Education Commons^™

How Relationship Status And Sociosexual Orientation Influence The Link Between Facial Attractiveness And Visual Attention, Aleksandra Mitrovic, Juergen Goller, Pablo Tinio, Helmut Leder

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Facial attractiveness captures and binds visual attention, thus affecting visual exploration of our environment. It is often argued that this effect on attention has evolutionary functions related to mating. Although plausible, such perspectives have been challenged by recent behavioral and eye-tracking studies, which have shown that the effect on attention is moderated by various sex- and goal-related variables such as sexual orientation. In the present study, we examined how relationship status and sociosexual orientation moderate the link between attractiveness and visual attention. We hypothesized that attractiveness leads to longer looks and that being single as well as being more sociosexually …

A Person-Centered Approach To Understanding Teachers' Classroom Practices And Perceived School Goal Structures, Nicole Barnes, Helenrose Fives, Jamaal Matthews, Kit Marie Saizdelamora

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

We examined 179 teachers' perceptions of their own classroom practices and their school's motivational climate to illuminate the ways these perceptions work in concert. Using teachers' responses to two scales of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey, a cluster analysis revealed three profiles of teachers described as cluster 1: Aligned: Performance Moderate, Mastery High: We agree with everything!; cluster 2: Aligned: Performance Low, Mastery High: Yea to Mastery! Nay to Performance!; and cluster 3: Unaligned: Classroom Mastery with School Performance: We're Mastery Structured in a Performance School. Cluster analyses revealed significant differences suggesting these teacher groups had distinct profiles. This …

Adult Youth Workers’ Conceptions Of Their Work In An Under-Resourced Community In The United States, David T. Lardier, Kathryn Herr, Pauline Garcia-Reid, Robert Reid

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examined adult workers’ conceptions of their work with youth in a large, underserved, urban region in the northeastern United States. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 18 youth workers from various organizations, affiliated with a community coalition focused on substance abuse prevention, we explored how adults viewed their role of working with youth. We were particularly interested in whether these workers saw youth empowerment and collaboration with youth for community change as part of their role. Our data suggested that while workers in this study were very supportive of youth, the support and actions they provided were on behalf …

Community Of Philosophical Inquiry And The Play Of The World, David Kennedy

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper seeks to identify the role of play in the design and function of Socratic dialogue as practiced in community of philosophical inquiry (CPI) in classrooms. It reviews the ideas of some major play theorists from various fields of study and practice-philosophy, cultural anthropology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, and education-and identifies the epistemological, ontological, and axiological judgments they share in their analyses of the phenomenon of play. It identifies five psychodynamic dimensions in which the Socratic play of "following the argument where it leads" can be identified: the "play space," the "time of play," "the rules of the …

Capturing Aesthetic Experiences With Installation Art: An Empirical Assessment Of Emotion, Evaluations, And Mobile Eye Tracking In Olafur Eliasson’S “Baroque, Baroque!”, Matthew Pelowski, Helmut Leder, Vanessa Mitschke, Eva Specker, Gernot Gerger, Pablo Tinio, Elena Vaporova, Till Bieg, Agnes Husslein-Arco

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Installation art is one of the most important and provocative developments in the visual arts during the last half century and has become a key focus of artists and of contemporary museums. It is also seen as particularly challenging or even disliked by many viewers, and-due to its unique in situ, immersive setting-is equally regarded as difficult or even beyond the grasp of present methods in empirical aesthetic psychology. In this paper, we introduce an exploratory study with installation art, utilizing a collection of techniques to capture the eclectic, the embodied, and often the emotionally-charged viewing experience. We present results …

How Is Fanfiction Framed For Literacy Education Practitioner Periodical Audiences : Media Frame Analysis (2003 - 2013), Drew Emanuel Berkowitz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation reports out the results from a socio-cultural media research study that examined how professional periodicals written for United States K-12 public school literacy educators described fanfiction-based recreational literacy practices between 2003 and 2013. In the first decade of the 21st century, many K-12 literacy scholars advocated for the adaptation of predominantly out-of-school literacy practices for use within US public school literacy instruction programs. During this period, some literacy researchers expressed concerns that teachers may have held incomplete or inaccurate conceptions of fan-based literacy practices such as fanfiction, to the detriment of their students and the literacy practices themselves. …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Engagement In A Discourse About Integers From A Sfardian Perspective, Douglas M. Platt

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study describes the way 14 pre-service teachers engaged in discourse about integers. The discourse being examined is framed by Sfard’s view of a discourse as being composed of the four elements word use, visual mediators, routines, and narratives (Sfard, 2008). These elements combine to form a means for people to exchange and preserve ideas and coordinate actions within a society. Each of the participants in this study engaged in a seven question, semi-structured interview (Merriam, 2009), which included prompts for the enactment of computations modeled with colored chips and the number line, in addition to written and spoken representations. …

