Education Commons^™

Exploring Using Game-Based Learning And Gamification In A Secondary Classroom To Increase Engagement, Mandee Lynn Thiell

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has connected the importance of student engagement and student experience within the classroom but continue to use teacher directed traditional teaching methods. This project explores the use of gamification and game-based learning and how it promotes student engagement. The use of games and game-elements provide a relevant approach that focuses on student autonomy and experience, and ultimately use fun engaging ways to motivate students to learn. This project provides an entry level learning in-service opportunity for secondary educators to discover and create their own lessons that implement gamification and game-based learning in their classrooms in hopes to increase student …

Addressing The Problem Of Student Engagement In The Classroom, Levi R. Urias

Culminating Experience Projects

The problem of student engagement is one that is faced by teachers everywhere. While multiple strategies exist for combating this issue, project-based learning and inquiry-based learning are two that stand out in the multitude of research. Additionally, these strategies are ideal in the science classroom as they align very well with the Next Generation Science Standards that are used in Michigan, including rural Southwest Michigan school, Eau Claire High School. This project explores these instructional strategies and their various benefits which include improved critical thinking, improved social skills, and improved questioning skills.

Cultivating Lifelong Readers: A Study Of How English Teachers Can Bring Pleasure Back Into The Reading Lives Of Students, Kaylie Jo Schertzing

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has revealed that many of today’s students are not reading for pleasure. Although research shows that recreational reading is linked with academic success, educational policies have left reading for pleasure out of focus and instead emphasize a particular type of reading that is assessed on mandated tests. As a result of curriculum reforms, English Language Arts curriculum has been narrowed and left reading for pleasure out of focus. This project explores the history of curriculum reform in the United States as it relates to the teaching of English Language Arts as well as recent research surrounding how recreational reading …

Supporting English Learners In The General Classroom, Stephanie L. Gamble

Culminating Experience Projects

The American public school classroom is rapidly changing, and as a result the needs in the classroom are changing. According to the NYU Steinhart school of culture, the average K-12 public school classroom is made up of about 20% English language learners. Researchers predict that percentage will climb to 25% by the year 2025, making EL students the fastest growing population in American public schools (Staff, 2021). The purpose of my research was to find ways that educators can better reach these students and decrease the opportunity gap between these students and their peers. Teachers across the country are struggling …

Examining Teaching Practices That Increase Student Mathematical Achievement, Jonah P. Zimmerman

Culminating Experience Projects

The current data in the United States surrounding mathematics shows that there are issues that must be addressed with teaching and learning math in the K-12 setting. In the perfect world, all students would meet grade level expectations in math prior to moving to another grade; however, this is not what is taking place. Students are not meeting proficiency, and as a result teachers and students alike are not gaining confidence in teaching/learning mathematics. This project looks at the Math Workshop Model as being one alternative to the more traditional teaching practices that are used today in the ABC School …

Post-Covid-19 Teaching With Technology Support In Higher Education, Landon Nalepinski

Masters Theses

Using a mixed methods approach, this case study focuses on how technological support in higher education can encourage educators to continue using and developing their teaching with technology practices post-COVID-19. Data and information were gathered via an anonymous survey from faculty members at Grand Valley State University to gain a better understanding of what support is being provided to them and how we can expand on that in the future.

Elements Of Early Warning Systems: Identifying Students Who Need Support Early Enough To Change Their Trajectory Towards Graduation, Samantha Mayse

Culminating Experience Projects

Student success initiatives have been a focus at many institutions of higher education to help with retention rates but identifying the students who need the student success resources most can be challenging. Scholarships increase access to higher education but do not necessarily contribute to student success. Thus, this research project sought to analyze early alert systems used by mid-sized universities in the U.S. Midwest to help similar institutions in developing their own early alert system. Using mixed methods, this study included a qualitative analysis of institution’s policies and procedures for early warning systems and a quantitative analysis of GVSU institutional …

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 16, December 5, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Great Lakes Great Books: Continuing To Learn, Lynette Marten Suckow

Michigan Reading Journal

Five book reviews from several grade levels focus on the value of lifelong learning. Titles were chosen from the Great Lakes Great Books Award list.

Justifying Juneteenth: A Critical Pairing Of Two Children's Texts, Rebecca Witte, Amber Lawson

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.

Advocating For English Language Learners: The Role Of The Literacy Educator, Briana Asmus, Austyn Sabin

Michigan Reading Journal

The authors explore how place-based advocacy effects and pedagogies have provided a way to address the needs of students. Insights on the ways authors have confronted challenges in their elementary and secondary settings reveal strategies that can be carefully integrated by literacy educators into other “places” of learning.

TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu German Maltese Vietnamese Greek Norwegian Welsh Haitian Creole Persian …

Spaces To (Re)Imagine Community Consciousness For Students In Detroit, Lakya Goss

Michigan Reading Journal

Sustaining spaces that foster community consciousness inside and outside of traditional public school settings is important for school/community ties. African-centered education and community-centered learning spaces are two examples of spaces that foster community consciousness for students in Detroit.

To Be Young, Black, And In The Academy: A Collection Of Lessons, Yetunde Alabede, Jessica Reed, Blake Thompson

Michigan Reading Journal

Literacy, a foundational tool that unlocks opportunities, can be viewed in both narrow and confining lenses. We, doctoral students at Michigan State University, center our own experiences in order to redefine such narratives of what literacy means, can mean, and should mean for students of color throughout the African Diaspora. We explore methods to disrupt, experiences to resist, and questions to challenge the ways that students and educators engage with various concepts of literacy. Though we come from various backgrounds, this manuscript seeks to push forward a dialogue that allows for the multiple literacies that Black children have, language and …

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 15, November 28, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 14, November 21, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 12, November 7, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Exploring Graduate Student Mental Health And Service Utilization By Gender, Race, And Year In School, Mikhila N. Wildey, Meghan E. Fox, Kelly A. Machnik, Deborah Ronk

Peer Reviewed Articles

Objective: The current study explored differences in mental health problems, services utilization, and support of graduate students by gender, race/ethnicity, and year in school.

Participants: Participants consisted of 734 graduate students from a large, Midwestern university.

Methods: Graduate students answered a series of questionnaires in fall 2021 assessing their mental health, services utilization, and perception of services.

Results: Women (vs men) and participants in their second year and beyond (vs first year) reported greater mental health problems, negative impact of the pandemic, and more services utilization. White (vs non-White) participants reported greater negative impact of the pandemic, greater services utilization, …

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 11, October 31, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 10, October 26, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Youth Sport Influences And The American Development Model: An Analysis, Jill Fjelstul, Asli Tasci, Alan Fyall

Journal of Tourism Insights

Youth sport offers physical, mental, and social health benefits with numerous sport and recreational enterprises and venues offering respective programming of multiple sports. Participation rates of youth in sport and recreational activities, however, are declining. In addition, the age most noted to drop out of youth sport is approximately age 13. Numerous influencers impact participation and retention in youth sport. The current report examines factors impacting youth sport participation, motivation, and retention. The report also showcases seven sport governing body initiatives to strengthen youth involvement in their respective sport and could potentially offer insight to other sporting and recreational activities. …

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 09, October 17, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 08, October 10, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 07, October 3, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Examining The Continued Impact Of The Pandemic On Student Achievement In Gvsu Charter Schools - Year 2 Report, Kiel Mcqueen, Grand Valley State University

CSO Research Reports

In December 2021, Basis Policy Research (Basis) released a report examining the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement in Grand Valley State University (GVSU) charter schools. Findings revealed students made achievement gains in math and reading in 2021 but at a lower rate as compared to prior years. Furthermore, Basis researchers found that students’ achievement in spring 2021 was lower compared to the pre-pandemic period; achievement in spring 2021 was between 8 to 18 percentile points lower than spring 2019, with larger declines in math as compared to reading.

This report continues examining the impact of the …

Establishing Open Teaching Tools: A Faculty Journey With Open Educational Resources, Genevieve B. Elrod Phd, Rn, Ocn, Susan M. Strouse

Peer Reviewed Articles

Nursing faculty strive to engage students; however, many may have competing priorities that reduce their available time to produce high-quality lessons. Novice faculty facing role transition, some without formal preparation as educators, may be especially susceptible to these time constraints. Open educational resources (OER), educational materials openly licensed for free access and use, are growing rapidly and can play a role in filling this gap. Specifically, open teaching tools are a subset of OER that can help meet this faculty need for engaging lessons with limited resources. Open teaching tools are teaching resources rather than student-learning resources. They allow expert …

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 06, September 26, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 05, September 19, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 04, September 12, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 57, No. 03, September 6, 2022, Grand Valley State University

Volume 57, August 1, 2022 - April 10, 2023

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Fostering Data Literacy Teaching With Quantitative Data In The Social Sciences, Dylan Ruedinger, Daniella Miriam Cooper, Samantha Minnis, Gayle Schaub

Scholarly Papers and Articles

Quantitative literacy is an essential twenty-first century skill that universities are heavily invested in teaching to students. The social sciences play an important role in these efforts because they attract students who might otherwise avoid data and mathematically oriented courses and because they ground quantitative reasoning in political and social contexts that resonate with undergraduates. However, pedagogical best practices for social science instructors have been slow to emerge and the support needs of instructors and students remain difficult to discern. Ithaka S+R’s Teaching Support Services program explores the teaching practices and support needs of collegiate instructors. Our most recent project …