Education Commons^™

Empowering Faculty Through Assessment, Katherine Simpson Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

This article explains how faculty and administrators at Lord Fairfax Community College have made assessment a vital practice across campus.

The Influence Of Learning Communities On The Interaction Levels Of English Students, Elizabeth Wilmer Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

This study investigates whether learning communities significantly increase the level of interaction of community-college students enrolled in developmental English.

Geology Field Trips As Performance Evaluations, Callan Bentley

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

The author details his experience in using geology field trips to provide hands-on learning for his students and opportunities to assess student learning of key course concepts.

Front Matter

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Cover art: “Running Fields” by Kreela Moore, a student at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Are New Faculty Prepared To Teach Diverse Learners?, Audrey Lail Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

The author examines the preparation of community-college faculty, especially those recently hired, to teach the varied students our institutions enroll.

Detection And Assessment Of Quality Indicators Of Visual Based Learning Material In Engineering Education Programs For Grades 7-12, Petros Katsioloudis

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to detect the quality indicators of visual-based learning material in technology education for grades 7-12. A three-round modified Delphi method was used to answer the following research questions: RQ1: What indicators should quality visual-based learning material in technology education have to be effective and efficient in transmitting information for grades 7-12? RQ2: What are the indicators of the learner’s characteristics that impact the selection of visual-based learning material in technology education for grades 7-12?

That Ain’T Workin’: That’S The Way You Do It: Teaching Greek Through Popular Music, Georgia Irby

Arts & Sciences Articles

No abstract provided.

Middle School Parents' Perceptions Of Career And Technical Education, Virginia R. Powers Jones

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study explored middle school parents' perceptions of the contributions career and technical education could make to their child's educational or workforce plans. It also examined what actions parents undertake to influence their child's plans, specifically the impact of the career exploration tool, Coin Career Community©, on their actions. Last, the study explored the correlation between the course choices students made in ninth grade relative to their parents' perceptions.

This study took place at Halifax County Middle School, located in South Boston, Virginia, in spring 2009. This school was the only middle school in the county with a student population …

Ninth-Grade Interventions And The Impact On High School Graduation Rates, Shannon Mcbrady

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There is a need to become economically sensible when deciding on new school initiatives and reforms. This is partly due to increasing accountability and tightening school budgets. Hertzog & Morgan (1999) found the freshman year sets the tone for a student‟s entire high school career. Yet, frequently, ninth-graders struggle to feel connected to school and therefore experience failure. Often times this period of failure is related to the developmental process the ninth-grader experiences. Many ninth-graders struggle in various areas including behavioral growth, social pressures, and adjusting to the rigidity of high school (Mizelle & Irvin, 2000). Researchers have found that …

The Relationship Clinical Faculty Training Has To Student Teacher Self-Efficacy, Jennifer Leigh Maginnis

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A southeastern American university school of education has implemented a clinical faculty program to which interested K-12 teachers apply, and if accepted are trained how to mentor student teachers. At the time of this study there were not enough clinical faculty for every student teacher; therefore, some student teachers were placed with (untrained) cooperating teachers for their clinical experience. This study compared the experience student teachers had with cooperating teachers versus with clinical faculty to begin to determine if the implementation of the clinical faculty training has an effect on student teacher self-efficacy.

The Impact Of The 101s: A Guide To Positive Discipline Teacher Training On Teacher Interaction Practices, Teacher-Child Relationship Quality, School Adjustment, And Academic Outcomes In Kindergarten Classrooms In Bangkok, Thailand, Panadda Thanasetkorn

Theses and Dissertations in Early Childhood Education

While a great body of research evidence in the United States shows the impact of positive teacher interactions on teacher-child relationship quality and beneficial school outcomes for young children, it is not clear how Thai children would respond to the kind of interactional and social-emotional practices of American teachers. In this research, teacher training through The 101s: A Guide to Positive Discipline (The 101s, Kersey, 2006) was implemented in kindergarten classrooms in Bangkok, Thailand. The purpose of the study was (a) to investigate the impact of The 101s teacher training on changes in teacher interaction practices, teacher-child relationship …

Reading And Responding To Children’S Books About Bullying, Kathy Everts Danielson, Jan Labonty

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Which of the following scenarios is an example of bullying?

A. Older boys repeatedly steal a second-grader’s lunch money.
B. A group of girls start and perpetuate vicious rumours about a shy classmate.
C. On a daily basis, a boy makes fun of a peer’s old-fashioned clothes.
D. During recess, bigger kids push, shove, and taunt smaller children.
E. All of the above.

