sex education for child

Sex Education In Early Childhood
Provide Sex Education in Early Childhood

Does your child begin to ask you about sex? If so, then baby is ready to be taught sex education right now. In addition to parents at home who can provide sex education to children, teachers at school also has a big share to equip students children about sex education. According A.T. Meilandari, S.sn, marketing communications Indonesian Carpediem School, said the introduction of inappropriate sex given to children aged under five as long as the content is not excessive, and still refers to the simple things.
Through sex education in schools, it supplies more mature children about sexuality and very useful in the future. Children also get the knowledge when the act, such as what should be done and that should not be done. Given several events irregularities frequently occur in society, sex education early in children to enable them to protect themselves from acts that are not good.
Teach the child to say NO in adults can be an unknown / foreign. It became one of effective prevention to prevent sexual harassment and other matters that are not desired.
Methods in schools to educate the students pre-school and kindergarten about sex education, it can be done by:

* 1 year
Introduce children to the parts of his body sendiri.Di this age, children need to be introduced to members of the body. Introduce the name of the body, as well as differences and functions, while you're bathing or shower with the children. You can also use books and props, human doll for example. Do not forget to remain calm when you have to be naked in front of the child while bathing or changing clothes.

* 2 years
Can recognize and name parts of the body At the age of 2 years, children generally can mention parts of his body smoothly, such as eyes, nose, ears, hands, and feet. To make it more familiar with other body parts, you can also make this activity more fun. Pack in the form of the game. Indicate the body (you just say it anyway), such as ear, then invite your child to be holding his ears. So also in other body parts you mentioned.

* 3 years
Know the difference if your child is able to recognize his own body parts, it's time to introduce the gender differences. Introduce the two categories of male and female sexes. Explain also male genitalia is a penis and women is the vagina, as well as differences of form and function. By introducing the parts of the body and the difference, the child will have a favorable view of the body.

* 4 years
Keeping yourself When children are getting bigger, teach that part of her genitals-not-be held by any person, except by the mother (while bathing) and doctors (when I'm sick). They must immediately report directly to parents or teachers when there are other people who touched her private parts. Aside from being a form of sex education to keep the private parts of her body, it can make a child protected from sexual violence.

* 5 years
Orderly and Caring Ourselves Along with the development of age, at this stage the child get used to urinating in the right place. Familiarize him urinate in the toilet, not in trees, bushes, or public places that are open. To change her clothes as well get used to looking for a room or toilet and not do it in public. Teach your children and get used to clean the genitals properly, especially after bladder / bowel movements. Do not forget to teach him always wash hands after bladder / bowel movement, and explain that the germs can enter through the vagina / penis and anal.

Beyond all that, parents and teachers is the best place to ask for the child. Make sex as something natural and personal part of health. Sex is not something that is wrong, dirty, dirty, or shameful because it is part of normal growth, so no need to worry about. So it's not a day longer respond to early sex education is taboo for your baby.
Do and Do not
In providing sex education to children, do not match when you teach in adults. Need to be careful and simple language, the most important is a concrete example for baby's easy to understand for your explanation. Here are tips for you:

1. May
- Give a demonstration-a demonstration of interest in clarifying the notion of
sex.
- Use examples of people, like my mother / father, friends, or people
the nearest known and your child.
- Give an explanation with the words that are easy to understand / very simple.
- Emphasize the baby, though different gender but can not distinguish
each other.

2. No
- Never give an explanation with the new words children hear,
especially difficult terms.
- Do not give meaning to the very vulgar.
- Do not give an explanation with so seriously that make children
confused
Simak
Baca secara fonetik

sex education

Amid the rapid progress of construction of the city of Jakarta, turned out to deviant sexual behavior has become common knowledge. The phenomenon of lesbian, homosexual and even heterosexual can easily be found in various places. Lesbian phenomenon has occurred even since long Indeed, comparing the lesbian phenomenon that occurs first with the now, of course very different. Its growth is now more rapidly and tend to uncontrollably. In fact, it's a lifestyle most people capital. Therefore, parents should supervise teenage daughter in order to avoid the threat of viruses lesbian.

