Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Internationalizing The Study Abroad Classroom: An Intensive English Program At The American Graduate School In Paris, Jordan A. Caley

Capstone Collection

The American Graduate School in Paris (AGS) is a not-for-profit institution founded in 1994 to provide U.S. higher education in France to students from around the world pursuing graduate degrees in International Relations, Diplomacy, and Business. Since 2008, AGS has partnered with Arcadia University located in Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA, to provide summer, semester, and academic year undergraduate study abroad programs in these fields. While current study abroad participants are undergraduate students pursuing degrees at U.S. institutions, AGS has recently received permission to internationalize the study abroad classroom by recruiting students from around the world. Because AGS courses are delivered exclusively …

February Agenda, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Meeting agenda.

Meeting Minutes, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Meeting minutes.

Resource To Develop Medical Students Into Peer Mentors, Sean Meredith, Larrie Greenberg, Benjamin Blatt

E-Learning Modules

The primary goal of the Peer Mentoring Guide is to develop fourth year medical students (MS-4s) into mentors for first year medical students (MS-1s). The purpose of this resource is to provide others who want to develop a peer mentoring program as part of an advanced students-as-teachers curriculum.

The George Washington University was one of the first schools to have a program to prepare medical students for their teaching role as residents and practicing physicians, which was called TALKS (Teaching and Learning Knowledge and Skills). We recently recognized that some participants were interested in going beyond the boundaries of the …

Active Development Of Tacit Knowledge: Adtk In A World Without Farmers, Roger E. Garrett Jr.

Capstone Collection

Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and extensions such as Transformative Learning Theory offer significant potential for skill development later in life – reskilling. Despite wide acceptance and deployment, practitioners are still obliged to design their own methods and activities in order to implement these theories. This paper introduces a novel curricular model, Active Development of Tacit Knowledge (ADTK). Educators can use ADTK to effectively implement and scale ELT. Agricultural Education, specifically the training of new farmers, is used as a sample context to demonstrate ADTK. In new-farmer education, it is necessary to compress the educational cycles of dozens of years of …

Graduate Student Research Meeting Minutes, Wku Graduate Council

Graduate School

Meeting minutes.

Examining Elementary Teachers' Sense Of Efficacy In Three Settings In The Southeast, Steven Page, Beth Pendergraft, Judi Wilson

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This study was conducted to investigate if teachers at urban, rural and suburban elementary schools differ significantly in their sense of self efficacy. The schools utilized for this research are located in the southeastern United States. Along with being in different geographic areas the schools are also different in their socioeconomic make-up and status. The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy (TSES) created by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy, was utilized. The authors found that, overall, the teachers at the urban elementary school displayed significantly lower scores on the TSES than did the suburban and rural schools. The implications for further research are …

Right From The Start: A Kindergarten Program That Helps Prevent Reading Failure, Mary E. Shea D., Ardith D. Cole

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This article describes a study conducted with kindergarten classrooms in a suburban elementary school with a relatively diverse population. The researchers were the building literacy specialist and a college instructor teaching a Foundations of Reading course for pre-service teachers on-site at the school. The traditional curriculum in these kindergarten classrooms was infused with developmentally appropriate reading and writing experiences that had a significant impact on children’s literacy achievement as well as teachers’ beliefs on what constitutes appropriate kindergarten literacy activities, instruction, and classroom resources.

How Does The Use Of Blogs Impact Student Motivation For Literature Discussions, Pamela Pane Mrs.

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This study sought to determine the impact of blogs on student motivation to discuss literature. The participants were 11 male and 12 female fourth grade students ranging from eight to ten years of age. All of the students were instructed in one classroom located in a suburban school setting. All students had access to computers fitted with high speed internet in their classroom. Most of the students had access to the internet at home as well. Semi-structured interviews and survey instruments were administered over a six week period. The response data were analyzed to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of …

Curriculum, Marginalization, And The Professoriate, William L. White

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The author exposes the subtext on which education and particularly curriculum making is based by focusing on the notion that the professoriate has been marginalized within curriculum planning by an educational hegemony that utilizes the sorting and classification mechanisms present in schooling to co-opt the development of educational plans.

The Impact And Effectiveness Of Student-Centered Classroom Structure, Amie P. Westberg

Mathematics Graduate Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of student-centered learning as an alternative classroom structure. It is important that we continually reflect on our teaching methods and explore alternatives that can help give our students the best chance to succeed. While the literature is mixed with regard to which classroom style is best, there are many sources showing the benefits of student-centered instruction over a strictly teacher- centered classroom. Sources also showed that teachers do not need to choose exclusively one style of teaching, and that a blended classroom using a variety of teaching styles can be …

