Education Commons^™

Pre-Service Teacher's Perceptions Of Technology Integration In Their Future Classrooms, Mckenzie Scoffield, Jennifer Wimmer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Due to the increase in technology in schools, teachers are required to understand how to use the technology, and how to integrate curriculum with it. Technology is incredibly diverse and holds limitless possibilities to the new design of innovative learning. It is also becoming increasingly more common in classrooms through interactive whiteboards, computers, projectors, IPADS, chrome books, etc (Carr and Martin, 2015). However, most in-service teachers say that in order to incorporate this technology into their classrooms, they need to be well versed in how to combine technology with their curriculum (Kara and Cagiltay, 2017). The purpose of this quantitative …

Heterogenity Of Private School Effects In Sub-Saharan Africa, Isaac Riley, Donald Baum

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The “private school effect” or “private school advantage” is often treated in the literature as monolithic and constant across countries (Srivastava and Walford 2007), and much of the debate is between two camps arguing whether private education helps or harms, with special emphasis on the poor (Tooley and Dixon 2006; Walford and Robertson 2014). The impression of a monolithic “private school effect” in Sub-Saharan Africa is harmful if results from one country may prove misleading when applied directly to another. If private schooling in makes pupils significantly better off in Country A and worse off in Country B, officials in …

Characters With Disabilities In Newbery Books: Analysis And Trends, Kellie Egan, Tina Dyches

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Children’s literature is an important tool that can be used to learn and grow in socially diverse environments. Realistic portrayals of characters with disabilities have the potential to promote acceptance and understanding of students with disabilities. 1Other studies have shown that the number of children’s books portraying characters with disabilities is not proportionate with the number of students in the United States with disabilities. However, over the years, the portrayal is becoming increasingly positive.

“Light Athletics” Socio-Economic Dissonance In Post-Revolution Ukraine, John Ballif, Daniel Barney

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the wake of Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution in 2014, Ukraine has struggled to reconcile its deep-rooted sense of tradition with increasingly westernized aims. After deposing authoritarian president, Viktor Yanokovich, the Ukrainian people now experience a cultural identity crisis paralleled only by the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is an urgent narrative that has received little attention from Western media and academia. In the summer of 2016, I spent three months documenting, with photographs, the socio-economic implications of Ukraine’s revolution. My findings, both photographs and short essays, were then sorted, edited, and contextualized in the making of …

Nceca Presentation, Lindsey Jensen, Tara Carpenter

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Tara Carpenter and I traveled to Portland and led a discussion with about 50 people at the National Ceramic Education Association. We researched the trend of unskilled ceramic artwork that has been happening in the art world lately. Conceptual work that is done by someone who has no real knowledge of ceramics is more prevalent in galleries than skilled ceramic art. Ceramics is in a weird place between art and craft and often times schools get caught in the middle. We e-mailed and interviewed 30 teachers on their opinions of this topic as well as how they incorporate conceptual art …

Walking In Iceland: The Relationship Between Human Physical Limits And Our Sublime Experience In The Landscape, Kathy Bill, Daniel T. Barney

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I remember being obsessed with walking my last year of high school. I would wake up early once a week and start to walk the same path the city bus would take with the hope of one day being able to walk the whole way without having to take the bus. I would walk alone. No music. Just me and my thoughts. The pace of life seemed to slow down as the sun would rise. I noticed things I had never seen before. I was more aware of my body. I was more aware of nature and what it had …

The Relationship Between Secondary Education Funding And Successful Graduation And Job Placement, Stephen Hunasker, Ana Kuphunzitsa, Dr. Donald Baum

Journal of Undergraduate Research

How much would it cost to send a single student to secondary school for a year? In Malawi it is a mere $300, that comes up to less than a $1 a day to go, yet it is common for these families to be living on less than a dollar a day1. This research that was conducted on the ground in Malawi looks at how effective and beneficial a scholarship that completely paid for the schooling of certain children would be. The study utilizes a causal-comparative research design to compare the educational experiences and outcomes of two student groups – …

Teacher’S Use Of Technology In A Preschool/Kindergarten Setting, Maudi Mckell Sundrud, Jennifer Wimmer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Teacher’s Use of Technology in a Preschool/Kindergarten Setting Mentor: Jennifer Wimmer, Teacher Education As a response to the increase of technology in society, the education system has pushed for greater technology integration in schools. Schools across the nation have invested in technology intended to help students learn more effectively the skills and strategies they may need to be competitive members of this technological society. From this, the question emerges: while funds are being allocated for technology, how often and when do teachers use the technology in their classroom?

