Education Commons^™

“Does Increased Online Interaction Between Instructors And Students Positively Affect A Student’S Perception Of Quality For An Online Course?”, Jennifer Hunter Dr, Brayden Ross

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Online education is increasing as a solution to manage increasing enrollment numbers at higher education institutions. Intentionally and thoughtfully constructed courses allow students to improve performance through practice and self-assessment and instructors benefit from improving consistency in providing content and assessing process, performance, and progress.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of student to instructor interaction on the student’s perception of quality for an online course. “Does increased online interaction between instructors and students positively affect a student’s perception of quality for an online course?”

The study included over 1200 courses over a three year time …

The Role Of A Peer-Led Academic Intervention In College Students' Development Of Self-Regulated Learning: A Person-Centered Approach, Soojeong Jeong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to its unsupervised nature, undergraduate education requires students to manage their own learning. They need to use self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in order to achieve academic success. However, college students often have insufficient regulatory skills and strategies, suggesting the need for substantive and practical support. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a well-recognized academic intervention that utilizes peer-led study groups for difficult college courses, through which students can develop their SRL abilities.

This study focuses on the role of the SI program in college students’ development of SRL from a person-centered perspective. First, this study examines the heterogeneous effects of the …

Kindergarteners' Conceptions And Representations Of Temperature: An Exploratory Study On How Young Children Perceive Air Temperature, Ryan Francis Cain

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As states, districts, and teachers work to make science classes more about doing the work of science and less about remembering science facts, research is needed to show what doing science looks like. This is especially needed for the youngest students, since much of the current research studies examine the upper part of the K-12 grade range.

Having been an early elementary science teacher, my work in this dissertation and beyond is focused on making the doing of science accessible to young children. One way to do science is to collect and interpret data – to measure something and make …

Postdocs’ Lab Engagement Predicts Trajectories Of Phd Students’ Skill Development, David F. Feldon, Kaylee Litson, Soojeong Jeong, Jennifer M. Blaney, Jina Kang, Candace Miller, Kimberley Griffin, Josipa Roksa

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The doctoral advisor—typically the principal investigator (PI)—is often characterized as a singular or primary mentor who guides students using a cognitive apprenticeship model. Alternatively, the “cascading mentorship” model describes the members of laboratories or research groups receiving mentorship from more senior laboratory members and providing it to more junior members (i.e., PIs mentor postdocs, postdocs mentor senior graduate students, senior students mentor junior students, etc.). Here we show that PIs’ laboratory and mentoring activities do not significantly predict students’ skill development trajectories, but the engagement of postdocs and senior graduate students in laboratory interactions do. We found that the cascading …

Integration Of Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math Into A Food And Nutrition Curriculum In Utah, Cathy A. Merrill, Becki G. Lawver

Applied Sciences, Technology and Education Faculty Publications

In 2014, Family and Consumer Sciences teachers in Utah revised the Food and Nutrition Sciences curriculum to strengthen Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)‐related content. This study is a needs assessment of the state implementation of the STEM‐enhanced curriculum in 2015–2016. A Borich needs assessment model was used to analyze mean weighted discrepancy scores between teacher‐perceived levels of importance and teacher‐perceived competence for each objective in the new curriculum. The results showed that although teachers felt moderately competent to teach the new curriculum, the highest ranked need for professional development was in Standard 1: Kitchen Safety Procedures and Sanitation. Professional …

A Narrative Approach To Educational Video Training, Matthew S. Havertz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Teachers often use videos to teach their students, but stories are not used as often in educational videos as they could be. Experts tell us that stories are an important part of teaching and learning. Unfortunately, there is only a small amount of research and no definitive expert agreement about stories used in educational videos. This is especially true for videos used with technical education students, like mechanic students or dental assisting students. In this study, dental assisting students learned how to assist a dentist with a standard cavity procedure after watching a video with or without a story. The …

