Education Commons^™

The Effects Of Strategy Instruction In Reading Informational Text On Reading Level And Motivation Of Fifth Grade Students, Michelle Adler

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this nonequivalent control-group design study was to determine if students had an increase in reading level and motivation to read when more informational text and instruction was added into the curriculum. The independent variables were the reading curriculum, with Success for All (SFA) used with the control group and SFA with additional instruction in informational text used with the study group. The dependent variables were reading level and levels of motivation determined by the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) and the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) measured after eight weeks of instruction and again three months post-study. The …

Teacher Beliefs About Motivating And Teaching Students To Carry Out Engineering Design Challenges: Some Initial Data, James P. Van Haneghan, Susan A. Pruet, Rhonda Neal-Waltman, Jessica M. Harlan

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The present study examines middle school teachers’ beliefs about seven learning outcomes related to a project that involves developing and examining the effects of a set of engineering design modules constructed for use by middle school math and science teachers. Overall, the teachers involved in the intervention appear to believe they have the instructional skills, professional development, and resources to carry out the modules. Teachers from all of the schools (both intervention and comparison schools) for the most part valued the outcomes as important. Results of the study indicate that, although teachers believe they value and can obtain most of …

Paper 2 - Aligning Reading Assessment With National Goals, Danielle Anzai, Maurice Walker

Danielle Anzai

Teaching Information Fluency: How To Teach Students To Be Efficient, Ethical, And Critical Information Consumers, Carl Heine, Dennis O'Connor

Carl Heine

Searching is becoming easier than thinking. Enter a query in a search engine, and the searcher is instantly flooded with results. Information has never been easier to retrieve and consume. At the same time, determining the quality of the results remains a daunting task. Despite the attempts to make search tools "brain dead easy"1 to use, searching that reduces the need to think invites problems. Machines cannot reliably predict what each individual is hunting for, machines cannot determine what is credible, yet that is the direction search engine development is headed.

2015 Legislative Summary, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The 90th General Assembly opened its Regular Session on January 12 and recessed on April 9. Meetings of the House and Senate education committees were usually standing room only for discussions of a broad range of bills on early childhood, K-12, and higher education issues. The purpose of this policy brief is to review the K-12 bills that garnered the most attention and have been signed into law by firstterm Governor Asa Hutchinson. These highlights are organized into several categories as shown in This Brief

Student Learning In High-Impact Practice Mass Communication Courses, Douglas J. Swanson Ed.D Apr

Douglas J. Swanson, Ed.D APR

College and university high-impact practice (HIP) courses involve students in intensive values-focused learning inside and/ or outside of the traditional classroom environment. Much research has documented that participation in HIPs increases student retention and graduation rates. At the same time, the nontraditional learning structure of an HIP course can complicate a thorough assessment of student learning. Anecdotal evidence reflects strong involvement in HIPs by mass communication programs, although communication efforts in this regard are not as well documented in the literature as efforts in other fields. This essay briefly defines HIPs and presents an appropriate theory that would guide HIPs …

Comparison Of Linear Functions In Middle Grades Textbooks From Singapore And The United States, Linda D. Fowler

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many U.S. students do not perform well on mathematics assessments with respect to algebra topics such as linear functions, a building-block for other functions. Poor achievement of U.S. middle school students in this topic is a problem.

U.S. eighth graders have had average mathematics scores on international comparison tests such as Third International Mathematics Science Study, later known as Trends in Mathematics and Science Study, (TIMSS)-1995, -99, -03, while Singapore students have had highest average scores. U.S. eighth grade average mathematics scores improved on TIMMS-2007 and held steady onTIMMS-2011. Results from national assessments, PISA 2009 and 2012 and National Assessment …

Improving A Curriculum Through Incremental Changes Based On Programmatic Assessment Results, Batoul Senhaji-Tomza, Suzanne R. Soliman, Paramita Basu

Touro College of Pharmacy (New York) Publications and Research

Objectives: To describe implementation of incremental curriculum changes aimed at addressing identified gaps via subjective and objective programmatic assessment in a 2 + 2 curriculum.

Method: After low first-time NAPLEX pass rates for two consecutive class years, subjective and objective assessment of a 2 + 2 curriculum was conducted. The curriculum was benchmarked to the other existing 2 + 2 program. Other assessments that occurred include: intensive course content review, course credit number versus instructional time audit, vertical and horizontal topical sequence revision in the clinical, basic sciences and social and behavioral course sequences, faculty/student feedback and focus groups; outside …

Evaluate To Learn: Integrating Assessment Data To Improve Outcome Of A Didactic Biomedical Science Course, Paramita Basu, John Fisher, Batoul Senhaji-Tomza, Suzanne R. Soliman

Touro College of Pharmacy (New York) Publications and Research

Objectives: To describe the evaluation system used to identify curricular issues within a pre-clinical biomedical science course in a Pharm.D program and report the difference in outcome after implementation of the resulting changes.

Method: Course content, sequence of delivery and integration of topics with other courses in the relevant tracks were reviewed to identify discrepancies. Evaluation feedback from students and faculty were obtained from E-value online course evaluation system, and end of course discussion reports. Student performance in the course before and after implementing the recommended changes were compared to assess their effectiveness.

Results: Content duplications and …

Assessment Of Student Learning In A Business Department With An Entrepreneurial Focus, Suzanne C. Calvert

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This multi-faceted, action-research project utilized researched assessment practices and current practices acquired through case study research. The research question of this study was: How could a department in a small liberal arts college best measure and evaluate the student-learning outcomes to inform the business department with an entrepreneurial focus? The researcher answered this question by comparing assessment best practices to the home-institution department assessment plan and conducting case study analyses of assessment practices utilized by similar departments of other selected institutions. An action plan was developed and focused on home departmental collaboration and use of data.