Education Commons^™

Steps In Time: An Exploration Of Tap Dance Education, Sara Pecina

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Tap dance is an indigenous American art form that not only holds a valuable presence in the world of entertainment but also boasts an important historical background. From the slave quarters on plantations to Hollywood’s silver screen, the development of tap dance mirrors the story of American history. Tap dance must be preserved because of its cultural significance in American history; likewise, it is imperative for dancers to understand its development in order to appreciate the art and for today’s artists to continue the growth and presence of tap dance in America. However, many dance educators today focus solely on …

The Arts Community Without Community: Imagining Aesthetic Curriculum For Active Citizenship, Seungho Moon

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article is about teaching art-based inquiry and equity pedagogy. The author introduces an aesthetic-inspired afterschool curriculum in the urban context in the United States and theorizes the meaning of active citizenship and community. Conceptually framed by “community without community,” this article explicates the ways in which the ARtS children (Aesthetic, Reflexive thoughts, & Sharing) investigated the meanings of community through dance, poetry, and clay art. The author imagines and theorizes community that goes beyond emphasizing solidarity and a collective “we”-ness in the pursuit of social transformation. Rather, the author argues that “community without community” could be an important framework …

The Effects Of Community-Building On Achievement, Motivation, And Engagement In Undergraduate Mathematics, Hannak Keith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This 2 x 2 quasi-experimental study examined the effects of pedagogical method (i.e., direct instruction vs. 5E inquiry) and intentional community-building (i.e., absence or presence) on undergraduate student (N = 103) motivation, engagement, and achievement in mathematics. Conditions were randomly assigned to one of four different College Algebra classes with a one-time occurrence and taught by a trained expert teacher. Findings indicated that intentional community-building – regardless of pedagogical method – had the strongest effects on students’ motivation, engagement, and achievement. Although no differing pedagogical effects were discovered (most likely due to the one-time implementation of the lesson formats), …

An Examination Of The Employment Of The Pair Programming Methodology As A Collaborative Instructional Scaffold On College Student Procedural Learning And Programming Self-Beliefs, Ronald Erdei

Open Access Dissertations

Using a concurrent mixed methods case study approach, this study investigated the impact of employing the pair programming methodology as a collaborative instructional scaffold on student programming procedural knowledge and programming-related self-beliefs in an introductory computer programming course offered at a large university located in the Midwestern United States. Employing a design research theoretical perspective in a natural educational setting, the study used course performance data, survey data, and researcher observations to educe that employment of the pair programming methodology as a collaborative instructional scaffold facilitated a more efficient learning process as well as a learning process less reliant on …

A Study Of Applications Of 3d Animation For Emergency Medicine Pedagogy, Huilong Zheng

Open Access Theses

There is ample precedent for the use of 3D animation in education, though little research on specific applications in the field of medicine. An experiment was carried out to assess the suitability of 3D animation for educational purposes in emergency medicine courses. Two groups of experimental participants were assessed on their ability to respond to three emergency medical situations in simulated test scenarios. Both groups received equivalent information on how to treat the three different medical emergencies. The control group received the information in traditional lecture format. The experimental group instead received the information from a set of 3D animations. …

Culturally Relevant Education For Rural Schools: Creating Relevancy In Rural America, Joshua J. Anderson

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I investigate the ways in which culturally relevant pedagogy is conceptualized and implemented by two secondary English Language Arts educators in one school district with a strong sense of rural identity. Culturally relevant pedagogy is considered by many professionals in the field of education to be an effective philosophy to inform instructional practices for narrowing the achievement gap of historically marginalized groups (Cummins, 1990; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 2000). A careful review of the literature on culturally relevant pedagogy reveals the discourse surrounding culturally relevant pedagogy has largely been dominated by urban voices (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Esposito & …

Sharing Your Student’S Research With Voicethread, Curtis Izen

Publications and Research

One of the ways of sharing your student's individual research with the entire class is using VoiceThread. This provides all students the ability to learn about everyone's work. This eliminates the barrier between the student and instructor.

