Education Commons^™

A Primary Document Analysis-Centered Curriculum In A Residential Treatment Center, Jared Peterson Collette

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study examines the challenges and rewards of applying Stanford History Group’s Thinking Like a Historian program in the context of a residential treatment center to better understand the necessary modifications and adjustments that would be needed to successfully apply this program. The researcher used an action research methodology, an analytic autoethnographic journal, as well as student work to investigate student successes and challenges in learning history through the use of primary documents. The findings demonstrate that students did not successfully apply historical thinking even after explicit instruction, extensive modeling, and guided practice. The author argues that low literacy rates, …

The Development And Evaluation Of An In-Service Training For Informing Elementary School Personnel About Culturally Responsive Assessment And Instruction For English Language Learning Students, Mallory Whitney Poole

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this project is to develop and present a training session for elementary school teachers and other Personnel who teach and work with English Language Learners (ELL). The training provides information on evidence based instructional strategies to help teachers improve their teaching methods with students who speak languages other than English. The lack of teacher knowledge in utilizing culturally and linguistically responsive teaching methods may be contributing to the over identification of ELLs in special education. This situation reinforces the need for additional teacher training for those who teach students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This creative …

Early Dynamic Assessment Of Morphological Awareness And Early Literacy Achievement: A Feasibility Study, Katherine Pike

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to the determine the feasibility of studying whether a) a morphological awareness dynamic assessment task was sensitive to assessing emerging knowledge of morphological awareness and revealed a range of performance in typically developing children, and b) performance on a dynamic assessment of morphological awareness is related to other predictors of language and literacy success. Method: Participants for this study included 15 typically developing children attending preschool in the Intermountain West with a mean age of 5 years, 2 months. The Early Dynamic Assessment of Morphological Awareness (EDAMA) was developed and administered, and a …

Instructional Strategies For Implementing Utah's Early Childhood Core Standards, Mark R. Noyce

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Children who are pre-lingually deaf or hard of hearing are often delayed in the acquisition and development of spoken language. Educators of the deaf and hard of hearing, of necessity, adapt and modify curriculum to ameliorate the delays inherent with hearing loss. Teachers utilize specialized strategies and techniques of presentation to adjust to the language and communication learning needs of children with hearing loss.
Curricula are written to identify the developmental sequence of concepts and skills expected of typically developing children. The Utah Early Childhood Core Standards (UECCS) was established to help prepare children to have the pre-requisite skills and …

Attracting Diverse Students To A Magnet School: Risking Aspirations Or Swallowing One’S Beliefs, Amanda Taggart, Alan R. Shoho

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This case study focuses on the ethics of advocating for a social justice perspective versus jeopardizing one’s career aspirations. There are numerous subplots to this case involving the start-up of a new magnet school, including its leaders’ concerns for meeting accountability measures and representing racially diverse, limited English proficient, and economically disadvantaged students. Through this case, we illustrate the conflicting choices school leaders may face when trying to balance their own career aspirations with their advocacy of social justice issues for underrepresented groups of students. By using Starratt’s ethical framework along with Strike, Haller, and Soltis’s and Shapiro and Stefkovich’s …

Citizenship Education And Foreign Language Learning: Deconstructing The Concept Of Good Citizenship Embedded In Foreign Language Curricula In China And America, Juanjuan Zhu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Under conditions of globalization and massive social, economic and political changes, the world in the last two decades has witnessed a wave of revived interest in
citizenship and citizenship education as well as the emergence of foreign language education as an important but under-researched site for the education of citizens. In this study, I critically examined the concept of good citizenship embedded in current foreign language curricula in China and the U.S. to see what it means in the two different contexts. I conducted a comparative critical discourse analysis of four data sets: (a) foreign language policies and/or curriculum standards …

Communication-Based Teaching For Chinese Language Learners, Hsiao-Mei Tsai

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is founded on the author’s principles of communicative teaching for Chinese language learners, which were cultivated and developed in the Master of Second Language Teaching program. The initial part of the portfolio is the teaching philosophy, which contains the author’s beliefs of teacher and student roles and effective teaching approaches in the Chinese as a foreign language classroom. The teaching philosophy is supported by three artifacts, which further clarify how to associate culture, literacy, and linguistics with language learning. The literacy artifact explains the process of Chinese and English biliteracy acquisition. The culture artifact is a comparison of …

