Promoting Critical Reading Using Google Tools – A Community Of Inquiry Approach, Jaya Kannan

CEIT Publications

Creating a community of learning can enhance critical reading in a classroom environment. Task design plays a critical role in the effectiveness of this process. This paper presents a case study of a face-to-face literature course that used a host of Google tools to create such a community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) principles of teacher presence, cognitive presence, and social presence have been applied to analyze the task design using Google tools. Data collected from coursework, surveys, and interviews provide evidence that tasks using Google tools can promote community building and critical reading.

The Effect Of Mandating Algebra For All Students In Grade 8 Versus Grade 9 In A Small Suburban K-12 School District In New Jersey, Peter Crawley

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The traditional sequencing of the ninth- to twelfth-grade math curriculum in the United States has students taking Algebra 1 in the ninth grade, Geometry in the tenth grade, Algebra 2 in the eleventh grade and an optional advanced math course (e.g. pre-calculus, statistics) in the twelfth grade. In this traditional setup, talented math students are given the opportunity to take Algebra 1 in the eighth grade, which allows them to take two or more years of advanced math before graduating from high school. In an effort to create more equitable access to advanced math courses, many districts are considering ...

The Nature Of Teaching: Connecting K-5 Teachers And Students With Nature, Rebecca Busse

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit: Connecting Through Listening & Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction Of Youth Empowerment Seminar (Yes) For Schools, Shih-Ping Kuo

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit: Connecting Through Listening & Scholarship

Abstract of Introduction of Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) for Schools

Young people face emotional issues such as low self-esteem, depression and anxiety that are a source of great stress. Researches (Grossman, et al., 2004; Deckro, et al., 2010) showed that mind-body practices such as stretch, breathing exercise, and meditation, are many of the effective tools to reduce stress and maintain the physical and mental wellbeing. Yes-for-school Intro is a mindful wellbeing, life skill training program, integrates into schools to support the students acquire healthy and effective way to manage stress. Yes-for-school intro received the grant from Office of Engagement at ...

Context Is Critical: Three-Act Math Tasks, Lindsey Herlehy

Publications & Research

Mathematicians view mathematics within interesting and natural contexts. In this session, participants will engage and explore Three-Act Math Tasks; a story-telling pedagogical strategy that elicits student curiosity, collaboration, and questioning while redefining the term “real-world context” and the role that students play in the learning process. Resources will be provided

A Cooperating Teacher, A Supervisor, And A Critical Confidant: The Journey Moving Toward A New Model Of Support For Student Teachers, Christina C. Pfister, Sophia Paljevic

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Extensive research has found that student teaching is a challenging experience for pre-service teachers (PSTs). This paper proposes a new model for the student teaching experience where PSTs have a cooperating teacher, supervisor, and also a special mentor called a Critical Confidant. We collected survey data over the course of three consecutive semesters to determine PST’s perceptions. Results indicate that PSTs found having a Critical Confidant to be an overwhelmingly positive experience. PSTs felt safe because of the non-evaluative Critical Confidant role. They appreciated support from someone who had more experience but who was not yet an expert teacher ...

Arts Integration Into Elementary Science: Force And Motion And Natural Disasters, Eric C. Ooms, Tabitha M. Wu, Ashley R. Kokemuller, Sarah E. Montgomery, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This study explored the effect of arts integration into science during an instructional unit on force and motion and one addressing natural weather disasters. Seventy-eight elementary students in four classrooms (grade 5, grade 4, and two at grade 3) participated in the study. This study assessed content retention, student-made products (rollercoasters and hurricane shelters), and student attitudes. All students in each classroom experienced the two units of instruction, one unit in the experimental condition of arts integration and one unit in the control condition without arts integration. Both conditions involved students in constructing models of given materials. Each unit consisted ...