Student Perceptions Of Scholarly Writing, Shirley P. O'Brien, Dory Marken, Kelsey B. Petrey

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Learning the process of scholarly writing, including the significance of peer review, is an essential element in the preparation of students for professional practice. This descriptive research study, using Scholarship of Teaching and Learning methodology, explores one approach to teaching scholarly writing in an occupational science/occupational therapy curriculum. The writing assignment was designed to offer multiple points for feedback and revision and instructional features to reinforce learning. A survey of students [n = 169] participating in this scholarly writing project was conducted yearly to gather their perceptions of learning. The results revealed four key elements: instructional strategies are needed …

Re-Viewing, Re-Imaging, And Re-Invigorating Middle School Teacher Education, Edward Podsiadlik Iii

Middle Grades Review

How do we best prepare educators for teaching in the middle grades? This essay reviews authentic middle student feedback and two comprehensive units of instruction in order to re-view and re-imagine the potential of middle school teacher education to become re-invigorated in its capacity to offer relevant and critical instructional experiences. Essential questions explored are: 1) what do effective middle school teaching and learning uniquely look and sound like?; and 2) what singular components, considerations, and challenges does middle school teacher education need to specifically address? Evidence is examined that demonstrates pedagogical components, strategies, and a wide-range of resources which …

Bridging The Digital Divide Were Any Divides Bridged, Andrew Gibbs

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The K-12 schools offer professional development (PD) and technology resources for teachers every year that cost schools billions of dollars. The tools provided in the PD to teachers are typically quickly forgotten, and the schools administration moves forward with other pressing issues. What if we were to look at schools several years after a PD program was implemented and the technology resources were provided to teachers, would we see any effect? This study looks at three schools that participated in a PD program that had an influx of technology resources placed in the school in 2002. The data collected demonstrates …

Audience Response And From Film Adaptation To Reading Literature, Klaudia H.Y. Lee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Audience Response and from Film Adaptation to Reading Literature" Klaudia H.Y. Lee analyses results from 3000-plus interview conducted across university campuses in Hong Kong in order to investigate the roles of screen adaptations and their intertextual relationship for developing students' critical textual practice. Lee combines reader-response theory (Iser and Rosenblatt) with empirical data to explore students' actual encounters and experience with texts. While the data suggests an influence of screen adaptations on students' choice and motivation of reading, this interest can potentially be developed into a critical awareness of the various intertextual possibilities that exist in different …

Student Perspectives Of The Integration Of Faith And Learning In An Online Counselor Education Program: A Program Evaluation, Kevin Van Wynsberg

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The integration of faith and learning is a valued aspect of Christian education and holds particular importance in training professional counselors. Currently, literature related to integration learning has been limited to residential environments, and students’ expectations and most valued aspects of learning integration have received little attention even in this more traditional learning format. Additionally, online counselor education programs are growing, making the need for exploration in this area increasingly important. The following quantitative study explored student perceptions of integration learning in counselor education in an online environment. Building off of previous survey design collected in a resident environment, student …

Mining Laban Studies As A Critical Pedagogical Praxis, Sherrie Barr

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

Mining the writings of Laban and his collaborators through a pedagogical lens reveals philosophical underpinnings of a transformative teaching-learning paradigm, one that shares characteristics with the field of critical pedagogy. An examination of the ways this connection unfolds becomes the entrée to this query. The commonly held beliefs that are in play reflect the innovative thinking of the leading pioneers of the two discourses. In each pedagogical praxis, themes of inclusion, reciprocity, and collaboration can be evidenced in a caring and ethical environment with teachers honoring individual learners while simultaneously celebrating the diversity of experiences students bring to the classroom. …

Thinking Deeply, Creating Richly: Learner Transformation Through Narrative, Kaylea Hascall Champion

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Narrative methods support transformative teaching and learning by accessing human cognitive strengths, including memory, reflection, and self-awareness. This paper explores the enduring and mindful use of narrative in education – as a method for transformative teaching and learning. A narrative is the intentional conversion of a group of events, participants, and details into a constructed reality that illustrates causes, characters, and results. Narrative development is a native human process by which we teach, learn, and remember. Narrative educational methods incorporate two key characteristics: integrative sense making, and shared connection building. Diverse disciplines – including biology, psychology, economics, literature, medicine, history, …

The Empathy Project: Using A Project-Based Learning Assignment To Increase First-Year College Students’ Comfort With Interdisciplinarity, Micol Hutchison

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Empathy and interdisciplinarity are both concepts that are current and relevant—across professions, in research, and in academia. This paper describes a large, interdisciplinary, project-based assignment, the Empathy Project, which allows students to delve into and increase comfort and skill with interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative learning, while improving the core college skills of written and oral communication, ethical and quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking. As I revised the assignment based on student feedback and results, I found that group conferences and time in class to work collaboratively were beneficial. Additionally, building increased scaffolding into the assignment, including greater student and group …

