Education Commons^™

Moving Forward Together: Reflections Of A National Survey Of Ot/Ota Students’ Perceptions Of Culturally Aware Educational Content Delivery, Adair M. Sanchez, Iris W. Burns, Tina M. Deangelis, Maclain Capron, Abigail Mills, Taylor Kligerman

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

In June of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd and the additional atrocities against historically marginalized people and communities across the United States, the Commission on Education (COE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) sought to act within its scope. A retrospective survey (N= 1,692) was developed, deployed, and analyzed in accordance with the COE’s standard operating procedures relating specifically to monitoring trends that impact the education of occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students. This survey aimed to capture perspectives from OT/OTA students regarding the delivery of culturally aware educational content in curricula …

A Framework For Creating And Using Teaching Philosophy Statements To Guide Reflective And Inclusive Instruction, Steven D. Taff

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

A teaching philosophy statement (TPS) is a brief, deeply personal narrative that gives insight into an educator’s perspective on the teaching enterprise. A TPS is typically comprised of a reflection on the educator’s values and beliefs, a description of what happens during the learning process, and statements about how teachers and learners ideally interact. Use of a TPS clarifies the bridge between theory/philosophy and practice which strengthens education as an interactive phenomenon and in so doing evokes an ethical purpose for the teaching-learning dynamic. This article describes the theoretical underpinnings of, and process for, an innovative framework occupational therapy educators …

Guide To Relationship-Rich Education In Teaching & Learning: Introduction To The 2022 Pedagogicon Proceedings, Russell Carpenter, Kevin Dvorak

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

The Guide to Relationship-Rich Education is a compilation of teaching strategies that promote relationship-rich education strategies (Felten & Lambert, 2020) across higher education contexts. In this guide, teacher-scholars present relationship-rich strategies and corresponding analyses across teaching and learning environments.

Instructional Coaching And Student Achievement, Lee Ann Lewellen

Online Theses and Dissertations

School districts across the nation are employing coaching for teachers as a means to improve teacher quality and increase student achievement. Looking specifically at instructional coaching as an intervention for teacher support, this study considers the literacy growth data of coached teachers compared to the literacy growth data of uncoached teachers when controlling for years of teaching experience. Data from this study did not find a statistically significant difference between the students’ data from the two groups of teachers.

“I Had To Adapt To Continue Being A Student To The Best Of My Ability”: Identifying Occupational Therapy Students’ Processes Of Adapting To Academic Disruption, Laura H. Vanpuymbrouck, Linda M. Olson

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

In the wake of COVID-19, practitioners, educators, and students had to shift to virtual interactions while experiencing significant unknowns and valid fears. This project describes the lived experiences of 37 occupational therapy students who lived through this international pandemic examining their reflections of how occupational therapy theories and models of practice could inform approaches to adapt to the changing context of their lives. Narratives of students collected as part of routine educational assessments in an introduction to occupational therapy theory course were examined using methods of content analysis to understand the perspectives of students’ needs, supports, and mechanisms of adaption …

Professional Learning Communities: Perception Of Impact On Learning, Esther Denise Hayden

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on Professional Learning Communities (PLC): Perception of Impact on Learning. The overarching question for the research is: How do principals and teachers in Title I schools perceive the learning benefits in a Professional Learning Community?

(a) What do teachers perceive as benefits of participating in a Professional Learning Community? (b) What do teachers perceive as an influence(s) on student learning in a PLC community? (c) What do teachers perceive to be the limitations of a PLC community? This qualitative research study analyzed data from current principals and teachers in proficient Title 1 schools as outlined by the …

Investigating A State-Funded Disciplinary Literacy Program In Kentucky For Educators Of Adolescent Students, Kevin Presnell

Online Theses and Dissertations

This case study describes a professional learning opportunity for educators of adolescents, namely the Literacy for Adolescent Teachers (LAT), at a regional midsize university in Kentucky. The LAT is a year-long experience that enrollees undertake to grow professionally by gaining specific literacy skills. This study focuses specifically on participant experience with the disciplinary literacy content, strategies, and resources presented at the summer program. This investigation sought to understand if participation in the disciplinary literacy program impacted the participants’ perceptions of literacy and their dispositional attitudes toward integrating literacy into their professional practice. The data revealed that participants in the LAT …

Effectiveness Of Collaborative Handwriting Curriculum: Handwriting Without Tears And Orton-Gillingham, In Kindergarten Classroom Setting., Merry G. Harper

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Background: Formal handwriting instruction, using evidence-based, developmentally appropriate handwriting programming, in school based occupational therapy is necessary to support the role of a student. Handwriting is an occupation of children in the school environment. Without formal handwriting instruction in place there is evidence to support occupational therapy intervention providing a handwriting program can improve handwriting success.

Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to determine the clinical efficacy of a hybrid approach to handwriting instruction pairing the Handwriting Without Tears and Orton-Gillingham instructional programming for prewriting and handwriting skills in the kindergarten population. The research question addressed is: Will …

A Phenomenological Examination Of The Experience For Deaf Faculty Members In A Post-Secondary Institution In America, Amy Anne Schilling

Online Theses and Dissertations

The experience of Deaf tenure track or tenured faculty in post-secondary education is largely unknown. This qualitative phenomenological examination afforded six Deaf tenure track or tenured faculty to share their experiences. The purpose of this study is to share the day-to-day lived experience of Deaf tenure track or tenured faculty in post-secondary institutions. The goal of the study was to reveal areas of growths and strengths to allow institutions to better recruit, support, and retain Deaf tenure track faculty. Deaf faculty shared their experiences and have overcome barriers leading to success in their field. Interviews were conducted with each participant …

A Qualitative Study Exploring Online Teaching At A Rural Community College: How Do Faculty Prepare To Teach Online?, Gwendolyn Davidson

Online Theses and Dissertations

Supporting online faculty at the community college level to prepare them to teach online can be a complex matter. Faculty who are first entering the online teaching environment often start with training to help them prepare to teach online. Supporting faculty who are teaching online means understanding faculty and their needs. The purpose of this study was to answer the question, how do faulty prepare to teach online and the objectives (1) identify the faculty's years of experience teaching both in-person and online, and the different types of training or professional development that faculty have complete to help them prepare …

The Relationship Between Teacher Perceptions Of Professional Learning Communities And Shared And Supportive Leadership, Alicia Hunter

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study is an exploration of leadership practices that develop and sustain a professional learning community (PLC). It explores teacher perceptions of these leadership practices. Findings include descriptions of teacher perceptions of leadership practices as they relate to shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice. This study utilized the five Madison County (KY) middle schools to assess the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of shared and supportive leadership practices and the other indicators of an effective Professional Learning Community. The characteristics evaluated included teachers’ perceptions of professional learning through PLCs along with …

Student Perceptions And Grade Comparisons After Exposure To Instructor-Made Skills Videos In A Kinesiology Course, Pamela Karp, Robert G. Gallagher

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

The purpose of this mixed method, descriptive case study was to determine whether the use of pre-recorded instructor-made videos (PRIMVs) in a kinesiology course, along with curricular design changes, facilitated increased conceptual and practical student learning. The study examined three student cohorts in one occupational therapy program. Two of the student cohorts had unrestricted access to the PRIMVs designed to support student learning of bone and muscle palpation and joint actions. Students from the two cohorts completed a survey about their experience of having access to the videos. Exam data from the student cohorts who had access to the videos …

A Storied Tale: Melding Digital Storytelling, Service-Learning, And Digital And Information Literacy Skills For Pre-Service Teachers, Heather K. Beirne

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Today’s teachers, a diverse body of individuals with a variety of technological backgrounds and skill sets, often find themselves working from a “digital immigrant” perspective. Even pre-service teachers, who may be classified as digital natives, report “strong positive beliefs in technology, yet moderate confidence and reserved attitude in using technology” (Lei, 2009); Lei reports that, though they are often viewed as “innovative users of available technology and eager adopters of new technology,” pre-service teachers are also not utilizing digital technology to its fullest advantage, self-report that they do not feel comfortable with or proficient at the use of higher level …

The Librarians’ Guide To The Information Literacy Galaxy: Leading Campus Conversations, Sarah Richardson, Heather K. Beirne, Ashley J. Cole, Trenia Napier

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Sarah Richardson (Business Library Team Leader), Heather Beirne (Reference and Instruction Librarian), Ashley Cole (Reference and Instruction Librarian) and Trenia Napier (Associate Director, Programs & Outreach - Noel Studio for Academic Creativity) @ Eastern Kentucky University Situating librarians as information literacy experts and leaders in pedagogical best practices, presenters led a professional learning community (PLC) to create purposeful campus-wide conversations centered around the ACRL Framework and its place in teaching and learning. PLC faculty participants from across campus partnered with liaison librarians to create new and innovative approaches to developing discipline-specific information …

Cognitive And Metacognitive Factors In Reading Comprehension For Occupational Therapy Assistant Students, Cynthia L. Meyer

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Difficulties with reading comprehension among occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students can diminish their ability to understand didactic textual information limiting clinical performance and can impact OTA attrition rates and limit graduate success when completing the national certification examination.

