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Full-Text Articles in Education
Deconstructing The Syllabus: Re-Envisioning Digital Learning With The Shift To Canvas, Lashaunn Bold, Kimberly Breuer, Brian Brown, Cynthia Kilpatrick, Michelle Reed, Peggy Semingson
Deconstructing The Syllabus: Re-Envisioning Digital Learning With The Shift To Canvas, Lashaunn Bold, Kimberly Breuer, Brian Brown, Cynthia Kilpatrick, Michelle Reed, Peggy Semingson
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
A group of four faculty members and a librarian present ideas for integrating innovative tools and ideas into Canvas for student in higher education (The University of Texas at Arlington), with an overarching focus on student communication and collaboration. Each presenter will share on ways we have reconsidered teaching with the LMS with the shift from Blackboard to Canvas. Different tools and approaches will be shared including: Integration of Microsoft Teams for communication and group work, Open Education Resources such as Pressbooks and Hypothes.is, use of the Canvas mobile apps, collaboration and discussion tools, and tools for providing instructor feedback …
Developing A List And A Rubric Of Interactive Open Education Resources (Oer) For Science Teacher Candidates Of Diverse Students, Jiyoon Yoon
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
To find the interactive OER (OER) that fits to teach diverse students in science classrooms, this study designs a selection rubric and a list of OER and asks fifty science teacher-candidates to use them for their teaching diverse students. At the end of the study, a survey is conducted and finds that teaching with the interactive OER furnishes the science teacher candidates with knowledge and skills of developing a learning environment for diverse students.To find the interactive OER (OER) that fits to teach diverse students in science classrooms, this study designs a selection rubric and a list of OER and …
Characterizing Log-Logistic (Ll) Distributions Through Methods Of Percentiles And L-Moments, Mohan Pant
Characterizing Log-Logistic (Ll) Distributions Through Methods Of Percentiles And L-Moments, Mohan Pant
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
The main purpose of this paper is to characterize the log-logistic (LL) distributions through the methods of percentiles and L-moments and contrast with the method of (product) moments. The method of (product) moments (MoM) has certain limitations when compared with method of percentiles (MoP) and method of L-moments (MoLM) in the context of fitting empirical and theoretical distributions and estimation of parameters, especially when distributions with greater departure from normality are involved. Systems of equations based on MoP and MoLM are derived. A methodology to simulate univariate LL distributions based on each of the two methods (MoP and MoLM) is …
Simulating Uniform- And Triangular- Based Double Power Method Distributions, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
Simulating Uniform- And Triangular- Based Double Power Method Distributions, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Power method (PM) polynomials have been used for simulating non-normal distributions in a variety of settings such as toxicology research, price risk, business-cycle features, microarray analysis, computer adaptive testing, and structural equation modeling. A majority of these applications are based on the method of matching product moments (e.g., skew and kurtosis). However, estimators of skew and kurtosis can be (a) substantially biased, (b) highly dispersed, or (c) influenced by outliers. To address this limitation, two families of double-uniform-PM and double-triangular-PM distributions are characterized through the method of ??-moments using a doubling technique. The ??-moment based procedure is contrasted with the …
Twenty-Six Years Of Changes In Education Students’ Attitudes, Mary Lynn Crow, Mohan Pant
Twenty-Six Years Of Changes In Education Students’ Attitudes, Mary Lynn Crow, Mohan Pant
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
The main purpose of this quantitative study was to compare graduate education students from 1988 with graduate and undergraduate education students from 2014 in regard to their attitudes and expectations about teaching, schools, and students. The sample of participants for this study was chosen from a large public research university in North Texas and it was comprised of 50 graduate education students from 1988, 119 undergraduate and 147 graduate education students from 2014.The 2014 graduate education students were found to be significantly more negative and to have significantly lower expectations than either the graduate education students of 1988 or the …
A Characterization Of The Burr Type Iii And Type Xii Distributions Through The Method Of Percentiles And The Spearman Correlation, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
A Characterization Of The Burr Type Iii And Type Xii Distributions Through The Method Of Percentiles And The Spearman Correlation, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
A characterization of Burr Type III and Type XII distributions based on the method of percentiles (MOP) is introduced and contrasted with the method of (conventional) moments (MOM) in the context of estimation and fitting theoretical and empirical distributions. The methodology is based on simulating the Burr Type III and Type XII distributions with specified values of medians, inter-decile ranges, left-right tail-weight ratios, tail-weight factors, and Spearman correlations. Simulation results demonstrate that the MOP-based Burr Type III and Type XII distributions are substantially superior to their (conventional) MOM-based counterparts in terms of relative bias and relative efficiency.