For example, one told by a lesbian, you name it Bebi (not her real name). According to him, thousands of teenage girls in Jakarta has become perpetrators of lesbianism. "The average age of 17-18 years of hell. There are indeed from the beginning has been turned, but most of them infected due to 'hanging out'," said Bebi, the Buchi another term lesbian.

There are several terms that they use in communication between their own communities, such as Buchi, the term for couples who act as men. The style they also tend to look like a man, with hair cut bondol and baggy clothes. While femm, the term for the couple who acted as women, they look like normal women in general, which is feminine. There is also andro, where people can play as well as male and female.

This phenomenon really is not hidden anymore. Not infrequently some of them show their deviant sexual behavior openly in society. As can be seen in one of the fast-food restaurants in the area of Grand Indonesia, South Jakarta, which is one of the lesbian community gathering place. Specifically, on every Saturday night, can be found lesbian couples to visit and act like people going out, holding hands, making out, even the occasional kiss her partner. Phenomena such as if it was not a taboo anymore for them.

"We're still cool wrote, which is important we feel comfortable with each partner. If anyone feel keganggu with our presence, so I do not care. Instead we think, the existence of lienes (lesbian) so it adds a colorful world. If you do not There we are, maybe the world feels very bland, yes, there's just a girl the same guy, not varied, "said Bebi.

Bebi is one among lesbians who have felt strange to him since he was sitting in sixth grade elementary school. As time went, he kept aware and determined to behave like men and like the same sex. Until today he kept his pledge to remain current. "Cave including pure Buchi, that is, the cave is really ngerasain from cave own self, not because of the association. But, now even girls lesbian nganggap nih lifestyle. She said it felt stale wrote that has never ngerasain 'turn'," he said.

When asked about the opinion of the people around him about the change that, he actually replied calmly that his family already knew it. "The family all knew the cave cave like this. Yes, his parents, certainly disappointed. Who also wants his son like this.

But, how else would. Cave also do not ask dilahirin like this, really. So, I run it as it is. In fact, once you know dating the same cave cave own cousin, "said Bebi again, who is currently studying in the second semester at one private university in Jakarta

THE EFFECTS OF A RURAL PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAM ON PARENTING STRESS, PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT, PARENTAL LOCUS OF CONTROL, AND PARENTAL EFFICACY

by Janie M. Cole

This project was a pilot study examining the effects of a rural parent education program on parenting stress, perceived social support, parental locus of control, and parental efficacy. The sample consisted of a group of six mothers in West Virginia. The variables were tested using the Parenting Stress Index, Perceived Social Support from Friends Index and two subscales, Parental Efficacy and Belief in Fate and Chance, from the Parental Locus of Control Scale. Using Cronbach’s alpha, the Parental Efficacy Subscale and all but one subscale of the Parenting Stress Index were found to be reliable with this small sample. Analysis was done using paired samples t tests to determine changes in pre- and posttest mean scores. A significant decrease in parent/child dysfunctional interaction, a subscale of the Parenting Stress Index, and a marginal decrease in the Parental Belief in Fate and Chance subcale of the Parental Locus of Control Scale were found.

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PARENTING SECOND FIRST CHILDREN: WHAT EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONALS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MOTHERS WHO HAVE RELINQUISHED A CHILD FOR ADOPTION