The Effects Of Mnemonics To Increase Accuracy Of Multiplication Facts In Upper-Elementary School Students With Mild To Moderate Disabilities, Logan James Eubanks

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The intent of this project is to replicate a specific instructional method used in Wood et al.’s study focusing on the use of the pegword mnemonic strategy paired with stories and illustrations for 15 targeted multiplication facts remaining after mastering math facts in the zeros, ones, twos, fives, or nines groups. Three questions will be asked during this project on the effects of mnemonic instruction using pegword strategies on the percentage of multiplication facts answered correctly by third, fourth, and fifth grade students with learning disabilities? 1) Does pegword instruction paired with stories and illustrations result in immediate improvement for …

Technology And The Self-Directed Iep: Improving Meeting Participation For Students With Severe Disabilities, Crystal Ann Stringham

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Students with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) often experience challenges when transitioning to postsecondary education institutions after high school. A unique challenge involves filling out forms in order to registered for college. One of several components to a successful transition to postsecondary settings requires students to complete application forms. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of direct instruction (DI) on increased performance of filling out college application forms of students with SLD in a special education classroom. Participants included eight high school students, ages 17 to 18, with a SLD. The intervention in this study involved …

The Effects Of Direct Instruction On Completing College Application Forms Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Allyson White

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Students with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) often experience challenges when transitioning to postsecondary education institutions after high school. A unique challenge involves filling out forms in order to registered for college. One of several components to a successful transition to postsecondary settings requires students to complete application forms. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of direct instruction (DI) on increased performance of filling out college application forms of students with SLD in a special education classroom. Participants included eight high school students, ages 17 to 18, with a SLD. The intervention in this study involved …

Does Teaching Narrative Structure To Children With Language Impairments Improve Comprehension Of Expository Text?, Brynne Cook Evans

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Research has shown that knowledge of narrative text structure enhances students’ abilities to comprehend and produce narrative discourse. The current study was designed to determine if training in narrative text structure was associated with improved comprehension for expository passages that adhered to a narrative structure. Six children between the ages of 5:3 and 9:7 with language impairments participated. Children were matched by grade and randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention group received instruction 2 times a week for 45-minute sessions for a duration of 12 weeks from a graduate student in speech-language pathology with …

Understanding Successful Japanese Language Programs: Utah Case Study, Timothy G. Stout

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Recent world events have caused Americans to reassess national political, economic, and educational priorities, resulting in a shift towards Asia. The schools in response have begun to introduce less commonly taught languages, such as Japanese and Chinese. Many Utah public schools have tried to implement less commonly taught language programs. Some have succeeded, and other others have not. The purpose of this study was to understand how and why some schools were able to successfully integrate less commonly taught language programs, and why others were not.

The results of this study suggest that the factors relating to students’ interests and …

A Longitudinal Study Of English Narrative Discourse Development In Young Spanish-English Bilinguals, Abbie Olszewski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Producing oral narratives is the best predictor of later literacy functioning. The ability to use performance on oral narratives as a way to identify children who may be at- risk for academic and language problems is helpful for educators. For example, it is likely that children who are identified with language impairments or who are learning English as a second language may have difficulty creating narratives due to the inherent language complexity of creating narratives. Research has demonstrated that similar to English monolingual children, narrative ability has been shown to underlie literacy development for bilingual children. Although there are numerous …

Factors That Influence Secondary Students To Join The Collegiate Ffa, Sara Vanderbos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Student involvement on college campuses is important for the professional growth, leadership development and learning of today's college student. This research sought to determine the factors that influence former high school FFA members' reasons for joining and participating in the Collegiate FFA.

