Education Commons^™

Unstacking The Matryoshka Nesting Doll: A Self-Study Of Playful Language Instruction For Adult Second Language Learners, Marine Pepanyan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In the recent three decades teaching second language (L2) vocabulary has expanded from sentence-level morphosyntactic features and pragmatics to the promotion and advancement of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Nevertheless, the L2 instructors are constantly seeking alternative strategies for vocabulary teaching and assessment due to a superficial level of vocabulary memorization and lack of student engagement. As an instructor-practitioner, I undertook a self-study of the process of implementing Playful Language Instruction (PLI) of L2 vocabulary in an Intensive English Program. In this self-study I combined conceptual lenses of theories of play, CLT, and the Adult Learning Theory to examine how playful …

Model Evidence Links (Mels) And The Impact Of Critical Thinking On Open Ended Responses, James Gregory Zabel

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this dissertation, which was conducted in a rural school district that is equidistant from three major urban areas in central Iowa, and employed an action research methodology, was to examine the relationship between graphic organizer use and critical thinking. A multitude of studies have provided evidence that graphic organizers aid in the recall and understanding of basic facts in the lower grade levels; however, little research exists that supports a connection between graphic organizer use and the ability of students to recall information used on open-ended critical thinking assessments or the ability to create what Bickel and …

Integrating Movement In The Elementary Classroom: Creating Innovative Materials That Incorporate Movement With Content Areas, Hannah Kristine Harrison

Honors Program Theses

Movement is an aspect of teaching that often gets left out of curriculum and lesson plans in the elementary classroom. However, brain research and educational studies show that movement can play a critical role in understanding. The goal of this study was to determine how educators can use movement to enhance lessons that are already being taught during the school day without needing extra materials, time, or money. Resources and activities were compiled, organized, and aligned to content standards in order to give educators ideas of ways to modify lessons to incorporate movement. The findings can be found on a …

Teachers' Pedagogical Practices, Shift, And Professional Growth In Online Courses, Maryam Rod Szabo

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This phenomenological study aims to understand the faculty member’s technological and pedagogical challenges when they teach an online course. The participants of the study were eight faculty members from a Midwestern university. All the participants had attended at least one Quality Matters workshop that was intended to help them design their online courses. While the workshops that the participants attended were similar, they were not the same. Some had participated in the workshop five or six years ago, and some had attended a more recent one. The faculty members then worked with instructional developers at the same university to design …

Intergenerational Conversation: Authentic Learning Through Critical Reflection Of A Community Engagement Learning Experience, Amy Davison

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to determine the type of reflection students are using in their final reflection stories to see if there was evidence of reflection in relation to authentic learning. Assignments from four Human Relations courses that included a community engagement learning component provided the data for a qualitative content analysis to determine authentic learning through the reflective writing assignments. Levels of reflection outlined in Kember, McKay, Sinclair, and Wong’s (2008) four category scheme for coding and assessing the level of reflection was applied to students’ written work. The student’s final essay written about their intergenerational community …

The Effects Of Blended Learning On Critical Thinking In A High School Earth Science Class, Renee Nicole Borglum

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study analyzed the effects of differing levels of technology use in a high school Earth Science class on student performance on the Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR). Blended learning manipulates the combination of hands-on activities, classroom discussions, online discussions, interactive simulations and a variety of assessments that engage, instruct and assess student learning. Critical thinking is the set of skills and dispositions that foster problem solving, reasoning ability and selfregulation. The increasing use of technology in the classroom and fluctuation of content standards prompted this research. The results have implications for the classroom teacher of a wide range …

Mindfulness In The Classroom: Cultivating Peace From Within, Maya Vandriel

Honors Program Theses

Teachers are placed with the difficult task of transferring knowledge to the next generation of leaders. This knowledge transfer can be measured in various ways. What cannot be easily quantified is the impact of the life skills taught to accomplish this handoff of reading, writing and math skills. Often times, teachers are the role model of how a student can cope with life inside and outside of the classroom. Teaching mindfulness in the classroom is a powerful method that shows students how to self-regulate emotions in order to cope with whatever life brings them. These life skills are essential for …

Using One-To-One Computing For Differentiated Instruction In Iowa: An Investigation Of The Impact Of Teachers' Perceptions Of Teaching And Learning, Jodi A. Bermel

