Education Commons^™

Teaching Phonics Mastery Through The Use Of Differentiated And Instructional Strategies, Ashley Honeyman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone reports the effectiveness of using differentiated instructional and assessment strategies to improve student understanding in phonics mastery. Based on pretest data that analyzed understanding of short u consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, phonics instruction was implemented to meet the needs of students in whole-group and small-group settings. This unit consisted of five whole-group lessons over short u blending and segmentation. In addition to the whole group learning, specific students were pulled for small-group intervention. The unit concluded with a post-assessment that tested student understanding on real and nonsense CVC words; these assessments were implemented to assess if the integration of …

Increasing Student Engagement And Learning Of The Age Of Exploration Through Differentiated Instruction And Assessment, Hannah M. Smith

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project examines the impact of incorporating two instructional and two assessment strategies within a tenth-grade World Civilization unit centered on enhancing students' comprehension of the Age of Exploration. The Age of Exploration unit had 16 instructional days between the pre- and post-assessment. Drawing insights from student data, it was that learners demonstrated enhanced and increased comprehension and improved performance throughout this unit, attributable to various differentiated instructional strategies and assessment methods. This paper will report what the instructional strategies and assessment methods consisted of and the effect they had on student learning. I collected and analyzed the pre- …

Teaching Story Problems To First-Grade Students Utilizing A Variety Of Differentiated Instructional Strategies And Assessment Methods, Shelby Decker

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies implemented throughout a math unit in a first-grade classroom. The capstone will report the effectiveness of two instructional strategies and two assessment methods that were integrated into a math unit that focused on students’ understanding of story problems with a missing addend or subtrahend. The math unit had 13 lessons taught over four weeks between the pre- and post-assessment. Based on student data, students’ understanding and performance increased throughout this unit by using a variety of differentiated instructional strategies and assessment methods. In this capstone, I will report what the instructional strategies …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Graphic Organizers In An English Classroom, Alexandra Espinoza

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The use of graphic organizers has risen in classrooms over the past few decades. However, it is essential to assess whether they lead to improved student learning, as some trending instructional strategies are not well-backed by quality research. The purpose of this study was to analyze if graphic organizers are indeed effective to use in a high school English class. This study took place in a secondary school setting for a weeklong unit. For this project, students completed three graphic organizers throughout the unit in order to better understand selected topics relating to the unit’s nonfiction text including inferences, characterization, …

Obstacles In Learning Algorithm Run-Time Complexity Analysis, Bailey Licht

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Algorithm run-time complexity analysis is an important topic in data structures and algorithms courses, but it is also a topic that many students struggle with. Commonly cited difficulties include the necessary mathematical background knowledge, the abstract nature of the topic, and the presentation style of the material. Analyzing the subject of algorithm analysis using multiple learning theories shows that course materials often leave out key steps in the learning process and neglect certain learning styles. Students can be more successful at learning algorithm run-time complexity analysis if these missing stages and learning styles are addressed.

Teaching The Relationship Between Multiplication And Division Through Differentiated Instructional Strategies, Teagan Vaughan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies that were integrated throughout a math unit. The capstone will report the effectiveness of two instructional strategies that were integrated into a math unit that focused on students’ understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division. The math unit had 12 lessons taught over three weeks between the pre-and post-assessment. I will report how the strategies worked and the effect the strategies had on students learning. I collected and analyzed the pre/post-test data and found that nonlinguistic representations and multi-level questioning are effective instructional strategies for increasing student learning.

Keywords: instructional …

The Impacts Of Positive Praise On Science Achievement Levels Of Female Students, Sidney Hanel

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

To the general eye, it appears there has been an increase of women in STEM and overall female interest in science however, this is not apparent in the high school classrooms. The lowest level physics classrooms are overwhelmingly female, and the AP Physics class of twenty-five students has two female students. Society is seeing more equal numbers of males and females in biology, healthcare, dentistry, and other medical related fields. This is a wonderful advancement however many other STEM careers are being forgotten.

This study focuses on five physical science courses one of which is provided with additional feedback and …

Pedagogy Or Andragogy?: Which Teaching Method Produces Successful Esl Tutoring That Involves Musical Activities?, Julia Cormack

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Considering the connections between music and language, as well as Chi et al.’s (2001) theory, this thesis introduces an original case study investigation: which teaching method, pedagogy or andragogy, will be most effective in one-on-one ESL tutoring sessions that use music as source material? The term pedagogy often describes the art and science of teaching. However, its Greek roots refer to the method of the teacher leading the classroom. Meanwhile, andragogy describes a teaching method where the teacher engages with the students in the learning and leading; Greek for “leader of man,” andragogy most often refers to teaching adults. To …

Runway Safety Training Methods For Runway Incursion Prevention, Powers Dicus, Scott Tarry

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Federal Aviation Administration wants to educate pilots about Runway safety to prevent runway incursions. The number of runway incursions increased nearly 83% from 954 in 2011 to 1,744 by the end of 2017 (OIG, 2018). This experimental research project trained 20 pilots using three different methods of teaching (classroom, online, in a flight simulator) to determine which method most effectively taught pilots about a specific topic in aviation. The different training methods change the way the educational content is delivered and this change in delivery could impact how well the pilots learn the material (Cox, 2010). The participants were …

La Universidad Unit In A Comprehensible Input Classroom, Bailey Morley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project looks at a specific unit taught in a Spanish classroom through the use of comprehensible input and the types of activities that were used in order to support comprehensible input in the classroom. It provides a collection of comprehensible input activities that may be used in the foreign language classroom along with providing rationale for the activities, research-supported assessment and instructional strategies, and examples of differentiation and assessment for the unit. A variety of activities were used including class story creation, running dictation, and nonverbal representation. Ways of assessment also varied throughout the unit, incorporating both formative …

Using Multiple Intelligence Theory To Aid In Reading Comprehension, Kelsy Neil

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The main purpose of this study is to determine if using Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory to guide activities for literature groups aids in student comprehension. Students in three literature groups at the fifth and sixth grade level were given a survey to determine each student’s intelligence scores. After each student’s intelligence scores were found, the average of each intelligence score was used to determine the groups’ strongest and weakest intelligences. Activities were then made for each group to correlate with their strongest and weakest intelligences and comprehension was tested after each reading assignment and activity was completed via a …