Education Commons^™

Integrating A Humanities And Business Education Course: Issues, Problems, And Benefits, Rhea R. Walker

Graduate Research Papers

Since the mid-nineteenth century, higher education, in particular community colleges, has seen an increased demand to serve the training needs of business and industry. Today, business and industry insist their prospective employees be trained in both job-specific skills (hard) and general skills (soft). These soft skills are defined as management, leadership, teamwork, interpersonal communications, problem-solving, decision-making, and adaptability to change skills (Georges, 1988). However, Stephen Wehrenberg simply described soft skills as being purely mental functions (Wehrenberg, 1986). Hence, traditional occupational education methods of teaching only job-specific skills such as keyboarding, drafting, and auto mechanics are being challenged to include soft …

An Examination Of The Six Roles Of The Dental Hygienist In Relation To The Field Dependence-Field Independence Construct, Melanie R. Hamer

Graduate Research Papers

Dental hygienists are seeking to remain viable health professionals in the midst of social, political, and economic changes which are occurring in the United States. These changes are expected to accelerate as the nation evolves from an industrial-based society to an information-based society (American Dental Hygienists' Association, 1988) (ADHA) . The shift to an information-based society will have an impact upon health care delivery in the future (Turner, 1988). If the dental hygiene profession is to remain viable in a rapidly changing society, dental hygienists' educational institutions must respond to change.

Building An Understanding Of The Common Core State Standards And Complex Texts, While Supporting Upper Elementary Readers With Complex Text Through Shared Reading, Joanna Mae Carlson

Graduate Research Papers

The Common Core State Standards have caused changes to happen within classrooms. Teachers are teaching using complex text, and students are expected to read and comprehend grade-level complex texts. In order to successfully teach with these types of texts, teachers must have an understanding of what makes a text complex and how text complexity is measured. Building an understanding of these ideas will help teachers support all students with comprehension. Shared reading is a teaching strategy that teachers can implement in their classrooms to support students with the reading of complex texts. In upper elementary classrooms, shared reading can be …

Pleasure Reading Workshop: Meeting Sel Competencies Based On Sustained (And Maybe Not So Silent) Reading, Lora Sink

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the benefits pleasure reading had on students' understanding of social emotional learning and the Teacher Librarian’s (TL) foundational role for providing an environment for pleasure reading that fostered social emotional learning (SEL) at the middle school level. The participants included one language arts class of 14 seventh graders at a private K-8 school located in the Midwest. Students were given ample class time to read, and their writing, discussions, and evaluations centered around social and emotional learning. Results in 6 themes showed that using pleasure reading as a base, teachers …

Identifying Misconceptions About Evolution Relative To Science Curriculum Exposure At The Secondary Level, Rachel Carney

Graduate Research Papers

Evolution is the foundation of the biological sciences. Addressing misconceptions related to biological evolution ensures students have a solid understanding of evolution so that they can become scientifically literate members of society. While studies have identified misconceptions about evolution, there is much less research on the degree to which specific biology curricula address these misconceptions. The goal of this study is to determine how exposure to the SEPUP biology curriculum affects the misconceptions about evolutionary theory held by 10th grade students.

This study took place at a moderately-sized school located in the Midwest. Students respond with their agreeability to a …

High School Earth Science Students Evaluating Agricultural Solutions, Jaclyn Citlali Sanchez Erickson

Graduate Research Papers

With the Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) implementation it is imperative to include three-dimensional learning in any curriculum designed. In addition, NGSS lends itself well to inquiry based and project based learning.

I chose to focus my curriculum project on developing a project-based learning (PBL) piece targeting NGSS ESSS 3-4: Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems. The PBL was designed for ninth-grade earth science students at a rural school. This project was designed with 5 E-learning in mind to help organize the end product, a presentation. It was developed using an …

Rising Above The Stigma: Developing Young Leaders Through Peer Mentoring, Shawn Miller

Graduate Research Papers

Permanence is ideally the ultimate goal of the child welfare system, however it is unrealistic to believe that every young adult transitioning out of care will not only find a permanent home, but have had the opportunity to build the social capital needed for a successful transition in today’s society (Scannapieco, Smith, Blakeney-Strong, 2015).