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The 1983 seminal work entitled A Nation at Risk recommended that all high school graduates be proficient in the Five New Basics: English, mathematics, science, social studies, and computer science. To address the No Child Left Behind mandates, educators and administrators are evaluating the theory and practice of Differentiated Instruction (DI). One-to-one computer initiatives became an element of DI strategy due to the well-documented advantages in the use of technology to address individual learning needs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions of using one-to-one computing to differentiate instruction and to identify potential …

Comparing Second Grade Students' Creative And Content Knowledge Performance On Figural Transformation Activities Introduced In A Standard Or Enhanced Manner With Nutrition Content Knowledge Taught Through Factual Or Fantasy Reading, Angela Naomi Webb

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Creativity and problem solving are skills students need for success in the 21st century. With the increasing pressures of achieving higher student scores in emphasized content areas, teachers' instruction in science, social studies, music and art has been reduced to provide additional time for teaching reading and mathematics.These lost instructional areas often allowed students to express themselves creatively. Therefore, educators need to find a way to incorporate creativity into content areas like reading and mathematics.

This 16 week repeated measures study examined second grade students' academic and creative performance on figural transformation drawings during an extended reading-science-creativity integrated unit. A …

Learning Styles: A Viable Approach To Instruction?, Lauren A. Hanzelka

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of the project is to research the concept of learning styles, a common theory used in education, through a critical lens, then take the information, and apply it to a classroom environment. Numerous sources of literature that address the background, research, and efficacy of learning styles will be critically analyzed in order to determine the effectiveness. The research and conclusion will discuss the implications for learning styles in the K-8 classroom

Teachers’ Efficacy And Perceived Role In Dropout Prevention, Brent O'Rourke

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Researchers have studied potential reasons behind high school dropout for many years. This research has primarily focused on characteristics inherent to the student and has typically labeled them as being the main determinants for why students decide to drop out. Certainly student characteristics are important when looking at dropout, however there are other factors external to the student that may contribute to their leaving school. One such factor would be other individuals that students deal with on a daily basis while at school. Teachers may play a very important role in preventing school dropout. By interacting positively with students, especially …

Maggie And Her Students: Talking And Reasoning In A Reform-Based Mathematics Classroom, Debra Louise Semm Rich

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In this qualitative case study, I explored how Maggie, the teacher, and her students used language to advance students' conceptual understanding of mathematics in a reform-based mathematics classroom. Specifically I sought to describe how Maggie's reform-based mathematics classroom environment impacted the quantity and quality of mathematical language spoken by her students. Maggie's eighth-grade mathematics classroom was observed during a course of study on data and statistics. Three semi-structured interviews with Maggie, artifacts provided by her, and fourteen 52-minute classroom lessons, supported with field notes, were analyzed.

Environmental themes were revealed as they related to Maggie, her beliefs, goals, knowledge, and …

Middle School Teachers' Implementation Of Differentiated Instruction : The Complexity, Tonya Rae Vitense Keefer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The needs of students in American schools are increasingly more varied as the school population becomes more diverse. Ensuring that all students receive access to an appropriate education becomes vital to our future. Differentiated instruction has been suggested as one way to provide that access. Differentiated instruction does this by using planning that explicitly addresses students' diverse interests, learning preferences, and abilities. There is plentiful information on what differentiated instruction is and what it looks like in the classroom, but there is little research on the process of teachers implementing differentiated instruction.

Over a seven-month period, this research sought to …

Do Pull-Out Programs Create A Mirage Of Long-Term Results For At-Risk Youth?, Varotta Mi'chele Johnson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Educators and researchers cannot afford to ignore the achievement gap between at-risk students and their counterparts. The review examines educational practices for this targeted population. Historically, educational experts have supported the belief that teaching in isolated settings is one of the most effective practices for improving student achievement. Smaller class sizes are proposed as reform methods to substantially impact student performance (Odden, 1990). However, class size reduction must be coupled with research-based instructional strategies proven to further academic development. Traditionally, at-risk students receive instruction through pull-out interventions. A pull-out program in this study shall be defined as the removal of …

First-Year College Student Beliefs About Writing Embedded In Online Discourse: An Analysis And Its Implications For Literacy Learning, Gina Burkart

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Online discourse has become a common mode of communication for the Twenty- First Century. Many businesses now use electronic networking sites such as Facebook to communicate with customers through online posts and electronic updates through Twitter. With these recent trends in electronic communication, some educators have begun implementing electronic discourse into the classroom through online discussion boards. Discussion boards available through course technology such as WebCT and eLearning offer educators opportunities to channel this heightened interest in online communication. By building electronic course sites, educators can further classroom discussions on online discussion boards, which allow students to discuss course material …

The Effect Of Weekly Teacher Collaboration On Instructional Practices In The Classroom, Laurene A. Lanich

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Iowa Standards for School Leaders states that, “A principal is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program that is conducive to student learning and professional growth.” Instructional practices have a significant impact on student learning, with research indicating that effective teaching accounts for two thirds of the total effect of schooling on student learning. Moreover, the literature on school improvement and professional development emphasizes the building of organizational capacity through collegial interactions in school (Leonard & Leonard, 2003).

