ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Context, Curriculum, and Community Matter: Leadership Practices of Primary School Principals in the Otago Province of New Zealand
Author: Latham, Darrell
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Rural Schools,Principals,Elementary Schools,Leadership Styles,Administrator Effectiveness,Elementary School Curriculum,School Community Relationship,Parent School Relationship,School District Size

This research examined the leadership practices of rural primary school principals in the Otago province of New Zealand. Principals of large rural schools (with a role of 150 and above) and small rural schools (with a role of 60 or below) served as participants in an investigation to learn what about their practice creates and maintains effective rural schools. The goals were to investigate the interrelationships of principal, curriculum, and community and to examine principals' practices in relationship to effective leadership in their schools. A mixed methods approach comprised a survey designed for the study completed by rural principals (n = 63), followed by observations over 3 days and then interviews with 6 principals. Key findings were that leadership practices varied across contexts of large rural and small rural schools; having a local curriculum was critical; and, communication and involvement with parents and the community were essential. The survey had good psychometric qualities; validation through future research use is needed. Results are discussed in terms of factors to consider for effective leadership in rural schools.
Small Texas School Districts&apos; Response to State Funding Reductions
Author: Bigham, Gary
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: School Districts,Small Schools,Responses,State Aid,Educational Finance,Retrenchment,Public Schools,School Effectiveness,School Community Relationship,School District Wealth,Expenditures,School Taxes

In response to a challenging state economy, the Texas Legislature implemented the Regular Program Adjustment Factor (RPAF) in 2011, effectively reducing state funding to all Texas school districts. This mixed methods study reveals the effect of the RPAF on a sample of the smallest Texas school districts and their response to decreased state funding -- inclusive of reducing staff, implementing tax rollback and bond elections, and securing revenue from other, non-traditional, financing sources, which ultimately served as the largest revenue enhancement -- 97 percent of which was comprised of the issuance of capital-related debt.
Rural Educator Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Public Schools: Perspectives from Three States
Author: Lin, Shu-Yuan
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Rural Schools,Teacher Attitudes,Parent Participation,Public Schools,Family School Relationship,School Community Relationship,Partnerships in Education,Parents,Teacher Surveys

Rural educators in three states were surveyed regarding their perceptions of parental involvement in their schools. Significant indicators impacting student success included the expectation of parents and their attitudes toward education. Two strategies used to incorporate varying cultures and languages into the school community were creating a welcoming and open climate for parents and using parents' home languages to communicate key information. The greatest challenge to involvement in their children's education was parents' work schedules. Educators participating in this study rated their schools' level of success in engaging parents as somewhat successful.
&quot;It Just Works Better&quot;: Introducing the 2:1 Model of Co-Teaching in Teacher Preparation
Author: Tschida, Christina M.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Teachers,Cooperating Teachers,Team Teaching,Educational Change,Teacher Education,Models,Rural Areas,Rural Schools,Student Teaching,Student Teacher Supervisors,Elementary Education,Special Education

Many issues influence reform in teacher preparation including national accountability efforts, professional teaching standards, and local or regional factors. This study examines a rurally-located teacher education program's efforts to reform clinical preparation through co-teaching. Researchers argue that their adaption of the typical one-to-one (1:1) model of co-teaching to a two-to-one (2:1) model, where two teacher candidates work collaboratively with one cooperating teacher, greatly enhances the student teaching experience. This phenomenological research describes the first year of implementation. Despite cooperating teacher concerns about teacher candidates being prepared for their own classrooms, student teachers learned valuable lessons in collaboration and co-planning, built strong relationships with peers and cooperating teachers, and greatly impacted K-6 student learning. Implications suggest a 2:1 co-teaching model of student teaching allows for fewer placements, which ultimately allows selection of quality cooperating teachers who mentor teacher candidates in powerful ways.
Principals&apos; Perceptions about Alternate Route Programs in Rural Areas
Author: Brenner, Devon
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Principals,Administrator Attitudes,Rural Schools,Teacher Recruitment,Middle School Teachers,Alternative Teacher Certification,Educational Benefits,Beginning Teachers,Incentives,Mentors,Program Design

