Education Commons^™

Teacher Guidebook For Esl Students, Ashley Ramo

Honors Theses

Language is the core of one’s identity, as it is essential in order to competently communicate and interact with other humans. Language preserves culture, and when educators are able to effectively teach English-as-a-Second-Language to students, it conveys respect for that culture. American society is highly culturally pluralistic which brings many languages into the classroom. Students bring their own experiences with them to school, including various native languages and a vast array of levels in English; some may not know a single word in English. Educators will encounter ESL students no matter what the location in the United States may be, …

One Man's Fakelore Is Another Man's Treasure: A Case Study Of Paul Bunyan And The Legend Of The Sleeping Bear, And The Value Of Fakelore In An Interconnected World., Kalani Bates

Honors Theses

The American academic study of folklore blossomed in the past hundred years. The tumultuous battle to define, collate and structure the new study of folklore raged in the academic world, especially in the 1950’s.[1] This obsession not only manifested itself in the academic study of it, but also in the popular culture of the 1900’s. The tradition of the tall tale and the legend exploded into the consumer world, becoming a commodity produced and consumed at will.[2] Richard Dorson classifies this explosion into two very separate studies of ‘folklore’ and ‘fakelore’. Folklore is the group of stories that …

Bystanders And Bullying: A Reflective Examination Of College Students' Experiences, Katherine Marie Larsen

Honors Theses

This study examines the individual responses of bystanders to bullying based on situational and personal variables. Using self-report data collected on 935 university students, these variables were used to determine if there was a relationship between the variables and the decision to intervene in a bullying situation for a friend. The results suggested that race, sexual orientation, and direct forms of bullying (physical and cyber bullying) have a relationship between an individual’s choice to intervene in a bullying situation for a friend. The findings failed to support the hypothesis that personal factors such as gender, socio-economic status, and a history …

U.S. And Spanish Newspapers And The Coverage Of The Land Campaign Of Cube In The Spanish-American War: June 7 - July 16, 1898, Tyler Wilson

Honors Theses

The Spanish-American War was a significant event in the history of the United States that initiated America’s imperialistic goals by spreading its economic and political influence in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and other overseas markets. In 1898, the U.S. saw its foreign and economic interests collide with Spain and its foreign policy in Cuba. This was an opportunity for the United States to expand and colonize areas of the world by challenging Spain and declaring itself as an emerging super power at the time.

The growth of journalism in the 1890s developed alongside America’s outward expansion by being the primary …

Does Public School Administrative Spending Affect District House Prices?, Catherine Degen

Honors Theses

Public schools are often criticized for the way in which they elect to distribute their limited resources. Perhaps the most critical assets for schools are teachers and administrators, and the compensation of these individuals varies widely amongst public school districts. There exists an optimal level of spending on district administration. Districts that pay administrators above or below this optimal point are likely not allocating their resources in the best possible manner, and educational quality may suffer. We hypothesize that within districts where either of the above situations is the case, home prices will be lower, as homebuyers will be less …

An Evaluation Of The Common Core, Holly Lawrence

Honors Theses

Education reform is currently a controversial issue in the U.S. With 45 states’ adoption of the Common Core State Standards in mathematics and English - the first attempt at national standards that reached implementation, public education has become a focal point for the media, educators, and parents. Most criticize the Common Core and advocate its elimination. This thesis, however, looks at the Standards in practice and seeks to use them to address deficiencies in American schools. Using a case study of Schenectady and Niskayuna, a contrast of low- and high-performing schools in the New York State Capital Region, to support …

Toys Don't Have A Gender: Gender Play And Aggression In A Small Co-Operative Play Based Preschool, Bryn Peterson

Honors Theses

In this thesis I explore the relationship between gender and free-play in a small, cooperative preschool in Niskayuna, New York. While psychologists and sociologists have studied gender in young children, I found that children had been largely overlooked in the field of anthropology. While some anthropologists have historically believed that children do not fully understand their culture and cannot be reliable informants, I believe that there is much we can learn by understanding children's games - which often reflect our culture. Through observing children's free play I was able to analyze gender conforming/nonconforming play, aggression, and the themes of the …

The Effect Of Educational Debt On The Probability Of Homeownership For College Graduates: An Empirical Analysis, Cole Ikkala

