Education Commons^™

Research Methods For Education With Technology: Four Concerns, Examples, And Recommendations, Daniel B. Wright

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

The success of education with technology research is in part because the field draws upon theories and methods from multiple disciplines. However, drawing upon multiple disciplines has drawbacks because sometimes the methodological expertise of each discipline is not applied when researchers conduct studies outside of their research training. The focus here is on research using methods drawn largely from psychology, for example, evaluating the impact of different systems on how students perform. The methodological concerns discussed are: low power; not using multilevel modeling; dichotomization; and inaccurate reporting of the numeric statistics. Examples are drawn from a recent set of proceedings. …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2019, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Reframing Library Student Employment As A High-Impact Practice: Implications From Case Studies, Erin Rinto, Rosan Mitola, Kate Otto

Library Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how academic libraries can directly contribute to campus student success initiatives through student employment programs. Case studies from the perspectives of two supervisors demonstrate how library student employment programs can intentionally incorporate the characteristics of High-Impact Practices. This paper builds upon a previously published systematic review of the academic library literature on student employment, which found a significant gap in the discussion of employment as a mechanism for learning and retention. This paper aims to address this gap by focusing on practical applications for creating more learner-centered student employment programs.

School Readiness Profiles And Growth In Academic Achievement, Qianqian Pan, Kim T. Trang, Hailey R. Love, Jonathan Templin

Educational & Clinical Studies Faculty Research

The purpose of this research was to identify the presence of different school readiness profiles and to determine whether profiles could differentially predict academic growth. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011) public data set was used, and participants were 14,954 first-time kindergarteners. The age of entering kindergarten ranged from 44.81 to 87.98 months with a mean of 76.13 months. In Study 1, a six-dimensional construct of school readiness was used: health, self-regulation, social and emotional development, language development, cognitive development, and approaches to learning. Results revealed 41 profiles with the top six school readiness profiles covering 85% of …

Family Environment Variables As Predictors Of School Absenteeism Severity At Multiple Levels: Ensemble And Classification And Regression Tree Analysis, Mirae J. Fornander, Christopher A. Kearney

Psychology Faculty Research

School attendance problems, including school absenteeism, are common to many students worldwide, and frameworks to better understand these heterogeneous students include multiple classes or tiers of intertwined risk factors as well as interventions. Recent studies have thus examined risk factors at varying levels of absenteeism severity to demarcate distinctions among these tiers. Prior studies in this regard have focused more on demographic and academic variables and less on family environment risk factors that are endemic to this population. The present study utilized ensemble and classification and regression tree analysis to identify potential family environment risk factors among youth (i.e., children …

Reconciling Contemporary Approaches To School Attendance And School Absenteeism: Toward Promotion And Nimble Response, Global Policy Review And Implementation, And Future Adaptability (Part 1), Christopher A. Kearney, Carolina Gonzalvez, Patricia A. Graczyk, Mirae J. Fornander

Psychology Faculty Research

School attendance is an important foundational competency for children and adolescents, and school absenteeism has been linked to myriad short- and long-term negative consequences, even into adulthood. Many efforts have been made to conceptualize and address this population across various categories and dimensions of functioning and across multiple disciplines, resulting in both a rich literature base and a splintered view regarding this population. This article (Part 1 of 2) reviews and critiques key categorical and dimensional approaches to conceptualizing school attendance and school absenteeism, with an eye toward reconciling these approaches (Part 2 of 2) to develop a roadmap for …

Unlv Magazine, Marta Meana, Stacy Willis, Jason Scavone, Sean Kennedy, Kristin Rattini, Tony Allen, Matt Jacob

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

State & Local Per Pupil Funding For Higher Education In The Mountain West States, Eshaan Vakil, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Higher Education

This Fact Sheet summarizes and expands upon the findings of the College Board’s 2016-17 State and Local Funding for Higher Education per Student and per $1,000 in Personal Income and 10-Year Percentage Change in Inflation-Adjusted Funding per Student, by State report on per pupil and per $1,000 in personal income governmental funding for higher education in the United States in 2016-17. For the purposes of this Fact Sheet, the focus of the report has been narrowed to states located within the Mountain West region of the United States (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico).

2014, 2015, & 2016 National Science Foundation (Nsf) Rankings By Total R&D Expenditures, Ashley Leclair, William E. Brown, Caitlin Saladino

Higher Education

This Fact Sheet presents NSF data for ten individual research universities in addition to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) for the years 2014-2016. The Fact Sheet compares the NSF funding received by 10 individual research universities to the combined funding received by UNLV and UNR.

2020 Graduate Program Rankings For Unlv And Unr, Madison Frazee-Bench, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Higher Education

This Fact Sheet presents the 2020 U.S. News and World Report Graduate program rankings for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The rankings for 2020 are important when taking into consideration that both UNLV and UNR reached Carnegie R1 status in 2018. This status marks their place in the top 130 research universities in the country.

