Education Commons^™

Life History Theory And School-Age Pregnancy: Review And Application, Anna Rozman

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States currently holds one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world, but many Americans, including policy makers, view adolescent childbearing as a societal problem that stems from negligence, promiscuity, and poor decision making. This project seeks to frame the institution of school-age motherhood through the lens of Life History Theory, which posits that early reproduction is an adaptation in the face of harsh conditions and high extrinsic mortality rates. This assertion is supported by evidence that adolescent childbearing has been the norm for most of human history, and continues to be practiced in natural fertility …

Green Chemistry As A Tool For Understanding The Toxic Substances Control Act: A Lecture Module For Undergraduate Students, Molly R. Blessing

Honors Scholar Theses

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the central form of chemical regulation existent in the United States today, yet scientists are often unaware or uncertain of its provisions. Violations of TSCA by unknowing chemists set industry and government unnecessarily at odds. A lecture on TSCA was developed for undergraduate students that uses the concept of green chemistry to promote interest and incentivize learning. Green chemistry methods are cleaner and less wasteful than traditional chemical ones, and many companies using them are at the forefront of technological innovation. The lecture explains both green chemistry and TSCA, includes company case studies, …

Self-Talk+ And Strategic Teacher Moves Aimed At Cognitive Advancement In Linguistically Diverse Elementary Mathematics Classrooms, Bailey M. Muchin

Honors Scholar Theses

This study’s objective was to determine the purposes of self-talk and related forms of talk (self-talk+) in linguistically diverse elementary mathematics classrooms, teacher moves that are often associated with self-talk+, and the relationship between self-talk+ and strategic teacher moves. This study analyzed transcripts, audio recordings, and video recordings from several elementary mathematics classrooms in dual language programs in order to determine the relationship among self-talk+ and strategic teacher moves. This study specifically focused on the purposes of self-talk+ that contributed to, or had the potential to impact, student cognitive advancement. The results of data analysis were mapped in order …

Use Of Phonetics In The Beginner French Classroom: An Analysis Of Textbooks, Melissa B. Scarbrough

Honors Scholar Theses

Textbooks are a common resource for teachers in a variety of content areas, as such it is important that teachers know whether or not textbooks are aligned to standards and current research. This study investigates if common textbooks, reported to be in use in schools across Connecticut, are aligned to recent second language acquisition and French linguistics studies.

Evaluation Of Gifted Education Using A-F School Grading Accountability Systems, Daniel R. Arndt

Honors Scholar Theses

A recent trend in accountability systems in the United States has been grading schools on an A-F scale. Some of the evaluation components included in these systems are standardized test proficiency rates and student growth measures. Traditionally, these systems have not emphasized accountability for gifted education programming or services. The accountability systems of the sixteen states in the U.S. under these A-F systems were analyzed for indicators that involve gifted education, which does not yet have a federal mandate or centralized decision-making. The frequency of evaluation components were compared at the high school and elementary school levels. The only gifted …

Questioning Patterns During Discussions In Collaborative Groups In Socioeconomically Diverse High Schools, Rosa Aghekyan

NERA Conference Proceedings 2014

The use of higher level questioning is known to promote problem solving. However, the research on questioning patterns is mostly restricted to elementary and middle schools. Not enough is known about questioning patterns employed by students during group discussions in socioeconomically diverse high schools. This study’s goals were to record the questioning patterns used during group discussions and find out how often students utilize higher level thinking questions. The research showed significant increase in the percentage of higher level questions utilized by the experimental group pre-test and post-test: 85% in Day 4 compared to 65% in Day 1.

Co-Teaching Partnerships For Excellence In The Age Of Accountability: A Preliminary Study Of The Effects Of Co-Teaching In Student Teaching, Jeanne Delcolle, Claudine Keenan

NERA Conference Proceedings 2014

Accountability measures for educators have made districts reluctant to accept teacher candidates for clinical experience in a traditional take-over model. Difficulty placing teacher candidates prompted Richard Stockton College to research innovative student teaching models to strengthen clinical partnerships with P-12 districts. Studies of co-teaching in student teaching from St. Cloud State University showed a model that provided many benefits to the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher, as well as notable gains in student achievement. That research inspired this pilot study, whichidentified co-teaching strengths in professionalism, teaching time, student learning, and cooperating teacher growth, with implications for strengthening future research.

The Use Of Collaborative Assignments To Enhance Experiential Learning In Community College Health Education Courses, Andrea S. Salis, Tony Monahan, Daniel Armstrong

NERA Conference Proceedings 2014

Experiential learning is a critical part of health education courses. It provides opportunities for students to connect their classroom learning to outside experiences to achieve a better understanding of various issues and concepts. Through experiential learning, students can analyze, evaluate and document outside experiences in relation to their coursework. This study investigated the significance of collaborative assignments in experiential learning using the high impact practice, global and diversity learning. The results of this study demonstrate higher scores on analytical reasoning and connections to coursework when experiential learning includes a collaborative assignment.