Developing And Validating The Teacher Self-Efficacy For Teaching Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Inclusive Classrooms (Tse-Asdi) Scale, Corinne Gaffney Catalano

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This is a multi-method study to develop and validate an instrument to measure teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive early childhood classrooms, Teacher Self-efficacy for Teaching Students with ASD Inclusive Classrooms Scale: TSE-ASDI. I conducted literature and expert reviews as well as cognitive pre-testing with my target populations of pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers. I conducted a quantitative study using exploratory factor analysis, reliability analyses, correlational analyses, and by comparing mean differences in scores when grouped by teaching status, special education preparation and experience with individuals with ASD. My measure development process provided …

Portraits Of Adolescents As They Navigate The Competitive, College-Going, And Affluent Culture, Kathleen L. Grant

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

A growing body of literature has documented the elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and substance use in adolescents who live in upper-middle class communities. The competitive college preparation and admissions process is seen as a contributor to student stress. This study endeavored to gain understanding of the lived experience of adolescents in upper-middle class communities as they navigate the competitive, achievement-oriented, and college-going culture. Using Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s portraiture method, the participants’ narratives illuminated the ways these students accepted, struggled with, challenged, and resisted dominant cultural messages that were transmitted to them through their experiences as they prepared for college. The …

We Are Victorious: Educator Activism As A Shared Struggle For Human Being, Carolina Valdez, Edward Curammeng, Farima Pour-Khorshid, Rita Kohli, Thomas Nikundiwe, Bree Picower, Carla Shalaby, David Stovall

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This article shares national models of educational activism that center the experiences of People of Color but are diverse in that they serve students, parents, preservice teachers, teachers, and/or community educators and meet frequently in small groups or annually/biannually. Included narratives embody the humanization process, and situate that in the purpose of each project. Our aim is to complicate and extend the definition of activism as a shared struggle for the right to feel human.

When Am I Ever Going To Use This In The Real World? Cognitive Flexibility And Urban Adolescents' Negotiation Of The Value Of Mathematics, Jamaal Matthews

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Many adolescent learners have difficulty understanding the relevance of mathematics for their lives. This problem is particularly pernicious among Black and Latino adolescents who often face cultural stigma that can affect their perceived value of mathematics. The present study used concurrent nested mixed methods to explore this issue in 419 urban Black and Latino adolescents. Structured classroom observations, a computerized cognitive assessment, and surveys were used to examine how teacher math applications (TMAs) and adolescent cognitive flexibility interact to predict students' valuing of mathematics. From a subset of the larger sample (n = 37), semistructured qualitative interviews were used to …

Using A Model To Design Activity-Based Educational Experiences To Improve Cultural Competency Among Graduate Students, Yeon Bai, Kathleen D. Bauer

Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Scholarship and Creative Works

To improve the cultural competency of 34 students participating in graduate nutrition counseling classes, the Campinha-Bacote Model of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Health Care Services was used to design, implement, and evaluate counseling classes. Each assignment and activity addressed one or more of the five constructs of the model, i.e., knowledge, skill, desire, encounters, and awareness. A repeated measure ANOVA evaluated pre- and post-test cultural competence scores (Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professionals). The overall cultural competence score significantly improved (p < 0.001) from “culturally aware” (68.7 at pre-test) to “culturally competent” (78.7 at post-test). Students significantly improved (p < 0.001) in four constructs of the model including awareness, knowledge, skill, and encounter. Factor analysis indicated that course activities accounted for 83.2% and course assignments accounted for 74.6% of the total variance of cultural competence. An activity-based counseling course encouraging self-evaluation and reflection and addressing Model constructs significantly improved the cultural competence of students. As class activities and assignments aligned well with the Campinha-Bacote Model constructs, the findings of this study can help guide health educators to design effective cultural competence training and education programs.

Online Connectivity : A Social Study Of Educators’ Affinity For Teaching And Learning Using Social Media, Beverly R. Plein

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study investigated an online space for educators, known as #sschat, for the purpose of helping to inform and shape more formal professional learning experiences. Participants were able to engage in asynchronous and synchronous discussions related to social studies education by interacting in any of the four hashtags associated with the #sschat affinity space (i.e., #engsschat, #hsgovchat, #sschat, #worldgeochat), the #sschat Facebook page, the archived #chat sessions, and/or by contributing to the creation of the weekly #worldgeochat questions.

