Education Commons^™

Do Zoos And Aquariums Promote Attitude Change In Visitors? A Critical Evaluation Of The American Zoo And Aquarium Study, Lori Marino, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Randy Malamud, Nathan Nobis, Ron Broglio

Lori Marino, PhD

Modern-day zoos and aquariums market themselves as places of education and conservation. A recent study conducted by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) (Falk et al., 2007) is being widely heralded as the first direct evidence that visits to zoos and aquariums produce long-term positive effects on people’s attitudes toward other animals. In this paper, we address whether this conclusion is warranted by analyzing the study’s methodological soundness. We conclude that Falk et al. (2007) contains at least six major threats to methodological validity that undermine the authors’ conclusions. There remains no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos …

Certifying Enrollment Management Professionals, Christopher W. Tremblay

Christopher W Tremblay, Ed.D

Most current professionals who serve in an enrollment management leadership capacity likely were trained “on the job,” or at professional development events, primarily because credit‐bearing credentials, degrees, and other formal programs were non‐existent (Phair, 2014). However, that landscape has since changed and now there are multiple ways for enrollment management professionals to receive a formal education to enhance one’s enrollment management skill set. This article is designed to introduce and review those current academic offerings that provide credibility to the field of enrollment management. The primary training categories include: college admissions counseling, enrollment management, financial aid/financial planning, and college access …

Do Zoos And Aquariums Promote Attitude Change In Visitors? A Critical Evaluation Of The American Zoo And Aquarium Study, Lori Marino, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Randy Malamud, Nathan Nobis, Ron Broglio

Nathan M. Nobis, PhD

Modern-day zoos and aquariums market themselves as places of education and conservation. A recent study conducted by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) (Falk et al., 2007) is being widely heralded as the first direct evidence that visits to zoos and aquariums produce long-term positive effects on people’s attitudes toward other animals. In this paper, we address whether this conclusion is warranted by analyzing the study’s methodological soundness. We conclude that Falk et al. (2007) contains at least six major threats to methodological validity that undermine the authors’ conclusions. There remains no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos …

The Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model: Early Literacy In Context, Leigh Rohde

Leigh Rohde

Graduating High School In A Recession: Work, Education, And Home Production, Brad Hershbein

Brad J. Hershbein

No abstract provided.

Maximising Children's Learning Potential, Sam Frankel

Sam Frankel

A version of presentation delivered to conference for teachers from schools boards across South Western Ontario

Integrating Games To Teach A First Programming Course, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in game-based learning as a powerful tool to stimulate students’ interest and promote their engagement in the learning process. In this paper, we discuss our experience in integrating gaming to teach a first programming course. The course is restructured and redesigned to allow teaching the basics of programming through games. Students actively use fundamental programming concepts learned to modify and create two dimension games using C# and XNA with .Net framework. This is an on-going work. Surveys and worksheets are developed to be used in assessing the effectiveness of …

Perspectives On Numeracy: Reflections From International Assessments, Dave Tout, Iddo Gal

David (Dave) Tout

This paper examines perspectives regarding the mathematical skills expected of adults and school graduates, comparing ideas developed as part of two major multinational comparative assessments of skills: the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (also known as the OECD Survey of Adult Skills). The paper reflects on the conceptual and assessment frameworks developed for these two programmes, aiming to shed light on the commonalities and differences between the constructs of numeracy and mathematical literacy and to inform current debate about directions for developing mathematical skills in the 21st Century.

Using Simulated Virtual Interactivity In Construction Education, Saeed Rokooei, James Goedert

Saeed Rokooei

Information And Communication Technology Presentation: Ict Education And Girls, Jenny Wilkinson

Jenny Wilkinson

No abstract provided.

Critical Success Factors In M-Learning: A Socio- Technical Perspective, Vlad Krotov

Vlad Krotov

Promoting And Retaining Minorities In Technology, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

This paper presents an on-going research project which is motivated by the lack of minorities in technology fields. This shortage typically results in stereotypes amongst minority students and is likely to prevent them from effectively competing with others. The problem motivated us to encourage middle school students to dispel stereotypes and embrace technology fields by engaging them in hands-on activities that initiate them to programming and Robotics. Students are also introduced to various aspects of the IT field including HTML and Microsoft Office. Surveys are used to measure the students’ attitudes and knowledge about technology before and after the program.