Allocation To Groups: Examples Of Lord's Paradox, Daniel B. Wright

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

Background Educational and developmental psychologists often examine how groups change over time. Two analytic procedures – analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and the gain score model – each seem well suited for the simplest situation, with just two groups and two time points. They can produce different results, what is known as Lord's paradox. Aims Several factors should influence a researcher's analytic choice. This includes whether the score from the initial time influences how people are assigned to groups. Examples are shown, which will help to explain this to researchers and students, and are of educational relevance. It is shown that …

Making A Middle Class: Colleges And Cities In The Mountain West, Richard Reeves

Brookings Mountain West Publications

A stronger middle class is important for the economic and political future of both cities and nations. Analyses focusing on the size of the middle class can be misleading, providing information on income inequality or temporary economic conditions. More important than the size of the middle class is the quality of life of the middle class. Higher education can serve students from middle-class backgrounds, helping them sustain a middle-class standard of living and rise up the economic ladder, as well as providing “on ramps” to the middle class for those from low-income backgrounds. We show that middle class wage earners …

Experiencing Anti-Immigrant Policies On Both Sides Of The U.S./Mexico Borderland: A Comparative Study Of Mexican And Iranian Families, Sandra L. Candel, Shahla Fayazpour

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

The experiences of Mexican and Iranian immigrant families are often unheard and unpacked. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how race, ethnicity, and national identity are at the core of the sociopolitical and economic issues that Latino and Iranian families undergo in the United States. Using critical race theory as a framework, this research analyzed the ways in which Mexican immigrant families who were deported, and Iranian-immigrant families living in the United States, have been differently affected by post 9/11 anti-immigrant policies and by zero tolerance policies enacted by the Trump administration. The research question guiding this …

Latinx Family Engagement In Schools And Surrounding Communities: Assessing The Impact Of Parent (And Other Family Member) Development On Improving Student Educational Outcomes At Gene Ward Elementary School, Rosemary Q. Flores, Phyllis Morgan, Linda Rivera, Christine Clark

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

This article examined the success of broadly defined family engagement activities of Latinx parents of students at Gene Ward Elementary School. Gene Ward Elementary School is a part of the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada. This article is based on a larger study of parent and family member participants in these activities at 25 district schools between 2003 and 2012.

Critical Multicultureal Education: Working At The Intersections Of Resistance, Restorative Justice, And Revolutionary Changes -- Introduction, Christine Clark, Norma A. Marrun

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

We are pleased to serve as co-editors for this Education Sciences Special Issue focused on Critical Multicultural Education: Working at the Intersections of Resistance, Restorative Justice, and Revolutionary Change. Contributors to this Special Issue are graduates and/or close academic affiliates of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ doctoral program emphasis in Cultural Studies, International Education, and Multicultural Education, also known as “CSIEME,” pronounced phonetically as “See Me.”

“…4542 Miles From Home…”: Repositioning English Language Learners As Power Brokers And Teachers As Learners In The Study Abroad Context, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Michaela P. Stone, Roberto Mora Mella, Francisco Olave Henriquez, Macarena Yacoman Palma

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

This article provides an empirical context for the role that bi/multi-lingual children and families may play in supporting pre-service and in-service educators engaging difference through a literacy and language situated study abroad internship in Chile. Drawing on data over a 15-year longitudinal study of the program, the authors examine how students and parents navigate serving the role of teacher, whereas the teacher participants navigate a new role as a learner in a context where they, many for the first time, experience being language and cultural minorities.

Negotiating The Great Recession: How Teacher Collective Bargaining Outcomes Change In Times Of Financial Duress, Katharine O. Strunk, Bradley D. Marianno

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

This article examines how teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), teacher salaries, and class sizes changed during the Great Recession. Using a district-level data set of California teacher CBAs that includes measures of subarea contract strength and salaries from 2005–2006 and 2011–2012 tied to district-level longitudinal data, we estimate difference-in-difference models to examine bargaining outcomes for districts that should have been more or less fiscally constrained. We find that unions and administrators change critical elements of CBAs and district policy during times of fiscal duress. This includes increasing class sizes, reducing instructional time, and lowering base salaries to relieve financial pressures …

Middle Grades Principal Credentialing: A Vanishing Requirement, Christina Digaudio, Dana L. Bickmore

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

Limited research explores how school administrators learn the leadership skills, knowledge, and dispositions that will support young adolescents, particularly how administrators are prepared and credentialed to lead middle grades schools. The purpose of this research was to examine which states offered and/or required administrator credentials specific to middle grades and why states do or do not offer or require such credentialing. Analysis of the data indicates that states are moving away from specific credentialing for middle grades school administrators, with only one state still offering such a credential. Although state credentialing officers indicated the value of a specific middle grades …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2019, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Medical Student Mistreatment: Understanding 'Public Humiliation', Jesse D. Markman, Thomas M. Soeprono, Heidi L. Combs, Ellen M. Cosgrove

