Message From The President / 8.11.21, Evan M. Glazer

Message from the President

No abstract provided.

Advances In Global Education And Research: Volume 4, Waynne B. James, Cihan Cobanoglu, Muhittin Cavusoglu

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the fourth volume of the Advances in Global Education and Research Book Series. This volume has the following parts:

• Part 1: Adult Education
• Part 2: Curriculum and Instruction Development
• Part 3: Educational Technology
• Part 4: Education in Other Specialties
• Part 5: English as a Second Language
• Part 6: Global Competence
• Part 7: Higher Education and Educational Leadership
• Part 8: Inclusive Education
• Part 9: International Education
• Part 10: PreK-12
• Part 11: Research Methods in Education

ISBN: 978-1-955833-04-2

Adult Education

• Teaching for knowledge transfer: Best practices from a graduate-level educational psychology distance learning program
  • Bobby Hoffman
• A study on the …

Message From The President / 7.28.21, Evan M. Glazer

Message from the President

No abstract provided.

Message From The President / 7.14.21, Evan M. Glazer

Message from the President

No abstract provided.

Academic And Demographic Patterns Of Students Placed In Early Algebra I Acceleration, Jill Smith

Dissertations

In the United States, there had been a push for Algebra for All in the early 1990’s in an effort to increase performance on international assessments and provide equity for low-income students and students of color. As the number of students in eighth grade Algebra I increased, a small number of students enrolled in seventh grade Algebra I also increased. The purpose of this quantitative study is to identify and evaluate demographic and academic patterns of students placed in this early acceleration at the middle school level looking at the continuation of acceleration, higher achievement, and an increase in the …

Differentiation For Gifted And Talented Elementary Students: What Teachers Know And Implement, Karyn Michelle Andrews

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this research was to measure the ways elementary school teachers are differentiating instruction for their gifted and talented students and to gauge their awareness of the need for implementing appropriate differentiation strategies they use in their classrooms. The study surveyed elementary teachers currently teaching in one large school district in Kentucky. Teachers responded to 38 survey items, indicating how often they use specific practices with their gifted students versus with their average-achieving students.

The results indicated that there is much work to be done to increase teacher awareness of the importance of differentiated instruction for gifted and …

Development Of A Scale To Measure School Psychologists' Self-Efficacy For Working With Gifted Populations, Brittany Marie Dodds

Dissertations

School psychologists are specialists in educational assessment, consultation, youth mental health, and social-emotional-behavioral development. As a result of their training, school psychologists are positioned to serve students with exceptionalities, including gifted students. However, research indicates that school psychologists' familiarity with gifted issues is lacking and that information regarding school psychologists' self-efficacy for working with this population is nonexistent. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to create a tool to assess school psychologists' self- efficacy for working with gifted populations. The Dodds Inventory of Gifted Self- Efficacy for School Psychologists (DIGS-SP) was developed and administered to 229 practicing school …

The Influence Of Professional Development On Teacher Self-Efficacy In Gifted Education, Keely P'Pool

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to study the impact of effective professional development training provided to both preservice and inservice teachers about gifted education and gifted students. This research also seeks to discover whether a notable difference exists between preservice and inservice teachers in regard to the increase in their knowledge and self-efficacy upon completion of the professional development training. A quantitative approach using a survey and a required training was used for all participants. Study participants included preservice teachers attending a southern Kentucky public university who were taking education classes as well as inservice teachers from 11 school …

Addressing The Needs Of All Learners: The Art Of Accommodation, Angelica Lynn Garnett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Schools in Kentucky identify gifted students at a young age. Those students are labeled and should be provided with services based on their gifts throughout their educational career. It is the teacher’s duty to provide these services in their individual classrooms. This becomes progressively difficult as the student increases in grade level. Supporting teachers in their ability to recognize and manage the different levels in their classrooms does not always happen. The research question of this study focuses on how teachers meet the academic needs of gifted students in their classrooms in middle and secondary schools.

Participants included forty-four teachers …

Exploring Differences In Mathematical Creative Potential And Problem-Posing In Gifted And Non-Gifted Middle School Students, Aishah Ahmed Alzahrani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the link between students’ Mathematical Creative Potential (MCP) and giftedness by analyzing their abilities to pose mathematical problems. The participants included 260 gifted and non-gifted students from the 7th and 8th grades, representing four schools and four school districts in Northwest Arkansas. The study developed the Mathematical Creative Potential Scale (MCPS) to measure participant MCP. The MCPS is based on a divergent-thinking technique consisting of five free-structured and semi-structured situations. Students’ plausible problems were scored based on three dimensions of creativity: fluency, flexibility, and originality. This study found that there were statistically …

Where Image And Text Meet Identity: Gifted Students’ Poetry Comics And The Crafting Of “Nerd Identities”, Michael L. Kersulov, Adam Henze

