Shwu-Yong L. Huang

Effects of a Classroom Management Intervention on Student Achievement in Inner‐City Elementary Schools

ABSTRACT As part of a study of the life‐cycle of inner‐city schools, the achievement of elementary school students (on MAT6 and TEAMS tests) who had teachers trained in a classroom management program in one school were compared with students in a comparison school during a four‐year period. Students at Madison Elementary School showed statistically greater achievement gains on both nationally normed achievement tests (MAT6) and on state criterion‐referenced achievement battery than students at the comparison school in each of three years. The overall effect size due to program treatment on the MAT6 test scores was large, ranging from .43 (1986–87) and .83 (1987–88) during intervention to .73 (1988–89) after intervention. Similar results were found in the TEAMS test associated with the program intervention with overall effect size of 1.02 (1987–88) and .78 (1988–89) in mathematics, .68 and .77 in reading, and .59 and .77 in writing for the respective years. On measures of learning environment, in a post ho...

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...

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...

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.

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.

An Assessment of Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Secondary School Environments in Taiwan

This study investigates the psychosocial environments of secondary schools from science teachers’ perspectives, as well as associated variables. Using a sample of 900 secondary science teachers from 52 schools in Taiwan, the results attest to the validity and reliability of the instrument, the Science Teacher School Environment Questionnaire, and its ability to differentiate among schools. The descriptive results show that a majority of science teachers positively perceived their school environments. The teachers reported high collegiality, good teacher–student relations, effective principal leadership, strong professional interest, and low work pressure—but also low staff freedom. Multiple regression results further indicate that policy‐relevant variables like school level, school location, and teachers’ intentions to stay in teaching were associated with science teachers’ perceptions of their school environments. Qualitative data analysis based on interviews of 34 science teachers confirmed and enriched these findings.

A comparison of classroom instruction in bilingual and monolingual secondary school classrooms

Most research reports on programs for linguistically diverse students lack documentation of the classroom environment and teaching processes used (Walker de Felix, 1990). This aspect of studying schooling is particularly valuable with culturally diverse populations because of their divergent needs and experiences. Studying the specific classroom activities and the extent to which teachers incorporate higher level thinking skills into those activities can provide valuable insights into the issues related to effective teaching. Studies on effective teaching have been criticized for focusing on factors such as time on task, rather than the effectiveness of those tasks. In the present study, effective teaching was defined as environments that promote effective learning for secondary level limited English proficient (LEP) students. Specifically, teachers were informed about teaching critical thinking skills in communicative