Education Commons^™

Implementing Social Emotional Activities Into The English Language Arts Curriculum, Allison M. Sherbel

Masters Theses

Over the last decade social emotional learning has revealed itself to be an important element in students' academic growth. Social emotional learning requires students to learn the skills necessary to effectively communicate with others as well as maintaining a positive classroom environment, where all students feel supported, safe and heard. When students become more connected to their own emotions, they are developing an essential skill that will help them inside and outside of the classroom. Research shows that implementation of social emotional lessons can improve both immediate and long-term social-emotional ability as well as academic growth. Despite this research, teachers …

Parent Literacy Workshops: A Way To Provide Parents With Strategies To Support Literacy At Home, Ashley Riggs

Masters Theses

Parents of struggling readers are seeking guidance and resources to help their child with reading instruction at home. To meet the needs of these parents, schools should provide parents with workshops that model evidence-based instruction paired with take-home resources. Workshops should focus on foundational skills such as print concepts, phonemic awareness, as well as decoding, using letter-sound relationships and decodable readers. Parents can be an overlooked avenue to the success of students’ reading abilities. This project will provide the framework needed for educators to establish and deliver a literacy workshop for parents.

Kole, Isaiah Aladejobi

Masters Theses

This project focuses on the development of building blocks influenced by the architecture and design styles of Yoruba culture and Washington DC. These building blocks aim to provide an educational and culturally enriching experience for individuals of all ages, with a particular focus on youth.

By combining the traditional design elements of Yoruba architecture with the modern urban aesthetic of Washington DC, the building blocks offer a unique blend of cultural influences for children and adults to explore. Through hands-on building activities, users can engage with the cultural heritage of these two regions, while also developing important skills such as …

The Border Crosser's Pocketbook: A Guide To Engaged Pedagogy In After School Arts, Britney Coppick

Masters Theses

The questions that sparked this research were developed after spending time working internationally and locally with youth in after school arts programs. These inquiries aim to critically examine the way after school arts programs are run in relation to the culturally and racially diverse communities they serve, discuss how these methods engage with the field of arts education as a whole, and ultimately provide practical approaches, strategies, and tools that educators can implement in these programs. Written from the perspective of a white, female educator who works in racially diverse learning spaces, this project is aimed at enabling educators in …

Design: A Path To Agency, Design Thinking: An Educational Imperative, Seva Simone

Masters Theses

Design(ing) and Design Thinking are valuable frameworks that should be used to drive agency: This thesis explores what design and design thinking are and builds a case for incorporating design into art education.

Design isn’t a mainstream subject of study in public school curricula. Design offers a unique body of knowledge that is highly relevant to the inner-workings of our world: knowledge imperative to teach if we want to succeed in solving wicked problems like global warming and mitigating global injustices. Studying design allows students to connect academic learning to the world outside the ivy, bridging the gap between the …

Explorations And Reflections: Gendered Experiences In Teaching And Learning, Francesca Matarese

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the history of women's access to education and the issues of gender disparity in education. I focus on single-gendered schools as I write from personal experience to describe the benefits for individuals in single-gender educational systems. I cite conflicting research on how men and women learn regarding biological, cognitive, and developmental differences. I illuminate some of the benefits of single-gendered education through research, experience, and personal communications. I write about the controversies and disparities regarding education and single-gender schools. I document research on the issues women face in education and the politics of women’s bodies and minds …

Making Pla(Y)Ces: Softening The City Through Play, Shivani Pinapotu

Masters Theses

Cities that grow naturally over time integrate spaces of gathering that allow for serendipitous happenstance. However, the cities we design today instruct and codify through intentional planning and design; they assign use, hardening specific function to place. Such strategies lead to spaces devoid of spirit, inculcating in city-dwellers to a sense of disconnect from the city.