The Influence Of Book Club Conversations On Reluctant Or Struggling Readers, Jadee Jo Gloede

Graduate Research Papers

This qualitative case study reports the TL impact on reluctant readers’ sustained engagement in conversations about reading, and the impact the participation in the book club has on a student’s motivation to read. This study from a small, rural area in Northwest Iowa consisted of six fourth grade students and their teacher librarian who met in a book club over a four week time period during summer school. The students were taught different reading roles and utilized them throughout the discussion of the book. The researcher discovered five main themes in response to the research questions. Theme one is Diverse …

A Preferred Vision For Administering Elementary Schools : A Reflective Essay, Brenda M. Boleyn

Graduate Research Papers

Throughout my life I have tried to engage myself in activities that were opportunities for me to "make a difference." Whether it be involvement in community clean-up projects or parks and recreation programs for children, my intentions were always to use my time to do good for a cause or another person. I carried this belief with me into college while I was in search of what I wanted to become "when I grew up." I looked in several directions on the basis of some fundamental goals I had for myself. First, I knew I wanted to be in a …

Human Impact On The Environment: A Middle School Project Based Learning Unit Development, Shannon Power

Graduate Research Papers

I chose to focus my creative component on the development and implementation of a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) aligned earth science unit for an 8th grade science course taught using Project Based Learning (PBL) and graded using Standards Referenced Grading (SRG) philosophies and a proficiency scale. The unit focused on the Performance Expectation MS-ESS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment (NGSS, 2013e). This standard includes the Science and Engineering Practice (SEP) of constructing explanations and designing solutions, a Cross Cutting Concept (CCC) of cause and effect, and a …

Abracadabra: Combatting Nonprofit Turnover When Your Staff Perform The Disappearing Act, Averi Gabrielle Jones

Graduate Research Papers

As one of America’s top employers, the nonprofit sector is filled with outlets for individuals to blossom in creativity and innovation, while allowing them to be connected to a cause they are passionate about advocating for. However, more and more nonprofit organizations are faced with a frightening disappearing act amongst their staff. With this readily growing rate of high employee turnover, it is more vital than ever for employers to build workforce environments that inspire dedication and longevity amongst staff. This study is focused on pinpointing sources for poor employee retention and differentiating the role that these sources play amongst …

Enhancing Scientific Literacy Through Attention To Argumentation As A Disciplinary Literacy Practice, Whitney Mcwilliams

Graduate Research Papers

This project is partly driven by Science Writing Heuristic as writing to learn is part of a larger objective to help students develop literacy. While research on the SWH examines its own effectiveness through the lens of literacy, it only looked at its impact on science content knowledge. This project will examine five assessment tasks structured around the practice of argumentation. Data collected will measure use and inclusion of phenomena, three dimensional learning, and alignment to Performance Expectations. The content of the performance expectations center around two standards focused on electromagnetic radiation’s effect on matter and technological devices used to …

The Process For Nonprofits And Foundations To Engage In Productive Partnerships, Anna Mccutcheon

Graduate Research Papers

Nonprofits and foundations are encouraged to work together, seamlessly, by their constituents, peers, and even each other, but forming a collaborative partnership is not solely determined by preference or opinion (Le et al, 2018). Both foundations and nonprofits face multiple challenges when pursuing on-going, productive relationships with each other. Specifically, expectations that arise before, during, and after the grant proposal process, inconsistency with program performance and measurement expectations, and a lack of candid transparency that prohibits mutual lines of communication between these two entities.

Teaching Race Through Multicultural Children's Literature, Kaley Bailey, Maiya Duthoo-Wolpert

Graduate Research Papers

There is considerable confusion in today’s society when it comes to talking about race. In result to this, race talk in schools can be overseen with challenges, leading to problematic conversations, disconnection, and ultimately student disengagement. This study is used by two Elementary educators one an Asian, the other a Caucasian - found in the Midwest, showing how teachers can break that uncomfortable barrier of the topic about race and navigate conversations through multicultural children’s literature books. The study demonstrated how to choose the most effective multicultural children’s literature to share to a classroom of students and how beneficial it …

Effects Of Stepwise Guided Inquiry On Students' Attitudes And Depth Of Knowledge From Written Lab Reflections In High School Chemistry, Melissa Rae Campbell Johnson

Graduate Research Papers

Many teachers find it challenging to embed guided inquiry into high school chemistry courses. Although guided inquiry provides excellent opportunities for students to engage in data analysis, misconceptions and loss of class time are teacher stated problems with guided inquiry. A stepwise inquiry project can slowly introduce students to the inquiry process of data analysis in high school chemistry.

