Education Commons^™

An Exploratory Investigation Of Frequently Cited Articles From The Early Childhood Intervention Literature, 1994 To 2005, Juli Pool, Marisa Macy, Suzanne Bells Mcmanus, Jina Noh

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The authors explored frequently cited articles across four peer-reviewed journals in early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE). The Social Science Citation Index was used to examine journal articles from 1994 to 2005 in: Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Infants and Young Children, Journal of Early Intervention, and Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. Results for the most frequently cited EI/ECSE journal articles are reported.

Revealing Online Learning Behaviors And Activity Patterns And Making Predictions With Data Mining Techniques In Online Teaching, Jui-Long Hung, Ke Zhang

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study was conducted with data mining (DM) techniques to analyze various patterns of online learning behaviors, and to make predictions on learning outcomes. Statistical models and machine learning DM techniques were conducted to analyze 17,934 server logs to investigate 98 undergraduate students’ learning behaviors in an online business course in Taiwan. The study scientifically identified students’ behavioral patterns and preferences in the online learning processes, differentiated active and passive learners, and found important parameters for performance prediction. The results also demonstrated how data mining techniques might be utilized to help improve online teaching and learning with suggestions for online …

Challenges And Questions Concerning “Culturally-Sensitive Design”, Ross Perkins

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since the inception of the field of anthropology, scholars have debated the definition for the word "culture." Lonner and Adamapoulos (1997) note that "there are 200 or more definitions of 'culture' in the literature of the social sciences, not one of which has been embraced by a substantial number of social scientists" (p. 76). Strauss and Quinn (1997) provide an overview of four schools of thought regarding the interpretations of "culture":

"Geertzian interpretivists have stressed the publicness of meaning, cognition, and culture. Foucauldian postmodernists have argued for the constructedness of culture and of the self. Some contemporary historical materialists highlight …

Using Clicker 5 To Enhance Emergent Literacy In Young Learners, Howard P. Parette, Jack Hourcade, Jenny M. Dinelli, Nichole M. Boeckmann

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Best practices in emergent literacy instruction for young children acknowledge and facilitate the smooth progression between children’s early engagement with print materials and subsequent fuller literacy mastery. In so doing, model programs target five key emergent literacy skills. The rapid rise in the breadth and depth of educational technology, including computer software, is offering early childhood education professionals new and powerful tools in teaching early literacy. This paper offers a brief review of best practices in emergent literacy, notes the growth of technology in this instruction, and examines the potential contributions of one specific software program, Clicker 5, in helping …

Real-World Industry Collaboration Within A Mechatronics Class, Vidya Nandikolla, Susan Shadle, Patricia Pyke, John Gardner, Robert Grover, Suhas Pharkute

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper describes the implementation and assessment of an innovative senior/graduate level mechatronics (robotics) module that integrated structured and unstructured learning experiences, in collaboration with an industry partner. With real-world constraints and expectations, students designed and delivered a product as the final project. In fall 2007, the corporate partner provided state-of-the-art, programmable robotic kits with a user-friendly programming environment. The assigned project was to design a biomedical robot to work in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU) to perform tasks such as transporting supplies or delivering paperwork. Students with diverse skills and majors were grouped in ten teams, two to …

Multicultural Literature That Brings People Together, Stan Steiner, Claudia Peralta Nash, Maggie Chase

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the past ten years we have been tracking a specific type of multicultural literature. We diligently look for literature for youth that reflects multiple cultures within the story line or images projected through illustrations. The books we focused on in this theme depict multiple characters reflecting a variety of ethnic backgrounds because this mosaic of characters is what we see to be more of a reflection of our changing world. The interaction of young people today across ethnic lines is more prevalent and we believe will continue to become common place as long as adults allow and encourage this …

Using Microsoft® Powerpoint™ To Support Emergent Literacy Skill Development For Young Children At-Risk Or Who Have Disabilities, Howard Phillips Parette, Jack J. Hourcade, Nichole M. Boeckmann, Craig Blum

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the 21st century, “Digital Children” (Edyburn, 2002) are growing up in a world rich with technology, including cell phones, iPods, email, PalmPilots, Web sites, discussion boards, chat rooms, the Internet, and electronic toys and learning games (Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2003). Young children whose families use technology acquire knowledge of and skills in language and literacy in part through exposure to technology in the home (Jewitt, 2006). For example, McGee and Richgels (2006) observed that many young children become aware of the existence of print and its use by their families in their daily lives through screen presentations on the …

