Date of Award

Summer 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Stephen Laws

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to (a) relate the impact of the development of student voice in middle school to the perception of achievement measured by self-efficacy and (b) explore how the transformative learning theory affects developing adolescents through the development of student voice in a project-based learning model. The theory is grounded in Mezirow’s (1991) Transformative Learning Theory. The study explored if an instructional method such as project-based learning allows the development of student voice and builds self-efficacy. Utilizing the explanatory sequential model, survey and achievement data were collected and compared between treatment school to nontreatment school to determine if there was a difference in the perception of achievement in students, parents, and teachers. The quantitative data collection process was followed up by a qualitative data collection process that resulted in individual interviews of students and parents from the treatment school. Findings on the development of student voice in middle school using the project-based learning instructional model to the perception of achievement measured by self-efficacy were inconclusive. Limited findings on how the transformative learning theory affects behavioral change in adolescents were noted. Study findings might inform professional development for teachers and education for families and identify areas in which more research would be beneficial to developing student voice and improving self-efficacy.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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