Education Commons^™

I’M An Adjunct: What Do I Need To Know About Teaching?, Teresa Focarile

CTL Teaching Gallery

When I started as an adjunct faculty member, I had no teaching experience. I was handed a syllabus, a classroom, and students, and left to figure out the rest on my own. In preparing that first course, I focused on what I thought were the essentials of teaching: finalizing the syllabus, picking the readings, and writing the assignments. Now, with nearly 20 years of teaching experience, and nine working as an educational developer, I know that while those planning steps are needed, they are not the most important. These are three essential things that adjunct faculty (and all faculty) need …

Morphology In Reading Comprehension Among School-Aged Readers Of English: A Synthesis And Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling Study, Dongbo Zhang, Sihui (Echo) Ke, Ya Mo

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article synthesizes the roles of morphology in English reading acquisition and reports a meta-analytic structural equation modeling study (k = 107, N = 21,818) that tested the effects of morphological awareness (MA) on reading comprehension in school-aged readers. Moderator analysis was conducted through a set of subgroup comparisons based on readers’ language status (monolingual vs. bilingual), age/grade (lower elementary, upper elementary, vs. middle/high school), and MA task modality (spoken vs. written). MA had significant indirect effects on reading comprehension via both word reading and vocabulary knowledge in the full sample as well as all subgroups. Its direct effect …

Physical Activity And Academic Achievement: An Analysis Of Potential Student- And School-Level Moderators, Peter J. Boedeker, Hannah G. Calvert

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Many children do not engage in sufficient physical activity, and schools provide a unique venue for children to reach their recommended 60 daily minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Prior research examining effects of MVPA on academic achievement is inconclusive, and few studies have investigated potential moderators of this relationship. This study examined whether student-level characteristics (gender, race/ethnicity, free/reduced-price lunch status) and school-level characteristics (proportion of students qualifying for free/reduced-price lunch, physical activity environment and opportunities) moderate the relationship between MVPA and academic achievement.

Methods: In a large, diverse metropolitan public school district in Georgia, 4,936 students in Grade …

Study Protocol For A Cluster-Randomized Trial Of A Bundle Of Implementation Support Strategies To Improve The Fidelity Of Implementation Of Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In Rural Schools, Lindsey Turner, Hannah G. Calvert, Christopher M. Fleming, Teri Lewis, Carl Siebert, Nate Anderson, Tate Castleton, Ashley Havlivak, Michaela Mcquilkin

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Improving the implementation of evidence-based interventions is important for population-level impacts. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is effective for improving school climate and students’ behavioral outcomes, but rural schools often lag behind urban and suburban schools in implementing such initiatives.

Methods/Design: This paper describes a Type 3 hybrid implementation-effectiveness trial of Rural School Support Strategies (RS3), a bundle of implementation support strategies selected to improve implementation outcomes in rural schools. In this two-arm parallel group trial, 40 rural public schools are randomized to receive: 1) a series of trainings about PBIS; or 2) an enhanced condition with training …

The Longitudinal Association Between Objectively-Measured School-Day Physical Activity And Academic Achievement In Us Elementary School Students, Paul N. Elish, Cassandra S. Bryan, Peter J. Boedeker, Hannah G. Calvert, Christi M. Kay, Adria M. Meyer, Julie A. Gazmararian

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: It is recommended that school-aged children accrue 30 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school. Current literature is inconclusive about the long-term associations between school-based physical activity and academic achievement. In this study, we use a large sample and longitudinal design to rigorously evaluate whether school-day MVPA is associated with academic achievement.

