Digital Commons Network^™

Education For The Future: Higher Education’S Evolving Role In Entrepreneurial And Innovative Learning, Elnora D. Farmer

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Policymakers, educators, and employers have argued that higher education should play a pivotal role in shaping the professions of tomorrow as the traditional workforce evolves into an increasingly entrepreneurial, innovative, and global workspace (Srinivasan et al., 2022). From their perspective, an entrepreneurial approach to learning can prepare students for occupational uncertainties, unique professional opportunities, and organizational fluidity (Hua et al, 2022; Salem, 2014). Although many colleges and universities perceive the importance of cultivating entrepreneurial skills, challenges concerning adaptive curriculum design, faculty development, and resource allocation can impact institutions’ ability to effectively impart entrepreneurial knowledge to students. This presentation offers insights …

Conceptualizations Of Teacher Leadership In Georgia: Results From A Pilot Survey, Jeffrey Keese

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Early results from a pilot survey administered to contrasting groups of teachers and principals with varying degrees of familiarity with formalized teacher leadership (TL) revealed similarities with how teacher leadership is being practiced in schools, but also differences in how TL is conceptualized. Scale scores from the 4-factor model (Sharing Leadership, Principal Selection, Sharing Expertise, and Supra-Practitioner) from Angelle and DeHart’s (2010) Teacher Leadership Inventory were similar across groups, but significant differences among TL and non-TL groups were present in three items: teachers ask each other for assistance with student behavior, teachers offer assistance on how to teach new topics, …

Using Virtual Simulation To Replicate Instructional Coaching Experiences, Jeffrey Keese

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This study employed a crossover randomized control trial design to compare the experiences of a diverse group of in-service teachers preparing to be instructional coaches as they engaged in virtual simulation activities (treatment condition) and a standard online module of materials (control condition). Analyses performed on quantitative and qualitative survey data collected following their engagement with both conditions showed no statistically significant differences in self-reported measures of preparedness to coach or in the helpfulness of the activities. Both conditions were seen as highly beneficial by the participating teachers and they identified ways in which the virtual simulation activities could be …

A High-Leverage Practice Rubric For Conducting An Assessment-Focused Parent-Teacher Conference, Deana J. Ford, Sara E. Luke

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This study addresses the critical need for systematic tools in teacher education programs to teach and assess High Leverage Practices (HLPs) effectively. While HLPs are established as foundational teaching practices, varying levels of research support their efficacy. Rubrics, widely used in higher education, are underexplored in terms of validity and reliability in education. Authentic assessment, characterized by real-life tasks, offers a solution to academic misconduct while providing learners with autonomy and engagement. This study introduces the High Leverage Practice Rubric for Assessment (HLPR-A) as an analytic rubric tailored for assessing special education preservice teachers during parent-teacher conferences, a crucial aspect …

Learning Science With Arts-Integrated Lessons: Student Experiences, Oliver Ellis, Lorraine C. Schmertzing, Richard Schmertzing

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Using a narrative approach (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004; Kim, 2016) to collect stories and explore the meaning six fine arts school graduates found in their arts-integrated learning (AIL) experiences in their science classes, vignettes (Seidman, 2019) of participants were developed to tell their stories and maintain the context (Maxwell & Miller, 2008) of their unique experiences while coding and categorizing strategies were used during data analysis to construct four themes that ran across participant experiences. Themes focused were supported by participants’ qualitative data (Maxwell, 2013) that were gathered using Seidman’s (2019) three-phase interview series and analyzed using Saldaña’s (2015) in …

Theater Therapy : Using Stage Management To Teach Students With Disabilities, Melvin S. Marsh

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

While much of theater therapy has focused on acting, there are other sections of the theatrical world which might be useful to help teach and focus other useful skills to students who have special needs. Stage managers, the unsung and often times unnoticed heroes of the theater community, require many basic skills that could be very helpful for students to learn and practice including organization skills, time management, social skills, basic leadership skills, and at higher ends project management. While not every student with special needs will be able to manage and master all of the skills that a stage …

