Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Two Approaches To Promote Multiplication Fact Fluency In Fifth Grade, Jordyn Berger

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Fifth grade students are expected to be fluent in basic multiplication facts by the start of fifth grade, however many are not (Minnesota Department of Education, 2007). When fifth grade students are not fluent in basic multiplication facts, they struggle to understand and master grade level skills and standards (Allen-Lyall, 2018; Burns et al., 2012; Ok & Bryant, 2016; The Math Learning Center, 2017; Wong & Evans, 2007). This quantitative research study compared two classwide approaches to promote multiplication fact fluency in fifth grade. Throughout the research phase, one fifth grade math class practiced multiplication facts for ten minutes each …

The Effects Of Social-Emotional Learning, Classroom Relationships, And Collaborative Learning On Students’ Emotional Intelligence And Academic Achievement, Slade Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Within educational settings, people are quick to blame intellectual development, or a lack thereof, for students’ shortcomings. However, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in issues related to students’ mental health and emotional well-being that have been detrimental to their academic progress. This quasi-experimental study investigated whether or not development of emotional intelligence through the use of social-emotional learning, relationship development, and collaborative learning has a positive impact on a students’ academic achievement. The results of this study were used to help determine if an educational focus on emotional intelligence can provide a viable option to combat …

How Doctoral Students In A Formal Leadership Program Conceptualize Followership: A Mixed-Methods Study, Katy J. Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this exploratory mixed-methods study was to determine how doctoral students in a formal leadership program conceptualize followership. The methods used to conduct this analysis included distributing a Qualtrics (released in August 2022) survey and conducting one-on-one interviews with a sample of degree-seeking doctoral students within a formal leadership program. The researcher collected quantitative and qualitative data addressing students’ followership style, leadership attitudes and beliefs, and perceptions of followership. These data were analyzed concurrently using a triangulation design. A total of 67 students completed the survey, and seven students were interviewed. The findings revealed that the participants employ …

Message And Meaning: Media Literacy And Racial Literacy Among Secondary-School Students, Warren Hynes

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This qualitative study explored the ways in which student use of media literacy tools and different media source materials can influence the conclusions students draw about race in the United States. The author visited eighth-grade social studies students in two different schools (one more economically advantaged; one more economically disadvantaged) for six visits apiece. During these visits, students engaged with several media sources (controlling for bias) covering two issues related to race (housing and immigration). The goal was to determine how the overall use of media literacy tools and the different types of source materials can influence the ways in …

Reevaluating Student Engagement: Exploring And Applying Alternative Assignments In Higher Education Undergraduate Applied Saxophone, Anthony S. Cincotta Ii

Dissertations, 2020-current

Undergraduate applied saxophone study revolves around the conservatory model. This inflexible model, often referred to as a master-apprentice relationship, can create an instructor-centric power dynamic which does not address the needs of the modern student. A classroom where the power lies so heavily with the instructor can stifle student engagement and can create a sense of disenfranchisement. In this setting, students have limited input on their assignment selections. While curricula have evolved with regards to being more culturally diverse, relevant, and inclusive, the approach that educators use to deliver the material has remained largely unchanged. There is limited research on …

Teaching Social-Emotional Learning (Sel) In A Pandemic, Charley Todd, Tori L. Colson, Moriah Smothers

Journal of Practitioner Research

Teaching Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has become increasingly more common in the American school system, and many districts have adopted curricula or strategies to promote its usage. Research has continued to show that students receive various short- and long-term benefits when SEL is taught in the classroom. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed how SEL instruction was given, and the implications are far-reaching. The purpose of this study is to describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on how SEL was taught. In addition, the study identifies challenges and possible solutions to ensure that SEL is taught during incredibly challenging …

Investing In Connection: Exploring The Online Graduate Student Experience, Michelle Vaughan

Journal of Practitioner Research

Within the context of online learning, there are challenges presented by the virtual medium that may lead to diminished experiences in learning. Without a physical connection or the ability to feel the support from your teacher, online students can be left isolated, and the pedagogy can easily slip into an execution of tasks as opposed to a pedagogy of care. My inquiry into the online graduate student experience began with a survey to understand how online graduate students describe their experiences as an online learner and their relationships with their instructors. A thematic analysis of their responses revealed themes regarding …

Shared Philosophies, Conflict, And Critical Reflection: Developing Productive Teacher Collaboration, Erin Nerlino

