Education Commons^™

Collaborative Test Bank Development: Multi-Institutional & Pandemic Style, Anita Walz, Eli Jamison, Candice Vander Weerdt, Mandi Goodsett

Michael Schwartz Library Publications

During 2020-21 two business faculty from different institutions together with OER librarians, undergraduate students, and graduate assistants conspired to create a faculty-access-only test bank aligned to senior undergraduate-level open textbook, Strategic Management (2020) and AACSB Standards. Test bank development followed instructional and ethical practices for non-disposable assignments including faculty development of assignments, student ownership of student work, student “opt in” to go public, choice of no or some student attribution, financial incentives for various project participants, project MOUs, professional copyediting, and public release to vetted requestors. This presentation describes our respective motivations, process, how we found one another, why the …

Collaboration During Writing In A First Grade Classroom, Kathryn Av Schafer

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to discover if providing students with a collaboration intervention would increase the times they chose to work with a peer and if they found the collaboration beneficial. The participants were sixteen students from one first grade classroom in a midwestern city. This study included quantitative data to determine the impact of the intervention. The researcher tallied if students chose to ask a teacher for help or collaborate with a peer. Students completed reflection forms stating if the help was beneficial. The results do not reveal a significant difference between whom the students ask for …

The Impact Of Cooperative Learning, Bethany Reinhard

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Cooperative learning has been around for decades. It can be highly effective in increasing students' academic achievement, motivation, engagement, positive attitudes, social and emotional aspects, and much more if implemented correctly. It can be difficult for educators to jump right in on using a new teaching strategy. Years of research has provided us with different perspectives and input of cooperative learning's effects and implementation strategies. This literature review contains information from peer reviewed, scholarly journals researching the history of cooperative learning, multiple different grouping techniques, aftermaths in both academic and social effects, the teacher's role, and the importance of collaboration. …

Interdisciplinary Team Teaching Reflections On Praxis And Pedagogy In An Undergraduate Classroom, Danielle Nielsen, Diane Sabenacio Nititham, Marc Polizzi

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Much scholarship available on team-teaching focuses on K-12 programming, with limited examples in post-secondary education. Adding to the growing research on college-level team-taught courses, this reflection describes how interdisciplinary team-teaching can offernot only a pedagogically innovative experience for students but also highlight the strengths of the faculty in their teaching and research areas. In addition to reviewing the differences between interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary curricula, we reflect on our experience deliveringGlobalization as a team-taught course, designing learning outcomes and course material, and negotiating classroom strategies, highlighting successful components and considering future iterations.

Implementing 21st Century Learning And Innovation Skills In Classrooms, Amber Soderlund

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This literature review depicts strategies educators can implement to facilitate 21st century learning and innovation skills in classrooms: collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. One challenge educators currently face with implementing these skills in the classroom is being required to move to online learning or other learning formats as safety and health remain a top priority during the pandemic. This has caused teachers to reinvent the way they teach their students to communicate, work with one another, and display critical thinking and creativity skills. Many educators are reinventing teaching in schools without an increase in resources and guidance from the …

Creating An Inclusive Climate For Students On The Autism Spectrum, Stephanie Holmes

School of Educational Leadership

The problem that drove this study was the increasing number of students with autism entering the school system, and the barriers often encountered for both academic and social inclusion for students on the autism spectrum. Autism Spectrum Disorder, as defined by diagnostic criteria, includes deficits in social-relational communication; social-communication deficits can lead to educational impacts and limit opportunities upon transitioning from the public-school system. The purpose of this study was to examine the barriers to inclusion, which often includes the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) eligibility process itself, from the perspectives of key stakeholders to include Local Education Agency (LEA) representatives, …

Increasing Inclusive Education Through A Learning Center Model: A California Approach, Aja Mckee, Audri Sandoval Gomez

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Learning center models offer students with disabilities learning experiences in general education classrooms, while retaining support and services from special education personnel. The learning center approach examines existing educational perspectives, practices and structures, surrounding access to general education for students with disabilities. This study used a document analysis, a qualitative data method, to examine how two California school districts developed a learning center model to transform special education programming from segregated special education classrooms and practices to placement and access to general education. The findings inform educational programming for students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, to comply with …