In contrast to this, the places we make as children, express our intuitive, direct, and unselfconscious relationships with space and one other. These spaces embody softness through their malleability and adaptability, borrowing from the world around them and imbuing the ordinary with imagination. …

Kala In My Moholla - Art In My Neighborhood, Priyata Bosamia

Masters Theses

The l question that I am trying to answer through this thesis is “How do we build safe spaces for free creative expression?” The project "Kala in my Moholla", which means "Art in my neighborhood," looks at art as a force and intends to create space for free creative expression by inserting a network of hyper-local, easy-to-build spaces for making, creating, and sharing that are designed to be accessible, participatory, and democratic. A modular design consists of basic forms and a catalog of materials that can be used for its construction. Designed to be malleable, transformable, and customizable, it can …

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Moving At The Speed Of Trust, Sun Ho Lee

Masters Theses

Moving at the Speed of Trust is a workbook of strategies — practices, definitions, and techniques — to nurture community-building in support of inbetweeners who live between power structures and cultures and are often left out. Inbetweeners are those individuals whose lives are in transition through recent immigration or forced translocation from Asia to America.

These strategies revolve around threads of trust: kin, giggles, vulnerability, and shared experience. With these threads, we can question power. We can preserve stories, expand the ways we connect, shift perspectives on what is “standard,” and cultivate a community rooted in understanding. To understand each …

Fungi In Flux | Designing Regenerative Materials And Products With Mycelium, Arvind Bhallamudi

Masters Theses

As the world grapples with the escalating crisis of climate threats and environmental degradation, this research delves into the synergistic potential of design and biology, developing safe and sustainable materials for applications in prototyping, furniture and interior design. Harnessing the power of a unique organism - fungi, the study proposes an accessible, efficient, and resilient material resource system. It utilizes local waste streams and mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi) to grow functional structures. An experimental and small-scale protocol is modeled by testing bio-fabrication and bio-printing methods. The composites' performance qualities and characteristics are evaluated through mechanical testing and a …

Impact Of Art Educators: Artistic Practices, Political Advocacy And Pedagogy Of Frida Kahlo And Faith Ringgold, Gabriela P. Cantu

Masters Theses

Throughout the accomplished careers of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Faith Ringgold (b. 1930), both women produced intimate autobiographical art that was exhibited in major institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of Modern Art, and The Louvre. Beyond their art, I present an analysis of their commitments to work as political activists and arts educators which reveals their prioritization of the social, political, and economic advancement of their respective communities. I argue that their pedagogy, as a culmination of personal and cultural interrogation and celebration, produced measurable success in impacting future generations of diverse artists and …

Citizens Of The English Language: Sociolinguistic Perspectives On Postcolonial India, Prateek Shankar

Masters Theses

This paper introduces the concept of "extralingual citizenship," which I define as an expansion of translingualism to include the ethnoracial logic of the nation-state and demonstrates the entanglement of language, governance, and education in the policing of knowledge infrastructures and discursive practices. I am interested in the codification of postcolonial disparity into the teaching, social performance, and material assessment of English language users, and the infrastructural disqualification of World Englishes (and their amalgams) in favor of a standardized English. I frame extralingualism as a kind of citizenship, shifting the focus of English pedagogy/practice from the syntactical/etymological concerns of language …

Knot, Just Craft It, Qingxian Xu

Masters Theses

The thesis aims to explore the intersection of traditional crafts and modern design by modernizing traditional Chinese crafts like knitting and knotting. The objective is to preserve the aesthetic, cultural, and utility values embedded in these crafts while creating a series of home-scaled furnishing designs that offer a self-making experience.

By applying traditional crafts to modern daily life, the thesis seeks to give new life to the essence of traditional crafts and create new life experiences that are accessible to more consumers. The focus will be on creating modern designs that incorporate traditional knotting and knitting techniques, while also offering …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Mini Makers: Designing Curriculum For Community-Based Arts Education, Hayden Goldberg

Masters Theses

This work serves as documentation of my experience planning and teaching classes for a Rhode Island based after school visual arts pro- gram. Through arts-based action research, I explore methods of documentation and material exploration in order to create an adaptive, emergent curriculum that is responsive to a community-oriented arts education setting.