The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to examine the experiences of
birthmothers who relinquished a child for adoption and determine if this affected their subsequent parenting. The questions that guided the study were: (1.) How do birthmothers describe their experience of relinquishing a child for adoption?; (2.) How do birth mothers describe their experience of parenting subsequent children?; (3.) How do mothers who have relinquished a child for adoption perceive their parenting skills?; and (4.) What do mothers who have relinquished a child for adoption want early childhood professionals to know about their subsequent parenting experience?
Three birthmothers who put a child up for adoption and were parenting at least
one child within the early childhood age range volunteered to participate in the study. The researcher collected data through semi-structured interviews, observations, artifacts and follow-up interviews to determine how relinquishment of a child affects the ability to parent subsequent children.
Results of this study indicated that relinquishing a child for adoption is a life-
altering experience that has an impact on parenting of subsequent children. Participants in the study lacked confidence in their parenting and believed they overcompensated with subsequent children due to the loss they experienced. Although the birthmothers did not want to be treated differently from other families, specific themes were identified which reflected their experiences.
Understanding the experience of relinquishing a child for adoption and its impact
on subsequent parenting is critical in the field of early childhood education for several reasons. First, teachers must recognize that the contemporary family extends far beyond that of two parents, two children, and a dog living in a house with a white picket fence. Next, when creating classroom assignments that explore family histories, specific details that have not been shared with young children may arise when researching these types of projects. Modifications can be made to eliminate the possibility of causing angst and turmoil for the family. Being sensitive to the many types of families, including those where a mother has relinquished a child for adoption, is essential to successful partnerships with families in the field of early childhood education.

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INTEGRATED EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM PARTICIPATION, PARENTING, AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES: THE TORONTO FIRST DUTY PROJECT

This study examined predictors of program participation and the potential effects of participation on child development in five school sites offering integrated preschool services as part of the Toronto First Duty (TFD) demonstration project. The TFD model offered a seamless, school-based ‘service community’ integrating childcare, kindergarten, family literacy, and other early childhood services.
Despite sound conceptual arguments for the utility of integrating early childhood services, no empirical studies have examined the relation between uptake of integrated preschool services and children’s developmental outcomes, within the ecological context of integrated services. This study examined program participation levels or ‘dosage’, while considering the social ecology of the child, including family and school level characteristics that may moderate or mediate the effectiveness of community-level service integration efforts to improve child outcomes during the transition to school.
The ecology of participation effects was examined through generalized linear modeling techniques analyzing a linked dataset (N=272) including: (1) systematic intake form and tracking data on hours of program use, (2) children’s school readiness or child development teacher-report ratings (Early Development Instrument) measured across five domains (physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication and general knowledge), and (3) a measure of service integration levels across sites.
The results provided evidence that TFD achieved its outreach aims in ensuring equitable access for all families; demographic risk factors did not predict less participation in TFD integrated services. In a parallel analysis of predictors of kindergarten absences, there was one difference; males were absent more in kindergarten, whereas there were no gender differences in integrated service participation. The results provided additional evidence that the TFD model has potential in reducing disparities in children’s developmental outcomes since participation dose predicted children’s physical health and well-being, language and cognitive development, and communication and general knowledge, after taking into account demographic, parenting and site factors. Further, parents' being less child-centred and less interested in parent participation, were significant risk factors associated with children's developmental outcomes. This study has implications for understanding the ecological complexities of school readiness, and the potential processes by which program participation affects children’s outcomes

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Exploring Reasons for the Low Number of Males in High School Parenting and Child Development Classes

The purpose ofthis study is to identify the reasons for the low number of males that enroll in Parenting and Child Development classes at the high school level. A survey was developed to examine the attitudes and perspectives of male students in regards to enrolling in Parenting and Child Development classes. Females also participated to see if they had the same attitudes and perspectives as the males. The subjects used to obtain the needed data were current freshmen during the 2007-2008 academic year. Each student in the freshman class was given a Consent to Participate in UW-Stout Approved Research form to be shared and signed by their parent or guardian and returned to the investigator. The students that returned the signed consent forms were then given the survey. Responses were categorized, analyzed and presented in tables and figures.

The results verify that there currently exists a significant low number ofmales enrolled in Parenting and Child Development classes as compared to females. The study offers reasons for this behavior and suggestions for equalizing the enrollment. While females and males generally agree that these types ofcourses offer benefits such as knowledge on the subject and preparedness for pregnancy and responsibility, they tend to disagree on the timing ofthese classes and which gender would benefit more from being enrolled in Parenting or Child Development classes.
By implementing changes in the way the Parenting and Child Development classes are promoted and by designing a class format that would appeal more toward males, it might be possible to achieve increased enrollment in these courses.


