Education Commons^™

Seeing Reading In First-Year Composition, Matthew Felumlee

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on a study of reading-into-writing strategies employed by students in two sections of first-year-composition (FYC) that were paired with a support course as part of an accelerated learning program (ALP) at a community college. Each FYC course was comprised of 11 students whom the college had deemed college-ready without the ALP course, and 11 students who were deemed at remedial levels in reading and / or writing and who were subsequently required to enroll in the ALP course. The study employs grounded theory methodology to identify and consider the many factors that influenced how reading was portrayed, …

An Evaluative Study Of A Health Information Management Program Following A Significant Curricular Change, Jennifer Lynn Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

The advent of electronic health records (EHRs) has led to significant changes in the role of those who managing patient health information, Health Information Management (HIM) professionals. These changes have further led to significant changes in the educational training required for HIM professionals, leading to new curriculum requirements. Based on the need for well-prepared professionals in the changing HIM environment, it is essential to insure that educational programs are effectively preparing students for the new roles they will be expected to fill. This study is an in-depth case study of the HIM academic program at Illinois State University. The purpose …

A Mixed Methods Study Of The Implementation Of Collaborative Technology Tools For Enhancing Collaboration And Student Engagement In Online Learning: Faculty Experiences And Student Perspectives, Ayshah Abdullah Alahmari

Theses and Dissertations

The appropriate implementation of collaborative technology tools in online courses leads to a culture of social learning where technology empowers students to take central roles in their learning. Yet, critical questions still exist about how faculty design, develop, implement collaborative eLearning activities using technology tools that support collaboration and student engagement in online courses, and what perspectives students have toward their experiences while participating in these activities. The purpose of the study is to explore the experiences of faculty members implementing collaborative technology tools in online courses to support collaboration and student engagement, in addition, to obtain the perspectives of …

Locating The Critical Component In Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge ( Tpack ): An Examination Of How Graduate Students Recruit Tpack And Critical Digital Literacy Into Classroom Practices., Vicki Ann Hosek

Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to gain an understanding of how practicing teachers believe they are prepared to meaningfully and critically integrate technology into their classroom practices; and to understand how practicing teachers recruited those beliefs into their teaching practices. This included gaining an understanding of what they believed led to their engagement in the critical dimensions of technology use in their teaching practices. This mixed-methods study contained two phases. In Phase 1, 58 graduate students in a College of Education completed a newly developed Critical Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (C-TPACK) survey containing likert-scale and open-ended questions. A subset …

Investigating Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Reasoning When Learning Trigonometry Using The Line Segment Approach, Lawrence Ssebaggala

Theses and Dissertations

Review of the history of trigonometry content and pedagogy indicates the necessity and importance of trigonometry in the school curriculum (e.g., van Brummelen, 2009; van Sickel, 2011). For example, understanding trigonometric functions is a requirement for understanding some other areas of science, such as Newtonian physics, architecture, surveying, and several branches of engineering. Research indicates that teachers have a narrow and inadequate understanding of trigonometry, researchers (e.g., Hertel, 2013; van Sickel, 2011; Weber, 2005) posited that learning trigonometry in a way that fosters and advances quantitative reasoning can help alleviate difficulties faced in the teaching of trigonometry. Examining participants’ reasoning …

Resilience And Academic Achievement In Minority Students, James A. Britton

Theses and Dissertations

Students can thrive within school programs and sustain their capacity for success despite seemingly overwhelming obstacles. A model of school-based resilience can insulate students from risk and help students acknowledge challenges, embrace them, and learn as students encounter challenge and surmount it.

This study of a high school program analyzed the relationship between educational resilience and academic achievement through a direct measure of resilience. The research investigated whether a program increased resilience for minority and low-income high school students and whether stronger resilience was associated with improved academic outcomes. Students in the program produced significantly better academic outcomes, as measured …

Communication Between Home And School For Parents Of Children With Chronic Illness, Keri Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

A child with chronic illness has a physical or behavioral condition that affects the child’s daily functioning, lasts longer than three months, and requires medical intervention such as medication, hospitalizations, and/or home care (Newacheck, McManus, & Fox, 2001). Chronic illness interferes with all areas of development, including physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development, and a growing number of children with chronic illnesses are attending school. Effective communication between parents and educators is essential so that accurate information about the nature and extent of the impact of chronic illness on children’s learning experiences and schooling can be shared and appropriate supports …

The Effects Of Noncontingent Praise ( Ncp ) On Classroom Behavior, Kelly Poirot

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the effects of noncontingent praise (NCP) as a classroom behavioral intervention. Six teacher participants were trained to provide NCP to the classroom at their free operant level of praises and reprimands directed towards the classroom, either at fixed (NCPf) or variable (NCPv) rates. Class-wide rates of academic engaged time and inappropriate behaviors were collected to examine the student effects of the intervention. In addition, teacher perceptions of their relationships with their students, stress, and job satisfaction were measured both pre- and post- intervention. Treatment fidelity and intervention acceptability data were also examined.

