Education Commons^™

Team Psi: Making The Frederik Meijer Honors College Experience More Distinctive, Selena Brown, Kendra Smith, Sara Harman, Michael Guscar, Josh Schneider, Cassondra Anderson

Undergraduate Research

We are grateful for your interest in our proposed solution to increase the distinction of the Frederik Meijer Honors College. This journey spanned four months, and included countless hours of research, interviews, ideating, and prototyping. Our portfolio will walk you through this process, to help you understand our insights, and how we used Design Thinking to create our final innovation.

We would also like to express our gratitude for the teaching and guidance of professor Linda Chamberlain of the Frederik Meijer Honors College, and all the ways in which she helped us navigate the Design Thinking process. Without her, this …

From Awareness To Action: Teacher Attitude And Implementation Of Lgbt-Inclusive Curriculum In The English Language Arts Classroom, Michelle L. Page

Education Publications

This survey research describes English language arts teachers’ comfort levels in integrating literature with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) themes or characters into their curricula and classroom practices. Significant relationships were found between teachers’ age, comfort, awareness of resources, and implementation levels. Although younger teachers had higher comfort levels with LGBT texts, they displayed lower resource awareness levels and static implementation rates. In addition, comfort, awareness, and implementation of LGBT curriculum materials were also correlated with teacher location and with strength of religious belief, with rural teachers and strongly religious teachers displaying lower comfort and implementation levels. Availability of …

Lifting Achievement Levels And Improving The Return On Australia’S Investment In Schooling : Submission To The Review To Achieve Educational Excellence In Australian Schools (Chair: Mr David Gonski), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation

Many students in our schools are not learning as well as they could because they are not being given learning opportunities at an appropriate level of challenge. Instead, students are grouped by year level (age) and teachers deliver curricula assumed to be appropriate for all students in the same year of school. However, the most advanced ten per cent of students in any year of school are five to six years ahead of the least advanced ten per cent. For less advanced students, the year-level curriculum is often too far ahead. Many are judged to be underperforming year after year, …

Career Planning And Curriculum Integration: Millennials On The ‘Lost’ Coast, Alison Holmes Phd, Loren Collins Ma

Career and Curriculum Connections: integrating career education across the disciplines

Career preparation during college is increasingly an area of interest and concern not only for the parents, family and friends of prospective students, but administrators, politicians, and even the average taxpayer. As costs continue to rise, the ‘value’ of higher education is no longer based primarily on the goal of preparing a future generation to participate in, and to lead a democratic civil society, but on how competitive students will be in the global marketplace as a result. Humboldt State University is located approximately 300 miles north of San Francisco in a relatively isolated region known as the ‘lost coast’, …

Assessing Career Planning Courses Without Using Test Scores: Another Neglected Issue?, Alison Holmes Phd, Loren Collins Ma

Career and Curriculum Connections: integrating career education across the disciplines

Twenty years ago, in an article entitled “Assigning Grades in Career Planning Courses: A Neglected issue”[1], Rex Filer posed several important questions in terms of the practicalities of how we design and grade career planning courses. The challenge, he suggested, is that while teaching pedagogy often relies on Bloom’s traditional taxonomy where information and understanding act as an ‘anchor’ while synthesis and evaluation are goals achieved later, career course activities are naturally geared to the top of the pyramid – regardless of when the class is taught. This, he argues, poses particular issues in terms of career course …

The Impact Of Information Literacy Instruction On Student Success: A Multi-Institutional Investigation And Analysis, Joni Blake, Melissa Bowles-Terry, N. Shirlene Pearson, Zoltan Szentkiralyi

Fondren Library Research

The GWLA Student Learning Outcomes task force analyzed the data from over 42,000 first-time, first-year freshmen and over 1700 distinct courses from 12 research institutions to determine the impact(s) of information literacy instruction integrated into course curriculum on several student success measures.

Key findings include:

• Student retention rates are higher for those students whose courses include an information literacy instruction component.
• On average, First-Year GPA for students whose courses included information literacy instruction was higher than the GPA of students whose courses did not.
• Students exposed to library instruction interactions successfully completed 1.8 more credit hours per year than their …

Create And Teach An Elective? Me? Overcoming Fear Of New Roles, Alexandra Gomes, Laura Abate, Thomas Harrod

Himmelfarb Library Faculty Posters and Presentations

: Inquiries about new informatics instructional opportunities in the curriculum led to a suggestion that the librarians submit an elective proposal. Despite knowing nothing about the approval process or the responsibilities of being a course director, several librarians accepted the challenge as a learning experience. Developing the proposal included writing the proposal, formally presenting it to two curriculum committees for approval, and then creating the specific lesson plans, identifying associated readings, creating a grading rubric and syllabus, and teaching the specific elective sessions. Librarians developed the elective Introduction to Systematic Reviews and are in the process of developing a second …

A Rationale For Requiring Philosophy Of Education In Preservice Teacher Programs, Jeffrey Labelle, Gabrielle Belknap

