Education Commons^™

Education For All In Low-Income Countries: A Crucial Role For Cognitive Scientists, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Donor funding has helped enroll in school most children of low-income countries. However, students get little schooling and few opportunities to encode and consolidate information. Many fail to learn and automatize the small units needed for more complex skills, such as reading. As a result, many children remain illiterate and drop out in the early primary grades. However, donors and governments often focus on the socioeconomic difficulties of the very poor and have limited insights on how to teach students who get no academic preparation before grade 1. Furthermore, staff experiences with middle class schools may promote complex instructional methods …

Book Review Of The Global Nomad’S Guide To University Transition By Quick, Tina L. (2010)., Yi Leaf Zhang

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Factorsaffecting The Occurrence Of Faculty-Doctoral Student Coauthorship, Michelle A. Maher, Briana Crotwell Timmerman, David F. Feldon, Denise Strickland

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Using faculty narratives, this study identifies factors affecting the occurrence of facultydoctoral student coauthorship. Norms of the discipline, resources, faculty goals for students, faculty goals for themselves, and institutional expectations emerged as dominant factors. Each factor is explored separately and as part of an interlocking holistic picture.

Survey On Humanities Graduate Education And Alternative Academic Careers (Employer Survey), Katina Rogers

Publications and Research

As humanities scholars increasingly recognize the value of public engagement, and as the proportion of tenure-track faculty positions available to new graduates continues to decline, many humanities programs are focusing renewed attention on equipping graduate students for careers as scholars both within and beyond academe. To support those efforts, the Scholarly Communication Institute has carried out a study investigating perceptions about career preparation provided by humanities graduate programs. The survey results help to create a more solid foundation on which to base curricular reform and new initiatives by moving the conversation about varied career paths from anecdote to data. The …

Survey On Humanities Graduate Education And Alternative Academic Careers (Main), Katina Rogers

Publications and Research

As humanities scholars increasingly recognize the value of public engagement, and as the proportion of tenure-track faculty positions available to new graduates continues to decline, many humanities programs are focusing renewed attention on equipping graduate students for careers as scholars both within and beyond academe. To support those efforts, the Scholarly Communication Institute has carried out a study investigating perceptions about career preparation provided by humanities graduate programs. The survey results help to create a more solid foundation on which to base curricular reform and new initiatives by moving the conversation about varied career paths from anecdote to data. The …

From Street Children To Children Of The Streets- Changing Views Of Our Children In Tanzania And Beyond, Jessica Essary, Fortidas Bakuza, James Hoot, Munisi Aunsu

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Increasing numbers of children struggle to survive living in the streets of our world. Research can begin to help ameliorate countless lives of these children. However, research to date addresses the needs of street children in a fragmented manner, with each discipline exploring only one aspect of their plight (Thomas de Benitez, 2011).

This article reflects a more systematic review of the related literature that examines Tanzanian policies and economic conditions as they relate children of the streets from a variety of disciplines. Authors conclude with recommendations based on the current education systems’ ability to provide greater opportunities for these …

Illuminating The Effects Of Dynamic Lighting On Student Learning, Michael S. Mott, Daniel H. Robinson, Ashley Walden, Jodie Burnette, Angela S. Rutherford

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Light is universally understood as essential to the human condition. Yet light quality varies substantially in nature and in controlled environments leading to questions of which artificial light characteristics facilitate maximum learning. Recent research has examined lighting variables of color temperature, and illumination for affecting sleep, mood, focus, motivation, concentration, and work and school performance. This has resulted in artificial light systems intended to support human beings in their actualization through dynamic lighting technology allowing for different lighting conditions per task. A total of 84 third graders were exposed to either focus (6000K-100fc average maintained) or normal lighting. Focus lighting …

Culturally Adapting An Evidence-Based Parenting Intervention For Latinos: Preliminary Implications For Family Therapy Practice And Research, José Rubén Parra-Cardona, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez, Marion S. Forgatch, Cris M. Sullivan, Deborah Bybee, Kendal Holtrop, Ana Rocío Escobar-Chew, Lisa Tams, Brian Dates, Guillermo Bernal

Psychology Faculty Publications

Latinos constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. However, the cultural adaptation and dissemination of evidence-based parenting interventions among Latino populations continues to be scarce despite extensive research that demonstrates the long-term positive effects of these interventions. The purpose of this article is threefold: (1) justify the importance of cultural adaptation research as a key strategy to disseminate efficacious interventions among Latinos, (2) describe the initial steps of a program of prevention research with Latino immigrants aimed at culturally adapting an evidence-based intervention informed by parent management training principles, and (3) discuss implications for advancing cultural adaptation …

Goals, Goals, And More Goals: Recruitment Plans, It's An Uphill Battle, Amy Thornton

Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Is Your Crm Making You More Efficient?, Amy Thornton

Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Perspectives On Teaching And Learning English Literacy In China., Cynthia B. Leung, Jiening Ruan

Faculty Books

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on Chinese literacy, while the other volume is on English literacy. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the country has witnessed a dramatic increase in its literacy rate, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in Chinese literacy education from ancient times to the modern day. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early Chinese literacy development, children’s literature, foreign translated …

The Impact Of Facebook Access In Creating A Sense Of Community In Tourism And Recreation Classes, Lorie A. Tuma

Presidential Alumni Research Dissemination Award

Previous research has indicated that college students use social networking sites such as Facebook to establish friendships, maintain communication, and foster a sense of community; research also has indicated that many college instructors do not. Many college faculty acknowledge the importance of a sense of community in the classroom but are reluctant to try social media as a way to enhance student motivation, affective learning, and classroom climate. The purpose of this ex post facto, causal comparative study was to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in tourism and recreation students' self-reported sense of community when an instructor's …

Transformational Leaders Wanted: Dallas Independent School District's Aspiring Principals Program, Jennifer Lee Parvin

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the development, implementation, andimpact of the Dallas Independent School District's (ISD) Aspiring Principals Program. This study of principal preparation has relevance as a K-16 issue for two primary reasons. First, K-12schools are focused on graduating students who are college and career ready and strong principal leadership is an essential component in achieving this post-secondary success. Second, most school leaders are prepared--and certainly certified--through a university program so a discussion of best practices in principal preparation is pertinent as a K-16 issue.Following the review of literature which examined the changing role …

Rural Principals' Perspectives Of Social Justice Leadership In Schools, Holly Nicole Bishop

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

This qualitative study explores how principals who are leaders for social justice in rural high schools perceive student diversity, specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students, and if, how, and why they support all students through the establishment of a socially-just school climate. Additionally, the study investigates how the context of the schools, specifically rural communities with conservative values, affects principals' perceptions and implementation of a positive climate for all students. This study offers modifications to Theoharis' (2007, 2009) social justice leadership theory and extends Theoharis' (2007) model of resistance, offering insight into how rural school communities reflect …

Exploring College Readiness: The Role Of Dual Credit And Ses On College Persistence And Student Success, Charles Rowett

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Texas' 2006 House Bill 1, which required all high schools in Texas to provide students with the opportunity to earn a minimum of 12 hours of college credit prior to their graduation beginning the fall of 2008, changed the high school experience. The goal of the bill was to smooth the transition from high school to higher education. By looking at data from before, during, and after the implementation of House Bill 1, the results of this study shed light on the success or failure of Texas' 2006 House Bill 1 regarding college persistence and student success. The study used …

" . . . But The Light's Better Here," He Said: Mischance, Misapplication, And Misdirection In Data-Driven Applications, Ramona Lowe

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The primary purpose of this study was to provide quantitative data on the use of released Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exams as benchmark test instruments in a sample population. Teachers have expressed concern over "teaching to the test," especially with the use of benchmark testing. This study was specifically undertaken to determine the extent of this practice, especially in light of published material from Texas Education Agency (TEA) that states this practice is not an appropriate use of the released instrument. An additional purpose was to gain quantitative data on the use of data harvested from both …

Academic Optimism And Academic Success: An Explanatory Case Study, Jeffrey Neil Mishoe

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Increasing student academic achievement continues to be a national call to action. Early student academic success can help prepare future citizens to be college and workforce ready. One construct, academic optimism (Hoy, Tarter, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2006a; McGuigan & Hoy, 2006), has been used in quantitative studies to examine increased student achievement. This study aims to contribute to the research on academic optimism by extending the School Academic Optimism Scale (SAOS) survey results through a qualitative case study description of a lower SES middle school. The selected school held a campus rating of Recognized as measured by the Texas Assessment …

A Doubling Technique For The Power Method Transformations, Mohan Pant, Todd C. Headrick

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Power method polynomials are used for simulating non-normal distributions with specified product moments or L-moments. The power method is capable of producing distributions with extreme values of skew (L-skew) and kurtosis (L-kurtosis). However, these distributions can be extremely peaked and thus not representative of real-world data. To obviate this problem, two families of distributions are introduced based on a doubling technique with symmetric standard normal and logistic power method distributions. The primary focus of the methodology is in the context of L-moment theory. As such, L-moment based systems of equations are derived for simulating univariate and multivariate non-normal distributions with …

How To Speed Up Arabic Literacy For Lower-Income Students? Some Insights From Cognitive Neuroscience., Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Teachers' Orientation To Teaching And Their Perceived Readiness For 21st Century Learners, Diane H. Bunker