Honors Theses

With the average tuition of both public and private institutions on the rise, students are graduating from college with a higher burden of debt than ever before. In turn this is adversely affecting their post-graduation decisions, specifically the purchasing of their first home. With the simultaneous increase of educational debt levels and tightening of lending constraints for mortgages, it is hypothesized that first-time homeownership is being delayed. The purpose of this study is to analyze what exactly is delaying graduates from purchasing a home, the outstanding total educational debt amount or the monthly educational debt repayment amounts. Both can hinder …

Minding The Gap: Analyzing The Role Of Guidance Counselors In High School Ability Grouping, Marisa Underberger

Honors Theses

This project investigates the role of the guidance counselor in high school tracking and ability grouping. Tracking and ability grouping are controversial topics among high schools because they can create a “school within a school” where the low-income-minority students are in lower tracks while the high-income white students are in the advanced classes. Scholars have debated if detracking, or heterogeneous grouping, is the answer, but the concern is that slower learners will hold advanced students back. When deciding which classes students should be enrolled in, teachers, parents, students, and guidance counselors all contribute their opinions. Guidance counselors play a crucial …

Enrollment Yield At Union College 2014, Catherine Ziac

Honors Theses

This study examines why some admitted students decide to enroll at Union College while others go elsewhere. I use data on nearly nine thousand first-time full-time regular decision applicants admitted to Union starting in the academic years beginning in the Fall 2009 through Fall 2013. There are significant differences between students who enroll at Union and those who enroll elsewhere. First, since Union's financial aid fully meets students’ financial needs, students with large financial need are much more likely to enroll at Union than students with smaller financial need or no financial need. For example, controlling for demographic and academic …

Structuring The Unstructured Note: Automatic Organizing And Formatting For Lecture Notes., Shiqing He

Honors Theses

Note taking is an important practice during lectures. With the rapid development of electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets and laptops, digital note-taking has become an option for many students. In the classroom setting, note takers might fail to record clearly organized notes due to limitations of time and devices. Therefore, users often need to manually organize long paragraphs of notes by dividing or structuring them into appropriate sections based on content. The goal of this research is to develop a system that automatically structures unorganized notes. Using topic modeling and automatic summarization, we detect and analyze the “structure” …

Navigating Education Terrain: Tracing The Black Agenda, Alvaro Peters

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the legislative, social and economic development of public education in the United States. Since its inception in the 17th century, American schools have been subject to criticism, yet many of the same issues (rote, homogenous teaching, lack of achievement, educators devoid of passion and purpose) still occupy convoluted dialogue between education reformists and parents alike. However, within this narrative lies the more complex narrative of education for Black Americans. For much of this country’s history, Black Americans have existed in an often intensely segregated environment. Molded by ruthless disenfranchisement, a certain “Black educational agenda” managed to ripen …

Tennessee: The Birth And Development Of Performance-Based Funding In Higher Education, Evan Williams

Honors Theses

Tennessee was the first state to introduce performance based funding metrics into their higher education system in 1979. Over the past 30+ years, the state reevaluated and amended their formula every five years. What was initially an additional allocation that could be earned on top of an institution’s standard budget has now become the sole method of allocating funds for higher education in Tennessee. In 2010 the Tennessee legislature passed the Complete College Tennessee Act, Which put the state on the path to be the first state in the nation that allocates 100% of higher education funds on the basis …

Defining A Cross Content, Cross Cultural Curriculum For Foreign Language, Hannah P. Seage

Honors Theses

This thesis posits a 4th grade foreign language curriculum emphasizing cultural content in a parallel structure to social studies content as a means of addressing the interdisciplinary literacy stressed in the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Both the cultural content element and the parallel curriculum structure are compared to viable alternative emphases or structures prevalent in contemporary pedagogical material and practice. Standards of comparison for content foci are derived from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages aligned with the CCSS and standards of comparison for curriculum structure are derived …

Persuasion In Higher Education: Recruitment Of High Ability Students, Ann Marie Chilcutt

Honors Theses

Recruiting high ability students to institutions of higher education varies from university to university and is one of the most important variables for the continuing of successful colleges. This study focused on the variables that were most important to the current cohort of high ability freshmen at the University of Southern Mississippi. The aim of this study was to identify attitudinal and normative communicative components that are most effective for recruiting high ability students to the University of Southern Mississippi. By surveying this cohort of students, and using the Theory of Reasoned Action as a tool in creating questions for …

