Educational Methods Commons^™

The Use Of The South Carolina School Improvement Model - Quick Cycles In Sixth-Grade Science Classrooms, Jennifer Gnann

All Dissertations

Using data to make informed decisions about instruction strengthens a teacher’s delivery of content within the classroom. However, many teachers have not been taught how to properly use a model of rapid improvement cycles to analyze data and apply it to their classroom instruction. I modified the South Carolina School Improvement Model so that it could be used in short cycles to see how teachers used it to plan for, monitor, and adjust instruction in their classrooms.

I conducted a single case study over a six-week period in which I instructed two sixth-grade science teachers on how to use the …

Influences Of A Formal Mentoring Program On African American Male Achievement Throughout High School And Beyond, Justin Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

There has been a growing concern for African-American male students (Hawkins-Jones & Reeves, 2020) due to the fact that they maintain consistently low achievement levels throughout their education and graduate from high school at lower rates than their peers. Their failure rate in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Practice (U.S. Department of Education, 2017) is above average, and the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (Hussar et al., 2020) reported that they also have higher than average dropout, suspension, and truancy rates. The achievement and discipline gaps that African-American male students face in …

A Simulated Qualitative Study Exploring Higher Education Faculty's Perceptions Of Factors That Influence Dynamic Decision-Making When Choosing Opportunities For Student Engagement In Asynchronous Online Courses, Leticia De La Garza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore higher education faculty’s perceptions of factors that influence dynamic decision-making when choosing opportunities for student engagement in asynchronous online courses. More specifically, this study sought to understand how faculty in higher education perceived these factors to prevent and facilitate dynamic decision-making when designing instructor presence, student-to-student collaboration, and student-to-academic content engagement opportunities in asynchronous online courses, as Garrison et al. (1999) suggest, for a community of inquiry. There has not been much focus on the dynamic decision-making of online instructors in higher education and a call to continue exploring factors that influence …

Increasing Extension Volunteer Knowledge And Preparedness With Youth Protection Training Across Program Areas, Keri G. Hobbs, Sheri Dorn

Journal of Extension

The University of Georgia (UGA) has a training requirement for adults working with youth. To meet this requirement for Georgia 4-H and Extension Master Gardener volunteers, a standardized online training module was created and delivered across program areas. Volunteers were surveyed to evaluate training effectiveness and experience. Understanding of UGA youth protocols and service preparedness increased after training for both volunteer groups, though preparedness may be affected by life stage, engagement in youth service roles, and/or comfort with virtual training. The module was considered accessible and convenient by respondents, thus providing a successful approach for offering trainings across program areas.

Learning With Treescapes In Environmentally Endangered Times

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Looking Down, Up, Forwards And Backwards: Telling The Story Of The Menominee Sustainable Forest, Kate Van Haren

Occasional Paper Series

The common narratives of history focus often focus on settlement and colonization. These stories often focus on the destruction of natural resources and the historic trauma of Indigenous who used and preserved them for thousands of years. The story of the Menominee, a Native nation, in southeast Wisconsin, offers a counternarrative of success. Using primary sources and the scholarship of Wisconsin-based activists, historians, and educators, this article explores the civic actions Menominee needed to protect their sustainable forest and how these lessons can be used to teach environmental stewardship in elementary classrooms.

Planting Trees In Drought Fields: A Story Of Tree Planting With Children In An Elementary School In Pakistan, Nadia Anjum

Occasional Paper Series

This story is about my experiences of getting children involved in tree planting activities in a school setting. This tree planting activity was carried out in a primary school. This is a Government Girls Elementary School situated in a village Mohra Mari, Tehsil Gujar Khan, District Rawalpindi. This school is a part of the Union Council Kauntrilla in Punjab Province in Pakistan. Tree planting activities in the school were organized by the school staff, students along with their parents who also participated as part of tree plantation campaign. Considering the important role that trees can play in protecting societies and …

Trees In Our City How A Tree And A Small Patch Of Dirt Inspired A Classroom, Zuleika Hines