The Effects Of Doubling Instruction Efforts On Middle School Students' Achievement: Evidence From A Multiyear Regression-Discontinuity Design, Timothy J. Bartik, Marta Lachowska

Marta Lachowska

We use a regression-discontinuity design to study the effects of double blocking sixth-grade students in reading and mathematics on their achievement across three years of middle school. To identify the effect of the intervention, we use sharp cutoffs in the test scores used to assign students to double blocking. We find large, positive, and persistent effects of double blocking in reading, but, unlike previous research, we find no statistically significant effects of double blocking in mathematics either in the short run or medium run.

The Short-Term Effects Of The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship On Student Outcomes, Timothy J. Bartik, Marta Lachowska

Marta Lachowska

In order to study whether college scholarships can be an effective tool in raising students’ performance in secondary school, we use one aspect of the Kalamazoo Promise that resembles a quasi-experiment. The surprise announcement of the scholarship created a large change in expected college tuition costs that varied across different groups of students based on past enrollment decisions. This variation is arguably exogenous to unobserved student characteristics. We estimate the effects of this change by a set of “difference-in-differences” regressions where we compare the change in student outcomes in secondary school across time for different student “length of enrollment” groups. …

The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship, Timothy Bartik, Marta Lachowska

Marta Lachowska

No abstract provided.

Worker Signals Among New College Graduates: The Role Of Selectivity And Gpa, Brad J. Hershbein

Brad J. Hershbein

Recent studies have found a large earnings premium to attending a more selective college, but the mechanisms underlying this premium have received little attention and remain unclear. In order to shed light on this question, I develop a multidimensional signaling model relying on college grades and selectivity that rationalizes students’ choices of effort and firms’ wage-setting behavior. The model is then used to produce predictions of how the interaction of the signals should be related to wages, namely that the return on college GPA should fall the more selective the institution attended. Using five data sets that span the early …

Implementing School-Wide Pbis For High School, Hank Bohanon

Hank Bohanon

Supporting Teacher Orchestration In Ubiquitous Learning Environments: A Study In Primary Education, Juan Muñoz Cristóbal, Ivan Jorrín Abellán, Juan Asensio Perez, Alejandra Martínez Monés, Luis Prieto, Yannis Dimitriadis

Ivan M. Jorrín Abellán

During the last decades, educational contexts have transformed into complex technological and social ecologies, with mobile devices expanding the scope of education beyond the traditional classroom, creating so-called Ubiquitous Learning Environments (ULEs). However, these new technological opportunities entail an additional burden for teachers, who need to manage and coordinate the resources involved in such complex educational scenarios in a process known as “orchestration”. This paper presents the evaluation of the orchestration support provided by GLUEPS-AR, a system aimed to help teachers in the coordination of across-spaces learning situations carried out in ULEs. The evaluation, following an interpretive research perspective, relied …

A National Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Publicly Funded Pre-Kindergarten, Brad J. Hershbein, Timothy J. Bartik

Brad J. Hershbein

From Dissertation Defense To Dissemination: Jump Start Your Academic Career With A Scholar Mentor Group, Melinda Hermanns

Melinda Hermanns

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Web 2.0 In Education And Its Potential For Language Learning And Teaching, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

The arrival of technology has transited the path for an increased use of the Web, allowing for access to diverse kinds of information and materials. With this advent of technology, a significant number of distinct technologies have been introduced to assist in human communication and interaction. Since the genesis of Web 2.0 technologies, people all over the world now have the Internet at their finger tips, and can execute communicative acts with little or no difficulty. In educational contexts, Web 2.0 is making great in-roads even though its full effectiveness still needs to be further researched in the said environments. …

Retrenchment In Higher Education: Public Perceptions And Marketing Implications, Oscar T. Mcknight, Ronald Paugh, Jamie Waltz, Jordan Mcknight

Oscar T McKnight Ph.D.

Creativity Exercises In The Field Of Entrepreneurship, Todd A. Finkle, Mark Shrader

Todd A Finkle