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Full-Text Articles in Education

Best Practices Used By Assistant Superintendents Of Curriculum And Instruction: Improving Teacher Instruction In A High Accountability Environment, Julie Madden Dec 2017

Best Practices Used By Assistant Superintendents Of Curriculum And Instruction: Improving Teacher Instruction In A High Accountability Environment, Julie Madden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative multi-case study investigated not only the role of assistant superintendents of curriculum and instruction, but the strategies and best practices used by four assistant superintendents of curriculum and instruction and a deputy superintendent of teaching and learning from East Texas in order to improve classroom instruction and support teachers in the high-stakes testing environment. The study sheds light on the role of central office leaders, their views related to the high-stakes testing environment and the impact they have on instruction for teachers and students. The responses given in this qualitative case study were carefully analyzed in order to …


Effects Of Human Cadaveric Dissections In High School Biology, Brandi Pratt, James Martinez, Regina Suriel, Ellice P. Martin Nov 2017

Effects Of Human Cadaveric Dissections In High School Biology, Brandi Pratt, James Martinez, Regina Suriel, Ellice P. Martin

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This study was conducted in a suburban public high school, which had a connection to the local university, to measure the achievement of dual enrollment senior students using traditional hands-on (THO) cadaveric dissections compared to non-traditional (NT) virtual dissections of the human body. The outcomes of this study may assist multicultural science educators and administrators, students and parents, to understand the importance of THO cadaveric dissections compared to NT virtual dissections tools in learning gross anatomy. Also, noted is the importance of public and higher education collaboration to help bridge the science resource gaps between educational settings.


Elementary Teachers’ Ideologies On The Experience Of A Mixed-Race Student, Dawn M. Campbell, Rhonda B. Jeffries Nov 2017

Elementary Teachers’ Ideologies On The Experience Of A Mixed-Race Student, Dawn M. Campbell, Rhonda B. Jeffries

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

With bi/multi-racial students existing within a nebulous racial categorization that has been historically defined to support an economic agenda, creating a positive self-identity for students in this group can be challenging. This article examined those challenges by exploring the reflections of elementary level teachers’ classroom practices and perceptions of the collective elementary educational experience of one bi-racial student in a southeastern U.S. public school.


Pursuing A Common Goal: Measuring The Comfort Level Of Educational Diagnosticians To Manage A Caseload Of Students With Visual Impairments, Jerry Mullins M.Ed., Michael P. Munro M.Ed. Oct 2017

Pursuing A Common Goal: Measuring The Comfort Level Of Educational Diagnosticians To Manage A Caseload Of Students With Visual Impairments, Jerry Mullins M.Ed., Michael P. Munro M.Ed.

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This study was conducted to measure the level of comfort and knowledge that educational diagnosticians possess regarding the unique learning needs, assistive technology, special accommodations, agencies, required visual impairment related Individual Educational Plan documents, and special evaluation considerations appropriate for students with a vision loss. Teachers of students with visual impairments were surveyed to gauge their perception of educational diagnosticians’ knowledge of the field of visual impairment and diagnosticians were also surveyed to determine their comfort level in the management of a caseload of students with visual impairments. Research question were based on how TVIs rated the comfort level and …


Uncovering Meaning In Montessori Teachers’ Lived Experiences Of Cosmic Education As A Tool For Social Justice, John Allen Branch May 2017

Uncovering Meaning In Montessori Teachers’ Lived Experiences Of Cosmic Education As A Tool For Social Justice, John Allen Branch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry focused on the lived experiences of Montessori teachers in implementing Montessori’s Cosmic Education as a tool for social justice in their classrooms in order to more fully understand Cosmic Education’s meaning, purpose, and practice. The researcher also sought to understand how Cosmic Education could be an effective pedagogy of place, providing historical and social contexts in which students may develop and grow. The study used a post-intentional phenomenological design (Vagle, 2014), and was based on a series of interviews with five Montessori teachers from different classroom age levels. The data were analyzed using poetic inquiry through the form …


A Quantitative Survey Analysis Of Elementary Preservice Teacher Perceptions Of Assessment Tasks In Science Coursework, Allison D. Killingsworth May 2017

A Quantitative Survey Analysis Of Elementary Preservice Teacher Perceptions Of Assessment Tasks In Science Coursework, Allison D. Killingsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This replication survey research study sought to further understand preservice elementary teachers’ perceptions of assessment tasks they encountered in secondary science coursework. Students are assessed through informal and formal assessments, including close-ended and open-ended questions, through classroom and high-stakes assessments. With great significance placed on high-stakes state assessments, classroom instruction and assessments oftentimes mirror the format of state assessments. The researcher administered a validated Likert scale inventory, the Perceptions of Assessment Tasks Inventory (PATI), to preservice elementary teachers to examine their perceptions of how assessment tasks reflected their knowledge and understanding of science assessment tasks. The researcher found the research …


The Impact Of Think Through Math© Usage On Middle School Students’ Mathematics Achievement, Laurie A. Sharp, Marc Hamil May 2017

