Educational Methods Commons^™

The Use Of Eportfolios To Support First Year Student's Metacognitive Thinking, Katie Sabourin, Barbara Lowe, James Bowman

DePeters Family Center for Innovation and Teaching Excellence Publications

Select freshman writing courses at St. John Fisher College are piloting the use of eportfolios in place of the traditional portfolios. The College has created templates that are designed so direct links between course work, goals, and student reflections are explicit. The intent of our study is to evaluate the differences in student’s reflective writing from a variety of freshman level writing courses, including both those using eportfolios and those using traditional paper portfolios. Using a rubric that evaluates student reflections on their understanding of purpose, significance, and relevancy, as well as the student’s overall performance, we will share the …

Ninth Grade Student Responses To Authentic Science Instruction, Michael Steven Ellison

Dissertations and Theses

This mixed methods case study documents an effort to implement authentic science and engineering instruction in one teacher's ninth grade science classrooms in a science-focused public school. The research framework and methodology is a derivative of work developed and reported by Newmann and others (Newmann & Associates, 1996). Based on a working definition of authenticity, data were collected for eight months on the authenticity in the experienced teacher's pedagogy and in student performance. Authenticity was defined as the degree to which a classroom lesson, an assessment task, or an example of student performance demonstrates construction of knowledge through use of …

Cracking The Code Of Student Emotional Pain, Lori Desautels

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Every instructor wants to crack the code -- to determine just what children and adolescents need to transform feelings of defeat, cognitive and emotional exhaustion, and outright hostility into something positive. They want to connect with students whose stress response states are chronically activated. They want to help learners know that they are more than just their genetics or their history. They want to share with their most fragile students that the traumas of their past can strengthen rather than harden their minds and hearts. No one needs to live in constant conflict and pain.

A Textbook Case: The Connection Between Textbooks, Standardized Testing, And Student Achievement, Megan P. Miller

Theses & Honors Papers

The textbooks physical presence, though, is marginal compared to their theoretical presence, as textbooks can drive almost every decision a teacher makes when preparing for a day, a week, a month, the year. For example, in my 11^th-grade English classes at Grafton High School in York County, Virginia, there are two levels of understanding. One is that I am teaching American literature, its development, importance, people, and purpose; the other is that everything I teach will, in some way, better prepare my students for their SOL test at the end of the year. The textbook has been laid …

Quantitative Reasoning: Interdisciplinary Stem 21st Century Reasoning Modality, Robert L. Mayes

Teaching & Learning: Faculty Presentations (2012-2017)

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS 2013) and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (NGA 2010) call for improving scientific, engineering, and mathematical practices. Among the practices called for are model-based reasoning which engages students in developing and using models, analyzing and interpreting data, and using mathematics and computational thinking. Fundamental to these processes is quantitative reasoning (QR), which for this project is defined as:

Quantitative reasoning is mathematics and statistics applied in real-life, authentic situations that impact an individual’s life as a constructive, concerned, and reflective citizen (Mayes et al. 2014b).

In the NSF project, Culturally Relevant Ecology, …

Assessing The Validity And Reliability Of Dichotomous Test Results Using Item Response Theory On A Group Of First Year Engineering Students, Edmund Nevin, Avril Behan, Gavin Duffy, Stephanie Farrell, Rachel Harding, Robert Howard, Aaron Mac Raighne, Brian Bowe

Conference papers

Traditional measurement instruments employed to assess the performance of student’s studying on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related programmes typically involve classification based on final scores. The validity and reliability of these instruments and test forms are important considerations when assessing whether a student understands content and if not, where and in what way they are struggling. The aim of this study is to examine, validate and analyse the test results of first-year engineering student’s at an Institute of Higher Learning in Ireland who took the Purdue Spatial Visualisation Test of Rotation (PSVT:R). Results obtained were analysed using the …

Quantitative Reasoning In Environmental Science: Rasch Measurement To Support Qr Assessment, Robert L. Mayes Dr., Kent Allan Rittschof, Jennifer H. Forrester, Jennifer D. Schuttlefield Christus, Lisa C. Watson, Franziska Peterson

Curriculum, Foundations & Reading: Faculty Publications

Original work is hosted at USF Libraries Scholar Commons publisher of Numeracy, the electronic journal of the National Numeracy Network (NNN).