Mathematics Achievement With Digital Game-Based Learning In High School Algebra 1 Classes, Terri Ferguson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the impact of digital game-based learning (DGBL) on mathematics achievement in a rural high school setting in North Carolina. A causal comparative research design was used in this study to collect data to determine the effectiveness of DGBL in high school Algebra 1 classes. Data were collected from the North Carolina End-of-Course (EOC) Test for high school Algebra 1. The data collection was broken down by comparison groups based on academic achievement as measured by the North Carolina EOC Test for Algebra 1. The comparison groups were student participants who received digital game-based instruction and tradition instruction …

The Effectiveness Of Independent Reading And Self-Selected Texts On Adolescent Reading Comprehension: A Quantitative Study, Sarah Horne

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Striving adolescent readers often find themselves with little or no support once they enter high school. The success of independent reading programs that target students' reading levels and accommodate student interest at the elementary level is well-documented. As students progress throughout their school years, such freedom is traditionally replaced with a strict adherence to lists of canonical classics of literature, most of which are well above a struggling reader's independent reading level. This study explored the value of such an independent reading program that addresses both student interest as well as student reading ability at the secondary level and sought …

Using Rti In First Grade Language Arts, Valerie Kroll

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study investigated the effects of the use of Response to Intervention (RtI) in a first grade language arts class at Timothy Christian School in Elmhurst, Illinois. The participants were twenty-four first grade students in a general education classroom. Students were placed in tiers based on an assessment given at the end of the first quarter of the school year. Tier II and Tier III students participated in a twice-weekly pullout intervention session in addition to weekly guided reading sessions for nine weeks. These students were progress monitored bi-weekly with fluency probes checking letter names, letter sounds, and …

Evaluating The Dimensionality Of First-Grade Written Composition, Luana L. Greulich, Young-Suk Kim, Stephanie Al Otaiba, Jessica S. Folsom, Cynthia Puranik

Faculty Publications

Purpose—We examined dimensions of written composition using multiple evaluative approaches such as an adapted 6+1 trait scoring, syntactic complexity measures, and productivity measures. We further examined unique relations of oral language and literacy skills to the identified dimensions of written composition.

Method—A large sample of first grade students (N = 527) was assessed on their language, reading, spelling, letter writing automaticity, and writing in the spring. Data were analyzed using a latent variable approach including confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Results—The seven traits in the 6+1 trait system were best described as two constructs: …

Loss, Melancholy And Reverie In Education, Marla Morris

Curriculum, Foundations & Reading: Faculty Publications

Technology damages our sense of how to read and study as scholars. This loss (of knowing how to read and study) makes for melancholy. Melancholy is brought on as a result of not being able to find spaces of reverie in which to read and study. We need spaces of reverie in which to read and study. We need spaces of reverie so as to delve deeply into our studies and to produce and generate knowledge.

Investigating Teacher’S Perceptions Of Using Reading Strategies In Teaching English To Grade 6-9 In The United Arab Emirates., Mariam Mohamed Basheir Abu Al Khair

Theses

This study is aimed at investigating English teacher’s perceptions of using reading strategies in preparatory schools (Grades 6-9) in the emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, the study examined if there were any significant differences in relation to gender and teaching experience variables. The participant in this study were collected by a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The collection of the data was limited to those teachers who were teaching English for grades 6-9 (n=134) in one of the regions of the emirate of Abu Dhabi in the UAE. This study revealed a number of …

Differences In Math Achievement: Utilizing Supplemental Computer-Based Instruction And Traditional Instruction, Todd Clark

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Mathematics achievement has become vitally important in public education, obligating students to meet and exceed higher standards in spite of ability and knowledge level. This causal-comparative study sought to establish the achievement of the Classworks® supplemental math program with seventh grade students from two public schools in Georgia. The national Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores in math were used to compare 129 seventh grade students (control group) who used traditional instruction and 129 students (experimental group) who used traditional instruction along with the supplemental Classworks® software program. In addition, the study analyzed the relationships between gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. …

I Hope I Don't See You Tomorrow: A Phenomenological Ethnography Of The Passages Academy School Program, Lee Adam Gabay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines Passages Academy, a school program that offers educational services for court-involved youth in New York City. Looking specifically at the Department of Education teachers who work in facilities run by the Department of Juvenile Justice, this research focuses on the beliefs and behaviors that inform the teaching experience within these facilities. The critical question of how these educators negotiate the learning spaces within this school community is also examined.

The question that informs much of this study is: how are the philosophies of the various stake-holding agencies enacted daily in real classroom settings? This leads to a …

Gentle Introduction Resource, James Anderson Laird Evans

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Gentle Introduciton Resource (GIR) is an open-access web application that offers digital humanities researchers a malleable platform with which they can crowdsource technical material. Such material often poses challenges to the traditional humanities researcher when trying to implement digital layers to his or her research. The Gentle Introduction Resource (GIR) is an open-access web application designed to allow a single classroom or single institution to crowdsource technical information/instruction filtering out the influence of rhetorical analysis. It is written in the Ruby language on the Rails web framework. Though a GIR instance can be invoked to crowdsource primarily web-based information …