Listening To High School Students: Purposefully Designed Spaces And The Impact On Students’ Engagement In Learning, Yanira Oliveras-Ortiz, Dalane E. Bouillion, Lizzy Asbury

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scholars have generally accepted the notion that context and students’ response to the environment influence their engagement in learning. Hence, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the impact purposefully designed learning spaces have on student engagement in a career-inspired high school. Focus groups were conducted before and after the move to a new high school. Through the group interviews, students engaged in discourse about the impact purposefully designed learning spaces have on their engagement in learning. The findings indicate that the students recognized the instructional importance and the impact of their new spaces. The student voices provide educators and …

Intensive Care To Intermediate Care Bridge Program, Natasha Bartlett, Sally Langerak, Lindsey Lucas, Jonathan Archibald, Tayla Robbins, Miranda Thompson, Patrice Tetu, Calla Hastings, Megan Garland, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks

Operational Transformation

To deliver the highest quality of care across the continuum, a large academic tertiary medical center envisioned a project that would provide an internal source of cross trained nurses for their medical intensive care unit (SCU2) and their medical intermediate care unit (R4/IMC/AVU). The hope for this program was to improve communication and collaboration between nurses and enhance the care that they provide to patients and their families.

A highly qualified team of nurses was established to create a performance improvement project. The overall goal of this endeavor was to build a more collaborative relationship between the units and ultimately …

Co-Teaching Relationships To Cultivate Caring, Colette Rabin, Grinell Smith

Faculty Publications

This study leveraged the implementation of co-teaching as a relational model for the teacher training practicum. When analyzed with the theoretical framework of an ethic of care, teacher-candidates and their mentor-teachers developed practices to cultivate caring classrooms through modeling. This study informs teacher preparation for caring by showing how the practicum can be drawn on to cultivate caring.

Honors And The Curiouser University, Kristine A. Miller

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

With roots in the Latin cūriōus, meaning “full of care or pains, careful, assiduous, inquisitive,” the word “curiosity,” like this forum on “Current Challenges to Honors Education,” grows out of both the pain and promise of critical inquiry. This essay takes up the challenge of moving honors from the periphery to the heart of higher education by daring to redefine the college or university itself. Honors fosters—and even demands—the curiosity to look beyond the comforting confines of one’s own mind. Facilitating the conversation, collaboration, and innovation that shape a curious university, honors offers students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community …

Facilitating Collaboration Through A Co-Teaching Field Experience, Mark S. Montgomery, Adam Akerson

Faculty Publications

This article describes an action research project in which two teacher educators implemented a co-teaching field experience with pre-service teacher candidates acting as co-teachers to facilitate collaboration among peers. The goal of the action research was to better meet the needs of pre-service teacher candidates and continually develop their ability to grow as reflective and collaborative future teaching educators. To increase collaboration, co-teaching models were implemented in an early field experience. Teaching activities and assignments provided opportunities for collaboration as co-teachers and as members of a teaching community. Data collection and observations indicate peer-to-peer co-teaching helped create a collaborative atmosphere …

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Digital Poetry Practicum: Preservice English Language Arts Teachers’ Dispositions Of New Literacies, Katie Dredger Ph.D., Susanne Nobles Ph.D., Jenny M. Martin Ph.D.

Teacher Education Program Faculty Scholarship

This qualitative study investigated how graduate preservice teachers (PSTs) engaged in a digital practicum experience with a geographically distant secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. The graduate PSTs, enrolled in a Masters of Arts, English Education program at a university in the mid-Atlantic United States, mentored the 9th-grade students in the online spaces of a course wiki and video conferencing. In this portion of a larger study, PSTs mentored the students during a poetry unit organized by the ELA cooperating teacher and housed in the ELA classroom. A goal of this practicum was building PSTs’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1986) …

Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber, Kelly Murdoch-Kitt

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & …

A Transcendental Phenomenological Exploration Of The Shared Perceptions Of Online Adjunct Faculty In The United States Who Have A High Sense Of Community, Tiffany Ferencz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of online adjunct faculty who have a high sense of community within their respective university. Sense of community was generally defined as feelings of connectedness within the university community. The theories that guided this study were McMillan and Chavis’ (1986) sense of community theory and Herzberg’s (1968) motivation-hygiene theory. McMillan and Chavis’ sense of community theory suggests a sense of community is a powerful force that influences people. Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory is used as it identifies guiding principles for why people are motivated to work. The central question …

