Digital Commons Network^™

See And Be Seen: Young Adult Refugee Literature In The High School Curriculum, Patrice Splan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more than 25 million refugees in the world today, over half of whom are under the age of 18. As these young people adapt to new schools and communities, it is essential that all students have opportunities to see themselves represented in literature and to develop understandings of the experiences of others. This project provides an analysis of young adult refugee literature with a unit plan for application of texts in a ninth-grade Virginia English classroom, stressing the importance of education as a tool for awareness, reflection, and empathy.

A Quantitative Study Examining Project Lead The Way Gateway Program Outcomes In A Suburban School District, Patrick Joseph Bellinger

Dissertations

Within the confines of this study, the Researcher investigated Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Gateway program outcomes at a Midwest suburban school district. The study examined specific academic achievement outcomes and attitudes regarding STEAM courses and STEAM careers among students who completed at least one semester in a middle school PLTW Gateway program. The Researcher attempted to determine if there was a difference in student attitudes related to STEAM between students who enrolled in a PLTW Gateway course and students who never enrolled in PLTW Gateway, as determined in an online survey. The Researcher also attempted to determine if there …

All Parts And Parcels: Unpacking And Analyzing Kentucky Education Reform, Matthew A. Lee

Honors Theses

Since the mid-twentieth century, public education in the Commonwealth of Kentucky has often faced opposition from its General Assembly. Historically underfunded, Kentucky’s public education system has consistently placed near the bottom in all measures of student assessment and school finance in the nation, according to data published annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Over the last thirty years, however, the General Assembly has taken some steps toward improvement. The purpose of this paper is to present a historical record of these reform efforts and to analyze whether these alterations have been effective. To assess the state’s role …

Tidying And Analysis Of The 2014 Texas English Ii End-Of-Course Exam, David Churchman, Abigail Morton Garland

SMU Data Science Review

The state of Texas requires all public high school students to take End of Course (EOC) exams. The results of these exams are made nominally public, but in a shape and format that precludes ready analysis. To the extent possible, principles of tidy data will be applied to clean and analyze the publicly released data file for the 2014 English II EOC exam, providing insights into the EOC program and a case for better public data from the Texas Education Administration (TEA).

2019 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference: Seeing The "Us" In General Education, Academic Affairs

Spring Great Expectation Faculty Conference

The 2019 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference featured a keynote speech by Suzanne Tapp. Suzanne Tapp is the Executive Director of the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center and an adjunct faculty member in the Integrated Studies Program at Texas Tech University. Suzanne is a former Board of Directors member for the Professional and Organizational Development Network for Higher Education (POD) and founding chair of the Texas Faculty Development Network. She is the co-editor of the new book, “Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Learning.” Her research interests include organizational change, inclusive teaching practices, ePortfolio development, and digital storytelling. …

Simulation Enhances Soft Skills Among Inter-Professionals Participating In An International Service-Learning Experience To A Resource-Limited Country, Suzanne Trotter, Sharon Dunnivan-Mitchell

Physical Therapy Collection

Introduction: Soft skills are the hallmark of a master healthcare provider. One of the most effective ways to teach soft skills to healthcare providers is through service-learning. Evidence suggests that adding simulation as part of a service-learning team’s pre-departure training (PDT) will better prepare them to resolve ethical and cultural dilemmas often encountered in resource-limited countries, plus facilitate soft skills. We hypothesized that simulation could improve soft skills of physical and occupational therapy students and clinicians providing rehabilitation services on a one-week service-learning experience in Guatemala.

Methods: A convenience sample of 21 physical and occupational therapy students and …

The Impact Of Peer-Led Diabetes Education: A Quasi Pre Post Experimental Study, Stacey Bell Sloas

Student Theses and Dissertations

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic illness costing over $300 billion per year in the United States with an estimated 100 million individuals with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Complications due to diabetes place individuals at increased risk for heart attack, stroke, amputations, blindness, kidney failure, disability, and early death. Education has been shown to be effective in improving health behaviors that decrease complications due to diabetes. Common risk factors for development of diabetes are modifiable behaviors such as sedentary lifestyle and obesity. A peer-led approach to diabetes education has the potential to overcome multiple barriers to receiving education. Peer-led diabetes education …