Integrating New Literacies In The Elementary School Classroom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

At no time has it been more vital to understand teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices than in the emerging and expanding field of new literacies. New literacies is defined as those social practices that continuously evolve in response to technological advances, which enable persons to question, construct, and participate in both consuming and producing knowledge through interaction with multiple modes of text including image, sound, and gesture. The continual and rapid pace at which information and communications technologies are developed, implemented, and then outdated sets the challenge. If new literacies are to reach their potential for educating the young, then …

Csr As Insurance: Investigating The Theory With Emotional Data, Nathaniel S. Gates, David G. Kryscynski

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to investigate the impact of emotional data on strategy theory, and explore the potential of using natural language processing to obtain meaningful insights from the emotional content of written text. The theory of CSR as Insurance, which relates a company’s level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) with how they are viewed by stockholders, was chosen because it is an inherently emotional theory. It holds that companies with a strong reputation for socially responsible activities are less likely to be penalized by stakeholders after a negative event—such as a corporate scandal, lawsuit, or major accident—than …

Externalities Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Employee Compensation, Rebekah Inez Brau, Nile Hatch

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), defined by the UN Industrial Development Organization as “initiatives by firms to integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders” is a controversial topic in the management literature. Although CSR is widely discussed, unfortunately some of the potential externalities of CSR have not been studied. The goal of this project is to determine if one of these externalities, a potential decrease in employee compensation, results from increased CSR.

Community Literacies: Examining The Availability Of Texts In Rural Communities And Their Integration Into The Elementary School Classroom, Chelsi Tolbert, Jennifer Wimmer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

It is an unarguable fact that literacy instruction is one of the most vital aspects of elementary education. Without literacy, knowing how to read and write, students will find success in the “real” world difficult to come by. Traditionally, the focus of literacy instruction has been linked to giving students the tools they will need once out of school, however recent studies have begun to look more critically at what literacies students are bringing into the classroom. These investigations look explicitly at community literacy, specifically, the funds of knowledge that students learn from their homes and communities that may …

A Student Perspective Of Interactive Technology, Sydney Boyer, Jennifer Wimmer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

With advancements in technology, educators understanding of teaching in the classroom has shifted and become less transparent. Early childhood classrooms have transitioned from printbased to technology integrated within a matter of years. This transition has led to research concerning teacher opinions (Turbill 2001)(Tertemiz 2015), student understanding (Wohlwend 2009), and use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the classroom (Manny 2011). While this research is accurate and important, it is broad, foreign, and becoming increasingly outdated. One study focused on early childhood students and their use of play to involve technology related ideas into a printbased classroom (Wohlwend 2009). Although this information …

The Impostor Phenomenon, Derick Simmons, Jeff Bednar

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Impostor Phenomenon (or Impostor Syndrome) is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, persons with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. The primary purpose of our study is to identify and examine the potential antecedents and consequences of Impostor Phenomenon exhibited in the lives of students and professionals.

Previous research has demonstrated that Impostor Phenomenon is most prevalent among high-achievers in competitive organizations, institutions, or programs. Thus, our sample consists of undergraduate accounting students who are beginning the …

Teaching Teachers To Teach By Teaching Readers To Read, Dawan Coombs

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Struggling readers fill today’s secondary classrooms in alarming numbers. Although numerous programs remediate these readers, research shows students need more than strategy instruction to read successfully. Reading difficulties result from a complex combination of social, cognitive, and affective factors that can only be addressed through meaningful instruction within the context of trusting student-teacher relationships using approaches that draw on students’ interests and cultures.

Visualizing Intermedial Fairy Tales: Television, Film, Other Audiovisual Media, Jill Terry Rudy, Jarom Mcdonald

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project has leveraged data processing and visualization methods that are becoming significant paradigms in digital humanities scholarship; specifically, we have repositioned the existing teleography of fairy tales on television from Channeling Wonder into a data corpus that can be mined and analyzed visually, spatially, and temporally.

Pre-Service Interdisciplinary Training In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Terisa P. Gabrielsen, Phd

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project was designed to give mentoring experience to students across disciplines who were seeking additional knowledge and training in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participation in the project was intended to benefit students by giving them more knowledge within their field and across disciplines, helping future patients and clients with ASD and to enhance applications to specialty and graduate programs in related fields. Students produced a large (attendance=150) interdisciplinary training workshop for the community and developed a website collection of autism resources for clinicians and families.

