Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Connection: The Value Of Art History In Early Childhood Development And Education, Sara Ashley Turner

Theses

This thesis focuses on the utilization of art historical inquiry to improve the relationship and narrative of culture within appropriate settings. Although this thesis will prove the beneficial and important role that the subject matter of art history can have in early education, the subject matter will also show the specific possibilities of using such inquiries in art therapy, museum education, and in general education classrooms. The aim of the thesis is to present these practical and useful employments of art historical inquiry, within subject matter for young children, to be a tool for finding cultural identity and inclusivity in …

Long-Term Effects Of In Utero Exposure To “The Year Without A Summer”, Hamid Noghanibehambari, Farzaneh Noghani, Nahid Tavassoli, Mostafa Toranji

Economic and Business Review

This paper uses the aftermath of the great Tambora eruption in 1815 as a natural experiment to explore the long-term effects of a nutritional shock during prenatal development. The volcanic explosion of Tambora formed substantial ash columns which hampered sunlight, cooled down the surface temperature, reduced the length of the growing season, and led to a severe harvest failure during summer and winter of 1816 in Europe and northeastern states of America. US decennial census 1850 provides evidence that cohorts in utero during the climate anomaly revealed lower literacy rates, lower labor force participation rates, a fewer number of own …

What Makes A Classmate A Peer? Examining Which Peers Matter In Nyc Elementary Schools, William C. Horrace, Hyunseok Jung, Jonathan L. Pressler, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

Generalizing the group interaction model of Lee (2007), we identify and estimate the effects of student level social spillovers on standardized test performance in New York City (NYC) elementary schools. We leverage student demographic data to construct within-classroom social networks based on shared student characteristics, such as a gender or ethnicity. Rather than aggregate shared characteristics into a single network matrix, we specify additively separate network matrices for each shared characteristic and estimate city-wide peer effects for each one. Conditional on being in the same classroom, we find that the most important student peer effects are shared ethnicity, gender, and …

Adolescent Girls And Covid-19: Mapping The Evidence On Interventions, Sarah Blake, Miriam Temin, Tara Abularrage, Nihal Said

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

With the COVID-19 crisis continuing to evolve, evidence on the effectiveness of short-term emergency-oriented responses and long-term mitigation strategies is expanding but still limited. There are, and will continue to be, substantial evidence gaps on programming to address risk across outcomes of importance to adolescent girls. More evidence is needed to slow the risks posed by the pandemic for this subpopulation, which can help guide gender- and age-responsive prevention and impact mitigation investments. Evidence from approaches delivered in other unstable contexts may offer important lessons for decision-making in the current context. Recognizing this, the Population Council conducted a structured review …

Can Providing Positive Interactions With Snakes Change A Person’S Perception Of Dangerous Wildlife Interactions?, Bethany Walker

Theses

Due to a long co-evolutionary history between placental mammals and reptiles, primates demonstrate aversive responses to snakes. In humans, this can result in ophidiophobia, or the fear of snakes which can arise due to cultural backgrounds, traumatic experiences, or fear instilled by others. However, these reptiles fill essential roles in ecosystems. Conservation and outreach efforts are important to help our population understand snakes’ role in our lives and the state’s broader biodiversity. Negative experiences or preconceptions about snakes can make this message hard to share with the public. Educators can help prevent intentional harm to some of these organisms through …

“Hungering And Thirsting” For Education: Education, Presbyterians, And African Americans In The South, 1880-1920, Rachel Marie Young

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the relationship between the white-dominated Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) and African Americans from 1880-1920, exploring the motivations, philosophies, and strategies of the PCUSA and the ways that they used education to achieve their goals of helping forge educated and devoutly Christian African Americans. The church’s history highlights the ways in which Presbyterian paternalism developed in the years leading up to 1880, as well as contradictions in white church members’ understandings of race relations and their conflation of civic duty with religious responsibility. The church’s efforts in primary education provide a window into …

Diary Of An Afghan Woman Collection - September 2021

TSOS Interview Gallery

Four women share with us their daily lives in Afghanistan. Join them as they express their love for the country, the people, and each other; and as they share with you their deepest fears and most intimate moments.

They refuse to be silenced as they journey through this new, uncharted chapter in Afghanistan's history.

We at TSOS are honored to provide a platform for their voices to be heard. We will post entries as we receive them. For safety purposes, names have been changed and only avatars (designed with input from each woman) will be used.

