Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Evaluation Of Academic Policy Formulation And Implementation, Transmountain Early College High School, El Paso, Texas, Virginia Margaret Heidemann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transmountain Early College High School (TMECHS) opened in August 2008, created by a partnership between the El Paso Community College (EPCC) and the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD), and supported in its conceptualization, start-up, and first few years operation by grant funding and guidance from the Texas High School Project (THSP) and its major foundation funding partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Communities Foundation of Texas. TMECHS is a T-STEM early college high school located in a large city on the U.S.-Mexico border.

As educational institutions begin implementation of ambitious reform …

High Hopes Hamstrung: How The “Trial De Novo” For Termination Of Tenured Teachers’ Contracts Undermines School Reform In Oklahoma, N. Georgeann Roye

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Forever Earth Curriculum 2009-2010: Final Report, Lori Olafson, Gregory Schraw, Michelle L. Weibel

Reports (FE)

Forever Earth is a floating environmental laboratory and learning center at Lake Mead National Recreation Area that provides hands-on science experiences for students in the Clark County School District. The Forever Earth program was brought about through the efforts of numerous partners including Forever Resorts, a division of Forever Learning LLC, the National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Outside Las Vegas Foundation; and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute. In 2005, a formal written agreement was reached between Fun Country Marine Industries and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute to operate and manage the Forever Earth houseboat for the purpose of enhancing …

The Use Of Classroom Walk-Through Observations As A Strategy To Improve Teaching And Learning: An Administrative Perspective, Mark J. Weller

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the possible use of structured classroom walk-through observations as a strategy to improve teaching and learning. A wide variety of programs and initiatives have recently been implemented across the country to improve student achievement. One such initiative is classroom walk-through observations. Classroom walk-through observations are briefly performed by school administrators to gauge the effectiveness of instruction in each classroom. The walkthrough observation gives teachers and administrators a snapshot of teaching and learning aspects throughout the school over time. This research was done collaboratively with Leslie McEntire and Tom Sorensen. The research team …

Your Second Selves: Avatar Designs And Identity Play, Y. B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, M. S. Cook

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Avatars in online games and worlds are seen as players’ key representations in interactions with each other. In this article, we investigate the avatar design and identity play within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 816. One unique feature of Whyville is the players’ ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the expressive resources available for avatar construction, individual tween players’ choices and rationales in creating their avatars, and online postings about avatar …

Stealing From Grandma Or Generating Knowledge? Constestations And Effects Of Cheating In Whyville, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Much research has described the various practices needed of gaining access and participation in multi-user game communities. Cheat sites are a continuation of game communities where players engage in knowledge building about game related challenges. In this paper we analyze the cheat sites created by players for a tween virtual world called Whyville.net, which encourages youth to participate in a range of social activities and play casual science games. Through analysis we created typologies for both the cheats and sites related to science content. Further, a case study of an exemplary cheat site elaborates on how some player generated sites …

Linking Opencoursewares And Open Education Resources: Creating An Effective Search And Recommendation System, Brett E. Shelton, J. Duffin, Y. Wang, J. Ball

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

With a growing number of digital libraries and other open education repositories being made available throughout the world, effective search and retrieval tools are necessary to access the desired materials that surpass the effectiveness of traditional, all inclusive search engines. This paper discusses the design and use of Folksemantic, a platform that integrates OpenCourseWare search, Open Educational Resource recommendations, and social network functionality into a single open source project. The paper describes how the system was originally envisioned, its goals for users, and data that provides insight into how it is actually being used. Data sources include website click-through data, …

Knowing And Throwing Mudballs, Hearts, Pies, And Flowers: A Connective Ethnography Of Gaming Practices, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Little is known concerning how young players learn to participate in various activities in virtual worlds. We use a new integrative approach called connective ethnography that focuses on how a gaming practice spread across a network of youth at an after school club that simultaneously participated in a virtual world, Whyville.net. To trace youth participation in online and offline social contexts, we draw on multiple sources of information: observations, interviews, videos, online tracking and chat data, and hundreds of hours of play in Whyville ourselves. One gaming practice – the throwing of projectiles and its social uses and nuances – …

Weedsin The Flower Garden: An Exploration Of Plagiarism In Graduate Students' Research Proposalsand Its Connection To Enculturation, Esl, And Contextual Factors, Joanna Gilmore, Denise Strickland, Briana Timmerman, Michelle Maher, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Existing literature provides insight into the nature and extent of plagiarism amongst undergraduate students (e.g., Ellery, 2008; Parameswaran & Devi, 2006; Selwyn, 2008). Plagiarism amongst graduate students is relatively unstudied, however, and the existing data are largely based on self-reports. This study investigated the rates and potential causes of plagiarism amongst graduate students in master’s and doctoral programmes in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and science or mathematics education by examining actual research proposals written by graduate students. Results indicate that plagiarism is a prevalent issue at each of the three university sites sampled and across all of the investigated disciplines. …

Adaptations And Continuities In The Use And Design Of Visual Representations In Us Middle School Science Textbooks, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Visual representations are ubiquitous in modern‐day science textbooks and have in recent years become an object of criticism and scrutiny. This article examines the extent to which changes in representations in textbooks published in the USA over the past six decades have invited those critiques. Drawing from a correlational analysis of a corpus of 34 US middle school physical science textbooks, continuities are established with respect to the purposes that most textbook images serve and the numbers of schematic representations that are used. Changes are observed in the overall total number of representations in textbooks and in the proportion of …