Instructionally Dense Literacy Practice In The Middle Grades: A Qualitative Study, Marissa A. Jorgenson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative, practitioner inquiry examined how a group of novice and experienced middle-grade reading teachers integrated facets of instructional density (Pressley, Wharton-McDonald, & Mistretta-Hampston, 1997) into their practice. Instructional density is a descriptor of effective teaching whereby practitioners layer their instruction in individual lessons with other elements of the curriculum. This occurs in the planning of instruction as well as during dialogic exchanges with students that are the natural outcrop of instruction. The researcher’s role was to conduct a series of observations and post-observation reflections and provide coaching that helped participants generate understanding of instructional density and how it could …

Creating Space For Silence In Law School Collaborations, A. Rachel Camp

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Law school programs are increasingly expanding collaborative experiences for their students. In many clinical programs, collaboration -- through team pairings and group work – has been the norm, and gradually, collaborative work is being developed throughout the doctrinal law school curriculum. This trend fits within a broader societal emphasis on a collaborative model of working and learning. In both professional and educational settings, collaboration is viewed as critical to the success of ideas and products. Learning theory consistently identifies learning as being “inherently social” and best retained when engaged in with others. And, collaboration can substantially benefit the final work …

Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives Of Cooperative Learning To Create Music In Orff Schulwerk Classrooms, Nicole A. Chapman

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

The Framework for 21st Century Learning identifies four learning and innovation skills to prepare students for a changing world. The 4Cs identified are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity (Framework for 21st Century Learning, 2015). With the adoption of this new teaching framework, it is important that music educators evaluate their own teaching methods to meet the needs of their students in a changing society. The purpose of this study was to examine how cooperative group learning is currently integrated in the Orff-Schulwerk certified teachers’ elementary music classroom as part of the creative music process. In this qualitative study, I …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Impact On Collaboration As Perceived By Educators While Using Software To Manage Individualized Education Programs, Vaughn Hammond

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain a deeper, richer understanding of how educators’ use of software to manage individualized education programs (IEPs) impact collaboration in the IEP process. Research questions included: (a) What are the challenges identified by educators when using software to manage IEPs? (b) What are the benefits identified by educators when using software to manage IEPs? (c) What are educators’ perceptions on the impact using software to manage IEPs has on the collaboration among the IEP team? (d) What are educators’ perceptions of the use of software on increasing collaboration skills? Educators from …

Building Bridges For Student Success, Cindy Gruwell

Library Faculty Publications

This book chapter describes the collaborative efforts of an academic librarian and nursing faculty in the development of a robust health sciences-focused information literacy instruction workshop. After several years of “standard” IL sessions, both the librarian and faculty wanted to create a more dynamic, active learning environment for students enrolled in the nursing research and evidence-based practice course. In addition, the author reflects on the challenges and successes of working with faculty when a nursing department is undergoing programmatic and curriculum changes.

Edmodo: A Collective Case Study Of English As The Second Language (Esl) Of Latino/Latina Students, Michael Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The population of English as the Second Language (ESL) students continues to rise throughout the United States especially among those of Latino/Latina heritage. An important aspect to help these students succeed is to build a sense of community through a social constructivist framework. By using and developing 21st century skills through social networking, students can develop a sense of community which could lead to an increase in academic achievement. Utilizing a philosophical assumption of methodology allowed for flexibility and ongoing reflection for the current study, and it was applied in the conceptual framework of social constructivism and sense of community. …

Enhancing Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning Through Micro-Level Collaboration Across Two Disciplines, Nancy M. Arrington, Adrienne L. Cohen

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

Two professors from two disciplines—education and sociology—analyzed the commonalities, differences, successes, and challenges of conducting cross-disciplinary Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research at the course level (micro-level). This case study of their collaboration resulted in a series of lessons learned which add to the literature base on the process of SoTL collaboration. The results of their professional collaboration at this level provide a validation for increased communication and alignment during the development and implementation of the projects developed to enhance teaching and learning in their respective courses. This erudition illuminates the potential of increased SoTL collaborations across disciplines at …

Spanning Boundaries To Identify Archival Literacy Competencies, Sharon A. Weiner, Sammie L. Morris, Lawrence J. Mykytiuk

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This paper is a report of a collaborative research project that identified the competencies undergraduate history majors should have related to finding and using archival materials. The boundary-spanning collaboration involved archivists, librarians, and history faculty.