Data-Wisdom As A Framework For Building Data Literacy, Rita Swartzentruber

Masters Theses

In a world where “big-data” rules, the need for data literate citizens is critical. Not only do we need citizens who can read data, but also citizens who are critical of data practices that perpetuate racist practices. One potential answer for this call is to create “data-wise” citizens. The purpose of this design-based research study was to explore how secondary and post-secondary students can develop data-wisdom through the analysis of three data-inspired artistic data visualizations. This study examined the growth of data-wisdom in participants, the development of classroom norms, and the increase in positive perceptions of mathematics in participants. Data …

Equity Audits For Schools Within Restrictive Settings, Matthew Phillp Milanowski

Masters Theses

This project creates a framework and process for conducting facility wide equity audits for schools within juvenile justice and restrictive settings. To accomplish this, an extensive review of existing literature in both the field of education and the field of juvenile justice and existing frameworks and processes were reviewed to create the new framework, Milanowski’s (2023) Facility Wide – Equity Audit Framework, suitable for juvenile justice and restrictive settings. The new framework was then used to guide the development of a process, data collection tool, improvement planning tool, and fidelity instrument to evaluate the implementation of the overall process. This …

The Transition Into Higher Education For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Tj Estabrook

Masters Theses

There are more students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in higher education now than ever before and these students need to be supported in ways that will guarantee their success. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of six students with ASD as they transition into higher education through the use of semi-structured interviews. What was discovered is that students with ASD typically overestimate the difficulty of academics and underestimate the amount of social interaction they will encounter at the college level. These students are able to identify aspects of themselves that help them to succeed …

Fraternal New Member Processes: An Alumni Perspective, C J. Gibson

Masters Theses

Hazing has always been an issue in fraternities and sororities. Even though there has been a push to reduce the amount of hazing through research and trainings, it continues to cause harm to the community. The purpose of this study is to gain incite from fraternity alums toward understanding the use of hazing activities while orienting fraternity men to the organization. This study examined the issue from the individuals experience, to their role in inducting new members, and now as alums to gain insight in to why chapters continue to that cycle. Results showed that individuals in groups social construct …

The Role Of Time Perspective In The College Major Selection Process, Anders C. Voss

Masters Theses

This phenomenological study examined the experiences of formerly undeclared college sophomores as they navigated major selection and how their time perspective influenced their decision-making process. This study applied time perspective theory to the issue of major selection for college students, an undertaking that offers a new perspective on the professional practices of academic advising and career services on college campuses. This study utilized semi-structured interviews of four female-identifying formerly undeclared students. Participant responses revealed that negative future time attitudes and a lack of future orientation can both contribute to behaviors that defer career decision-making. In contrast, professional staff and faculty …

Assessing The Knowledge On Sustainability And Barriers To Daily Sustainable Practices Among Faculty And Students In Higher Education: The Case Of Eastern Illinois University, Joel Edem Holison

Masters Theses

The concept of sustainable development gained prominence with the publication of the Brundtland Report, which emphasized economic progress without jeopardizing future generations' well-being. Following that, the Education for Sustainability (EfS) program was created by the United Nations to raise sustainability awareness. However, the transition to sustainable living is fraught with difficulties, including a lack of knowledge, financial constraints, infrastructure gaps, and political ideologies. This study focuses on sustainable practices among Eastern Illinois University (EIU) students and faculty, as well as the barriers to daily sustainable behaviors. As independent variables influencing sustainable practices, the study evaluates sustainability knowledge/awareness, personal financial situation, …

Compassion Fatigue Among Resident Assistants At Five Illinois Public Institutions : A Mixed Methods Approach, Téa E. Wheat

Masters Theses

Compassion fatigue, a stress response caused by helping those who have experienced trauma, is a rapidly rising problem for student affairs professionals (Carter, 2019). Among student affairs professionals and paraprofessionals, the resident assistant (RA) is potentially one of the most susceptible populations to compassion fatigue, due to working where they live, which creates a constant need to be on. In addition, they are expected to support students who are increasingly presenting with mental health challenges. This explanatory mixed methods method study sought to first determine the prevalence of compassion fatigue, including its components burnout and secondary trauma, among RAs at …

Still, We Rise: Experiences Of Black Women In Leadership Positions At Predominately White Institutions, Dionne Lipscomb