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Introduction: Mistreatment in medical school is an enduring problem in medical education. Little is known about the concept of ‘public humiliation,’ one of the most common forms of mistreatment as identified on the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire. The objective of this study was to further investigate ‘public humiliation’ and to understand the underpinnings and realities of ‘public humiliation’ in medical education. Method: Focus groups of medical students on clinical rotation at the University of Washington School of Medicine were conducted over one and a half years. Qualitative analysis of responses identified emergent themes. Results: Study results included responses from 28 third …

Cccs As Epistemic Heuristics To Guide Student Sense-Making Of Phenomena, Tina Vo, Charles A. Anderson, Brian Gane, Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver, Lindsey Mohan

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Teacher Training And Teaching Practice: The Case Of Niger’S English As A Foreign Language Teachers, Peter Wiens, Elena Andrei, Annie Chou, April Smith, Billa Anassour

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

There continues to be a debate as to the role and value of educator preparation programs throughout the world. This paper examines self-report data of the instructional language learning methods of Nigerien English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. This study sought to understand what instructional methods EFL teachers are using in their classrooms and if there is any connection between instructional methods and teacher training. All EFL teachers in Niger were surveyed to answer these questions. Teachers used a variety of instructional methods based on their preservice training; however, these differences were contained to teachers in their first five …

The Causes And Consequences Of Student Discipline Disparities, Jon Valant

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West invites you to a lecture titled "The Causes and Consequences of Student Discipline Disparities " by Fellow in Governance Studies, Brown Center on Education Policy, Jon Valant. Students of color and students from low-income families are suspended or expelled from school at much higher rates than their white and non-poor peers. This lecture presented data on discipline disparities. It considered explanations such as discrimination in how schools punish students and whether majority-minority and majority-white schools approach discipline differently. This discussion is placed in the context of local, state, and …

Giving Matters: Donors Making A Difference, Unlv Foundation

Giving Matters

No abstract provided.

Identi-Tea Podcast: An Original Play, Karsyn Wilson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner for 2019:

Identi-Tea Podcast is an original play based on the word-for-word interviews of three LGBTQ+ students of color from UNLV who explore all the various facets of their identities formatted in the style of a podcast. In various moments during the play, audience members are prompted by the actors to critically engage with the ideas presented.

School Health Program: Impacting Physical Activity Behaviors Among Disadvantaged Students, Chia-Liang Dai

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

BACKGROUND: Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more apt to experience lower availability of nutritious foods, lack opportunities to exercise, and lack access to recreational facilities, and thus, are more likely to be obese and at greater risk for developing chronic diseases. We review school health education programs' impact on physical activity behaviors among disadvantaged students. METHODS: The inclusion criteria of the study were articles: published in English with full text between 2011 and 2017; focused on school health education programs for disadvantaged school‐aged students; assessed programs including a physical activity component; examined school‐aged children and adolescents' physical activity behaviors; and …

Select Proceedings Of The 2nd Annual Graduate Student Conference: Games, Sins & Mafia, Samuel Gilpin, Carly Hunter, Jenessa Kenway, Alexander Valle, Jarret Keene

Graduate Student Conference

The four papers collected here were originally presented at the Second Annual Graduate Student Conference: "Games, Sins & Mafia." Hosted by the UNLV World Languages & Cultures department and the Organization of Vistas of Hispanic Studies, the conference took place on the UNLV campus on March 16, 2019. These proceedings feature three (at the time) graduate students and one undergraduate student from the UNLV English department. Taken as a whole, the proceedings explore the aesthetic, sociological, and philosophical concerns of a range of authors—William Faulkner, Juan Rulfo (Mexico), Roberto Harrison, and Clarice Lispector (Brazil).

Practice Variability Promotes An External Focus Of Attention And Enhances Motor Skill Learning, Lee-Kuen Chua, Maria Katrina Dimapilis, Takehiro Iwatsuki, Reza Abdollahipour, Rebecca Lewthwaite, Gabriele Wulf

Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences Faculty Publications

Variability in practice has been shown to enhance motor skill learning. Benefits of practice variability have been attributed to motor schema formation (variable versus constant practice), or more effortful information processing (random versus blocked practice). We hypothesized that, among other mechanisms, greater practice variability might promote an external focus of attention on the intended movement effect, while less variability would be more conducive to a less effective internal focus on body movements. In Experiment 1, the learning of a throwing task was enhanced by variable versus constant practice, and variable group participants reported focusing more on the distance to the …

The Road To Carnegie R1 At The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Robert E. Lang, David F. Damore

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

Founded in 1957, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is now classified as a top research university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This is a major accomplishment. The Lincy Institute’s analysis of all 130 “Carnegie Doctoral Universities” (2018) with “very high research activity,” or R1 status, (Appendix A provides a summary of the data on the 93 public institutions with R1 status, and Appendix B sorts this list by age of institution) finds that UNLV is among the 10 youngest institutions founded post-World War II in the U.S. to achieve this status.2 This is a …

21st Graduate & Professional Student Research Forum Science Podium Session, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Graduate & Professional Student Association Research Forum

No abstract provided.