The study showed that students who are involved in the National FFA at the secondary level are more likely to join Collegiate FFA while attending a university that offers the Collegiate FFA option. These students were actively engaged on campus and were interested in helping others. Collegiate FFA programs, the National FFA, and universities across the country should …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Utah Career And Technical Education Introduction Course, Debra Marie Spielmaker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah State Office of Education Career and Technical supported this quantitative study that evaluated the gains and outcome evaluations of the compulsory Career and Technical Education (CTE) Introduction course. All public school seventh grade students are required to enroll in this school-year course. The matched pair design used preexisting data to analyze 6,078 pre- and postsurvey responses collected at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course during the 2011-2012 school year. The evaluation was viewed through a postpositivist lens and used a theory-based evaluation model as the framework for analysis. The research questions …

Communicative Language Teaching, Karina C. Mora

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of second language teaching research and

ideas put together during the author’s time as a MSLT student. It includes a

personal teaching philosophy supported by three related artifacts. It also contains

an annotated bibliography with an overview of some of the research examined

during her time in the program. Her personal teaching philosophy underscores

how communicative language teaching can help students learn language through

meaningful use. The artifacts suggest ways to implement communicative

language teaching by teaching language in content, using multimedia authentic

texts, and teaching sociolinguistics and pragmatics.

Home Gardening: Quick Tips To Efficient Watering, Roslynn Brain

Roslynn Brain

In Utah’s dry climate, water is a gardener’s best friend. Water conservation is an important aspect of the home garden, and understanding efficient water management techniques can save you time and money. Knowing how to water properly will help you to maintain a more productive, sustainable garden and help the environment by reducing your consumption of this precious resource.

Race And Ethnic Differences In Parent Time Spent On Children's Education, Zurishaddai A. Garcia

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Academic success including high school completion is greatly important for today’s youth. Greater opportunities, such as college and work acceptance, are available to youth who graduate high school. For this reason, the differences that exist in high school completion rate across race and ethnicity as a nation are a major concern.

Research shows an association between parents being involved in their children’s education and students’ improved academic achievement. Parents can play a role in their children’s education and setting aside time to do so is a good place to start.

The present study used the American Time Use Survey to …

Perceptions By High School Teachers Of Mathematical Readiness Of Students With Disabilities Transitioning To College, Adam Dwight King

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

More and more students with mild disabilities enroll in and attend college. However, test scores and other achievement measures show that they are well behind
their regular education peers in math achievement, and thus unprepared for the rigors of college. While much has been done to revise laws and policy involving students with disabilities and academic core standards to increase preparedness, it is still what happens in the classroom that has the greatest effect on student preparation. Due to
the nature of pullout/resource classes where pacing is typically slower and less content is covered, special education teachers make a myriad …

Democratic Inclusive Educators, Amy Baird Miner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Educating for democracy has long been established as a central purpose for schooling in America and continues to be included in the ongoing discourses on educational policy and programs. While educating for democracy has been defined in many ways, it is commonly agreed that it is the knowledge, skills, and experiences that members of a democracy should possess in order to be contributing citizens of a global society. Nested within the context of democratic education, inclusion as advocated by Iris Marion Young provided the framework for this study. Young suggested that inclusive democracy enables the participation and voice for all …

Exploring Three Fifth-Grade Teachers' Understanding Of Historical Thinking: A Case Study, Deanne Rigby Murray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Deanne R. Murray at Utah State University conducted a qualitative case study aimed at examining the understanding and practice of historical thinking of three fifth-grade teachers. These three teachers had each been a participant for 3 years in a federally funded Teach American History (TAH) grant project aimed at increasing teachers' historical knowledge and classroom practices. This TAH project in Utah was particularly focused on teachers learning to use cultural tools in socially mediated settings with the ultimate goal of improving their students' performance in history.

This study sought to understand the development of these three teachers' historical thinking through …

Utility Of An Error Analysis And Performance Deficit Assessment For Selecting Brief Interventions To Increase Math Fluency, Aaron John Denison

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Children who struggle with math fluency are typically not provided with the appropriate motivation and instruction for their needs in the regular education classroom. Because of their lack of math fluency skills, these children can be negatively affected throughout their education and can continually fall further behind their peers. It is clear that children who struggle with math fluency should be provided with interventions specific to their needs in order to thrive in a school environment. Thus, it is critical that school psychologists and researchers develop effective strategies for children who are struggling with math fluency in order to help …

Spanish-Speaking Parents' Negotiation Of Language And Culture With Their Children's Schools, Ronda L. Bickmore

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Latinos are now the largest public school minority population in the U.S. Because of a shift in the states, cities, and counties where Latinos are choosing to live, many schools that did not previously serve substantial numbers of Latinos are doing so now. Additionally, many of the Latinos in these new settlement areas are recent immigrants who speak little or no English. This qualitative study examined how immigrant Latino parents who speak little or no English supported their children in the English-speaking school system of the U.S. It specifically examined how 12 Spanish-speaking parents negotiated language and culture with their …

