Education Commons^™

Development Of S.T.E.A.M. Daises In Formal And Informal Environments For Educating Primary I Learners, Frances Neville

Masters Theses

The federal government has made education a competition among ourselves. Learning is not a rivalry to be imposed on our physical and cognitive development as humans. Escalating beliefs recognize education is more encompassing than CCSS, assessments and the grade level time frames in which standards are to be taught. On the precipice of anti-intellect, low expectations, and what has been termed “The Dumbing of America” an investigation into what it would take to close the achievement gap and increase student learning is overdue.

The goal for my Michigan based project, S.T.E.A.M. Daises, was to develop a program focusing on the …

Teaching Without A Roadmap: A Mixed Methods Study Of New Teachers' Experience With A Missing Curriculum, Christopher Reid Williams

Dissertations

As new teachers enter the field of education, they face many challenges as they work to quickly adapt to the many demands of the job. One of the most pressing factors for new teachers is deciding what to actually teach each day. For educators, the curriculum represents the master plan that both guides their educational efforts and supplies the tools to get the job done. However, new teachers experience varying levels of curriculum support when they begin their careers, and some receive absolutely no support at all. This study describes those cases of beginning a teaching career with little to …

Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge In Pieces, Nicholas Eric Witt

Dissertations

Productively integrating technology is a vitally important part of teachers’ practice (Barlow, 2021; Bezuk et al., 2017; NCTM, 2018). To adequately prepare Prospective Mathematics Teachers (PMTs) for the demands of teaching professionally, we need to understand more about how teachers and PMTs learn to integrate technology into their classroom. Some models exist related to teachers’ knowledge of integrating technology (e.g., Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Rocha, 2020). However, these models do little to conceptualize the knowledge resources that are activated in the moment of designing technologically-enhanced, conceptually-oriented mathematics tasks. This dissertation draws on ideas from the Knowledge in Pieces (KiP) (diSessa, …

Research Training And Certification Protocol For Medical Students, Michelle Arisleida Padley

Dissertations

Early and frequent exposure to research is imperative to initiating and sustaining long term for medical student research interest. The attitude and approach of physician mentors has been demonstrated to have a substantial effect on student perceptions of research involvement. The purpose of this study is to determine best practices for assessing student perceptions for a research certification program. An additional long-term objective is to utilize these findings to help maintain interest in research throughout their medical careers. Research is an essential aspect of the prestige of medical schools, and the benefits of academic research institutions have numerous facets, including …

The Common Core State Standards In Mathematics For Place Value: Developmentally Appropriate Or Not?, Sarah N. Hughey

Masters Theses

This exploratory case study examines the developmental appropriateness of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) for place value for second through fourth-grade students. A correlation analysis was performed on end of year scores from the 2018-19 school year on a standardized norm-referenced test and a conceptually-based interview assessment from the Math Recovery program (AVMR) on 137 students from one school in the Midwest. An item analysis was also performed on AVMR assessments for 70 students from the 2019-20 school year. The results showed that second and third-grade students did not display the expected amount of growth in conceptual …

Limited By Design: Expanding The Boundaries Of Schooling Policies From Demanded Passivity To Transformative Practice, Natalia T. Carvalho-Pinto

Masters Theses

Schooling is often imagined as the great equalizer and the primary venue towards personal and collective liberation. However, hegemonic ideals and practices have limited the ability for educators to craft and utilize policy in a way that best benefits their students. In this thesis, I utilize the state of Michigan’s Common Core curriculum to examine the limits beyond policy and practice. Specifically, I argue that the demands for student passivity and institutional measurable as signs of success, prohibit student growth. Throughout the document, I describe hope in the ability to instill a variety of transformative educational theories and practices that …

Teaching Matching-To-Sample To Low-Performing Children With Autism, Blaire E. Michelin

Dissertations

Matching-to-sample is a basic procedure used in most programs for pre-school children with autism. However, a few children fail to acquire this skill with standard matching-to-sample procedures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate an alternative method for teaching matching-to-sample to those children when the traditional methods are likely to fail. First, simple discriminations with the matching materials were taught, then the discriminations were made more complex across successive sessions. Initially, all discriminations were taught using bins to separate the comparison stimuli. All three children acquired matching-to-sample, which generalized to matching novel two-dimensional stimuli, not placed in bins.

