Education Commons^™

Understanding Unique Employability Skill Sets Of Autistic Individuals: A Systematic Review, Amy Jane Griffiths, Rachel Torres, Raquel Delgado, Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, Cristina M. Giannantonio, Wallace Walrod, Zachary Maupin, John Brady

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, several publications and media outlets have highlighted how the skills and interests of autistic individuals may benefit organizations. However, there is scant empirical research on the topic. The present study's authors conducted a systematic review to find which potential employability skills, strengths, and interests of autistic individuals available research has highlighted. Data extraction methods identified 51 papers related to skills in this population. The skill sets autistic individuals may possess and the research behind these findings were organized, evaluated, and summarized. Based on these findings, investigators discuss implications for employment counseling and future research.

Compassionate Noticing And Stopping The Action: Bringing Intentionally Emergent Teaching Into Leadership Education, Tara Widner, Linnette Werner

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Emergent-based practices of leadership development (such as intentional emergence (IE), case-in-point, or group relations) rely a great deal on stopping the action in order to publicly notice group behaviors and patterns and connect what is happening authentically to conscious actions and ideas (such as course content, readings, theories, etc.). However, when a facilitator or participant practices stopping the action and calling out these behaviors, there is a danger that they will go beyond productive tension into a level that causes casualties. This article explores the foundational need for compassion and purpose when using the common tools of heat and noticing …

Overcoming The Barriers To Teaching Teamwork To Undergraduates In Stem, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Miranda L. Aiken, Hector M. Camarillo-Abad, Kamal Diki, Daniel L. Gardner, Mario Stipčić, Javier F. Espeleta

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

There is widespread recognition that undergraduate students in the life sciences must learn how to work in teams. However, instructors who wish to incorporate teamwork into their classrooms rarely have formal training in how to teach teamwork. This is further complicated by the application of synonymous and often ambiguous terminology regarding teamwork that is found in literature spread among many different disciplines. There are significant barriers for instructors wishing to identify and implement best practices. We synthesize key concepts in teamwork by considering the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) necessary for success, the pedagogies and curricula for teaching those KSAs, …

Variations In Student Approaches To Problem Solving In Undergraduate Biology Education, Jeremy L. Hsu, Rou-Jia Sung, Su L. Swarat, Alexandra J. Gore, Stephanie Kim, Stanley M. Lo

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Existing research has investigated student problem-solving strategies across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; however, there is limited work in undergraduate biology education on how various aspects that influence learning combine to generate holistic approaches to problem solving. Through the lens of situated cognition, we consider problem solving as a learning phenomenon that involves the interactions between internal cognition of the learner and the external learning environment. Using phenomenography as a methodology, we investigated undergraduate student approaches to problem solving in biology through interviews. We identified five aspects of problem solving (including knowledge, strategy, intention, metacognition, and mindset) that define three …

Identifying Critical Employability Skills For Employment Success Of Autistic Individuals: A Content Analysis Of Job Postings, Amy Jane Griffiths, Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, Cristina M. Giannantonio, Angel Miles Nash, Wallace Walrod, Petersen Walrod, Rachel Torres, Raquel Delgado

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study aimed to examine the literature on the skill sets of autistic individuals and determine how these skills align with current and projected future labour market needs. Based on a literature review, researchers identified the following skill categories common to autistic individuals: visual skills, attention to detail and systemizing composite skills. Researchers then gathered aggregated data on occupations and industries from over 90 state and federal sources in the United States. Next, they collected data on the most in-demand jobs, their industries and relevant skills by analysing hundreds of millions of online job postings. The results indicate the most …

Editorial: Insights In Leadership In Education: 2022, Margaret Grogan

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"This collection of articles provides an overview of educational leadership as we emerge from the pandemic crisis into a divisive era characterized by political unrest, social and cultural upheaval, and persistent economic hardship. Across the globe, leaders in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are faced with the challenges of making up for student learning loss during the pandemic, educator burn out, parental and community concerns about curriculum content, mental health issues and the impact of artificial intelligence on education. Education leaders are taxed with meeting these challenges with scant resources in a conservative policy climate that favors traditionalism at the …

