Education Commons^™

Empowering Teacher Candidates To Create Social Justice Curriculum Through Civic Engagement Projects, Gayle Y. Thieman

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this research is to examine how participating in a Civic Engagement Project (CEP) led teacher candidates (TCs) to develop and publish race and social justice curriculum. This article describes the CEP, a graduate level social studies methods course assignment for TCs who research community issues, select a class project, collaborate, create and publish resources for educators. This mixed-methods study examines the challenges, benefits and process of the CEP. TCs' reflections, digital curriculum and resources they created, surveys and interviews with TCs after graduation were analyzed through six criteria of anti-racist curriculum, based on Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge …

Enhancement Of The Command-Line Environment For Use In The Introductory Statistics Course And Beyond, David W. Gerbing

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

R and Python are commonly used software languages for data analytics. Using these languages as the course software for the introductory course gives students practical skills for applying statistical concepts to data analysis. However, the reliance upon the command line is perceived by the typical nontechnical introductory student as sufficiently esoteric that its use detracts from the teaching of statistical concepts and data analysis. An R package was developed based on the successive feedback of hundreds of introductory statistics students over multiple years to provide a set of functions that apply basic statistical principles with command-line R. The package offers …

Tactile Materials In Practice: Understanding The Experiences Of Teachers Of The Visually Impaired, Mahika Phutane, Julie Wright, Brenda Veronica Castro, Lei Shi, Simone R. Stern, Holly Lawson, Shiri Azenkot

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs) regularly present tactile materials (tactile graphics, 3D models, and real objects) to students with vision impairments. Researchers have been increasingly interested in designing tools to support the use of tactile materials, but we still lack an in-depth understanding of how tactile materials are created and used in practice today. To address this gap, we conducted interviews with 21 TVIs and a 3-week diary study with eight of them. We found that tactile materials were regularly used for academic as well as non-academic concepts like tactile literacy, motor ability, and spatial awareness. Real objects and …

University Metrics Annual Report, Office Of Institutional Research And Planning

Office of the President Publications and Presentations

At the request of the PSU Board of Trustees in 2019-2020, the President and his executive team developed a set of metrics in the areas of finance, undergraduate and graduate enrollment, and student success. The metrics were approved by the Board of Trustees on August 20, 2020.

For each metric, actual performance is charted against three-year goals, and the results are reported annually to the Board and the PSU Faculty Senate. A narrative report, summary chart, and Excel spreadsheets containing the underlying data are available as supplemental files and also through the University Metrics link on the Office of the …

A Resource For Understanding And Evaluating Outcomes Of Undergraduate Field Experiences, Erin E. Shortlidge, Alison Jolley, Stephanie Shaulskiy, Emily Geraghty Ward, Christopher N. Lorentz, Kari O'Connell

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate field experiences (UFEs) are a prominent element of science education across many disciplines; however, empirical data regarding the outcomes are often limited. UFEs are unique in that they typically take place in a field setting, are often interdisciplinary, and include diverse students. UFEs range from courses, to field trips, to residential research experiences, and thereby have the potential to yield a plethora of outcomes for undergraduate participants. The UFE community has expressed interest in better understanding how to assess the outcomes of UFEs. In response, we developed a guide for practitioners to use when assessing their UFE that promotes …

"We Support You... To An Extent": Identities, Intersections, And Family Support Among First-Generation Students In A School Of Social Work, Miranda Mosier

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Family support is a critical part of college student retention. Given the strength of parental educational attainment in predicting access and persistence among college students (Choy, 2001), some have questioned the capacity for families to support first-generation college students. Family support may be especially critical for first-generation college students, who value interdependence more highly than continuing generation students (Stephens et al., 2012). This paper centers the perspectives of first-generation students in a school of social work and their experiences of family support. Focus group conversations were analyzed using the Listening Guide/Voice-centered relational data analysis (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). My interpretations …

Considering Who Has Opportunities For Training And Advancement, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

The three working learners featured in this blog post represent contrasting experiences that help us to understand the level and quality of support from such mediators as has become evident in our research, and the resu Its on the careers of these learners. Al I names used are pseudonyms.

A Profile Of Freshman Inquiry Students Fall 2021, Portland State University. University Studies Program, Rowanna L. Carpenter

University Studies Assessment Research

In order to better understand the students who enroll in Freshman Inquiry (FRINQ) courses and identify areas where they may need support, University Studies (UNST) began collecting and compiling data on these students. This report presents a profile of FRINQ students from Fall 2021. It presents an overview of all students enrolled in FRINQ during Fall 2021 and then summarizes information from the Prior Learning Survey. It is organized around three areas that contribute to student success: academic preparation and concern; financial and physical wellbeing; and connectedness to campus.