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Parental Education and Child Learning Investing in Goods and Time

Children of more educated parents have been shown to outperform their peers on standardized tests, an outcome often attributed to more educated parents investing more in their childrenís human capital accumulation. However, neither the form of this investment nor the extent to which it explains the relationship between parental education and child learning is well understood. Using unique data from China, this paper examines how parental education impacts the householdís provision of time and goods used in childrenís learning and the extent to which these investments may explain the relationship between parental education and child learning. I Önd that more educated parents allocate greater levels of both goods and time to their childrenís human capital accumulation. In addition, controlling for investments in goods and time reduces the estimated e§ects of parental education on childrenís learning.
Keywords: Investments, Education, Human Capital, Time Allocation, China


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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDUCATION POLICY AND STUDENT SUCCESS

BRITTANY LAUREN RESMANN

This study investigated how education policy influences student success, and if there are linkages between K-12 education policy and higher education. Historically, education has primarily been a function of state and local governments. The role of the federal government drastically changed with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. This thesis focused on the influence of No Child Behind on several indicators of student success in K-12 and postsecondary education. All fifty states were examined in this study. This approach is rather unusual since it is typical to focus on one state or a small group of states. In addition to the state
level analyses, macro analyses were also conducted to generate sounder policy prescriptions.

This study tested three primary research questions. (1) The first research question tested possible changes in several measures of student success since the implementation of No Child Left Behind. (2) The second research question analyzed the relationship between K-12 education policy and higher education. (3) The third research question addressed the possibility that state education reforms have had an impact on test scores, graduation rates, and college enrollment. After testing the three research questions the following results were found. (1) Findings showed
that K-12 test scores have improved on the national level since the implementation of No Child Left Behind, but there are several states that have witnessed a decline in test scores since legislation was enacted. (2) No Child Left Behind has had an impact on higher education. Test scores have a relationship with college retention and college enrollment. (3)There was no relationship between the state reforms and the variables that measured student success. Based on the findings, policy prescriptions were generated for both leaders within education and policymakers.


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Teen Mothers’ Experiences in the New Beginnings Parent Education Program

Persephone Starks

This study was conducted to gain the personal accounts of teen mothers’experiences as students attending the New Beginnings Parent Education Program. Using a phenomenological perspective, the researcher sought to gain a deeper insight of their lived experience including knowledge of parent education, the existence of significant relationships, and goal setting for themselves, their family, education and career prior to becoming pregnant, and again after they found out they were pregnant or delivered their child. Using participant interviews, observations and field notes it was determined that the parent education program and instructors had a significant impact on participants within this study. The participants recognized that the goals they have set for themselves in various aspects of their life and their child’s life can be realized through course work, interaction with their infants and relationships with family and friends. The participants’ learned to create healthy relationships, and to embrace their role as the most important person in their child’s life.


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Education for all and child labour in Kenya: A conflict of capabilities?

Angela Githitho-Muriithi

Child labour remains an enormous challenge to the achievement of Education For All in developing countries. This paper explores the subject of child labour in Kenya in the context of the national and global push towards Education For All. Based on a year’s ethnography of a poor community in Kiambu district in Kenya, the paper explores the tension between child labour and schooling using the language of capabilities. The capability approach focuses on the freedoms that people have to live the life that they value. As there is a strong relationship between poverty and child labour, this paper argues that there is tension between the capability (freedom) to be educated and other basic capabilities such as being well fed and housed. Therefore, substantively empowering poor communities would be a positive step towards easing these tensions and ultimately achieving Education For All.

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Interpreting the Policy Past: The Relationship Between Education and Antipoverty Policy During the Carter Administration

The purpose of this study was to research the ways in which people explained the relationship between federal education and antipoverty policies from 1975–1981.

