Education Commons^™

"A Lean Accounting Curriculum", Jake Lewis

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper is written as a part of my honors thesis. My objective for my thesis was to develop a curriculum to be used in the classroom here at Utah State University, on the subject of lean accounting. This curriculum includes a set of lecture slides, selection of an assigned textbook, a case study assignment, and a DVD. Also compiled were several other optional materials that may be used as supplements to the aforementioned set of materials or as a means to briefly cover lean accounting in another course if so desired. This paper contains a brief summary of lean …

After-Schools Programs And Their Influence On Parent Involvement With Children At Home, Marci Malone

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Eight-year-old Victoria, with hands on hips and chin stuck up, defiantly said, "No mom, I want to stay for After-School Club. I don't care about the dentist." Her mother patiently responded by telling Victoria, "I know you want to stay but we have to leave now or we will be late for our appointment." The little girl, seeming to know from experience that her mother would not budge, stomped her foot as she began leaving the school saying, "I hate when I have to miss After-School Club!"

Learning To Lead: The College Experiences Of Women University Presidents, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Although developing leadership is an important topic in the higher education today, the percentage of women found in high leadership positions remains quite low. In fact, little has been published about how high-level women leaders actually developed. This workshop will present the results of two qualitative research studies exploring how 10 women university presidents and 10 women governors became effective leaders, with a particular focus on influential events, individuals, activities, and opportunities during their undergraduate and graduate educational experiences.

The Paperless Accounting Classroom: The Perceptions And Experiences Of Students In A Newly Designed Course, Steve Teeter, Susan R. Madsen, Jason Hughes, Brent Eager

Susan R. Madsen

Although financial accounting practices in business have capitalized on the use of technology, this technology has not been fully integrated in higher education for accounting students. While traditional accounting courses laboriously involve rote transcription of debits and credits, educational technology in accounting courses may prove inherently beneficial. Faculty members designed and offered a paperless accounting course that utilized a variety of technologies. This study explored student perceptions regarding the satisfaction and effectiveness of three of these technologies: 1) the Classroom Performance System (CPS) response pad (clicker) from eInstruction.com, 2) PC Tablet (teacher use); and 3) WebCT. This study analyzes the …

Developing Leadership: Exploring The Childhoods Of Women University Presidents, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Researchers argue that much of who we are is developed during childhood. Childhood relationships and developmental activities, opportunities, and experiences (including hardships) come together to create each human being. Yet, little exploratory research has been conducted regarding the childhood experiences, activities, personalities, and perceptions of successful leaders. In-depth, qualitative interviews with ten women university presidents were conducted to investigate perceptions and experiences related to the lifetime development of leadership skills, abilities, and competencies. The lived experiences of these women were investigated using the phenomenological research methodology so that “voices” could be heard and unique insights examined. This paper explores a …

Leadership In Higher Education: Do You Have The Interest, Skills, And Commitment? (Professional Development Workshop), Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

This insightful and innovative two-part workshop will 1) explore the current issues affecting leadership in higher education and 2) provide participants with an opportunity to engage in self-analysis and personal reflection. "Leadership" will be broadly framed as leading from a formal position (e.g., president, VP, dean, associate dean, department chair, or committee chair) as well as influencing without an official title or formal authority; therefore, all conference attendees interested in influencing change at any level in higher education would benefit. The first 50-minute workshop segment will begin with participants completing a short questionnaire about their perceptions of the most important …

Faculty Ethics: Issues, Challenges, And Solutions (Professional Development Workshop), Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

The Faculty Ethics event is a three-part workshop that will provide faculty, administrators, and doctoral students the forum to discuss current issues and challenges related to the ethical decision-making and behavior of faculty members within the higher educational arena. First, the facilitators will briefly outline some of the current issues, trends and supporting literature in this area (20 minutes). Areas of discussion may include work ethic, plagiarism, misrepresentation, authorship issues, grading, teaching effort, selection of service assignments, reporting contributions, evaluation, research standards/ethics, and such. Second, participants will be asked to help the list of narrow ethics issues to the three …