Masters Theses

Despite the educational progress that Black women in the United States have made, they continue to be underrepresented in positions of senior leadership in all sectors including higher education (American Council on Education, 2017, 2023, de Brey et al., 2019). Because of their double minoritized status they also face bigger challenges in their positions than their White female, White male, and Black male counterparts. This narrative qualitative study utilized theory of othering and intersectionality to highlight the experiences of five Black women as they ascend to leadership positions at four-year predominately White institutions. The research questions guiding this study are: …

Academic Faculty Perceptions Of Student-Athletes, Jacob M. Mueller

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to find what perceptions did academic faculty have of student-athletes, if any, at a midsized Midwestern Division-I institution. The study addressed a gap in literature that existed of researched perceptions academic faculty members had of the student-athlete population as there was a lack of literature related to student-athletes through that lens. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Identity Theory for theoretical conceptualization of the data, the study was able to find tangible evidence for the existence of perceptions of student-athletes from academic faculty and what behaviors, exposure, and experiences related to …

Critical Consciousness, Social-Emotional Learning, And Serving Diverse Students, Brooke Poeschl

Masters Theses

Ensuring that adolescents get the care and support they need to be successful both academically and socially is crucial as an educator. A major part of this process is examining your personal biases and beliefs in order to identify areas that may negatively impact the students in your classroom. This is especially true for students who are high needs, either in terms of learning differences or cultural differences. The following addresses how teachers can impact their students and what practices observable within the classroom have shown beneficial to students of diverse backgrounds, with a specific focus on Muslim students. This …

Assessing The Reliability Of The Five-In-20 Classroom Observation Tool, Danielle Buechlein

Masters Theses

Effective classroom management practices are crucial to fostering a positive learning environment, student achievement, and student social-emotional development, as well as teacher job satisfaction. The Five-in-20 Classroom Observation Tool (FCOT) was developed from the 21 evidence-based strategies identified by Simonsen and colleagues (2008) to assess and support teachers’ classroom management; however, its psychometric properties are unknown. The present study looks at the interobserver agreement of the FCOT, specifically at how consistent observers’ ratings are with each other and how consistent observers’ ratings are with a standard coded copy of the FCOT. Forty-four participants, using the FCOT, rated the same 20-minute …

Student-Athletes’ Decision-Making Process For Selecting An Academic Major, Gina S. Pearson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how collegiate student-athletes experience the decision-making process for selecting their academic major at a midsize, Division I university in the Midwest. With four participants from four different sports, this study’s results centered around four research questions: what was most important to the student-athlete when selecting a major, what challenges they ran into, what role others played in their decision-making process, and how the student-athletes’ athletic identity manifested in their decision-making for their major.

Results of this study indicated that student-athletes value the practical application to a career that their major can …

The Construct Validity Of The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale Of Intelligence, Second Edition (Wasi-Ii) And The Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, Second Edition (Rias-2), Mckenzie K. Sopoci

Masters Theses

The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Second Edition (WASI-II; Wechsler, 2011) and the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, Second Edition (RIAS-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2015) are two intelligence tests created to assess general intelligence, using four subtests reflecting two verbal and two nonverbal (perceptual reasoning) tasks. Both tests overlap to assess individuals between the ages of 6 to 90, and while the WASI-II is specified by the publisher as a screening measure, the RIAS-2 is not. Tests like the WASI-II and RIAS-2 may provide more efficient assessment of general intelligence, which can reduce assessment time and allow professionals to engage in …

Evaluating The Assessment Of Resident Assistant Training, Diego Ulloa

Masters Theses

This poster provides the findings from a qualitative study of four housing professionals responsible for Resident Assistant (RA) training at four institutions in the Great Lake Association of College and University Housing Officers (GLACUHO) professional association that includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. This study looked at how those four institutions assessed, evaluated, and improved the centralized training provided to RAs by the department. Key findings include the importance of the use of learning outcomes for training sessions, developing, and maintaining strong relationships with key campus partners, and the issues around prioritizing session topics and departmental needs …