Occasional Paper Series

As a new Director in a new school, I knew that I wanted the children to have a curiosity for nature. But to lead the children to a place of discovery, they would need the opportunity to observe, play, and engage in elements of nature that would support hands-on activities both in the classroom and outside. When the opportunity came for me to build my own early childhood program, I knew that I had a unique opportunity to incorporate elements of nature in the design of the classroom. But I wanted nature to be local and the trees of our …

Arboreal Methodologies: Getting Lost To Explore The Potential Of The Non-Innocence Of Nature, Jayne Osgood, Suzanne Axelsson, Tamsin Cavaliero, Máire Hanniffy, Susan Mcdonnell

Occasional Paper Series

This paper recounts a workshop that took place in a polytunnel in a forest school in Sligo, North-West Ireland on a cold day in early-December. The event sought to materialize ‘arboreal methodologies’ (Osgood, 2019; Osgood & Odegard, 2022; Osgood & Axelsson, 2023) which are characterized by the enactment of feminist new materialist praxis to engage in world-making practices (Haraway, 2008) intended to unsettle recognizable tropes of biophilia that have come to frame both child and nature in narrow ways. The arboreal methodologies that participants were invited to mobilise were situated, material, affective, and involved metaphorical and material practices of ‘getting …

The Refugee Trees: Treescapes As Intercultural Bridges, Kostas Magos, Irida Tsevreni

Occasional Paper Series

Forests, groves, parks as well as any area with fewer or more trees can be a suitable field for students' environmental awareness. Even a single tree as a subject of thoughtful observation can give children opportunities for discussion around many issues such as those of environmental protection, endangered species, human's relationship with nature and many more. Ιn addition to environmental awareness, trees can also contribute to the intercultural awareness of students. In all cultures without exception, trees and plants have a particularly important place and there are many myths, stories and traditions associated with them. Also, the great variety of …

Treescapes, Alexandra Délano Alonso, Marco Saavedra

Occasional Paper Series

We’ve each been looking to the trees for a long time. One of us painting, the other writing, with, by the trees. In the middle of the city and its noise, finding the branches. Standing, inquiring, returning. Why the trees, how we belong to each other, is a question worth asking again and again. These paintings and poems are part of an ongoing conversation, of many layers, of many trees, of what we lose and find under their canopies, in blooms, in dirt & seasons. What walking among the trees has taught us is that every art is an invitation …

In The Park: A Treescapes Discussion With Rex, Melanie L. Riley

Occasional Paper Series

In this video, composed of still images and video footage, two-year-old Rex leads his mother on a playful exploration through a leafy area of Alexandra Park, located in the Stockport borough of Greater Manchester in England. The park has a wide range of amenities including a reservoir, wooded area, skate park, and play park, and offers a safe and calm but exciting space for visitors. Rex enjoys being among the trees. He imagines owls in the treetops and stops to admire the tree's bark, describing it as bumpy. Rex enjoys splashing in puddles, playing peekaboo behind a tree, and running …

Painting Our Treescapes: A Visual, Gretel Olson, Ingrid Olson, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson

Occasional Paper Series

Two children (ages 6 and 9) represent an afternoon spent in their urban, wintery treescape through visual art, photo documentation, and written narrative. The first piece, "My Imaginary Forest", considers the seasons, animals, and issues of artistic representation of nature. The second piece describes the relationship between a favourite tree and a child, and considers others -- both present and future -- who also occupy "Our Knotty Tree". All of the words, visual art, and photo selection are those of the children.