Methods: In a diverse suburban public school district, 4936 Grade 4 students were recruited in 40 elementary schools. Students wore accelerometers to measure school-day MVPA for 15 days across three semesters. Academic performance data was collected across Grade 3 fall to Grade 5 spring, including …

Tree-Based Methods: A Tool For Modeling Nonlinear Complex Relationships And Generating New Insights From Data, Ya Mo, Brian Habing, Nell Sedransk

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our paper introduces tree-based methods, specifically classification and regression trees (CRT), to study student achievement. CRT allows data analysis to be driven by the data’s internal structure. Thus, CRT can model complex nonlinear relationships and supplement traditional hypothesis-testing approaches to provide a fuller picture of the topic being studied. Using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten 2011 data as a case study, our research investigated predictors from students’ demographic backgrounds to ascertain their relationships to students’ academic performance and achievement gains in reading and math. In our study, CRT displays complex patterns between predictors and outcomes; more specifically, the patterns illuminated by …

Striving Towards Efficient Curriculum Implementation, Melissa J. Hernandez

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

As an Early Learning Mentor Coach for a non-profit organization, my job is to ensure proper implementation of our curriculum within the classroom in order to be in compliance with our grant agreements. Through this process, I had to think of a way to support teaching staff and help them be successful without adding extra stress or hours to their workdays. Whether this was to be done through a binder, a reflection checklist, or a website, I needed to come up with something that was efficient, effective, and convenient for the teachers.

Efficient Assessment Of Students’ Proportional Reasoning, Michele Carney, Katie Paulding, Joe Champion

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teachers need ways to efficiently assess students’ cognitive understanding. One promising approach involves easily adapted and administered item types that yield quantitative scores that can be interpreted in terms of whether or not students likely possess key understandings. This study illustrates an approach to analyzing response process validity evidence from item types for assessing two important aspects of proportional reasoning. Data include results from an interview protocol used with 33 middle school students to compare their responses to prototypical item types to their conceptions of composed unit and multiplicative comparison. The findings provide validity evidence in support of the score …

Supporting Aesthetic Experience Of Science In Everyday Life, Leslie Atkins Elliott

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Researchers have argued that a central goal of science education is to transform students' out-of-school experiences, so that students have aesthetic experiences of the world that would not otherwise be available to them. The goal of this paper is to articulate a set of design principles that support this goal. In doing so, I will first position this as a problem of transfer, and describe a perspective on transfer in which an idea or experience is not so much abstracted from its original context, but one in which the learning context incorporates out-of-class contexts, and vice versa. After characterising a …

Recruitment Strategy Development For First Generation, Underrepresented, And Low-Income Masters Students, Briceland Mclaughlin, Julianne A. Wenner

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recruitment and academic success at the Master of Science (MS) degree level is an often-overlooked line of inquiry. The Stellar Engineering Students Graduate Program Scholarship (SEnS GPS), a National Science Foundation S-STEM funded program at Boise State University, is beginning to bridge this gap in our knowledge of masters-level students. Boise State is a medium-sized, metropolitan, rural serving institution in the mountain west with a large population of typically underserved student groups.

SEnS GPS is investigating the experiences of computer science and engineering MS students from pre-decision and recruitment to graduation. This project is working to determine if best practices …

Mechanisms Of Influence On Youth Substance Use For A Social-Emotional And Character Development Program: A Theory-Based Approach, Stefanie Holloway, Brian R. Flay, Carl Siebert

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adolescent substance use. Objectives: We examined mechanisms by which a TTI-guided social-emotional and character development program, Positive Action (PA), influences adolescent substance use. Study data come from the PA-Chicago, longitudinal matched-pairs cluster-randomized control trial. A diverse, dynamic cohort of approximately 1,200 students from 14 low-performing schools were assessed at eight points of time, between grades 3-8, across a six-year period. Students completed scales related to substance use, self-control, deviant peer affiliation, and school attachment, adapted from the Risk Behavior Survey, Social-Emotional and Character Development …

The Role Of Federal And State Policy In Addressing Early Childhood Achievement Gaps: Parent Perceptions And Student Outcomes Related To 21st Century Learning Centers Programming In The United States, Heather P. Williams

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

As policymakers and school communities work to address underlying causes of achievement gaps and access to quality early childhood education, this study considers the use of 21st Century Community Learning Centers to address early childhood education needs on western U.S. state, Idaho. The study sought to understand the relationship between federal and state policies related to out-of-school opportunities to enhance early childhood education. Utilizing data from a statewide evaluation of Idaho’s 21st Century Learning Centers, the study examined 92 centers providing after school, before school, or summer programs in grades preschool through the third grade to predominately at-risk children. Data …