Scientific Twitter: The Flow Of Paleontological Communication Across A Topic Network, Richard T. Bex Ii, Lisa Lundgren, Kent J. Crippen

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The field of paleontology, which is based principally on observations of the natural world, includes an active community that is engaged across multiple social media platforms, consisting of museums, academic researchers, amateur fossil collectors, paleontological artists, and commercial fossil dealers. As such, it represents an ideal environment for examining the people, interactions, and flow of scientific information. Using interactions involving the four most popular Twitter hashtags for paleontology, this embedded mixed methods study defined the members of this social world and investigated how they influenced and controlled the flow of information, as well as how their expression of scientific practice …

Public Engagement On Climate And Health In Museums And Participatory Dialogues May Foster Behavior Change, Kathryn A. Stofer, Lisa Lundgren, Betty A. Dunckel, Vaughan James, Makenna Lange, Janice Krieger

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

As scientific knowledge grows and the planet’s human population makes unprecedented changes, decision-making places more and more demands on the everyday democratic participant. Yet efforts to help the public acquire and make use of evidence-based information fall short. We present preliminary comparisons of three participatory design models of public engagement with science designed to encourage community action rather than just raise awareness in participants on local public health issues impacted by climate change. We collected survey data at two in-person community-based participatory dialogues and a museum exhibit and presented but received no surveys from televised versions of the participatory dialogues. …

The Effects Of Student Learning When Subtitles Are Added To Videos, George T. Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project investigated whether adding subtitles to educational videos increases learning among middle school students. A convenience sample (N=387) of Technology and Engineering middle school students were separated into two groups during the third term of both the 2018 and 2019 school years, where one group of students viewed videos with subtitles and the other group viewed the identical videos without subtitles. After viewing the videos, students immediately took a multiple-choice test. The test scores were used to analyze the variance between the two different groups. The results reveal that students who viewed videos with subtitles had slightly …

Expanding The Learning Network: How Teachers Use Pinterest, Stephanie E. Schroeder, Rachelle E. Curcio, Lisa Lundgren

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This exploratory qualitative study of 117 teachers explores how educators engage with Pinterest, an online social networking site, specifically asking: (1) What similarities and differences exist in how elementary-level preservice and elementary-level in-service teachers engage with Pinterest? (2) What similarities and differences exist in how secondary-level in-service teachers and elementary-level in-service teachers engage with Pinterest? Findings indicate teachers at all levels tend to use Pinterest to search for educational resources and adapt resources to suit their classroom needs. Preservice teachers identify a more complex interaction with Pinterest than in-service teachers when determining quality resources. Findings indicate a need for future …

Panel-Based Exhibit Using Participatory Design Elements May Motivate Behavior Change, Lisa Lundgren, Kathryn A. Stofer, Betty A. Dunckel, Janice Krieger, Makenna Lange, Vaughan James

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Meaningful science engagement beyond one-way outreach is needed to encourage science-based decision making. This pilot study aimed to instigate dialogue and deliberation concerning climate change and public health. Feedback from science café participants was used to design a panel-based museum exhibit that asked visitors to make action plans concerning such issues. Using intercept interviews and visitor comment card data, we found that visitors developed general or highly individualistic action plans to address these issues. Results suggest that employing participatory design methods when developing controversial socio-scientific exhibits can aid engagement. We conclude by recommending participatory strategies for implementing two-way science communication.

Learning And The Practice Of Social Media In Informal Science Education Centers, Lisa Lundgren, Kent J. Crippen

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Both social media and informal learning spaces have the potential to foment knowledge-building. This article aims to bridge theory and practice with an analysis of the social media practices across informal science learning centers through the lens of the Contextual Model of Learning. We evaluate strategies through directed content analysis of phone interviews, online surveys, and researcher field notes. Our findings reveal that informal science learning centers create marketing-related social media strategies as opposed to ones which align with contemporary learning in informal settings. Implications for researchers who seek to use social media in an educative manner are discussed.