Digital Commons Network^™

The Relationship Between I-Ready Intervention And Grade 8 Mathematical Achievement, Kenyatta Shanta Aldridge

Theses and Dissertations

A problem exists in using educational software as an intervention for middle grades mathematics. The rural middle school used an educational program to improve mathematical achievement; however, the effectiveness of this program was not evaluated. The e-learning theory served as the theoretical framework for this study. The purpose of this explanatory, sequential mixed methods design was to examine the relationship between the i-Ready intervention program and students’ mathematical achievement and to explore teachers’ perceptions of implementing the i-Ready intervention program. The participants included 48 Grade 8 students from one middle school. A series of bivariate correlations was conducted using the …

An Analysis Of The Factors That Influence Success Rates Of Honors College Students, Braden Bateman

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

University honors programs provide students with challenging yet rewarding opportunities. Pursuing honors often offers students opportunities (such as access to uique coursework or specialized mentorship) that are not available to the general student popultion. However, honors programs also hold students to more or higher educational milestones in order to graduate with honors. Data from the University of Araksas Fayetteville (UAF) suggest students who start in honors as new freshmen typically graduate at rates much higher than students who were not honors freshmen. However, the percentage of those honors freshmen who complete their honors requirements is much lower than those who …

Pedagogy Or Andragogy?: Which Teaching Method Produces Successful Esl Tutoring That Involves Musical Activities?, Julia Cormack

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Considering the connections between music and language, as well as Chi et al.’s (2001) theory, this thesis introduces an original case study investigation: which teaching method, pedagogy or andragogy, will be most effective in one-on-one ESL tutoring sessions that use music as source material? The term pedagogy often describes the art and science of teaching. However, its Greek roots refer to the method of the teacher leading the classroom. Meanwhile, andragogy describes a teaching method where the teacher engages with the students in the learning and leading; Greek for “leader of man,” andragogy most often refers to teaching adults. To …

An In Depth Analysis: Following The Potential Long-Term Effects Of Loss Of Engagement On Students, Stephanie Zavala

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone paper examines the various factors influencing student engagement and academic performance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report addresses the following research questions: (1) "What might be the long-term effects of loss of engagement on children after the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What are the primary factors that affect student engagement? In a review of the literature, this paper examines the research on natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, truancy, and summer vacations to project the impact on interrupted education. In order to fully consider the impact of the year-long Shelter-in-Place order on a local middle school, this …

Using An Ecological Framework To Understand English Language Arts Educators’ Beliefs And Practice About How Students Learn And Develop Comprehensive Literacy Skills, Nina Chavona Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Third grade students who cannot read at grade level are more likely to experience difficulties throughout their education. This intrinsic case study examined the epistemological beliefs and pedagogical practices of six third grade English Language Arts (ELA) educators on developing students' comprehensive literacy skills (CLS) in two Title I schools. Bronfenbrenner's bioecological and ecological theories of human development postulated the theoretical framework. Educators' epistemologies were examined through their decision-making processes during ELA instruction. Pedagogies were evaluated through educators' use of culturally relevant instructional practices. Data were collected in three phases through semi-structured interviews, photographs with descriptive narratives, and an open-ended …

Battling Two Pandemics: The Intersection Of Covid-19 And Systemic Racism In San Antonio Schools, Diana Guadalupe Long

Sociology and Anthropology Honors Theses

In this thesis, I investigate educators’ experiences and observations of structural inequities during the switch to online teaching and learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews with ten educators in the city of San Antonio, Texas, I analyzed the COVID-19 pandemic through an equity lens, specifically highlighting the ways in which it is transforming access to education for underserved students. Through this study, I find that the digital divide is still a salient issue in society, and that students of color and/or from low socioeconomic backgrounds are pushed out of schools by external structural forces that further marginalize their community. …

The Community Of Inquiry Effect On Learning For An Online Course, Robert Dawson Coffey

All Dissertations

Technology is transforming higher education by removing geographic constraints for both students and instructors and increasing learning and cooperation with internet-based applications. Bloom’s taxonomy continues to play a significant role in instructional design for both the classroom and online, but other theories that address the challenges of designing and teaching effective online courses have emerged. Also, classroom techniques, many learned as a teaching assistant in graduate school, may not transfer to an online environment. The Community of Inquiry framework (CoI), which originated in 1999 in response to online education, emphasizes the importance of teaching, social, and cognitive presences as necessary …

Teaching Elementary School Children About Nutritionn, Dana Mastro

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Elementary school curriculum often lacks focus on nutrition education. Without nutrition education, children may develop poor eating habits, poor physical health, and lower quality of life. In order to address this issue, I have developed a three-day lesson for four 1st and four 2nd graders at Sheldon Acres Child Development Center in Elk Grove, California.