The Relationship Between Teachers' Cue-Utilization And Their Monitoring Accuracy Of Students' Text Comprehension, Janneke Van De Pol, Tamara Van Gog, Keith Thiede

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigated to what extent teachers' use of diagnostic cues and the accuracy with which they interpreted or judged the values of those cues affected teachers' monitoring accuracy. Forty-six secondary education teachers judged the text comprehension of six students (216 students in total). Mere use of diagnostic cues appeared not sufficient. Rather, accurately judging the values of a diagnostic performance cue was related to higher monitoring accuracy. Using non-diagnostic student cues hampered teachers' monitoring accuracy. The key to further improve monitoring accuracy might lie in improving teachers’ ability to accurately judge diagnostic cues and help them ignore non-diagnostic cues.

Prevalence Of Evidence-Based School Meal Practices And Associations With Reported Food Waste Across A National Sample Of U.S. Elementary Schools, Hannah G. Calvert, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, Michaela Mcquilkin, Peter Boedeker, Lindsey Turner

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Providing meals at school is an important part of the hunger safety net for children in the United States and worldwide; however, many children do not receive school meals even when they qualify for federally-subsidized free or reduced-priced meals. This study investigates the prevalence of several evidence-based practices that have previously been shown to increase the reach and impact of school meals. A survey was sent to a national sample of US elementary schools, with items examining practices regarding school breakfast, school lunch, recess, the promotion of meals, nutrition standards, and food waste, during the 2019–20 school year. Almost all …

Tinkering With Theoretical Objects: Designing Theories In Scientific Inquiry, Shakayla Moran, Leslie Atkins Elliott

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The EDISIn Project (Engineering Design in Scientific Inquiry), taught in an undergraduate teacher preparation program, is investigating where engineering design opportunities emerge within contexts of scientific inquiry, with implications for how science teachers might productively engage in engineering design in their science courses without compromising on either the science or the engineering. In some inquiries, the opportunities for engineering were obvious, particularly with respect to novel experimental designs and in developing physical representations of models. In other inquiries, however, the investigations were either largely theoretical or the experimental designs were readily developed without a need for deliberate attention to design …

Effects Of Positive Action In Elementary School On Student Behavioral And Social-Emotional Outcomes, Kendra M. Lewis, Stefanie D. Holloway, Niloofar Bavarian, Naida Silverthorn, David L. Dubois, Brian R. Flay, Carl F. Siebert

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The national conversation about the importance of social-emotional competencies, such as prosocial behaviors, responsible decision-making, and problem-solving, has increased greatly in the last 2 decades. There is, however, less robust evidence for social and emotional learning programs’ impact on social and emotional outcomes when implemented in low-income, minority populations. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based, universal program targeting social-emotional skills in late elementary school (grades 3–5) in a low-income, urban, minority population. Data were collected from 930 students over five waves. Growth curve analyses revealed evidence of favorable program effects on positive …

Implementation Of Physical Activity In Us Elementary Schools: The Role Of Administrative Support, Financial Resources, And Champions, Blake Densley, Hannah G. Calvert, Peter Boedeker, Lindsey Turner

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The intentional integration of physical activity in elementary school classrooms—including brief instructional breaks for activity, or integration into lessons—can benefit children’s physical activity and education outcomes. Teachers are key implementation agents, but despite physical activity in the classroom being an evidence-informed practice, many teachers do not regularly implement it. The aim of this study was to obtain updated nationally representative prevalence estimates in United States public elementary schools, regarding four key outcomes: (1) school adoption of physically active lessons (PA lessons); (2) school adoption of physical-activity breaks (PA breaks); (3) penetration in the classroom, defined as ≥50% of teachers using …

Stop-Motion Animation To Model The Analemma, Leslie Atkins Elliott, Amanda Hunter, Carl Krutz, Shakayla Moran, Elliot Sherrow