Abstract : The ability of middle and high school students to reason quantitatively within the context of environmental science was investigated. A quantitative reasoning (QR) learning progression, with associated QR assessments in the content areas of biodiversity, water, and carbon, was developed based on three QR progress variables: quantification act, quantitative interpretation, and quantitative modeling. Diagnostic instruments were developed specifically for the progress variable quantitative interpretation (QI), each consisting of 96 Likert-scale items. Each content version of …

Comfortable Inaction, In Action, Mike Suarez

Education's Histories

Mike Suarez reviews Dionne Danns' (2014) Desegregating Chicago's Public Schools: Policy Implementation, Politics, and Protest, 1965-1985.

The Branch Campus Contribution To The Mission Of The Main Campus In Kentucky, Caroline L. Atkins

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of branch campuses on the mission of their main campuses in Kentucky. An online survey and key informant interviews were conducted with administrators. Both research methods identified strategies to minimize the impact of institutional, situational, and dispositional barriers (Cross, 1981) that impede the successful academic and social integration (Tinto, 1975; 1993) of nontraditional students who frequent these campuses. In addition, institutional research offices provided student enrollment and credit-hour production data for analysis by site. The study classified demographic information on administrators, including gender, full- or part-time capacity, administrative title, and …

The Effectiveness Of Content Retention When Using A Chromebook™ With A Student On The Autism Spectrum, Marykay Shropshire

All Capstone Projects

A student identified with Autism participated in a single case design study in which note taking was conducted in traditional and technological (Chromebook™) fashion. Participation is used on the general education curriculum and daily exercises completed in the classroom. This research was completed in two phases with the first phase collecting baseline data to be compared to the second phase of data that was collected during the intervention. Each phase lasted 3 weeks and was carried out in the special education classroom within the student's usual Extended School Year program. This research was conducted for the cumulative project at Governors …

Enhanced Presentation Of Tomographic Data, Carmen Watts Clayton, Bernice Mills, George Beffleben, Thien Vu-Nguyen

STAR Program Research Presentations

X-ray tomography yields a very large amount of data in three dimensions. Effectively displaying this data to a broad audience is a challenge. Techniques are discussed to improve presentation of movies of both 2D and 3D tomographic data using commercially available softwares.

Imagination: Active In Teaching And Learning, Christopher Cunningham

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This autoethnography tells the story of the author’s endeavor to examine my teaching during a sculpture lesson in three 2^nd grade art classes in a mid-western suburban Title I elementary school. I analyze my planning, teaching, reflecting through the lens of Stuart Richmond’s Characteristics of Imaginative Teaching as well as noted educational theorists’ conceptions of imagination and imaginative teaching and learning. These theorists include but are not limited to Maxine Greene, Kieran Egan, John Dewey, and The Lincoln Center Institute’s Capacities for Imaginative Learning. I conclude that imaginative teaching is an intentional act and that there is no …

Using Student-Led Discussion Strategies To Motivate, Increase Thinking, Create Ownership, And Teach Citizenship, Matthew Brisbin

Education Masters Theses

This study aimed to see how teacher implementation of a student-led discussion process influenced intrinsic motivation of students in a high school Language Arts classroom. There was a specific focus on how these discussions impacted the students’ critical thinking. A pre and post-survey, student journals, videos of discussions, and interviews were used to collect data regarding motivation and critical thought. The study verified prior research regarding student discussions as a useful tool in classrooms if implemented in an effective way. However, there were no new conclusions reached. With that said, student-reported intrinsic motivation and critical thinking showed an increase from …

