Education Commons^™

Inquiry-Based Teaching And Learning As A Tool For Achieving A Scientifically Literate Future: Combating A Post-Truth World, Lauri Elizabeth Davis

Masters Theses

Truth is under attack across the world. This can be seen in the lies spread by Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine to the misinformation spread about combatting the COVID-19 virus. The authoritative and trusted nature of science is being undermined by unfounded beliefs and opinion. Many Americans lack an understanding of how science is done nor have basic knowledge about common scientific information. What is needed is to increase the level of scientific literacy in the United States. Inquiry-based teaching and learning has been touted as a way for developing more scientifically literate citizens, because inquiry-based teaching and …

Use Of Standardized Patient Encounters As Predictors Of Fieldwork Performance: A Pilot Study, Linda Frasier, John V. Rider, Ashley Fecht

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Although standardized patient encounters (SPEs) are being used in occupational therapy (OT) education, limited literature exists on the value these experiences have on OT student learning outcomes and preparation for fieldwork. This study sought to examine if SPEs had the potential to predict Level II A fieldwork performance.

Method: This study used a retrospective analysis of 35 entry-level OT students. Independent variables included demographics (enrollment in an entry-level OT master's or doctoral degree, age, and overall grade point average) and SPE performance. The fieldwork Level II A final performance evaluation score was used as the dependent variable. Hierarchical regression …

Building Community In An Asynchronous Write-To-Learn Course, Mary K. Tedrow

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study examines one online asynchronous course, Writing in Literature, devised by the researcher to determine the potential for building a student-centered course functioning as a learning community in spite of the limitations of the lack of shared space or time. The course was examined via student surveys that qualified experiences within the course as well as a review and coding of end-of-course student reflections. The survey and reflective commentary indicate that it is possible for an asynchronous course to effectively build a vibrant learning community. The learner to learner, learner to instructor, and learner to content framework recommended …

Criticism, Praise, And The Red Pen: The Role Of Elementary School Teachers On The Enduring Efficacy Of Writing Instructors, Julie Kimble

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

A teacher’s own early experiences with writing, whether positive or negative, have a significant effect on the students that they teach, especially those who go on to become teachers. In a graduate education and reading program at a public university in the southern United States, we ask our teachers through a writing biography assignment to explore these memories of their earliest writing experiences and determine how those experiences fit into their current teaching careers. For this qualitative project, the researcher analyzed essays that were submitted for a “Writing Autobiography” assignment for this graduate level writing class for educators. This study …

Eating Pizza With Chopsticks: Discovering Flavorful Truths About Writing, Jennifer K. Allen

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The teaching of writing often brings about feelings of tension and trepidation. In the age of accountability, teachers feel pressured to succumb to test-based writing practices that stifle student creativity and cause both teachers and students to disconnect from the joy of writing. In addition, teachers sometimes shy away from teaching writing because they are not confident as writers themselves and they question their ability to effectively teach writing. Using a tangible analogy that emerged from a writing partnership between elementary writers and pre-service teachers, this article explores specific truths about writing that can transform a classroom of students into …

Interactive Virtual Scanning Electron Microscope Inspired By 3d Game-Design, Pnina Ari-Gur, Igor Lapsker, Tyler Bayne, Eric Allen Pietrowicz, Peter Thannhauser, Spencer Hoin, Hermanu Joko Nugroho

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has evolved to become an indispensable tool for research and education in engineering, physics, nanotechnology, geosciences, materials science, biological sciences and other fields. However, training on a physical SEM is costly, time consuming, and often unavailable in economically disadvantaged areas. Advances in computer technology have made interactive three-dimensional (3D) virtual laboratory an effective tool for training in medicine and many engineering and technology fields. In the current work, in order to provide cost-effective hands-on training, a virtual 3D SEM was developed using the game development engine Unity 3D. It contains realistic 3D models of the …

Ideas On Teaching And Improving Writing Skills Across Disciplines, Dasha Culic Nisula

World Languages and Literatures Publications

No abstract provided.