A Multi-Year Longitudinal Study Exploring The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Students’ Familiarity And Perceptions Of Active Learning, Briana Craig, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic caused nearly ubiquitous emergency remote teaching in both secondary and post-secondary education. While there has been a plethora of work examining how instructors adjusted classes to incorporate active learning during emergency remote teaching, there has only been minimal work examining how such emergency remote teaching may have influenced students’ perceptions of active learning. Here, we conduct a longitudinal multi-cohort study at one institution across nine semesters before, during, and after emergency remote teaching due to the pandemic to explore how college students’ familiarity and perceptions of active learning have shifted over time because of the pandemic. Our …

Exploring Lgbtq+ Cultural Competency And Dei In Continuing Education: A Cross-Sectional Review Of U.S. Pharmacy Legislation, Jennifer Ko, Jeremy Carlos, Yvonne Nguyen

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, or other sexual orientations or gender identities (LGBTQ+) cultural competency training is offered in pharmacy curricula to variable extents. State legislation directly dictates pharmacist training through continuing pharmacy education (CPE) requirements.

Objectives

This study aimed to identify the U.S. states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) that require CPE or training on topics related to LGBTQ+ cultural competency or topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in general. In addition, this study quantified and compared each state’s CPE hours required for each renewal period.

Methods

This cross-sectional study retrospectively …

Pre-Service Teachers Notice Student Thinking: Then What?, Tara Barnhart, Heather J. Johnson, Miray Tekkumru-Kisa

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Research has demonstrated that pre-service teachers (PSTs) can learn to notice students’ thinking in sophisticated ways by analyzing videos of classroom interactions. What is less clear is how PSTs use what they notice about student thinking to inform how they respond. Secondary math and science PSTs from three teacher preparation programs were invited to analyze a video clip identifying noteworthy moments of student thinking and describing an instructional move they might make and why. A qualitative analysis of their responses indicates that the PSTs overwhelmingly noticed both the substance and the source of students’ ideas. However, the patterns in their …

Leading Towards Racial Justice: Counterstories Of Tk-12 Latinx Men Administrators, Pedro Espinoza

Education (PhD) Dissertations

More than half of all students in public schools identify as Students of Color. However, there is an underrepresentation of PreKindergarten (PK)-12 Administrators of Color in public schools, including Latinx men administrators. Furthermore, the literature on the experiences and leadership practices of PK-12 Administrators of Color has mostly been on Women of Color and has utilized a phenomenology or case study research design. Therefore, this study sought to address these gaps in the literature by examining the experiences and leadership practices of Transitional Kindergarten (TK)-12 Latinx Men Administrators by centering their voices. This study utilized a Latinx Critical Race Theory …

The Santa Ana Youth Media Project: Ypar And Media Advocacy, Jorge F. Rodriguez

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The Santa Ana Youth Media Project (SAYMP) was born during the summer of 2019 and grew from a need, expressed by youth, for more critical media literacy that could further amplify and focus on narratives that reflect how youth navigate their personal, cultural-social, and economic environments. Our media projects consist of intentional participative research and journalistic designs that document stories using tools such as narrative inquiry, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and video/media production to visually capture the narratives of youth and community within the city of Santa Ana and its larger Orange County context. Our goal is to develop …

Phenomenological Study On Veteran Resource Center (Vrc) In California Community Colleges, Darl Park

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Since the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the largest student veteran enrollments have taken place at community colleges. Student veterans are considered at-risk students due to their high attrition rates in higher education. There is a lack of literature regarding the experiences of staff responsible for providing support services to student veterans in higher education. Veterans Resource Center (VRC) is the one-stop center for student veterans to help them navigate administrative processes and address any concerns toward degree completion. Thus, VRCs play a major role in student veterans’ academic success, and further exploration of their experiences and voices is …

