Educational Methods Commons^™

How Do The Students Feel? Long-Term English Learners And Their Experience Under The Esl Label, Molly M. Staeheli

Theses and Dissertations

Far too many English learners in my district enter elementary school as non-native speakers, gradually developing skills only to plateau at early intermediate levels as determined by the annual proficiency exam. As these students become long-term English learners (LTELs) in junior high, the pattern of failing and retaking the test wears on them, likely exacerbated by the district-mandated curriculum for English language development (ELD) classes. Unit topics such as money matters and U.S. national monuments at advanced levels fail to tap into students’ lived experiences. I responded to this problem of practice through mixed-methods action research, beginning with a quantitative …

The Bereaved Songwriters' Project, Laura A. Figueroa

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to evaluate bereaved individuals’ responses to a reflective songwriting program intervention (RSPI). The purposive and convenient sample included 30 bereaved adults who were members of the teaching staff at a private, Christian, K-12 school in the southeastern United States and/or past or present members of the church with which the school was affiliated. The researcher developed a simple and succinct RSPI in which study participants were prompted to create an original musical piece using personal reflections, memories, and descriptions in song form to commemorate a deceased loved one. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being …

Elementary Teachers’ Perception Of Digital Resources Based On Student Achievement, Tanya R. Small

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Many factors impact teachers’ decisions about when and how to implement technology during instruction. However, a gap exists in understanding teachers’ motivations for technology integration and face-to-face instruction. Therefore, this qualitative case study explored how teachers’ perceptions of student achievement, motivation, classroom behaviors, and digital challenges influenced their decisions about using technology or direct instruction in the classroom setting. A group of 20 teachers from two southern Florida public elementary schools completed anonymous Likert-scale surveys; six teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings determined via descriptive statistics and thematic analysis revealed that teachers’ inclusion of technology and traditional resources is …

Using Critical Reflection To Mitigate Racial Implicit Bias And Enhance Cultural Humility: A Nursing Faculty Action Research Study, Teresa Stafford Cronell

Theses and Dissertations

Formal American nursing education has existed since the late 19th century, but its historically deep-seated white framing continues to influence how current nurses are educated, enculturated, and professionalized. Insufficient inclusivity and diversity deficit have endured despite decades-long demands to do otherwise. To most nursing educators, the white frame is invisible. This unseen framing allows ongoing harmful implicit biases and microaggressions towards underrepresented nursing students and colleagues to persist. Nursing students are taught to provide culturally humble, unbiased patient care. Should not nursing faculty likewise demonstrate the same unbiased attitudes and humility towards their students? Faculty risk perpetuating the white frame …

Instructional Hub: Bridging The Gap In Teacher Preparation For Online Instruction, Charity Beth Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

In the spring of 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reached pandemic status in the United States, leading to extended educational disruption and posing significant obstacles for teachers who were unprepared to teach in a virtual environment. Educators adjusted curricular materials, delivery, and assessment methods to accommodate and engage students while maintaining academic objectives and minimizing stress. Few teachers in District 8705, South Carolina, had experience with distance instruction; thus, they had little to no adaptive knowledge on which to depend. The purpose of this dissertation was to find a solution that could significantly enhance teacher preparation for virtual teaching through …

Building Leadership Capacity To Support International Educators: A Professional Learning Series, Amanda Hajji Minnillo

Theses and Dissertations

Due to teacher shortages, school districts across the country are hiring international educators to fill their staffing needs. This is particularly the case for world language and dual language immersion programs that seek to hire multilingual individuals. Educators who come from different countries need differentiated support in their acculturation process to the American education system. Rarely does training for instructional coaches or educational leaders provide the cross-cultural knowledge and content-specific training needed to support international educators. The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study is to understand international educators’ experiences coming to teaching in an American school district and leverage …

Perspectives, Motivations, And Resistance: Investigating Employee Responses To Employer-Sponsored Diversity Training, Robert Kerlin