The Iowa Professional Development Model was developed …

Effects Of Problem Solving Team Processes On Student Outcomes, Brooke A. Dahl

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Systematic data collection and case documentation are vital components in the consultative problem solving process. Carefully documented and easily understood data allow problem solving teams to make informed decisions about intervention development and implementation, as well as future programming for struggling students. The Instructional Consultation (IC) Team Model was developed as an organized and efficient process for conducting pre-referral problem solving (Rosenfield, 1987). The present research explores the relationship between processes and/or procedures as prescribed by the IC Team Model and student outcomes. Processes utilized by problem solving teams following the IC Team Model and other models of problem solving …

The Evolving Child: Theories Of Human Development In Waldorf Education, Sara Wright

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Due to its strong emphasis on spiritual development in conjunction with physical and cognitive development, Rudolf Steiner's educational philosophy and its role in Waldorf schools have been relegated to relative obscurity within the educational establishment. Steiner's theories have been perceived as too radical and unusual for incorporation into traditional educational practices. However, upon closer examination, the organizational structure of Steiner's developmental theory bears significant similarities to better-known models of human development. For example, the division of children's cognitive growth into a hierarchical series of stages is also found in Piaget's celebrated model of human development. Furthermore, parallel revelations concerning children's …

The Relationship Between The Constructs Of Locus Of Control And Learner Self-Concept, Tina M. Schroeder

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study investigated 13 preservice regular education reading teachers' use of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) data under specified conditions. Conditions included: (a) providing preservice teachers with 75 minutes of training in the use of CBM in reading, (b) biweekly CBM administration and graphing during a 10-week practicum experience, and (c) concomitant use of other reading measures [e. g., Reading Miscue Inventory (RMI), Running Records (RR)]. Exit interviews indicated that preservice teachers made use of CBM data in some, but not all, of the important ways suggested in the research literature. Preservice teachers provided the following positive ratings of CBM: (a) CBM …

Problem-Based Learning: A Practical Process For A More Promising Future, Angie Ryken

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

A perpetual issue m American society is that of the comprehensive goal of its educational system. A prevailing conviction among researchers, teachers, lawmakers, and parents is that the purpose of this country's schools is to cultivate effective thinking in students. In a society that exhibits complex and threatening problems, noted Raymond Nickerson , we cannot afford not to develop good thinking (Baron & Sternberg, 1987).

Process Of Educational Innovation: A Micropolitical Study Of The Implementation Of A Team Teaching Model, Bruce Steven Frana

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This is a two-year case study, conducted in a large school district (over 10,000 students), of an attempt to introduce interdisciplinary team teaching at the high school level. The purpose of this study was to examine what teachers do and think as they engage in the process of implementing educational reform. I believed initially that the success or failure of educational reform depended largely on the actual teachers involved in implementing that reform. Once I was in the setting, however, it was clear that administrators must be included because reform depends on much more than what teachers do and think. …

Aids Education: The Effect Of Three Instructional Methods On Retention Of Changes In Knowledge, Attitudes, And Intention To Act, Denise Kerns Schares

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of three instructional methods (unit only, unit plus infusion, and infusion only) for teaching high school students about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Education, offered consistently and over time, can assist individuals in developing positive health behaviors associated with the prevention of AIDS. Successful implementation of community and school-based education programs can save lives in the years ahead (Taff,1987).