Team Teaching Buddies: Student Teaching In The Era Of Edtpa, Barbara Rosenfeld

NERA Conference Proceedings 2014

Student teachers are typically placed in a classroom with a single mentor teacher. Although there have been many changes in education within the past decades, including new teacher certification requirements, there has been little modification in this student teaching structure. It is time to review student teaching programs to find the best way to insure that student teacher candidates have an optimal experience. This study examines a buddy approach wherein two student teachers work as a team in a classroom with a single mentor teacher to determine if this is a useful paradigm for helping students through the certification process.

The Effects Of Reading Mode On Recall And Comprehension, Anne M. Niccoli

NERA Conference Proceedings 2014

This study explored students' differences in reading comprehension between digital and paper reading modes. This quasi-experiment consisted of adult students enrolled in military leadership courses. Each randomly selected group read the same leadership article, either digital or paper. Students completed an assessment to determine differences in recall accuracy and comprehension between digital and paper readers. While there were no significant differences in group means of recall between reading versions, a persistent pattern in differences of score ranges and frequencies was evident for recall accuracy and comprehension. The implications and considerations of individual differences in score frequencies are discussed.

Pre-Service And In-Service Teachers’ Rubric Assessments Of Mathematical Problem Solving, Grant Kuehl, Kimberly Sofronas, Abigail Lau

NERA Conference Proceedings 2014

This paper will report findings from a study designed to explore pre-service and in-service teachers’ rubric assessments of 4^th-grade student mathematics work samples. Pre-service and in-service elementary school teachers were recruited to participate in this survey-based research which included three hypotheses: (a) in-service teachers would report greater confidence levels using rubrics and exhibit better attitudes toward assessment than pre-service teachers, (b) in-service teachers would be more reliable in their rubric scores than pre-service teachers, and (c) in-service teachers would identify greater differences than pre-service teachers in their evaluations of the work samples. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and qualitative methods …

Assessment Of Community College Students’ Analytical Reasoning Skills And Engagement In Deep Learning, Andreas Salis, Victor Fichera, Ian Beckford

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

This study investigates the effectiveness of implementing High Impact Practices (HIPs) across the disciplines to determine the level at which community college students perceive they are engaging in deep learning activities and demonstrate analytical reasoning skills. The results show that HIP courses more extensively required/encouraged: working on projects with others; synthesizing information from multiple sources; considering the perspectives from peoples of other backgrounds and cultures and expressed greater degrees of connectivity to their college, especially those experiencing multiple HIPs. Students in HIP courses did not demonstrate higher levels of analytical reasoning skills as compared to non-HIP courses.

Socially Mediated Mathematical Strategies In A Dynamic Multi-Touch Geometry Environment, Stephen Hegedus, Yenny Otálora

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

We examine how young children work together in small groups using interactive multimodal technologies that integrate dynamic geometry software with multi-touch interfaces in order to understand a fundamental scientific idea ofcovariation. The study aims to investigate how 4th-grade children co-construct mathematical strategies for solving an Etchasketch-like activity using the Geometer’ Sketchpad® and the iPad.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration To Develop Intercultural Competence By Integrating Math, Languages, And Social Studies, Fabiana Cardetti, Manuela Wagner, Michael Bryam

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

We share and engage participants in a discussion of the results of collaborative interdisciplinary work to create interdisciplinary (mathematics, world languages, social studies) curriculum units integrating intercultural competence and social justice for 6th grade. We present initial results of the analysis into the essence of the collaboration along with challenges.

Using Behavior Change Plans To Make Wellness An Informed Priority: Health Education Meets General Education, Joanne M. Crossman

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Students advanced health education and general education skills through a multi-phased behavior change plan project. Predominantly selecting nutrition or fitness as focus areas for improvement, 145 students set SMART goals, reported BCP progress, perceived obstacles, and behaviors important toward goal attainment, illuminating their importance in successfully teaching/managing health behavior change. One-group posttest-only design included quantitative analysis of reported BCP success. Qualitative evaluation of students’ reports were distilled into common themes. Seven behaviors were found important to goal attainment, physical/psychological/financial benefits were reported, correlations to the study site’s core values were reported, and final reflections indicated students would use BCP processes …

Signing Exact English: Providing A Complete Model Of English For Literacy Growth, Deborah Stryker, Diane Nielsen, Barbara Luetke

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Signing Exact English, SEE, is an invented sign system created in the early 1970s by Gerilee Gustason, a deaf university professor and researcher, and Esther Zawolkow, a child of deaf adults (1993). In a rationale for the development of SEE, Nielsen, Luetke, McClean and Stryker (2015) explained that many morphological aspects, like word endings, are not visible in speech and are difficult to speechread. For example, words such as interest, interesting, interests, and interested are nearly impossible to distinguish using speechreading alone and some involve hard-to-hear sounds which make these important, audibly-insalient, elements of English difficult for D/HH children …

Evaluation Of R Package Ltm With Irt Dichotomous Models, Fusun Sahin, Kimberly Colvin

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

There are many software packages that estimate item response theory parameters and examinee abilities. This study evaluates the accuracy of the item parameter and ability estimates generated by the open-source R package ltm. In this simulation study, item and ability estimates were compared to the true parameters under six conditions that differed in the numbers of items and examinees. After looking at the resulting bias, mean absolute deviation, and root mean square error, we concluded that item parameter and ability estimates from ltmwere estimated reasonably accurately with results similar to previous studies of established commercial software.