Journal of Practitioner Research

As top-down mandates regarding what collaboration should look like continue to evolve from the policy level, it is critical to engage the knowledge of teachers – the ones experiencing the collaboration – to inform teacher learning as well as the conditions within schools that help productive collaboration partnerships to evolve. This article seeks to examine the foundational aspects that underpin a mutually productive collaborative relationship between myself – a full time high school English teacher – and another full-time English teacher at the public, regional school in the Northeast where we taught. Utilizing a participant research design, I drew upon …

Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water, And Kinship

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

A Pedagogy Of Water: Rio Grande/Rio Bravo As Ancestral Waters, Marissa Aki’Nene Munoz

Occasional Paper Series

The purpose of this research project is to facilitate intergenerational teaching and learning of Indigenous knowledge by the frontera communities of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo. Our river is our main source of clean water, and is also a militarized, international border between the US and Mexico. I used the stories and teachings of local Indigenous elders to create a Pedagogy of Water that focuses on the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo as part of the sacred, ancestral landscape of south Texas. This project strengthens the community by connecting multiple generations to the land and river where we live, and demonstrates the perseverance …

Building Relationships With Our Island Home: Three Stories From Kindergarten In HawaiʻI, Donna Reid-Hayes

Occasional Paper Series

As early childhood educators, we seek to create authentic and meaningful experiences for the children we learn alongside. We must remember that at its core, “education, in its highest form, liberates human potential through transformational teaching and learning experiences” (Meyer, Maeshiro, & Sumida, 2018, p. 17). As a Native Hawaiian early childhood educator in Hawaiʻi, I feel compelled to nurture the children’s emerging sense of place and self to empower them with a strong sense of connection and identity. Although not all the children in my care are Native Hawaiian by blood, they are being raised within a place and …

Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water, And Kinship, Anna Lees, Megan Bang

Occasional Paper Series

Indigenous communities, across lands and waters, engage in and build complex knowledge systems emergent from particular values and ways of perceiving and being in the world (Cajete, 1994; Deloria & Wildcat, 2001). Indigenous knowledge systems, values, and ways of being are understood and enacted within socio-ecological systems grounded in reciprocal kin relations. Meaning: for Indigenous peoples, teaching, learning, living, and being in relation with human and more-than-human beings is central to our knowledge systems. In Issue #49 of the Bank Street Occasional Papers, Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water and Kinship, we bring together Indigenous educators and researchers to demonstrate how Indigenous …

2023 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference: Education For Humanity, Academic Affairs

Spring Great Expectation Faculty Conference

The 2023 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference featured a speech by keynote speaker, Tamara Bilous, Professor of English, Rivne State University, Ukraine.

Professor Tamara Bilous is Educator in Residence at Otterbein University for spring semester (2023). While affiliated with Otterbein, she has engaged in professional development opportunities in the areas of multicultural education and ESL instruction with support from Professor Diane Ross and Erin Johnson.

She joins Otterbein while continuing her teaching and research responsibilities as a Professor of English at Rivne State University of the Humanities, in Rivne, Ukraine. Dr. Bilous is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Russian, and …

Curriculum, Instruction, And Leadership As A Practice Of Reflexivity In World Language Education: A Systematic Review Of Literature, Jerry L. Parker

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This article presents the findings of a systemic review of research published by Robert C. Lafayette. Lafayette was a French teacher and teacher educator who worked to revolutionize the teaching of world languages through his articles, books, textbooks, grants, conference presentations, and other scholarly work. To uncover the value of his work in today’s language schooling, this study examined 17 of his articles and book chapters. Using content analysis methodology, the findings of this study concluded that his work contributed mainly to our understanding of curriculum, instruction, and leadership in world language education. His scholarship also provides world language teachers, …

The Impact Of Closed Captioning And Student Lexile Reading Levels, Jim L. Pruitt

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This experimental mixed-methods study explores what happens to student Lexile scores when they use closed captioning. The quantitative data analysis procedures involved in this experimental study consisted of utilizing two-sample t-tests to compare the iReady Lexile scores of the participants [n=38] to that of the researched district students [n=810] that were not using closed captioning in this study. The researcher required participants to complete a baseline iReady test to determine their preexisting Lexile levels. Then after the study, participants both in the researched district and in the study, itself were required to complete an iReady post-test to determine their …