Increasing Science Education During Preschool, Guillermina Rodriguez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Preschool children who don't have access to science education and don't have the opportunity to explore their environment are lack of (STEM) skill. To help children with their learning environment I have created a two day lesson about the four different seasons of the year at Boronda Meadow school in Salinas, California.

Impact Of Schema On Students' Writing, Hali-Ana Harvey

Honors Theses

All too often, students perform poorly on their writing assignments, and it seems that teachers have difficulty understanding where the problem comes from. This study seeks to prove that the issue begins with the students’ lack of background knowledge that students possess about the topics they are being asked to write about. To begin, the author emphasizes the importance of background knowledge in students. The study also describes ways in which teachers can check for background knowledge before assigning writing, and explores how teachers can build background knowledge in students. To improve students’ overall writing, teachers need to first recognize …

The Effects Of Fictional Literature On Real-World Perceptions Of Students, Dylan Dowty

Honors Theses

The ways in which fiction affect the perceptions of high school students’ realities are many, and they vary widely depending on the book read. While lessons can be learned from every fictional book, certain types of books are more beneficial and relevant for students. Young adult literature, while often overlooked, is a significant source of students’ perspective shifts and metacognition. Every book has a lesson that it can teach students, but contemporary young adult literature deserves to be taught in schools alongside the classics in order for students to make personal connections with the texts they read and take an …

Diffusion Of Virtual And Augmented Reality In Pre-K To 12 Education: Experiences And Perceptions Of Pioneer Teachers, Frances Nana Ofosu-Amaah

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The diffusion of the virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technological ecosystem into education is nascent. Research on VR/AR in Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 (PK-12) education has been focused on the technologies' effect on learning in various use cases. This study, grounded in Diffusion of Innovations theory (Rogers, 2003), uses a phenomenological qualitative research approach through interviews to understand the lived experiences and perceptions of pioneer teachers who have used VR/AR with PK-12 students. Critical trends and emergent themes within this study regarding pioneer teacher experiences of VR/AR adoption and integration surfaced through an inductive data analysis process. The introductory experiences …

Using Program Sythesis To Teach Testing In Introductory Cs Classes, Li Mengzhen

CSB and SJU Distinguished Thesis

No abstract provided.

Unmasking New Perspectives, Christine Jakyma

Honors Projects

This manual and paper explore the question of how educators can heighten their awareness of body language, facial expression, and eye gaze to better understand their student’s levels of engagement. Through the examination of pre-existing research in the fields of education and neuroscience, this paper identifies physical signals that may indicate a student’s cognitive engagement in the classroom. A manual has been created in order to further educate future and current educators on these factors with limitations and a need to further research on the topic.

An Examination Of Recruitment And Retention Strategies Of High-Performing Public School Districts In Missouri, Zebadiah Thomas Wallace

Dissertations

Teachers are the most-significant controllable factor that leads to student achievement (Hattie & Anderman, 2013). Accordingly, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers are the most-significant variables for student success that can be controlled by school leaders (Fraynd, 2013). The purpose of this study was to examine teacher recruitment and retention strategies of high-performing public school districts in Missouri. Specifically, this study was designed to compare the perceptions of human resource directors and teachers to identify trends, commonalities, and differences to more fully understand the recruitment and retention of teachers. Participants received an online survey to elicit their perceptions of effective recruitment …

Ethics Of Ai In Education: Towards A Community-Wide Framework, Wayne Holmes, Kaska Poraysa-Pomsta, Ken Holstein, Emma Sutherland, Toby Baker, Simon Buckingham Shum, Olga C. Santos, Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo, Mutlu Cukurova, Ig Ibert Bittencourt, Kenneth R. Koedinger

