Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Mindfulness On Perceived Stress And Academic Performance Among English Language Students In Central Asia, Laurie Wolfe

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The current study investigated the effectiveness of mindfulness training in reducing stress and increasing academic performance among Uzbek English language students. The researcher partnered with four English faculty at Tashkent State Pedagogical University (TSPU) to conduct a quasi-experimental study using a convenience sample of sixty 2^nd year students studying English as a foreign language. One group of students (n = 30) received mindfulness training while the acted as an active control group (n = 30) and received study skills training. Both groups received 20-minutes training in their English classes, four days a week, for 4-weeks. All participants …

Brainwaves, Memory, And Reward, Rebecca Mccune

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The development of effective educational curricula for enhancing learning involves the crucial consideration of effort and rewards. In the realm of education, teachers commonly employ rewards as motivational tools. Traditionally, these rewards are given to students as a recognition of their successful performance. However, a thought-provoking idea emerges: What if we were to extend rewards to students not solely based on accurate answers, but also on the effort they invest, even in cases where their actual response might be incorrect? Our study explores the potential impact of this approach on the way information is absorbed and subsequently retained, specifically focusing …

Examining The Impact Of Course Modality And Course Content Presentation Modality On Undergraduate Grade Outcomes And Course Evaluations, Valerie E. Hogan-Sandi

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted with students previously enrolled in an introduction to educational psychology course during the fall 2019 “F2F”, fall 2020 “online”, and fall 2021 “mixed” semesters, (N =515). The primary goal of this study was to examine how course modality, online and F2F, impacts certain course variables. Specifically, research questions examine how course modality impacts overall course performance, exam performance, homework completion, homework timeliness, and student ratings. Overall course grade, exam grades, and homework completion information were downloaded from Canvas and students identifying information were removed. De-identified student evaluation data were shared with the investigator.

A Kruskal-Wallis H …

Examining Teachers’ Experiences With Mindfulness Practices To Promote Positive Relationships And Student Engagement In The Classroom, Hiram Ortega

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years mindfulness practices in the classroom have become increasingly relevant to bring awareness to the present moment, the here-and-now. The literature indicates that mindfulness reduces stress/anxiety in the classroom, and promotes self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, self-compassion, and empathy that contributes to positive classroom behavior, communication, and effective instructional practices. The purpose of this qualitative research is to analyze teachers’ experiences with mindfulness practices in promoting positive relationships and student engagement in the classroom. A group of teachers from an at-risk school district in the southwestern region of the United States were interviewed. The teachers answered 10 open-ended questions about …

Self-Regulation In The Learning Experiences Of School Choice Students, Melody Lynn Schmidt

Dissertations

This study explores self-regulation in the learning experiences of school choice students who have attended a traditional public school and a charter public school. Research shows self-regulation is a form of non-cognitive executive functioning characterized by many observable traits children employ in their learning environments. Self-regulation development in the learning investments students make relates to school mobility, social identity, and connectedness while navigating their learning amid school changes (Golden, 2017; Langenkamp, 2016). School mobility may impact students by lowering self-regulation and increasing school dropout through compromised social identity and connectedness (Jdaitawi, 2015; Rumberger & Larson, 1998). Understanding the distinction between …

Examining The Relationship Between Confusion And Learning: A Descriptive Meta-Analysis, Dara L. Mcweeney, Aaron Y. Wong, Caitlin Mills

Honors Theses and Capstones

Previous research into confusion and learning neglects to investigate how this relationship varies when faced with impact factors such as multiple types of affect and learning measurements, learning environment, or grade level. Moreover, past research also reports di-verse effect size values for this relationship, making the correlation ambiguous. As such, the current research seeks to reconcile these nuances between confusion and learning through a meta-analytic approach. In this analysis, it was found that there was no relationship between confusion and learning gains, or in the subgroup analysis of grade level. Since only one impact factor, grade level, was analyzed, it …

Me, Myself, And I: The Impact Of Metacognitive Strategies On Student Locus Of Control And Critical Thinking Skills, Danielle Kuchler

All Master's Theses

We live in an era when a college degree is essentially required for entry into good-paying careers, and yet achievement of a college degree is unacceptably low. Only 60% of students who enroll go on to graduate from 4-year colleges and universities in 6 years or fewer (National Center for Higher Education 2018). Why is this happening? What are the long-term intellectual and economic implications of ill-prepared students? We must ask ourselves if students are really prepared with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be successful in college and whether those attributes are developed while in college. Two of the …

Behavioral Effects Of Outdoor Learning On Primary Students, Makena Cameron, Samantha Mcgue