Should We Teach Handwriting In Elementary School? A Meta-Analysis, John Hobe

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Should we teach handwriting during elementary school? This complex activity is

debated and left out of some elementary school curriculums. Babarro & Perez

Lopez (2022) provide evidence explaining handwriting should be taught in

elementary school using a meta-analysis and meta-synthesis of research from

2000 to 2020. The authors selected 31 studies including 2,030 students in grades

kindergarten through 6. When compared to no instruction different handwriting

interventions yielded a 0.64 effect size. Strategies used to improve handwriting

fluency provided a 0.49 effect size. Hemphill (2003) supplied quantitatively based

guidelines from two meta-analyses to explain an effect size of .30 and …

Publishing With The Journal Of Case Learning And Exceptional Learners (Jclel), Devon Jernigan, Katy Haughney

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This presentation outlines a new opportunity for practitioners and researchers to publish case studies describing students with moderate to extensive support needs (M-ESN). The Journal of Case Learning and Exceptional Learners (JCLEL) is designed to provide high-quality case studies with consistent and thorough descriptions of real learning experiences. For researchers, this journal is an opportunity for professionals in special education and individuals with disabilities to collaborate in anonymous information sharing with a national reach.

Attendees will learn about publishing opportunities and examine quality case study components and the JCLEL website resources.

Examining Social Justice Ideas In Science Teachers Through An Online Book Club, Suzanna Roman-Oliver

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This study explored the experiences of four pre-service science teachers while participating in a virtual book club. The participants were science education MAT students that were enrolled in a “Learner Differences” course during the summer semester. The participants read “Teaching Science for Social Justice” from Angela Calabrese Barton. They met virtually for an hour each week to discuss the ideas presented within the different book chapters. A total of 13 science education MAT students were part of the book club, but only four agreed to participate in the study. Data was collected in the form of course artifacts that included …

No Dejes Nada En La Puerta: Achieving Equity Through Asset-Based Peer Support, Brooklyn Herrera

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Higher education institutions are becoming increasingly diverse, and Latinx students are a major contributor to this diversity, as they are the largest and fastest growing minoritized population in the United States. Nevertheless, retention and completion gaps for Latinx students persist (Kolluri, 2021). Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) play a pivotal role in promoting educational equity for Latinx students, but they have traditionally been concentrated in urban areas and a small number of states. In future years, new HSIs will emerge largely in rural environments and states with rapidly growing Latinx populations, such as Georgia.

Informed by community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), this …

Facing Some Hard Truths: A Caep Action Research Project Results In Reflexivity, Reflection, & Revision, Melissa Comer, Nancy Kolodziej

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Per Ojeda (2010), for reflection to be effective it must include opportunity to improve performance. Writing the self-study report for the Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation (CAEP) provided a perfect chance for the researchers to put effective reflection into action. Situated within a graduate-level literacy program, they implemented a collaborative action research project simultaneously with writing the CAEP self-study report. Guided by the research questions below, they learned valuable lessons, validated the program’s strengths, and faced some hard truths about its weaknesses.

• What practical applications can be learned from the CAEP self-study report?
• How can critical reflection be …

Accepting Responsibility For A Teen Reading Crisis: What Role Does Text-Relatability Play In Secondary Students’ Reading Enthusiasm And Comprehension?, Madhavi T. Clark, Winifred C. Nweke

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Educational responsibility requires that culturally relevant curriculum be taught to students. Unfortunately, in many secondary ELA classrooms, content continues to revolve around canonical texts written mostly by white males. With increasing negative reading attitudes and poor reading skills among adolescents, the authors sought to investigate how text-relatability may affect students’ reading enthusiasm and comprehension. They asked: Would students relate to or have higher reading enthusiasm for a contemporary adolescent text that reflected their teen culture? In this study, 16 students from a Title I school read a contemporary adolescent text and a classical text over a 6 week period. Students …

Supporting Religious Undecided Students: Implications For Educators, Jamie L. Workman

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This research explored a newly created model of first year academic advising used at a Mid-Size Public University. Modified from the traditional advising model, the new model was created for students in the new University Studies major, a designation for students formerly classified as undeclared majors. It was unknown how the University Studies students would experience academic advising, as they received a different academic advising model than undecided students in previous cohorts.