ZOYA

Zoya is a …

Teaching Digital Cultural Heritage And Digital Humanities The Current State And Prospects, S. Münster, K. Fritsche, F. Apollonio, B. Aehnlich, V. Schwartze, R. Smolarski

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digital literacy and technology education has gained much relevance in humanities and heritage related disciplines during the recent decades. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to examine the current state of educational programs in digital cultural heritage and related disciplines primarily in Europe with supplemental information from the US. A further aim is to highlight core topics, challenges, and demands, and to show innovative formats and prospects

College Course Materials, Affordability Initiatives Across Tennessee, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Office of Research and Education Accountability

No abstract provided.

The Socioeconomic Impacts Of Covid-19 Study: Survey Methodology Report, Stephen Roll, Sam Bufe, Yung Chun, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and economic shutdowns began in March 2020, households across the United States were faced with an unprecedented crisis that would affect their health, financial security and overall well-being for an unforeseeable amount of time. In order to examine and track the wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic on households, as well as the efficacy of different public and private efforts to mitigate these impacts, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis (SPI) launched the Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (SEICS) in the United States just weeks after the pandemic became a national …

The Determinants Of Food Insecurity In The United States: A State Level Analysis, Zhuoya Li

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the determinants of food insecurity at the state level with the goal of providing policy guidance to reduce the prevalence of food insecurity in the United States. Data for the study was collected from various governmental and non-governmental sources. Linear regression models and sensitivity analyses were conducted. The study found that increase in household income is likely to significantly reduce the prevalence of food insecurity and very low food security. While poverty alleviation is more important than level of education for food insecure households, level of education is more important than poverty …

Distance Education: Challenges And Opportunities In A Post-Pandemic World. Case Of Kosovo, Fiona Shahini

Theses

The objective of this study is to explore the challenges and opportunities created by the abrupt shift from classroom to distance learning. This study will try to address the question of “What distance learning presents for the future of education in a post-pandemic world?” More specifically, it aims to uncover the opportunities distance education brings and the challenges that can be resolved or mitigated in the future. The study focuses on secondary and primary data to uncover and analyze the experience of professors and students of tertiary education with distance learning. Secondary research shows that distance learning provides flexibility, which …

Meeting The Moment: The Gender And Education Community's Response To Covid-19, Evidence For Gender & Education Resource (Eger)

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt girls’ education. With sudden school closures, social gathering restrictions, and shifting funding priorities, organizations have had to halt, adapt, or create new girls’ education programming to meet the challenges of this moment. It is more important than ever to coordinate our efforts to ensure girls receive a quality education as we navigate the pandemic’s complex effects. To target COVID-19 response efforts effectively and efficiently, we must first understand who is doing what and where in the global gender and education ecosystem. This is an initial snapshot of global COVID-19 girls’ education …

Intentional Design: Reaching The Most Excluded Girls In The Poorest Communities—A Guide For Practitioners And Advocates, Judith Bruce, Sophie Soares

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Intentional Design guide is a sourcebook that offers step-wise technical guidance for utilizing the Intentional Design approach, an evidence-based model for the design of girl-centered programs that generates a cycle of information collection and analysis.

The tools outlined in this guide have been applied in sites in 44 countries. Twenty-one detailed field reports—including an extensive discussion of the Abriendo Oportunidades program in Guatemala—set the scene in each context by describing key challenges and problems faced, present how tools were used, and explain the eventual resolutions of the Intentional Design process.

Examining Civic Education Policy In The United States, Cassandra Peltola

Community Engagement Student Work

This paper seeks to explore issues of civic education in American schools and make recommendations based on best practices on civic education to encourage 21st century democratic skills, competencies, and behaviors. The authors explain how we know civic education is lacking due to our country’s civic anemic health and low democratic participation. The author shares what solutions lead to effective civic education as well as what barriers stand in the way. The author concludes by making policy recommendations with an emphasis on national standardization, assessment, resource support, and experiential community-based learning.

