Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Instructional design|Secondary education'

For many years, two international schools in Southeast Asia have had, as part of their high school curricular program, annual extended cross-cultural service-learning Outdoor Education (OE) trips in which the entire student bodies participated. The purpose of this study was to identify the educational and character development benefits to students experiencing the OE programs. The study sought to identify and describe from the students’ perspectives how the OE programs contributed to the students’ growth in social-emotional and character development (SECD), 21^st-century skills, and their schools’ global learning outcomes (GLOs). Additionally, the study sought to determine which components of the OE programs the students perceived as contributing to their growth. In this ethnographic intrinsic case study, the methodology for gathering data employed reflexive photography and photo elicitation interviews that resulted in photos submitted by students documenting their OE experiences, photo journals they kept during the trips, and transcripts of the interviews conducted soon after their trips. The student data were categorized and hand coded to identify 33 themes arranged in an explanatory schema. From the student data, 15 design-and-activity components were identified that facilitated 14 resultant design and activity outcomes. Additionally, four distinctive themes highlighted the importance of providing students with opportunities to experience collaboration, service, spiritual input, reflection, close communal living, reciprocity, and natural beauty. The components and outcomes were compared to the five aspects and selected character traits of SECD, selected 21^st-century skills, and each of the school’s GLOs. The results of this study showed that students perceived that growth in SECD, 21^st-century skills, and their schools’ GLOs was attributable to the 15 identified components. These components worked together to create challenging conditions and tasks that students experienced, performed, and learned during the OE program. A science course analogy can be applied to OE. In this analogy, students get the lecture portion of the course at home, school, and church, while the laboratory portion is experienced through OE. During OE, students have opportunities to apply and practice the knowledge and skills they have been learning in the lectures.

Over the past several decades there has been a continuous stream of government mandates aimed to improve equity, access, accountability, transparency, student performance, and/or expand the responsibilities of public schools. These externally mandated school reforms have largely excluded the voice of teachers and administrators both in problem definition and in the modifications needed to address them. Further, reform literature is predominantly focused on improving or addressing urban school challenges, so little is known about the challenges and needs of suburban schools. The gaps in the literature related to teacher voice and suburban contexts in high school reform form the basis of this inquiry. Therefore, this study examines suburban teacher perceptions of four specific, popular reform ideas being introduced in high schools across the United States.

This exploratory mixed methods study gathered data from 165 suburban public high school teachers working in 20 different high schools in Massachusetts using an anonymous survey instrument. Three findings emerged from the study: 1) successful suburban teachers welcome consensus high school reform ideas that they believe to be favorable for student learning, growth, and development though they note significant challenges in regard to time; 2) suburban teachers experience anxiety when reforms alter structures or methods that they rely on to ensure all students meet high school outcomes for graduation and college entrance requirements; and 3) suburban teachers’ perceptions of consensus high school reform ideas are shaped by the ways in which the reforms impact academic disciplines. This study found that suburban public school teachers view the four reform ideas presented in this study as likely having a positive impact on teaching and learning in their school; however, they noted several implementation challenges that would need to be considered to ensure the efficacy of those reforms.

In the last 20 years online virtual high school has become a viable alternative to traditional high school. The dropout rate for online programs rivals that of brick and mortar high schools. Among the reasons students drop out of online virtual high school programs is the experience of isolation from teachers and peers. Moore (1972, 2013) described this sense of isolation as transactional distance and created a theory of how this phenomenon can be countered to promote academic success. Transactional Distance Theory stated that the sense of isolation could be reduced by carefully balancing interaction between student and teacher, student and student, student and course content, course structure and student autonomy. The research question was whether or not a group of experts would reach consensus on which instructional design strategies could reduce transactional distance and increase student engagement for virtual high school students. An exhaustive literature review found that very little is written about this topic. However, the literature does provide information about transactional distance theory, instructional design strategies, the characteristics of high school students, and the role administrators and policy makers can play in supporting these instructional design strategies. A three round Delphi study was conducted with a nationwide panel of instructional design experts with online virtual high school experience via an Internet based research software. The results of the research study indicated that there are a number of instructional design strategies that could be used to for this purpose. This research study led to the creation guidelines that could be used with a variety of instructional design models. Ultimately these guidelines could become an instructional design model.

This study explores the factors that shape students’ experience with instructional choices in classroom-based settings, and the role of instructional choice design in positively influencing student engagement and the development of self-regulation skills among high school students who attend an urban high school in the Mid-Atlantic Region, referred to as Aspiration High School. A range of cultural, structural and human resource factors are found to have a limiting effect on students’ experience with quality instructional choices in school, and as a result, limits their opportunities to practice and develop the self-regulation skills necessary for navigating choices at levels of complexity that mirror the world beyond school (Winne & Perry, 2000; Winne & Hadwin, 1998; Winne, 2001). Teachers and students of Aspiration High School were surveyed to gather insights on their experiences of and perceptions on choice in learning. Two teachers engaged in a series of collaborative lesson design cycles that involved choice-based lesson design, implementation with observation, lesson debriefs, and student work analysis, as well as pre and post student interviews and focus groups. This study identified five elements of high-quality choice designs, and argues for quality choice design as an important mechanism for cultivating learner engagement (Katz & Assor, 2007), developing interventions to support self-regulatory skill development among learners, and nurturing pedagogical shifts among teachers toward more learner-centered designs and practices.

