Education Commons^™

Measuring Awareness Of Spd And Interprofessional Collaboration And Practices Among Professionals In An Elementary Public School Setting, Kyra Resende

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a neurological condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to sensory information, which can lead to sensory dysregulation (Rodden, 2023). Because everyone constantly receives sensory input, having SPD can impact a child’s life in numerous ways, such as academic and social success. Research indicates that 5% to 16% of students may have this neurological condition (Bunim, 2013), which is significant enough to expect that school professionals have appropriate awareness about SPD. Additionally, there is usually an overlap of professionals who serve students experiencing SPD, resulting in a need for interprofessional collaboration (IPC) …

Effects Of Environmental Variables And Student Preference On Student Achievement, Elizabeth Francis

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

Data show Arkansas’s high school graduates underperform in several national standardized tests. Research shows that positive moods warrant better academic performances. A review of the literature proves that environmental stimuli such as lights, colors, music, etc. can significantly affect a person’s mental state. Research suggests that further research needs to be done. Suggestions for implementing mood-improving stimuli are provided for educators.

Development Of A Matlab Gui To Assist The Active Comprehension Of Biomedical Transport Phenomena Using A Visual Aid, Pranav Suri

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Studies show that inductive teaching methods for Biomedical Transport Phenomena greatly benefit from an accompanying visual aid. The following project aimed to develop a MATLAB GUI application that illustrates steady-state heat transfer with a graph and heat map using user-defined boundary conditions and numerical parameters. The application was evaluated using a survey that first familiarized the user with the GUI by running through heat transfer exercises, then allowed the user to experiment with the application, and finally asked users about their experiences using a questionnaire. The responses indicate that the GUI was received positively overall, and that a MATLAB component …

Beating The Odds: High-Growth Schools Based On The Act Aspire Examinations, Serving Low-Income Communities, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

We choose to focus on student growth for these OEP awards because we think it is a better reflection than proficiency rates of how the school is impacting students. Growth is calculated at the student level, and essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement …

High-Growth Middle Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

The mission of the Office for Education Policy is to examine educational issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas. Annually, we highlight excellent schools around the state in our Outstanding Educational Performance Awards, or the OEP awards.

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

Light And Shadow Lab: Interest, Experimentation, Collaboration, & Wonder, Mollie Peoples

General Human Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

This creative project focuses on the experimentation and exploration of light and shadows with the children at the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center (JTCDSC). The creation, development, and implementation of the light studio was influenced by many approaches and concepts that surround early childhood development. It incorporated inspiration from my travels to Italy, where I studied the Reggio Emilia approach in context. In Reggio Emilia, I had the opportunity to visit the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, local schools that implement distinct child guidance approaches, and The Creative Recycling Centre Remida. The light studio at the JTCDSC incorporates both …

High-Growth Middle Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights middle schools across the state whose students demonstrated high growth on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2018 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading.

Cross-Subsidization Of Teacher Pension Costs: The Impact Of Assumed Market Returns, Robert M. Costrell, Josh B. Mcgee

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

It is well-known that public pension plans exhibit substantial cross-subsidies, both within cohorts, e.g. from early leavers to those who retire at the “sweet spot”, and across cohorts, through unfunded liabilities. However, the cross-subsidies within and across cohorts have never been provided in an integrated format. This paper provides such a framework, based on the gaps between normal cost rates for individuals and the uniform contribution rates for the cohort. Since the unfunded liabilities and associated cross-subsidies across cohorts derive from overly optimistic actuarial assumptions, we focus on the historically most important such assumption, the rate of return. We present …

Alternative Measures Of Noncognitive Skills And Their Effect On Retirement Preparation And Financial Capability, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Social science, more than ever, is drawing upon the insights of personality psychology. Though researchers now know that noncognitive skills and personality traits, such as conscientiousness, grit, self-control, or a growth mindset could be important for life outcomes, they struggle to find reliable measures of these skills. Self-reports are often used for analysis, but these measures have been found to be affected by important biases. We study the validity of innovative, more robust measures of noncognitive skills based on performance tasks. Our first proposed measure is an adaptation, for the adult population, of the Academic Diligence Task (ADT) developed and …

You Can’T Always Get What You Want: Using “Broken Lotteries” To Check The Validity Of Charter School Evaluations Using Matching Designs, Leesa M. Foreman, Kaitlin P. Anderson, Gary W. Ritter, Patrick J. Wolf

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

We consider situations in which public charter school lotteries are neither universally conducted nor consistently documented. Such lotteries produce “broken” Randomized Control Trials, but provide opportunities to assess the internal validity of quasi-experimental research designs. Here, we present the results of a statewide charter school evaluation using a broad-based student matching evaluation design, and run two additional analyses using the charter application wait-lists as robustness checks. Our additional models, which address concerns of self-selection by using only charter applicants as matched comparison students, yield similar effect estimates and thus provide support for the use of matching designs in charter school …