The researcher conducted the project using grounded theory techniques and phenomenological perspective. The researcher interviewed 12 students. The research questions were: (1) How did students experience being undecided …

Navigating And Building Capacity For Educational Research: An Interactive Website To Ensure Smooth Sailing, Tasha R. Wyatt, Aj Kleinheksel, Elena Wood, Thomas Mitch Toomey, Lara Stepleman

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

As seasoned educational researchers, we were trained in how to carry out a research project. However, for health professionals whose primary responsibility is to care for patients, many have not been explicitly taught the steps involved in launching and supporting educational research projects. The lack of opportunity to learn this process is a barrier to clinicians interested in engaging in educational research.

In an effort to build capacity for health sciences educational research at Augusta University, the Educational Innovation Institute developed an interactive website that serves as a “one-stop shop” for assisting with this process. The website was designed with …

Open Educational Resources: A Primer And Review Of Implementation At One Institution, Judy O. Grissett

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Open educational resources (OER), which are materials that can be adopted or adapted from their original source and shared with others for free (UNESCO, 2017), are becoming increasingly popular among faculty, as research has shown they are often as effective on student learning and engagement as copyright-restricted textbooks (Hilton, 2016). They also save students money on textbook cost (Bliss, Robinson, Hilton, & Wiley, 2013b).

The purpose of this presentation is several-fold. First, I will discuss the use of OER by faculty at one USG institution. Several courses have been transformed at the institution, including ones in biology, education, music, psychology, …

Introducing Simulation Through A Situated Cognition Framework To Integrate Physiology Into Clinical Medicine, Elena Wood, Anthony Payne, Shilpa Brown, Tasha R. Wyatt, A.J. Kleinheksel

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

A new multi-modality pathophysiology simulation was developed for second year medical students, in order to integrate basic sciences into clinical medicine prior to students’ clerkship experiences. A congestive heart failure case was introduced into the Physical Diagnosis course, allowing students to collect subjective data from a standardized patient actor, then to conduct a physical examination on a high fidelity manikin. By applying a theoretical framework of situated cognition, faculty were able to demonstrate the physiological processes the simulated patient was experiencing, allowing students to learn the content within the context where they will apply their knowledge during their clinical experiences. …

A Tightrope Walk Of Trust: An Analysis Of Attachment Styles Of Children Raised By Parents With Psychotic Disorders, Kate E. Crockett

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

A child’s development is significantly impacted by the environment in which the child lives, and the attachment styles of parents or guardians have a direct connection to the child’s attachment style. So what happens when one or more of the child’s guardians have a psychotic disorder? To answer this question, individuals will complete an assessment to determine their attachment style after providing information on whether their guardian(s) have a psychotic disorder. The individuals participating in the study will be contacted through email and all responses will be voluntary. The attachment assessment will be self-administered electronically by the individuals who volunteer …

Designing An Eguide For Physical Examination In Pre-Clerkship Medical Education: A Pilot Study, Elena Wood, Tasha R. Wyatt, A.J. Kleinheksel

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Prior to this pilot study, there were no concise or standardized mobile resources for pre-clerkship medical students to using while conducting a physical exam. To address this need, an electronic guide (eGuide) was developed to instruct students on proper physical examination technique and to provide standardized reference information. This interactive resource was developed using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop as an interactive PDF, which could also be printed if desired. Both anatomy and physiology information was included, as relevant to physical diagnosis. The eGuide was particularly useful for those first-year medical students who have clinical skill units prior to basic anatomy …

Pre-Service Teacher Attitudes Toward Control: Middle And Secondary Education Teacher Candidate Reflective Practice As Evidence Of Gap Between Theory And Practice, Deborah Paine, Jt Cox, Robert Spires

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

The gap between theory and practice in pre-service teacher training is well documented. Despite shifts toward constructivist approaches and student-centered instruction, teacher education programs continue to note the gap between innovative student-centered best practices in teacher training coursework, and the teacher-centered practices seen in many classrooms which then become early career teachers’ default approach. This study examined the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers through reflections written during a 4-week practicum field experience. Within these reflections, researchers noted pre-service teacher attitudinal reliance on ideas of control, including student behavior control, student noise and the classroom. Study participants dismissed student-centered approaches …

Latent Classes Of Victimization In U.S. Adolescents, Diana Mindrila

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This study used latent class analysis (LCA) with binary observed indicators to identify latent classes of victimization, based on the extent to which adolescents in the U.S. experienced traditional victimization and cyber-victimization. Data were collected by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics using 2013 School Crime Supplement of the National Crime Victimization Survey. The sample included 4,939 individuals ages 12-18. LCA yielded a four-class solution: a) “Non-victims” (N=4,274), b) “Traditional victims” (N=486), c) “Cyber-victims” (N=107), and d) “Traditional victims and cyber-victims” (N=72). These findings inform practitioners of the most prevalent types of victimization in …