Historians have long relied upon archives as essential source material, and recent studies confirmed the continued significance of archives to research in this field. However, there is no detailed listing of the archival research competencies that college history students should attain. Without a clearly defined list upon which history faculty, archivists, and library liaisons to history departments agree, teaching about archives research is difficult and …

Fostering Rn-To-Bsn Students’ Confidence In Searching Online For Scholarly Information On Evidence-Based Practice, Carol Mcculley, Melissa Jones

Faculty & Staff Publications

Graduates of bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) programs are increasingly expected to take an active role in assessing and improving nursing practice, and nurse educators are expected to prepare BSN students for this expanding role. Information literacy, the ability to search for, find, get, and use scholarly information to inform nursing practice, should be a critical component of nursing education. This article focuses on five strategies for teaching information literacy to registered nurse (RN)-to-BSN students in an online continuing education environment. These strategies include the addition of an embedded librarian to the online courses, collaboration between the librarian and …

The Fifth Function Of University: “Neutrosophic E-Function” Of Communication-Collaboration-Integration Of University In The Information Age, Florentin Smarandache, Stefan Vladutescu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The study is based on the following hypothesis with practical foundation: - Premise 1 - if two members of university on two continents meet on the Internet and initiate interdisciplinary scientific communication; - Premise 2 - subsequently, if within the curricular interests they develop an academic scientific collaboration; - Premise 3 - if the so-called collaboration integrates the interests of other members of the university; - Premise 4 - finally, if the university allows, accepts, validates and promotes such an approach; - Conclusion: then it means the university as a system (the global academic system) has, and it is, exerting …

Examining Student Participation In Three Learning Activities Supported By Social Annotation Tools, Tian Luo, Fei Gao, Kathryn S. Hoff

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Social annotation (SA) allows learners to highlight and comment on Web pages and share annotations with each other online. Despite its potential in promoting collaborative learning, examining how to integrate it into educational settings has not been fully studied. The purpose of the study is to examine student participation in three different SA-based online activities: (1) peer review, (2) annotated discussion, and (3) collaborative reading. Students participated in all three SA-based activities and took a survey at the end reporting the effectiveness of these activities. The analysis of students' annotations and their survey responses suggested that although participants perceived the …

Examining Student Participation In Three Learning Activities Supported By Social Annotation Tools, Tian Luo, Fei Gao, Kathryn S. Hoff

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Social annotation (SA) allows learners to highlight and comment on Web pages and share annotations with each other online. Despite its potential in promoting collaborative learning, examining how to integrate it into educational settings has not been fully studied. The purpose of the study is to examine student participation in three different SA-based online activities: (1) peer review, (2) annotated discussion, and (3) collaborative reading. Students participated in all three SA-based activities and took a survey at the end reporting the effectiveness of these activities. The analysis of students’ annotations and their survey responses suggested that although participants perceived the …

The Perceptions Of Elementary Principals About Their Role In The Establishment Of Collaborative Workplaces In Their School Buildings, Bradley Sullivan

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this case study was to develop an understanding of the elementary principal’s perceived role in creating and sustaining a collaborative workplace environment within their school. Collaboration among education professionals, when used effectively, is one strategy that has demonstrated improvement of instruction and student learning. As such, in this context the role of the principal becomes more complex and challenging. This study examined the perception of the elementary principal’s role regarding the establishment and perpetuation of a collaborative workplace environment for teachers that is focused on improving student learning within their buildings.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 …

Small Schools And Libraries: A Combination For Success, Kathryn L. Mcgrath

Faculty Works

This article explores the importance of library access for K-12 students and offers concrete solutions for making this possible for small schools.