Towards Understanding When Service-Learning Fosters Efficacy Beliefs Of Preservice Teachers, Kathleen Tice, Larry Nelson
Towards Understanding When Service-Learning Fosters Efficacy Beliefs Of Preservice Teachers, Kathleen Tice, Larry Nelson
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
This research uses a mixed methods approach in focusing upon the role service-learning can play in enhancing preservice teachers’ sense of efficacy. Results of the quantitative component reveal significant gains in efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers who engaged in a service-learning project during a course in their teacher preparation. At the completion of a service-learning project, preservice teachers shared their perceptions of their participation through written reflections. Qualitative analysis of the preservice teachers’ written reflections and the characteristics of the service-learning experience uncover sources of efficacy, providing guidance for planning service-learning in teacher education. Additionally, findings document the importance of …
"We Gotta Change First" : Racial Literacy In A High School English Classroom, Holly Hungerford-Kresser
"We Gotta Change First" : Racial Literacy In A High School English Classroom, Holly Hungerford-Kresser
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Students need more opportunities to learn how to respond to and counter forms of everyday racism. This qualitative study addresses that need by investigating how one peer-led group engaged in dialogue about issues of race in regards to an eleventh-grade Language Arts assignment. A racial literacy perspective framed our analysis of three small group conversations. Findings suggest that dialogue in the small group fostered opportunities for students to engage in the following elements of racial literacy: a) hear and appreciate diverse and unfamiliar experiences; b) facilitate problem-solving with the community; and c) create opportunities to talk about race.Students need more …
Using A Generalized Linear Mixed Model Approach To Explore The Role Of Age, Motor Proficiency, And Cognitive Styles In Children's Reach Estimation Accuracy, Priscila M. Cacola, Mohan Pant
Using A Generalized Linear Mixed Model Approach To Explore The Role Of Age, Motor Proficiency, And Cognitive Styles In Children's Reach Estimation Accuracy, Priscila M. Cacola, Mohan Pant
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
The purpose was to use a multi-level statistical technique to analyze how children's age, motor proficiency, and cognitive styles interact to affect accuracy on reach estimation tasks via Motor Imagery and Visual Imagery. Results from the Generalized Linear Mixed Model analysis (GLMM) indicated that only the 7-year-old age group had significant random intercepts for both tasks. Motor proficiency predicted accuracy in reach tasks, and cognitive styles (object scale) predicted accuracy in the motor imagery task. GLMM analysis is suitable to explore age and other parameters of development. In this case, it allowed an assessment of motor proficiency interacting with age …
Visual And Linguistic Factors In Literacy Acquisition: Instructional Implication For Beginning Readers In Low Income Countries, Helen Abadzi, C Marinelli, M Martelli, P. Praphamontripong, P Zoccolotti
Visual And Linguistic Factors In Literacy Acquisition: Instructional Implication For Beginning Readers In Low Income Countries, Helen Abadzi, C Marinelli, M Martelli, P. Praphamontripong, P Zoccolotti
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Improving the quality of literacy teaching may require intervening at different levels, for example, encouraging school attendance and optimizing textbook format and teaching methods. Reading is a complex task involving perceptual, motor, linguistic, phonological, and memory components, each of which has a crucial role in determining reading rate. High poverty rates continue to have a negative impact on human resource development and education quality in Africa, further complicating the ability of most countries to reach the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Moreover, Africa and Asia are hosts to most of the world's multilingual countries, in which …
Literacy For All In 100 Days? A Research Based Strategy For Fast Progress In Low Income Countries, Helen Abadzi
Literacy For All In 100 Days? A Research Based Strategy For Fast Progress In Low Income Countries, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
In low-income countries many students are marginalized very early and remain illiterate. In grades 1-3 they attend rarely, though they may officially drop out in grade 4. Many others graduate from primary school without having learned letter values. The worrisome outcomes, despite much donor investment in low-income countries, have prompted scrutiny of the methods, and textbooks used to make students literate. This document offers insights from cognitive neuroscience and evidence suggesting that students can be taught basic literacy within the first semester of grade 1, if taught in consistently spelled languages. Teaching students at risk of dropout to read as …