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Sun does not return to the same position in the sky every 24 hours. At local noon, for example, the Sun will appear higher in the sky as we move from winter to summer solstice. In addition, and perhaps more surprisingly, solar days (the roughly 24 hours between subsequent local noons) vary in length, causing the Sun to be east or west of its location 24 hours prior. Over a year, this variation traces out a figure 8, known as an analemma, as shown in Fig.1. It can also be seen in the sundial in Fig. 2, where the …

Systemic Functional Linguistics And Its Application To The Study Of Academic Conference Presentations, Carolina Viera, Maite Taboada

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Academic conference presentations (CPs) offer the possibility to study both the linguistic features of academic oral language and social conventions that take place during these events (Ventola, Shalom & Thompson, 2002). Academic conferences have been understudied (Robles Garrote, 2016), especially within the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). For this reason, researchers who investigate this topic have insufficient reference literature. This study contributes to the understanding of CPs by discussing theoretical and methodological aspects of the analysis of a corpus of 32 CPs given in Spanish in the United States to determine the generic structure or prototypical text structure …

Lessons Learned From Creating Videos For Online Video-Based Instructional Modules In Mathematics Teacher Education, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Laurie O. Cavey

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Video can be a powerful tool, with a long history of use in teacher education. Despite the increased popularity of using video in teacher education over the years, questions remain about effective ways to create and use video in online video-based instructional modules. Given this, in this paper we describe some lessons learned creating videos for online video-based instructional modules for secondary mathematics teacher candidates, as a part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE program (Award No. 1726543) funded project. We specifically focus on how we recorded interviews with middle and high school students, and iteratively developed the online …

Study Protocol For Testing The Association Between Physical Activity And Academic Outcomes Utilizing A Cluster-Randomized Trial, Peter Boedeker, Lindsey Turner, Hannah Calvert, Christi Kay, Adria Meyer, Chuck Truett, Julie Gazmararian

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend adolescents engaging in 60 min of physical activity (PA) every day. Students should spend at least 30 min being active while at school. However, schools rarely provide that much PA time for students. This paper describes the planned analyses for a study evaluating the relationships between PA (measured as average daily minutes of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity [MVPA]) and educational outcomes of standardized test scores and classroom grades cross-sectionally in 4 th grade and longitudinally from 4 th to 5 th grade. Investigations of moderators (both student- and school-level), mediators, and potential …

Are Faculty Prepared To Teach Flexibly?: Results From An Evaluation Study, Devshikha Bose, Rob Nyland

CTL Teaching Gallery

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were hardly any formal/established professional development (PD) program s that intentionally prepared faculty to teach flexibly. The uncertainty around the modality of the fall 2020 semester, required faculty to be prepared to teach their courses in flexible methods in order to meet the needs of their students and the constraints of their institution. This article is an updated report on the evaluation of the Flexible Teaching for Student Success (FTSS) Initiative at Boise State University—a three-tiered faculty development initiative designed to prepare faculty to teach their courses in flexible formats. Evaluation surveys and a …

Should College Instructors Reveal Their High Functioning Autism In The Classroom?, Gundars Kaupins, Tim Chenoweth, Felice Klein

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

College instructors with highly functional autism, also known as Asperger’s, can have difficulty interacting with students. To mitigate the potentially reduced teaching ratings, college instructors must decide whether to reveal their condition to the students. Using a survey of 393 university business students, we address if college instructors who reveal that they have Asperger’s at the beginning of instruction influence students’ ratings. We find that students’ ratings were higher when college instructors reveal that they have Asperger’s. However, this effect only pertains to male students. Our findings suggest that instructors with Asperger’s should reveal their condition to students.