If you guessed E, you not only know a lot about test construction, you also understand the classic definition of bullying: “Bullying is a deliberate attempt to hurt another that is repeated over time,” (Craig, 1997, p. …

Proceedings Of The Third Annual Meeting Of The Georgia Association Of Mathematics Teacher Educators Front Matter

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Contents of 3rd Annual GAMTE Proceedings Front Matter:

• Proceedings Committee
• Officers of GAMTE
• Purposes and Goals of GAMTE
• Table of Contents
• Letter from President

Authentic Discovery Projects In Statistics, Dianna J. Spence, Robb Sinn

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

We report the activities and findings of a 3-year project, ―Authentic, Career-Specific, Discovery Learning Projects in Introductory Statistics,‖ funded by the National Science Foundation. The project scope includes: 1) development of teaching materials for using discovery learning projects to teach statistics; 2) training secondary teachers to use the materials developed; 3) evaluation of student outcomes, in both content knowledge and attitudes toward statistics; and 4) extending and refining teacher training. With input from an interdisciplinary team of instructors, materials were developed to assist the teacher in facilitating collaborative discovery projects using linear regression techniques and comparison techniques with appropriate t-tests. …

The Church Of The Nazarene: A Denomination And Its Colleges: A Mixed Methods Study, Mark A. Mountain

Scholarship – President's Office

The purpose for this study was to provide a framework for the Church of the Nazarene to examine the ongoing church-college relationship. At the Church of the Nazarene’s centennial, this study sought to examine the balance between institutional mission and academic philosophy on church-relatedness in the Church of the Nazarene’s higher education bodies within the United States.

The qualitative research brought to light several themes. The first was that the Church of the Nazarene is very unique its relationship between church and college. A second theme that was evident was the strong sense of institutional loyalty. And a third was …

A Comparison Of Face-To-Face And Online Learning Environments To Prepare Teachers To Use Technology, Ashley Janel Addis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigated the similarities and differences in the implementation of face-to-face and online versions of an undergraduate educational technology course for elementary teacher candidates. A common course project, the Innovations Mini-teach , was the focus of the investigation. Twenty-four students participated in the face-to-face section, 22 were enrolled in the online section, and the instructor was the same for both classes. Through this investigation, similarities and differences were identified in the nature of the learning experience as well as student outcomes. Similarities included how the project was introduced, structured, and facilitated. Key differences pertained to the nature of collaboration …

Direct Observation In High School Physical Education, Nicole Jennifer Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to analyze existing data collected using direct observation in a high school setting in order to understand more about the quality and contribution of physical education to public health goals. The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) was utilized to collect data related to student activity levels, lesson contexts, and teacher promotion of physical activity behavior. Two cross-sectional samples were observed in the spring 2005 and spring 2007 from seven high schools in a large urban school district in the eastern United States. In total, 164 lessons were observed yielding over 75 hours …

Processes Of Disposition Development In K--5 Teachers, Deborah A. Obara

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Educators concur that teacher competency requires more than teaching knowledge and skills; competency requires appropriate professional dispositions. The development of professional dispositions is an expected outcome of teacher education programs. Since 2002, program accreditation has been contingent on documentation that prospective teachers have met national standards for dispositions. The body of educational research on disposition assessment has been growing. Research on disposition learning and development, however, has been impeded by the prevailing conceptualization of dispositions as fixed traits resistant to change. The present study conceptualized dispositions as malleable constructs within a theoretical framework that synthesized a cognitive model of thinking …

So Tell Me, What's Different But The Skin I'M In? Seven Adolescent Black Girls Making Sense Of Their Experiences In An Online School Book Club Featuring African American Young Adult Literature, Benita Rutonya Dillard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Believing the claim made by Black feminist research and scholarship that Black women writers and Black female social networks were safe spaces for Black females to come to voice, this qualitative multiple case study examined how seven adolescent Black females enrolled in a public virtual charter high school positioned themselves as they responded to contemporary realistic young adult fiction written by African American female authors in an online single-gendered book club. This study captured participants as some interacted in Tuesday's group and the others in the Thursday's group. Interpretivist methods are used to specifically examine the ways in which the …

Teacher Candidates' Attitudes Toward Immigration And Teaching Learners Of English As A Second Language, Midena M. Sas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While in theory, democratic ideals promise the equal participation of all its citizens in the decisions that affect them, in practice some populations, i.e., those who do not possess membership to the dominant cultural group, often miss out on the privileges a democratic society is supposed to ensure. Critical theorists pointed out that "democracies like ours exhort equal opportunity but often ignore ways in which our schools operate unconsciously and unknowingly to guarantee that there will be no real equality" (McLaren, 2007, p. 176). In the education arena, inequitable treatment has received significant attention, perhaps due to the glaring repercussions …

Adult Esl Student Perceptions On Computer Assisted Language Learning, Jillian Burrus

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this research study was to explore my adult English as a second language (ESL) student's experiences with technology as a method of improving English acquisition. The area of computer assisted language learning (CALL) is increasingly becoming important within the second language learning arena. As the expansion of available technology continues to increase, insight into opinions about the effectiveness of CALL and specifically those opinions of the actual users will be needed.