Seven common elements of Gee’s affinity spaces conceptual framework were used to frame this study. This framework drew attention to the …

Learning To Teach Physics : Exploring Teacher Knowledge, Practice, And Identity, Nellista E. Bess

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Urban and rural high schools in the United States often struggle in regard to the staffing of their physics classrooms with qualified teachers. Some states have responded to this challenge with education policy as a means of addressing the critical shortages of physics teachers by permitting inservice teachers to attain physics certification through endorsement programs. Although research on alternative certification typically evaluates and compares diverse models, this study focuses on teachers’ own perceptions of their experience in the aforementioned program, as well as their learning and development in and beyond preparation for physics endorsement.

In this qualitative multiple case study, …

“An Eye Opener” : The Meaning Of Latin@ College Students’ Experiences In A Bilingual Latin@ Family Class, Gloria A. Andrade

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Despite an increasing representation of Latin@s in the college system and in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI); Latin@ college students’ in-class experiences have been overlooked, particularly in bilingual courses. A phenomenological study of the Latin@ college students’ experience in a Bilingual Latin@ Family Class that incorporated aspects of the Latin@ culture in the instructional process at a HSI, included ten participant and three one-to-one interviews. The study provided a perspective on the complex reciprocal interaction of the Bioecological systems, the Funds of Knowledge and the Latin@ college students’ experiences. Five themes and additional subthemes were identified: (1) “Eye Opener” (courage, encouragement, …

Cultivating Success : How Two General Education Teachers Created Inclusion Classrooms For Their Students, Natalie A. Lacatena

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study examined the beliefs, instructional practices, and classroom climate of two general education inclusion teachers working in a single-teacher context. For purposes of this study, a single-teacher context was defined as a classroom in which a general education teacher instructed general education students and students with identified needs without the collaboration of a special education teacher. Two general education middle school teachers, nominated by their colleagues as successful at working with included students, completed a belief survey, participated in three one-on-one interviews, and were observed on eight separate occasions. A Disability Studies in Education lens was used as …

State Of Mind : A Poststructural Analysis Of Governmentality And Teacher Education Professionalism Using Policy Texts, Todd A. Bates

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation comprises a multilayered inquiry into the complex interplay between governance and teacher education. It adopts Goodlad’s (1990/1994) stance that teacher education best serves democratic society when it is self-governing and maintains decision-making authority with respect to the preparation of teachers. However, pervasive and prescriptive state and federal policies create a regulatory context that supplants the ability of teacher educators to exercise authority over fundamental aspects of their work, including the identification, recruitment, preparation, and assessment of future teachers.

Bacchi and Goodwin (2016) argue that prevailing educational policy critiques underexamine governmentalities—mindsets that render individuals and societies governable (Foucault, 2007). …

Black And Belonging At School: A Case For Interpersonal, Instructional, And Institutional Opportunity Structures, De Leon L. Gray, Elan C. Hope, Jamaal Matthews

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

This article is guided by two goals: (a) to consider how race-based perspectives can serve as theoretical tools for investigating Black adolescents’ opportunities to belong at school, and (b) to describe cultural and political aspects of schooling that can support a sense of belongingness among Black adolescents. We discuss support for the belonging of Black adolescents in terms of interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures. We provide a set of guiding questions for scholars seeking to advance educational psychology research at the intersection of race, belonging, and motivation. We end by describing specific research directions for an inclusive examination of …

Where Is The Love? Developing Loving Relationships As An Essential Component Of Professional Infant Care, Susan L. Recchia, Minsun Shin, Carolina Snaider

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Using a grounded theory approach, this study explores the ways a diverse group of pre-service student caregivers, new to teaching and caring for infants, come to understand notions of ‘love’ during an infant practicum course in the United States. Through analysing weekly dialogue journals and course assignments produced by each of the 8 participants, we captured their unique and complex experiences of love and care in the infant room. Results revealed that for love and trust between student caregivers and babies to evolve, caregivers need to acknowledge babies as unique individuals, and commit to getting to know and understand them …

Influence Of Autism On Fathering Style Among Black American Fathers: A Narrative Inquiry, Michael Hannon, Ebony E. White, Tyce Nadrich

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

Attention to Black men's fathering styles, especially those who have children with autism, has been largely overlooked. This study presents the narratives of six Black American fathers of individuals with autism and how autism influences their fathering practice. Results suggest fathering individuals with autism can yield greater patience in fathering practice, amidst some normative challenges associated with the diagnosis. Family therapists serving Black families and fathers of children with autism can enhance the therapeutic alliance by acknowledging cultural influences on fathering and family practices. Recommendations for clinical practice and research are shared. Practitioner points: Autism influences family systems in unique …

Empathetic Design Thinking To Fuel Your Learning Experience Design, Erin Scully, Kinta D. Montilus

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Based on the workshop, “Empathetic Design Thinking to Fuel your Learning Experience Design” presented at the OLCwELD Spring 2017 Conference, this emerging trends article looks to define design thinking and share a model that educators, instructional/learning designers, and other stakeholders can reproduce and adapt in their respective organizations and institutions.