Upon implementation of the …

Analysis Of Grade Variances In Multisection Calculus Classes, S. Paul Shaffer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore grade variances associated with multisection calculus grades. The method for the project was quantitative examining grade distribution patterns that existed between calculus sections at a public university void of an over-arching grading policy during the case study. Results showed that different grade distribution patterns by different instructors were primarily due to student-centric characteristics. The significant findings suggest that student grades are firmly in control of students. Only when course grade averages were at the extreme did evidence suggest that instructor-centric characteristics played meaningful role in student grade determination.

Teaching To Assess: An Evaluation Of Assessment Education For Secondary Teacher Candidates, Daniel M. Frederking

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the assessment instruction of a four-year undergraduate secondary education program and its alignment to the teaching standards and the summative teacher licensure assessment. Document analyses were conducted on the program’s syllabi as well as the assessment portions of the InTASC standards and the handbook of the edTPA. Results highlighted several areas of misalignment in the areas of categorical concurrence, depth of knowledge, and range of knowledge. Also of note, preservice teachers in different secondary subject areas are receiving different amounts of assessment instruction. Additionally, local edTPA data was examined to highlight areas of strength and weakness. Students …

Co-Creating Our Lives, Performing Our Multi-Cultural Worlds, Aidah Nalubowa

Theses and Dissertations

In his Foreword for Theatre and Migration (Cox 2014), director Peter Sellars writes, “None of us are the picture in our passports” (viii). Neither are we the person that we look or sound like at first glance or the first meeting. Rather, who we are is shaped by among other factors our environment and cultural upbringing. Because traditionally people from different places perform and participate in social and cultural events that are naturally “scripted” differently, we are so much more than the pictures and names we carry on our identification documents. Migration, Sellars continues, is “one of the most basic …

Applying Conditional Distributions To Individuals: Using Latent Variable Models, Feng Ji

Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes a new method to interpret individual results of psychological test batteries. The Mahalanobis distance is a commonly-used measure of how unusual an individual’s profile of scores is compared to a population of score profiles. In models in which there is a set of predictors and a set of dependent variables (e.g., cognitive abilities predicting academic abilities), it is useful to distinguish between a profile of dependent scores that is unusual because its profile of predictor scores is unusual and a profile of dependent scores that is unusual even after controlling for the predictors. The conditional Mahalanobis distance …

Deaf / Hard Of Hearing Preschool Students’ Acquisition Of Language Through Dyadic And Triadic Communication Contexts, Molly S. Herman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of using dyadic communication with a teacher of the deaf (ToD) and a Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) student compared to a triadic communication with a general education teacher, sign language interpreter, and D/HH student. Four participants in a self-contained D/HH early childhood classroom participated in both comparison groups using dyadic and triadic communication to acquire vocabulary language skills for communication while playing a preschool game. An adapted alternating treatment design (AATD) for single case research was used to rapidly alternate comparison groups using equivalent games and counterbalanced across …

The Effect Of Concept Mapping On Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Knowledge Acquisition, Pamela S. Laskowski

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a series of three papers on the effect of concept mapping on baccalaureate nursing students’ knowledge acquisition. The first paper is an integrative review of the literature on the use of concept mapping in nursing education. The review evidences that concept mapping has been effective in nursing education for increasing students’ critical thinking. However, it shows that no studies addressing the level of nursing knowledge gained using concept mapping were identified, indicating a need for research in the area of the use of concept mapping for nursing knowledge acquisition. The second paper is a feasibility study of …

The Tropes We Tutor By: Names And Labels As Tropes In Writing Center Work, Scott R. Sands

Theses and Dissertations

The following study explores the way names and labels function as tropes in writing center work. Building on Lakoff and Johnson’s work on metaphors, and using Kenneth Burke’s concept of the trope, this study analyzes the way names and labels for writing center spaces, people, activity, and preparation function metaphorically, synecdochically, metonymically, and ironically to shape the way people understand and value writing centers. This study demonstrates the ways in which names and labels used in writing center work both focus attention on particular aspects of that work and also minimize or hide other important aspects of that work. Ultimately, …