Maintenance Of Cognitive Demand During Repeated Task Enactments Using A Teaching Practice That Builds On Student Thinking, Joshua M. Ruk

Dissertations

Maintaining high levels of cognitive demand during task enactments can improve student learning in classrooms. Influences such as teachers' beliefs about their students’ abilities, and the curriculum that a teacher uses can affect the factors that contribute to the maintenance of cognitive demand. My study adds to what we know about such influences by looking at how a teaching practice that builds on student thinking affects the factors that contribute to the maintenance of cognitive demand, by asking:

1. What does the maintenance of cognitive demand look like when teachers are attempting to attend to student thinking during task enactment?
2. How …

Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports (Pbis): Does Stronger Implementation Relate To More Equitable Student Outcomes In School Discipline?, Stephenie C. Bruce

Dissertations

For this study, I explored the degree of implementation of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework and the existence of disproportionality of formal school disciplinary responses to behavioral occurrences by race/ethnicity, sex, special education status (SPED), and socioeconomic status (SES) of students. Further, I investigated the relationship between a school’s degree of implementation of PBIS and the existence of disproportionality by race/ethnicity, sex, SPED, and SES, and investigated the differences in the existence of disproportionality in schools that fully implemented PBIS and schools that did not fully implement PBIS.

Literature exists on PBIS implementation and, separately, on the …

Exploring Simulation Design For Mental Health Practice Preparation: A Pilot Study With Learners And Preceptors, Diane E. Mackenzie, Niki Kiepek, Leanne Picketts, Stephanie Zubriski, Karen Landry, Jonathan Harris

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

The purpose of this exploratory pilot study was to determine the feasibility of delivering mental health practice simulations for occupational therapy learners, and whether different debriefing approaches yielded performance differences over successive simulations. Five clinical preceptors and nine first year MScOT students participated in this mixed-method study. In week one simulations, one student group received preceptor facilitated debriefing while the other group used self-debriefing. Both groups used the same scripted questions informed by an advocacy-inquiry approach. In the second week, both groups received the preceptor-led debriefing. Preceptors rated student performances while students self-rated their confidence, competence screen, and satisfaction using …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 5, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Reflexivity And Practice In Covid-19: Qualitative Analysis Of Student Responses To Improvisation In Their Research Methods Course, Elizabeth L. Spradley, R. Tyler Spradley

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The improvisations needed to adapt to COVID-19 teaching and learning conditions affected students and faculty alike. This study uses chaos theory and improvisation to examine an undergraduate communication research methods course that was initially delivered synchronously/face-to-face and then transitioned to asynchronous/online in March 2020. Reflective writings were collected at the end of the semester with the 25 students enrolled in the course and follow-up interviews conducted with six students. Thematic analysis revealed that available and attentive student-participant, student-student, and student-instructor communication complemented learner-centered and person-centered goals, but unavailable or inattentive communication, especially with participants and students in the research team, …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 4, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This is the complete volume 4 of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy.

Incorporating Virtual Reality Training In An Introductory Public Speaking Course, Kevin Kryston, Henry Goble, Allison Eden

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This study presents the results of two studies using a virtual reality (VR) public-speaking training simulation as an instructional aid in a basic communication course. Results from the first study suggest that VR practice was associated with higher subsequent speech delivery grades in the course compared to no practice. However, VR practice did not reduce public speaking anxiety (PSA). In a follow-up study, VR practice was compared with other forms of lab-based practice including in front of a mirror and a recorded video session. All forms of lab practice (VR, mirror, or video) were associated with higher speech grades than …

Human-Robot Teaming Configurations: A Study Of Interpersonal Communication Perceptions And Affective Learning In Higher Education, Bryan Abendschein, Chad Edwards, Autumn P. Edwards, Varun Rijhwani, Jasmine Stahl

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Technology encourages collaboration in creative ways in the classroom. Specifically, social robots may offer new opportunities for greater innovation in teaching. In this study, we combined the established literature on co-teaching teams with the developing field of machine actors used in education to investigate the impressions students had of different team configurations that included both a human and a robot. Participants saw one of three teams composed of a human and a social robot with different responsibilities present a short, prerecorded lecture (i.e., human as lead teacher-robot as teaching assistant, robot as lead teacher-human as teaching assistant, human and robot …

Eureka: Identifying What It Means To Practice Student- Centered Teaching In A Hypermodern Age, Audra Diers-Lawson