Second Grade Students Learn About Civil Engineers And Erosion, Andrea Earline Anderson, Jessica A. Meier

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

The integration of art into curricula focused on teaching science is a new perspective in education designed to reach a broader range of students. The current study examined the process of second-grade students participating in science and art activities through qualitative content analysis. The subjects of science and art were not taught to the students separately, rather, students engaged in both subjects simultaneously, in an integrated manner. Participants were 23 second-grade students (11 female and 12 male; age range 7 to 8 years) who were learning about erosion through sketching and creative construction and the work of civil engineers through ...

Ecosystem Shake Up: An Environmental Change Adaptation Project, Hannah E. Morgan, Dana Atwood-Blaine, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article reports an intriguing diorama project for third grade elementary students (ages 8-9 years). Students worked as partners to create dioramas of given ecosystems made in pizza boxes. Then, students rolled a die to determine a change in some environmental factor that affected the ecosystem. The students discussed how this change affected the ecosystem and made a second part of their diorama showing the ecosystem after the change. Finally, students made class presentations concerning their dioramas and ideas. A rubric for assessing the projects is included. Results of this science project indicate that students became deeply engrossed in ...

Exploring The Physics Of Sound With Steam-Azing Third Graders, Page L. Foss, Kyrie D. Borsay

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This practical article was based on a lesson conducted with third graders from an elementary school in the Midwest who were studying concepts about sound. The lesson activities address Next Generation Science Standards that include engineering concepts, along with integrating activities that support National Core Arts Standards. The students created instruments that made music but that were not the standard string, percussion or wind orchestral instruments that they had previously studied: string, percussion, or wind. Their instruments made of recycled materials included drum and shaker combinations, animal-shaped instruments, and instruments that combined three or more instruments.

Science Through Art: Motivating Gifted And Talented Students, Ksenia Zhbanova

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

Gifted and talented students have unique characteristics and needs. Arts Integration is an effective differentiation strategy that helps meeting these students’ needs. STEM subjects are easily and organically integrated with the Arts because scientific and artistic inquiry are very similar. This practical article describes an arts-integrated project that provided the gifted and talented participants with an increased level of challenge, an opportunity for self-expression and for building social skills, amplified motivation, and a chance to deepen and demonstrate their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, social studies and English Language Arts. In this project, identified gifted students completed figural transformations ...

Editorial: Arts Integration Allows Students The Opportunity To Be Original, Ksenia S. Zhbanova, Audrey C. Rule

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

This editorial explores the other six articles in this issue 2 of volume 3 of the Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions to examine how originality is displayed and supported by art projects. Originality, is a quality or a characteristic of an idea, approach or product. Originality can be defined as newness or novelty. To be classified as original, an idea must be new. It does not have to have a utilitarian value, which is a requirement for an idea to be categorized as creative. Helping students develop originality is important because it allows the freedom to make any ...

Design For Success: Identifying A Process For Transitioning To An Intensive Online Course Delivery Model In Health Professions Education., Paige L Mcdonald, Kenneth J Harwood, Joan T Butler, Karen S Schlumpf, Carson W Eschmann, Daniela Drago

Clinical Research and Leadership Faculty Publications

Intensive courses (ICs), or accelerated courses, are gaining popularity in medical and health professions education, particularly as programs adopt e-learning models to negotiate challenges of flexibility, space, cost, and time. In 2014, the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL) at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences began the process of transitioning two online 15-week graduate programs to an IC model. Within a year, a third program also transitioned to this model. A literature review yielded little guidance on the process of transitioning from 15-week, traditional models of delivery to IC models, particularly in online learning ...

Improving Professional Learning Community Structures For Enhanced Professional Practice, Stephen Juracka

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This Change Plan gauges the historical reality of the District ABC professional learning communities (PLC) to gain a better understanding of their past effectiveness and secure recommendations for the future. This Change Plan included a qualitative study conducted with the members of the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT). The ten members of the ILT provided feedback to the PLC Survey. The PLC survey was then coded for general themes and common language. The PLC Survey found that in past practice PLCs were absent within District ABC and collaboration among teachers was inconsistent and ineffective. Based upon the findings of the ...