Truth, Success, And Faith: Novice Teachers’ Perceptions Of What's At Risk In Responsive Teaching In Science, Amy D. Robertson, Leslie J. Atkins Elliott

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Responsive teaching—or teaching that builds from the “seeds of science” in student thinking—is depicted in STEM education literature as both important and challenging. U.S. science education reform has been calling for teachers to enact instruction that attends to and takes up the substance of students’ STEM ideas; however, responsive teaching represents a substantial shift from the current state of affairs in most U.S. classrooms, where content is often presented authoritatively as facts, definitions, and algorithms, with little consideration of student thinking. Drawing on language from literature about sense‐making, this paper identifies some of the “vexation points” that novice science teachers …

Revolutionizing The Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum, Shelby Ann Mcneilly, Krishna Pakala, Donald Plumlee

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the age of technological advancement and occupational opportunity continues to progress, companies must be constantly adjusting and transforming in order to accommodate industry demands. With these quickly developing requirements comes an expectation of employee experience and skill sets. For individuals seeking a career in mechanical engineering, moving forward with the tools necessary for success in this continuously evolving world begins with higher education. This paper is the first of a three-part series to report on the progress of Boise State University’s Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department’s mission to implement a revolutionized curriculum in their academic program. This paper will …

Faculty Perspectives On The Impact Of Virtual Office Hours In Engineering Courses, Brooke-Lynn Caprice Andrade, Krishna Pakala, Diana Bairaktarova, Douglas Hagemeier, Harish Subbaraman

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Instructor-student interaction is an important element of a course design, but office hours can be challenging to attend based on students’ commitments. They have time and space limitations that prevent students from getting the help they need and often garner poor attendance. Virtual office hours can address issues related to low attendance and provide a low stakes environment where unhindered learning can happen. Virtual office hours are flexible, yield productive interactions, and all enrolled students can participate. This study reports on three engineering instructors’ perspectives on the efficacy of virtual office hours compared to the traditional face-to-face interactions with the …

Responding To Microaggressions In Online Learning Environments During A Pandemic, Tasha Souza

Rebuilding the Launchpad: Serving Students During Covid Resource Library

With faculty and students both stressed during the pandemic, microaggressions may become more frequent in our online learning environment. Here are some practical strategies for mitigating the impact of microaggressions in online and remote classes.

Science Packs: Take-Home Stem-Themed Backpacks Provide Opportunities For Engaging Family Fun!, Julianne A. Wenner, Soñia Galaviz

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Families play a vital role in shaping students’ interest and engagement in science (Archer et al. 2012; Dabney, Chakraverty, and Tai 2013), yet are often left out of the loop. To encourage family involvement in science that is sustained over time, we took a cue from Freudenberg’s (2012) Science Sacks article and created science backpacks that students can take home over the weekends and share with their family members. We created three different activities for each grade level K–6, for a total of 21 different backpack activities throughout the school. Each classroom has duplicates of each activity, so it takes …

Flexible Teaching At Boise State: A Guide For Faculty, Leslie Madsen

Rebuilding the Launchpad: Serving Students During Covid Resource Library

Dynamic teaching requires creative and flexible thinking about how instructors can support students in achieving essential core course learning objectives. This guide offers suggestions for instructors at Boise State looking to continue offering a student-centered learning experience through a variety of teaching formats including, online, hybrid, and remote environments.

While the process may feel unfamiliar and at times frustrating, try as much as possible to be patient. In times of disruption or change, everyone expects some pedagogical and technological hiccups. Be willing to switch tactics if something isn’t working.

Focus on maintaining a growth mindset for both yourself and your …

Flexible Teaching For Student Success: A Three-Tiered Initiative To Prepare Faculty For Flexible Teaching, Devshikha Bose, Lisa Berry, Rob Nyland, Anthony Saba, Teresa Focarile

CTL Teaching Gallery

The COVID-19 pandemic brought some unique challenges for the academic community. To counter the disruption caused by campus closure, faculty who taught in-person, blended, and hybrid courses needed to be prepared to pivot to remote instruction. This article describes the design and evaluation results of a three-tiered professional development initiative that focused on preparing faculty to teach with flexibility, whatever may be the necessary teaching environment. This design may serve as a model for professional developers building similar programs for faculty. The authors also share a resource—a Flexible Learning and Instruction Plan (FLIP).