Teacher Quality And Well-Being: A Q-Squared Analysis, Lisa Keovongsa, Macleans A. Geo-Jaja

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Literature review argues that teachers are the most important element in determining the quality of a national education system (Gopinathan 2006). While quality education is often defined in the narrower sense of measurable outcomes, teachers still play an equally significant role in achieving widespread quality through developing critical thinking skills and instilling the value of education. In the context of Cambodia, education appears at a deficit in consideration of the country’s high drop out rates and low percentages of passing graduation. With this in mind, I decided to examine Cambodian teacher quality and their perspectives on well-being as well as …

Youth Leadership Development As An Important Component In Rights In Education: Who, How, What, And Why, Melissa Tingey, Macleans Geo-Jaja

Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Cultural Celebration And Exchange In Mongolia: An Artistic Inquiry Of Community And Tradition, Sarah Waldron, Daniel T. Barney

Journal of Undergraduate Research

After spending time in Switzerland with Mongolian immigrants back in 2012, I became interested in their culture and heritage. I attended several events with my Mongolian friends in Switzerland, most notably a cultural event in the summer time called Naadam, or what we describe in English as the festival of three manly sports. Although their customs and traditions differ from mine, I noticed that we share many common values. I recognized in these people a familiar sensitivity to areas such as: family, pilgrimage, community, language, spirituality, and service. All of these areas correspond with my ideas, and also those promoted …

How The Hispanic Perception Of Brigham Young University Affects Its Multicultural Student Body, Jorge Encinas, Clifford Mayes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to investigate potential for the small amount of Hispanic students that attend BYU. I noticed this when I noticed that the percentage of the student body that is of Hispanic has been lower lately. Meanwhile similar educational institutions in Utah have had an increasing percent of their student body be from Hispanic consent. Dr. Mayes and I believed that the perception that Hispanic students have of BYU might be a primary reason for why Hispanic students are not attend BYU.

The Integration Of Mobile Technology Into Remedial Literacy Classrooms And The Use Of School Stories To Provide Reflective Spaces For Preservice English Teachers, Dr. Jon Ostenson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Since the 1990s, efforts have been made in public schools to integrate technology into the classroom; from early initiatives to create educational software to efforts to improve access to technology through computer labs (static and mobile), this work has sought to bring the capabilities of technology and the access to information of advances like the Internet to students. With the rise of powerful mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, these initiatives have gained new momentum. However, while we understand the potential of these technologies to change education and the social importance of having students be competent in their uses, we …

Advanced Placement Portfolio, Daniel Barney, Mark Graham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The academic objectives of this research project reached further than the initial objectives. We believe it was a very successful project in terms of meeting our academic objectives. The study affected our curricula here at the university as we investigated our thesis questions for this project. We (Dr. Barney and Dr. Graham) primarily teach undergraduates who are interested in teaching art at the K-­‐12 levels and so there is a strong focus on what is important to know and teach at the K-­‐12 levels. AP Art Studio programs are directed at 11th and 12th graders while foundations programs are usually …

Effects Of Explicit Print Referencing On The Print Awareness Of A Child With Severe Disabilities, Mallory Roberts, Blake Hansen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This great opportunity of being awarded an ORCA grant allowed me to pursue and share my research with others at an Applied Behavioral Analysis International Conference. I was able to take my research study and present it with many ABA professionals at the conference held in Chicago, IL. Participating in such a conference enlightened my understanding of my own research method and taught me many other research methods unique from what I already knew.

The Parent-Teacher Communication In Irapuato, Mexico, Jonathan Welling, Erin Whiting

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study explores the perspectives of parents and teachers in their roles facilitating their student’s education and on the parent-teacher communication in public high schools in Irapuato, Mexico. This research provides contextual information for educational stakeholders in the United States about the parent-teacher communication in Mexico to aid in accommodating the needs and expectations of Hispanic immigrant families.

The Impact Of Autism On Families: Topography And Function Of Repetitive Behavior, David Ball, Dr. Blake Hansen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The prevalence of autism has received considerable media attention in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently assessed the prevalence of autism in children and determined that one in 68 children have autism.1

Our study analyzed functional behavior in families with one child with autism (simplex families) and in families with more than one child with autism (multiplex families). It also separated functional behavior assessments results by gender, since more children with autism are males, and by occurrence in families. These analyses had not been previously done. Our goal was to find these differences and to assess …