Date of Award
2-1-1991
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
David Flight
Keywords
at risk students, career exploration, curriculum, district, educators, eighth grade, extracurricular activities, goal setting, grade promotion, homework completion, instructional integration, learning strategies, metacognition, middle school education, parent involvement, parental monitoring, school reform, staff development, strategic teaching and learning, student achievement, students, teaching, thinking skills
Abstract
This report describes four aspects of a two-year research project to promote an efficacy continuum as a school based paradigm in the face of infusion overload and fragmented instructional delivery system mandates. The targeted group is "at risk" Yellow House eighth grade students for which the project intervenes. The planning and implementation phases of the practicum facilitates renewal, continuity and integration of proposed system goals although the system is in constant upheaval and flux because of the change in two State Chief Officers.
The practicum initiates a school wide metacognitive study- thinking skills program to routinize independent skill development to increase time on task of completing homework to improve grade point equivalents, first. Secondly, it assists the alienated learners to develop self-knowledge and awareness of their strengths as learners in goal-setting conferences and participation in a career exploration pilot. Thirdly, the project facilitates an integrative environment for teaching and learning. Finally, the practicum establishes a synthesis framework of staff development needs.
As a results of this practicum, the school has a mechanism for parental monitoring of homework and involvement in goalsetting. Minimum standards for 9th grade promotion are being met as a result of the intervention. A school-system continuum of extra-curriculum clubs to encourage youth to pursue education as a career in grades 3-12 has grown from the Shaw pilot club. The practicum synthesizes disparate staff development repertoires into an integration of the latest research on effective teaching and learning. The resulting framework of “Strategic Teaching and Learning” empowers parents, teachers and leaners.