The Impact Of Think Through Math© Usage On Middle School Students’ Mathematics Achievement, Laurie A. Sharp, Marc Hamil

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

Technology-based resources have become a popular supplement to mathematics instruction within K-12 schools. Recently, the state of Texas provided school districts with access to Think Through Math©, a web-based adaptive technology resource for mathematics instruction in Texas. At the time of this present study, no research independent of the provider of Think Through Math© was available. Guided by concepts that underlie Cognitive Load Theory and its application to technology-based supplemental resources for mathematics, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Think Through Math© usage on middle school students’ performance with state-mandated standardized …


Native Science In Practice: Cases For Broadening Understanding And Engagement Of Science In Education As A Plea For Future Generations, G. Sue Kasun, Dave López May 2017

Native Science In Practice: Cases For Broadening Understanding And Engagement Of Science In Education As A Plea For Future Generations, G. Sue Kasun, Dave López

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

We make a departure from the U.S.’s traditional “science education” in recognition of several stark realities—from the genocidal practices that have eliminated so many indigenous populations in the U.S. to the problems our planet faces, such dire environmental degradation. We are faced daily with a dissonance of knowing our planet needs our respect and care while at the same time bearing witness to “modern” lifestyles based in property rights and individualism. We engage Native science—which encapsulates all of Western science and expands upon it by including the spiritual and emotional realms as well as the physical and mental dimensions of …


Design Of A Robust Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory Course Based On A Modified And Expanded Bovine Serum Albumin Purification Scheme, Odutayo O. Odunuge, Nicholas Cheatwood, John Mullins, Michele Harris Apr 2017

Design Of A Robust Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory Course Based On A Modified And Expanded Bovine Serum Albumin Purification Scheme, Odutayo O. Odunuge, Nicholas Cheatwood, John Mullins, Michele Harris

Symposium on Arts and Research

The ASBMB curriculum for an undergraduate degree recommends a set of skills that can be acquired only through laboratory courses and research experience. Based on a previously reported purification scheme for BSA (Odunuga and Shazhko, 2013), we designed a robust, reproducible, cost-effective, safe and enquiry-based undergraduate biochemistry laboratory course that encompasses many of the skill-sets recommend-ed in the ASBMB curriculum. Our work not only modi-fied certain steps in the scheme, it also included addi-tional steps to enhance student learning and skill ac-quisition. Salt precipitation, ion exchange and size ex-clusion chromatography were employed by students to purify BSA from cow plasma. …


Stem, Steam, And German Language Acquisition: Modified Project-Based Learning In A German Conversation Course, Louise Stoehr Apr 2017

Stem, Steam, And German Language Acquisition: Modified Project-Based Learning In A German Conversation Course, Louise Stoehr

Symposium on Arts and Research

This project describes an investigation into the efficacy of employing a modified project-based learning model to enhance the presentation and conversation skills of students in German 235: Intermediate German Conversation. Unlike usual language conversation courses that rely on expensive textbooks and focus on reading selections followed by discussion questions, GER 235 sought to engage students in a journey of discovery as they explored topics typically more at home in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses (STEM) and that were supplemented by the arts: STEAM. The impetus for this course developed out of a teaching unit that I created on the …


Mathematics Career Carnival: Integration Of Content, Pedagogy, & Authentic Learning, Mark S. Montgomery, Paula Griffin Apr 2017

Mathematics Career Carnival: Integration Of Content, Pedagogy, & Authentic Learning, Mark S. Montgomery, Paula Griffin

Symposium on Arts and Research

This project is the result of the integration of online methods and field experience to give students a unique opportunity in field experience that we can control and assess rather than “assume” that mentors and placements around the state are modeling the way we believe mathematics should be taught and assessed.


What About The Little People?: Empowering Middle School Students To Discard The Great Man Theory, Sarah Straub Apr 2017

What About The Little People?: Empowering Middle School Students To Discard The Great Man Theory, Sarah Straub

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

This paper attempts to address the promotion of critical thinking in our middle school students as they reflect on the widely-accepted White Eurocentric perspective of history that has been traditionally taught in school. In this article, the incomplete treatment of history is identified as Carlyle’s Great Man Theory. The hope is that educators can be critical of the curriculum they are teaching so as to promote critical perspectives in their own students. History is not just the story of Great Men – it is a collective story of which many of us have a partial understanding. Specifically, this article addresses …


Beyond Personal Transformation: Engaging Students As Agents For Social Change., James A. Gambrell Feb 2017

Beyond Personal Transformation: Engaging Students As Agents For Social Change., James A. Gambrell

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Although Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) has been around for more than 40 years, few studies empirically engage critical theoretical frameworks to move beyond personal learning to identify the impacts of transformation on society. The purpose of this article is to discuss academic literature that expands TLT in the direction of societal transformation rather than merely personal change. Moreover, this article appeals for empirical studies that inform TLT through various socially constructed variables of race, class, (trans)gender, (a)sexuality, (dis)ability, and culture. The author titles this post-modern, intersectional approach critical social transformative learning theory.