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Contemporary professional reports and research suggest that in corporate communication and related programs, we are not creating environments for modern students to thrive nor are we meeting the industry’s expectations in a ‘hypermodern’ world. Using personal ethnography, this article to analyzes industry-articulated limitations in the knowledge and skill sets of new communication practitioners, reviews contemporary literature identifying the learning needs of today’s students, and proposes a set of best practices based on the literature and the author’s own journey as a higher education practitioner of 20 years. Best practices identified incorporate elements of entertainment, engagement, and an ‘open-world’ approach that …

Mapping Research Directions In The Introductory Communication Course: A Meta-Synthesis Of Published Scholarship, Lindsey B. Anderson, Ashley Jones-Bodie, Jennifer Hall

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The introductory communication course has a history of producing meaningful scholarship that shapes teaching and learning at institutions of higher education around the world. The scope of this research is broad and, as such, calls for a meta-synthesis of trends in and avenues for future research. This project examines published work from the past decade—2010 through 2019—in key outlets that regularly publish introductory course-focused research (The Basic Communication Course Annual, Communication Education, Communication Teacher, The Journal of Communication Pedagogy). This analysis of 98 articles revealed that publications tend to focus on three primary areas: (1) students and instructors, (2) the …

Defining Feedback: Understanding Students’ Perceptions Of Feedback In The Introductory Communication Course, Drew T. Ashby-King, Raphael Mazzone, Lindsey B. Anderson

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Feedback is an essential part of the teaching/learning processes. This statement is especially true in the introductory communication course where students receive feedback throughout the presentational speaking process. This paper explores how students define useful feedback based on 1,600 qualitative questionnaires that asked students about their perceptions of feedback. A thematic analysis of a randomly selected subset of 163 responses uncovered two themes: (1) feedback content characteristics (e.g., specific, constructive, praiseworthy, and purposive) and (2) process of instructor-provided feedback (e.g., iterative, timely). Based on these findings, a set of best practices for providing feedback is offered as a means to …

Characterizing Undergraduate Students’ Proving Processes Around “Stuck Points”, Yaomingxin Lu

Dissertations

Learning to prove mathematical propositions is a cornerstone of mathematics as a discipline (de Villiers, 1990). However, since proving is a different mathematical activity as compared to students’ prior experience, research has also shown that many undergraduate students struggle to learn to prove, including those who major in mathematics (Moore, 1994; Selden, 2012). While the field has generated research that has analyzed the final products of proof (Selden & Selden, 2009) and there are frameworks for analyzing problem-solving processes (e.g., Carlson & Bloom, 2005; Schoenfeld, 1985, 2010), much remains to be known about analyzing undergraduate students’ proving processes. With a …

The Effects Of Multiple Exemplar Instruction On The Textual Responding Of Secondary Students With Reading Delays, Ariana D’Arms

Dissertations

A majority of eighth-grade students in the United States read below a proficient level, which means that they may have difficulty reading and comprehending grade-level text. Research indicates that older struggling readers may be missing phoneme-related skills, which limits their ability to read proficiently. Unfortunately, there is little research examining strategies for establishing such skills in older struggling readers. Multiple exemplar instruction (MEI), which has benefited young readers with phoneme-related skill deficits, is an intervention that may also be effective for older struggling readers who need phonemic skills. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of …

Writing To Transgress: Autobiographies And Family Trees As Multimodal And Culturally Sustaining Writing Pedagogy, John Wesley White, Cynthia Lynn Sumner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Engaging today's students in writing often requires more than formulas and prompts; it requires the use of culturally sustaining genres and modalities that speak to students' lived experiences and what they know best. This paper chronicles an urban teacher's attempt to create and use a writing prompt and a genre that would speak to and engage students who had previously experienced discouragement surrounding their academic writing. More specifically, we examine how the teacher used family trees, student-led interviews with family members, and family artifacts to engage his students in telling their own stories and, subsequently, how changes in this teacher's …

Applied Behavior Analysis In The Secondary Art Classroom, Linda S. Stewart

Masters Theses

Special needs students in the secondary art classroom can be difficult to reach. Students with special needs are required by law to be provided with a fair and appropriate education. The challenge for art educators is to adequately meet the needs of all students in the classroom. This paper examines a brief history of education for students with special needs, behavior management in the classroom, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, the token system, and the value of a structured classroom environment. ABA therapy techniques in the secondary art classroom provide a tool in the classroom management aspect of providing structure …