Alternate route programs are increasingly serving schools in rural areas that may struggle to recruit new teachers. In this study, ten principals of middle schools from rural areas of Mississippi were interviewed regarding their perceptions of alternate route programs' recruitment, selection, preparation, mentorship, support, and retention practices. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews suggests that principals of rural schools had limited experience with alternatively certified teachers and, overall, their views were generally positive. They believed that these programs would help meet the high need for teachers in the state, and alternate route candidates may provide benefits to middle school students due to their greater content knowledge, experience, and maturity. However, they also held concerns regarding the absence of student teaching, alternatively certified teachers' readiness for the classroom, and the amount and quality of support and mentoring in the first year of teaching.
Supervision Experiences of Rural School Counselors
Author: Wilson, Tara A.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Supervision,School Counselors,Rural Schools,Administrator Role,Technology Uses in Education,Access to Information,Counselor Role,Supervisory Training

This qualitative study explored the needs of professional school counselors and school counselor interns located in rural areas with regard to clinical supervision, consultation, and professional growth. Four separate focus groups (n=21) were conducted. To allow for consistency across focus groups, a series of six structured interview questions were used. Results of the data analysis revealed six themes which included unique issues of rural school counselors, dynamics of rural living, supervision from school administrators, supporting development through technology, desire for increased connection through supervision, and the identification of roles and responsibilities. Implications of this study indicate a crucial need to increase supervision training opportunities for current school counselors and interns. Technology and active participation with professional organizations may provide a platform for rural school counselors to receive supervision training and offer increased professional connection to solidify their counseling identity.
Youth Development Program in Northern Manitoba
Author: Brown, Christopher D.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Youth Leaders,Leadership Training,Youth Programs,Transformative Learning,School Community Programs,Well Being,Skill Development,Program Descriptions,Role Models,Educational Benefits,Attitude Change,Best Practices

This article describes a study of the Cultural, Economic, Political, and Social Youth Leadership Development Program (CEPS), an identity-building program for disengaged youth, conducted by a community-university alliance in northern Manitoba, Canada. The study was conducted through the lens of transformative learning theory. Findings indicate participation in CEPS strengthened the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being of the quality of their lives, and provided knowledge and leadership skill development. The CEPS program also developed the participants' agency to make a difference in their lives, their families, and their communities.
Educational System Building in a Changing Educational Sector: Environment, Organization, and the Technical Core
Author: Spillane, James P.
Date: 2019-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Improvement,Educational Policy,Administrator Role,Accountability,Standards,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Environment,Montessori Schools,Urban Schools,Advanced Placement Programs,Catholic Schools,Public Schools,Private Schools,Charter Schools,Suburban Schools

The institutional environment of U.S. school systems has changed considerably over a quarter century as standards and test-based accountability became central ideas in policy texts and discourses about improving education. We explore how U.S. school systems are managing in this changed environment by focusing on system leaders' sense-making about their environments as they attempt to build educational systems to improve instruction, the core technology of schooling. We identify the policy texts and discourses system leaders notice and their framings, interpretations, and uses of these cues as they build educational infrastructures to support more coherent instructional visions. We argue that school systems' educational infrastructure building efforts were intended at coupling their systems' formal organization with particular environmental cues in an effort to influence classroom instruction. In turn, we argue that these educational infrastructure building efforts can simultaneously be motivated by, and in pursuit of, institutional ritual and technical rationality.
The Effect of Educational Technologies on Manners and Sustainability of Teacher Candidates
Author: Sarigöz, Okan
Date: 2019-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Technology,Foreign Countries,Preservice Teachers,Sustainability,Technology Uses in Education,Student Attitudes,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Pretests Posttests,Influence of Technology

The practices of education and teaching are of paramount importance for the representatives of our future, children. Therefore, every nation is constantly seeking for more sustainable and more efficient education practices for its own future. Knowing that digital technology world is being frequently used by students, applying the use of this technology to the educational field would be desirable by all countries. The nations are in a permanent search for an education system that is self-refreshing, success raising, supportive of easier learning, motivation rising and capable of making classes more fun. This type of educational system seems only possible nowadays with the support of classes by digital technologies by teachers. The purpose of this study is to determine knowledge fund, competency, and manners of teacher candidates' on digital educational technologies and obtain their views on sustainability of digital technologies on education. The results of the research showed that digital educational technologies affected learning of teacher candidates positively, made classes more enjoyable, raised the attention levels, diminished the forgetfulness and reinforced the communication in between them.
Negotiating Effective Arts Education Partnerships: School and Industry Professionals and the High School Musical
Author: Aris, Matthew Paul
Date: 2019-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Art Education,Partnerships in Education,School Business Relationship,High Schools,High School Students,Music Activities,Theater Arts,Aesthetics,Foreign Countries

