Education Commons^™

Reevaluating Student Engagement: Exploring And Applying Alternative Assignments In Higher Education Undergraduate Applied Saxophone, Anthony S. Cincotta Ii

Dissertations, 2020-current

Undergraduate applied saxophone study revolves around the conservatory model. This inflexible model, often referred to as a master-apprentice relationship, can create an instructor-centric power dynamic which does not address the needs of the modern student. A classroom where the power lies so heavily with the instructor can stifle student engagement and can create a sense of disenfranchisement. In this setting, students have limited input on their assignment selections. While curricula have evolved with regards to being more culturally diverse, relevant, and inclusive, the approach that educators use to deliver the material has remained largely unchanged. There is limited research on …

Culturally Responsive Strategies To Support Multilingual Learners, Liz Shanks, Mackenzie Weakland

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Teachers must develop pedagogical practices to meet the needs of the growing number of multilingual learners in K-12 classrooms. Our inquiry- based research study analyzed ways that teachers can implement pedagogical strategies that are culturally responsive to multilingual learners. Thematic analysis of recent academic studies, class observations, and an interview with a language specialist affirm a set of culturally responsive instructional practices in the classroom that lead to the academic success of multilingual learners. These practices included teacher attitudes, translanguaging, and thinking routines to assist in English language acquisition. K-12 teachers, administrators, and community leaders working with multilingual learners can …

Strategies To Aid Multilingual Learners In Academic Language Acquisition In Elementary Science And Mathematics Classes, Mikayla Grumbacher, Sophia Sladic

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

This qualitative inquiry research study surveys academic language acquisition strategies for teachers of multilingual learners in elementary science and mathematics classes. We paired readings of recent peer-reviewed journal articles with video observations of three elementary school teachers and an interview with a Director of English as a Second Language for a county in Virginia. Thematic analysis helped us identify similar strategies across the different studies, classroom observations, and interview. Our findings suggest that utilizing sensory and interactive supports are especially helpful strategies for teachers seeking to help multilingual learners in academic language acquisition.

A Survey Of School Psychologists To Promote Support For Developing Self-Advocacy Skills In Students With Disabilities, Kiarra K. Steer

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Self-advocacy is a critical skill for effective communication and for individual assertion of interests, needs, and rights (Hengen & Weaver, 2018). It is especially important for people with disabilities to be able to self-advocate, which includes understanding their own abilities and rights and being able to voice when they need assistance or when their rights are being violated (Hengen & Weaver, 2018).

Even though self-advocacy has been determined to be a necessary skill for students with disabilities to develop, research indicates that self-advocacy instruction is often not provided to students with disabilities. Furthermore, while researchers have shown that teaching students …

Online Art Education: Teaching Through A Pandemic, Jordan Pepper

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020, most school systems have been forced to move to online instruction presenting a unique set of unprecedented challenges for art educators. This thesis analyzed what three individual art teachers experienced when transitioning from an in-person art classroom to a virtual one through the use of interviews as the primary source of data collection. This research project examined what art teachers experienced with online art education; how art teachers learned about, adjusted to, or prepared for an online visual art education; and the ways in which art teachers responded to issues of inequity related …

Integrating Ethics And The Opioid Crisis Via Simulation: An Ethical Debriefing For Nursing Students, Raigan A. J. Shackelford

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Over the past three decades, opioid medication misuse and abuse has skyrocketed. The increase in improper use has created the need for more frequent exercise of ethical reasoning skills in practice. This study was designed to determine the effect of an ethics-centered debriefing exercise following a standardized simulation scenario concerning opioid misuse/abuse on nursing students’ value of and perceived confidence in ethical reasoning skills. 18 senior level BSN students at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, participated in an ethics- focused debriefing exercise following the simulated scenario. The debriefing was constructed using the ANA Code of Ethics and James Madison …

Implementation And Program Evaluation Pilot Study: Educating Health Care Providers About Protecting Population Health During Climate Change., Christine Fasching Maphis

Doctors of Nursing Practice (DNP) Final Projects, 2020-current

Recommendations regarding the need to prepare nurses and other health care providers (HCPs) for the health impacts of climate change (CC) have grown ubiquitous in the literature. Timely, efficient and sustainable strategies by the health care industry are necessary. Failure to act is predicted to result in catastrophic and lethal population health consequences. A growing body of research identifies related knowledge gaps and supports HCP competencies and best practice interventions to mitigate adverse population health impacts of CC. A social ecological framework and the PRECEDE-PROCEED approach were employed to develop and evaluate a series of online webinars designed to equip …

Assessing Perceptions Of Group Work Using Team-Based Learning, Lauren Ferry, Phillip J. Wong, Kathryn Hogan