This stepwise inquiry project examined three different inquiry labs designed around the anchoring phenomenon, “ Which toothpaste protects our teeth the best?”Each lab progressed in inquiry level. Lab one was written at inquiry level one,confirmation. The second lab was written at …

Accuracy Of Self-Assessment In A Ninth Grade Earth Science Classroom, Alyssa Jacobson

Graduate Research Papers

Student engagement is a constant struggle teachers and schools work to address. Students who are not engaged are more likely to drop out of school and participate in risky behaviors that negatively impact themselves and society as a whole. As a means to combat student disengagement, school districts have begun to implement The New Art and Science of Teaching, a framework meant to engage students by involving them in the learning process through self-assessment.

The purpose of this study is to determine how accurately high school aged students can self-assess and how students make decisions when they self-assess. To …

Analysis Of Assessments On Secondary Students' Development And Interpretation Of Models, Alaina L. Appley

Graduate Research Papers

As districts are making the shift to three-dimensional learning the development of a coherent set of high-quality task-based assessments has been a challenge. For this research I collected and analyzed twelve of my district's assessments over the scientific skill of modeling from grades seven through 12. The analysis involved two tools developed by NGSS and Achieve.org to determine the extent to which the assessments ask students to perform tasks that are driven by phenomena and use the three-dimensional in service of sense-making, the Task Screener and the Framework to Evaluate Cognitive Complexity in Science Assessments. The findings support what …

Immediate Vs. Deferred Feedback During Formative Assessments In A 9th Grade Physical Science Course, Jordan Sonntag

Graduate Research Papers

For educators, feedback has become a very important part of the teaching practice that is taught in both teacher education programs and building-level professional development. While many studies have been done on feedback itself, there is much less research on the effectiveness of certain types of feedback used within a Learning Management System (LMS). The goal of this experiment is to determine if there is any difference on summative assessment scores based on the use of different types of feedback on formative assessments using an LMS.

An LMS is a program that allows the educator to create step by step …

Inspiring Students To Take Action In Order To Make Positive Change Through The Integration Of Social Studies Themes In Children's Literature, Morgan Ives, Taylor Marsho, Ashtyn Riley, Deidra Rudd

Graduate Research Papers

This study explores the use of children literature to teach social studies concepts within literacy instruction. Fifty-eight kindergarteners and twenty seventh graders, attending four different rural elementary schools, are the participants in this study. All four schools included in the study were racially and ethnically homogeneous, with a majority of the students being White. The study focuses on the effects of limited social studies instruction within all schools and how social studies can be integrated within a literacy time block. The kindergarten general education teachers and the seventh grade English Language Arts teacher provided all of the instruction. The results …

Impact Of Inquiry Science Courses On Preservice Elementary Students' Ideas On Science, Lance Charles Baetsle

Graduate Research Papers

This study examines how students' scientific ideas compare between students who have taken different numbers of general science and inquiry science courses at a midwestern university. The purpose of this study is to gain perspective and to inform current teaching practices based on how preservice elementary education teachers view scientific ideas after taking a different number of inquiry science courses. Students in a science inquiry course completed a science survey (Appendix B) of science and non-science questions and were asked to explain their reasoning. A scoring rubric (Wilson et al., 2010) was used to apply a score for correct and …

Examining The Impact A Teacher Librarian Has On Students' Self-Selection Strategies, Stefanie Throndson

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the impact a Teacher Librarian has on students’ self-selection strategies and the broader impact on a culture of reading in a school building. Data was collected from 263 students in middle school (grades 5-8) resulting in 1322 reponses over eight weeks. Research Question 1 asked, What appeal strategies do students use when selecting an independent reading book? “You liked the author or it is in a series” was the number one book selection approach used with 21.6% of the responses indicating this approach when selecting a book. The least helpful book …

Autoethnography On Teaching During A Pandemic, Kelsey Ufford

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted and changed teaching strategies in a young adolescent science classroom and how the pandemic changed personal ideas around online learning. Prior research shows how online learning can be implemented successfully in collegiate classrooms, but it is rare to find research that shows how to successfully implement online learning in a young adolescent classroom. This point of view is from a rural, Iowa middle school standpoint and data was collected through the use of personal journals, emails, and a timeline from March 2020 and May 2020. After the …

Data-Driven Decision Making In Nonprofit Organizations, Amanda Kline

Graduate Research Papers

In recent decades the nonprofit sector has come under significant scrutiny from funders, clients, and the general public. This has led to a focus on programmatic and organizational outcomes data gathering and reporting aimed at increasing accountability throughout the sector. This study analyzes the literature on how nonprofit organizations use this data to drive strategy and decision making. The three specific area reviewed are strategic fundraising, mission drift avoidance, and limitations and obstacles organizations encounter regarding data gathering and analysis usage in the decision making process. Implications and recommendations for nonprofit professional are also discussed.

