The Synergistic Relationship Between Student Empowerment and Creativity in the Middle School Classroom
The Synergistic Relationship Between Student Empowerment and Creativity in the Middle School Classroom

Author: Sheri LaRowe Cooke

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13:

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The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the interplay of classroom environment relationships between seventh and eighth grade teachers and their students, and its effects on student empowerment and students' creativity in their academic work. After an extensive review of the literature, student empowerment was defined as the presence of the following characteristics: student choice/ownership, student voice/decision-making, goal-setting, self-efficacy, self-evaluation, risk-taking/initiative, independence/autonomy, and collaboration. A creative product was defined as an artifact which displays originality, functionality, and elegance/aesthetics. The case study design of this study included the gathering of data such as student surveys, teacher and student interviews, classroom observations, and student work samples. Findings are communicated through a discussion of themes and patterns. A theory for the enhancement of student empowerment and creativity is presented, with a discussion of the implications for the synergistic relationships among the constructs studied. It was determined at this case study site that democratic classrooms which include trusting, positive teacher/student relationships are likely to result in students being empowered to make choices and decisions that drive their own learning. This empowerment is a vital element in the creative process. The context, or environment, is a critical component. A change to the environment, including the relationships within the environment, will change the levels of empowerment and creativity within the environment. A theoretical model, EREC - Environment, Relationships, Empowerment, and Creativity - is proposed, highlighting the overlapping systems relationship among the four constructs. Pedagogical implications emphasize the need for positive school and classroom environments where collaboration and independence are fostered, where playfulness is valued, where feelings are acknowledged and supported, and outside controls and curricular restraints (such as standardized curriculum and assessments) are kept to a minimum. Implications for the research community indicate that further examination is warranted on why some students resist efforts toward empowerment. More information is also needed to fully describe informal relationships between teachers and their students, outside of classroom interactions.

Eight Myths of Student Disengagement
Eight Myths of Student Disengagement

Author: Jennifer A. Fredricks

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2014-02-26

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1483359093

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Your expert resource to activate, manage, and maintain lasting student success! Education expert Jennifer Fredricks empowers teachers to reengage students at all levels with clear-eyed implementation strategies that build essential 21st century learning skills. Teachers learn to confidently: Identify students most at risk for disengagement Implement student-centered, project-based learning practices for maximum educational outcomes Work effectively with diverse groups of disengaged youth Build positive peer cultures and high-quality student-teacher relationships Straightforward how-to’s from practicing classroom teachers, print and web-based resources, and assessment tips help educators cultivate lasting student engagement and transform educational outcomes with this must-have resource!

Art as a Form of Empowerment for Middle School Adolescents
Art as a Form of Empowerment for Middle School Adolescents

Author: Kimberlee Kennedy

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13:

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The purpose of my study was to examine what happened when I made changes to my own instructional strategies by encouraging students to make decisions and engage self-regulating strategies within my art classroom. I am particularly interested in fostering student empowerment. In order to create an empowering art environment, I implemented a modified Backward Design Curriculum Model, one that was merged with a Choice-Based Model, (also known as Teaching for Artistic Behaviors) in order to design a curriculum unit in which students were asked to take active roles in the decision making process involved in their art making. During this time, I took the role of facilitator instead of the authority-figure or decision maker. I also required my students to use self-regulating skills of goal setting and project planning. My study examines how these approaches (Backward Design, Choice-Based Art Education, and students0́9 self regulatory strategies) foster empowerment in students. Utilizing an action research approach that included observations of classroom activities, weekly journaling, taking and analyzing photographs of student work, analysis of written reflections from my students and myself, and informal interviews with students, I have both fine-tuned and studied strategies for organizing and facilitating these three approaches in my curriculum. My project consists of my curriculum and my documentation of my student work available at http://kimberleeart.wix.com/choice-based-art-ed. My capstone paper accompanies this project and shares the background for and findings from this study.

Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education
Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education

Author: Alex Shevrin Venet

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-01

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1003845118

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Educators must both respond to the impact of trauma, and prevent trauma at school. Trauma-informed initiatives tend to focus on the challenging behaviors of students and ascribe them to circumstances that students are facing outside of school. This approach ignores the reality that inequity itself causes trauma, and that schools often heighten inequities when implementing trauma-informed practices that are not based in educational equity. In this fresh look at trauma-informed practice, Alex Shevrin Venet urges educators to shift equity to the center as they consider policies and professional development. Using a framework of six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education, Venet offers practical action steps that teachers and school leaders can take from any starting point, using the resources and influence at their disposal to make shifts in practice, pedagogy, and policy. Overthrowing inequitable systems is a process, not an overnight change. But transformation is possible when educators work together, and teachers can do more than they realize from within their own classrooms.

The Science of Learning and Development
The Science of Learning and Development

Author: Pamela Cantor

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-06-21

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 100039977X

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This essential text unpacks major transformations in the study of learning and human development and provides evidence for how science can inform innovation in the design of settings, policies, practice, and research to enhance the life path, opportunity and prosperity of every child. The ideas presented provide researchers and educators with a rationale for focusing on the specific pathways and developmental patterns that may lead a specific child, with a specific family, school, and community, to prosper in school and in life. Expanding key published articles and expert commentary, the book explores a profound evolution in thinking that integrates findings from psychology with biology through sociology, education, law, and history with an emphasis on institutionalized inequities and disparate outcomes and how to address them. It points toward possible solutions through an understanding of and addressing the dynamic relations between a child and the contexts within which he or she lives, offering all researchers of human development and education a new way to understand and promote healthy development and learning for diverse, specific youth regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or history of adversity, challenge, or trauma. The book brings together scholars and practitioners from the biological/medical sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, educational science, and fields of law and social and educational policy. It provides an invaluable and unique resource for understanding the bases and status of the new science, and presents a roadmap for progress that will frame progress for at least the next decade and perhaps beyond.

Achievement and Motivation
Achievement and Motivation

Author: Ann K. Boggiano

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9780521322201

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Achievement and Motivation was originally published in 1993. It provides a comprehensive review of research conducted on the topic in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most particularly, it focuses on the research of those in the field who tackle the issue from a social-developmental perspective.