Effective Teaching And Learning: Flipped Learning In The Classroom, Mohammed Fahad Alsobaie

Dissertations

It is important that adequate knowledge concerning how flipped learning can be implemented in a classroom to support students learning in elementary schools (Backlund, Hirsh & Segolsson, 2017). This is a qualitative study, which used a general qualitative approach to explore teachers’ perspectives and their experiences about flipped learning effectiveness in classrooms at the elementary school level. The population and sample in this study were five elementary school teachers in urban locations in the Midwest region of the United States who utilize flipped learning in their classrooms. The data on the use and impact of flipped learning on teaching and …

Instructor Sense Of Community And Instructional Practices As Predictors Of Student Sense Of Community: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analysis, Laurie K. Burgess

Dissertations

A positive sense of community (SoC) in the college classroom supports student learning and increases student engagement and motivation. While previous research has examined SoC, studies have typically investigated students’ perceptions. This quantitative cross-sectional study investigates both instructor and students’ perceptions of SoC in traditional undergraduate classrooms. Study participants include full-time instructors, and students from 36 undergraduate classes in three institutions located in a Midwestern state. Students completed Rovai’s (2002a) Classroom Community Scale; instructors completed a remodified Classroom Community Scale and the Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (Walter, Henderson, Beach, & Williams, 2016).

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to …

A Guide For The Development Of Theoretical Understanding And Practice Of Teaching For Artistic Behavior: A Response For 21st Century Art Education, Lisa Van Plew-Cid

Masters Theses

Education in the 21st century is restructuring to meet the needs of an increasingly technological society where learning objectives need to focus more on learning abilities rather than knowledge acquisition. Creativity and authentic learning have been identified as new learning objectives for the 21st century. Throughout the history of education, art education has maintained relevance through the integral role it plays in meeting the learning and developmental needs of our students. Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) offers both a philosophy and practice for relevant 21st century art education.

Through research and deep reflection on my ten year practice as an …

Assessing The Benefits And Risks Of Choice-Based Art Education In The Modern-Day Classroom, Kayla Lindeman

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the benefits and risks of choice-based art education by examining the literature and conducting field research in two third grade art classrooms - one that employs a Teaching for Artistic Behaviors-based (TAB-based, a popular version of choice-based art education) approach to art education and another that adheres to a more discipline-based model. Findings related to student observations, student surveys, and parent survey will be presented within these two unique settings. These findings will be matched against claimed choice-based benefits of: increases in student engagement; instructional and learning shifts; and student engagement in authentic art practices. The findings …

Exploring The Relevance Of Art Therapy In Public Education, Brandy A. Jarrell

Masters Theses

This thesis will explore art education as a therapeutic tool in a public education system. This topic will serve as a continuation of research that I conducted previously but will bring more focus upon bringing a certified art therapist into public school districts in West Virginia. Data will be collected through student surveys, interviews of professional art therapists, and administrative officials. Data will also be collected through a review of the literature surrounding the benefits of art therapy to children and adolescents. Through these sources I will explore the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of educational professionals, art therapists, administrators and …

The Role Of Arts Education In Closing The Achievement Gap In High Poverty Schools, Deanne Basse

Masters Theses

This paper will review research that identifies different types of poverty and how brain development may be affected as a result of living in poverty. Although research reflects support and understanding by the American people that arts education is important to the well roundedness of youth and, in fact, correlates with higher standardized test scores, arts programs continue to be cut especially in areas of poverty. There is an achievement gap in educational success when it comes to students that live in poverty and that of students in higher socioeconomic situations. Students of poverty are working with increased internal and …

Teaching The Soft Skills Through The Arts: A Supplementary Art Curriculum, Brittany Boverhof

Masters Theses

Soft skills are the ability to work with, for, and among other people, yet we can no longer expect students to develop these skills organically. This research builds on the knowledge that if we want the students we are educating to be successful in employing their own soft skills, then they must be taught. This paper defines soft skills, shows their importance, and introduces practices that are proven to build soft skill ability. I have constructed twelve lesson plans that teach the soft skills through experientialism, working in groups, art, critique, classroom management, and problem solving. This supplementary curriculum provides …

Critical Success Factors For Agile Project Management In Non-Software Related Product Development Teams, Jeff Totten

Dissertations

The use of agile project management methods in the software development industry is well established and researched. The purpose of this study is to understand whether agile project management methods (Scrum in particular) used successfully in the software industry are also being used in full, or in part, in non-software development industries when managing product development projects.