Supporting Student Connectedness And Social Satisfaction During Recess, Elizabeth Teasdale Wells

Master's Theses and Capstone Projects

This project examines the effects of how recess preparation and reflection can be focused on providing students an opportunity to connect socially and strengthen overall happiness. By investigating the role social satisfaction plays in a child’s life during recess, educators may gain knowledge about how to foster social connectedness for every child. While most studies about recess focus on a child’s level of physical activity or negative behaviors, researchers have yet to investigate recess as a place to improve a child’s well-being and social satisfaction. This study was conducted at a public elementary school through qualitative interviews ...

Reimagining Econ. 101 – Indigenous, Buddhist, Jesuit, Secular Education, Susan Jacobson

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

A basic econ course, because it is a foundation for informed citizenship, is a requirement in many liberal arts colleges. Historically, orthodox economic theory has heavily influenced this course. But this narrow and theoretical approach to economics is not particularly useful in addressing the glaring challenges of inequality and global warming or inspiring our students to engage in solutions to social problems. This paper presents some ideas for professors who, after exposing students to the content of mainstream economics, want to challenge students to question the foundational assumptions and the consumer culture they live in by exposing them to an ...

“I Don't Read No Books” : How Teachers Can Use Students' Literacy Stories To Change Literacy Lives., Stephanie J. Malone

Theses, Student Research, and Creative Activity: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

Practitioner knowledge, as the center for change in teacher education, is the heart of The Carnegie Project of the Educational Doctorate (CPED) program. Margaret Lata and Susan Wunder explain a key principle of CPED is to grow practitioners as change agents, through the development of a Problem of Practice. In their article, Investing in the Formative Nature of Professional Learning: Redirecting, Mediating, and Generating Education Practice-as-Policy (2012), they discuss how the capstone product that evolves from this Problem of Practice should impact the professional field by producing knowledge that informs and changes professional practice.

This Dissertation in Practice, “I Don ...

The Relationship Of The Well-Being Of Adults With And Without Dyslexia: A Causal-Comparative Study, Ashleigh L. Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the effects of dyslexia on well-being as an adult. The researcher compared adults given a diagnosis of dyslexia with adults not given a diagnosis of dyslexia for well-being using a quantitative causal-comparative method. Participants for this study were a convenience sample, consisting of 219 adults with and without a self-identified diagnosis of dyslexia per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV). The researcher used the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) and measured the well-being of adults who are diagnosed as dyslexic and adults that are not dyslexic. The researcher utilized a 14-item questionnaire ...

The Effect Of Morphology Instruction On Performance Growth Of Seventh-Grade Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study, Erin Kathleen Pizzo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, nonequivalent control group study was to evaluate the effectiveness of morphological instruction that includes word matrices and word sums with middle school students. This study compared the overall reading performance growth as measured by the Northwest Evaluation Association: Measure of Academic Performance (NWEA MAP) scores of students who received morphological instruction with word matrices and word sums with the growth of students who did not receive morphological instruction that included word matrices and word sums. A convenience sample of 100 students English-speaking students from a rural, public middle school in northwest Pennsylvania was used ...

The Effects Of Common Core State-Mandated High-Stakes Testing On Teacher Stress In School Districts In Ohio, Gary P. Wegley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to explore the relationship between Common Core state-mandated, high-stakes testing and the stress levels, as measured by the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI), of a convenience sampling of 204 secondary teachers in southwest Ohio who were assigned to teach Common Core high-stakes testing subjects and teachers not assigned to teach Common Core high-stakes testing subjects. This study sought to determine whether the Common Core state-mandated, high-stakes testing in the state of Ohio impacted teacher stress. The primary instrument used was the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI), which was available through an online survey platform ...