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

Children have an innate sense of curiosity about nature. “When children come in contact with nature, they reveal their strength” (Montessori, 1967, pg. 69) and therefore, outdoor education can be a useful learning tool for students. Whether being outdoors or bringing the nature-based activities inside, children have the opportunity to work with all of their senses. A growing number of schools around the United States have begun adding outdoor learning to their curriculum (Lieberman & Hoody, 1998) to bring a positive outcome to students’ behavior. Outdoor learning provides another environment that children can thrive in and hopefully benefit from. As …

Public School Teachers' Gender, Years Of Teaching Experience, Knowledge, And Perceptions As Predictors Of Their Implementation Of Brain-Based Learning Practices In K-12 Classrooms, Emmanuel Oduro-Bediako

Dissertations

Problem

With the introduction of a national curriculum, content standards, and federally mandated assessment; involuntarily teachers have adopted test-based teaching approaches in the classroom. Concurrently, researchers are celebrating brain-based learning because of breakthroughs in neuroscience and cognitive psychology and are promoting it as a watershed teaching opportunity. This has created a gap between research and practice, meaning that teachers’ ability to implement brain-based learning has been affected negatively.

Method

In a correlational design, a non-experimental quantitative study was conducted to examine a sample (N = 422) of teachers from K-12 schools within the United States public school system. The study …

The Role Of Icts In The Initial Education Of Foreign Language Teachers, Heisson Javier Sánchez Peña, Andrea Yulitza Castro Gómez

Licenciatura en Español y Lenguas Extranjeras

Este informe de semillero de investigación presenta tres constructos teóricos que sirven como base para entender los procesos tecnológicos implicados en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. De igual manera, permite conocer los resultados del análisis de un cuestionario que recoge las opiniones de los estudiantes de primero a sexto semestre, de la Licenciatura en Español y Lenguas Extranjeras, de la universidad de La Salle, sobre el valor de una herramienta tecnológica - curso Pearson English Interactive de la plataforma My English Lab de Pearson- para el aprendizaje del inglés y potenciar el desarrollo de la autonomía, …

Exploring A Semi-Virtual Reality System Impacting Learning Curves Of College Students, Hongbiao Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

Virtual reality (VR) is a trending technology used in a broad range of fields including education and has become one of the most promising directions for educators. In this research, the investigation focuses on how the semi-immersive VR application can be used for educational purposes by exploring the VR factors and the interactions between these factors. A theoretical learning framework is also proposed to offer an explanation for the beneficial effects of education brought by VR at a high level.

This research consists of three parts. First, this research will introduce the development of Walk-in-Place Learning System (WIPLS), a semi-immersive …

Effects Of Grading On Student Learning And Alternative Assessment Strategies, Roxanna M. Krawczyk

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to investigate what effect an alternative assessment strategy would have on students’ engagement, motivation, and overall learning in an urban, private Montessori middle school program located in the Midwest. Two teachers and 13 students participated in two phases (one social studies and one science unit) over the course of six weeks. Teacher-assigned grades on class and homework were removed and replaced with student-determined final grades based on self-assessment using collaboratively created rubrics and individual portfolios. Students kept daily learning logs and completed a pre- and post-unit survey designed to measure their level of engagement, …

More Bang For Your Buck: Bolstering Learning Via Refutation Text With Refutation-Based Elaborated Feedback, Jacqueline R. Cordova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study examines the effects of refutation text and refutation-based elaborated feedback on conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, interest, beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge, within the context of learning about climate change. The study also tests whether elaborated feedback moderates the refutation text effect through an interaction. One hundred and fifty nine undergraduate students were recruited to participate in this study, which was administered via computer. They completed measures of their self-efficacy and interest in learning about climate change, as well as climate change beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge. Approximately half of the participants read a refutation text and half read a comparison …

Learner Agency And Responsibility In Educational Technology, Michael Thomas Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

Though the topic of learner agency has received relatively little discussion in the literature of educational technology, it is nevertheless a significant and actually omnipresent concern of both scholars and practitioners. Through the journal-ready articles contained herein, I show how theories of learning and certain practices of instructional designers reflect implicit positions on the agency of learners. I also discuss agency in more concrete terms as the responsibility for learning that is shared with learners in instructional design contexts. In addition, I provide practical suggestions to help designers keep the learner at the forefront of their design thinking. Through this …

Practical Implications Of Learning From Unsuccessful Retrieval Attempts, Ann C. Rossmiller, James R. Houston