Supporting Intermediate Teachers' Implementation Of The Ngss Through A Collaboration Based On Mutuality, Elisha Nichole Swanson

Theses and Dissertations

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are based on a wealth of research on science education and student learning and written by a range of experts from relevant fields. This study is significant and timely, given the recent release of these standards which are designed to build a scientifically literate and productive society. The potential impact on K-12 students rests on the shoulders of educational professionals in the schools. The elementary level presents a unique set of challenges for quality science instruction, implicating a need for classroom support to address limiting factors. The scope of the study is narrow; a …

Learning About And Becoming Aware Of Reading Strategies And Metacognition In English By Adult Second Language Learners, Aline Biazotto André

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the need to learn and/or become aware of reading strategies and metacognitive strategies by adult English language learners while making sense of English texts. A mixed method grounded theory (MMGT) in a sequential design (quantitative  Qualitative) with a qualitative dominant status was employed to collect and analyze data. In the quantitative phase of this study, data were collected by administrating a background questionnaire and the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS). Data collected by these tools were statistically analyzed with descriptive analysis and one-way Analysis of Variance. In the qualitative phase …

Inside The Flip: A Look At Teacher Motivations And Activities In Flipped Classrooms, Philip G. Pulley

Theses and Dissertations

In the educational setting of the 21st Century and with requirements imposed on schools through state and federal mandates such as the Every Student Succeeds Act, teachers are looking for ways bring additional higher level activities and collaboration into their classrooms. These requirements along with increased educational technologies in schools have many teachers exploring the flipped classroom model of instruction. In a flipped classroom, educators flip direct classroom instruction and traditional homework or practice. Students might watch a lecture video at home covering a concept at home and then apply the concept to problems in class with the aid of …

A Critical Interpretation Of Study Abroad, Participant Identity, And Second Language Learning, Laura Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

In this study I explore the history of study abroad as a sojourn for the privileged, notions of whiteness, institutional racism and inequality, and nationality and linguicism, and apply theory from critical applied linguistics and post-colonialism to analyze and interpret data collected from five participants of either a semester or year-long study abroad at the Centre International d’Études Françaises (CIDEF) in Angers, France. The principal research questions are: What is the nature of how students negotiate their identities (racial, national, and gender), L2 learning, and engagement (or lack of) with various communities of practice while studying abroad in a non-English …

Preservice Teachers’ Creation Of And Beliefs About Culturally Responsive And Critical Mathematics Tasks, And Their Beliefs About The Students For Whom Their Tasks Were Intended, Tisa Trask

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, case study methodology was used to explore secondary mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) attempts to construct tasks for lower income, predominantly African American students at a cultural immersion site who PSTs encountered frequently and interviewed. PST beliefs about their tasks and their students were also investigated. The first research aim of this study was to investigate PSTs’ attempts to create culturally responsive mathematics tasks for themselves and for the students. PSTs incorporated students’ personal and cultural details in tasks for the students. However, they had greater difficulty integrating cultural backdrops into the primary mathematics activities of tasks they …

The Impact Of Mentoring At- Risk Youth On The Socialization Process Of Pre-Service Teachers, Theresa Allgaier

Theses and Dissertations

While much is known about how traditional field based practical experiences in teacher preparation programs impact the socialization of pre-service teachers, less is known about how practical experiences within after-school programs and other contexts influence pre-service teacher socialization. Relatedly, many scholars have sought to understand at-risk youth and have investigated teachers’ experiences with these students within the context of schools and the gym. The purpose of this study was to understand how mentoring at-risk youth in an after-school program impacted the socialization of six pre-service teachers. Occupational Socialization Theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Six PETE majors, in …

The Readers Constructed By Shakespeare Anthologies And Pedagogical Scholarship, Andrea Berns

Theses and Dissertations

In my graduate thesis, I determine that modern Shakespeare anthologies provide features for an audience with specific learning needs that may not be representative of the students currently enrolled in undergraduate classrooms who are reading these anthologies. On the other hand, scholars of Shakespeare pedagogy also depict readers with certain learning needs their research, the results of which may have been influenced by bias and, therefore, also may not be representative of the “real” reader of Shakespeare. To determine where the two “constructed” readers depicted in modern Shakespeare anthologies and in pedagogical research overlap and where they diverge, I will …

Factors Affecting Illinois Legislators' Perceptions Of School-Based Agricultural Education, Perry William Harlow