Four sections (N = 80) of a health education course were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions. The unit only treatment consisted of the presentation of the 4-session, Red …

The Effects Of The Use Of A Color Code In Graphic Presentation And Assessment On The Reader's Immediate Recall And Delayed Retention, Peggy Ann Posekany Pruisner

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The study investigated the effects of the use of a color code in graphic presentation and assessment of verbal material on the reader's immediate recall and delayed retention. Nine seventh-grade classes, containing a total of 132 students, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: (a) color-coded graphic presentation with a color-coded graphic assessment, (b) color-coded graphic presentation with a black/white graphic assessment, (c) black-white graphic presentation with a color-coded graphic assessment, and (d) black/white graphic presentation with a black/white graphic assessment. The research design was a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial; the independent variables were the graphic …

Exploring The Incidence And Predictability Problem Of Dyscalculia In A School-Based, Rural Population In A Rural State, Karen Kimberley Annis

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The term learning disability denotes the inability to learn in keeping with one's potential when presented with the usual curriculum. Dyscalculia is learning disability manifested in the area of mathematics curriculum. Limited research exists in the area of dyscalculia in terms of both incidence and identification procedures. However, a fairly large number of school-aged children show deficits in this area. Despite the necessity for knowledge of mathematics, little emphasis is placed on the identification and remediation of mathematical learning disabilities. A prominent neurologist (Rosenberger, 1989) has hypothesized recently that as much as 10% of the population of school-aged children in …

The Effectiveness Of Response Interruption, Differential Reinforcement Of Other Behavior, And A Visual Cue, In The Treatment Of Self-Injurious Stereotypic Behavior, Clark Gunnell Porter

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The present study investigated the effectiveness of a combined procedure involving response interruption and DRO in the treatment of self-injurious stereotypy. A visual cue was utilized to assist in generalization and the subject's behavior was monitored outside of the treatment setting. The subject was a ten year old mentally deficient female who engaged in a self-injurious stereotypy involving the picking of skin from her fingers and hands. An ABAC single-subject design was utilized and the subject's behavior was monitored in her classroom on mornings following treatment. The treatment procedure was unsuccessful in reducing the frequency of the behavior and no …

A Survey Of Interdisciplinary Teaming In Iowa Middle Level Public Schools, Fred A. Willis Jr.

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to analyze the concept of interdisciplinary teaming in Iowa middle level public schools grades 6-8. Of importance to the study was a comparison of desirability, implementation, teacher and administrator attitudes, level of use and student self-concept in middle level school using, and schools not using interdisciplinary teaming.

The study utilized five specific instruments for gathering data. The demographic survey and innovation configuration checklist ascertained the components of interdisciplinary teaming and determined whether a school was a user or nonuser of the concept. The Stages of Concern survey and Level of Use interview developed for …

Manual Training: Its Role In The Development Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Educational System, Gerald Wayne Coy

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine the history of manual training within the Seventh-day Adventist educational system and determine its relationship to the development of manual training in the public schools of America. Consideration was also given to the present status of manual training within the Adventist system.

The research design was historical in form, and data were gathered covering three special areas: (a) the development of manual training in American public schools; (b) the establishment of Seventh-day Adventist education; and (c) the present status of technology education (the great-grandchild to manual training) within Adventist secondary education.

Research …

The Effects Of Language Variables On The Reading Comprehension Of Hearing-Impaired Children, Nancy L. Robbins

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Hearing-impaired children rarely learn to read well. They suffer no apparent deficit in perceptual skill or basic intelligence. Their difficulty appears to be linguistic in origin. But research on the reading ability of the deaf is inadequate to specify the precise nature of their linguistic disability.

The deaf lack knowledge of English phonology. Current reading instruction programs for them a.re based on the assumption that this is the cause of their reading problems. Recent research indicates, however, that phoneme-grapheme correspondences contribute little to the reading process and that phonics instruction may actually impede learning to read. It is unlikely that …

The Development And Testing Of Audio-Visual-Tutorial Materials As One Method To Assist In The Teaching Of Basic Accounting Principles And Concepts At Marshalltown Community College, Lyle R. Niemeyer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purposes of this study were: (1) to develop Audio-Visual-Tutorial (AVT) materials to supplement the teaching of Accounting I at the community college level and (2) to compare the results obtained in an experimental group using two units of AVT materials with a control group attending regular lecture sessions.

The AVT slide and tape presentation was developed during the spring and summer of 1971. These materials were tried out with students enrolled in Accounting I at Marshalltown Community College during the fall semester of 1971 and by students enrolled in Accounting I at the University of Northern Iowa the summer …

Teaching Beginning Concepts In Mathematics, Mildred Dick Pierce

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to investigate concept development as it relates to the teaching of mathematics in the kindergarten, and to propose a program of activities to be used in developing mathematical concepts with kindergarten children. Basic to determining the strategy to be used in teaching children is a consideration of the background of information the children possess when the teaching begins, and the background of information and the attitudes of the teachers who teach. Since any program which proposes that a different type of learning experience be used implies criticism of the methods now in use, it …