As an instructor of adult ESL students, my study focused on providing information about my student's use of technology for future personal classroom praxis. This research …

Quality Assurance Policies In The European Higher Education Area: A Comparative Case Study, Joanna Maria Jezierska

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

European tertiary education became an important topic of the main leaders of the world academia a decade ago, when 29 European countries voluntarily signed the Bologna Declaration of 1999. This intergovernmental European initiative of educational reform, known as the Bologna Process, defines a common framework for higher education systems, and encourages the development of quality assurance within and between institutions of higher education. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the implementation process of quality assurance policy, The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, in two European countries: the United Kingdom and Poland, including the quality …

Thankful Learning: A Grounded Theory Study Of Relational Practice Between Master’S Students And Professors, Harriet L. Schwartz

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

No abstract provided.

Dispersion Of Large-Seeded Tree Species By Two Forest Primates: Primate Seed Handling, Microhabitat Variability, And Post-Dispersal Seed Fate, Nicole D. Gross-Camp

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

I describe the relative effectiveness of two primates in dispersing large-seeded tree seeds (> 0.5 cm) in the Nyungwe National Park (NNP), Rwanda. My objectives are three-fold: (1) to describe the relative effectiveness of primates in dispersing the seeds of five large-seeded tree species, (2) to evaluate the influence of primate seed-handling method on seed fate, and (3) to determine the influence of deposition site on seed fate. I employed focal tree observations, day-follows of habituated primate groups, in situ monitoring of primate-dispersed seeds, and experimental plots to achieve these objectives. Data were collected over the course of one year …

Effects Of Explicit Subtraction Instruction On Fifth Grade Students With Learning Disabilities, Danielle Ferreira

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study involved an investigation of the effects of strategy instruction integrated with the concrete-representational-abstract teaching sequence on students with learning disabilities. A multiple probe design across subjects with one replication was used in this study. Two sets of data were analyzed to determine effectiveness of the independent variable (intervention lessons). The first data set consisted of pre and posttest percentage scores and the second data set consisted of baseline, intervention, and maintenance probe scores that were collected throughout the study per the parameters of a multiple probe design. The probe scores were plotted in line graph format and analyzed …

Devaluing Life And Education: The Effect Of Naturalism On The Field Of Education, Erin R. Reynolds

Senior Honors Theses

The rise of naturalism has affected every area of life. This thesis seeks to address the negative influence of naturalism in various educational settings, exposing the degradation of the secular society while challenging the Christian to pursue change. The United States’ participation in eugenics during the early 20th century caused a lack of regard for the lives of special education students. Regular education, specifically the science classroom, has been a target for the naturalistic point of view. Even the abolition of God in the public school setting stems from the rise of naturalism. Lastly, many scientists and professors who hold …

Cultural Competence: Developing And Assessing Multicultural Proficiency For Teachers And School Personnel In Hawaii, Caryl H. Hitchcock, Mary Anne Prater, Chuan Chang

Faculty Publications

Teachers were recruited from the mainland of the United States to work in rural areas in the State of Hawaii to meet the high demand for personnel. But often there is a mismatch between the culture of the island residents and that of the new teachers. To alleviate this mismatch, a workshop was developed to promote multicultural proficiency of school personnel focusing on Asian/Pacific cultures. One hundred teachers, administrators and staff (including custodians and cafeteria workers) from four rural elementary schools participated in a three hour workshop. The workshop consisted of three activities: (a) self-awareness, (b) awareness of Asian/Pacific Island …

School-Based Mentoring For At-Risk Elementary Students, Shauna Valentine, Gary Wall, Paul Caldarella, Lynnette Christensen, K. Richard Young, Allen Gurney

Faculty Publications

Advantages of School-based Mentoring: Less Costly; Identify More Children via the School Context; School Resources Staff Administration; More Convenient for Volunteers; Time Commitment; Mentors Feel Safer; Establish Community Support within school.

Determinants Of Academic Achievement And Intention To Complete The Program Among Pga Golf Management Students, Brian James Soule

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Students enrolled in PGA Golf Management programs at five public universities were surveyed to determine what contributed to their academic achievement, i.e., grades, and their intention to successfully complete their academic program. The Eccles expectancy-value model of activity behaviors was used as the theoretical framework for this study. The results of regression analyses indicated that the students' perceptions that their parents and peers believed that they could successfully complete their degree requirements, as well as their own self-efficacy beliefs, predicted their academic achievement, but not their intention to complete the program. The results of regression analyses indicated also that the …

Master Teachers’ Critical Practice And Student Learning Strategies: A Case Study In An Urban School District, Greg G. Paulmann

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Job embedded professional development in the K-12 education setting has long been discussed and debated. This study builds on standards of critical reflection and thinking using the National Institute for Excellence in Education’s Teacher Advancement Program’s master teacher model as a conduit between theory and practice. A study of professional development design based on student learning strategies became worthy of review. The master teacher, through field testing and critical reflection, isolates critical elements necessary to transform teaching practice around student learning strategies. The work of the master teacher is situated as a leader of change within a professional learning community. …