Third Grade Writing Skills And Project Based Learning, Julie M. Martin

Master of Education Graduate Projects

The project was designed to utilize project based learning to help improve the informational and opinion writing skills of third grade students. A unit was created that used the PBL Works project based learning Essential Design Elements and Teaching Practices along with a modified version of the Lake Washington School District Writing Units. The goal was to combine the proven benefits of project based learning with the required informational and opinion writing skills mandated by the Common Core State Standards. The unit consists of 25 lessons with roughly 30 total hours of combined teacher instruction and student worktime over a …

Cognition In Context: Pathways And Compound Risk In A Sample Of Us Non-Hispanic Whites, Jennifer W. Robinette, Jason D. Boardman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The population of individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia is growing rapidly, necessitating etiological investigation. It is clear that individual differences in cognition later in life have both genetic and multi-level environmental correlates. Despite significant recent progress in cellular and molecular research, the exact mechanisms linking genes, brains, and cognition remain elusive. In relation to cognition, it is unlikely that genetic and environmental risk factors function in a vacuum, but rather interact and cluster together. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether aspects of individual socioeconomic status (SES) explain the cognitive genotype-phenotype association, and whether neighborhood SES …

Promises To Keep: Impact Of Covid-19 On Adolescents In Kenya, Presidential Policy And Strategy Unit (Kenya), Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Around the world, reports have highlighted the educational, health, and societal challenges that people have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Few reports, however, have exclusively covered the effects on adolescent girls and boys, especially in Kenya. Given the limited data on the impact of the pandemic on adolescents, this study set out to collect data and outline the challenges facing Kenyan adolescents in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Kenya, adolescents aged 10 to 19 years comprise about 24 percent of the country’s population. This study captured data on school enrollment, experiences of sexual and gender-based violence, time spent …

Chapter 3- How Adult Education Can Inform Optimal Online Learning, David S. Noffs, Kristina Wilson

Resilient Pedagogy

David's Story

I first met Krissy Wilson in 2015 when I was asked to design a new graduate course at Northwestern University on learning environment design. Krissy was part of the talented Distance Learning team in the School of Professional Studies. I was a teacher, instructional specialist, and reluctant learning management system administrator at an arts-based city college where I had worked for almost 15 years.

Krissy's Story

I got to know David Noffs first as a faculty member in the Master in Information Design and Strategy program in the School of Professional Studies at Northwestern University. Before he joined …

Covid-19 And Education Disruption In Ontario: Emerging Evidence On Impacts, Kelly Gallagher-Mackay, Prachi Srivastava, Kathryn Underwood, Elizabeth Dhuey, Lance Mccready, Karen Born, Antonina Maltsev, Anna Perkhun, Robert Steiner, Kali Barrett, Beate Sander

Law and Society Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant education disruption in Ontario. This has included mass and localized school closures, multiple models of educational provision and gaps in support for students with disabilities. The unequal distribution of school closures and pandemic- associated hardships, particularly affecting low-income families in which racialized and Indigenous groups, newcomers and people with disabilities are overrepresented, appear to be deepening and accelerating inequities in education outcomes, wherever data have been collected. Further, there are health risks associated with closures including significant physical, mental health and safety harms for students and children. Modelling suggests long-term impacts on students’ …

Using Tree-Ring Research To Introduce Students To Geoscience Fieldwork, Clay S. Tucker, Jill C. Trepanier, Pamela B. Blanchard, Ed Bush, James W. Jordan, Mark J. Schafer, John Andrew Nyman

Faculty Publications

Environmental education is key in solving environmental problems and for producing a future workforce capable of solving issues of climate change. Over the last two decades, the Coastal Roots Program at Louisiana State University (LSU) has reached more than 26,676 K-12 students in Louisiana to teach them environmental science and has brought them to restoration sites to plant 194,336 school-grown trees and grasses. The codirectors of Coastal Roots are continually searching for opportunities to enrich the experience of teachers and students in connecting school subjects, Coastal Roots, and stewardship. In school year 2018/19, students in five local schools entered a …

Developing And Assessing A Workshop That Utilizes A Serious Game To Introduce Joint All-Domain Operations, Christopher M. Voltz

Theses and Dissertations

The DoD has begun developing Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) to prepare for the future of warfare. As complexity and technological capability increases, the U.S. military needs to adapt to provide a more lethal and capable force, able to compete and win against near-peer adversaries. This research describes the development of an Introduction to JADO Workshop designed to provide a structured primer into JADO concepts. The research also presents an extension of BSN in the form of BSN scenarios. These scenarios alter the rules to lessen the learning curve for the game and to engage with JADO concepts. This research proposed …

School Library Media Specialists: An Evolving Profession In A Pandemic, Heather Kapanka

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In March 2020, Michigan’s school library media specialists, along with the entire educational community, found themselves facing unprecedented challenges brought by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. As learning shifted online, the roles of school library media specialists shifted as well. Three southeast Michigan school library media specialists were interviewed to obtain their perspectives regarding the adaptation to distance learning, as well as how they predicted educational practices will evolve going forward. The educational practices of learning commons, guided inquiry, co-teaching, and information literacy were found to be particularly valuable during the shift to distance learning. The increased dependence on …