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Group work is frequently incorporated into courses; however, student perceptions of their experiences and the benefits of group work might differ based on the structure of course. In this study, we examined student perceptions of group work in a team-based learning (TBL) course. Undergraduate students completed pre- and post-surveys on their team work experiences over a semester. Students had lower agreement with the statement “working in groups usually ends up with one person doing all of the work” and higher agreement with “working in a group makes me feel as though I am part of a learning community” at post-test. …

An Exploration Of High School Principals’ And Assistant Principals’ Perceptions Of Implementing Mental Health Curriculums In Schools, Jacqueline M. Billy

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Mental health literacy is one’s knowledge of mental health conditions and their accompanying symptoms as well as their understanding of available treatments and mental health services. Virginia Bill SB953, signed into law in 2018, made mental health a mandated topic in health education for all ninth and tenth grade students. There are several Health Education Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools which are specifically aimed at increasing students’ mental health literacy. Many of the standards can be met through implementation of evidence-based curriculums focusing on mental health, known as mental health curriculums (MHC). MHC are designed to increase mental …

A Pilot Study On The Impact Of Teaching Assistant Led Cs1 Study Sessions Using Peer Instruction, Megan E. Gilbert

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

James Madison University’s Computer Science program strives to be a student-centered learning environment with a focus on creating a community for undergraduate success. National data reveals computer science has the lowest student retention rate compared to other STEM majors. The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) has compiled a list of ways to retain students in Computer Science. In particular, NCWIT calls for collaboration indicate that “a sense of belonging, or a feeling of fit, is important for supporting student interest and persistence.” One aspect of creating community is the department’s longstanding commitment to provide undergraduate teaching assistants …

Impacts Of An International Professional Development Program: A Qualitative Study, Marijn W. T. De Waal

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This qualitative study with phenomenological components examined the impacts of a U.S. State Department-funded teacher professional development program, hosted at a liberal-arts university on the east coast of the United States in the spring semester of 2018. An initial review of the public literature revealed that it was challenging to find evaluation data pertaining to this particular program or ones of a similar nature. Through semi-structured synchronous online interviews with five program alumni, the researcher probed if—and if so, how—the professional development (PD) program had made the intended impacts on participants’ (1) teaching methods/curriculum, (2) content knowledge in their personal …

Threshold Concepts And Transfer: A Curriculum Mapping Tool For First-Year Writing, Kerry Smith

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Writing scholars Adler-Kassner and Wardle, Beaufort, and Devet have placed pragmatic learning goals of transfer at the core of education’s purpose. This thesis shares the assumption of pragmatic learning goals for education and examines these goals for transfer through Meyer and Land’s theory of threshold concepts in the context of first-year composition courses. Covering Meyer and Land’s foundational work on threshold concepts and Thorndike and Woodworth’s groundbreaking research that later informed Perkins and Salomon’s work in transfer, this thesis aims to contextualize this literature within and operationalize it for first-year writing programs’ curriculum course design through the creation and testing …

Library And Academic Discipline Partnerships: Building A Foundation Of Oer Knowledge In Teacher Education Students, Liz Thompson, Jessica Lantz

Libraries

As libraries support OER across an institution, that support looks different in each discipline. In teaching future educators, building early awareness of Open Education Resources (OER) for preservice teachers creates a foundation for future growth. In a higher ed institution's College of Education, librarians and instructional designers interact with both faculty educators and students that are completing a degree to become PK-12 educators. Libraries can help build OER awareness through in-class instruction, outreach pop-up events, and online resource guides. The Library began this project in an effort to raise awareness of OER concepts before the students begin their professional teaching …

Learners’ Perspectives On The Use And Support Of Student Created Video Assignments At James Madison University, Annette Bruff Liskey

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This research is an exploratory analysis of the use of student created video assignments at JMU, a pedagogical strategy that is increasingly common but not widely researched. The study collected quantitative data via an online survey of JMU students with the objective of examining the use, design, and outcomes of student created video assignments at James Madison University. Survey topics included the requirements of the assignment, the course that included the assignment, resources available and/or used to complete the assignment, students’ perceptions of the learning outcomes, as well as non-identifying information about each respondent’s demographics and academic experience at JMU. …

Building The Future Of Oer Through Pre-Service Teachers, Liz Thompson, Melissa Wells, Jessica Lantz

Libraries

According to recent literature and research, in-service teacher awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons licenses continues to be uneven and relatively low. Providing OER education while teachers are focused on learning in their degree-granting programs could be a sustainable long-term strategy to build awareness of OER with PK-12 instructors. A small research team, consisting of two Librarians, an Instructional Designer, and an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at two higher education institutions, designed a survey and intervention for pre-service teachers to measure and increase their levels of OER awareness. The purpose of the survey is …