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article reports on a study of how a class of fifteen- and sixteen-year-old gifted high school students “mixed” the media of poetry and comics to unveil and interrogate (what they called) their “nerd identities.” Both co-authors constructed and co-taught a class within a literature-based comics course that led students through various writing processes that focused on the visual and textual properties of poetry and comics. Researchers asked: How may gifted students use poetry and comics to write about identity? How can the mixing of poetry and comics contribute to media literacy education? Using their poetry comics to connect their …

A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Sarah Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid, Bich Tran

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we assess the relationship between being identified as gifted and academic growth among students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade. Using regression analysis controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth on mathematics and literacy achievement across the time period examined than similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted.

Gifted Education In Arkansas: A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Bich Tran, Jonathan Wai, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This study assesses the effectiveness of gifted programs in Arkansas by leveraging student-level achievement and demographic data of students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade and examine the difference between the longer-term academic performance of the students that were exposed to gifted and talented services compared to similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted. Using regression analyses controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth …

Criminal Law And Parricide In A Reflection Of Social Parameters From The Roman Monarchy Into The Early Empire, Sierra Epke

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This paper seeks to determine the role of Roman criminal law and its connection to the social responses and punishments relating to parricide. The research for this project was conducted through print materials pertaining to the subject and online resources including databases accessed through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Library system. As Roman society progressed, criminal law grew in range and scope providing different categories of homicide. One such category created was the crime of parricide in which a family member is killed by another member. Because of the power the heads of households, generally the father, possessed in Roman society, …

“Now I Feel Like I’M Supposed To Make Mistakes”: Changing Student Perceptions Of Mistakes, Ellison Lunde

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined how second-grade students in a GT-clustered classroom perceived making mistakes. The researcher implemented literature discussion circles focused on growth mindset and making mistakes as an intervention to improve student perceptions. She collected data through surveys, field notes, and student focus group interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method to look for recurring themes as well as descriptive statistics in the case of numerical data. Three major themes emerged including struggles with mistakes, internal processes, and benefits of mistakes. Statistics confirmed that the intervention effectively improved the perceptions of almost every student and that GT students …

Modernizing Legacy Business Practices And Maintaining Backwards Compatibility When Replacing Legacy Software, Thomas Hillebrandt

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

As technology advances and hardware as well as user expectations becomes more advanced, software systems must change alongside or go obsolete. When software is no longer developed, decisions must be made regarding its future. Through various methods, legacy software may continue to see usage far past its obsolescence, however legacy software will sooner or later face replacement by new applications, built for state-of-the-art machines, to comply with modern requirements. When writing new software to replace older programs, the added challenge for developers is to help the client also modernize their workflow. When a program has been in long time use …

A Case Study Of Four Districts' Procedures For Identifying And Serving Culturally, Linguistically, And Economically Diverse Gifted And Talented Students In One State, Mackenzie Anderson

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

The underrepresentation of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students is a problem historically researched in gifted and talented programs. This problem largely comes from the way districts identify for giftedness as well as the programming for gifted students. Traditional methods of identification often largely exclude students due to racial or ethnic bias and harsh cut-off scores on tests. This study investigated the current identification procedures of four districts in one state. Additionally, the study addressed programming and how these districts specifically targeted underserved populations within their district. Data were collected through interviews with four District Coordinators from school districts with …

Arbor Day Foundation Programs: Analysis And Recommendations, Justin Myers, Emily Alston, Cameron Claborn, Charles Erker, Braelyn Isernhagen, Jonathan Jameson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

We are proposing the enhancement of the current Tree City USA program to include a special recognition program for high-achieving communities. These “Golden Oak” tree cities will be recognized each year based on a variety of metrics detailed in a new and more comprehensive program application. Recommendations:

● Updated application to include more information about both quantitative and qualitative insights

● Special recognition program awarding “Golden Oak” status to communities in village, town, city, and metropolis categories based on either percentile or benchmarking system

● A cumulative “Golden Oak” award given to the State that achieves the highest percentage of …

Building A Comprehensive Tree Index, Lauren Leapley

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

No abstract provided.

Mngt 475h: Tree Programs Recommendation Report, Mary Morton

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Executive Summary

Project Description

We explored ways for the Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) to increase the value proposition for Tree Cities and Tree Campuses through application addendums and existing organizations.

Recommendations

We propose including an addition to the Tree City application for a grant awarded to Tree Cities that plant trees in underserved areas of the community.

We also recommend inviting Tree Campus to join the Alliance for Community Trees (ACT). Through membership, they will attend and participate in the Partners in Community Forestry Conference.

Rationale

The Tree City program is being under-utilized in connecting resources with communities. ADF can …