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

While Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) research has at its core the desire to support student learning, experience from other AI domains suggest that such ethical intentions are not by themselves sufficient. There is also the need to consider explicitly issues such as fairness, accountability, transparency, bias, autonomy, agency, and inclusion. At a more general level, there is also a need to differentiate between doing ethical things and doing things ethically, to understand and to make pedagogical choices that are ethical, and to account for the ever-present possibility of unintended consequences. However, addressing these and related questions is far …

Latent Class Analysis Of K-12 Teachers’ Barriers To Implementing Oer, Hengtao Tang Ph.D., Yu Bao

Faculty Publications

Open educational resources (OER) are a cost-effective alternative to traditional textbooks for K-12 teachers to provide differentiated instruction at a much lower cost. However, teachers have to overcome barriers to implement OER in their classrooms, especially if cultural and economic factors are considered. To help each teacher overcome individual barriers, a person-centered approach to understand teachers’ barriers of implementing OER is needed yet absent. This research thus filled the gap by conducting a latent class analysis of teachers’ profiles in terms of their barriers in using OER. The findings identified three types of teacher profiles and revealed how different profiles …

Standard Specific Student Achievement Scores And The Impact On Teacher Incorporation Of Standards, Knowledge Of Standards, And Student Achievement, Jeffrey Burgess

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

There has been a steady focus in education on standards, assessment, and accountability. The purpose of this quantitative study was to find if research based PLCs focusing on standard specific student achievement data impacted teacher knowledge of standards, incorporation of standards, and student achievement. The research was guided by two research questions. Within the context of PLCs (data-based teams) utilizing standard specific student achievement data: 1) What impact, if any, was the use of PLCs on the teachers’ knowledge and incorporation of standards into the classroom setting? 2) Did student achievement on standardized tests improve as the result of the …

Metacognition In A Mathematics Classroom, Paige Murta

Honors Projects

The purpose of this action research study is to explore the connections between students’ ability to engage in metacognitive methods, their understanding of mathematical content, and their mathematical performance. By having a group of students engage in a lesson about metacognition and a mathematical modeling problem then comparing their test scores to that of a control group a correlation can be found to analyze the effects of metacognition methods in a mathematics classroom.

Instructional Strategies And Rigor: Private School Administrator And Teacher Perspectives On Improving Minnesota’S College Mathematic Readiness, Nichelle Guillaume

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Instructional Strategies and Rigor: Private School Administrator and Teacher Perspectives on Improving Minnesota’s College Mathematic Readiness (May 2021)

This qualitative study explored private high school administrator and teacher perspectives on instructional strategies and rigor to improve Minnesota’s college mathematic readiness. Data collection sources for the study included individual interviews, focus groups, and document review. The study produced four emergent themes from the data collected in the individual interviews and focus groups: (a) Importance of Productive Struggle in Mathematic Instruction; (b) Necessary Balance of Mathematical Conceptual Understanding with Skill Acquisition; (c) Connection of Continuous Assessment to Mathematic Content Mastery and (d) …

Aural Skills In Developing Musicians: Uncovering Disparities In Secondary Music Learning, Karly Fitch

Senior Theses

This study was conducted to evaluate the scope of aural skills development occurring in secondary music classrooms. The researcher hypothesized that several disparities would exist, namely regarding melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic dictation. Participants took a survey in which they were asked to recall from a prescribed list, aural skills learned while in high school. They were also asked to provide demographic information including high school attended, current college major, and the number of collegiate aural skills courses completed to date. A number of subjective questions were asked as well, such as desired skills prior to collegiate study, and how aural …

Hazardous Weather Communication En Español: Challenges, Current Resources, And Future Practices, Joseph E. Trujillo-Falcón, Orlando Bermúdez, Krizia Negrón-Hernández, John Lipski, Elizabeth Leitman, Kodi Berry

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: Technical Reports and Related Materials

According to recent Census data, the Hispanic or Latino population represents nearly 1 in 5 Americans today, where 71.1% of these individuals speak Spanish at home. Despite increased efforts among the weather enterprise, establishing effective risk communication strategies for Spanish-speaking populations has been an uphill battle. No frameworks exist for translating weather information into the Spanish language, nor are there collective solutions that address this problem within the weather world. The objective of this article is threefold. First, the current translation issue in Spanish is highlighted. Through research conducted at the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, situations are revealed where regional …

Standardized Tests: Effects On Science Education And Diversity In Science, Rachel A. Rucker