Curriculum Design With Systematic Analysis, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, And Research, Juhong Christie Liu Ph.D., Eric M. Stauffer, Jim R. West, Dominic "Nick" D. Swayne

Libraries

As the instructional design of courses and learning activities become a normal practice of professional development for teachers and faculty members, curriculum design has risen to tag the expertise of instructional design professionals. These curriculum design projects demand a high level of collaborative efforts to look into discipline-specific accreditation standards, to analyze existing resources including course catalogues and technology infrastructure, to update emerging pedagogy and technology, and to evaluate diverse teaching team and student compositions. This presentation will share the practical knowledge gained through several curriculum design projects from the perspectives of systematic analysis, interdisciplinary collaboration, and research.

High Impact Practices: Developing A Framework For Integrating Hips At The Individual Course Level And General Education, Jessica Lantz

Libraries

Libraries faculty are in the research stages of developing an instructional framework to map high impact educational practices (HIPS) strategy integration to help build meaningful student experiences in their academic and general education experience at James Madison University. This framework will utilize instructional design recommendations and the wealth of opportunities available to students through the University and the general education program.

See And Be Seen: Young Adult Refugee Literature In The High School Curriculum, Patrice Splan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more than 25 million refugees in the world today, over half of whom are under the age of 18. As these young people adapt to new schools and communities, it is essential that all students have opportunities to see themselves represented in literature and to develop understandings of the experiences of others. This project provides an analysis of young adult refugee literature with a unit plan for application of texts in a ninth-grade Virginia English classroom, stressing the importance of education as a tool for awareness, reflection, and empathy.

Rewriting Honors 300: Teaching For Teaching Assistants, Nina Schenk

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this project is to rewrite the curriculum of Honors 300: Teaching Honors for Honors Students. After conducting research via survey and reading and analyzing works by Gonzales, Dallimore, and other university and pedagogy websites, meeting with organizations on campus, and getting feedback from other Honors TAs, the goal of my final project is to rewrite the Honors 300 curriculum and syllabus; this includes a restructuring of the TA selection and pairing process, a series of suggestions on training and orientation, and the recommendation for renaming the Teaching Assistants. I developed the following by consulting literature on pedagogy, …

Public School Teacher's Experience Of Technostress In A Mandatory Technology Adoption Policy Environment, Brandon Liu

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

With new technology restructuring instructional practices, many school systems are working towards adoption and integration to meet learning standards and demands (Çoklar, Efilti, Şahin, & Akçay, 2016; Al-Fudail & Mellar, 2008; Hixon & Buckenmeyer, 2009; McCannon & Crews, 2000; Nepo 2017; Straub, 2009; Sang, Valcke, van Braak & Tondeur, 2010; Wood, Mirza, & Shaw, 2018). However, few studies have been conducted within educational environments on technology-related stress and well-being when technology adoption is mandatory. Building off of Jena’s (2015) prior technostress study, this study aims to contribute to and better understand technostress within a Mandatory Adoption Policy Environment (MAPE). This …

Failure To Launch?: Advancing The Case For Financial Literacy Interventions In Postsecondary Education, Cathleen Snyder

Dissertations, 2014-2019

For college undergraduates, the thought of managing money is often new, exciting, and terrifying in the same breath. Some students have learned well from their parental and prior academic influences, and yet others may be overwhelmed by a lack of those same resources. As postsecondary institutions endeavor to level the proverbial playing field, helping college graduates launch into meaningful, financially independent lives, it begs additional consideration on the intervention methods that might be most impactful.

This study examined a for-credit, curriculum-based intervention specific to personal finance topics. It attempted to answer several key questions: How knowledgeable are students relative to …

The Art Curriculum As A Model Approach For Cultivating Higher Order Thinking Skills, Nicole Ross

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

As a life-long learner, I am fascinated by the abyss of knowledge that characterizes and composes a life of consciousness. As a teacher and mentor, I am committed to igniting this quest for knowledge in others and developing effective practices in doing so. The curriculum functions as an invitation to knowledge—or what can be seen as the crux of an education. The question I am most interested in answering is: “how can we most effectively approach curriculum in a way that inspires higher order thinking?” Throughout this study, I examined the factors that go into the formation of curriculum, the …

Weaving Connections: Utilizing A Library-Social Work Partnership To Build Information Literacy Skills, David Vess, Laura Trull