A Profile Of Sophomore Inquiry Students Fall 2021, Portland State University. University Studies Program, Rowanna L. Carpenter

University Studies Assessment Research

In order to better understand the students who enroll in Sophomore Inquiry (SINQ) courses and begin to identify areas where they may need support, University Studies (UNST) began collecting and compiling data on these students. This report presents a profile of SINQ students from Fall 2021. It presents an overview of all students enrolled in SINQ during Fall 2021 and then summarizes information from the Prior Learning Survey. It is organized around three areas that contribute to student success: academic preparation and concern; financial and physical wellbeing; and connectedness to campus.

Wayfinding Tools For People With Visual Impairments In Real-World Settings: A Literature Review Of Recent Studies, Amy T. Parker, Martin Swobodzinski, Julie D. Wright, Kyrsten Hansen, Becky Morton, Elizabeth Schaller

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

A review of 35 peer reviewed articles dated from 2016 to February, 2021 was conducted to identify and describe the types of wayfinding devices that people who are blind, visually impaired or deafblind use while navigating indoors and/or outdoors in dynamic travel contexts. Within this investigation, we discovered some characteristics of participants with visual impairments, routes traveled, and real-world environments that have been included in recent wayfinding research as well as information regarding the institutions, agencies, and funding sources that enable these investigations. Results showed that 33 out of the 35 studies which met inclusionary criteria integrated the use of …

Fulfilling A Wish List: Creating An Oer Beginning Spanish Textbook And Curriculum, Jenny Ceciliano, Lisa Notman

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report discusses the experience of creating and implementing a new open educational resource (OER) first-year Spanish textbook and curriculum at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. The project began with a long wish list of features. We hoped for a program that would be structured enough to support graduate teaching assistants with little teaching experience, but flexible enough for experienced instructors to make adjustments based on their own expertise, current events, or their unique group of students. We wanted the program to be inclusive and centered on diverse, authentic voices. We wanted to focus on topics that would be …

Who We Are: Focus On… Student Identity, Yarina Aguilar Becerra, Cecilia Diojuan, Jasmine Walker, Neera Malhotra, David Peterson Del Mar, Vicki Reitenauer

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In short

• Increasingly, professionals in higher education are acknowledging the short- and long-term impacts on individuals and communities of institutional failures to create welcoming, inclusive, and caring environments for traditionally underrepresented students.
• Student voices, reflecting on their lived and felt experiences in college, have been less frequently present in the discussions about inclusion in higher education.
• Listening to students from underrepresented groups has the potential to redefine and renew how we understand education and ourselves, offering a template and a foundation for the dense network of relationships that a student-focused institution of higher education ought to aspire to and build …

21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities Convening, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

No abstract provided.

Discarded Identities/Inspiring Just Sustainability With Reuse Persona Dolls, Michelle A. Domingues

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The author identifies as a mixed-race Chicana teacher/educator, bridging ecology, culture, and learning situated within an early learning center on a university campus. This inquiry integrates Gloria Anzaldúa’s autohistoria teoría/autobiographical theory and documents (1) the social construction of a gender-fluid persona doll named “Logan” during a focus group with REMIDA Reggio-inspired educators, (2) a (dis)rupture that took place after engaging the persona doll to introduce the term “transgender” during a preschool circle time, and (3) lessons learned to move early childhood education for social sustainability forward. During this disrupture in our learning community, the question of whether or not to …

Critical Race Theory: Convening 2, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek,, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

We seek to identify the factors that incentivize frontline service workers to engage in workplace-sponsored learning activities that support development of 21st century skills, including specific workplace skills, digital literacy, English language and literacy, problem solving, and adult basic skills. Central to this study is elevating the voice of the working learner.

Teacher Preparation In The Shadow Of Loss: The Blurring Of Transacting, Transforming, And Transgressing, Anita L. Bright

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this narrative, autoethnographic piece, the author contends with the constructs of transactional, transformational, and transgressive forms of educational engagement and teaching, all coming to the fore in a time of tremendous sorrow, loss, stress, and transition. Looking to critical scholars and their works for guidance, the author describes the path into and through a course with teacher candidates, taken on mid-term after the unexpected death of a close colleague.

Understanding Learners Through Personna: Convening 1, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek,, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

We seek to identify the factors that incentivize frontline service workers to engage in workplace-sponsored learning activities that support development of 21st century skills, including specific workplace skills, digital literacy, English language and literacy, problem solving, and adult basic skills. Central to this study is elevating the voice of the working learner.

Naomi: Learning For Future Possibilities, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

We've published 5 blog posts that present different personas of working learners. These personas are drawn from our interviews with frontline worker learners across the country who are participating in employer-supported learning opportunities. The personas characterize aspects of a set of real people - capturing and blending them in order to create one story that illustrates a broader representation of a participant in an employer-supported educational program or course.