Pedagogies And Policies Of Impediment: How A Lack Of Connectivity Is A Barrier To Learning, Doireann O'Connor

Dee O'Connor

Connectivity is a multi-faceted concept. It relates to three main central pillars of early years learning. These are; the inter-personal connections between educators and children, the connections between the children themselves and the connectivity to learning that exists within each individual child. The interpersonal connections, whether they are between the children and their educator or peer to peer are important because their level of positivity leaves the child either free to learn or unable to progress. If there is a lack of positive inter-personal connectivity within a child’s central relationships, they are unable to focus on anything else to any …

A Pedagogy Of Freedom: Why Primary School Teachers Should Embrace Educational Emancipation, Doireann O'Connor

Dee O'Connor

Rich stories of learning journeys that arose from a Life History Research Project resulted in the development of a growing awareness on the part of the author in the role that freedom can productively play within the primary school classroom. The stories that adults told of their most memorable learning experiences almost exclusively occurred outside of the classroom within play and social situations where they were free to engage in a meaningful and personalised learning experience. Learning stories involving risk and even danger, conflict and resolution, freedom from supervision and responsibility as a self-regulated mantle of growing maturity were common …

"I Hate Group Projects", Hillary Thalmann, Hannah Davis, Austin Vaughan

Undergraduate Studio Assistant Research

Most college students will be assigned a group writing project during their academic career. However, traditional writing center pedagogies are not optimized for group work. What types of concerns are common in group writing and how do they differ from those of individual writers? What strategies can writing tutors use to best address these group writing concerns? In this module, participants will explore the concerns unique to group writing and discuss strategies for effectively facilitating group writing.

From Instructivism To Connectivism: Theoretical Underpinnings Of Moocs, Matt Crosslin

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

While the first MOOCs were connectivist in their approach to learning, later versions have expanded to include instructivist structures and structures that blend both theories. From an instructional design standpoint the differences are important. This paper will examine how to analyze the goals of any proposed MOOC to determine what the epistemological focus should be. This will lead to a discussion of types of communication needed—based on analysis of power dynamics—to design accurately within the determined epistemology. The paper also explores later stages of design related to proper communication of the intended power structure or theoretical design as these relate …

Use Of An Lms In Undergraduate Business Communications Courses, Arlene J. Nicholas

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

Does the current college population embrace the use of technology for classwork? They may be devoted users of text messaging, Facebook and even Google, but do they take advantage of the learning tools created for their specific coursework? Does it advance their knowledge or understanding of course objectives? The cost for the university licensing, faculty and staff effort to create, upload, troubleshoot and maintain is considerable. A small case study of Business Communication students who used a learning management system (LMS) was conducted. Analysis of this study and other recent research in this pedagogical method will be reported.

Improving Elementary Mathematics And Science Teaching And Learning: Lessons From A School-University Partnership, Patricia J. Norman, J. Nordine

Education Faculty Research

The challenges of teaching elementary mathematics and science, particularly in urban settings, have been well documented. While evidence exists that sustained professional development in mathematics and science can promote inquiry-oriented instruction and bolster student achievement, little has been written about the particular challenges associated with offering differentiated professional development through school-university partnerships. This paper examines the impact on student achievement and teacher practice when university teacher educators launched a 3-year science and mathematics professional development initiative in grades 3-5 at one of the university's elementary partner school campuses. Our intention was to create a ''constructivist'' professional learning initiative where the …

Pedagogy For Christian Worldview Formation: A Grounded Theory Study Of Bible College Teaching Methods, Rob Lindemann

Doctor of Education (EdD)

To date, only emerging qualitative data exist on pedagogy employed specifically for worldview formation, especially in Christian contexts. Using a grounded theory approach, I carried out this qualitative research using personal interviews with the goal of discovering a theory for the processes expert teachers use in employing effective worldview pedagogy. Data was gathered through personal interviews with six participants who were nominated by their presidents or deans as suitable candidates according to the criteria of an expert teacher in this aspect of Bible college teaching.

The process of qualitative coding led to a theory of pedagogy for Christian worldview formation …

Inclusive Pedagogy: Beyond Simple Content, Sheila Lintott, Lissa Skitolsky

Faculty Journal Articles

We have learned from feminist philosophy and critical theory that neutrality is a myth; this applies also to the seemingly neutral ways we structure our courses, design our assignments, and assess student achievement and mastery of material. Despite efforts to diversify the content of philosophy classes by ensuring that philosophy written by a diverse and representative selection of philosophers is studied, students still may be alienated when required to participate in a discourse that is not their own. We explore and argue the need for decentering playfulness in philosophy classrooms.