Lessons Learned From Using Open Educational Resources In An Online Health Psychology Course, Judy O. Grissett

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This presentation will cover the use of open educational resources (OER) in an online health psychology course. OER are materials that have an open license, meaning they can be adopted or adapted from their original source and shared with others for free (UNESCO, 2017). All materials used in the course were free of cost to students and were accessible through the course learning platform GeorgiaVIEW.

Students in the course completed a project for which only OER were to be used to inform their research. Students therefore became familiar with finding credible OER online. In this presentation, I will discuss the …

Implementing An Lgbtq Training For Teen Pregnancy Prevention Facilitators, Christopher F. Drescher, Elizabeth Devon Eldridge, Elizabeth Wood, Alexis Rossi, Lara Stepleman

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Rates of teen pregnancy are 2-3 times higher among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs exist, although they may not have been designed with LGBTQ youth in mind. Community organizations may need additional training to ensure that TPPs are LGBTQ inclusive. This study aimed to implement and examine participant experiences of an educational LGBTQ training provided to TPP facilitators. A four-hour LGBTQ educational workshop was designed that included didactics and interactive segments covering topics of LGBTQ terminology, intersectionality, and risk/resilience factors in LGBTQ youth. This workshop was provided to two groups of …

Supporting Rural Student Success In Higher Education, Peggy A. Lumpkin

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Founded in the late 1880’s, this college originally served students exclusively from the surrounding Appalachian region. Faculty to student ratios average 18:1 and the number of students served average 1000-1200. Today, although the college serves a more diverse student body geographically, it still endeavors to retain the culture of personal attention and support from faculty and staff. These attributes make the college attractive to students from rural communities who often are first generation college students. Striving to survive against competition from both well-funded larger private colleges as well as from state colleges and universities, places pressure on college administration to …

Design And Exploratory Factor Analysis Of A New School Connectedness Scale, Jiali Zheng

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

School connectedness is found to be directly related to adolescents’ academic achievement, peer acceptance, social emotional well-being, and their decisions to remain in school. Given its importance, school connectedness has become an important goal in educational reform initiatives. However, the construct of and terminology for studying school connectedness remain unclear and there is no consensus on what core latent traits of school connectedness should be measured. This study aims to design a new and easy-to-use school connectedness scale. The researchers will examine factor analysis results from existing literature, and borrow items from existing scales. Except for experts’ advice, adolescents’ opinions …

Puppetry Path 2 Science And Math 4 Girls, Paulette Harris, Linda G. Smith Mrs., Sarah E. Wong Ms.

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

In our proposed practice report session, we will describe an ongoing project that bridges the gap between literacy, science, and math for young children. The project that will be shown demonstrates in a playful hands-on manner how using puppets taps into interests of young children in science and math as they develop literacy skills at the same time.

During this presentation of our practice report, the audience will have the opportunity to explore ideas and strategies for whetting the interests of young children. Examples of integrated science/math/literacy units that are a part of the practice report will be shared. These …

Implementing Model Curriculum Standards, Jose A. Villavicencio

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

The recently published Standards for Learning World Languages guide teachers and students to teach and learn a foreign language of choice in ways that prepares them for life and career plans. The problem is that the Standards added the post secondary. It now includes elementary, middle, high school, and college in the progress indicators and achievable student learning outcomes. It is necessary to review the teaching and learning at the college level because this plan is meant to encourage school systems to consider a long-term sequential approach, comparable to math, science, and language arts, to permit learners the opportunity to …

Predicting Student Adaptation To College By Learning And Study Strategies, Katharine S. Adams

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

This study highlights the relationships between learning and study strategies with student adaptation to college. Postsecondary students (n = 146) completed a demographic questionnaire, the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). Students were trifurcated into low, average, and high achieving groups by GPA. Data was analyzed using multiple regression and correlational techniques. LASSI subscales significantly predicted adaptation to college as measured by the SACQ for average and high achieving students, but did not significantly predict adaptation to college for low achieving students. The unique contributions of the LASSI subtests varied in …