Scholarship & Research
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Item The effect of math strategy notebooks on executive function at Midtown International School(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2016) Byrd, Martha Jordan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Within a second grade classroom of gifted learners, many students could master advanced content and concepts, but had difficulty with the application and analysis within problem-solving scenarios. The executive functions that support these higher-order thinking skills such as working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility are not fully developed until later grades. To determine if these executive functions could be strengthened or supported in the math classroom, a strategy notebook was implemented for the students to utilize within their daily lessons. The notebook required students to record multiple strategies to increase cognitive flexibility. Additionally, the notebook layout was designed to assist working memory and increase student inhibition when solving the math problems. The results of the treatment concluded that the notebooks did increase the executive functions of cognitive flexibility. In contrast, the strategy notebooks did not increase the executive functions of working memory and inhibition.Item The effect of scientific explanation instruction on extended response performance by eighth grade science students(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2014) Dobson, Rebecca Love; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.This action research-based classroom project sought to discover if direct instruction of scientific explanation will improve student performance on extended response style questions. Students were taught to write a scientific explanation using Katherine McNeill's Claim-Evidence-Reason Framework. Student activities were scaffolded for increasing difficulty, culminating in an inquiry project requiring them to write a scientific explanation from data they collected. Eight of nine students in the research group showed improvement in scientific explanation writing skills. Students' confidence in their abilities to write explanations also improved.Item The effects of intervention strategies on student awareness of science homework completion(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Lehner, Brett L.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.The purpose of this action research project was to develop student awareness about late and missing assignments. The reason for developing student awareness was to help increase homework completion rates. Teacher interviews and surveys were used to determine what types of intervention strategies have been successful in the classroom to increase student awareness of homework completion. Two recurrent intervention strategies were selected from these interviews and surveys to create student awareness of how not completing assignments can affect the overall grade. The first strategy required students to fill out a grade sheet of the assignments, due dates, points each assignment is worth, and an area to record any missing assignments as a reminder for students to improve the total amount of homework completed. The second intervention strategy was to send an electronic progress report to parents that gave a grade-by-grade weekly progress report of how well the student was doing in class for the chapter that was covered. Both intervention strategies helped develop awareness of homework completion with the weekly progress report having slightly more influence in developing student awareness and completing more homework assignments by the due date. There was an improvement in the overall average grade in all classes; however, this improvement was not a result of turning more homework on time, but rather more late homework was turned in for a grade.Item Implications of planned formative assessment training in a science, math and humanities classroom(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Lord, Martha Compton; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.The purpose of this Action Research project was to investigate the implications of implementing planned formative assessment in a high school classroom. This Action Research endeavor looked at seven teachers as they were trained and subsequently asked to utilize two Classroom Assessment Techniques in their individual classrooms and record information on their successes, failures and ideas. It was found that teachers were willing to implement new formative assessment techniques provided they took little time to prepare, implement and analyze. However, the information gathered from the formative assessments did not necessarily lead to a change in instructional technique. The project also showed that the level of engagement in the project was correlative with the number of relationships each teacher had with the individual leading the professional development.Item Using technology to enhance the implementation of peer discussion in science education(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Curtis, Jennifer; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.The purpose of this action research project was to determine the impact of combining peer discussion with delivering formative assessments using a Classroom Response System (CRS) within physics education. The study was conducted with two sections of physics. Students in both sections of physics initially responded to conceptual questions independently and then responded following peer discussion. One section was provided option-based grouping for peer discussions while the students in the other section were grouped based on their initial responses, called evidence-based grouping. Using CRS formative assessment data to facilitate the instantaneous grouping of students with different responses facilitated the evidence-based grouping. Results revealed that evidence-based groupings enhanced the effectiveness of peer discussion, as noted by improved conceptual understanding and increased student motivation for seeking answers. However, the positive, moderate correlation between pre-assessment scores and post-assessment scores for both treatment groups showed the benefit of using technology to support peer discussion in enhancing learning.Item The effects of compacted science units on student retention of science concepts(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Davies, James Ivan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Class lengths were manipulated to see if condensed science units could have the same effect as typical teaching. Five teachers taught two science units for 45 minutes a day for a couple weeks while others taught 180 minutes a day for 3-4 days. Students who learned in a daily format consistently scored higher than students in the condensed format, but the difference was not large.