Service And Learning For Whom? Toward A Critical Decolonizing Bicultural Service Learning Pedagogy, Kortney Hernandez

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The notion of service has enjoyed historical longevity—rooted deeply within our institutions (i.e., churches, schools, government, military, etc.), reminiscent of indentured servitude, and rarely questioned as a colonizing practice that upholds oppression. Given the relentless insertion of service learning programs into working class communities, the sacrosanctity awarded and commonsensically given to service is challenged and understood within its colonial, historical, philosophical, economic, and ideological machinations. This political confrontation of service learning practices serves to: (a) critique the dominant epistemologies that reproduce social inequalities within the context of service learning theory and practice; and (b) move toward the formulation of a …

Habits Of Mind In The Classroom: Threshold Concepts, Instructional Philosophy, And Sotl, Alicia S. Hansen, Brad Petitfils Ph.D.

Staff publications

Students performing research in higher education, especially at the undergraduate level, is a progressively dazzling task in the universe of digital and print resources. Using sound pedagogy to create student confidence in approaching research, hand in hand with creating scholarship, is a challenge tackled well by librarians and teaching faculty together.

We will discuss three theories and their place in research methods, using ACRL’sFramework for Information Literacy as context. First, Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory. Second, Perry’s Epistemology of Learning: moving a student’s absolute belief in all things defined by authority toward a belief in his own values and …

Toward A Pedagogy Of Compassion: Extracting Principles Of Education From Teaching A High School Multicultural Literature Class, Carlos Roberto Valverde

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Based on the assumption by Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993), educational scholars need insight on the “particulars” of what works for classroom teachers within the context of their own classrooms. This dissertation is a self-study that addresses my work as a high school Multicultural Literature teacher and the impact of how my own philosophical/theoretical belief system resulted in significant transformative learning experiences for students as demonstrated in their feedback.

Using intercultural competence, value-creation pedagogy, and compassion as theoretical frameworks that encourage greater social cohesion and collective participation, I used autoethnography as my primary method of investigation to treat data through an …

Combining African-Centered And Critical Media Pedagogies: A 21st-Century Approach Toward Liberating The Minds Of The Mis-Educated In The Digital Age, Shani Byard

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Since the slave trade, African Americans have been the most media-stereotyped race of people. From that time, multiple forms of media have been used to convince Blacks of their inevitable servitude and Whites of their supremacy (Burrell, 2010), as a means of transferring physical slavery to mental slavery (Akbar, 1998). Additionally, African Americans have been the victims of a Eurocentric educational system essentially designed to “mis-educate” (Woodson, 1933)—to further oppress and devalue African and African American contributions to our global history. This qualitative research study aimed to analyze an existing curricular model known as Rise Above the Noise, which combines …

Testing The Efficacy Of Mypsychlab To Replace Traditional Instruction In A Hybrid Course, Kasey L. Powers, Patricia J. Brooks, Magdalena Galazyn, Seamus Donnelly

Publications and Research

Online course-packs are marketed as improving grades in introductory-level coursework, yet it is unknown whether these course-packs can effectively replace, as opposed to supplement, in-class instruction. This study compared learning outcomes for Introductory Psychology students in hybrid and traditional sections, with hybrid sections replacing 30% of in-class time with online homework using the MyPsychLab course-pack and Blackboard course management system. Data collected over two semesters (N = 730 students in six hybrid and nine traditional sections of ∼50 students) indicated equivalent final-grade averages and rates of class attrition. Although exam averages did not differ by class format, exam grades in …

Transformation From Text To Voicethreads And Not Looking Back, Curtis Izen

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Promoting Global Empathy And Engagement Through Real-Time Problem-Based Simulations: Outcomes From A Policymaking Simulation Set In Post-Earthquake Haiti, Chad Raymond, Tina Zappile, Daniel J. Beers

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

We introduce a real-time problem-based simulation in which students are tasked with drafting policy to address the challenge of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in post-earthquake Haiti from a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Students who participated in the simulation completed a quantitative survey as a pretest/posttest on global empathy, political awareness, and civic engagement, and provided qualitative data through post-simulation focus groups. The simulation was run in four courses across three campuses in a variety of instructional settings from 2013 to 2015. An analysis of the data reveals that scores on several survey items measuring global empathy and political/civic engagement increased …