Using an online survey instrument, data was collected from 329 non-software/IT global practitioners to identify in what industries and work functions agile project management methods are used, to find the independent variables that have a significant relationship with project success, and to determine …

Middle Level Multicultural/Social Justice Art Education Curriculum, Meghan E. G. Andrews

Masters Theses

The way in which children are taught matters a great deal and influences not only their worldview, but also how they view themselves with that world. Through my experiences as an art teacher, I have witnessed a growing need for teaching students in a way that focuses on multicultural and social justices issues in order to help students gain a more well-rounded world view. The art classroom has to power to serve as a safe and effective place to explore these issues. Determining why there is a growing need for a multicultural and social justice oriented art curriculum was important …

Future Historiographers: A Unit Plan For Progressive History Classrooms, Holli Sommerfeld

Honors Theses

It is this unit plans goal to introduce middle school students to historiography, which is the history of how history has been written across time. Within this unit plan, students are placed in an inquiry-based environment to dissect varying source materials; during this process, students will focus on three central components that are essential to understanding how history is told, these being content, perspective, and form of writing. Though this subject matter is rarely introduced to students at this age, through the use of an interdisciplinary approach incorporating the strengths of both English and History, careful scaffolding, a collaborative learning …

Math Curriculum (Algebra Ii) With Focus On Sports, Raychel Figurski

Honors Theses

Learning mathematics is something that is difficult for students to do. This is definitely the case when the students do not get to investigate and really dive deep into the mathematical concepts. This thesis consists of a curriculum set up to promote a greater learning experience for students learning mathematical concepts. The curriculum is set up to cover one unit, or chapter, revolving around the concepts of linear functions. This thesis contains a student copy of a textbook for a unit on linear functions as well as a teacher version. The teacher version contains answers to all questions as well …

The Federal School Improvement Grant: Telling The Story Through Quantitative Outcomes, Gregg B. Dionne

Dissertations

Student success and the mitigation of achievement gaps has been a focus of the federal government since passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) is the latest in federal policy inducements to address this.

To tell the story of SIG implementation in one Midwestern state, data was collected from two groups of SIG-eligible schools, one group which received SIG funding and the other group which did not. Data was collected over multiple years and included mathematics and reading outcomes as well as graduation, dropout, and attendance rates. Data was obtained for …

Using Rtp (Responsible Thinking Process) As A Lever For Improving School Culture: A Case Study Of An Alternative Secondary School’S Implementation Of Rtp, Andrew D. Rynberg

Dissertations

There is an urgent need to improve our K-12 system. How to implement and sustain educational change, however, is a challenge facing the K-12 arena. This qualitative case study was intended to examine a six-year educational change initiative in one alternative secondary school. The study helped us gain knowledge on implementing and sustaining educational change by addressing the following three research questions:

1. What were the staff members’ descriptions of disciplinary issues before and after the RTP intervention?

2. Based on staff descriptions, what were the factors associated with the successful implementation of the RTP program?

3. Based on staff …

A Study Of Conceptual And Language Issues Surrounding Weight, Weightlessness, And Free Fall: Textbook Analysis, Instructional Design, And Assessment, Rex Taibu

Dissertations

Science education is an interdisciplinary field that has developed from and continues to rely on research in the fields of cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, sociology and history. This clearly reflects that learning and teaching can be studied from multiple perspectives. Despite these wide ranging roots, contemporary science education by and large is not informed by the work of research on linguistics, and in particular, the role of language in mediating conceptual understanding. The term “weight” has multiple meanings in both science and everyday language, and this unfortunately creates inherent difficulties for teaching and learning. The present study addresses a need …

How Do Middle School Core Content Area Teachers In A Title 1 School Use Cooperative Learning In The Context Of High Accountability For Student Proficiency: A Multiple Case Study, Martha Cunigan-Wells

Dissertations

This action research case study describes how content area teachers in a middle school with low reading achievement levels utilize cooperative learning and curriculum integration (with a focus on the integration of literacy skills and thinking skills) in their content area given the current context of accountability for student mastery of tested core content outcomes. The participants were four urban middle school teachers from the core areas of science, social studies, mathematics, and language arts who had varying levels of training and experience with cooperative learning and curriculum integration. Data sources included audio-recorded pre-conferences, video-taped classroom observations, audio-recorded post-conferences, and …

Conceptual Framework Alignment Between Primary Literature And Education In Animal Behaviour, Andrea Marie-Kryger Bierema

Dissertations

In 1963, Tinbergen revolutionized the study of animal behaviour in his paper On aims and methods of ethology (Zeitschrift Tierpsycholgie, 20, 410-433) by revamping the conceptual framework of the discipline. His framework suggests an integration of four questions: causation, ontogeny, survival value, and evolution. The National Research Council Committee (U.S.) on Undergraduate Biology Education to Prepare Research Scientists for the 21^st Century published BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2003), which suggests alignment between current research and undergraduate education. Unfortunately, alignment has been rarely studied in college biology, especially for fundamental …