Instructional Methods And Engagement: The Impact Of Gamification On Student Learning Of Apa Style, Joyce Elaine Terrell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the effects of simple gamification on the instructional skill outcome and level of engagement as measured by time, repetitions, and responses to the Cognitive Absorption, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness Scale (Saadé and Bahli, 2005). Participants were 70 graduate and undergraduate students randomly assigned to one of two instructional conditions: gamified or typical online instruction. Instruction consisted of three modules on the use of APA 6th ed. (American Psychological Association) citation and reference style in college level writing. Both groups received the same instruction but with different context and directions. Participants in the typical condition …

Examining Employability As Associated With Ic3, Mos, And Aca Certifications, Kelley Leigh Todd

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Forrier and Sels (2003) define employability as “an individual’s chance of a job on the internal and/or external labor market” (p. 106) and is important (Wittekind, Raeder, & Grote, 2010). Possessing an industry certification may be considered an example of human capital skill. The human capital theory suggests qualifications, knowledge, skills, and experience of individuals may lead to increased earnings or productivity (Becker, 1993; Rosen, 1987; Schultz, 1971). As such, the human capital theory provides a framework for studying perceived employability (Wittekind, Raeder, & Grote, 2010; Verhaar & Smulders, 1999) as associated with IC3, MOS, and ACA industry certifications.

Randall …

Principals' Perceptions Of Technology Implementation In High Schools And Their Effects On Leadership, Mary Valerie Perkins-Jacobs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School administrators who are able to implement technology in their schools must see themselves as technology leaders; they are enthusiastic when it comes to using technology in professional development. This research study investigated how high school principals’ attitudes and perceptions of effectively organizing, utilizing, and implementing technology in order to support the mission and vision of the school by using the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) and Performance Indicators for Administrators (ISTE/NETS-A). For school administrators to provide effective leadership in their schools in the 21st century, they must possess knowledge and understanding of the issues and the capabilities …

Overcoming Roadblocks In Introducing Virtual World Technology To High Schools, Casey Dylan Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The EAST (Environmental And Spatial Technology) Initiative is a non-profit educational organization that provides students in over two hundred schools in eight states with access to advanced computing technologies for the purpose of enabling students to develop technical skills early and to produce solutions to local community problems. Although many high-end technologies are available through EAST, they are desktop solutions that individual students use and there are none that enable students within a school or between schools to collaborate.

This thesis is a saga that documents the identification and removal of many roadblocks to introducing a 3D multi-user virtual simulation …

A Christian Value?: Faculty Diversity At Southern Evangelical Campuses, Marquita Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored institutional efforts to increase faculty diversity at three southern Christian universities and provided descriptions of what promoted or curtailed faculty diversity at those institutions. Daryl G. Smith's (2009) dimensions of diversity were used to evaluate the role of institutional missions, and how they were connected to diversity efforts. Smith's 2009 conceptual framework offered four areas for studying diversity: access and success, institutional vitality and viability, education and scholarship, and intergroup relations and campus climate. A qualitative multiple or collective case study design was used. The sample included 20 total participants; 19 from the three case institutions and …

Defining Characteristics Of An Integrated Stem Curriculum In K-12 Education, Vinson Robert Carter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to obtain consensus concerning the defining characteristics of integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum. This study utilized a three round modified Delphi study to solicit recommendations from experts of STEM education in order to: 1) create a set of categorical and defining curricular components needed to develop and implement appropriate integrated STEM curriculum; 2) identify the characteristics that set integrated STEM education curriculum apart from single-discipline curricula; 3) discuss the components necessary to gauge whether an initiative, project, or curriculum should be referred to as integrated STEM education; and 4) examine whether …

Profiles And Giving Patterns Of Donors To An Urban Southeastern Community College, John Allen Gyllin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on fundraising in higher education, and specifically community college fundraising. Having transitioned from a traditional four year university setting to a community college, the author found this research helpful, not only for this institution, but for knowledge of community college donors and why they give. By working with data from this institution over the last ten years, and the research on the topic of fundraising for community colleges, donor trends were developed and needed improvements identified to raise significantly more dollars for the college. It is the outcome of this research that will hopefully assist this institution …

What Is The Participant Learning Experience Like Using Youtube To Study A Foreign Language?, Yuan-Hsiang Lo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is to explore and understand participants' experience using YouTube to learn a foreign language. YouTube and learning has become more and more popular in the recent years. The finding of this research will be adding more understanding to the emerging body of knowledge of YouTube phenomenon. In this research, there are three interviews and two questionnaires. The interviews are conducted to find in-depth responses from participants; the questionnaires are used to inquire demographic and basic information about the participants. There are twelve themes found in this research. These themes reflect on the perceived experience using YouTube to learn …