"Blacks Deserve Bodies Too!" Design And Discussion About Diversity And Race In A Tween Virtual World, Y. B. Kafai, M. S. Cook, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we investigate racial diversity in avatar design and public discussions about race within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 8—16. One unique feature of Whyville is the player’s ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the racial diversity of available resources for avatar construction and online postings about the role of race in avatar design and social interactions in the community. With the growing interest in player-generated content for online …

Ia Quality Guide, Sarah Giersch, Heather Leary, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Research

This is a quality guide geared for the projects in the Instructional Architect. It is used for assessing the quality of the projects created.

Ethnic Differences In Alcohol Use: A Comparison Of Black And White College Students In A Small Private University Setting, Kristie S. Gover

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An identified gap in the literature associated with college student alcohol use is the exploration of the problem based on ethnicity, specifically possible differences in use between Black and White college students. The purpose of the present study was to examine differences in alcohol use for Black and White college students at a small private university in the southeast United States. The study was conducted using the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey Long Form, which is designed to collect data related to self reported use of alcohol and perceptions of alcohol use among college students. A quantitative methodology was employed …

A Correlational Study Of The Ventures For Excellence Interview-Rating System And First Year Teacher Evaluations, Brian Lee Clemons

Dissertations

Research suggests that the character traits of a teacher seem to be an important element in student learning. Thus, when administrators make hiring decisions, they often utilize instruments to assess candidates’ character traits. However, limited information exists on the identification of character traits as they relate to quality teachers and the accuracy of character interview-rating systems. Therefore, this study evaluates the Ventures for Excellence interview-rating systems for their ability to accurately assess the character traits of teacher candidates. The purpose of this study was to conduct a correlation study of Ventures for Excellence interview-rating system and teacher evaluations. Data were …

The Influence Of Inclusion On Langauge Arts Literacy And Math Achievement On Non-Disabled Middle School Students, Faye Brady

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Increasing Teachers' Metacognition Develops Students' Higher Learning During Content Area Literacy Instruction: Findings From The Read-Write Cycle Project, Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Roxanne Greitz Miller, Kimberly A. White-Smith, Robert C. Calfee

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Success in the 21st century, for individuals and societies, requires competence in comprehending and communicating in the academic disciplines--the natural sciences, history, geography, and more. The Read-Write Cycle (RWC) Project, a three year longitudinal research study conducted from 2005-2008 in ten public elementary schools in southern California, explored the effectiveness of curriculum and instructional strategies that integrate literacy with disciplinary knowledge with the simultaneous goals of: (1) enhancing students' literacy outcomes; and (2) broadening and deepening knowledge of the content area. Funded by the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences, the RWC Project concentrated over years one and two on 1,024 …

What Do Graduates Say About Multicultural Teacher Education?, Anaida Colon-Muñiz, John Brady, Suzanne Soohoo

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"We wanted to assess the impact that our teacher preparation course on multicultural education has had on teachers’ self-perceptions and practices as multicultural educators. Lowenstein (2009) stated that not enough work has been done to determine the impact of multicultural education courses on teacher candidates once they are in the field. Although California assessments for teachers assess content background and instruction, there is a dearth of assessments on teachers’ capacity to work with culturally diverse learners."

Athletes’ Perceptions Of Coaches’ Emotional Intelligence Competencies, Terry G. Elliott, Jennifer L. Vansickle, Heidi Hancher-Rauch

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

This study compared intercollegiate athletic coaches’ self-perceptions to the perceptions of their players concerning a coach’s emotional intelligence. Sixteen coaches and 223 players from two Division I softball conferences completed the Emotional Competence Inventory-2 (Boyaztis, Goleman, & Hay/McBer, 2001). Mean analysis revealed that coaches rated themselves higher on 14 of the 18 emotional intelligence competencies and on all four emotional intelligence clusters. Coaches rated themselves highest in Social Awareness (Error! Bookmark not defined.x¯ =4.27/5) while their athletes rated them highest in Self Awareness (Error! Bookmark not defined.x¯ =3.63/5). Meanwhile, athletes gave coaches their lowest rating in Relationship Management (Error! Bookmark …

Integrated Risk-Based Inventory Classification System, Nilesh Joshi

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

A report submitted by Nilesh Joshi to the Research and Creative Productions Committee in 2010 on the effectiveness of the inventory management policies adopted by organizations and their financial success.

Perceptions Of Care: Self Reflections Of Women Teachers Of African Descent Who Teach In Urban Settings, Elizabeth A. Abioro

Dissertations

Discussions and debates about the educational system in the United States continue to center on curriculum and school reform. However, many children in America's public schools suffer from existing "life hazards" including social isolation, poverty, neglect, drug abuse, violence, school failure, and the breakdown of traditional family values and nurturing. This qualitative study focused on 10 African American female teachers and their perceptions of caring in the classroom and themselves as caring teachers. It is important to collect and share the experiences of African American females and how they define and practice care in their classrooms. Understanding teachers' perceptions of …