A Method For Simulating Burr Type Iii And Type Xii Distributions Through Moments And Correlations, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
A Method For Simulating Burr Type Iii And Type Xii Distributions Through Moments And Correlations, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
This paper derives the Burr Type III and Type XII family of distributions in the contexts of univariate ??-moments and the ??- correlations. Included is the development of a procedure for specifying nonnormal distributions with controlled degrees of ??-skew, ??-kurtosis, and ??-correlations. The procedure can be applied in a variety of settings such as statistical modeling (e.g., forestry, fracture roughness, life testing, operational risk, etc.) and Monte Carlo or simulation studies. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate that ??-moment-based Burr distributions are superior to their conventional moment-based analogs in terms of estimation and distribution fitting. Evaluation of the proposed procedure …
Education For All In Low-Income Countries: A Crucial Role For Cognitive Scientists, Helen Abadzi
Education For All In Low-Income Countries: A Crucial Role For Cognitive Scientists, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Donor funding has helped enroll in school most children of low-income countries. However, students get little schooling and few opportunities to encode and consolidate information. Many fail to learn and automatize the small units needed for more complex skills, such as reading. As a result, many children remain illiterate and drop out in the early primary grades. However, donors and governments often focus on the socioeconomic difficulties of the very poor and have limited insights on how to teach students who get no academic preparation before grade 1. Furthermore, staff experiences with middle class schools may promote complex instructional methods …
Can Adults Become Fluent In Newly Learned Scripts?, Helen Abadzi
Can Adults Become Fluent In Newly Learned Scripts?, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Adults learning new scripts have difficulty becoming automatic readers. They typically read haltingly, understand little of what they read, and may forget letter values. This article presents the hypothesis that halting reading among adult neoliterates is due to low-level perceptual functions in the brain that have a sensitive period. These may be related to feature integration; whether illiterate or educated, adults learning a new script may be perceiving letters as connected segments rather than unbreakable units. The time needed to resolve ambiguities and determine how the segments are combined may delay identification and result in letter-by-letter reading. This phenomenon could …
How To Speed Up Arabic Literacy For Lower-Income Students? Some Insights From Cognitive Neuroscience., Helen Abadzi
How To Speed Up Arabic Literacy For Lower-Income Students? Some Insights From Cognitive Neuroscience., Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
A Doubling Technique For The Power Method Transformations, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
A Doubling Technique For The Power Method Transformations, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Power method polynomials are used for simulating non-normal distributions with specified product moments or L-moments. The power method is capable of producing distributions with extreme values of skew (L-skew) and kurtosis (L-kurtosis). However, these distributions can be extremely peaked and thus not representative of real-world data. To obviate this problem, two families of distributions are introduced based on a doubling technique with symmetric standard normal and logistic power method distributions. The primary focus of the methodology is in the context of L-moment theory. As such, L-moment based systems of equations are derived for simulating univariate and multivariate non-normal distributions with …
Reading Fluency Measurements In Efa Fti Partner Countries : Outcomes And Improvement Prospects, Helen Abadzi
Reading Fluency Measurements In Efa Fti Partner Countries : Outcomes And Improvement Prospects, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Students in lower-income countries often acquire limited literacy in school and often drop out illiterate. For those who stay, the problem is not detected until it is too late to intervene. Oral reading fluency tests given in the early grades can quickly and inexpensively assess student literacy. For this reason, one-minute reading studies have been popular. A search carried out in early 2010 showed that over 50 fluency studies have been conducted in various countries, and that norms have been established in the U.S., Mexico, and Chile. The studies often reported data in ways that were not easily comparable, and …
Navigating Early College: Literacy Experiences And Identity Negotiations Of Latina/O Students, Holly Hungerford-Kresser
Navigating Early College: Literacy Experiences And Identity Negotiations Of Latina/O Students, Holly Hungerford-Kresser
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