Sustainability Education At The University Of Dayton, Olivia M. Leblanc

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

To prepare for this Researched Argument writing assignment, I completed a research proposal that involved drafting a research question and creating a general timeline for conducting reseach leading up to this project's final submission. I then analyzed ten different sources through creating an annotated bibliography that examined the credibility, content, and relevance of each resource in relation to my paper's topic. In addition to collecting resouces, I personally attended SAP events and interviewed the SAP student leader in order to understand the innerworkings of sustainability education at the University of Dayton. I then composed a draft that was analyzed by …

Arkansas' Coding For All - Is It Really Reaching All Students?, Kaitlin Mckenzie

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Arkansas Computer Science Initiative required every high school to offer at least one computer science course by the 2015-16 academic year. Schools that did not have a qualified teacher were given access to online courses. It is important to point out that students do not need a computer science course to graduate, but credit in a computer science course could replace a 3rd science credit requirement or a 4th math credit requirement (ADE / ARCareerED Computer Science Fact Sheet). Some initial success has already been demonstrated. In 2014- 15 there were sixty computer science classes offered in all of …

Balancing The Theoretical Toolkit: A Quantitative Examination Of Social Mobility And Culture, Nathan Cole Baggett

Sociology & Anthropology Theses - Archive

Stratification researchers of the last four decades have contributed a multitude of information on how class-origins, culture, and social psychological factors affect class reproduction. However, scholarship has spent comparatively less effort in exploring cultural elements that can facilitate upward mobility for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. This thesis addresses this research imbalance through providing a nuanced look at cultural, social, and economic factors associated with educational mobility. Specifically, I investigate how educational aspirations offset financial constraints for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. I employ regression analyses to examine how common educational mobility is for individuals from less-educated households and then test to …

A Phenomenological Study Of Advanced Age Individuals Pursuing A Doctoral Degree, Elaine G. Phillips

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of advanced age individuals 62 years and older who chose to return to academia and pursue doctoral studies in accredited doctoral programs in the United States. The theories that guided this study are the self-determination theory by Deci and Ryan and Erikson’s psychosocial development theory, specifically stage eight, Integrity versus Despair. These two theories framed this study investigating the central research question: What are the experiences of advanced age individuals pursuing a doctoral degree? These advanced age individuals pursued, experienced, and completed doctoral degrees or are in the …

Discourses Of The Rural Rust Belt: Schooling, Poverty, And Rurality, Alexandra Panos, Jennifer Seelig

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This article addresses the ways in which elementary teachers in the rural rust belt both reproduce and contest dominant discourses of schooling, rurality, and poverty in their particular local context. Situated within a 4-year postcritical ethnographic study, this analysis of teacher discourse took part during an embedded, 4-month-long teacher study group. Within this context, the authors examine how the group’s discourse on poverty claimed that inequity was the fault of those experiencing it, as well as that a neoliberal discourse of education emphasized a flattened accountability and growth-only perspective within teacher’s professional interactions. However, through the addition of a spatial …

Climate Change Education And Environmental Education: Perceptions And Knowledge Among Environmental Educators In The Southeastern United States, Lauren C. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a global environmental problem and issue. Mitigation and adaptation have been suggested for use in dealing with the impacts, both current and in the future. Climate change education as a mitigation and adaptation effort is one that could have great impact. This quantitative survey study examined the climate change and climate change education perception and knowledge of Southeastern Environmental Education Association members. This study segmented participants into one of six unique climate change groups: Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Doubtful, Dismissive, and Disengaged based on the Six Americas Survey developed by Maibach, Lesierowitz, Roser-Renouf, and Mertz. CC knowledge was …

Importance Of Implementing Native American History In School Curricula, Kirsten Kite

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Even though there is legislation in place to implement Native American History in schools such as Senate Bill 48, there is room to improve. This senior capstone examines the importance of implementing Native American history in school curricula through the use of literature review, teachers interview and student surveys. The finding revealed that teachers do not have sufficient materials or resources to teach Native American history, and students do not have an adequate understanding of its history as well prior to graduating high school. In addition, teaching Native American history from an unbiased perspective is both beneficial to Native American …

Importance Of Combining Physical Activity And Health And Wellness In To Physical Education Within Schools., Chandler Mckean

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This senior capstone project brings to light the importance of physical activity and health and wellness education in connecting a child’s mind and internal body, to their physical outer body. This project examines the physical education curriculum in its entirety and displays the current pros and shortcomings in physical education within schools. Today, the education system strives to educate its students to the best of their abilities. This focus has begun to push away non-academic classes, such as physical education, to devote more time and resources in other areas, e.g. math, sciences, and language arts. Through the use of literature …