I undertook this task to demonstrate the complexity of the multiple sites of political struggle, where policy is made and negotiated, and to point to the ways in which education policies are always in circulation with and enacted among other polices. This demonstration can provide insight into how the social regularities (see the appendix for definitions) during the Carter Administration shaped the possibilities of U.S. education and antipoverty policies. Such a study would help me and others interpret the present policy options and our desires for social justice as events of a specific historical moment with its own possibilities and contradictions. In doing so, we can begin to engage in more creative policy making, which may help us in our struggle to improve the well-being of our children inside and outside of school.

My choice of this research problem has been shaped by my own history as well as by the time and place in which I am currently working. Because this work cannot be seen as separate from my own subjectivities, I use the “I” pronoun. Wilinsky (1989) advised, “Researchers must find ways of stepping from behind the disembodied voice” (p. 249). However, this does not mean that one should assume that this is the work of an autonomous consciousness. Instead, my experience should be read as a snapshot of my subjectivity, which is always “within the context of a fluid, changeable social setting, in motion via the interaction of a plurality of multiply-sited, diffused agents” (Lather, 1991, p. 42).

The subject matter of my dissertation was strategically chosen based on my desires to improve schooling and the quality of life of many children of poverty today. These desires developed out of the contradictions of our time, brought into sharp relief during my years as a middle school social studies teacher in a high-poverty school. In my school, I worked with teachers who heroically employed progressive and culturally specific pedagogies to support students’ ability to construct and interact with knowledge as their experiences dictated. In my own classroom, I hoped to create a community of learners where a sense of the self could be developed through a critical engagement with history. Most of the time I failed.

Although some teachers had moderate levels of success, we felt that most of our attempts for this type of education were systematically undermined by the very structure of schooling. These structures, which included working with over 150 students a day, seemed to be validated only by tradition and economy and had little relationship to a child’s ability to learn. Systems, which were reflected in the schedule of the day, forced students to compartmentalize their learning and created student loads for teachers that were too large to develop relationships of trust between students and teachers. Many of the children I taught struggled at home as well.

Whether the struggle emerged from neighborhood gang activity, an extra job after
school, or being in charge of their siblings while their parents worked in the evenings, most students had much more to worry about than the standards set by their teachers or the state. Reflecting on the struggles, I began to feel that if we were serious about helping children learn, then as a society we should invest more in their well-being and their schools. My experiences, while anecdotal, were not isolated. A number of publications, such as Kozol’s (1991) Savage Inequalities, resonated with my experience and showed me how much worse it could be. My teaching experiences also took place within a policy context of standards-based reform, which negatively impacted the interpretation of the purpose of public education in many schools. Indeed, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and state-mandated testing, regardless of their intent, shifted the focus in most schools from teaching and learning to measuring achievement. Rhetorically, the shift was intended to hold teachers and administrators accountable for providing all students with a high-quality educational experience. In practice, however, the shift drew increased attention to improving test scores and away from the authentic learning experiences my colleagues and I were hoping to provide.

The dissonance I experienced activated two desires. First, I developed a strong desire to investigate how we can continue to create environments that fail our students and their families, despite the best intentions of numerous professionals who work in schools. Second, through this understanding, I wanted to find a better way to advocate for fulfilling that promise. An avenue to realize these goals was the study of policy. Through policy work, that I might find ways to influence the agenda.

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succesful leadrship

modest, however, because our generally successful set of benchmark leadership
practices encompassed the vast majority of what the sample of school leaders in
the study did. Notwithstanding the well-known limitations of a small qualitative
study such as ours, many claims about the importance of context in the practice
of successful school leadership would seem to be greatly exaggerated, at least in a
highly accountable policy context.
What might account for such exaggeration? We conclude by speculating on
two possible reasons. One possible reason is distance. The closer one gets to any
object – leadership included – the more prominent in one’s view become its details
and the less visible its general shape. From an orbiting space station the coast of
Italy looks like a boot. But from a distance of 10 metres it is a unique and largely
unpredictable configuration of sand and water. Which raises a key question for
leadership researchers; Is there an ideal “distance” from which to view and describe
what it is that successful leaders do?
A second possible reason for exaggerating the importance of context is leadership
“style”. For example, such personal antecedents of successful leadership practices
as beliefs, values, energy and communication skill have a significant effect on
leadership behavior. But that effect, we argue, is not to influence what leaders
do (their practices, as we have described them in this paper) so much as how
they do it (e.g., aggressively vs. subtly). Claims about the contribution of context
to the explanation of successful leadership practices may sometimes be based on
confounding differences in style for differences in context. Such claims also raise
an important class of questions for further inquiry – how important to the effects
of leadership practices is the form of their enactment (or style)?