High school students in the United States for the past century have typically taken science courses in a sequence of biology followed by chemistry and concluding with physics. An alternative sequence, typically referred to as “physics first” inverts the traditional sequence by having students begin with physics and end with biology. Proponents of physics first cite advances in biological sciences that have dramatically changed the nature of high school biology and the potential benefit to student learning in math that would accompany taking an algebra-based physics course in the early years of high school to support changing the sequence. Using a quasi-experimental, quantitative research design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of science course sequencing on student achievement in math and science at a school district that offered both course sequences. The Texas state end-of-course exams in biology, chemistry, physics, algebra I and geometry were used as the instruments measuring student achievement in math and science at the end of each academic year. Various statistical models were used to analyze these achievement data. The conclusion was, for students in this study, the sequence in which students took biology, chemistry, and physics had little or no impact on performance on the end-of-course assessments in each of these courses. Additionally there was only a minimal effect found with respect to math performance, leading to the conclusion that neither the traditional or “physics first” science course sequence presented an advantage for student achievement in math or science.

There is extensive research in elementary education on effective practices that support academic success for students with mild to moderate disabilities in general education; however there is a dearth of research on high school inclusion practices. A survey examined the current inclusionary practices at a Central Coast High School. California State Standardized Assessment scores of 11^th grade English Language Art and Math classes were also analyzed by groups. Overall, findings indicated that inclusionary practices were implemented to different degrees, but none were fully in place i.e., practices building relationships was rated the highest and instructional practices was rated lowest. In addition, findings indicated that students with disabilities exceeded the state SBAC scores in the area of English but not math. Longitudinal research is needed to further identify secondary practices that impact Math scores for students with disabilities along with continued examination of inclusive high school practices.

Public education practitioners are currently experiencing difficult and trying times in Illinois. Schools are asked to meet high standards established by political forces and to accomplish these tasks with less money. Schools located in affluent school districts are capable of meeting these standards while schools from poorer districts are falling behind. This study was conceived to find out why Blair High School, which has more than 50% of its student body living in poverty, is capable of meeting high standards.

The results of this study yielded four main themes: 1) Students attributed their success to teachers that cared about them. 2) Students were motivated by a desire to have a better future than their parents. 3) Focusing on student learning rather than state test scores contribute to the success of the school. 4) The school environment contributes to student success.

The implications for schools located in high poverty school districts are clear. Students living in poverty need caring relationships with their teachers as well as positive human interaction. In addition, students living in poverty may be the most motivated students in the building by their desire to have a better future and not live in poverty any more. Therefore, schools should provide people, places and programs that deliver an education that helps them succeed. This can be accomplished by implementing strategies found in Invitational Theory. Also, schools would be wise to implement tutoring and mentoring programs in order to provide strong foundational skills for students living in poverty, as this develops confidence in the student and confidence leads to success.

This work is a case study focused on the practices of a comprehensive college access program that serves students in south Los Angeles that has maintained a high school graduation rate of 100% and a college matriculation rate of 98% since 1997. This study sought to utilize the voice and experience of students of color to discern the factors that are most effective in helping urban students of color and in turn, inform the future work of the college access community. The study was driven by the following research questions: a) which practices of a south Los Angeles college access program most impact a student's ability to matriculate to college? and b) How can the epistemology of urban students inform the work of college access programs? Through observations, interviews, journal exercises and document review, this study ranked the practices in order of importance according to the participants, and identified that structure and accountability are essential to the success of this college access program. In addition, the study revealed that the students of this program succeed academically because the program, provides students with structure, access and guidance; because it immerses its students in a college-going culture; because it offers access to academic and cultural resources; because it sets high academic expectations; because it engages the family of origin and creates a family within the program; and because it enhances the self-concept of its students: college access programs see students as scholars.

Using funds of knowledge as a framework, this study also introduced the original term, "masked epistemologies" which refers to the shared experiences of college access students once they enter college. The concept of masked epistemologies refers to the experience of students who enter college via a college access program, who go on to feel like her ways of knowing, shaped by the unique experience of being a high achieving student participant of a college access program from an urban setting, are disregarded in the new, unknown terrain of college, and must be masked or concealed, only to be revealed in environments considered safe. The students' epistemologies go from being highly praised and admired, to being ignored to the point of invisibility. This study found that students of this college access program struggle with adapting to the social realm of college because they have not been exposed to class differences throughout their tenure in the program.