Women University Presidents: Career Paths And Educational Backgrounds, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

The purpose of this paper is to report findings related to the lived experiences of women university presidents’ in developing the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies required for successful leadership in higher education. More specifically, this report focuses on their educational backgrounds and career paths. Using qualitative in-depth interviews (phenomenological research methodology), ten women university presidents were interviewed for two to three hours each. Interviews were audio taped and transcribed, and theme generation techniques used. Although there were some similarities among the women in terms of educational backgrounds and employment positions, the data show that presidents can emerge from a …

Turning Points And Protective Processes: A Qualitative Study On Resilient Youth Through Their Perspective As Resilient Adults, Michael E. Monson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigates the processes of resiliency and the turning points of decision-making in youth from at-risk environments. The study utilizes a constructivist, qualitative approach, to examine indicators of resiliency from both an individual and contextual perspective. The narrative descriptions of eleven adults from at-risk childhoods are analyzed through biographical interviews.

Analyses were completed to determine common factors that contribute to the process of resiliency in successful adults. Results indicate that the influences of risk on healthy functioning are modified by shifting environmental protective factors, resources, and developed attributes of self-efficacy. Risk and adversity had a strengthening effect that contributed …

Model-Centered Instruction: A Design Research Study To Investigate An Alternative Approach To Patient Education, Mary Ann Parlin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

While medical technology, intervention, and treatment continue to advance, patients often find themselves involved in an increasingly complex healthcare system. Because of this, many patients lack access to the knowledge to facilitate successful navigation or participation in healthcare systems to their best advantage. Patient education that provides experiential information has been shown to reduce anxiety levels and increase patient health outcomes and compliance with medical instructions or recommendations. Given the demonstrated effectiveness of experiential instruction in patient education, Model-Centered Instruction (MCI) has the potential to be an effective instructional design for patient education because it affords the learner experience with …

Uncovering The Key Of Success In The Utah Medicaid Work Incentive Program: A Grounded Theory Study, Renee H. Nolan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this grounded theory research was to determine what differentiates people with disabilities who leave Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits due to increased income from those who cannot. Fifteen individuals, former and current participants in a Medicaid Buy-In program, were interviewed. Within the context of health and disability, four theoretical propositions were identified: education, opportunity to work, interpersonal support, and secure housing. Higher benefit levels were also found to be an effective barrier for many.

The Competencies And Characteristics Required Of An Effective Project Manager: A Web-Based Delphi Study, Jennifer M. Brill, M. J. Bishop, Andrew Walker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explores the competencies required for a project manager to be effective in the workplace. We used a Web-based Delphi method to lead experienced project managers through an anonymous consensus-building process consisting of two rounds of surveys. The Round I analysis of 147 respondents, all with 20 or more years of project management experience, yielded 117 project management success factors, 78 of which were identified as “trainable” competencies. The Round II analysis confirmed 42 of the 78 competencies (53.8%) as “very important” to “extremely important” to project manager success. Important contributions of this study include: (a) reporting on project …

Phonemic Awareness In Children's Books, Natalie Sara Thompson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

When children scribble on a paper or a draw a picture to write a story, they are in the early stages of emergent literacy. Emergent literacy is a process which children become aware of written language. Before children write their name, they are learning about print, its meaning, and the relationship it has to language. Along their path towards reading and writing, children then begin to understand another important process, phonemic awareness. My senior thesis is based on the concept of phonemic awareness.

Innovative Teaching In Hrd Graduate And Undergraduate Education, Susan R. Madsen, Wendy E.A. Ruona

Susan R. Madsen

There have been few forums within the Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) to discuss HRD education. We have had limited opportunities to share innovative teaching and learning techniques, pedagogies, projects, assignments, technologies, and ideas. As a dynamic discipline it is important that current and future HRD faculty continuously learn and change teaching methods and curricula to parallel the latest pedagogical knowledge and research, as teaching goals should focus on effectively facilitating student learning in our own courses and programs. Clearly since our field is strongly based on adult learning and training and development, we (as faculty) should be utilizing …

Learning To Lead In Higher Education: Insights Into The Family Backgrounds Of Women University Presidents, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Qualitative methods were used to explore the backgrounds, experiences, and perceptions of ten women U.S. university presidents on becoming leaders. Using the phenomenological research methodology, the presidents were interviewed about their lived experiences of developing the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies required for successful leadership in higher education. This paper reports the portion of the results specifically related to insights into the family backgrounds and influences of these women.