A Look Into Informal Science Education And Students With Individual Education Plans, Ashleigh M. Davis

Honors Theses

Informal science education is a field of study that is becoming increasingly popular and important in the world of science, especially regarding elementary students. It is important to understand how students with learning disabilities and individual education plans react to informal learning experiences. This case study seeks to reveal the experiences of two students with an individual educational plan due to Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when participating in an informal nature hike associated with the Over, Under, and Through: Students Informally Discover the Environment (OUTSIDE) program. The two students demonstrated increased attention and interest in science during and …

Mental Visualization Of Three-Dimensional Space: New Tools And Challenges In Building Design Education, Breshawn C. Mcneal

Honors Theses

As a future building design professional, a student’s ability to mentally “picture” second and third dimensional concepts is important. Learning the fundamentals of mental visualization is tantamount to laying the foundation for a building. Sketching, one of the skills required to bring a building concept to life, helps the student rapidly record their first brilliant thought. Though modern CAD software has the capability to auto-develop a three-dimensional structure, the user constructs a two-dimensional floor plan first, so the program output is based on the user’s initial input. Therefore, the quality of the three-dimensional design is linked to the student’s ability …

Education And Economic Development: An Untapped Alliance, Serena E. Williams

Honors Theses

Many Mississippi economic developers firmly believe that education could be the answer to the economic development of a community. However, there is a relatively small amount of research published on how the connection between education and economic development works. This is a case study of the Greater Hattiesburg Area of Mississippi which seeks to explore and to begin to understand how to better the relationship between education and economic development.

The researcher conducted eight in-depth, open-ended interviews with key informants who were directly engaged in the K-12 education system and economic development of the Greater Hattiesburg Area. The researcher coded …

Auditory Versus Cursive Writing Drills In Learning New Vocabulary In 4th Grade Children, Rachel S. Tyrone

Honors Theses

Vocabulary acquisition is fundamental in order for children to succeed not only academically, but also socially. Throughout the years, many scholars have researched various techniques to aid children in learning new vocabulary. Two of the techniques to aid vocabulary can be seen by utilizing an auditory and a writing technique. A teacher will present the students with several vocabulary words multiple times throughout a regular school year. These words are vital to the success of the child. Consequently, there is a need to discover a technique that will aid the students in learning the new vocabulary words. In order to …

Developing A Cross-Cultural And Cross-Content Foreign Language Curriculum, Sophia R. Seage

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to clarify the implementation of the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary French curriculum described in the associated work, Defining a Cross-Cultural and Cross-Content Foreign Language Curriculum (Seage). Using Social Studies as the primary source of cross-content exchange, the proposed curriculum is composed of three units of entry level French instruction that position the learner to acquire a second language through the broader process of acquiring an understanding of a second culture. By connecting the underlying philosophy outlined in the accompanying work to the recently implemented Common Core State Standards and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' …

Teaching Book Arts In The Classroom To Enhance Education, Leah Ruesink

Honors Theses

Books are the foundation of education and a central component to our society. The process of making books, including the art of paper-making, printmaking, typography, and bookbinding are rarely known or recognized today. In our current age of computer and photographic technology, these processes have become a lost art. Through my experiences exploring and creating book art in Italy through a study abroad experience, as well as an internship at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, I began to see many connections to book arts and educating children. The power and magical aspect of books came alive to me, and I …

Individualized Education Program Complexities For Students With Autism, Jordan Rohraff

Honors Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) belongs to a group of closely-related neurobiological disorders (Phetrasuwan, Miles & Mesibov, 2009). Incidence of this disorder is on the rise and is also seen as a topic of increasing concern, especially among educators and parents. Students with ASD need assistance from a variety of professionals in order to achieve academic success. To maintain effective communications between all involved parties, a collaborative plan must be put into place. An Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is an educational roadmap for students with disabilities. Although these important plans have many benefits such as providing students with their much needed …

Traditional Assessment Vs Non-Traditional Assessment: What Native American Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Looks Like In A Suburban Classroom., Jamie Keyser