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Recent findings suggest that retesting oneself facilitates better learning than studying alone. Building off previous experiments where correcting participants has significantly increased correctness, the current study furthers our understanding about learning from unsuccessful retrieval attempts by manipulating the frequency of correction. Using a set of 42 associated word pairings, each participant was exposed to two blocks where they would memorize the word pairs. This was followed by two quizzing blocks and a final exam block where participants were asked to write down the associate to the stimulus presented on screen. Frequency of correction was manipulated during the quizzing blocks where …

Associative Relationship Among Mindfulness, Academic Grades, And Affective Outcomes In Adolescence, Elena Ksendzov

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adolescents navigate through escalating academic and social pressures while undergoing major physical and psychological changes. Concerned with behavioral, mental, and emotional challenges of youth, educators seek to expand approaches to promote learning success. Research founded in mindfulness theories has suggested that mindfulness positively and significantly correlates with psychological and physical health, work performance, decision-making ability, and emotional regulation, and may be a factor in learning. Two theoretical viewpoints on mindfulness, Western- and Eastern-based, formed the conceptual framework for this study, which aimed to examine associative relationships between mindfulness and academic achievement, and between mindfulness and affective outcomes for the general …

A Comparison Of Three Levels Of Verbal Redundancy In Multimedia Learning And Its Effects On Memory Retention And Transfer In Legal Professionals, Angela Mizell Dooley

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine verbal redundancy in multimedia learning and its effects on memory retention and transfer in legal professionals who were randomly assigned to watch one of three multimedia videos. Tests of ANOVA showed no significant differences in performance, mental load, or combined efficiency scores among the three instructional groups, but participants in the complementary text group rated the video with complementary slides as significantly more helpful than the videos with redundant, overloaded text slides and spoken words only. Factorial ANOVA also revealed that the redundant text group with fewer than five years of experience scored significantly lower …

The Space Between The Notes: The Effects Of Background Music On Student Focus, Duna L. Strachan

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

Student behaviors were tallied in three similar Montessori early childhood classes while children practiced social, motor and academic skills with and without background music. Teacher impressions of work period productivity were tallied along with information from teacher notes and student self-assessments. Music came from Pandora stations such as “Relaxation Radio” or “Yoga Radio.” Music was selected for slow tempo (approximately 60 beats per minute or the rate of the adult heart) and relaxing instrumental quality, played at a soft volume and during times when students were not expected to pay attention to other auditory input such as stories, songs, lessons …

Effects Of Instructor Attractiveness On Classroom Learning, Richard Shane Westfall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although there have been multiple studies examining the effects of physical attractiveness on a variety of human interactions, one domain has been largely overlooked. The current thesis examined the effect of teacher attractiveness on a learning task. Specifically participants were exposed to a photograph that they believed was their instructor while listening to an audio lecture. Upon completion of the lecture participants then completed a forced choice recognition task covering material from the lecture. I hypothesized that participants would perform significantly better on the learning task when they perceived their instructor to be high in physical attractiveness. Neither the gender …

Effect Of Sleep On Vigilance, Short-Term Memory, And Learning In College Students, Ayesha Uddin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite years of research supporting a link between sleep and cognitive functioning, little research has focused on the effect of sleep on cognitive factors in the college population. According to the trace reactivation hypothesis, sleep plays a crucial role in memory consolidation and learning. Cognitivism further indicates that the processing of information is limited when sleep is restricted. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effect of sleep on vigilance, short-term memory, and learning; an additional goal was to test whether these variables influence grade point average (GPA). Sleep and GPA data were collected using self-report questionnaires. …

Learning Requires Attention For Binding Affective Reinforcement To Information Content, Chia Mun Foo

Scripps Senior Theses

Humans are limited in their capacity to process information about the environment; to choose the most salient details to process, we have to make rapid value appraisals and prioritize our attentional resources. In this proposed study, it is expected that attention is required to learn from affective information. Learning is measured by the difference between update (the difference between the first and second estimation) and the estimation error (the difference between the average likelihood and the first estimation). Using a belief-updating paradigm, participants will be asked to estimate their likelihood of encountering a negative event, once before and once after …

A Comparison Of Dominant Intellectual Strengths And Learning Styles In College Freshmen, Jessica Mioduszewski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Remediation has become a compensatory way for an increasing number of students to attend college. The problem addressed in this study was whether student intellectual strengths and learning style preferences were, in part, related to placement or enrollment in remediation courses. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess whether a particular learning style or dominant intellectual strength was characteristic of freshmen enrolled in remediation courses compared to freshmen not enrolled in remediation courses. This study filled a gap in the literature as no studies have analyzed the combination of learning style preferences with dominant intellectual strengths in an …