Engineering Student Outcomes For Grades 9-12, Vincent Childress, Craig Rhodes

Reports of Center Studies

The following research study was conducted during the 2005 – 2006 academic year. Its purpose is to help the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education determine those engineering outcomes that should be studied in high school when the high school student intends to pursue engineering in college. The results of the study will also be used to determine those engineering student outcomes that all technology education high school students should learn in order to aid them in becoming more technologically literate.

A modified Delphi approach as used for the study. The participants were a panel of experts consisting of …

A Social-Cognitive Framework For Designing Pedagogical Agents As Learning Companions, Yanghee Kim, Amy L. Baylor

Yanghee Kim

Teaching and learning are highly social activities. Seminal psychologists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bandura have theorized that social interaction is a key mechanism in the process of learning and development. In particular, the benefits of peer interaction for learning and motivation in classrooms have been broadly demonstrated through empirical studies. Hence, it would be valuable if computer-based environments could support a mechanism for a peer-interaction. Though no claim of peer equivalence is made, pedagogical agents as learning companions (PALs) -- animated digital characters functioning to simulate human-peer-like interaction -- might provide an opportunity to simulate such social interaction in …

Content-Based English Learning Through Pedagogical Agents, Yanghee Kim, P. Punahm, Y. Ko

Yanghee Kim

This paper suggests how an advanced technology called pedagogical agents can be applied to English education to benefit learners across ages through computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and content-based language learning (CBLL). CALL, when designed appropriately, has positively influenced the development of a learner’s linguistic proficiency and communicative competence (Chun, 1994; Fotos & Browne, 2004). CBLL integrates language learning with subject-matter learning to make language learning more meaningful (Snow, 2001; Swain, 1998). However, the conventional CALL programs are often criticized for the lacking a social context, considered essential for successful language learning ( Warschauer, 2004). Also, CBLL seems rarely applied to …

Pedagogical Agents As Learning Companions: The Role Of Agent Competency And Type Of Interaction, Yanghee Kim, Amy L. Baylor, Pals Group

Yanghee Kim

This study was designed to examine the effects of the competency (low vs. high) and interaction type (proactive vs. responsive) of pedagogical agents as learning companions (PALs) on learning, self-efficacy, and attitudes. Participants were 72 undergraduates in an introductory computer-literacy course who were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: Low-Proactive, Low-Responsive, High-Proactive, and High-Responsive. Results indicated a main effect for PAL competency. Students who worked with the high-competency PAL in both proactive and responsive conditions achieved higher scores in applying what they had learned and showed more positive attitudes toward the PAL. However, students who worked with the low-competency …

Collateral Learning Through Service-Learning: Developing Competent Business Professionals, Janice Gygi, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Stakeholders of business schools expect graduates to have certain collateral skills in addition to the specific skills required by the discipline. These collateral skills have been identified as quantitative analysis, information technology, diversity, teamwork and interpersonal, critical and analytical thinking, verbal and written communication, and ethical. This literature review suggests that service-learning should be an excellent way to help students develop collateral as well as discipline-specific skills. This may be due to the high motivation to learn that students gain from working in the real world with individuals whose lives are impacted by the quality of service provided by the …

Spring 2006, Issue No.2

ADVANCE Library Collection

No abstract provided.

