Education Commons^™

Susan Bauer's 2003 Theory Of Well-Educated Mind: Could The Classical Approach To Teaching History Work In Southern California History K12 Classrooms?, Tomasz B. Stanek

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The main purpose of this research evolved from the publication of S. W. Bauer Well-educated mind, a study of the significance of new methods of teaching history course. Bauer (2003) argues that the grammarian approach of simple recognition and memorization removes students from reading primary sources. This theory suggests a new methodology for the instructors and students through the three-stage process of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric preparation with aid of primary sources or “great books list”. This paper supports Bauer’s thesis and provides evidence through extensive interviews that indeed this concept of pedagogy is present in Southern California schools.

Creativity For Learning Biology In Higher Education, Diki Diki

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Learning biology is considered difficult, especially in some areas like cell division, genetics, and hormones (Cimer, 2012). On the other hand, there is a connection between student success in learning science with creativity (Son, 2009). As creativity can be defined as the formation of new and useful ways to solve a problem (Sternberg & Kaufmann, 2010), it can be used to help students to learn biology. Meanwhile, according to Guilford (1950), creativity includes divergent and convergent thinking. Research on creativity in learning biology helps to integrate different research findings, formulating ideas, and analogies (Dunbarr, 1997). Analogy is a process to …

Dnr-Based Curricula: The Case Of Complex Numbers, Guershon Harel

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

DNR is a research-based framework which seeks to understand fundamental problems of mathematics learning and teaching. This paper discusses DNR with a particular reference to a curricular unit on complex numbers. Originally designed for college-bound high school students, the unit is structured to progress along a path that roughly parallels the development of complex numbers in the history of mathematics. We have tested the unit in three teaching experiments with inservice and prospective secondary mathematics teachers. The results from these experiments demonstrate the ways of thinking afforded and targeted by the unit. The correspondence between these ways of thinking and …

Riding The Wave: Open Access, Digital Publishing, And The Undergraduate Thesis, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College, Claremont, CA., gave the Opening Keynote for the USETDA 2013 Conference, July 24-26, held on the Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College campuses.

In this keynote address, Dr. Miller discusses the importance of building the educational foundation to support students and then incorporate opportunities for undergraduates to share their research.

Dr. Miller draws from his experience collaborating with librarians to integrate information literacy into the curriculum and requiring that all senior theses in the program be posted on the Claremont Colleges' Open Access institutional repository, Scholarship@Claremont.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Integrating An Information Literacy Rubric Into Seven (Very) Different Colleges, Natalie Tagge, Char Booth, Alexandra Chappell, M. Sara Lowe, Sean M. Stone

Library Staff Publications and Research

It is no small feat to develop a replicable, dependable information literacy rubric that is appropriate to an institution’s unique student population. But once the rubric is created, how does it become edited, adopted, and utilized by campus stakeholders to actually improve information literacy learning? And, what happens when you multiply this by a consortial context, wherein one information literacy rubric is presented to five undergraduate colleges and two graduate schools, each with unique governance models, assessment profiles, and relationships with the library they share?
The visual nature of a poster will provide a perfect means to map out the …

Cooking Up A Course: Food Education At Pomona College, Christina A. Cyr

Pomona Senior Theses

Cooking skills are important but declining, with significant health, social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental implications. Food and cooking education can begin to address some of the negative effects of the cooking skills decline. This thesis makes the case for cooking classes in the education system, especially in higher education. The paper begins with a history of cooking education and skills, outlines the implications of the decline in skills, and discusses the potential for cooking education in higher education. The second part consists of a course syllabus, designed for Pomona College. The third section includes a discussion of the implementation …

School Gardens: Reconnecting Children With Nature And Food, Alyssa M. Boyle

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis discusses the importance of school gardens. First, two current environmental and societal problems are highlighted: the industrialized food system and what Richard Louv has termed, "Nature Deficit Disorder," in children. School gardens are then presented as an effective tool that can address and remedy such issues. Lastly, a how-to manual for implementing such projects in schools is provided as well as a few sample lesson plans to be used in conjunction with the garden in each subject across the curriculum.

Landscapes To Learnscapes: Exploring Schoolyard-Based Education, Emily I. Palena, Caroline T. Spurgin

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis explores schoolyard-based education as a viable and necessary method for rectifying the shortcomings within the American public school system and the Nature-deficit Disorder epidemic. We argue that schoolyard-based education should be fully integrated into the school system, not in the sole form of popularized school gardens, but as a standard teaching method. We show this using extensive research and a case study of three elementary schools in Claremont, California.

International Collaboration Of Distance Learning Universities For Online Learning In Indonesia, Diki Diki

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Indonesian higher education must improve its enrollment as well as its quality. One possibility for improving the quality of distance learning universities is collaboration with foreign universities. This paper discusses models for international collaboration among distance learning universities. However, there are also several problems that may result from collaboration. As a consequence, the model of collaboration should include joint development of curriculum, quality assurance, and appropriate technology.

The Great Migration: Charter School Satisfaction Among African American Parents, Monica Almond

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

This study addresses the reasons that African American students are disproportionately enrolled in public charter schools by surveying parents of African American charter school students at a small public charter middle school in California. The researcher utilized a quantitative research design by collecting survey data from 71 charter school parents. The findings indicate the following reasons that African American parents remove their students from traditional public schools: their desire for a safer schooling environment, higher expectations for their students, individualized attention, and a college-going atmosphere. Recommendations are made for traditional public school leaders to consider the implementation of these practices.

Full Steam Ahead – A Collaborative Colloquium, Hilary Dito

The STEAM Journal

On February 2, 2012, Contra Costa County Office of Education organized its 2^nd Annual STEAM Colloquium: Full STEAM Ahead. This forum brought together over 150 educators, business leaders and community members to discuss and share best practices in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education

Steam With A Capital A: Learning Frenzy, David Rufo

The STEAM Journal

A student dipped a brush into a bowl of viscous tempera paint and in a few quick strokes formed thick magenta letters on a large display board. Nearby a handful of students were working together to attach string to paper cups and balloons. Across the room a small group of girls were lying on the floor carefully adding multi-colored text to a poster. Two others created characters out of Popsicle sticks for a puppet show...This is how the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Math (S.T.E.A.M.) happened with the fourth and fifth graders during the first few weeks of …

Reflections ~ How Stem Becomes Steam, Ruth Catchen

The STEAM Journal

Reflections from designing a STEAM class for high-risk students.

Towards A “Cloud Curriculum” In Art And Science?, Roger Malina

The STEAM Journal

Recently an email hit my desk from Paul Thomas in Australia with a proposal to work together on a “Cloud Curriculum for Art and Science”. I immediately agreed to collaborate. I don’t yet have a clue of what a cloud curriculum is, but what I do know is that we are ‘backing into the future’ in educational institutions and we desperately need a ‘cloud curriculum.’ We need to look over the ten year horizon. And in the emerging art-science field I doubt that the usual approach to curriculum development will work.

The Charter School Movement: The Impact Of School Form On Performance, Jeremy B. Wolff

CMC Senior Theses

Using data from the DataQuest and Ed-Data databases provided by the California Department of Education (2006-2012), this study assesses if charter schools provide a net benefit to students compared to non-charter schools. Further, it examines if charter management organizations improve the performance of charter schools. I find that charter schools have no net benefit across all grades. However, charter schools get significantly better performance on high school language arts tests. Minority and low-income students perform better at charter schools than traditional public schools, especially at the middle school level. Minorities in middle schools perform even better at CMOs than independent …