Trees And Us: Learning About/From Trees And Treescapes From Primary School Children In The United Kingdom, Samyia Ambreen, Khawla Badwan, Kate Pahl

Occasional Paper Series

In recent years, there is a growing interest for attending to children’s voice in environmental research. The theoretical developments in knowledge about children view them as social agents who can make sense of their own experiences in relation to the environment surrounded them. In this report, we add reflections from an ongoing project “voices of the future” which aims to reimagine future of treescapes in the UK. Using examples from two primary schools in the northwest of England, we discuss children’s knowledge about trees and how children talk about their lived experiences with trees. Centring on our field work experiences, …

Schools Are Where Trees And Children’S Livelihoods Go To Die: A Teacher’S Reflection On Revitalizing Land-Based Education, Tiffani Marie

Occasional Paper Series

Plainly said: schools are where trees and children’s livelihoods go to die; both cut down, gutted and their desecrated remains used for the maintenance and reproduction of the establishment. Through its critique of schooling—its ties to individualism, harmful social reproduction, colonial foundations, and centering of white supremacist ideologies, this paper makes the case for land-based education as a conduit toward healing, innovation and connection. It draws links between the irreconcilable nature of youth wellness and schooling, while centering pedagogical reverence for the natural world, particularly connection with tree spaces, as part of a critical educational trajectory toward symbiotic relationship with …

Traces Of Worms, Zoey Ashcroft

Occasional Paper Series

The setting was a day spent planting trees outside the school grounds. As Zoey and her classmates planted the trees, they also recorded the activity in their notebooks. The children noticed the worms that were wriggling in the ground. Zoey recorded an activity in which leaves and then worms were lifted from the earth, and the worms then explored the page where they were put. Afterward, the worms were lifted off the page and put back on the ground. The traces of the worms were left on the page. We were left with traces of worms.

Introduction: Learning With Treescapes In Environmentally Endangered Times, Samyia Ambreen, Kate Pahl

Occasional Paper Series

As we write this in a cool and rainy north of England, the planet is burning. Some of the highest temperatures in Earth’s history are currently being recorded in Death Valley, US. Italy is recording temperatures of 118 degrees farenheit (48 degrees Celsius). Rhodes is on fire. I (Kate) remember when I realized the extent of the disaster that is the climate emergency coming upon us. It was listening to a geologist describing the slow and then very fast loss of a glacier in the High Arctic. We are realizing our world is slipping away from us.

Exploring Academic Outcomes In Arkansas Schools: A Study Of Four-Day School Week And Year-Round Calendar Districts, Kate Barnes, Sarah Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

In 2021, Arkansas's state legislature passed Act 688 allowing school districts to adopt non-traditional calendars. Districts could choose from four calendar options: traditional, four-day school weeks (4DSW), year-round calendar(YRC), and alternative. During the 2022-23 school year, 33 districts adopted new calendars; twenty-seven districts operated using a 4DSW, and six used a YRC. Several more districts adopted 4DSW in the 2023-24 school year. Atpresent, thirty-four Arkansas districts use a 4DSW. This report used publicly available data from the Arkansas Department of Education to explore the relationship between adoption of a 4DSW or YRC and the following student outcomes: academic growth, academic …

The Roadmap To An Improved Braille Display Design, Emma Garofalo, Trey Alexander, Luke Shankland, Michael Smith, Michael Cheng, Michael Bishai, Lauren Sun

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Our innovative braille display, focused on affordability and education, fills a notable void in the market of refreshable braille displays, which are typically costly and not designed primarily for educational use. This product stands out as an economical educational aid for people with visual impairments. It features a system where pressing a keyboard alphabet key corresponds to specific braille pins, allowing for the display of letters or characters. Additionally, our design can represent simple geometric shapes, like circles or squares, using the braille pins. When these pins are raised, the user can feel the braille representation of the character or …

Blendmaster: A Collaborative Board Game For Training Teachers In Blended Learning, Mariana Rocha, Paul Doyle

Conference papers

Blended learning (BL) combines face-to-face and computer-aided resources, promoting students’ engagement and independence. However, teachers may struggle due to a lack of technological skills and pedagogical challenges. Serious games have proven to be an efficient tool for enhancing teachers’ training, providing immersive and interactive learning experiences, and allowing teachers to develop classroom management strategies in a risk-free environment. We present the design and implementation of BlendMaster, a collaborative board game for training teachers in BL. The game challenges players to make decisions, addressing classroom challenges in both face-to-face and online settings. By exploring the game’s mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, we …