This research provides insight into the adjustments of urban-schooled Latina/o students as they enter higher education. This year-and-a-half-long qualitative case study focuses on connections between identity negotiations and the academic literacies of five Latina/o college students at a predominately White university. Specifically, I draw on sociocultural definitions of literacy along with literature that focuses on “identity as position” as a means of discussing the ways in which Latina/os are positioned by the discourses embedded in the academic literacies of the university. In seeming contradiction, the students in this study adopted critical perspectives as well as deficit perspectives as they navigated …
On Simulating Univariate And Multivariate Burr Type Iii And Type Xii Distributions, Todd C. Headrick, Mohan Pant, Yanyan Sheng
On Simulating Univariate And Multivariate Burr Type Iii And Type Xii Distributions, Todd C. Headrick, Mohan Pant, Yanyan Sheng
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
This paper describes a method for simulating univariate and multivariate Burr Type III and Type XII distributions with specified correlation matrices. The methodology is based on the derivation of the parametric forms of a pdf and cdf for this family of distributions. The paper shows how shap parameters can be computed for specified values of skew and kurtosis. It is also demonstrated how to compute percentage points and other measures of central tendency such as the mode, median, and trimmed mean. Examples are provided to demonstrate how this Burr family can be used in the context of distribution fitting using …
Instructional Time Loss In Developing Countries : Concepts, Measurement, And Implications, Helen Abadzi
Instructional Time Loss In Developing Countries : Concepts, Measurement, And Implications, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Students in developing countries are often taught for only a fraction of the intended number of school hours. Time is often wasted due to informal school closures, teacher absenteeism, delays, early departures, and poor use of classroom time. Since the 1970s, attempts have been made in several countries to measure the use of instructional time in schools and its impact on student achievement. Studies have been of variable quality and have used different definitions and methods. However, they have consistently shown that significant amounts of time are lost and that the amount of time spent engaged in learning tasks is …
American Indian Students Speak Out: What's Good Citizenship?, Leisa A. Martin, John J. Chiodo
American Indian Students Speak Out: What's Good Citizenship?, Leisa A. Martin, John J. Chiodo
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
For much of our country’s history, citizenship has eluded American Indian people. With this in mind, the authors conducted a study to determine the perceptions of eighth and eleventh grade American Indian students regarding citizenship. We wanted to find out what American Indian students believe are the attributes of a good citizen; what activities they are currently participating in that are related to good citizenship; and what citizenship activities they see themselves performing ten years later in life. The results of the research study indicated that American Indian students’ views of citizenship were grounded in community service rather than in …
Efficient Learning For The Poor: New Insights Into Literacy Acquisition For Children, Helen Abadzi
Efficient Learning For The Poor: New Insights Into Literacy Acquisition For Children, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Reading depends on the speed of visual recognition and capacity of short-term memory. To understand a sentence, the mind must read it fast enough to capture it within the limits of the short-term memory. This means that children must attain a minimum speed of fairly accurate reading to understand a passage. Learning to read involves “tricking” the brain into perceiving groups of letters as coherent words. This is achieved most efficiently by pairing small units consistently with sounds rather than learning entire words. To link the letters with sounds, explicit and extensive practice is needed; the more complex the spelling …
Absenteeism And Beyond: Instructional Time Loss And Consequences, Helen Abadzi
Absenteeism And Beyond: Instructional Time Loss And Consequences, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Studies have shown that learning outcomes are related to the amount of time students engage in learning tasks. However, visits to schools have revealed that students are often taught for only a fraction of the intended time, particularly in lower-income countries. Losses are due to informal school closures, teacher absenteeism, delays, early departures, and sub-optimal use of time in the classroom. A study was undertaken to develop an efficient methodology for measuring instructional time loss. Thus, instructional time use was measured in sampled schools in Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The percentage of time that students …
Efficient Learning For The Poor : Insights From The Frontier Of Cognitive Neuroscience, Helen Abadzi
