Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Three Classroom Research Experiences On Science Attitudes, Lauren K. Lucas, Frances K. Hunter, Zachariah Gompert

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Here we evaluate undergraduate student attitudes about science after each of three authentic research experiences in a semester of an introductory biology laboratory course at Utah State University. The three course-based research experiences (CUREs) vary in length and student freedom, and they cover different areas of biology. Students responded to the science attitude items of the CURE Survey. When compared to national data, our students faired similarly, and all students struggled with certain epistemic assumptions about science knowledge. As also seen in the national database, change in science attitude was slight and nonlinear. Student self confidence in what a career …

Enacting Rhetorical Listening: A Process To Support Students’ Engagement With Challenging Course Readings, Jessica Rivera-Mueller

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Many educators assign course readings to purposefully enlarge students’ perspectives. In doing so, though, educators may face a range of behaviors—reluctance, resistance, avoidance, disengagement—from students who feel that such readings negatively press upon their prior knowledge, belief systems, or educational goals. This teaching challenge is often present for social justice educators. However, “rhetorical listening,” a rhetorical theory developed by Ratcliffe (2005), is a pedagogical tool that can help shift students’ understandings of and expectations for the activity of reading, thereby creating a learning environment that supports meaningful engagement with challenging course readings. In this article, the author outlines a process …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 4, Issue 2

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Fall 2020 issue (Volume 4, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

The Role Of Gender On The Associations Among Children’S Attitudes, Mathematics Knowledge, Digital Game Use, Perceptions Of Affordances, And Achievement, Kristy Litster, Christina W. Lommatsch, Josh R. Novak, Patricia S. Moyer-Packenham, Jill Ashby, Allison L. Roxburgh, Emma P. Bullock

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This study explored associations among children’s prior attitudes, prior mathematics knowledge, and frequency of digital game use, with children’s perceptions of game affordances, and transfer to out-of-game performance when interacting with digital math games, with respect to gender. Participants were 187 children (ages 8–12). An SEM mediation path analysis using MPLUS software showed significant direct effects for all pathways for all children, and significant indirect effects on all pathways for male children and five of six pathways for female children. More favorable attitudes, prior math knowledge, and perception of the helping affordances were associated with increased posttest performance, while increased …

Social Justice Mathematical Modeling For Teacher Preparation, Patrick L. Seegmiller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Today's math teachers face significant social and political challenges for which they receive little preparation. Mathematics content courses can potentially provide additional preparation in this regard by providing future teachers with experiences to mathematically explore social justice issues. This provides them with opportunities to increase their awareness and sensitivity to social justice issues, develop greater empathy for their future students, and serve as examples for high quality instruction that they can emulate in their future careers. This dissertation recounts the development and revision of three social justice mathematical modeling projects, and shares evidence from student work samples of the ways …

A Systematic Review Of Argumentation Related To The Engineering-Designed World, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Ashley R. Strong, Christina Marie Hartman, Jared Garlick, Karen H. Washburn, Angela L. Minichiello, Sandra Weingart, Jorge Acosta-Feliz

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Background

Across academic disciplines, researchers have found that argumentation‐based pedagogies increase learners' achievement and engagement. Engineering educational researchers and teachers of engineering may benefit from knowledge regarding how argumentation related to engineering has been practiced and studied.

Purpose/Hypothesis

Drawing from terms and concepts used in national standards for K‐12 education and accreditation requirements for undergraduate engineering education, this study was designed to identify how arguments and argumentation related to the engineering‐designed world were operationalized in relevant literature.

Methodology

Specified search terms and inclusion criteria were used to identify 117 empirical studies related to engineering argumentation and educational research. A qualitative …

Culturally Responsive Teaching Through The Lens Of Dual Language Education: Intersections And Opportunities, Tammy Oberg De La Garza, Alyson Leah Lavigne, Shouqing Si

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Students benefit from culturally responsive teaching (CRT). CRT is central to dual language (DL) education - an additive approach that is effective for educating emergent bilinguals and closing the achievement gap. Students' achievements in DL education models are higher than in any other type of language learning pedagogy – ESL, Bilingual and Monolingual. The purpose of this research was to identify the CRT practices that are employed in DL classrooms; so that teachers in other educational settings (i.e. mainstream, ESL, bilingual) might implement similar practices and improve their effectiveness with diverse students. Using survey responses from Dual Language teachers (N …

Wartime Teachers: Stories From The Front, Rachel K. Turner, Eliel Hinojosa Jr.

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

In the early 1990s, Dr. O.L. Davis of the University of Texas at Austin sought evacuee teacher and student recollections in England during World War II. The overarching purpose for Davis was to gain an understanding of the effect on schooling and education, specifically as it relates to the curriculum for students. This article continues where he left off and places focus on teacher evacuees. Of the several hundred responses from student evacuees, we utilized ten of the thirty teacher evacuees who responded to Dr. Davis. The purpose in this research endeavor seeks to discover the impact evacuations in England …