Charter School Performance In Rhode Island, Lena Vye

Senior Honors Projects

In the last few decades, there has been considerable debate over whether or not charter schools are beneficial to the American education system. Charter schools are given government funding, but they have independence from the established educational system. Charter school supporters argue that increased autonomy and innovation in teaching, as well as competition between schools, improves the quality of education. Opponents of charter schools argue that charter schools are not more effective than public schools. However, the research is mixed: some studies suggest charter schools perform better, some suggest they perform similarly, and some suggest that they perform worse than …

Pedagogies Of Play: An Ethnographic Analysis Of Activity-Based Learning In Two Elementary Classrooms, Chelsea Lynn Halliwell

Master's Theses

In this document I discuss the relationship between education standards for curriculum and structured play in the elementary classroom. I discuss the various forms of teacher-initiated structured play, and student-initiated informal play and resistance strategies - through participant observation, digital analysis, spatial analysis, semi-structured ethnographic interviews, and unstructured conversations - to understand the full range of learning strategies in elementary classroom settings. I analyze how these strategies relate to curricular standards, or how they might deviate from or transform those standards, which are partially shaped by federal and state education policy. I also outline and develop two hypotheses in an …

Charter Schools Annual Report 2017, Tennessee. Department Of Education.

Charter Schools Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Finding Edith: Surviving The Holocaust In Plain Sight, Edith Mayer Cord

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Finding Edith: Surviving the Holocaust in Plain Sight is the coming-of-age story of a young Jewish girl chased in Europe during World War II. Like a great adventure story, the book describes the childhood and adolescence of a Viennese girl growing up against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the rise of Nazism, World War II, and the religious persecution of Jews throughout Europe. Edith was hunted in Western Europe and Vichy France, where she was hidden in plain sight, constantly afraid of discovery and denunciation. Forced to keep every thought to herself, Edith developed an intense inner life. After …

Teachers Of Emergent Bilinguals: Professional Growth In The Age Of Compliance, Kelly Cox

Theses and Dissertations

There are differing views of what constitutes teacher learning in the field of education. The case studies presented herein provide a glimpse into the professional learning lives of two elementary school teachers of emergent bilingual students in order to gain a greater understanding of how professional learning links to instructional practices. Set in a suburban public school setting in the southwest, the study incorporated the use of narrative inquiry with data consisting of interviews, observations, reflections logs, and artifacts. Data were analyzed through the lenses of the adult learning theory of andragogy and critical constructivism. The findings of this study …

A Case Study Of Hispanic Stem Teacher Preparation, Pamela L. Groves

Theses and Dissertations

There is a shortage of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teachers in the US (Aragon, 2016; National Science Board, 2003). Hispanics are underrepresented in STEM teaching (Aragon, 2016; Texas Education Agency, 2017; US Census Bureau, 2016b; US Department of Education, n.d.). In order to improve the state of STEM teaching in the US we must tap into this underrepresented group. This exploratory case study examined the experiences of Hispanic students pursing STEM teacher preparation and how the UTeachRGV program impacts student persistence and retention.

UTeachRGV is a STEM teacher preparation program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley …

Digital Literacies To Develop Biliteracy: A Case Study Of Latino Students Exploring Multimodal Writing In English And Spanish, Laura Berenice Ramos Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

Schools in the United States are witnessing a rich ethnic and linguistic diversity in their student corpus. Languages spoken by these children vary from state to state; however, Spanish is the second language most spoken after English (Office of English Language Acquisition, 2015). As a nation, there is a tremendous potential for these students to become biliterate or academically proficient in Spanish and English. Furthermore, with the advent of the 21st century, the educational setting is experiencing an increased interest in the integration of technology in education and students are prompted to become digitally literate.