Transformative Education For Culturally Diverse Learners Through Narrative And Ethnography, Aileen Hale, Jennifer Snow-Gerono, Fernanda Morales

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article presents a study of the effects of creating a bridge between the narrative and ethnographic methods and writing processes as a means to more effectively educate teachers of culturally diverse learners. Ten teacher-participants from a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) degree programme in Bilingual Education at a university in the northwestern United States took a sequence of courses in which instructor-researchers taught them narrative and ethnographic pedagogy, theory, and methodology. Through qualitative methods, instructor-researchers analyzed teacher-participants’ personal narratives and ethnographic case studies for generative themes. In discovering the commonalities of themes between these two methods of inquiry, the research …

Locating Supervision—A Reflective Framework For Negotiating Tensions Within Conceptual And Procedural Foci For Teacher Development, Jennifer L. Snow-Gerono

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This manuscript presents a theoretical construct for analyzing procedural and conceptual tensions within instructional leadership for teacher development. The dynamic, multi-dimensional framework demonstrates possibilities for locating supervision as having procedural and conceptual bases. By employing the questions identified, educators place themselves within the framework focused on specific areas and located along a procedural to conceptual continuum. Identifying tensions in practice guides educators to be more reflective when engaging in professional growth. Ultimately, teachers need to become empowered to engage in reflective supervision in order to guide professional development, teaching and learning.

Use Of Writing With Symbols 2000 Software To Facilitate Emergent Literacy Development, Howard P. Parette, Nichole Boeckmann, Jack J. Hourcade

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper outlines the use of the Writing with Symbols 2000 software to facilitate emergent literacy development. The program’s use of pictures incorporated with text has great potential to help young children with and without disabilities acquire fundamental literacy concepts about print, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary development, and comprehension. The flexibility and features of the software allow early childhood professionals to create a variety of early literacy tools for the classroom, including worksheets, storybooks, and interactive activities.

Toward A Transformative Teaching Practice: Criticity, Pedagogy And Praxis, Arturo Rodriguez

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

One method to teach a multicultural class: a teacher walks in to a room calls the class to order, steps to the lectern and begins to deliver knowledge. Socially acquired information is disseminated; that gained over years of study and experience. Another view: I walk into a class where my students are sitting quietly at their desks pen and paper at the ready and quietly ask: shall we form a circle? The students agree and after having done so I follow up with a generative (Freire, 1970): what are your current understandings of Diversity? In following the work of Paulo …

Teaching About Peace Through Children’S Literature, Stan F. Steiner

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Historically children's literature has always been used as a teaching tool with children, but today the choices of literature has grown and the audience expanded. Teaching moral messages was an underlying foundation for making books available for children. Early children's books were often tied to religious teachings and folklore that had implied messages of staying close to home, listening to elders, caring for others over oneself, and traditional gender roles to name a few. Many adults have identified other subliminal messages as they critically analyzed some of the literature from the past. Some messages you will find are passive women …

The Party’S Over: Sustaining Support Programs When The Funding Is Done, John Gardner, Pat Pyke, Cheryl Schrader, Janet M. Callahan, Amy Moll

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the lifecycle of an engineering education grant, the phase where best practices are sustained and disseminated is perhaps the most crucial stage for maximizing impact. Yet this transition phase often receives the least attention as project team enthusiasm can wane, while funding tapers off, and faculty priorities are pulled in other directions. There are numerous obstacles associated with sustaining program changes, even those perceived as very valuable. Typical challenges are: What happens when the funding runs out? What grant-developed programs should be sustained by the university? Does the institution need to internally allocate resources in an annual budget large …

Enhancing Precalculus Curricula With E-Learning: Implementation And Assessment, Janet Callahan, Seung Youn Chyung, Joanna Guild, William Clement, Joe Guarino, Doug Bullock, Cheryl Schrader

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

During Fall semester of 2007, a semester-long, quasi-experimental study was conducted at Boise State University to investigate the effectiveness of a systematically sequenced and managed, self-paced e-learning activity on improving students’ academic performance and motivation. A total of 125 students enrolled in 3 different sections of a Precalculus class participated in the study. The e-learning activity was implemented in 2 of the 3 sections as a required homework assignment. Students enrolled in one of the 2 selected sections were all engineering majors. The 3^rd section was a control group that did not use the e-learning activity. A pre-test, measuring …

Factors That Influence Informal Learning In The Workplace, Shelley A. Berg, Seung Youn Chyung

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence informal learning in the workplace and the types of informal learning activities people engage in at work. More specifically, the research examined (1) the relationship between informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics, and (2) perceived factors that affect informal learning engagement.