Special Education and privat school

Principals of private schools were questioned about the
practices of their schools regarding students with special needs.
This mixed-design study was a part of a larger study to determine
the current state of special education services in private schools
in Tennessee. Initial demographic information on schools was
gathered and analyzed by a quantitative survey. Open-ended
questions regarding the mission of the schools, admissions and
continued enrollment policies, and strengths and weaknesses of
the schools as they pertained to serving students with special
needs were presented in a questionnaire. The results indicate that
leadership style may play a role in the acceptance of students
with special needs in private schools. More research is needed
due to the push for school choice through the No Child Left
Behind Act and state voucher programs.

SPIRITUAL IDENTITY IN ISRAELI RELIGIOUS MALE ADOLESCENTS: OBSERVATIONS AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Shraga Fisherman
Orot Israel College

Based on Herbert’s (1987) theory of ego identity development and
on interviews of hundreds of Israeli religious male adolescents and
young adults who were raised and educated in religious society and
later left the fold, this article presents a model of development of
religious identity. Three levels of religious identity development—
healthy, unhealthy, and dangerous—are described. In healthy development,
adolescents abandon childish faith, confront and
deliberate about their doubts, and consolidate a mature and personal
spiritual identity. Unhealthy development, which may occur if
doubts are not accepted and dealt with, is seen in four forms:
sloganeering, diffuse spiritual identity, moratorium, and emphasis
on ritual and behavioral aspects of religion. These, in turn, may lead
to dangerous developments: (1) joining a cult or enslaving oneself
to a charismatic leader; (2) joining a group of formerly religious peers;
(3) group delinquency (theft or vandalism) or group use of alcohol
or drugs; (4) alienation and antireligious attitudes; (5) inconsistency
or “being religious at heart”; (6) solitary use of alcohol or drugs,
possibly leading to addiction. Methods of preventing and correcting
unhealthy and dangerous developments are presented and discussed.
Consolidation of

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION STUDENTS’ LEADERSHIP UNDERSTANDINGS

By
A.J. (Jim) Propp

The purpose of this study was to explore and represent students’ leadership understandings that emerged from discussions of their past and current leadership experiences in everyday life, their school experiences, and their college level contexts.
In this study I used a multiple method (QUAL + QUAL) research design and the data were analyzed within principles of grounded theory drawn from Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) grounded theory approach. Individual and focus group interviews were the main data collection methods used in this study: individual interviews with fifteen undergraduate education students and six focus group sessions (held in succession) generated the data.
As the leadership understandings held by the students unfolded, four broad themes became prominent. The first theme, the ubiquity of relationships, emerged from the students’ discussions of collaboration, context, power, and vision. Highlighted in these conversations was their perspective that, with respect to leadership, relationships are everything. The second theme included the students’ understanding that self-esteem and self-actualization were important aspects of effective and energizing leadership. Third, and perhaps more informative, was the manner in which the students articulated their leadership understandings. One of the biggest findings to come out of the study was the students’ tendency to speak in dualities in order to process, conceptualize, and articulate their leadership understandings. Additionally, the students’ sensemaking reflected the important role language and framing played in articulating their leadership understandings. Their perspective that small things (positive and negative) had momentum and led to ramifications emerged as the fourth broad theme. In my quest to understand this phenomenon, I developed the concept of leadership throw as the
metaphor that conveyed the students’ understanding of small things having big ramifications.
Implications for theory, research, and policy arose from the students’ beliefs that leadership was collaborative, interactive, and featured the harnessing of individuals’ skills for the betterment of communities. In view of what was learned about the students’ use of language, framing, and leadership throw, their leadership synthesis has implications for an enhanced pre-service teacher preparation program suggesting greater congruence with the lived realities of K-12 schools.
In conclusion, it became apparent that the students’ leadership understandings were part content, part process, and part articulation. Remarkably, I came into this research looking for the students’ denotative leadership understandings and came away from the study with a clearer understanding of language and framing, leadership throw, and the implications of these concepts powerful argument this makes for nurturing student voice and the capability for expression and framing at all levels of leadership, organizational life, and community relations.