The landscape of arts education is changing, with an increased focus on collaborative partnerships between schools and arts sectors for the purpose of creating richer arts education - both process and products. Using a combination of phenomenology and autoethnography, this research explores how one particular form of arts education partnerships function in order to consider the enablers and constraints to working effectively together. The study draws on data from interviews of eight key education (School Professionals) and industry staff (Industry Professionals based at a professional venue) and the first author's reflective journal conducted over a ten-day period during the staging of a high school musical. The findings reveal how traditional roles and practices are being re-visioned and reshaped to encompass both industry and education values connecting aesthetic quality with educational outcomes. The result of these partnerships at their best, produce not only richer experiences for students, and deep learning, but also closer industry and education relationships that are inclusive, productive and mutually beneficial.
Property Tax Cap Policy in Indiana and Implications for Public School Funding Equity
Author: Bowling, J. Scott
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Finance,Taxes,Financial Policy,Educational Equity (Finance),Public Schools,State Policy,Finance Reform,School Districts,Enrollment,School District Wealth,Financial Problems,English Language Learners,Special Education,Minority Group Students,Low Income Students,Elementary Secondary Education,Preschool Education

The purpose of this research was to examine funding losses experienced by preschool to grade 12 (P-12) public school districts in Indiana, U.S., from an equity standpoint after the implementation of statewide property tax caps. All Indiana public school districts (N = 292) rely on property taxes as a major source of revenue, but districts experienced widely varying losses after the tax reform. Analyses across an array of district characteristics revealed significant relationships between differential funding losses and demographic indicators, including total student enrollment and the percentages of certain minoritized students. Implications for policy and practice include the integration of findings with essential research on funding equity in public education and attention on leadership toward reducing funding disparities.
Investigating Nature-Related Routines and Preschool Children&apos;s Affinity to Nature at Halifax Children&apos;s Centers
Author: Omidvar, Nazanin
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Preschool Education,Environmental Education,Child Care Centers,Reggio Emilia Approach,Preschool Curriculum,Outcomes of Education,Games,Childrens Attitudes,Ecology,Preschool Children

The importance of spending time in nature is undeniable for child development, yet from an early age most children's time in nature is restricted. Beginning in preschool, the range and quality of a child's nature experience is restricted by accessibility to nature experiences and pedagogical approaches. This is a problem for building a sustainable future as the scholarly literature clearly demonstrates that children's environmental affinity is strongly affected by indoor and outdoor learning experiences, and can impact their pro-environmental behaviour in the future. Some pedagogical philosophies, like the Reggio-Emilia approach, attempt to increase nature exposure for children. This study uses a mixed-methods approach, including game testing, to examine the cognitive, emotional, and attitudinal bio-affinity of preschool children after being enrolled in Reggio-Emilia preschools for at least one year. Results suggest that although the Reggio-Emilia-inspired curriculum followed at the preschools provided various opportunities for children to be exposed to nature, the children's cognitive, emotional, and attitudinal affinity with nature was weak.
The Nature and Nurture of Resilience: Exploring the Impact of Nature Preschools on Young Children&apos;s Protective Factors
Author: Ernst, Julie
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Resilience (Psychology),Early Childhood Education,Attachment Behavior,Metacognition,Coping,Stress Variables,Outdoor Education,Child Development,Pretests Posttests,Comparative Analysis,Outcomes of Education,Preschool Children,Program Descriptions

Resilience, the capacity to cope with stress and adversity, is universally regarded as a positive and valued trait (LeBuffe &amp; Naglieri, 2012). The purpose of this study was to explore the potential for nature preschools to support the development of initiative, self-regulation, and attachment, which are key protective factors that can offset or moderate the effects of stress and adversity and allow a child to thrive or even by transformed by adversity. The Deveraux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers, Second Edition (DECA-P2) was used in a pretest and posttest of a sample of 78 children who attended nature preschools, as well as in a baseline group of 14 children who attended a non-nature preschool. Results suggest a significant strengthening of these protective factors over the course of a school year in preschool participants who attended a nature preschool. Implications are discussed in the context of the study's limitations.
The Case for Nature Connectedness as a Distinct Goal of Early Childhood Education
Author: Barrable, Alexia
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Environmental Education,Outdoor Education,Educational Objectives,Young Children,Well Being,Elementary School Curriculum,Measures (Individuals)