Blogging In Elementary Classrooms: Mentoring Teacher Candidates’ To Use Formative Writing Assessment And Connect Theory To Practice, Diane R. Collier, Tiffany L. Gallagher

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper presents a collaborative approach to professional learning in which classroom teachers mentored teacher candidates to connect theory and practice through formative assessment to improve students’ writing. Professional learning sessions pairing the teachers and teacher candidates occurred in each of the fall and winter semesters in two years of this project. Data were collected at these sessions and during focus group debriefings. The findings are themes related to: lines of communication and levels of collaboration; teachers’ pedagogical decisions about blogging and writing in their classrooms; classroom teachers and teacher candidates enacting formative writing assessment in the blogging platform; the …

The Dimensions Of Teachers Who Write And The Essence Of A Writing Life, Shari L. Daniels, Pamela Beck

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The purpose of this grounded theory case study was to explore the perceptions among ten K-12 teachers who teach writing and also write themselves. What are the key essentials for teachers to sustain a writing life? What habits of mind or attitudes are necessary for teachers to sustain a writing life? Interviews served as the primary data source along with writing artifacts from the participants’ own writing life. Findings indicate that teacher-writers committed to a writing life do so for the purpose of 1) discovering meaning, 2) connections to others 3) commitment to learning and 4) well-being, with an overall …

Multicultural Competence, White Privilege Attitudes And The Working Alliance In Clinical Supervision, Michelle A. Stahl

Dissertations

Research indicates that White supervisors have difficulty facilitating and integrating multicultural issues in supervision (Fong & Lease, 1997; Hird, Tao, & Gloria, 2004). A factor that interferes with a multicultural focus in supervision is the multicultural competence of the supervisor (Miville, Rosa, & Constantine, 2005). Moreover, as a result of White privilege, White supervisors may also be less aware of their cultural selves and subsequently less inclined to discuss multicultural issues in supervision (Hird et al., 2004). Lack of attention to important multicultural issues, such as White privilege, can interfere with the development of an effective supervisory alliance (Constantine & …

What Covid-19 Is Teaching Me About Writing, Rebekah J. Buchanan

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This is a narrative piece for the special edition, Writing Teacher Education in Extraordinary Times. It addresses my work with English Education candidates, student teachers, and first-year writing students.

Keeping Things Going: Reflections On Teaching “Teaching Writing” Online, Emily S. Meixner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

What does it mean to “keep things going online” in an undergraduate teacher education course on teaching writing? In this article, a teacher educator describes how, in consultation with her students, she adapted a secondary English methods course on teaching writing to teach it online. While highlighting and celebrating what worked, she also reflects on lessons learned and teaching questions that continue to persist.

Puerto Rican English Teachers’ Perception Of Student Resilience In Extraordinary Times, Elenita Irizarry Ramos

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This qualitative study documents how Puerto Rican English teachers innovated and adapted their teaching of writing in the aftermath of Hurricane María, ongoing earthquakes, political unrest, and COVID-19. In 2019, The still recovering- from two hurricanes, which killed more than 3,000 people- the Puerto Rican population was hit with leaked text messages that allegedly evidenced offensive jokes - about the government’s relief response- between then governor, Dr. Ricardo Roselló, members of his cabinet, and lobbyists. This resulted in mass protests that lead to the politician’s resignation during the summer of 2019. In early January, earthquakes rocked the island amassing uncountable …

Building Community In A Virtual Course, Kristen Hawley Turner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Alternative Delivery Methods: A Reflection On The Semester That Almost Wasn't, Joshua J. Anderson

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

As educators we are by our very nature self-reflective practitioners. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced many of us to reconsider our approaches to remote learning, and this narrative describes my experiences with alternative delivery methods of instruction during the past two months. It is my hope that others can learn from both my successes and my failures. I encourage all educators to thoughtfully examine what they have experienced during this unprecedented time and consider how the lessons learned can positively influence their instructional approaches and readiness moving forward. The narrative begins by contextualizing my background, programs, classes, and institution. …