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative action research study investigated employee reactions, motivations, and perspectives toward employer-sponsored diversity training programs. Through a qualitative exploratory case study, this research study explored the perceptions of how a diverse sampling of people individually, negotiate identities in corporate and education fields where those in control must both accommodate and placate in order to maintain institutional objectives. In order to further explore this topic, a theoretical framework consisting of self-determination theory and culturally relevant pedagogy served as the primary method to guide the research question, literature reviews, and data design, collection, and analysis process. Self-determination theory provided the primary …

Impact Of The Engineering Design Process On Rural Female Students’ Achievement And Self-Efficacy, Whitney Lowery Oberndorf

Theses and Dissertations

Nearly one-fifth of U.S. children attend rural schools; however, these students have fewer opportunities for high-quality STEM learning. Rural students are also less likely to attend college and less likely to enroll in STEM majors than their urban and suburban peers. In conjunction with these factors, female students are also less likely to pursue STEM degrees and work in STEM fields. Broadening access and exposure to these areas, as well as improving female perceptions about STEM fields, is critical to closing the gap. This mixed-methods action research study was an effort to increase female achievement and self-efficacy in science and …

Beyond The Acronym Of Stem: Experiential Learning Professional Development For Integrative Stem Education, Christine Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

STEM education and integrative STEM education are increasingly popular in the K-12 domain. However, there is not a consensus on their definitions, nor a sufficient amount of instructional support to help teachers that are unfamiliar with these learning approaches. This study examined how an intentionally designed experiential professional development model impacted the application of integrative STEM practices and teachers’ perceptions of this student-centered approach. A qualitative approach allowed for an integration of various perspectives over multiple cycles of professional development, reflection, and application. Data was collected from a focus group discussion, pre- and post- classroom observations, teacher reflection journals, and …

The Integration Of Simulation-Enhanced Interprofessional Education Into Undergraduate Clinical Laboratory Science Curriculum, Dana Powell Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study aimed to integrate simulation-enhanced interprofessional education (Sim-IPE) into the undergraduate clinical laboratory science (CLS) program curriculum. The undergraduate CLS curriculum was comprised of didactic coursework and hands-on learning experiences in the student laboratory. This traditional CLS curriculum model was uniprofessional in its design and educated students in silos rather than on interprofessional teams with other health professions students. Lack of collaboration on healthcare teams has led to increased medical errors and decreased patient safety in clinical settings. Recent studies have indicated that effective communication and teamwork among healthcare professionals has led to improved patient outcomes and …

Noticing Instructional Challenges In Artifacts Of Teaching, Tara Barnhart, Elizabeth A. Van Es

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study investigates challenges of enactment teachers notice when analyzing artifacts of teaching in a professional development focused on supporting the enactment of NGSS-aligned modeling instruction. Five secondary science teachers participated in a semester-long video club. Transcripts of the segments of their meetings in which they analyzed artifacts of practice were coded to characterize what they noticed in videos and student work samples from their own and others’ classrooms of students engaging in sensemaking. Through an inductive and iterative approach, three main linguistic challenges were identified related to the teachers’ noticing of students’ disciplinary thinking: learning how to communicate with …

Social Emotional Learning Practices And Learning Spaces, Yanira Oliveras, Dalane Bouillion, Sara Koprowski

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Daniel Goleman, journalist and author, popularized the idea of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) based on his work surrounding emotional intelligence (Hargreaves & Shirley, 2022). Although recognized as a new approach, SEL was well-established during the early 1990s in American education. Since then, SEL “has emerged as a major thematic and programmatic emphasis in American education” (Hoffman, 2009, p. 533). “Well-being in education” (Hargreaves & Shirley, 2022, p. 26) has become a succinct description of SEL. Generally, SEL is learning focused on “social, emotional, behavioral, and character skills that support success in school, the workplace, relationships, and the community” (Frey …

Using L1 Student Narratives And Peer Teaching To Increase Secondary Education Mathematical Understanding, Marco Antonio Martinez Leandro

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This phenomenological study research presents an option to use both discourse in the native language and technology as an alternative to improve the understanding of mathematics in secondary education. 13 students whose native language is Spanish attended a high school in a large urban school district in the Southwest of the United States, participated in this study.