#Black Boy Joy: The College Aspirations Of Rural Black Male Students, Loni Crumb, Crystal R. Chambers, Jessica Chittum

The Rural Educator

Too often research on Black boys emanate from deficit orientations and take a problem centered approach which overemphasizes stereotypes or pathologizes Black male students, overlooking their aspirations and successes. Utilizing the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 (HSLS: 09), we examine the postsecondary goals of Black male ninth graders as well as the relationships among their educational aspirations, college knowledge, and supportive school personnel using Community Cultural Wealth as the conceptual framework. We found that the educational aspirations of Black male ninth graders are high; however, their knowledge of college falls short of their educational aspirations and their relationships with …

The Correlation Between Poverty, Water Quality, Community Health, And Education In Guatemala And Tanzania, Jessica R. Besnier

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This paper explores the relationship between poverty, water quality, community health, and education in Tanzania and Guatemala. These metrics will allow for a thorough analysis of the relationships between the countries and will determine their impact on the other aspects in these two countries. While Guatemala and Tanzania are very different countries, they share many things in common such as inequalities among different groups, having many different groups of indigenous people, having most people living in rural areas, and are located on a coast. Also, they share similarities regarding poverty, water quality, community health, and education. By looking into these …

To Read Or Not To Read: Navigating Young Adult Literature In The Classroom In The Age Of Trigger Warnings And Banned Books, Ashley Sell

Honors Projects

Most public school libraries or English classrooms celebrate Banned Books Week during the school year, featuring dozens of Young Adult novels that have been challenged or banned in public schools across the country. However, books aimed towards young readers are typically not optimized for educational use in the classroom. In this project, I will explore the benefits of using Young Adult literature in the classroom, while also investigating the obstacles that one might face in order to do so, i.e. censorship, sensitive subject matter. I also want to summarize and respond to an argument for the retainment of classic literature …

Reopening The Temple School: Reforming Contemporary Education With The Transcendentalists, Richard Evan Miller

English Theses - Archive

A conversation surrounding reform in American education has been in play for two centuries. In 1834, Bronson Alcott’s Temple School challenged traditional modes of education with his conversational approach in the classroom. His methods encouraged students to self-reflect on their relationship to nature, rather than conform to a standardized knowledge system common in public schools. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, his Transcendentalist contemporary and teaching assistant, published her Record of a School in 1835 to record Alcott’s interactions with students and display to the public the effectiveness of their reformed approach to education. Fast-forward to the current climate in America, and one …

Factors Influencing Student Retention At A Rural Institution In The Southeast, Angela May Jowers

College of Education

For institutions serving rural students, retention must be a priority. This quantitative, descriptive comparative study examined the existence of a relationship between types of services accessed by rural students ( tutoring, peer mentoring, and centralized advising) and their retention, and the number of accessed services and retention. The study also examined an association between a sense of belonging and support services accessed by students. Vincent Tinto's (1975; 1993) Social Integration Theory and Bean and Eaton's (2000) Psychological Model of Student Retention provided the theoretical framework for this study. The records of 486 students who participated in one or more of …

Institutional Changes In Western Michigan University For Incorporation Of Education For Sustainability, Saman Khan

Dissertations

Higher Education institutions (HEIs) have the potential to be significant contributors in the pursuit of a sustainable world through the incorporation of Education for Sustainability (EFS). However, HEIs are entrenched with structures and values that are often resistant to change. The literature reveals that instructors’ beliefs and institutional contexts are the two main factors that impact the implementation of institutional change for sustainability education. Western Michigan University (WMU) has created new required curriculum “WMU Essential Studies” (WES) for undergraduate students and they have targeted sustainability as an essential learning outcome, by integrating and applying it in content courses. Using a …

Teaching The Lessons Of The Vietnam War And Applying Them To The War In Afghanistan: Lesson Plans For A Sophomore Us History Class, Zoe Bond

Honors Projects

This project is a series of lesson plans for a 10^th grade US History class detailing the lessons of the Vietnam War and how they have and haven’t been used by President Obama in his decisions during the War in Afghanistan. The lesson plan uses Differentiation and Universal Design for Learning to accommodate every student in the class. The goal of this project was to teach original research in a way that promotes inquiry even if there is no correct answer at that time.