Libraries

While evidence continues to build that information literacy (IL) is taught across university and college curricula at all student levels (Junsbai, Lowe & Tagge, 2016), challenges connecting IL to those curricula in meaningful ways persist (Julien, Gross, & Latham, 2018; Klomsri & Tedre, 2016; Bombaro 2013). Blending IL into social work education beyond traditional one-shot library sessions also remains a challenge as evidenced by the dearth of literature demonstrating sound instruction and assessment practices of IL in social work programs (Bausman & Ward, 2016; Kayser, Bowers, Jiang, & Bussey 2013; Johnson, Whitfield, & Grohe, 2011; Ismail, 2009; Brustman & Bernnard …

Technology, Information Literacy And Social Work Education, Laura Trull, David Vess

Libraries

This poster will demonstrate a unique series of interactive lessons, designed and implemented collaboratively by Social Work and Library faculty to support student information literacy skill development. This series of six lessons was implemented with junior-level social work students and focused on topics such as determining quality of sources, constructing citations, identifying research methodology, utilizing technology, research ethics and search techniques. Lesson outlines will be made available to participants and future research and evaluation plans will be discussed.

Design And Assessment Of Deep And Active Learning In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Education, Juhong Christie Liu Ph.D., Elizabeth Johnson Ph.D., Jin Joy Mao Ph.D.

Libraries

This presentation draws academic significance from a focused literature review and initial data for learning design in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The presenters will discuss strategies of fostering deep, active learning, alignment with assessment, and development of assessment instruments and methods. The presenters will share the design and development of an assessment kit to measure learning outcomes that matter in the 21st century STEM education. Through shared evidence and interactive reflection, the audience will take away up-to-date design strategies for deep and active learning as well as assessment in STEM education. The project is sponsored by National …

Assessment-Orientated Instructional Design Using Dream Approach, Juhong Christie Liu Ph.D., Andrea H. Adams, Wei Wang

Libraries

This presentation proposes an assessment-oriented instructional design approach to enhancing student learning with blended learning environments and report its pilot implementation. Students gain significant learning experience through understanding the relationship between learning outcomes and learning process, connecting acquired knowledge, being able to tackle problems individually or on teams, and learning how to learn (Entwistle, Tait, & McCune, 2000; Fink, 2013; Suskie, 2010; Wiggins, 1998). These components ought to be designed in learning activities to educate learners through formative assessment such as self-reflection, peer evaluation, and constructive feedback from instructor (Angelo & Cross,1993; Wiggins, 1998). In blended learning with online environments, …

The Student Role In Catalyzing An Innovation Movement In Higher Education, Christopher D. Ashley

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the significance of the student role in enhancing the innovative and entrepreneurial landscape of higher education. Furthermore, the paper presents methods in which students can go about catalyzing a movement of change, and discusses examples of how these methods have been effectively applied. It is important to note that the methods and examples included in this paper are by no means the only ways students can go about creating change at their institutions. They are simply some of the methods that have been taught by Stanford University’s University Innovation Fellows (UIF) Program …

Integrating Implementation Fidelity And Learning Improvement To Enhance Students’ Ethical Reasoning Abilities, Kristen L. Smith

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Examples of demonstrable student learning improvement in higher education are rare (Banta, Jones, & Black, 2009; Banta & Blaich, 2011). Perhaps because outcomes assessment practices are disconnected from pedagogy, curriculum, and learning improvement. Through partnership with the Madison Collaborative, the current study aimed to bridge this disconnect. Specifically, researchers applied implementation fidelity methodologies (O’Donnell, 2008) to an academic program, under the guiding framework of the Simple Model for Learning Improvement (Fulcher, Good, Coleman, & Smith, 2014). In doing so, researchers helped faculty create and elucidate an ethical reasoning educational intervention and accompanying fidelity checklist. Both were well-aligned with a University-level …

Developing Information And Communication Technologies For Education In Haiti, Nabeel Janjua, Yan Li, Manoj Thomas

VA Engage Journal

This research aims to aid in developing educational technologies for students and teachers in Haiti. The goal of the research project is to increase computer familiarity and literacy. To achieve this objective, a design science and mixed methods approach is developed. The design science approach focuses on building prototype artifacts consisting of software tutorials, computer on a stick, and Internet in a box. The qualitative and quantitative research methods consist of visual comprehension, discussion with students and teachers, data gathering and analysis through census and survey processing systems. Quantitative data is still being analyzed. Both methods may be utilized for …

Seeing The Possible: My Journey Through Service Learning, Moustafa Nassar, Brigid Belko

VA Engage Journal

As the second year of the Center for Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness draws to a close, our graduating student intern, Moustafa Nassar, critically reflects on his distinct learning experience within his Averett University community and the wider local community to better understand how activism needs to be redefined inside and outside of the college campus. In a discussion of the role experiential learning, in the form of service-learning, volunteer work, and internships, played in his college career, he evaluates his new skills and direction as a result of his experiences.