Honors Theses

Native American culturally relevant pedagogy is a form of non-traditional assessment, which focuses on ways to measure what students learn, understand or do not understand, without using the standard traditional assessment of a test or quiz. In schools today, there is a lack of culturally relevant teaching because schools are deep into a curriculum that is Eurocentric and focused on the dominant culture, European Americans. To see if Native American culturally relevant pedagogy assessment strategies were beneficial to students of all races in a suburban classroom, action research was done in an internship classroom in a suburban school district. Two …

Emerging Themes In Dystopian Literature: The Development Of An Undergraduate Course, Devin Ryan

Honors Theses

Young adult (YA) dystopian literature is a trend that is taking the nation by storm. Since September 11, 2001, the genre has gained a strong backing from academics, authors, and YA readers; after Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games (2008), however, YA dystopian literature has become the forefront of teen reading, especially with the recently adapted film versions of the widely renowned trilogy. In order to keep up with the times, a proposed course—YA Dystopian Literature: A Survey of Modern Book Series—has been created to be taught at Western Michigan University by Dr. Gwen Tarbox in the spring of 2015.

Before …

Perceived External Factors Leading To The Resumption Of Occupations Following Acquired Amputation, Danielle Brown

Honors Theses

The aim of this study was to determine external factors leading to resumption of occupations after acquired amputation. In this paper, occupation is defined as the role and activity a person deems necessary for daily living. The working hypothesis is that there are external factors that enable prosthesis wearers to resume relevant occupations.

Methods: The design of this study included a qualitative (phenomenological) approach. Following HISRB approval, a convenience sample of two participants was enrolled in the study. The subjects were active clients of a prosthetic training program and met the industry criteria of an acquired amputation and regular use …

Resisting (And Reproducing) Language Domination In A Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom, Roxana Gamble

Honors Theses

In modern U.S. society, English is considered the language of power while Spanish is considered a minority language, unfit for academic or professional settings. These macro-level power inequalities are evident in micro-level interactions between students and teachers in mainstream schools. Dual language education programs, however, attempt to challenge this ideology by elevating the status of minority languages and their speakers. In this study, I use an ethnographic/discourse analysis approach to examine how one teacher's practices in a dual language kindergarten classroom work to both reproduce and resist dominant ideologies about Spanish. Through participant-observation, interviews, and audio recordings of naturallyoccurring speech, …

Two-Way Dual-Immersion Programs, Monica Nealis

Honors Theses

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, “of the 281 million people aged 5 and over in the United States, 55.4 million people (20 percent of this population) speak a language other than English at home” (Center for Applied Linguistics). As this number of English language learners, also known as ELLs, continues to grow, families and educators alike are looking for effective programs and instructional strategies to serve these children and adults (CAL). “Dual-language education” is an umbrella term used for an additive form of education in which students are taught literacy and other content (reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social …

The Relevance Of Fraternity New Member Education Programs, Christopher Miller

Honors Theses

College can be a difficult time of transition for young men, and done properly a fraternity can provide a strong tool for initial and continued success. My thesis will center on a curriculum I developed for the new members of my fraternity, the Michigan Beta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp). Under the auspices of SigEp’s nationally implemented Balanced Man Program, my program is aimed to help new members of college and SigEp understand collegiate life, fraternity, and how living a life centered around the principles of SigEp can help ensure success in college and in life after college. The …

¡Vamos: Es Hora De Conocer España! Unit Plan For The Life And Culture Of Spain, Katheryn Cook

Honors Theses

This thesis, ¡Vamos: es hora de conocer España!, is a unit plan for a high school Spanish course focusing on the life and culture of Spain, with an intense focus on the languages of Spain other than Spanish. The cultures of the regions where these languages are found in Spain are rich with history and are quite individual and unique. The goal of this unit was to create a connection between language and culture for new language learners. When someone has a story and a context behind what they are learning, they will have a connection to the material …

Core Aspects Of Curriculum Development: A Literature Review And Development Of Program Handbook For Health Informatics And Information Management, Nicole Yon

Honors Theses

TIle purpose of this review was to determine the basic principles of curriculum design and to understand how they are used to develop a competent curriculum handbook. The findings were used to develop a handbook for the Health Informatics and Information Management major at Western Michigan University. This literature review focuses on a variety of web pages, articles and books that analyzed the topics of curriculum design and curriculum handbook development. A review of the Bronson School of Nursing Handbook and the Temple University - Health Information Management Department B.S. in Health Information Management (HiM) Student Handbook was also conducted. …