A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF SINGLE-SEX VERSUS MIXED-SEX CLASSES ON MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Carol E. Thom, Ed.D.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of single-sex versus mixedsex classes on middle school student achievement. It was a case study of Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Charleston, West Virginia, an inner-city school with approximately 600 students, of which 30% were minority (mostly black), 30% were special needs, and 70% were classified low socio-economic status (SES). Student WESTEST (West Virginia Educational Standards Test) scores in reading/language arts and math were collected and compared from the school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005.
Each student’s scores from the first year were compared to that same student’s scores from the second year. Each student in the first year (2003-2004) was in mixed-sex classes and each student in the second year (2004-2005) was in single-sex classes. Two hundred seventy nine matched pairs of scores were compared. An alpha level of .05 was set as the criterion for the level of significance. A paired-samples T-test was used to determine whether the difference between the means was statistically significant. Student groups studied were male/female; black/white; low/high SES; and general education/special education. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether there were differences between groups. A .01 level of significance was found for both reading/language arts and math between mixed-sex and single-sex classes. No significance was found for the between group improvement scores. Results of this study provide support for using single-sex classes to improve the academic achievement of middle school students.

STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHER SUPPORT: EFFECT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Michael D. O’Shea

The primary purpose of this study was to add empirical validity to Starratt’s (2004) model of the ethics of responsibility, authenticity, and presence. This qualitative study, through a collective case study methodology, sought to operationalize Starratt’s model by seeking the actual presence of this model in the interactions and support among three teachers and six students in one northwest Ohio high school. Of particular interest is the effect the application of these ethics has on student perceptions of teacher support, student engagement, and student academic performance. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to explore student perceptions of teacher support among lower performing students and higher performing students and teachers’ perceptions of providing support to their students. Important questions that must be answered are whether high-performing students differ from low-performing students in their perceptions of teacher support and how teacher perceptions of delivering support to their students compare to student perceptions of teacher support. A synthesis of the data identified five common components of teacher support. Both high-performing and low-performing students identified supportive teachers as those teachers who (1) provide additional help outside normal classroom hours, (2) maintain high behavioral and academic standards, (3) provide relevant lessons tied to real world applications, (4) get involved in students’ personal lives, especially when personal issues jeopardize academic achievement or overall well being, and (5) present lessons that are designed to take into account individual learning styles or unique circumstances. Taken in the context of their inter-dependent relationship with the ethics of responsibility, authenticity, and presence, a clear paradigm emerged that provides meaningful support for students and, ultimately, enhanced student academic performance.
Three high school teachers from one northwest Ohio school were selected on a nonrandom, purposive basis. Two students were selected on a stratified-random basis from each teacher’s classroom for a total of six student participants. The first grouping consisted of those students with a grade point average of 3.0 or above; the second grouping consisted of students with grade point averages of 2.0 or below. All averages were based on a 4.0 scale. One student was drawn, at random, from each grouping for each teacher—totaling two students per teacher.
This study explored the interactions between teachers and students within the classroom with particular attention given to the strategies utilized by teachers to engage, support, and encourage their students in a learning environment consistent with Starratt’s (2004) model of the ethics of responsibility, authenticity, and presence. Similar attention was given to the students with respect to their perceptions of support provided by their teachers.
The study is significant in its exploration of the necessary, mutual, and meaningful connections made between teachers and students in an era of district and educator accountability and high numbers of students at risk of failure and dropout.