Methodology – Workplace learning and performance improvement professionals were invited to respond to an anonymous online survey, and 125 professionals volunteered to participate in the study.

Findings – This study did not find a significant correlation between informal learning engagement and the …

As Is The Sapling, So Grows The Tree: The Importance Of Early Care, Roberto E. Bahruth

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

All education is political and the ways children are educated early in life has a strong influence on them throughout their adult experience. Examples of these influences are provided from past generations with an argument to address the speed-of-light living of the generation of the microchip world of today's modern society. Children growing up with electronics and with little tolerance for down time crave constant stimulation. They are living a fundamentally different childhood, disconnected from nature's metaphors. Reflective time, quiet time, time spent getting lost in a book are being replaced by microtexting, emails, instant messaging, and cell phone conversations …

How Should We Screen For Reading Problems, Evelyn S. Johnson, Michael Humphrey, Rebecca Mclenna

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Response to intervention (RTl) is increasingly used to organize reading instruction and assessment. One component of an RTI framework is the universal screening of students to determine who is at risk for developing reading problems. For screening to be effective, it must be efficient, accurate and have positive consequences for its use. This article discusses the current approaches to screening and their limitations, and provides recommendations for improvement.

Educational Professionals’ Knowledge And Acceptance Of Evolution, Louis S. Nadelson, Gale M. Sinatra

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study sought to determine if we could identify a cadre of educational professionals with sufficient knowledge and acceptance of biological evolution to objectively evaluate the merits of the emerging discipline of evolutionary educational psychology. Members of APA and AERA were recruited to complete surveys measuring demographic characteristics, evolution knowledge (specifically natural selection), and evolution acceptance. We tested a model representing propensity toward open-minded examination of the merits of evolutionary educational psychology. Results showed evolution knowledge and acceptance, personal beliefs, academic and research experience, were key indicators of willingness to engage in objective evaluation of this new discipline. …

Persistence Of Vision: Hegemony And Counterhegemony In The Everyday, Roberto E. Bahruth

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

A gathering of subjects of history, activists who are engaging in the struggle for humanization, provides the ideal circumstance for pedagogical explorations that are generative and organic. Contrary to state-sponsored schooling, where inductees are treated as objects, receptacles of what Gabbard³ refers to as "the secular gospel," participants in the International Institute of Peace Education (IIPE) 2008 held in Haifa, Israel demonstrated the power of critical pedagogical encounters to move people to act not only with clarity and determination in, but also if necessary, against the everyday. After years of cultural work in a variety of terrains of engagement, …

Making A Difference, Rachel Rasmussen, Tawny Macdonald, Sarah Teschler

Service-Learning Program

Volunteering at the ANA meant helping new Americans feel welcome in a new place. It meant helping people feel capable at new things, make connections, and feel like they belong. We assisted them to become leaders of tomorrow.

By lending a helping hand to a family, we were embraced by the sharing of two totally different yet very similar cultures. They taught us, we taught them

Corpus Christi Day Shelter, Michelle Nielson, Nicole Underwood

Service-Learning Program

Quotes from Shelter Volunteers

“The best way for people to understand, is to strip them of I.D., S.S card, birth certificate, cash and credit cards. Give them a change of clothes, a sleeping bag and a list of services around town and turn them loose for 30 days. That would give them a taste of what homeless is like!”

“I have personally helped and enabled individuals to no longer be homeless.”

“ I have a special care for underprivileged and mentally slow people, people who are trying to exist after illness, addiction, or past wrong living who are trying to …

Computer-Based Instruction And Cognitive Load, Jui-Long Hung, Brandon Randolph-Seng, Kittikunanant Monsicha, Steven M. Crooks

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Following cognitive load theory, we used a computer-based software training paradigm to determining the optimal number of steps or information chunks to present before practice opportunities. Results demonstrating that the size of information chunks presented and the type of practice used individually influenced participants' ability to effectively learn via computer-based instruction. These findings contribute to the literature by showing the importance of practice and optimal segment sizes for learning via a computer.