The aim of this exploratory …

Teaching In A Digital Age: Internet Safety Education, Christina Putnam

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper is an exploration into internet safety education for elementary age students. The participants for this Capstone Project included 22 fourth-grade students that attend a free after school program, located in the Bay Area of California. This paper took a look at the issues that arise for children on the internet and what is important for them to know for their well being while using it. This Capstone will describe a four-week program created in effort to better educate students on how to stay safe and act appropriately while being a part of the online community. The findings that …

Models Of Spiritual Leadership: Strategies For Bridging The Gap Between Policy And Ethics, Rebecca J. O'Brien

Dissertations

Public institutions are finding that strict policies premised on value-free research are incapable of dealing with the social and ethical issues facing schools. Increasingly, research is identifying how spiritual practices can be a source of insight and guidance on ethical issues and other soft leadership skills. Spiritual and servant leadership is a burgeoning area of study in the business world and health care field, but it just beginning to be examined as a guiding tool in the education field. In the current study, I interview educational leaders who self-identify as having a spiritual practice and who are responsible for oversight …

The Role Of Technology In Bilingual Education: Developing A Culture Of Excellence, Belinda Gomez

Theses and Dissertations

According to the PEW Research Center (2014), Texas' Hispanic population comprises 39% of its overall population, twice the U. S. Hispanic population. Texas Education Agency (TEA) predicts a 14% increase in the next seven years, with a surge of about 40% in its English Language Learners (ELLs) population. Already, it reports Texas experienced a 20% student enrollment growth in the last ten years within the predominately Mexican-Americans in South Texas border. With a perpetual ELL student population increase, bilingual education programs need to consider emerging best practices. This qualitative case study explored the role of technology in bilingual education, focusing …

Teachers' Attitudes And Perceptions On Bring Your Own Device Programs In The Secondary Classroom, Michelle Marie Cavazos

Theses and Dissertations

Cavazos, Michelle M., Teachers' Attitudes and Perceptions on Bring Your Own Device Programs in the Secondary Classroom. Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), March 2019, 105 pp., 3 tables, 4 figures. The purpose of this research is to investigate teacher attitudes and perceptions of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) on learning in the secondary classroom. The study was completed as a qualitative narrative inquiry. The study took place in a high school that has had BYOD policies in place since the beginning of the establishment of the campus. The manuscript brings forward the themes and reflections that represent teacher attitudes and perceptions …

Early Educator Awareness Of Autism Spectrum Disorder In Preschool Hispanic Populations, Karla Cecilia Vidaurri

Theses and Dissertations

Christensen et al. (2016) highlights how "there are disparities by race/ethnicity in estimated ASD prevalence, particularly for Hispanic children, as well as disparities in the age of earliest comprehensive evaluation and presence of a previous ASD diagnosis or classification, suggesting that access to treatment and services might be lacking or delayed for some children" With an increase in autism prevalence and Hispanic population, there's a crucial demand for effective servicing and referrals for early identification of Autism.

The aim of this study was to analyze how prepared early educators are in identifying children that fall under the category of autism …

Experiences Of Adolescent Refugee Students Who Attend Afterschool Programs For Literacy Support, Analiza Filion

Dissertations

Studies on the academic achievement of refugee students cite continuous underachievement in literacy skills. Due to trauma from fleeing their countries of origin, limited school experiences, and language barriers, refugee students struggle with demonstrating progress in academic achievement. Learning challenges continue to take place when classroom teachers are not equipped with the knowledge, skills, and resources to support students with their unique learning needs. Through the use of a documentary research method, this dissertation investigated the experiences of five adolescent refugee students who attended afterschool programs as an additional resource for developing literacy skills.This study also explored how students perceived …

Adults Formerly In Foster Care Narrate Schooling Experiences, Danielle Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Roughly 400,000 children are in foster care in the United States (Lash, 2017, p. 5). These youth are less likely to graduate high school than their non-foster peers (Barnow et al., 2015). While several barriers contribute to the poor educational outcomes for children in foster care, research has noted that the label “foster child” is associated with negative connotations and differential teacher treatment (Altshuler, 2003; Finkelstein, Wamsley, & Miranda, 2002). In spite of such observations, little research has emphasized the perspectives of those in foster care. To fill this gap, this qualitative study posed the following question: How do adults …

"Can I Work With Your Group?" Assessing Preferences Among The Washington University In St. Louis Undergraduate Community Towards International Students In Classroom Group Formation, Marisa Ippolito, Aneesha Bandarpalle, Hank Michalski

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Group formation is an integral component of the contemporary higher education experience. This begs the question of how students form groups: which aspects are most important, and what determines people’s preferences for group members. Specific incidents have indicated that some students, particularly international students, are not sure if they will be welcome when asking to join a class group. In this study, undergraduate business students were surveyed to understand their preferences when selecting group members, using conjoint analysis to analyze the results. Overall, (i) results show that the most important factor for people’s preferences is if a potential group member …