Hersholt C. Waxman

Motivation and Learning Environment Differences between Resilient and Nonresilient Latino Middle School Students

This study tries to address the problems of Latino students by drawing on two distinct and emerging theoretical frameworks: (a) educationally resilient students and (b) classroom learning environments. The authors compared the motivation and learning environment of 60 resilient and 60 nonresilient Latino middle school students from a multiethnic metropolitan city located in the south central region of the United States. The multivariate analysis and univariate post hoc tests revealed that resilient students had significantly higherperceptions of involvement, satisfaction, academic self-concept, and achievement motivation than nonresilient students. The discriminantfunction analysis revealed that the variables of academic aspirations, involvement, academic self-concept, expectations for high school graduation, not being held back in school, and satisfaction were related most highly to the overall discriminant function. Results are discussed in relation to previous work on educational resilience and to implications for improving the education of students at risk of failure.

Classroom Process Differences in Inner-City Elementary Schools

Abstract Prior school effectiveness research was extended in this study by an examination of classroom processes in urban elementary schools that have been identified as effective/efficient (E/E) and ineffective/inefficient (I/I), based on both data envelopment analyses (DEA) (Anderson & Walberg, 1994) and multiple-regression analyses. Achievement test scores and school demographic data were used initially to determine the efficiency and effectiveness ratings of 167 elementary schools from a large urban school district in the south central region of the United States. Four schools were randomly selected from the population of I/I schools. Systematic classroom observation and classroom learning environment measures were collected from each of these schools. The results indicated several classroom process differences between these E/E and I/I urban schools. In the I/I schools, for example, students were observed interacting with their teacher only about 47% of the time and there were no classroom interactio...

Improving the Quality of Classroom Instruction for Students at Risk of Failure in Urban Schools

One of the major challenges in education today is improving the quality of classroom instruction for students at risk of failure in urban schools. Most of these students come from disadvantaged circumstances that heighten the probability that they will not be successful in schools, but what may be considered their greatest risk factor is that their teachers and schools contribute to their failure and academic underachieve-

Motivation and Learning Environment Differences in Inner-City Middle School Students

Abstract The problems of students in inner-city schools were addressed by drawing upon two distinct and emerging theoretical frameworks: (a) educationally resilient students and (b) classroom learning environments. The motivation and learning environment of 75 resilient and 75 nonresilient students from an inner-city middle school located in a major metropolitan city in the south central region of the United States were compared. Resilient students were defined as those students who had scored on or above the 90th percentile on standardized achievement test scores in mathematics for a 2-year period; nonresilient students were those who had scored on or below the 10th percentile on standardized achievement test scores in mathematics for the same period. The multivariate analysis and univariate post hoc tests revealed that resilient students had significantly higher perceptions of involvement, task orientation, rule clarity, satisfaction, pacing, and feedback than nonresilient students did. Resilient studen...

Adaptive Education and Student Outcomes: A Quantitative Synthesis

AbstractTo estimate the effects of adaptive education on cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes of learning, 309 effect sizes were calculated using statistical data from 38 studies that contained a combined sample of approximately 7,200 students. The substantial mean of the study-weighted effect sizes is .45, suggesting that the average student in adaptive programs scores at the 67th percentile of control group distributions. The effect appeared constant across grades, socioeconomic levels, races, private and public schools, and community types. In addition, the effects were not significantly different across the categories of adaptiveness, student outcomes, social contexts, and methodological rigor of the studies.

Alternative Feedback Approaches for Improving Student Teachers' Classroom Instruction

Freiberg and Waxman describe three approaches for providing feedback that have not been widely used but have great potential for improving the class room instruction of preservice teachers. The methods include: (a) feedback from pupils, (b) systematic feedback from classroom observation systems, and (c) self-analysis of classroom lessons. The authors argue that these feedback ap proaches, individually or collectively, provide student teachers, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors with excellent data for strengthening the preservice teaching experience.

Classroom Instruction Differences by Level of Technology Use in Middle School Mathematics.

This study examined whether 1) classroom interaction, 2) selection of activities, 3) instructional activities, 4) organizational setting of the classroom, and 4) student on-task and off-task behaviors in the classroom significantly differs according to the degree of implementation of technology in mathematics classrooms. The subjects in the present study were 2,189 middle school students who were randomly chosen from a multi-ethnic school district located within a major metropolitan city in the south central region of the United States. The results indicate that there are significant differences in classroom instruction by the amount of technology used. Instruction in classroom settings where technology was not often used tended to be whole-class approaches where students generally listened or watched the teacher. Instruction in classroom settings where technology was moderately used had much less whole-class instruction and much more independent work. These findings are quite similar to previous research that supports the notion that technology use may change teaching from the traditional teacher-centered model to a more student-centered instructional approach. Another important finding from the present study is that students in classrooms where technology was moderately used were also found to be on task significantly more than students from the other two groups.

Utilizing Students' Perceptions and Context Variables to Analyze Effective Teaching: A Process-Product Investigation.

AbstractThis study utilized a student self-report instrument. Our Class and Its Work (OCIVV), to capture data on eight classroom process variables: 1) Didactic Instruction; 2) Enthusiasm (teacher); 3) Feedback; 4) Instructional l ime; 5) Opportunity to Learn; 6) Pacing; 7) Structuring Comments; and 8) Task Orientation. The large sample size permitted stratification of the student data by the contextual variables of grade, gender and socio-economic status (SFS). The results from the analyses indicate several differences in the student perceptions of the process variables measured by the OCIW and underscore the importance of utilizing context variables in process-product studies. The analyses also indicate that several of these process variables significantly affect students’ academic achievement, even after controlling for the effects of students’ prior achievement.

Investigating the classroom learning environment of resilient and non-resilient students from inner-city elementary schools

Abstract The serious educational, community, and family problems facing students in urban cities present a formidable challenge to educators. One factor that has been found to be positively associated with student achievement in inner-city schools is the quality of the classroom learning environment. The study reported in this chapter addresses the problems of students in these schools by drawing upon two distinct and emerging theoretical frameworks: educationally resilient students and classroom learning environments. The results of the study indicated that resilient students had higher motivation and more positive perceptions of their learning environments.

Differences among Urban, Suburban, and Rural Schools on Technology Access and Use in Eighth-Grade Mathematics Classrooms:

One of the potential dangers related to technology occurs when technology access and use are not equitably distributed. This study examined the access and use of technology in urban, suburban, and rural schools by using teacher survey data from the eighth-grade cohort of the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS:88). The subjects were 3,825 eighth-grade mathematics teachers who answered questions on the extent to which students had access to technology and how they were using it in their mathematics class. The results indicated that there were several significant differences on technology use by type of school setting. Teachers from suburban schools were more likely to report using calculators than teachers from urban and rural schools. Teachers from rural schools reported that they were less likely to use calculators and computers than teachers from suburban and urban schools. Finally, teachers from rural and suburban schools were more likely to report that their students used computers for enrichment purposes, while urban teachers were more likely to report that computers in their schools were used for remediation.