Relational Leadership: Reconceptualizing How School Districts Address Teacher Attrition, Nila J. Burt, Joseph R. Jones

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

American education is in crisis. Teacher attrition rates are astronomical and continue to rise post-pandemic. In his executive summary, Pelfrey (2020), a policy and research analyst in the Georgia governor's office, revealed that new teachers are abandoning their careers at steadily increasing rates within the first five years of service. As such, we must further examine teacher retention and the influence of school administrators. In this capacity, this study utilized a qualitative methodology to examine teacher attrition in a high school in Georgia. Specifically, narrative inquiry provided the framework to examine the lived experiences of teachers in this southern school. …

How School Leaders Can Directly Support School And Classroom Conditions To Improve Student Outcomes, Goldy Brown Iii

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

There is a dearth of research on how school leaders can directly affect classroom and school conditions that lead to increased student outcomes. This study presents a descriptive single case study on a school leader and identifies supports they provided to improve classroom and school conditions, which may have led to the increased student outcomes they saw over a seven-year period. Qualitative methods were used. Data were collected through interviews and document analysis. This study is unique in that it collects and examines data through the Perspectives on Learning Environment Framework discussed in Bransford et al.’s book How People Learn …

From Without To Within: Inner Transformation As A Pedagogy For Social Activism, Jinting Wu

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Change has become the urgency of our time, as the harrowing Anthropocene and ongoing socio-political crises are challenging the future of humanity and our planet. While systemic structural forces are often (and rightfully so) the target to blame, social activism is as much about our own path of inner change as it is about attempting to create a better world externally. This aspect of social activism can easily become misunderstood as inertia, while more traditional forms of resistance aimed at subverting macro-structures are favored. In this essay, I draw from literature on spirituality and consciousness, new biology, quantum sciences, as …

From Factory Schooling To Nai Taleem: A Paradigm Shift In Education, Manish Jain

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

The article invites readers to question and reflect on the purpose of modern education and narratives of a good life, success and happiness. Modern, capitalistic, industrialized, urbanized and colonial (and colonizing) ways of living and being have created numerous global challenges. In light of these challenges, we need to re-examine our educational systems. I explore the potential of nai taleem as a philosophy of learning, living, and being; one that decolonizes education, our monoculture mindsets, and our notions of a good life. In an increasingly globalized, albeit disconnected, world I call for nai taleem as a means for building meaningful …

Culturally Responsive Strategies To Support Multilingual Learners, Liz Shanks, Mackenzie Weakland

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Teachers must develop pedagogical practices to meet the needs of the growing number of multilingual learners in K-12 classrooms. Our inquiry- based research study analyzed ways that teachers can implement pedagogical strategies that are culturally responsive to multilingual learners. Thematic analysis of recent academic studies, class observations, and an interview with a language specialist affirm a set of culturally responsive instructional practices in the classroom that lead to the academic success of multilingual learners. These practices included teacher attitudes, translanguaging, and thinking routines to assist in English language acquisition. K-12 teachers, administrators, and community leaders working with multilingual learners can …

“Your Body Is For You”: Possibilities For Size Acceptance, Criticality, And Social-Emotional Wellness In Upper Elementary English Language Arts Education, Veronica B. Walton

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This Integrated Master’s Project explores how body image literature can be used in upper elementary classrooms (grades 3 to 5) to support critical literacy and psychosocial development, and vice-versa. Using the approaches Health at Every Size® (HAES), affect theory, and critical literacy, I propose a new analytical framework for thinking about weight stigma and children’s self-image through the lens of literature. There is a growing presence of fiction and nonfiction books that address weight stigma and center children’s experiences of their bodies, and incorporating these books into literacy/English Language Arts (ELA) curricula can help educators shape their classrooms into spaces …

School Climate Measurement And Analysis, Adrian J. Vandenberg

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research project examined the concept of school climate and measured and analyzed school climate data in a mixed methods study at an independent school in British Columbia. In this study, 341 students participated in a survey which included demographic questions and items from the School Climate Measure (SCM). The quantitative data from the survey measured the school climate in 10 different domains at the school and was used to compare and analyze different subgroups within the student population. Six students were also interviewed to collect qualitative data and analyze the school climate more comprehensively. The data and subsequent …