Cortisol Levels And Voltage Conditions Of College Students, Adriana Steffens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a limited research base on low voltage brain conditions, which are characterized by electrical activity being measured at below 20 microvolts. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between saliva cortisol levels and voltage using an EGG in a college student population. Illuminating this relationship is important to inform how low voltage conditions can affect daily memory and cognitive functioning of undergraduate college students that may be a result of stress. The college student population may be vulnerable to the low voltage condition because of stress from the transition between teenage and adult life and …

The Role Of Awareness Of Repetition During The Development Of Automaticity, Emma Shadbolt

Theses : Honours

Investigation into the influence of contextual information on performance of an automatic task has found inconsistent results. The majority of studies have investigated whether changing the context of a simple cognitive task can inhibit an automatic response, but do not review whether context can help the development of automatic responding. The current study examined whether bringing awareness to the context of a simple numerosity task could aid the development of automaticity. It also examined whether participants were aware of when automaticity developed for them via a post-test interview. The numerosity task used in this study was a simple counting task …

Implicit Theories Of Intelligence And Learning A Novel Mathematics Task, Nathan Oehme Rudig

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The social-cognitive model of motivation states that students adopt a theory of the nature of intelligence that guides their goals in academia and their responses to academic setbacks. Students who believe intelligence is an unchanging entity within them are more likely to adopt goals to display high ability, hide low ability, and respond helplessly to failed schoolwork. Conversely, a student who believes intelligence is a measure of effort and persistence will be motivated to gather knowledge and acquire new skills. The current study investigated the role theories of intelligence play in the field of mathematics understanding. In two experiments, participants …

Problem-Based Learning (Pbl) In The College Chemistry Laboratory: Students’ Perceptions Of Pbi And Its Relationship With Attitude And Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Lloyd Madalitso P. Mataka

Dissertations

A convergent mixed methods research study was used to investigate whether or not students who participated in the problem based learning (PBL) environment improved their self-efficacy beliefs (SEBs) in and attitudes toward chemistry. The study also investigated the students’ views of the PBL environment. The Chemistry Attitude and Experience Questionnaire (CAEQ) was used as a pre- and post-test to determine changes in students’ attitudes and SEBs. The PBL Environment Inventory (PBLEI) was used to investigate students’ views of the PBL environment. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to re-validate both instruments with the study group: students in general chemistry laboratories at …

Second Language Gesture And Acculturation In Study Abroad Contexts, Christie Marie Gardner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Motivationis an integral part of learning; Gestures are an important aspect of human communication, and culture plays a significant role in shaping all of these human elements. This study explores the relationship betweensocial, cultural-historical activityand second language(L2) gesture acquisitionas student motivations both drive, and emanate from, the L2 learning process. Six American students participating in a study-abroad program in Chile were evaluated at three different levels of L2 proficiency (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) for L2 gesture articulations and motivational developments. During the semester-long investigation, three audio-video recorded interviews were conducted to observe L2 gestural behaviors, and two e-mail logs were …

Examining The Testing Effect Using The Dual-Process Signal Detection Model, Nicole Jessica Bies-Hernandez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Taking a test can lead to enhanced long-term retention compared to not practicing the information or simply restudying, a finding known as the testing effect (Roediger, Agarwal, Kang, & Marsh, 2010). The current study examined whether the dual-process signal detection (DPSD) model (Yonelinas, 1994) offers an approach for investigating the testing effect across two experiments. Experiment 1 investigated if the DPSD model could be used to examine the testing effect, and it also examined a factor (i.e., the number of practice sessions) that influences the magnitude of the testing effect. Experiment 2 investigated whether making the final test dependent on …

Movement In Learning: Revitalizing The Classroom, Marcus Van

MA TESOL Collection

Movement is a vital part of our every day lives, and it is also important for a healthy brain. The following paper examines the shift from movement based learning to a more restrictive rote format, which often has adverse effects on learning. This work discusses the ways in which teachers are under pressure to “teach to the test” instead of creating student-centered classrooms. Some of the side effects of a test-centered approach are low self-esteem (from not meeting strict academic requirements) and behavioral problems in students.

Adding more movement to lessons can provide variation and relief from the rote-only system. …

Blogging About Summer Reading, Janice Becker Place

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The purpose of this study was to investigate what happened when grade 11 high school honors students blogged about their summer reading under the monitoring of a teacher during vacation. I proposed that an educational blog might serve as an effective tool during summer vacation to help students retain skills or learning while at a physical distance from their school and teacher. In addition to the blog’s transcripts, a pre-project survey, post-project survey,and post-project interviews provided complementary data to inform my analysis. Qualitative analysis was applied to the blog discussion entries for evidence of peer learning, scaffolding, critical thinking, and …