The Impact Of The Use Of Mobile Computing On Vocabulary Learning In The Language Classroom, Lorena Harger

Graduate Research Papers

Mobile computers offer accessibility anytime and anywhere, and they are being used more and more for teaching and learning. The purpose of this review is to explore the impact of using mobile applications and devices in vocabulary learning among language learners. The review also addresses the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the use of mobile computers in the classroom. In this paper, thirty peer-reviewed journal articles published in the last eleven years were critically analyzed. From the reviewed research, it was found that using mobile computers not only enhances vocabulary learning and retention but also contributes to students’ motivation …

Using Adapted Primary Science Literature To Enhance Argumentation And Reasoning Skills In Middle School Students, Betsy Wiederin Lemus

Graduate Research Papers

Adapted primary literature is literature adapted from primary scientific literature for the purpose of using it with school age students. The process begins with teachers finding an appropriate primary scientific literature article, written by scientists for scientists, and rewriting the article to meet the reading level and understanding of the students being taught. In the newly created article, a teacher focuses only on the part of the original article that is important to the students learning and the writer may add background information, graphics, or edit existing graphics to make them more student friendly. The goal of this project is …

The Effects Of Educational Attainment Of State Legislators On State Appropriations To Public Higher Education, Nathan J. Gruber

Graduate Research Papers

Elected officials come to office from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and researchers have sought to discover how these characteristics affect the policy making process. There is a gap in the literature pertaining to whether educational attainment of policymakers influences education policy. This research analyzes the educational attainment of state lawmakers and whether higher levels of educational achievement influence the legislative support of public universities as measured by budget appropriations to those schools. Results show there is a statistically significant positive relationship between educational attainment of lawmakers and support of post-secondary education. Future studies should consider developing an improved …

Elementary School Library Program Integration With Art, Literacy, And Steam Through Makerspaces, Kristi Baldwin

Graduate Research Papers

Note: This study refers to three co-researchers who each collected data in their respective schools and collaborated in reviewing that data, but each separately authored a paper using that data; the co-researchers are Sara Pflughaupt and Lisa Tegels.

The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to find out how makerspace use might influence an inquiry-based focus in student learning through the use of design thinking. The researchers were interested in how makerspaces support the National School Library Standards and local school district goals. This study investigated literacy, critical thinking, and inquiry-based processes that might justify having a makerspace …

Making The Water Cycle Accessible And Relevant For English Language Learners, Summer Teed

Graduate Research Papers

Students with limited English-proficiency present many unique challenges for educators and schools. These challenges multiply as both the number of students requiring services and the diversity of languages spoken increases. In Iowa’s 335 public school districts, the number of students classified as English-language learners (ELL) has nearly tripled in the last 15 years, jumping from 2.1% of the student population during the 1999-2000 school year to 5.7% in 2015- 2016 (Iowa Department of Education (IDOE), 2013; IDOE, 2015). Individual districts currently range from 0 to 57.4% of students requiring ELL services, with 25 of Iowa’s districts identifying more than 10% …

The Impact Of Confidence-Based Marking On Unit Exam Achievement In A High School Physical Science Course, Casey Clark

Graduate Research Papers

High school teachers begin each year with a plethora of content standards to teach, however, instructing students how to learn is hardly ever considered. Metacognition and learning how to learn are not present in high school science content standards. The ability to self-regulate our knowledge is essential to assumptions about learning (Cubukcu, 2009). Students are expected to use metacognitive strategies, even if they do not have them. When students work through problems, it is common to expect them to go back and recheck their work. This is a form of metacognition and self-regulation. Asking students apply metacognition can help them …

Using Mentor Texts To Enhance The Teaching Of Reading Comprehension And Writing, Alexandra Jordyn Cushman

Graduate Research Papers

This project is an instructional unit designed to teach knowledge of both the Civil Rights Movement and racial/social injustices across multiple curricular areas and academic settings using mentor texts. The academic areas that will be addressed are reading, language arts, and writing. This unit includes lesson plans and materials that accompany mentor texts and provide additional information to students in the classroom.