A Method For Assessing And Describing The Informal Inferential Reasoning Of Middle School Students, Joshua Michael Goss

Dissertations

Informal Inferential Reasoning (IIR) has emerged in the last decade in the study of statistics education. Developing students’ IIR ability is seen as a way of preparing students for the important topic of Formal Statistical Inference (FSI); however, research is still needed in order to investigate how students transition between informal and formal statistical reasoning. A primary difficulty is that we do not have a way of assessing and describing students’ IIR ability levels. In order to address this, an Assessment of Informal Inferential Reasoning (AIIR) was developed, along with a Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy (Biggs & …

Integrating Nanotechnology Into The Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum: The Impact On Students’ Affective Domain, Jacinta M. Mutambuki

Dissertations

High attrition rates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continue to be documented in the undergraduate education in the United States (U.S.). There is a growing concern that the U.S. will fall short of 3 million graduates by 2018. Furthermore, the literature indicates that about 36% of 4-year college graduates lack adequate critical thinking skills, complex reasoning, and communication skills relevant to the current job market. Reasons for these observations relate to the overemphasis on content knowledge; lack of content relevance; lack of interest in STEM courses; and dominance of expository teaching methods in classrooms. Given its relevance in …

Problem-Based Learning (Pbl) In The College Chemistry Laboratory: Students’ Perceptions Of Pbi And Its Relationship With Attitude And Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Lloyd Madalitso P. Mataka

Dissertations

A convergent mixed methods research study was used to investigate whether or not students who participated in the problem based learning (PBL) environment improved their self-efficacy beliefs (SEBs) in and attitudes toward chemistry. The study also investigated the students’ views of the PBL environment. The Chemistry Attitude and Experience Questionnaire (CAEQ) was used as a pre- and post-test to determine changes in students’ attitudes and SEBs. The PBL Environment Inventory (PBLEI) was used to investigate students’ views of the PBL environment. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to re-validate both instruments with the study group: students in general chemistry laboratories at …

Core Aspects Of Curriculum Development: A Literature Review And Development Of Program Handbook For Health Informatics And Information Management, Nicole Yon

Honors Theses

TIle purpose of this review was to determine the basic principles of curriculum design and to understand how they are used to develop a competent curriculum handbook. The findings were used to develop a handbook for the Health Informatics and Information Management major at Western Michigan University. This literature review focuses on a variety of web pages, articles and books that analyzed the topics of curriculum design and curriculum handbook development. A review of the Bronson School of Nursing Handbook and the Temple University - Health Information Management Department B.S. in Health Information Management (HiM) Student Handbook was also conducted. …

Elementary School Teachers’ Use Of Curricular Resources For Lesson Design And Enactment, Napthalin Achubang Atanga

Dissertations

This study investigated how teachers used curricular resources to teach mathematics with two different curriculum programs, a commercially developed program (Scott Foresman Addison Wesley-Mathematics) and an NSF-funded reform program (Investigations in Number, Data, and Space). This research examines the kinds of curricular resources available to six teachers (three per program), those resources they planned to use, those actually used, ways teachers used curricular resources in association with each other, and types of adaptations made. As a result, I developed insights into capacities teachers need to use curricular resources in a connected way toward the mathematical points …

District Mandated Changes In Technology And Inquiry-Based Instruction, Mulonge Musa Kalumbula

Dissertations

Federal and state mandates aimed at improving the American K-12 school system abound (Spillane, 2004). Federal legislation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002), and state-mandated curriculum are aimed at improving teaching and learning thus ultimately improving student achievement. The purpose of this phenomenology study was to examine the experiences of 7 middle and high school social studies teachers through district-mandated changes in inquiry-based instruction and technology-integrated lessons. By capturing how individual teachers experience mandated changes, this research aimed to discover the existence of policy coherence within a district as it translated federal and state policy …

Student Thoughts And Perceptions On Curriculum Reform, Douglas D. Vanderjagt

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how students experience and respond to Michigan’s increased graduation requirements. The study was conducted in a large, suburban high school that instituted a change to a trimester system in response to the state mandate. A criterion-based sample of 16 students, both college bound and non-college bound, participated in one-on-one interviews regarding their knowledge about, their understanding of, and their experience with the new Michigan Merit Curriculum, and how this increase impacted the student participants’ high school academic choices and/or postsecondary plans. Additionally, this study engaged focus groups of one or …