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

To develop a rationale for requiring a free-standing philosophy of education course in preservice teacher programs, the researchers reviewed prior literature to construct a framework to establish such a requirement. A review of required course content in non-Catholic (private and public) colleges and universities with preservice teacher programs in five Midwestern states in the United States revealed that most do not require such a course, hence the need for programs to reconsider how licensure candidates develop their teaching philosophies and review program articulation and course content. This study proposes a fourfold theoretical rationale for requiring philosophy of education of preservice …

Game Design & Development Curriculum: History & Future Directions, Elizabeth L. Lawley, Roger Altizer, Tracy Fullerton, Andrew Phelps, Constance Steinkuehler

Presentations and other scholarship

It has been nearly twenty years since the first undergraduate degree program in computer game development was established in 1998. Since that time, the number and size of programs in game design and development have grown at a rapid pace. While there were early efforts to establish curricular guidelines for the field, these face a number of challenges given the diverse range of academic homes for game-related programs. This panel will address the history of curricular development in the field, both in individual programs and across institutions. It will also explore the potential risks and rewards of developing curricular and/or …

Asynchronous Gifted Students & Human Rights Education: A Residential Life Curriculum Guide Aimed At Supporting Subcultures And Underrepresented Populations, Derek M. Lough

Staff Publications & Research

This Masters Field Project for the International & Multicultural Education Department at the University of San Francisco serves to provide an incomplete, but fairly comprehensive guide to studies that describe the general educational situations of subcultures and underrepresented populations within the context of gifted education and the framework of human rights education. The programs within it adhere to the standards set for Residential Life at the Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy, follow Dr. Monisha Bajaj's six steps for a complete human rights education in the field while also incorporating Dabrowski's Theory of Disintegration.

Patterns Around The World: Japanese, Maori, Islamic, Aztec/Mayan, African, Catherine French

Curricula

No abstract provided.

Hiding In Plain Sight: Identifying Computational Thinking In The Ontario Elementary School Curriculum, Eden J.V. Hennessey, Julie Mueller, Danielle Beckett, Peter A. Fisher

Education Faculty Publications

Given a growing digital economy with complex problems, demands are being made for education to address computational thinking (CT) – an approach to problem solving that draws on the tenets of computer science. We conducted a comprehensive content analysis of the Ontario elementary school curriculum documents for 44 CT-related terms to examine the extent to which CT may already be considered within the curriculum. The quantitative analysis strategy provided frequencies of terms, and a qualitative analysis provided information about how and where terms were being used. As predicted, results showed that while CT terms appeared mostly in Mathematics, and concepts …

Creating And Reflecting On A Graphic Arts Unit For 8th Grade Computer

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This paper deals with the issue of incorporating the teaching and learning of 21st-century skills within a classroom setting. These skills include critical thinking, collaboration, communication, technology integration and more. Although implementing 21st-century learning can be intimidating, it is necessary in the educational and business climate that exists today. Lewis Public Schools currently provides many opportunities to incorporate 21st-century learning and skills. The 8th grade multimedia class is one class where the implementation should be easy and seamless. Unfortunately, the curriculum is not well-laid out and assessments are vague. Using the literature, research, and ISTE standards as a guide, a …

Content Trends In Sustainable Business Education: An Analysis Of Introductory Courses In The U.S., Nancy E. Landrum, Brian M. Ohsowski

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Purpose – This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 81 introductory sustainable business course syllabi reading lists were analyzed from 51 US colleges and universities. The study utilized frequency counts for authors and readings and R analysis of key words to classify readings along the sustainability spectrum. Findings – The study reveals the most frequently assigned authors and readings in US sustainable business courses (by program type) and places them along the sustainability spectrum from weak …

Teachers' Experiences With Integrating Play-Based Learning Into Standards-Driven Curriculum: A Phenomenological Study, Mary Nugent

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe kindergarten teachers’ experiences with integrating play-based learning into standards-based academic curriculum in a school district in South Carolina. Play–based learning experiences were defined as instances which allow children to engage in active, social learning experiences in classrooms. This study explored the question of how kindergarten teachers describe their experiences with integrating play-based learning experiences in their classrooms, the value of play in their classrooms, their role as the adult during play experiences, and the difficulties that they face in making instructional decisions. The theories guiding this study were Froebel’s early childhood …

Developing A Homeland Security Curriculum: A Case Study In Outcomes-Based Education, Daniel A. Cutrer

Publications

In 2007, I began research for my doctoral dissertation on what a curriculum in an undergraduate degree in homeland security should look like. At that time, the field of homeland security was a nascent discipline, and as such it did not have a standardized academic curriculum. There were several institutions of higher learning in the United States that were offering degrees in homeland security, but no consensus existed on what the curriculum should contain. This is what prompted me to perform a case study, gathering input from a body of subject matter experts as to what these experts felt were …

Integrating A Christian Worldview Into Literacy Instruction, Gwen R. Marra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Muse: Getting To Know The Generations Youth & Elder Scavenger Hunt, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

Music Uniting Students and Elders is a program by the University of Maine Center on Aging and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra that uses music education to form inter-generational connections between elementary students and elders. This scavenger hunt activity is designed to encourage communication and relationship building between elders and youth prior, during and following MUSE events.