Efficient Learning For The Poor : Insights From The Frontier Of Cognitive Neuroscience, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
This book integrates research into applications that extend from preschool brain development to the memory of adult educators. In layman's terms, it provides explanations and answers to questions such as: Why do children have to read fast before they can understand what they read? How do health, nutrition, and stimulation influence brain development? Why should students learn basic skills in their maternal language? Is there such a thing as an untrained teacher? What signs in a classroom show whether students are getting a quality education? How must information be presented in class so that students can retain it and use …
Strategies And Policies For Literacy, Helen Abadzi
Strategies And Policies For Literacy, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Despite the existence of about one billion illiterates in the world, adult literacy programs make up 1–5 percent of government or donor budgets, and they remain severely underfunded in comparison to primary education. They have had a long and disappointing history of high dropout and low achievement. Overall, many of the 1970s campaigns had efficiency rates of about 12.5 percent, with few participants acquiring stable literacy skills. The 1990s brought new strategies that included empowering NGOs and focusing on existing groups and on management improvement for governments and cooperating organizations. The numbers of participants increased, while dropout and course completion …
Improving Adult Literacy Outcomes: Lessons From Cognitive Research For Developing Countries, Helen Abadzi
Improving Adult Literacy Outcomes: Lessons From Cognitive Research For Developing Countries, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Despite the existence of about one billion illiterates in the world, adult literacy programs make up 1-5 percent of government or donor budgets, and they remain severely underfunded in comparison to primary education. Though dropout and course completion rates improved in the 1990s, the outcomes of literacy instruction are still modest and may have improved little since the 1970s. The results may disappoint governments and donors who expect that once taught, people will have usable skills and remain literate. The modest results make it hard to increase coverage and to argue for increased expenditures for this sector. The results may …
Adult Literacy: A Review Of Implementation Experience, Helen Abadzi
Adult Literacy: A Review Of Implementation Experience, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Worldwide, nearly a billion adults, at least 600 million of them women, are illiterate. Adult literacy is highly relevant to poverty alleviation efforts worldwide, because in the 21st century much of the information needed to make decisions and improve one's economic, personal, family, or political conditions is presented in written form. The Education for All goals include " achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults." Adult literacy is also essential in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. This OED study assesses the …
Teaching Adults To Read Better And Faster: Results From An Experiment In Burkina Faso, Helen Abadzi
Teaching Adults To Read Better And Faster: Results From An Experiment In Burkina Faso, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Two cognitively oriented methods were tested in Burkina Faso to help illiterates learn to read more efficiently. These were (a) speeded reading of increasingly larger word units and (b) phonological awareness training to help connect letters to speech. Learners were given reading tests and a computerized reaction time test. Although the literacy courses were shortened by the arrival of rains and government delays, the piloted methods helped adults read better than those in the standard "control" classes. Learners enrolled in the experimental classes performed better on the outcome tests than did learners enrolled in control classes. Ninety percent of the …
What We Know About Acquisition Of Adult Literacy: Is There Hope?, Helen Abadzi
What We Know About Acquisition Of Adult Literacy: Is There Hope?, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
Literacy acquired in childhood positively influences quality of life, but the effects of literacy acquired in adulthood are not well known. Experience shows that literacy is not easily disseminated to adults and that the skills of neoliterates are not stable. Dropouts, mastery, and retention rates are about 50 percent at each stage, so the effectiveness rate of some projects may only be 12 to 15 percent. As a result, literacy projects are now rarely funded by the World Bank despite requests from governments. To find causes for the low effectiveness of programs, two literature reviews were conducted on the topic …
Why We Need Ancient Greek And How To Remember It: Comparisons Between Greece And South Asia, Helen Abadzi
Why We Need Ancient Greek And How To Remember It: Comparisons Between Greece And South Asia, Helen Abadzi
Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.