LEARNING BY TEACHING AGENTS

By
Thomas Katzlberger

The overall goal in this thesis was to develop an intelligent learning environment that adopted an explanatory and constructivist learning approach, and helped students learn and improve their problem solving activities in the mathematical domain on distance-rate-time problems. The learning environment implemented for this thesis combines the STAR-Legacy cycle str ucture (Schwartz, Lin et al. 1999), variants of Smart Tools (Owens et al. 1995), and Adventure Player (Crews et al. 1997) into a single learning environment that implements a learning by teaching approach. Smart Tools provided the interactive representations that users create for problem solving based on their knowledge or understanding of domain concepts. Adventure Player provided a problem-solving environment with planning and simulation tools for developing and verifying solutions to complex problems. Adventure Player was linked to the Rescue at Boones Meadow episode of the Adventures of Jasper Woodbury series that adopted an anchored instruction approach for teaching and learning (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt 1997). The outer cycle structure into which all of the above tools were embedded was adapted from the STAR-Legacy system to provide a structured sequence of increasingly difficult problems. Each cycle in our learning environment draws problems from a global anchoring context, organizes learning activities, and arranges formative and summative feedback during learning. We extended this environment with software agents that could be taught, to pursue the goal to improve motivation and the ability to transfer beyond the set of problems that students were taught to solve.

The Design, Development and Evaluation of a Problem-Based Learning Module: Implications for Teaching Digital Technology Skills to Middle School Students

Liesl Michele Combs

With the call for a change in the way students are prepared to meet the demands of the 21st century, new teaching methods are under investigation. Problem-based learning is one such method believed to encourage the skills students need to succeed. The purpose of this study is to outline the implications for using this approach to teach digital technology skills. Through this developmental study, a learning module was designed and developed for instruction in an eighth grade technology class. The research study also included an expert review and evaluation of the module through implementation in a middle school in southern New Jersey. The findings are presented and implications include the need for a shift in several aspects of education; a shift in how students are taught, a shift in the role teachers assume through this approach, and a shift in how teachers are trained to implement this teaching approach. Finally, recommendations are made for instructional designers seeking to develop a model for instruction in a problem-based learning environment.

EFFECTIVE TEACHER COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND TEACHER QUALITY

By
Kevin John Loy, B.S., M.S., M.A.

 

As we move into the Twenty-First Century the education profession and politicians continue to grapple with the expectation of better or higher test scores from society. The National Council of Teachers in Mathematics (NCTM) considers communication so important that they list it as one of the principles of the NCTM Principles and Standards for the School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000).
The overarching strategy of this research is to gain an understanding of the relationship between communication skills and student achievement. It is conjectured that there is a relationship between the ability of an individual to effectively communicate their thought or idea and the success that individual will meet in the classroom as an instructor. The theoretical framework is based in the social constructivist theory of learning of Lev Vygotsky. The literature showed that effective communication is important in the learning theory of social constructivism. The literature also showed that the ability to communicate and the ability to pose questions are important attributes of an effective teacher. A survey of one school district’s fourth grade teachers was conducted and the student achievement scores of their students were tied to their respective teacher’s response. The instrument was developed by Plumeus to measure the communication skills across several sub-scales to include listening, and ability to deliver a concept or idea. This instrument was modified for this research as the sub-scales were initially dependent. Three models were developed from these sub-scales and demographic variables. About two-thirds of the teachers that responded have earned an advanced degree. The research found that teachers with less experience scored somewhat higher on reported communication skills than those teachers with more years of service. The research also found no difference between female and male teachers for self-reported communication skills. The ability to get the message across was significant in explaining the variances for the dependent variable citizenship. Also possessing an advanced degree added about 9 points to the mean student achievement score for citizenship. As for other variables not addressed in the research questions, it appears that female teachers add about 11 points to the mean student achievement scores for Science. Finally the sub-scale that was comparable between the large population of the company and the sub-scale that was significant in explaining the variance of the citizenship achievement scores was bility toget the message across. This was the one sub-scale that was connected to the larger population and the teacher population plus it was significant for the teacher population in explaining variance.