Students to Participate in School

¶ … Students to Participate in School

An Analysis of Improving Pre-Kindergarten and Elementary Student Participation in School

Maximizing learning and attitudinal gains through integrated curricula by Valerie K. Lewis and S.H. Shaha (Spring 2003). Education, 123(3), p. 537.

According to Lewis and Shaha (2003), the research on improving student participation in school to date has supported the premise that integrated curricula results in improved educational outcomes through classroom instruction that incorporates various subject matters as an interconnected instead of separate subject areas; however, some educators remain unconvinced about the efficacy of this approach. To determine the effectiveness of integrated curricula on improving student participation in several American high schools, the authors conducted three studies to compare learning and attitudinal impacts from integrated curricula developed through a teacher-guided, results-driven approach, versus traditional, subject-compartmentalized curricula (Lewis & Shaha, 2003).

The study scores were found to be significantly higher for the integrated approach on objective tests of knowledge, and on measures of attitudinal impacts obtained from students, as well as parents. The research reported focused on validating the impact of integrated curricula for improvements in attitude and in learning by balancing the importance of both types of impacts for guiding curriculum development and evaluating instruction. Consequently, the authors believe that differences between curricula and the comparative efficacy of instructional groups will reflect differences in both learning and attitudinal impacts (Lewis & Shaha, 2003).

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study. The study's strengths include the number of participants and the fact that both students and educators were included. For instance, the authors report that the study participants included over 400 students and 15 teachers in 9 high schools in courses involving English, mathematics and sciences. The study's weakness was largely in the manner in which the statistical data was displayed, making interpretation of the graphic elements difficult.

Extent to Which Findings Can Be Generalized to Student Population. The aggregate results supported the notion that integrated curricula provide superior educational outcomes with improved learning and attitudinal impacts on students (Lewis & Shaha, 2003). Because the researchers used a fairly large number of participants, as well as both teachers and students, it can reasonably be assumed to be applicable to a wide range of American educational settings in general, and high schools in particular. Furthermore, this research was intended to provide a foundation upon which educators and educational institutions could build and gauge a foundation of continuous educational improvement in the future (Lewis & Shaha, 2003).

2.

Maximizing Student Learning: The Effects of a Comprehensive School-Based Program for Preventing Problem Behaviors by J. Ron Nelson, Ronald M. Martella, and Nancy Machand-Martella (Fall 2002). Journal of Emotional & Behavioral Disorders, 10(3), p. 136.

Summary of the Study. This study took place over a 2-year period in two American elementary schools. The comparisons of the two matched elementary schools suggested strong positive effects (i.e., number declined) on the formal disciplinary actions of the schools, teachers' perceptions of their ability to work with children who exhibited problem behaviors, and the extent to which the shared goals among staff for working with such behaviors were improved. Furthermore, comparisons between a group of target students (these were those who exhibited problem behaviors) and criterion students (these were those who did not exhibit problem behaviors) suggested positive effects for the former in their social adjustment, academic performance, and acquisition of school survival skills (Nelson et al., 2002).

According to Nelson et al., effective behavioral support (EBS) has been shown to increase schools' capacities for creating positive teaching and learning environments and for reducing the occurrence of problem behaviors that tend to reduce student participation levels in school. "EBS is the application of positive behavioral interventions and systems to achieve socially important behavior change across all of a school's environments" (Nelson et al., 2002, p. 136). The EBS approach involves applying a behaviorally-based system designed to improve the ability of the school to it or link research-validated practices and the actual environment in which teaching and learning take place. The practices and processes of the EBS approach emphasize: (a) an examination of the environments in which problem behavior is observed; (b) development of interventions that consider the consequence variables that maintain occurrences of problem behavior; (c) selection of interventions that take into account the range of possible social and academic outcomes; and, (d) the acceptability of procedures and outcomes by the student, family, and community (Nelson et al., 2002).

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study. This was a comprehensive and ambitious research project that involved several components of the curricula development process, including a school-wide program, a conflict resolution component, a video-based family management program, as well as individualized tutoring programs for students. The study's primary strength was the researchers' recruitment of the student participants' parents to assist in improving academic outcomes, a component that cannot be overlooked in any such initiative. While the authors did operationalize all of their acronyms, a minor weakness in this study was the abundance of such acronyms that tended to detract from its readability.

Extent to Which Findings Can Be Generalized to Student Population. The comprehensive nature of this study would likely mean that it is also expensive, and the large number of participants involved (educators, students and parents alike) would make such an initiative problematic; however, the authors insist that the effort is worth the investment in time and resources.

3.

A Study of Agency: Multiple Constructions of Choice and Decision Making in an Inquiry-Based Summer School Program for Struggling Readers by Alison H. Heron (2003). Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 46(7), p. 568.

Summary of the Study. The study took place over a 5-week period, with the time divided into math lessons, technology lessons, and an hour and a half of language arts, in which the students read and were asked to discuss real-life accounts of college-educated minorities who had experienced poverty, violence, or racism while growing up (Heron, 2003). The findings of this study suggest that the classroom culture and the relationship the teachers form with the students inspire student participation and pride in learning. This study investigated the conditions that need to be in place in classrooms to facilitate active student participation and to help students to become stronger and more directive agents in their own learning (Heron, 2003). The study took place in a suburb of a small, southeastern U.S. city, in a middle school that was under heavy construction.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study. A major constraint to this study was the condition in which the experiment took place (the author reports the heavy construction required them to enter by the back entrance and it was noisy and dirty throughout the day), and the limited number of participants; although more than 20 students had originally been enrolled for the study, only l0 attended on a regular basis (three to four days a week). The author also tended to be "chatty" in her presentation, and the resulting article ran over 38 pages as a result.

Extent to Which Findings Can Be Generalized to Student Population. The findings of this research project are fairly restrictive in nature. According to Heron, the school used in this research project served both the suburban area and the subsidized housing communities of the neighboring community, and the students in the summer school program had attended middle school in the same district in which this school was located. "Although the three teachers running the program were each in charge of a different subject area, all of them participated in the language arts discussions on a regular basis" (p. 569). For the purposes of the research report, four of the 10 students volunteered to be interviewed; 2 of them were boys (one African-American and one recent Lebanese immigrant) and 2 were African-American girls. All three of the teachers in the study were African-American who worked within the same school district that the students attended during the year; however, they did not know any of the students before the program began.

4.

The Effect of Active Learning Methods on Student Retention in Engineering Statistics by Paul H. Kvam (2000). The American Statistician, 54(2), p. 136.