Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Education

The Impact Of Student Leadership Engagement On Meaning In Life And Work During College, Heather Janel Strine-Patterson Dec 2017

The Impact Of Student Leadership Engagement On Meaning In Life And Work During College, Heather Janel Strine-Patterson

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The rising need, cost, and debt for postsecondary education has increased attention and scrutiny on its value, and colleges and universities must underscore outcomes beyond employment of graduates. Psychological well-being is a promising area to expand the value of postsecondary education. Using correlations, multiple regression, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), this study seeks to contribute to an emergent body of empirical knowledge about the impact of postsecondary education on students’ well-being by specifically examining the relationship between participation in cocurricular and extracurricular experiences and students’ well-being defined by their sense of meaning in life and work. To this end, …


An Exploratory Study To Understand Elementary School Students’ Conceptions Of Food Chains, Shelby Snowden May 2017

An Exploratory Study To Understand Elementary School Students’ Conceptions Of Food Chains, Shelby Snowden

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Research has shown that elementary school is a critical time to pique children’s interest in science. However, many enrichment activities known to pique this interest in young children are not available to students of low socioeconomic status, English Language Learners, racial minorities, and students with disabilities. This has encouraged many higher education institutions to develop STEM outreach programs. Because of the cognitive gap between STEM professionals and young children and the logistics of implementing student-centered activities in heterogeneous classrooms, programs usually consist of activities that impress students with “sophisticated” science but are beyond the cognitive levels of most students and …


How Scholarship Programs Facilitate First-Generation College Students’ Involvement, Maria C. Restrepo Chavez May 2017

How Scholarship Programs Facilitate First-Generation College Students’ Involvement, Maria C. Restrepo Chavez

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

As a first-generation college student, I am interested in the on-campus involvement and experiences of other first-generation college students. First-generation college students are those whose parents did not receive a university degree and tend to come from low-income families. This project explores programs designed to support and enrich the experiences of such students. The Centennial Scholars Program at James Madison University and the Presidential Scholarship Initiative at Virginia Tech aim to increase the socio-economic diversity on each campus. These programs provide students with full funding for four years, mentorship, professional development and social benefits, among others. In turn, students become …


Energy Poverty: Sos, Kaitlin Tomlinson May 2017

Energy Poverty: Sos, Kaitlin Tomlinson

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This honors thesis is a part of a larger ISAT Senior Capstone project with partner Rachel Stukenborg. The purpose of the collaborative ISAT Capstone Project was to develop a set of university-level teaching and learning resources about energy poverty that incorporate a spherical display system, Science On a Sphere (S.O.S.). Four lesson “packages” were created regarding energy poverty for the ISAT Capstone. The first three incorporate Science On a Sphere while the fourth delves into the social, political, economic and cultural dynamics of sustainable solutions, without S.O.S. images. Each lesson package includes a background analysis, a comprehensive lesson plan, supporting …


School, Melissa F. Carter May 2017

School, Melissa F. Carter

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project asked the question: What is the role of the undergraduate liberal arts institution in American society, now? I initially searched for answers through secondary research. This did not provide me with a single, concrete answer, but contextualized the topic and showed me that there is a multitude of roles that the university plays in society. I then formed and trained an ensemble and together we explored these roles through group discussion and exhaustive improvisation. Out of the many answers that presented themselves, we focused on the concept that the primary purpose of the university is to create the …


The Student Role In Catalyzing An Innovation Movement In Higher Education, Christopher D. Ashley May 2017

The Student Role In Catalyzing An Innovation Movement In Higher Education, Christopher D. Ashley

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the significance of the student role in enhancing the innovative and entrepreneurial landscape of higher education. Furthermore, the paper presents methods in which students can go about catalyzing a movement of change, and discusses examples of how these methods have been effectively applied. It is important to note that the methods and examples included in this paper are by no means the only ways students can go about creating change at their institutions. They are simply some of the methods that have been taught by Stanford University’s University Innovation Fellows (UIF) Program …


Student Engagement And Post-College Outcomes: A Comparison Of Formative And Reflective Models, Courtney Sanders May 2017

Student Engagement And Post-College Outcomes: A Comparison Of Formative And Reflective Models, Courtney Sanders

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Student engagement is a complex construct that is thought to be related to positive outcomes during and after college. Previous research has defined engagement in diverse ways and there are inconsistencies in the models that are used to measure this construct. Many studies have used a reflective measurement model (i.e., exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis), wherein changes in a latent construct are thought to precede and in some sense, explain variation in observed variables. Others have argued that engagement is best measured using a formative model in which the relationship flows in the opposite direction. In other words, within formative …


Integrating Implementation Fidelity And Learning Improvement To Enhance Students’ Ethical Reasoning Abilities, Kristen L. Smith May 2017

Integrating Implementation Fidelity And Learning Improvement To Enhance Students’ Ethical Reasoning Abilities, Kristen L. Smith

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Examples of demonstrable student learning improvement in higher education are rare (Banta, Jones, & Black, 2009; Banta & Blaich, 2011). Perhaps because outcomes assessment practices are disconnected from pedagogy, curriculum, and learning improvement. Through partnership with the Madison Collaborative, the current study aimed to bridge this disconnect. Specifically, researchers applied implementation fidelity methodologies (O’Donnell, 2008) to an academic program, under the guiding framework of the Simple Model for Learning Improvement (Fulcher, Good, Coleman, & Smith, 2014). In doing so, researchers helped faculty create and elucidate an ethical reasoning educational intervention and accompanying fidelity checklist. Both were well-aligned with a University-level …


You Only Live Up To The Standards You Set: An Evaluation Of Different Approaches To Standard Setting, Scott N. Strickman May 2017

You Only Live Up To The Standards You Set: An Evaluation Of Different Approaches To Standard Setting, Scott N. Strickman

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Interpretation of performance in reference to a standard can provide nuanced, finely-tuned information regarding examinee abilities beyond that of just a total score. However, there is a multitude of ways to set performance standards yet little guidance regarding which method operates best and under what circumstances. Traditional methods are the most common approach adopted in practice and heavily involve subject matter experts (SMEs). Two other approaches have been suggested in the literature as alternative ways to set performance standards, although they have yet to be implemented in practice. Data-driven approaches do not involve SMEs but rather rely solely upon statistical …


Argument Education In Higher Education: A Validation Study, Paul E. Mabrey Iii May 2017

Argument Education In Higher Education: A Validation Study, Paul E. Mabrey Iii

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Argument education can play an important role in higher education for leadership development and responding to increasing calls for post-secondary accountability. But to do so, argumentation teachers, scholars, and practitioners need to develop a clearer definition and research agenda for the purposes of teaching and assessing argumentation. The research conducted here contributes to this project by first establishing a definitional construct and observable behaviors associated with learning and practicing argumentation. Second, an argument education assessment instrument was created based off of the literature-supported definition of argumentation. Third, debate and argument education subject matter experts reviewed the definition, behaviors, and assessment …