Honors Thesis

Standardized tests are ubiquitous in the American educational system. The excessive use of standardized tests has led to a decrease in taught content and has pushed teachers at the high school level to adopt less effective teaching styles that are also extremely common for introductory STEM courses at the undergraduate level. The heavy reliance on ACT and SAT scores for acceptance into college is misplaced, as the ACT/SAT are poor predictors of STEM college graduation. Also, underrepresented students (women, racial minorities, and lower socioeconomic groups) are disproportionately impacted by the heavy use of standardized tests. These students tend to score …

Classical Education, Mythos, And Philosophy, Luke Hancock

Senior Honors Theses

Classical education offers a superior education K-12 because it is uniquely equipped to incorporate mythos and philosophy, two important parts of an education that are not included as well in other systems of education. Mythos, which has to do with narratives, story, and myth, has significant uses and benefits in many contexts, including religious, cultural, and academic. Philosophy is important in order for one to live the good life, and is lacking in today’s culture of education. These two concepts are emphasized in classical education. They fit into the classical canon and are best taught in a classical context. For …

Exploring Approaches To Equity In Environmental Education Access For Teens, Norah Cook

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Exploring Neurocognitive Processes That Underlie Reading Performance In Children: A Foundational Study, Ayan Mitra

Theses and Dissertations

With advancement in brain research, neuroscience researchers have collectively informed our understanding of reading-related processes. Despite an extensive body of literature, many educators are not aware of specific neuroimaging findings related to phonological processing and word reading. Therefore, the study builds on this body of research by exploring the connection between the brain and reading scores. Quantitative EEG and standardized academic achievement analyses were performed on 60 school-aged children. Intrahemispheric coherence analysis at rest were conducted across the sample of participants and several coherence networks were extracted and compared to standardized reading achievement scores. Specifically, networks that included Brodmann area …

Detection Of Social Identification In Workgroups From A Passively-Sensed Wifi Infrastructure, Camelia Zakaria, Youngki Lee, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social identification: how much individuals psychologically associate themselves with a group has been posited as an essential construct to measure individual and group dynamics. Studies have shown that individuals who identify very differently from their workgroup provides critical cues to the lack of social support or work overloads. However, measuring identification is typically achieved through time-consuming and privacy invasive surveys. We hypothesize that the extremitized in-group norm affects individuals' behaviors, thus more likely to give rise to negative appraisals. As a more convenient and less-invasive technique, we propose a method to predict individuals who are increasingly different in identifying themselves …

A Phenomenology Of The Experiences Of Secondary Athletic Trainers With Athletic Training Student Aides In A Sports Medicine Career Technology Education Pathway In Texas, Amanda Marie Andrews

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The intended purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experience of athletic trainers in the secondary school setting who supervise career technology education (CTE) health science students in the sports medicine pathway at high schools in Texas. Through the lens of the social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hacket, 2006) as a theoretical framework, this study will answered the central research question: What is the lived experience of secondary school athletic trainers in Texas supervising CTE pathway athletic training student aides? Sub-questions sought to further explore the participants’ relationship to student self-efficacy in career exploration …

Adolescent Girls’ And Young Women’S Economic Empowerment Programs: Emerging Insights From A Review Of Reviews, Nicole Haberland, Thomas De Hoop, Sapna Desai, Sarah Engebretsen, Thoai Ngo

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This review of reviews aimed to assess what interventions, especially group-based interventions, show promise in economically empowering adolescent girls and young women in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In addition, we examined the promise of specific economic components, combinations of components, and core topics. We searched five databases as well as other sources and identified 2,467 citations, resulting in 17 reviews, 10 of which quantified their results. We found too little evidence to classify any of the examined interventions as clearly “effective.” None of the reviews found negative effects or harmful findings, however. Most intervention–outcome pairings were unknown; that is, …

An Automated Management System For Student E- Services, Muhammad Sarfraz, Dalal Alsoraya, Afrah Albathali, Ohoud Al-Mayyas

Information Sciences Letters

This paper proposes and develops an automated management system for student services in an educational institution environment. In the proposed system, students can share various services including sharing of study materials, requesting and signing up for a course, requesting a locker, uploading portfolio documents, searching for finished capstone projects and joining internship programs. This work builds and designs a database and transforms a current mechanism into a robust computerized system. It will help in easing and automating the mechanism of service activities by replacing the traditional paper-based system. The proposed system has been initiated by surveying the necessary requirements in …