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined factors contributing to Illinois General Assembly members’ perceptions of school-based agricultural education. Personal characteristics and multiple media sources were examined to determine if any of these factors affected their perception of school-based agricultural education. These factors included the population area of where the legislator grew up, the population area of the district the legislator represents, the geographical location of the legislator’s district, whether the legislator lived on a farm, and whether the legislator worked on a farm. The factors also included frequency of seeing information about school-based agricultural education on multiple media source including television, radio, newspaper, …

Changes In Teacher Thinking And Action In Response To The Next Generation Science Standards, Angela R. Bowden

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of K-12 science teachers’ understandings and perceptions of the Next Generation Science Standards, implementation of the new standards in the classroom, and potential barriers to implementation as reform stakeholders had envisioned. Grounded in the relevant literature and working from the Teacher-Centered System Reform framework, this study employed a quantitative approach to data collection. The TCSR Model framed this study by linking teachers’ demographic and professional profile, teaching experience, professional development, district-level, school-level, and classroom-level contexts and illuminates the dynamic effect the factors have on teachers’ thinking and their practice. The study recognizes teachers’ knowledge and …

Learning To See The Forest For The Corn: Establishing Sense Of Place And Community In A Field-Based Ecology Course For Pre-Service Educators, Michelle Edgcomb Friday

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation grounded theory techniques were used to characterize pre-service educators’ experiences in a semester-long, field-based ecology course. Through participation in a citizen science project, participants formed a community of practice that extended their conceptions of themselves as ecology students and scientists. Extended field experiences in a variety of local ecosystems contributed to the development of a sense of place. Paired fieldwork with lecture aided their developing ecological literacy and their understanding of place-based pedagogy. All of these combined to support their growing understanding of their role in field-based ecology education. Lack of background in ecology and ecology pedagogy …

Improving Access To Ministerial Training Through The Use Of Electronic Devices: A Qualitative Study Of Educators In Developing Nations, Andrew John Beaty

Theses and Dissertations

This study was based on the concern that in developing nations, the vast majority of pastors in local churches have no training to prepare them for the duties they are expected to carry out as ministers. With the increase of technology being available around the world, the questions have arisen as to whether or not technology can be utilized to help improve access to this training.

A qualitative approach was employed to interview thirteen people involved in global theological education in developing nations and to learn from them as to the trends that they see being utilized in regards to …

Voices Of Cooperating Teachers: Comparing Experiences Of Professional Development School And Traditional Student Teaching Models, Katherine Hlavach Bruemmer

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods sequential study compared the experiences of cooperating teachers (CT) in a Professional Development School program and a traditional student teaching program. Cooperating teachers’ perspectives were gathered through an on-line survey and interviews. Information gathered was related to the preparation for acting as a CT, involvement with the student teaching process, professional benefits of acting as a CT, impact of the experience on their own teaching, and suggestions for improvements to the teacher preparation programs. Results indicate that no significant differences were found between the experiences of CTs in the different programs. Findings did reveal that CTs desire greater …

Realizing The Ideal School District Size: How District Size Affects Achievement And Expenditure, James L. Hayes Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine what size district (or range of sizes) better fosters an environment conducive for high student achievement and low district expenditure. The ideal district size debate goes back centuries, with the initial efforts to reform small districts that had their start in the early 19th century as rural single room schools. Literary work on this topic is quite polarized, without a clear and modern consensus. This study contained a quantitative study using a correlational research design to explore the affects of district size on student achievement and district expenditure.

Young Adults With Visual Impairments And Driver's Education: Journeys Of Self-Efficacy, Identity, And Transition To Adulthood, Molly Pasley

Theses and Dissertations

A person’s ability to travel independently can determine whether he or she transitions successfully from one life stage to another. One critically important aspect of independent travel is coming to understand how vehicles move in the built environment. For youth without visual disabilities, this information is addressed in depth in driver’s education courses. In the case of adolescents with visual impairments, the acquisition of this information is more complex and raises a number of complicated questions. In this qualitative study, seven adults with visual impairments ages 18-27 and six of their family members are interviewed to determine the impact of …

The Look Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge In Middle School Statistics, Dhimitraq Duni

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I attempt to examine the nature of pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986) that teachers exhibit while observing computer-animated animations that bring up pedagogical issues in the classroom. In-service teachers were asked to view different animations and react to different prompts about the animations. Later, teachers were interviewed to prompt more discussion of pedagogical issues with the intention of clarifying their stance and their knowledge of pedagogy. The computer animations were utilized as a surrogate for classroom teaching, highlighting issues that could be otherwise overlooked during live teaching observation.