Reassessing Possible Naturalized Ideology Regarding Science, Education, And Religion., Todd Campbell

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This manuscript asks questions about what may be the naturalized, or taken for granted, ideologies in science education regarding religion. There have been times in history when religion has taken a dogmatic role in limiting the practices of science (e.g. the Roman Catholic Church and Galileo). This manuscript reflects on the dogmatic ideals through reaching beyond the capacities of an empirical way of knowing. A Science, Technology, and Society (STS) approach to science teaching is considered as a possible mechanism for honoring both science and religion as valid yet different ways of knowing and better addressing students’ integration of science …

A Design-Based Research Strategy To Promote Scalability For Educational Innovations, Jody Clarke-Midura, C. Dede, D. J. Ketelhut, B. Nelson, C. Bowman

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This article offers insights into how the design of innovations can enhance their “scalability”: the ability to adapt an innovation to effective usage in a wide variety of contexts, including settings where major conditions for success are absent or attenuated. We are implementing the River City MUVE curriculum, a technology-based innovation designed to enhance engagement and learning in middle school science, in a range of educational contexts. Based on our studies of these scaling up activities, we offer examples of design strategies for scalability and describe our plan to develop a “scalability index.”

Classroom-Basedfunctional Analysis And Intervention For Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, G. L. Wright-Gallo, Thomas S. Higbee, K. A. Reagon, B. J. Davey

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

We conducted functional analyses of disruptive behavior in a classroom setting for two students of typical intelligence with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) using the classroom teacher to implement functional analysis conditions. The functional analyses suggested that both participants' disruptive behavior was maintained by escape from task demands and access to attention. Based on this information, we implemented a DRA procedure in which participants could request either escape or attention while disruption was placed on extinction. DRA decreased the disruptive behavior of both participants and the schedule of reinforcement was successfully thinned to a level that was practical for the classroom teacher …

Teaching Functionally Equivalent Replacement Behaviors To Students With Problem Behavior: What? How? Why?, Robert L. Morgan, E. Vasquez

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Teaching Pretend Play Skills Toa Student With Autism Using Video Modeling With A Sibling As Model And Play Partner, K. A. Reagon, Thomas S. Higbee, K. Endicott

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

We taught a four-year-old boy diagnosed with autism and his older brother to engage in four pretend play scenarios using video modeling. The older brother acted in the video models with a typically developing peer. Both the participant and his sibling successfully engaged in the four scenarios during intervention as well as maintenance and generalization probes conducted in their home. This case study illustrated that siblings of children with autism can perform in video models as well as engage in pretend play with their sibling with autism. In addition, the child with autism may benefit from sibling-oriented interventions as indicated …

Promoting Positive Behavior: What Works And What Doesn’T, Marilyn Likins Ph.D., D. Andrews

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Code Red (Remediation And Enrichment Days): The Complex Journey Of A School And University Partnership's Process To Increase Mathematics Achievement, Patricia S. Moyer-Packenham, K. Dockery, S. Jamieson, J. Ross

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This study examined a focused remediation and enrichment effort among school and university faculty to affect the mathematics achievement of a group of third-grade students in a Title 1 elementary school. A total of 87 students participated in the Code RED (Remediation and Enrichment Days) Project. During the Code RED Project, student assessment data were used to identify high-need areas for mathematics instruction. The Code RED Project sessions occurred in small groups over a 10-week period. Pre-and posttest assessments, as well as state-standardized tests, were used for data gathering during the project. Pre-and posttest data indicate that students made significant …

The Distant Exploration Of Wolves: Using Technology To Explore Student Questions About Wolves, Todd Campbell

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of The Value Of Problem-Based Learning Among Students With Special Needs And Their Teachers, Brian Robert Belland, P. A. Ertmer, K. D. Simons

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

While problem-based learning (PBL) has been found to be effective with gifted and average students (Hmelo-Silver, 2004), little is known about its impact on students with special needs. This study examines the perceptions of middle-school students with mild, moderate, and severe disabilities and of their teachers regarding the value of participating in a PBL unit. The unit focused on the physical accessibility of a low-SES, rural community where the students’ school was located.We used the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to analyze interview data, and used observation data and artifacts to triangulate interview comments. Among the noteworthy findings …