An Examination Of Factors That Influence Teacher Adoption Of Bring Your Own Device In The Classroom, Shawn Patrick Lloyd Hirano

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine if and how Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is implemented in secondary public schools by focusing on teacher adoption of BYOD in the classroom. Given the newness of BYOD, there is little research on how school districts have implemented this policy or why and how teachers have adopted the practice in their classroom. Using both Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research investigated several key elements that could influence teacher adoption of BYOD: teacher characteristics, school culture, and professional development. The population for this mixed method study …

2012 Georgia Scholarship Of Stem Teaching And Learning Conference Program, Georgia Scholarship Of Stem Teaching And Learning Conference

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

Conference Program

Loris Malaguzzi And The Teachers: Dialogues On Collaboration And Conflict Among Children, Reggio Emilia 1990, Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, John Nimmo

Zea E-Books Collection

In 1990, three American scholars participated in an extraordinary research experience with Loris Malaguzzi and the educators of the Diana School in Reggio Emilia, Italy. They were studying “cooperation”— how preschool educators promoted collaboration and community in their classrooms and schools—and they used videotapes of classroom episodes to provoke teachers to reflect on the meanings suggested by the actions of themselves and others. In October 1990 the three traveled to Reggio Emilia and spent several days with the Italian educators.

The Diana School faculty viewed these encounters as powerful opportunities for their own professional development through the documentation process, rather …

Exploring The Use Of Teaching Strategies To Impact The Academic And Social Challenges Faced By First-Generation College Students, Susan Smierciak Lueders

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have shown that roughly one-third of the total students at four-year universities are the first in their families to attend college. These students are commonly referred to as first-generation college (FGC) students. The percent of total college students who are FGC students is expected to rise as the children of working-class, predominantly “blue collar” baby boomers, and the children of immigrants reach college age and enter the college arena. However, these students often enter college with unique academic and social challenges that result in an attrition rate of almost twice that of non- FGC students. While numerous studies …

Securing The Blessings – Cultivating Active Citizens: Public School Principals’ Perceptions Of How They Nurture A Democratic Way Of Life, Judith Marie Mccann Floeter

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

School leaders have the formidable responsibility to promote an educational environment that supports the growth of both the individual and the nation. School principals are uniquely pressured to comply with politically motivated demands to educate for a globally competitive labor force while they simultaneously promote and strengthen lifelong learning and a democratic ethos in their particular students. The thoughtful educator recognizes the complexities of this negotiation.

In this dissertation I examined the recent literature about schooling for democracy and conclude that public schools are vital to sustaining a democracy; current reform strategies impinge upon school efforts to teach children to …

Feminine Voice, Masculine Space: Understanding How Passion For Sport Emerges In Female College Student-Athletes, Jill Hollembeak

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Many sport sociologists argue sports play a significant role in creating culture (Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006; L'Etang, 2006). Yet, even as there has been a gender revolution in U.S. sports, media “coverage today misrepresents both the participation and the interest in women‟s sports across our population at large” (p. 3). A powerful entity, the media misrepresentation of the number of females competing devalues the importance participation plays in the lives of many females. Their status as “jock” causes potential negativity as they navigate college and their roles in society, and their status as “female” carries historical conditions in all realms, …

Instructional Technology And Self-Directed Learning For Students' Academic Success, Vincent Demetrious Wiggins

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Student achievement in the public education system of the United States is ranked substantially lower compared to other countries. One of the initiated goals proposed by the United States government is to increase the number of college graduates by partnering with community colleges (Office of the Press Secretary, 2015). Community colleges are open enrollment institutions, which often assist students described as at-risk. To serve the community college population of students, special curricular strategies have been implemented.

One tool identified for meeting the goal of increasing college graduation for the population of students at-risk is utilization of instructional technology. Instructional technology, …