Participants were one cohort of OTA students from a rural public community college.

This was a convergent mixed-method design (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The students’ perceptions of cognitive and metacognitive factors affecting reading and the students’ preferences for cognitive and metacognitive strategies were assessed through a 59-item survey assessment combining the Text-Learning Strategies Inventory (TLSI) (Merchie, Van Keer, & Vandevelde, 2014), the …

The Relationship Between Teacher Perceptions Of Professional Learning Communities And Student Achievement, Elmer Thomas

Online Theses and Dissertations

A significant challenge facing public schools is the need to increase student achievement while having student gains enhanced through growth models. Teaching strategies/methods have evolved over the years from an "island" approach where the teacher was alone in his/her classroom and responsible for students progressing to a broader yet more specific approach to teacher professional development in order to enhance student learning.

Districts, schools, and individual teachers have long valued professional development and professional learning. These educational professional learning opportunities collectively give the district, school, and individual teachers a community at work in which a collective focus and commitment to …

Site Joint Sig Symposia: A Collaboration Between The K-12 Online Learning Sig And Distance Learning Sig: How Higher Education And K-12 Online Learning Research Can Impact Each Other, Rick Ferdig, Leanna Archambault, Kerry Rice, Margaret Niess, Trisha Litz, Amy Garrett-Dikkers, Aimee Whiteside, Michael Barbour, David Marcovitz, Antoinette Davis

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Facilitated by Rick Ferdig of Kent State University and editor of JTATE, this Symposia brings together the work of the K-12 Online Learning SIG and the Distance Learning SIG communities and focuses on presentations from scholars in the field whose work has implications for both higher education and K-12 online learning. This Symposia will have nine panelists who will each present their work and then talk specifically about how their work can inform both K-12 and HE. Included in the list of Higher Education-focused panelists are Trisha Litz of Regis University, Maggie Niess of Oregon State University, Antoinette Davis of …

Turning Teachers Into Action Researchers In Their Classrooms, Dusty Columbia Embury, Laura S. Clarke

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Action research is often called the teacher’s research and often feels like a common sense approach to solving problems, but not all pre-service teachers begin careers knowing how to use this methodology to improve their own practice. This article offers a rationale for teaching pre-service teachers the skills and action research methodology as a tool for professional improvement based on the experiences of the authors engaging in a reflective process for teaching. While not generalizable, it is hoped that lessons learned may be applied by other faculty in teacher education programs.

Breaking The Binary: Negotiating Space And Power In Course-Embedded Consulting, Courtnie Jude Morin

Online Theses and Dissertations

Course-Embedded (writing) Consultants (CECs) disrupt the common classroom power binary between the teacher and the student. Therefore, CECs must constantly negotiate authority and power in relation to their workspaces. Based on a Foucaultian analysis of power ideologies and spatial rhetoric, I propose a training series for instructors, CECs, and their students. This series allows participants on all three sides (teacher, CEC, and student) to recognize, analyze, and work within these dynamics of institutional structures of authority, pedagogy, and space.

The Effect Of A Teacher Preparation Program On Teacher Preparedness From The Perspective Of First-Year Teachers And Their Principals, Christi Dee Wright

Online Theses and Dissertations

Teacher attrition, particularly among first-year teachers, has encouraged research studies at identifying concerns and recommendations for analyzing and improving college and university teacher preparation programs. The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine and analyze the preparedness of first-year teachers from a private university. More specifically, the study identifies how first-year teachers and their principals perceive their preparation to effectively teach students in the classroom. First-year teachers and their principals shared their perceptions of teacher education preparedness by taking an online survey. All data collected from the survey were self-reported. Due to a small sample size, multiple years (2010-2015) …

Service-Learning Faculty Perceptions, Karrie Faye Adkins

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how service-learning faculty's perceptions are influenced by their experience with service learning, and how service learning affects faculty's personal and professional perceptions and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 130 participants at higher education institutions throughout the U. S. via an electronic survey. The data were used to create seven composite variables to represent each service-learning faculty perception area (Personal Growth, Teaching Advancement, Institutional Context, Community, Scholarship, Personal Values, and Institutional Emphasis). It was hypothesized that faculty who perceive having a highly supportive institutional culture of service learning will have higher levels of personal and professional satisfaction …

Inattention, Distraction, And Dysfunction - Modern Challenges For Business Education And Practice, Michael T. Roberson, Beth Polin

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Students of every generation have faced factors that limited the amount of time available for study based on responsibilities such as family and jobs. There were also potential distractions that challenged students’ willpower to focus on academic activities instead of other completely discretionary uses of their time. The choice was between activities that provided immediate gratification versus academic activities that would yield a far greater payoff over the long run.