The importance of young children learning about the natural environment has been recognised in policy and curricular frameworks around the world. Moreover, there has been a call for children to spend more time outdoors and to reconnect with nature. However, the distinct construct of nature connectedness has not been examined in detail in relation to early childhood education. This article aims to bring together environmental psychology literature and early years' policy in an attempt to make the case for nature connectedness becoming a distinct goal in early childhood curricular frameworks. Furthermore, it aims to highlight gaps in the research literature and offer clear directions for future research.
Noun Phrase Complexity in Academic Writing: A Comparison of Argumentative English Essays Written by Thai and Native English University Students
Author: Jitpraneechai, Narisa
Date: 2019-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Nouns,Phrase Structure,Academic Language,Form Classes (Languages),Persuasive Discourse,Essays,Writing (Composition),Contrastive Linguistics,Thai,English,Native Language,Language Usage,Undergraduate Students,Discourse Analysis,Marketing,Social Media,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English for Academic Purposes,Computational Linguistics,Foreign Countries

Focusing on noun phrase complexity in writing, this study adopted Biber, Gray and Poonpon's (2011) hypothesized developmental stages to investigate the academic writing of Thai and native English university students by comparing their argumentative English essays as concerns their usage of noun modification. Prenominal modifiers and postnominal modifiers were identified and coded manually. It was found that both groups of writers heavily relied on attributive adjectives, nouns as premodifiers and prepositional phrases as postmodifiers, and there were no significant differences in the use of prenominal modifiers between both groups of students for the most part. The most significant differences between both datasets were in the use of prepositional phrases with abstract meanings and multiple prepositional phrases as postmodifiers. These are hypothesized to be acquired at later developmental stages and were more frequently used by native English university students than Thai university students. The findings of this study may contribute to greater insights into the nature of noun phrase complexity used by Thai undergraduates. Pedagogical implications based on the findings are also provided.
Using Picture Books to Enhance Ecoliteracy of First-Grade Students
Author: Muthukrishnan, Rani
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Picture Books,Teaching Methods,Environmental Education,Ecology,Grade 1,Elementary School Students,Biodiversity,Reading Aloud to Others,Cognitive Processes,Learning Processes,Learning Activities,Reaction Time,Teacher Student Relationship,Comparative Analysis,Writing (Composition),Water,Concept Formation

Picture books have the potential to engage students in multimodal ways of learning in early education setting. This pilot study aims to investigate the efficacy of using picture books specifically written to convey increasingly complex ecosystem concepts and their influence on introducing ecoliteracy to first-grade students. Under the central theme of &quot;ecoliteracy&quot; the books introducing four sub-themes (nature, cycles in nature, biodiversity in the rain forest, introducing the phenomenon of bioluminescence) were presented at two-week intervals. The picture books were read aloud and followed by student responses to the text in writing. The questions examined in this pilot study are: What ecoliteracy competencies are highlighted in student responses? How do students demonstrate learning using ecoliteracy-rich books? The texts produced by students were analyzed to understand how students represented ecoliteracy concepts with respect to ecoliteracy domains. Student responses predominantly fell into the cognitive domain as opposed to emotional domain. These responses demonstrated how students extended learning by applying the knowledge to events in daily life, and a willingness to play with concepts. Elaborated in the discussion are the need for matching books with appropriate curriculum to meet the ecoliteracy goals, the significance of producing texts by young readers, and constraints for developing ecoliteracy.
Language Policy and Bilingual Education in Thailand: Reconciling the Past, Anticipating the Future
Author: Huebner, Thom
Date: 2019-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Language Planning,Bilingual Education,Case Studies,Comparative Analysis,Multilingualism,Diachronic Linguistics,Global Approach,Language Minorities,Language Classification,Educational Change,Second Language Learning,Native Language,Foreign Countries,Economic Factors,Political Influences,Thai,Dialects,Language Usage,Geographic Regions,Islam,Buddhism,Malayo Polynesian Languages,Semitic Languages,Indonesian,Second Languages,Language of Instruction

Despite a century-old narrative as a monolingual country with quaint regional dialects, Thailand is in fact a country of vast linguistic diversity, where a population of approximately 60 million speak more than 70 languages representing five distinct language families (Luangthongkum, 2007; Premsrirat, 2011; Smalley, 1994), the result of a history of migration, cultural contact and annexation (Sridhar, 1996). However, more and more of the country's linguistic resources are being recognized and employed to deal with both the centrifugal force of globalization and the centripetal force of economic and political unrest. Using Edwards' (1992) sociopolitical typology of minority language situations and a comparative case study method, the current paper examines two minority language situations (Ferguson, 1991), one in the South and one in the Northeast, and describes how education reforms are attempting to address the economic and social challenges in each.