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

In a 21st century world where students will need mastery of both core subjects and applied skills, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the congruence of teachers' orientations to education and the 21st century learning needs of students. The educational orientation of participants/teachers was measured by the Educational Orientation Questionnaire (Quam, 1998) with follow-up interviews and classroom observations focused on exploring their perceived readiness for 21stcentury learning in the classroom and congruence of their orientation to learning and the development of 21st century skills. Study findings will raise awareness of where teachers are on the continuum of …

Motivation For Academically Gifted Students In Germany And The United States: A Phenomenological Study, Steven James Bourgeois

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Recent trends toward globalization have engendered interest in comparative educational systems, pointing toward more fundamental change beyond the current focus upon accountability measures. This phenomenological study considered the effect of extrinsic motivators on the intrinsic motivation of academically gifted students in Germany and the United States. Nine top performing 16 and 17-year olds attending private schools in Germany and the United States participated in open-ended interviews to determine their motivational orientation toward academic tasks. Teachers and administrators from both schools provided comments to support the contextual understanding gained from classroom observations. Although numerable quantitative studies have measured levels of intrinsic …

Around The World With Geospatial Technologies, Andrew J. Milson, Joseph J. Kerski

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Can Adults Become Fluent In Newly Learned Scripts?, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Adults learning new scripts have difficulty becoming automatic readers. They typically read haltingly, understand little of what they read, and may forget letter values. This article presents the hypothesis that halting reading among adult neoliterates is due to low-level perceptual functions in the brain that have a sensitive period. These may be related to feature integration; whether illiterate or educated, adults learning a new script may be perceiving letters as connected segments rather than unbreakable units. The time needed to resolve ambiguities and determine how the segments are combined may delay identification and result in letter-by-letter reading. This phenomenon could …

Nsu Center For Psychological Studies Basic Survival Skills Practicum – Ralph E. Cash, Nova Southeastern University

Video Collection of Nova University / NSU

No abstract provided.

Culture, Timothy B. Smith, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez, Guillermo Bernal

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article summarizes the definitions, means, and research of adapting psychotherapy to clients' cultural backgrounds. We begin by reviewing the prevailing definitions of cultural adaptation and providing a clinical example. We present an original meta-analysis of 65 experimental and quasi-experimental studies involving 8,620 participants. The omnibus effect size of d = .46 indicates that treatments specifically adapted for clients of color were moderately more effective with that clientele than traditional treatments. The most effective treatments tended to be those with greater numbers of cultural adaptations. Mental health services targeted to a specific cultural group were several times more effective than …

Our Courts: Making Strides In Educational Gaming, Jason Lancaster, Carrie Lewis Miller, Nancy Haas, Wilhelmina Savenye

IT Solutions Publications

The iCivics study will be of interest to those affiliated with educational gaming, multimedia production, technology integration or evaluation. The study and results described below will be covered in the session, as will the overall vision of Justice O’Connor and the iCivics group. A detailed PowerPoint presentation and handouts will be provided in addition to the opportunity to play one of the iCivics games and explore the website for those who bring laptops to the session.

iCivics and its products are the vision of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as a method of helping middle-school children learn about civics and civics …

Advancing The Practice Of Cognitive Task Analysis: A Call For Taxonomic Research, Kenneth A. Yates, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) captures unobservable cognitive processes, decisions and judgments of expert performance. Over 100 different CTA methods are identified in prior literature. However, existing classifications typically sort techniques by process rather than outcome, application or causal mechanism. Therefore, techniques can be misapplied and comparative analysis of methods made difficult. Based on the frequency distribution of CTA methods in 1065 studies, a subsample representing 60% of the most frequently published methods was coded based on elicitation and analysis techniques. Consistency of resulting applications was assessed. Inconsistent matching of CTA methods and subsequent applications indicate CTA is currently more craft …

Psi Chi Journal Now Serves All Psi Chi Members, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research has undergone an exciting transformation into the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, a peer-reviewed, indexed journal, that now accepts manuscripts from all Psi Chi members. This change provides an excellent opportunity to review the evolution of the Journal and submission criteria as well as the twists and turns that the life of a submitted manuscript takes potential authors through once manuscripts are entrusted to the Psi Chi Journal team.

Ua3/9 Wku Convocation 2011, President Gary Ransdell, Gary Ransdell

Presidential Speeches

No abstract provided.

Graduate Students’ Teaching Experiences Improve Their Methodological Research Skills, David F. Feldon, James Peugh, Briana E. Timmerman, Michelle A. Maher, Melissa Hurst, Denise Strickland, Joanna A. Gilmore, Cindy Stiegelmeyer

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students are often encouraged to maximize their engagement with supervised research and minimize teaching obligations. However, the process of teaching students engaged in inquiry provides practice in the application of important research skills. Using a performance rubric, we compared the quality of methodological skills demonstrated in written research proposals for two groups of early career graduate students (those with both teaching and research responsibilities and those with only research responsibilities) at the beginning and end of an academic year. After statistically controlling for preexisting differences between groups, students who both taught and conducted …