Cross-Cultural Validation Of A Measure Of Contemplativity With A Chinese College Sample, Maryann Krikorian, Ran Tao, Randy T. Busse

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The purpose of this article is to present the results of an exploratory cross-cultural validation study of a measure of contemplativity with a Chinese sample. The Scale of Contemplative Practices in Education (SCOPE) was administered to 144 Chinese college students. The results of an exploratory factor analysis accounted for 68% of the variance with a five factor structure, although high correlations among the factors indicate that a single factor may be the best current quantitative measure of contemplativity. Internal consistency estimates were strong for the full scale (.95) and adequate for the factors (.66 to .90). Higher scores on the …

The Roadmap To An Improved Braille Display Design, Emma Garofalo, Trey Alexander, Luke Shankland, Michael Smith, Michael Cheng, Michael Bishai, Lauren Sun

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Our innovative braille display, focused on affordability and education, fills a notable void in the market of refreshable braille displays, which are typically costly and not designed primarily for educational use. This product stands out as an economical educational aid for people with visual impairments. It features a system where pressing a keyboard alphabet key corresponds to specific braille pins, allowing for the display of letters or characters. Additionally, our design can represent simple geometric shapes, like circles or squares, using the braille pins. When these pins are raised, the user can feel the braille representation of the character or …

The Experiences Of Latinx Faculty, Staff, And Students At A Predominantly White Institution Aspiring To Become A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Andrew Peña

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Experiences of Latinx Faculty, Staff, and Students at a Predominantly White Institution Aspiring to become a Hispanic Serving Institution: Literature Review Over recent years, higher education has experienced an increase in underrepresented

racial populations, translating into an urge for institutions' diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts (Gasman & Samayoa, 2019). In an increasingly diverse nation, predominantly white institutions seeking to become Hispanic Serving Institutions must acknowledge the challenges associated with this designation. The experiences of Latinx faculty, staff, and students are interconnected, which impacts their success, access, and retention within higher education. Thus, fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for …

Exploring Pathways To Food Science Careers In Southern California: A Case Study In Food Science Career Development, Jeremy L. Hsu, Sarah Ahles, Lilian W. Senger, Anuradha Prakash

Food Science Faculty Articles and Research

Southern California is a diverse region that is home to a high concentration of food science companies, with an increasing demand for additional food scientists and technologists to join this workforce. Despite this abundance of food science companies and the high demand for jobs, there is currently a shortage in the number of qualified food scientists and technologists in the region. This shortage is also observed within higher education, with declining enrollments in the food science graduate and undergraduate programs across Southern California. Here, we conduct a case study to explore the factors that influence students from Southern California to …

Diversity Webinar For Special Libraries Association Academic & Education Community And Acrl’S Ebss Education Committee: Diversity As A Collective Action: A Strategy For Success, Essraa Nawar

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

In her role, which has continuously grown in scope during her tenure at Chapman, Essraa Nawar has re-imagined diversity at the Leatherby Libraries, creating and implementing the first ever Library Diversity Statement and Plan, leading the library to receive the first-ever Diversity Award. A leader on women's empowerment, Essraa was invited by the Egyptian Government to participate in a women’s conference and was honored as one of the top 30 Egyptian women abroad. As an interfaith advocate, her campaign #changethenarrative aims to breaking stereotypes and promote peaceful coexistence. In April 2022, she was recognized as one of California’s Women of …

Short Report: Initial Pilot Of A Brief Career Development Program For Autistic Young Adults, Samantha Cadondon, Meghan Dawson, Jeanne Anne Carriere, Amy Jane Griffiths, Jean-G. Gehricke

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Many autistic young adults may struggle to progress to further education or employment after high school, highlighting the need for tailored career development programs. If provided with the proper resources and support, the obstacles faced by autistic youth in pursuing post-secondary activities may decrease.

Aims

This pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a brief career development program consisting of a strengths and challenges intervention paired with a 12-week workshop intervention.