Muse Youth Curriculum, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

Music Uniting Students and Elders is a program of the University of Maine Center on Aging and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra that uses music education to connect elders and students. The following curriculum is recommended for children 5 years of age and older or children in 1st – 5th grade. The purpose of the curriculum is to act as a catalyst for discussing aging, to dispel the myths of aging, to provide an opportunity to connect generations, and for youth to share with others their experiences, ancestry and family traditions. Furthermore, this curriculum allows for youth to connect with elders …

Imsa 2017 Profile, Office Of College And Academic Counseling

IMSA Profile

"The internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) develops creative, ethical leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a teaching and learning laboratory created by the State of Illinois, IMSA enrolls academically talented Illinois students (grades 10-12) in its advanced, residential college preparatory program. 99.5% of graduating seniors matriculate to colleges and universities."*

*Excerpt from the IMSA 2017 Profile

The Dynamic Curriculum:Shared Experiences Of Ongoing Curricular Change In Higher Education, Jean Hughes, Eloise Tan

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Getting Connected: Finding Literacy Resources In The Common Core Era, Serena J. Salloum, Susanna L. Benko, Emily Hodge

Department of Educational Leadership Scholarship and Creative Works

The authors provide practical, evidence-based advice for teachers and educational leaders looking for helpful curricular and professional resources that support students’ literacy development in the era of the Common Core State Standards.

Milwaukee Public Schools Universal Driver Education Pilot Project Evaluation Report, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

Under the leadership of Superintendent Darienne Driver, Milwaukee Public Schools introduced a bold initiative to address the driver’s licensing needs of MPS students through a Universal Driver Education program. This report describes the pilot project offering free driver education services to 257 students at four high schools in spring and summer of 2016. The project successfully targeted subpopulations identified as most in need of affordable driver education, including youth of color, students living in neighborhoods with high child poverty, and students from families with lower-income. The vast majority (98%) of participants passed the state Division of Motor Vehicle written road …

An Examination Of Concepts Of School Readiness Among Parents And Educators In Ireland, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Emer Ring, Noirin Hayes, Patsy Stafford, Siobhan Keegan, Cathy Kelleher, Martina Ozonyia, Mary Moloney, Deirdre Breathnach, Des Carswell, Des Mccafferty, Anne O'Keefe, Aisling Leavy, Ruth Madden

Reports

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs commissioned research through the Irish Research Council (IRC) to examine concepts of school readiness as they are understood by early years educators and managers, primary school principals, junior infant teachers and parents of children participating in the first Free Preschool Year in Ireland. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, involving interviews, an online survey and “draw and tell” sessions with children. Representative samples of FPSY settings and primary schools were selected and an online survey based on the findings of the qualitative phase was sent to 500 pre-primary settings and 500 primary schools. In …

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

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

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 …

Curriculum Renewal: Barriers To Successful Curriculum Change And Suggestions For Improvement, Trudi Cooper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article examines the practical difficulties encountered when a renewed curriculum is implemented in higher education. Attention has been given in the literature to the importance of coherent curriculum and approaches to curriculum design. Less attention has been paid to whether the renewed curriculum can be faithfully implemented within a given university context and how constraints to implementation change the curriculum design. Practical barriers to implementation arose from several sources. These included: how to ensure that all staff understood and supported the new approaches, in the context of a casualized academic workforce; the need for academics to find sufficient time …

Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Experiences And Self-Efficacy To Teach Music: Are They Ready?, Geoffrey M. Lowe, Geoff W. Lummis, Julia Morris

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Music is essential in developing the young brain, particularly skills relating to concentration, filtering, information retrieval, verbal competencies, mental visualisation, problem solving, empathy and personal expression. With the introduction of the Australian National Curriculum and its adoption as the basis of the Western Australian P-10 music syllabus, there is cause to reflect on the effectiveness of music provision within teacher education courses and pre-service generalist teachers' abilities to deliver the new music syllabus. Accordingly, a mixed method study was conducted with first and fourth year Bachelor of Education primary students at a Western Australian university, to investigate students' music experiences …

Taking A Community Approach To Curriculum Change, Sarah E. Dalrymple, Anna Jo Auerbach, Elisabeth E. Schussler

CTL Teaching Gallery

Many undergraduate institutions are reforming their courses to increase student engagement. A critical challenge in these efforts is to engage the academic community beyond the instructors in the process of change. At our university, we embraced this challenge by creating a volunteer community of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates to design the discussion curricula for a new introductory biology sequence. We report on this process of curriculum development using a case study approach and describe how the community created the new curriculum and how they perceived the outcomes of the process. Our findings indicate that this curriculum design approach …

Mech 350: Introduction To Dynamics And Controls Of Engineering Systems—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Benjamin S. Terry

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

There are two purposes of this portfolio. The first purpose is to outline and explain my approach to teaching this classic and fundamental course. I highlight in detail the purpose and curricula, the desired outcomes, and the goals and objectives. I also describe how the course activities and my teaching methodology support the course objectives. The second purpose of this portfolio is to describe a simple course modification—the introduction of a recitation session—and to test in a preliminary way the effect of this change on students’ attitudes towards the examples worked out in class. The results show that in the …