Preschool Instructional And Assessment Practices At Stepping Stones Preschool, Julie Hoogland

Master of Education Program Theses

This phenomenological study included interviewing four individuals involved with the formation and current operation of Stepping Stones Preschool in Sioux Center, Iowa, to determine if their instructional and assessment practices as well as their mission and core values aligned with best practice. Analysis of these practices and experiences was undertaken with the purpose of deepening the understanding of what instructional and assessment best practices look like in a preschool setting. The results of this study show that the best practice recommendations that assessment should be directly connected to the instruction, child-centered, continual, include developmentally-appropriate practices in multiple formats with learning …

Student-Led Conferences In The Early Childhood Classroom, Lizzie Van Wyk

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research project investigated the relationship between student-led conferencing and parent involvement and satisfaction. Student-led conferences were held in four early childhood classrooms in Michigan, in the hopes that parent involvement and satisfaction would increase. A fifth classroom implemented traditional parent-teacher conferences. A parent satisfaction survey was created to measure parent understanding of their student’s academic performance, parent satisfaction, and parent plans for future attendance of conferences. The results indicate that while student-led conferences may impact parent communication and involvement in the classroom, there is not a direct correlation between parent satisfaction and student-led conferences.

The Effects Of Personalized Learning On Student Achievement, Keile Phillips

Dissertations

Although many studies have been conducted on personalized learning strategies, teacher attitudes and perceptions, and student engagement, few studies have focused on personalized learning and its impact on student achievement when compared to the traditional classroom. The purpose of this study was to determine if personalized learning increased student achievement in three school districts by analyzing student assessments for three consecutive school years. The study utilized data from three school districts located in Western Kentucky for the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years. The data were collected from Renaissance Learning for math and reading. In addition to examining the students’ …

Letter-Sound Correspondence Intervention With Students With Asd, Sarah Hoemann

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate an intervention procedure to teach letter-sound correspondence for students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Similar studies have been conducted; however, further research is needed. Purpose: Evaluation of this intervention to see improvement of letter-sound correspondence over five rounds of exposure to the intervention. Methodology: The research design was a single case study using a multiple baseline across participants. Baseline data were collected before intervention. The target population included three students aged 3-5 diagnosed with ASD who were previously enrolled in the Autism Clinic on campus. Materials included a laminated picture …

Sound, Senses, Semantics: A Music And Movement Curriculum For Children With Asd In A Therapeutic Nursery School Setting, Nathan J. P. Saignes

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This Integrative Master’s Project (IMP) uses a literature review of strength-based, child-centric, and behavioral to devise a 12-unit music and movement curriculum for a therapeutic nursery school setting, with children diagnosed with ASD or emotional regulation disabilities. Within those specifics, this curriculum also aims to center children’s culture and lived experience, with the goals of anti-bias education and the developmental-interaction approach in mind.

Aged 539 Graduate Internship Report, Alana Grace Reeder

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This project report includes documentation required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. the documents are concurrently used for the Ag Incentive Grant review process at Livingston High School conducted by staff of the California Department of Education. The supporting documents include information to receive state and local funding and they outline the goals and objectives of the program. This document also provides an overview of operations of the Livingston High School Agriculture Department.

Integrating Artificial Intelligence Into Creativity Education: Developing A Creative Problem-Solving Course For Higher Education, Selma Dawani

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project aims to develop an introductory college course that integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process. Drawing on best practices for teaching CPS and the latest research of AI, the project outcomes are prototypes of a Master Course Development Document, Student Syllabus, and Lesson Plan with accompanying PowerPoint slides. The course will equip students with the knowledge and skills to apply AI techniques to the CPS process. This project aims to begin to bridge the gap between AI and CPS education, preparing students for the demands of the modern workforce while fostering interdisciplinary thinking.

Project Cps: Curriculum Content + Creative Problem Solving = Successful Integration, Kathleen C. Frazier

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The goal of my master’s project is to empower teachers to unlock the Creative Problem Solving potential in their students and open the door to a world of possibilities by providing strategies, resources, and support to integrate CPS into their teaching practice.

To achieve this, I have designed a book that presents an original and engaging

imaginative characters to foster an immersive and interactive learning experience that will capture the imagination of both students and teachers.

Meet the Spirit of Creativity, represented as E. Paul Torrance, along with four Creative Problem Solving Characters who will guide teachers and students through …