Methods and procedures

We studied the participants' changes in confidence and participation in pursuing post-secondary activities using a series of questionnaires in 20 participants, …

Investigating The Influence Of Assessment Question Framing On Undergraduate Biology Student Preference And Affect, Jeremy L. Hsu, Noelle Clark, Kate Hill, Melissa Rowland-Goldsmith

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Nearly all undergraduate biology courses rely on quizzes and exams. Despite their prevalence, very little work has been done to explore how the framing of assessment questions may influence student performance and affect. Here, we conduct a quasi-random experimental study where students in different sections of the same course were given isomorphic questions that varied in their framing of experimental scenarios. One section was provided a description using the self-referential term “you”, placing the student in the experiment; another section received the same scenario that used classmate names; while a third section's scenario integrated counterstereotypical scientist names. Our results demonstrate …

An Inquiry-Based Approach For Teaching Type Iii Functional Responses In Ecology, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Maize (also known as corn) has played an important role in human agriculture ever since its domestication by indigenous peoples of Mexico some 10,000 years ago. The crop is now planted across the world, including in China. However, several invasive pests, including the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda, have threatened this crop and lowered yield. Eupeodes corollae, an endemic syrphid hoverfly, has been proposed as a biological control agent. Here, students will explore the antagonistic relationship between S. frugiperda and E. corollae, with both species feeding on larvae of the other species, and learn about type III functional …

Noticing Instructional Challenges In Artifacts Of Teaching, Tara Barnhart, Elizabeth Van Es

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study investigates challenges of enactment teachers notice when analyzing artifacts of teaching in a professional development focused on supporting the enactment of NGSS-aligned modeling instruction. Five secondary science teachers participated in a semester-long video club. Transcripts of the segments of their meetings in which they analyzed artifacts of practice were coded to characterize what they noticed in videos and student work samples from their own and others’ classrooms of students engaging in sensemaking. Through an inductive and iterative approach, three main linguistic challenges were identified related to the teachers’ noticing of students’ disciplinary thinking: learning how to communicate with …

Noticing Instructional Challenges In Artifacts Of Teaching, Tara Barnhart, Elizabeth A. Van Es

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study investigates challenges of enactment teachers notice when analyzing artifacts of teaching in a professional development focused on supporting the enactment of NGSS-aligned modeling instruction. Five secondary science teachers participated in a semester-long video club. Transcripts of the segments of their meetings in which they analyzed artifacts of practice were coded to characterize what they noticed in videos and student work samples from their own and others’ classrooms of students engaging in sensemaking. Through an inductive and iterative approach, three main linguistic challenges were identified related to the teachers’ noticing of students’ disciplinary thinking: learning how to communicate with …

One Font Doesn’T Fit All: The Influence Of Digital Text Personalization On Comprehension In Child And Adolescent Readers, Shannon M. Sheppard, Susanne L. Nobles, Anton Palma, Sophie Kajfez, Marjorie Jordan, Kathy Crowley, Sofie Beier

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Reading comprehension is an essential skill. It is unclear whether and to what degree typography and font personalization may impact reading comprehension in younger readers. With advancements in technology, it is now feasible to personalize digital reading formats in general technology tools, but this feature is not yet available for many educational tools. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of character width and inter-letter spacing on reading speed and comprehension. We enrolled 94 children (kindergarten–8th grade) and compared performance with six font variations on a word-level semantic decision task (Experiment 1) and a passage-level comprehension task (Experiment 2). …

Effects Of Transition From Closed-Book To Open-Book Assessment On Students’ Scores In A Pharmacokinetics Course, Reza Mehvar, Richard Beuttler

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Closed-book summative assessment of student learning, common in pharmacy education, is challenging to administer in a remote setting due to the need for costly and intrusive monitoring technology. Therefore, open-book assessments without monitoring have been considered an alternative in remote settings. The present study investigated the effects of the transition from in-person closed-book to remote open-book format on the students’ scores in different assessment categories in a Pharmacokinetics course. The students’ performances in the transition cohort (Transition, n = 96) during the in-person and remote periods were compared with those of an in-person cohort (Control, n = 85) during the …

