Involvement: How Elementary Teachers Use Relationships with Parents to Improve Their Practice(2008-11-20) Jacobs, Bryce Anne; Lareau, Annette; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)One of the most important areas of research in education is the role of parents in student achievement. Studies indicate that parents working as volunteers, homework helpers, and participants in school activities influence student success, but we do not know exactly how that happens or how teachers perceive of their relationships with parents. Although researchers state that the parent teacher relationship is important, they have not systematically unpacked how parent involvement is related to the instructional decision making of teachers. This study uses in depth interview data from 21 elementary school teachers who teach grades one through four. The study also includes participant observation in one private school. My findings suggest that teachers, in a variety of kinds of schools, use information about students' home lives and outside interests to make their teaching more effective. They report doing this by being able to motivate students, by being sensitive to a student's mood and by being able to make changes to their curriculum based on student needs. Much of what a teacher, especially in the elementary grades knows about his/her students is gleaned from the students' parents. It is this information that affects teacher practice in the classroom. This leads to teachers not treating all forms of parent involvement equally; they value communication and they use what they learn from communications with parents to customize their curricula for individual students. The literature to date has not examined communication patterns between parents and teachers fully. When examined closely, it seems that teachers try to manage and negotiate their relationships with parents through setting boundaries and through their communication patterns. It has been reported that teachers do not learn about parent involvement in their teacher education courses. This study affirms that assertion and increases our understanding of what teachers are influenced by: their mentor teachers, their colleagues, the school administration and their own parents. This study will add to the parent involvement research by examining teachers' views on their relationships with parents and will help educators and policy makers better understand how parents contribute to classroom instruction.Item Exploring the Interplay Between Fifth-Grade Readers' Knowledge, Interests, and Beliefs and Their Perceptions of the Persuasiveness of Text(2007-08-30) Palladino, Jessica Vollmerhausen; O'Flahavan, John F; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explored the interplay between fifth-grade readers' knowledge, interests, and beliefs and their perceptions of the persuasiveness of text. This study explored three research questions: (a) In what ways do fifth-grade readers differentially perceive the persuasiveness of argument and explanation structures? (b) What is the relation between fifth-grade readers' perceived knowledge, demonstrated knowledge, interests, and beliefs prior to and after reading persuasive text? (c) In what ways are perceptions about the persuasiveness of text associated with fifth-grade readers' perceived knowledge, demonstrated knowledge, interest, and beliefs? Fifth-grade readers (n =53) read two texts, one written in the argument structure and the other in explanation structure. Readers' perceived knowledge, demonstrated knowledge, interests, and beliefs about the text topic were measured before and after reading the texts. Readers rated the persuasiveness of each text after reading both texts. Four readers were selected to participate in a retrospective verbal report. The data analyses produced several interesting findings related to the interplay of readers' knowledge, interests, beliefs and perceived persuasiveness of text. Text structure did not independently influence elementary-aged readers' perceptions of the persuasiveness of a text. Elementary-aged readers found the argument and explanation text structures to be equally persuasive. Elementary-aged readers' perceived knowledge, demonstrated knowledge, interest and beliefs were positively related before and after reading. Additionally, readers' knowledge was related to their beliefs. The more readers knew the more they tended to agree with the stance of the author. Readers' perceived knowledge was related to their interest level. The less a reader felt they knew about the topic, the less interested they were. Readers' beliefs and interests after reading were related. Finally, elementary-aged readers' learner characteristics and their rating of the persuasiveness of texts were associated. Readers' pre-reading beliefs, demonstrated knowledge, and interest predicted the most variance related to readers' rating of the persuasiveness of text. Readers' pre-reading beliefs, interests, and demonstrated knowledge predicted how persuasive they rated the texts. After reading, their beliefs and interests predicted the most variance in their ratings of the persuasiveness of the texts. Readers' interests and beliefs after reading predicted their ratings of the persuasiveness of texts.Item Building Community From Within and Without: A Return to Small Urban Schools(2007-03-12) Castronuovo, Jenny Anne; Bennett, Ralph; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The school environment is an opportunity to inspire learning and instill a sense of curiosity in children. The design of the environment can communicate to students the value our society places on education, teachers, and the students themselves. Despite the overwhelming evidence that points to the academic and social benefits of small schools, most schools today are much larger buildings as a result of perceived economies of scale. These large, impersonal schools are failing to provide an adequate learning environment for students, in spite of numerous studies that show the effects school facilities have on academic achievement. Small schools, located within the students' neighborhood, not only foster stronger interpersonal relationships within the school setting, but also encourage a symbiotic relationship between the school and its community, who both benefit from the resources each has to offer.Item Care in the Lives of Women Teachers(2006-08-03) James, Jennifer Hauver; Price, Jeremy; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: CARE IN THE LIVES OF WOMEN TEACHERS Jennifer Lynn Hauver James, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jeremy Price Department of Curriculum and Instruction This is a study of care in the lives of six women elementary school teachers. It expands and challenges some of the dominant constructs of care found in the literature that often underplay the dynamic of context, gendered identity and power in the making of caring pedagogies. I chose narrative inquiry as a means to study because I was particularly interested in exploring how these women understand and experience care in their lives as teachers. This approach looks to the three-dimensional space of experience as a source of knowledge and understanding. The pedagogies of care held by these six women reflect their needs to care in particular ways: They see themselves as self-sacrificing, they see care as an isolated act, and they believe they need to look to the authority of others to validate their knowledge and experience. I assert that these understandings of care are informed by dominant patriarchal discourses about womanhood and caring that contribute to their enactments of care as teachers. Through these enactments, I believe these women are unknowingly complicit in the devaluation of their voices and experiences. The culture of the school contributes to these understandings in complex ways. There seems to be a dynamic relationship between these teachers' ability to free themselves from the determination of others and their ability to care for students. I posit that if pedagogies of care are to meet the needs of students and at the same time empower women teachers to name themselves as gendered beings, they will need to be more authentic, critical, collective and inclusive than those explored here. This study complicates traditional constructs of care by drawing on the voice and experience of these women. The findings significantly contribute toward conversations at the intersection of pedagogy and gendered identities. As such, it raises critical questions about how contexts shape our life experience and the meanings we make of that experience as women and as teachers.