21st Century Learning Ecosystem For Working Learners, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek,, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

• What are the experiences of working learners in employer sponsored learning?
• What motivates frontline service workers to participate in employer sponsored learning opportunities, many of which are offered online?
• What factors support working learners’ continued participation and their success?

Equity Journey To Crt, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

By thinking about racism and all social justice work as a systemic issue rather than a set of individual actions, we are led to question the underlying structures that may be undermining working learners' success despite the best efforts of all involved. Adopting the lens of CRT in our work is meant to provoke change and prompt healing. It has caused us to question our role as researchers and our place as educators in the social justice movement. It has challenged us to move out of the safety of academia and to think of our research as social action. The …

So, Why Persona?, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

A colleague asked us a thoughtful and compelling question - why did we create the personas and how do these personas help employers, human resources staff, people working in workforce education, and those in adult education? We wrote this blog post to address those questions.

Dani: Front-Line Supervisor Paid Hourly Seeking Certification For Advancement, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In our final two blog posts we offer personas based on people who are working to earn a degree or certificate, including Regina: Healthcare worker seeking to establish a career and, here in our final persona to date, Dani, an hourly frontline supervisor who wants to earn a certificate and advance her career.

Rewilding Language Education: Emergent Assemblages And Entangled Actions, Steven L. Thorne, John Hellermann, Teppo Jakonen

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Integrating concepts and techniques from ethnomethodology and sociomaterialism, this article investigates the observable material processes involving human action and place-based contexts of language use enabled by locative media. The focal pedagogical intervention utilized mobile augmented reality (AR) activities, the development of which was inspired by research on learning ‘in the wild.’ Applying the principle of reverse engineering, we introduce a pedagogical approach termed ‘rewilding’ for its emphasis on designing supportive conditions for goal-directed interaction outside of classrooms. Three instances of AR materials use are presented from an out-of-class activity associated with university-level language courses involving a quest-type AR game called …

Teaching Race And Racial Justice: Developing Students’ Cognitive And Affective Understanding, Amie Thurber, Joe Bandy, M. Brielle Harbin

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effectively addressing both cognitive and affective dimensions of learning is one of the greatest obstacles to teaching race and racial justice in higher education. In this article, we first explore the need to integrate attention to cognitive and affective development, along with evidence-based strategies for doing so. We then provide a case study of an undergraduate sociology course on environmental justice in which the instructor intentionally adopted holistic pedagogical principles of teaching race. Analyzing student responses from a pre- and post- course survey, course assignments, and instructor observations of student participation, we find that both white students and students of …

Regina: Healthcare Worker Seeking To Establish A Career, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In this post, we share our fourth persona, this one based on people who are working to earn a degree or certificate.

Problematizing Perceptions Of Stem Potential: Differences By Cognitive Disability Status In High School And Postsecondary Educational Outcomes, Dara Shifrer, Daniel Mackin Freeman

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) potential of youth with cognitive disabilities is often dismissed through problematic perceptions of STEM ability as natural and of youth with cognitive disabilities as unable. National data on more than 15,000 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 first suggest that, among youth with disabilities, youth with medicated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have the highest levels of STEM achievement, and youth with learning or intellectual disabilities typically have the lowest. Undergraduates with medicated ADHD or autism appear to be more likely to major in STEM than youth without cognitive disabilities, and youth …

Elise: Juggling Work, Required Training, And Long-Term Goals, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In past posts we talked about how we are using persona as a research tool and our process for creating personas. In our last post we described Neberu, who is working to feel comfortable interacting with English speakers. In the next several posts we will continue to present the personas we have created.

Neberu: Working To Feel Comfortable Interacting With English Speakers, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In the next several biogs we will continue to present the personas we have created based on our interviews with working learners.

Alimayu: College-Educated Retail Worker Learning English, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In past blogs we talked about how we are using persona as a research tool and our process for creating personas. In the next several biogs we will present the personas we have created based on our interviews with working learners.

Use Of Chinese Herbal Medicines Is Related To A Reduction In Depression Risk Among Patients With Insomnia: A Matched Cohort Study, Yun-Wen Chiao, Hanoch Livneh, How-Ran Guo, Wei-Jen Chen, Ming-Chi Lu, Miao-Chiu Lin, Chia-Chou Yeh, Tzung-Yi Tsai

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: Subjects with insomnia have a higher risk of depression, thus possibly making them live with serious health conditions. To date, information regarding the effect of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs), a commonly used complementary and alternative medicine, on depression risk among people with insomnia is still unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effect of CHMs on the risk of depression among individuals with insomnia.

Methods: This cohort study used a national health insurance database to identify 68,573 subjects newly diagnosed with insomnia, aged 20–70 years, who received treatment between 1998 and 2010. Using propensity score matching, we …