Equipped For Change: A Grounded Theory Study Of White Antiracist School Leaders’ Attitudes And Perceptions Of Racial Consciousness In Educational Leadership, Thomas Joseph Peterson

Education (PhD) Dissertations

There is substantial evidence that issues of race and racism and are common in U.S. public schools, especially those greatly impacted by poverty and racial segregation. Unfortunately, it is highly likely many of these occurrences either go unrecognized, unacknowledged, or are perpetrated unknowingly by White educators and administrators—many of whom are well-intentioned, but lack the critical lens necessary in challenging and dismantling them. For White people, the enculturating normativity of White racial dominance, maintained by the social conditioning of Whiteness, facilitates an environment of racial ignorance and insignificance, leaving most painfully oblivious to the damaging complexities of racism in contemporary …

All Things Weird And Wonderful: A Creative Exploration Of Disability Representation, Lara Ameen

Education (PhD) Dissertations

My dissertation, All Things Weird and Wonderful: A Creative Exploration of Disability Representation, begins with a thorough review of the literature of disability representation in TV and film to set the stage for the one-hour supernatural drama pilot I wrote, which I also adapted into a complete Adult urban fantasy novel.

Pitched as the supernatural drama version of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building meets Netflix’s Raising Dion, All Things Weird and Wonderful is a one-hour supernatural drama about an asexual college freshman with cerebral palsy named Genevieve Ross, who has supernatural powers, and an Egyptian American college senior with …

Generalizability Of The Scale Of Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Inclusive Classrooms (Static) To School Psychologists, Abraham Aryadad

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to extend Sugita and Busse’s (2015, 2016) work on the Scale of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC) to school psychologists. This study sought to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the potential factor structure of the STAITC with a sample of school psychologists?; (2) What is the internal consistency of the STATIC when used with school psychologists?; and (3) Are there differences between school psychologists and teachers in relation to attitudes toward inclusive education?

An expert panel was utilized to create an adapted version of the STATIC for school psychologists. Responses …

Neutral Theory And Beyond: A Systematic Review Of Molecular Evolution Education, Desiree Forsythe, Jeremy L. Hsu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Molecular evolution—including the neutral theory of molecular evolution—is a major sub-discipline of evolution and is widely taught in undergraduate evolution courses. However, despite its ubiquity, there have not been any previous attempts to compile and review the molecular evolution education literature. Here, we draw upon the framework proposed in a past literature review examining the broader evolution education landscape to conduct a literature review of papers related to molecular evolution education, classifying the contributions of such papers to evolution pedagogy as well as evolution education research. We find that there remains very limited coverage of molecular evolution in the education …

Campus Free Speech: A Reference Handbook, Lori Cox Han, Jerry Price

Presidential Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Comprehensive and accessible, this one-stop resource examines the history, development, and present state of free speech issues on college campuses, including a range of political perspectives and viewpoints. It explains such concepts and forces as academic freedom, intellectual benefits of open debate, using speech as a weapon of hate and harassment, and the history of campus social protest. It also presents a broad survey of the arguments and rhetoric-as well as actual record-of America's two major parties on campus free speech and academic freedom issues. Other focuses of coverage include major laws and commonly employed college and university policies governing …

Science Communication Training Imparts Confidence And Influences Public Engagement Activity, Christina M. Swords, Jerlym S. Porter, Amy J. Hawkins, Edwin Li, Melissa Rowland-Goldsmith, Matthew D. Koci, John F. Tansey, Nicole C. Woitowich

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The impacts of science are felt across all socio-ecological levels, ranging from the individual to societal. In order to adapt or respond to scientific discoveries, novel technologies, or biomedical or environmental challenges, a fundamental understanding of science is necessary. However, antiscientific rhetoric, mistrust in science, and the dissemination of misinformation hinder the promotion of science as a necessary and beneficial component of our world. Scientists can promote scientific literacy by establishing dialogues with nonexperts, but they may find a lack of formal training as a barrier to public engagement. To address this, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology …