Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Graduate Student Research Meeting Minutes, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Meeting minutes.

Digital Native Preservice Teachers: An Examination Of Their Self-Efficacy Beliefs Regarding Technology Integration In Classroom Settings, Sarah Parker Southall

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate digital native preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding their technology experiences and skills at the beginning and at the end of their field placement semester. Digital natives, as defined by Prensky (2001), are students born after 1980 who have been raised with digital media and spend a great deal of time engaging with digital devices. Factors that could impact changes in these participants’ technology integration self-efficacy beliefs were also analyzed. This study used pre- and post-surveys, face-to-face interviews with a portion of the respondents, and a document review of course materials and …

Imitism: Learning Imagism Through Imitation, Nicole Trackman

Understanding Poetry

Students will learn the components of Imagism through works of William Carlos Williams and D.H. Lawrence. As authors, students will demonstrate their understanding of this poetic movement through an imitation of either Williams’ poem “This is just to Say” or Lawrence’s poem “Green”.

Moving Forward In P-3 Alignemnt: Building Bridges In Public-Private Partnerships, Rachell Maza Foster

All Graduate Projects

Reauthorization of the Head Start Act in 2007 called for new standards of quality education and evidenced-based practices for gathering child outcomes and assessment data. Furthermore, the act stipulates partnerships between public education K-12 and preschools; a relationship that traditionally held its distance due to age eligibility. With the recent acquisition of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant, Washington state is now recognized for its leadership in this field. This paper will take into consideration these efforts and further explore options for creating seamless transitions for children and families as they enter the public school system. This …

The Relationship Between Employability And Hope, Christa Hinton

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to quantitatively examine the relationships between employability and hope. Using a sample of 266 Master of Business Administration students at a large Midwestern private university, this study hypothesized that one, there was a relationship between hope and employability and two, of the predictor variables, agency was more likely than pathways to predict employability. Results indicated that there is a correlational relationship between hope and employability. Regression analysis revealed that agency predicts employability. Implications for career professionals include the ability to enhance employability through increasing hope, increasing the motivation to reach career goals through …

Coaching As A Catalyst: Distance Learning For Personal Innovation (Revised Presentation), Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Abstract of the paper and basis of the presentation:

Coaching is emerging as a tool that can be used to achieve sustainable personal and organizational innovation, and distance education technologies have made coaching more accessible, affordable and available. Distance learning professionals are in a unique position to help technology-based coaching evolve in an effective and sustainable manner. The expertise and experience of distance learning professionals has the potential to advance the interrelationships between teaching, learning and coaching in an effort to help individuals and organizations achieve sustainable and meaningful innovation. A coaching case study utilizing the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem …

A Phenomenological Study Of Motivations, Experiences And Reflections As Related To Teacher Training And Development In Tanzania, Melinda Ingiaimo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In third world countries where education often takes a back seat to survival, teachers struggle to prepare themselves to shape the destiny and future of the upcoming generation. This study examined the phenomena of Tanzanian teacher preparation with special emphasis on the motivating factors, common experiences and reflections of participants concerning their preparation process for teaching in a government funded school. This study inquired into the immediate teaching environment and the ongoing teacher development processes. Fifteen Tanzanian teachers were purposefully chosen for this study and data was gathered utilizing a semi-structured interview, a survey and a focus group. The teacher …

Teaching Introductory Programming Concepts: A Comparison Of Scratch And Arduino, Anne Beug

Master's Theses

Computing has become an integral part of modern America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between 2008 and 2018, the United States will have 1.4 million job openings in computing fields [1]. Since the early 2000's (just after the "dot com bust"), the number of students enrolled in computing majors (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, etc.) dropped precipitously by over 50%, only starting to rise again in 2009 [2]. One way to rectify to this gap between demand and supply is to start training students in computational thinking during high school. While the Computer Science Advanced Placement AB test has …

Closing The Gap: Use Of The Instructional At-Home Plan (Iahp)® By African American Parents And The Impact On Literacy Achievement Among Their Kindergarten Children, Tanya Foster Demers

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this ex post facto study was to investigate the use of the Instructional At- Home Plan (IAHP)® by African American parents and its impact on kindergarten literacy achievement among their children. The study used DIBELS data from students who attended a Chicago Public School with a population that averaged 98.6% black and 96.75% low-income status. Parents of students who attended classes for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years utilized the Instructional At-Home Plan. The achievement of their children was analyzed and compared to those students who attended kindergarten for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years: students whose …

Investigating The Instructor's Role In New Student Sense Of Classroom Community, Alix E. Davidson

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study is to determine whether an instructor’s intentional effort to build community in his/her classroom results in a higher sense of classroom community among students. This study also examined what types of community building activities were conducted by each instructor and measured the students’ responses to each different activity. This was intended to establish a preliminary set of best practices for creating classroom community. A two-part questionnaire, including an adapted version of the Classroom Community Scale, was administered to instructors (n=5) and students (n=113) enrolled in two or four unit courses at California Polytechnic State University. …

An Investigation Of The High Schools Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Levels Of The Cognitive Questions In Esl Classes In The Uae, Badee Abdelkareem Alsheik

Theses

This study investigated English language teachers’ perceptions of the level of the cognitive questions in the UAE high school. A survey was randomly distributed to the English language teachers in Al Ain high schools to find out their perceptions of the levels of the cognitive questions they ask in the classrooms. From a population of 250 English language teachers in Al Ain, 128 teachers participated in filling the survey. The survey is based on Bloom’s Cognitive levels Taxonomy and includes thirty statements representing the six cognitive levels of questions. In the study, the levels of cognitive questions of the entire …

Cycle Three English Language Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Ict Use In Teaching English Language In The Uae., Ali Hussein Mohammed

Theses

This study tried to examine the perceptions of Cycle Three language teachers’ (ELTs) of their Informative and Communicative Technology (ICT) use. It places a specific focus on awareness of the use of technology in Abu Dhabi Education Council schools in the UAE. The study was conducted on randomly selected 73 Cycle Three English language teachers; male and female, native and nonnative of different years of experience in teaching English language. A questionnaire and observations were adapted from the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS) and Performance Indicators. Results were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SSPS), and …

Early Career Teachers’ Self-Efficacy For Balanced Reading Instruction, Petra Hastings

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

According to Bandura (1986; 1997), perceptions of efficacy are based on four sources: enactive attainment; vicarious experience; physiological and emotional states; and verbal persuasion. The factors affecting Early Career Teachers' self-efficacy for reading instruction are closely related to these four sources. It is not difficult to imagine an Early Career Teacher practicing within a ‘source vacuum’ as he or she attempts to grapple with the methodologies and strategies necessary for a balanced reading program. How, then, do they rate their teaching efficacy for this area of the curriculum? And which types of professional learning opportunities do they believe have heightened …

A Preliminary Examination Of The Cost Savings And Learning Impacts Of Using Open Textbooks In Middle And High School Science Classes, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Shelley Ellington, Tiffany Hall

Faculty Publications

Proponents of open educational resources claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the classroom. Over a period of two years, we worked with 20 middle and high school science teachers (collectively teaching approximately 3,900 students) who adopted open textbooks to understand the process and determine the overall cost of such an adoption. The teachers deployed open textbooks in multiple ways. Some of these methods cost more than traditional textbooks; however, we did identify and implement a successful model of open textbook adoption that reduces costs by over 50% compared to the cost of …

Primary English Language Teachers' Perceptions On Professional Development Programs In Public Private Partnership Schools In Al - Ain, United Arab Emirates, Jamila Khamis Aihassani

Theses

This study intended to examine primary English language teachers ' perception toward professional development program in Public Private Partner hip (PPP) school . It aimed at identifying to what extent the e teacher thought these program helped them improve as ESL teacher. The data was obtained through conducting focused-group interviews and a survey. The study took place i n 1- in Educational zone during 2010-2011. The interview sample included 18 female and male teachers and the survey sample included 30 out of 60 out of 17 PPP primary schools in A l in. The study found that one-shot workshop PD …

The Perceptions Of Emirati High School Students Of The Effect Of English – Medium Instruction On Science Learning., Shaima Mustafa Al Abdullah

Theses

Students are facing challenges to acquire science content knowledge while they are still learners of English. The highly specialized language of science is by itself challenging and alienating to high school students especially for English Language Learners who did not acquire enough English proficiency needed to comprehend the science content introduced in their classroom.

The purpose of this mixed method study was to investigate Emirati high school students’ perceptions of the challenges English Language proficiency adds to the acquisition of science content knowledge. In addition, this study sought to identify any gender differences, grade level differences, and any interaction between …

The Effect Of The Private Classroom Blog On The Acquisition Of Formal Writing Proficiency With Spanish Iii High School Students, Olga Glymph

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the impact of a private classroom blog implemented as an instructional technology on student writing proficiency in a world language with the focus on formal writing. The nonequivalent control-group, pre-posttest design was used to determine if the use of the private classroom blog in teaching world language formal writing affected student writing proficiency with the specific focus on task completion, comprehensibility, level of discourse, vocabulary, and language control. This research study used a convenience sample of sophomore, junior, and senior students in a Georgia public high school. Independent raters evaluated students' writings using the Fairfax County Public …

Relevancy=Qsen + Complete Baccalaureate Curriculum Redesign, Charlene M. Smith

Nursing Faculty/Staff Publications

Faculty in the WSON opted to consider a complete curriculum redesign of the baccalaureate nursing program to assure relevancy to practice. A quality improvement process was used to accomplish the curriculum redesign.

Coaching As A Catalyst: Distance Learning For Personal Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Abstract of the paper and basis of the presentation:

Coaching is emerging as a tool that can be used to achieve sustainable personal and organizational innovation, and distance education technologies have made coaching more accessible, affordable and available. Distance learning professionals are in a unique position to help technology-based coaching evolve in an effective and sustainable manner. The expertise and experience of distance learning professionals has the potential to advance the interrelationships between teaching, learning and coaching in an effort to help individuals and organizations achieve sustainable and meaningful innovation. A coaching case study utilizing the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem …

Creating Effective Programming For Iraqi Adult Mentors In World Learning’S Youth Peacebuilding And Leadership Programs, Kira L. Brady

Capstone Collection

This paper will examine how the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP) can continue to grow and improve aspects of their programming. Specifically, the paper will address the role of the Iraqi adult leader. In order to increase the Iraqi adult’s learning and mentorship capacity the paper will explore Youth Programs, IYLEP, and apply leadership theory through the creation of a handbook that will assist staff in addressing the needs of the adult mentor. This handbook will set clear and understandable guidelines concerning the role of the Iraqi adult as well as including a set of worksheets. The focus and …