The study's main objective was to observe the effects of using students' discourse in their language and the support of technology to increase their academic literacy in mathematics. Solution-based pedagogy was central to helping students achieve the Development of Academic Literacy in Mathematics …

Qi In Resident Leadership Workshop, Heidi Y. Pareja, Chelsea H. Chang, Daniel Aragon, Deepu George

Research Symposium

Background: Many residency programs provide some type of leadership training for chief residents. As these emerging leaders transition into their role, it is imperative to provide them with skills and knowledge to help them develop their leadership style. UTRGV’s department of Graduate Medical Education (GME) organized their first “Resident Leader Workshop” for all rising Chiefs and GME Resident Leadership Council (RLC) members. Using a pre and post survey, participants provided feedback on the effectiveness of knowledge and skills presented during the workshop.

Methods: All residency and fellowship rising Chiefs and GME RLC members were invited. The workshop took place …

The Case For Direct Instruction, Marcy Stein, Kristen Rolf

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

For over 50 years, the best way to educate children has been heatedly debated by those who favour what might be described as ‘teacher-directed instruction’ and those who favour ‘student-centred instruction’. In this article, we contend that Direct Instruction (DI), a teacher-directed approach, offers educators, by several important measures, the most effective approach to meeting the academic needs of underperforming students.

Trauma-Informed Gatherings: What Does It Mean And What Does It Take?, Chelsea Williams, Jamie Bain

Journal of Extension

As community members continue to experience racial trauma at both individual and community levels, our Extension team responded by adapting an anti-racism leadership training program to be more trauma-informed. Our team designed a tool using Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s trauma-informed principles to support public health practitioners to facilitate trauma-informed meetings. This tool can be a starting point for Extension professionals to create more trauma-informed gathering spaces in all areas of their work.

Soft Skills Don’T Have To Be Hard: Embedding Soft Skills Instruction In Moroccan Secondary Schools, Dc Lambert

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

In an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, the need for the development and mastery of soft skills has perhaps never been greater. Schools can play a key role in soft skills education, but implementation in the classroom has faced a range of challenges that have impeded instruction. One solution is embedding soft skills within an extant academic curriculum, with the advantages that the academic infrastructure is already in place, and few additional materials or time are needed. This field study found that embedding soft skills had excellent outcomes, even with limited resources, materials, and training, a notable first step in …

Grades Or No Grades? Promoting Deeper Learning In A Middle Level Mathematics Methods Course, Shelli L. Casler-Failing

Journal of Practitioner Research

This action research investigated pre-service teachers (PSTs) experiences with ungrading practices in a mathematics methods course designed for middle level PSTs (grades 4-8). This study analyzed archival data through the lenses of pedagogical content knowledge, growth mindset, and self-efficacy to investigate how PSTs’ experiences with the process of ungrading supported their development of pedagogical content knowledge. Throughout the course, verbal feedback was provided during class discourse and the interactive lectures and written feedback was provided for all submitted assignments. The feedback provided was both positive and constructive in nature. Based on the assignment or activity, constructive feedback was either provided …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 9.0, Robert O. Duncan, Grace L. Axler-Diperte, Joseph Bisz, Christina Boyle, Devorah Kletenik, Carolyn Stallard

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of School Disciplinary Climate Between Asia And North America Using A Large-Scale International Dataset And Rasch Measurement Theory, Sijia Zhang

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

School disciplinary climate influences student outcomes. As a result, examining differences in principals’ perceptions of disciplinary climate within and across countries and regions may shed some light on decreasing achievement gaps. The quantitative study examined how principals from different geographical locations perceive school disciplinary climate differently with a subset sample obtained from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021 package. School disciplinary climate was measured using the School Discipline and Safety subscale from the School Questionnaire. Results suggested that there existed statistically significant differences in the difficulty ordering of school disciplinary climate across regions, and these differences were …