Transparent Problem-Based Learning Across The Disciplines In The Community College Context: Issues And Impacts, Franca Ferarri, Andreas Salis, Kostas Stroumbakis, Amy Traver, Tanya Zhelecheva

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Research reveals that students benefit from high-impact practices (HIPs), transparent teaching-learning methods, and problem-based curricula. These benefits appear to be particularly profound for traditionally underserved students. This study uses pre-post survey and rubric-based assessment methods to examine the use of HIPs, transparent teaching-learning methods, and problem-based curricula in tandem and across the disciplines to support traditionally underserved students’ academic engagement and performance in the community college context. Findings related to faculty implementation, students’ perceptions of transparency, and students’ development of problem-solving skills are discussed.

Dialogic Discourse In Linguistically Diverse Elementary Mathematics Classes: Lessons Learned From Dual Language Classrooms, Mary Truxaw

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

This research investigated discourse in linguistically diverse elementary mathematics classrooms on a continuum from univocal (transmitting meaning) to dialogic (dialogue to construct meaning). Although analysis revealed predominantly univocal discourse in these classrooms, it also uncovered verbal moves and promising practices for supporting English learners with dialogic discourse and mathematical understanding.

A Sixth Of The Nation: Large City Reading Scores Will Improve Only Slightly By 2021, Stuart Smith

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

The first objective of this study was to determine the correlation between the percentages of fourth-grade students eligible for free lunch and fourth-grade NAEP reading scores for 21 Trial Urban Assessment Districts (TUDA). For the 2011 assessment year, the correlation was -0.79. For the 2013 year, the correlation (percentage of free lunch and reading scores) was higher, -0.87.

The second objective was to determine the correlation between a second predictor variable - mean household income - and fourth-grade NAEP reading scores for 21 TUDA districts tested in 2013. The correlation was moderately high, 0.70.

Mathematics Teachers’ Use Of The Culturally Relevant Cognitively Demanding Mathematics Task Framework And Rubric In The Classroom, Shelly Jones

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Because of the increasing diversity in many classrooms as well as the need to make mathematics relevant for all students, it is important for teachers to implement culturally relevant pedagogy, but also challenge students by maintaining the cognitive demand of mathematics tasks. The purpose of this study is to learn best practices for designing and implementing culturally relevant cognitively demanding (CRCD) mathematics tasks and using the CRCD Mathematics Task Rubric (Matthew, L., Jones, S., & Parker, Y.A., 2013) to examine teacher-created tasks. Teachers who chose to participate in the study took a first step in becoming culturally relevant educators.

Social Support And Community College Student Academic Persistence, Debra Zavatkay

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

This study examined the relationship among community college students’ perceptions of the social support received, its importance, and their academic persistence. Specifically, it examined whether the frequency and importance of the types of support and sources of support were correlated to the students being retained. Data analysis revealed that the more social supports perceived, the more likely students would be retained, although this relationships only approached significance at the .07 level. However, there were other statistically significant findings. Furthermore, in concurrence with the literature, perceived social support was found to buffer the negative effects of stress experienced by college students.

Exploring The Impact Of The New Ccss On Definitions Of Teacher Leadership And 1st-6th Year Teachers’ Opportunities To Develop As Leaders, Abigail Esposito, Sara Nelson, John Bengston, Andrew Didden, Patrick Mulcahy, Daniel Wilson, Alexander Valacer, Dan Seara, Colin Schlank, Justis Lopez, Andrew Dombrowski, Brian Colantonio, Tom Levine

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

This paper uses surveys and interviews with teachers at four secondary schools to explore whether the definition of teacher leadership is changing at all as a result of the CCSS (Common Core of State Standards), and whether CCSS is creating new opportunities and/or challenges for 1^st-6^thyear teachers developing as leaders. Exploratory data suggest that the CCSS is creating opportunities for 1^st-6^th year teachers to lead based upon some of the qualities and training they bring to their schools, but also suggests that the CCSS simultaneously creates pressures and forces which can limit 1 …

Learning To Lead: Exploring How 1st-6th Year Teachers Develop Informal Leadership, Thomas Levine, Patrick Mulcahy, John Bengston, Andrew Didden, Abigail Esposito, Alexander Valacer, Miranda Rich, Dan Seara, Brian Colantonio, Andrew Dombrowski, Justis Lopez, Colin Schlank, Daniel Wilson

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Scholars and reformers call for promoting teacher leadership to improve schools, but few address how we can promote teacher leadership among newer teachers. This paper uses extant research to identify five possible positive influences on 1^st-6^th year teachers developing informal leadership skills. Surveys and interviews with staff members at four secondary schools point to professional learning communities as the most promising of these possible means. Participants also identified getting involved with colleagues and with school activities as promising first steps for 1^st through 6^th year teachers to develop the knowledge, reputation, and skills to become …