Student Engagement In Lds Seminaries, Thomas P. Aardema

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This qualitative study examined student engagement in seminaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). This study sought to answer the following question: "What are seminary teachers, who have been identified by content experts as having high levels of student engagement, doing to generate high levels of student engagement in their classrooms?" Ten LDS Seminary teachers were selected as participants for this study. The findings from this study were organized around the concepts of: competence, school membership, clarity of purpose, fairness, personal support, caring, authentic work, extrinsic reward, intrinsic interests, sense of ownership, connection to real-world application, …

Assessing The Importance Of Sequencing Laboratory Welding Practicums, Malcolm Riley Rose

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine if having fewer operator-controlled variables during welding will improve secondary students' ability to meet weld quality standards for an AWS 1F test. Two different welding processes, Gas Metal Arc Welding and Shielded Metal Arc welding, were used in the research. The population of this study (N = 71), participants were randomly assigned into one of four treatment groups. The study was conducted over six class periods. Participants completed a welding pretest, taught safety procedures followed by welding instruction of both GMAW and SMAW process. Practice sessions were given for each welding …

Sensitivity Of Human Choice To Manipulations Of Parameters Of Positive And Negative Sound Reinforcement, Joseph Michael Lambert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine whether altering parameters of positive and negative reinforcement in identical ways could influence behavior maintained by each in different ways. Three undergraduate students participated in a series of assessments designed to identify preferred and aversive sounds with similar reinforcing values. Following reinforcer identification, we conducted parameter sensitivity assessments for both positive and negative reinforcers. Parameter manipulations influenced behavior in the same way across reinforcement processes for two participants. However, for one participant, the way in which parameter manipulations influenced behavior differed according to the reinforcement process. Our results suggest that, for at …

An Ecofeminist Perspective On The Influences That Promote And Restrict Three Early Childhood Educators' Inclusion Of Open-Ended Outdoor Learning, Anne K. Mackiewicz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to explore the influences that promoted and restricted three women early childhood educators' inclusion of open-ended outdoor learning in a Head Start center. With the recorded history of human's impact on nature, along with the majority of women in the early childhood workforce, I chose a theory, ecofeminism, that looked at both the domination of women and nature in the early childhood setting.

The methods included participant interviews, observations, and a study of the site's documents. Four themes were identified as promoting or restricting open-ended outdoor learning. These themes included: (a) participant's attitudes, (b) …

Effects Of Integrating Mathematical Concepts Into An Animal Science Curriculum, Andrea Rae Clark

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nationwide, mathematical scores have been a topic of concern among elementary and secondary educators for many years. Teaching contextualized math has been found to be effective and includes providing a direct application to real-life scenarios rather than teaching linear equations and algebraic principles outside of their application.

A study was conducted measuring the effects of integrating mathematical skills in an animal science curriculum. All students were taught a unit of instruction about animal nutrition and feeding. The control group received a typical nutrition unit and the treatment group received the same unit of instruction with the addition of mathematical skill …

Maintaining Spanish In An English-Speaking World, Audrey Constance Juhasz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As the Latino portion of the United States population continues to grow each year, more and more children in the United States leave their Spanish-speaking homes and enter English immersion schools. Throughout their lives, these children are likely to shift language preferences from their home language, to the language of the community. However, maintaining development in their first language would be a benefit to them in multiple ways. Identifying factors within bilingual homes that influence English and Spanish language development in preschool-aged children will help researchers and practitioners encourage families to cultivate the optimal learning environment.

This study endeavored to …

An Evaluation Of A Computer-Based Training On The Visual Analysis Of Single-Subject Data, Katie Snyder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Federal education policies, such as No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, mandate the use of scientifically-proven or research-based curricula and interventions. Presumably, interventions that have a large amount of scientific evidence documenting their success are more likely to be effective when implemented with students in school settings.

In special education, single-subject research is the predominant methodology used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions. In single-subject research, a target behavior is measured under baseline conditions (i.e., before the intervention of interest is implemented) and intervention conditions. The data for each condition are graphed, and analyzed …