Lessons Learned From Moocs, Deborah Keyek-Franssen

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

A breathtakingly short hype cycle prematurely sounded the death knell for massive open online courses (MOOCs) while overlooking the value that they bring to the table: massive data that describe the convergence of teaching, learning, and technology at scale.

Online Educational Outcomes Could Exceed Those Of The Traditional Classroom, Elliot King

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

An axiom of online education is that teachers should not mechanically translate existing courses into an online format. If so, how should new or ongoing courses be reshaped for the online environment and why? The answers come both from the opportunities offered by the structure of online education and from a body of research from cognitive psychology and cognitive science that provides insight into the way people actually learn. Freed from the time and space constraints inherent in face-to-face higher education settings as well as the deeply ingrained expectations of both teachers and students, online education provides a more flexible …

History In 140 Characters: Twitter To Support Reading Comprehension And Argumentation In Digital-Humanities Pedagogy, Kalani Craig

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Click-bait headlines that tackle the modern phenomenon of social media often rail against the stultifying effects of too much Twitter. At the same time, productive educational use of Twitter in the classroom is a particularly germane area of study for digital humanists, who consider Twitter a central piece of their community-building practices. This case-study analysis addresses the use of microblogging by using activity theory to understand how social media can be harnessed to help students quickly appropriate the norms of professional historians in a discipline they often encounter as passive listeners in a large lecture course. Students reimagined Prokopios’ biography …

Entering The Digital Commons: Using Affinity Spaces To Foster Authentic Digital Writing In Online And Traditional Writing Courses, Jeffrey Bergin

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Despite the fact that the field of rhetoric and composition has been closely allied to the digital humanities for many years, instructors in these disciplines often remain on their own in terms of adopting, implementing, and evaluating digital technologies. While theoretical scholarship in digital rhetoric is advancing, instructional practices lag behind. Surveying 72 doctoral-granting rhetoric and composition programs, researchers found innovation in the implementation of new media comes primarily from solitary instructors (Anderson and McKee, 74). This article presents several ways in which writing instructors can leverage digital spaces to improve their pedagogies. In particular, the article focuses on digital …

Deeper Learning By Putting Students In Charge Of The Problem Lifecycle, Michael Bieber

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Participatory Learning actively engages students in every stage of the problem lifecycle (including crafting problems for peers, providing solutions, peer grading, and disputes involving self-assessment). This brief motivates and describes the emerging Participatory Learning approach. The discussion then focuses on several issues concerning motivating students, guiding them in conducting the various problem lifecycle tasks, and evaluating participation and learning.

Why Design Matters For Learning Institutions, Jeff Bergin

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Design is becoming a mainstream element in the business world, but it’s been late to reach academia. In this brief, I argue that embracing design is critical for institutions and that design affects learning, outcomes, and enrollment.

Electronic Rubric Grading: Establishing A Foundation For The Future, Jayzona A. Alberto, Jorge Godinez Jr.

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Many institutions of higher education measure learning outcomes through performance-based assessments or rubrics, resulting in the exploration of innovative methods to administer these types of assessments (Anglin, Anglin, Schumann & Kaliski, 2008). At Western University of Health Sciences – College of Dental Medicine, performance-based assessments have been transformed into interactive, electronic versions in which faculty graders use their computers or mobile devices to submit scored rubrics complete with feedback for the students. A major advantage of the software, ExamSoft, we utilize is the ability to link learning outcomes to assessments, resulting in generating robust reports that display longitudinal data for …

Designing Learning With Citizen Science And Games, Karen Schrier

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

This emerging trends article introduces concepts such as citizen science (the inclusion of non-professionals in scientific knowledge production) and knowledge games (games that enable players to solve real-world problems through crowdsourcing and collective intelligence activities within a game). The article shares the strengths and limitations of using citizen science and knowledge games in the classroom, as well as initial tips and guidelines for bringing these types of experiences to the classroom.

Reconceptualizing Pedagogical And Curricular Knowledge Development Through Making, Steven Greenstein, Justin Olmanson

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

While making is typically tethered to narratives of entrepreneurship and business, it can provide a gateway to meaningful interaction and deepened understanding of both content and pedagogy. In this article we provide descriptions of two courses—one each at the pre-service and in-service levels—that engage teachers in making and design practices that we hypothesized would inform their pedagogical and curricular thinking. With a focus on the design of new tools to support teaching and learning through the use of human-centered design practices and digital fabrication technologies, these courses have teachers exploring at the intersection of content, pedagogy, and making. Specifically, they …