The last decade has seen a significant array of new temptations in the form of smart phones and other personal technologies that are powerful, portable, and pervasive. While these technologies …

Stakeholders' Knowledge Impacting The Academic And Social-Emotional Needs Of Twice-Exceptional Students In Kentucky, Katrina Ann Sexton

Online Theses and Dissertations

Decades worth of studies have documented the role of teacher training in identifying children with exceptional needs. Yet, none have investigated the differences between teacher training, teacher knowledge, and teacher roles in relation to the identification of twice-exceptional (2E) children. There is a need to understand the factors that affect teachers’ knowledge and abilities to identify 2E students, specifically during the early formative years [primary and middle grades] when identification commonly occurs. Supported by the Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory, Autonomous Learner Model (ALM), and Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM), the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if teacher education …

Intercultural Learning Perspectives Of World Language Educators In Kentucky, Ernest Luke Mcclees

Online Theses and Dissertations

A line has become blurred between intercultural interactions and daily personal interactions. The once long distance for trade, travel and communication is at its’ smallest gap. However, “American graduates have been cited as being culturally deprived and linguistically illiterate, compared to students from other countries” (2013 Kentucky Standard for World Language Proficiency). For educational leaders to improve this current educational inadequacy, it is important to understand teachers’ intercultural beliefs and how they impact their classroom practices. What is not known is the present state of world language teachers’ global competence understanding and what they perceive to be best practices to …

The Role Of Occupational Therapy In Primary Care, Priti Patel

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

The Capstone Project is focused on communicating, influencing and educating other health care professionals regarding the role of occupational therapy in the future model of primary care delivery initiated by the adoption of the Affordable Care Act and the Triple Aim Initiative. Currently, primary care, the largest health care platform in United States, is not inclusive of occupational therapy services. Occupational therapists have the scope, knowledge and understanding to be part of the redesigned team model of primary care. Educating those currently working in primary care about adding occupational therapy services can have a significant impact on the profession of …

Whose Standards Are These? A Chronological Glossary Of Standards In P-12 Education, Richard E. Day

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The elementary and secondary education system was created in the early 1900s to serve a different time when people had different needs. Although the idea of human capital is as old as education itself, the concept of college readiness was hardly a concern when access to college was limited to a relatively few privileged individuals who had the wherewithal to attend. Illiteracy was seen as the state’s educational problem. There was no concern that high school graduation rates were too low at a time when very few jobs required knowledge workers.

Whose Standards Are These? A Chronological Glossary Of Standards In P-12 Education, Richard E. Day

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Whose Standards Are These? A Brief Historical Timeline of the Development of the Common Core State Standards with References to Next General Science Standards, and the C3 Framework for Social Studies.

Kentucky Principal Preparation Programs: A Contemporary History, Thomas Henry Hart

Online Theses and Dissertations

In this era of expectation that school principals will lead continuous improvement initiatives in their schools, this study investigates if principals receive instruction in continuous improvement concepts, methods, and tools through their formal principal certification program. This research evaluates the evolution of school principal preparation programs in Kentucky over the period from 1994 to 2014, a time of great change in academic expectations and accountability in American public schools. Using the report of a national study begun in 1975, Preparatory Programs for Educational Administrators in the United States (Silver and Spuck, 1978), as a baseline, accredited principal preparations programs in …

The Relationship Between Administrative Support And Burnout In Turnaround Schools, Kevin Scott Crosby

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study looked at the relationship between administrative support and teacher burnout in two federally funded turnaround middle schools. Teacher burnout indicators include signs of lacking accomplishment, mental and physical fatigue, and depersonalization. Administrative support factors include positive communication, vision, district support, and school support. The major findings of this study showed that school level support played a significant role in predicting teacher burnout. Professional development support played a significant role in predicting teacher burnout, but not to the same extent as school level support. Central office support was not a significant factor in predicting teacher burnout or any burnout …

The Effect Of Academic Coaches On Teachers' Effective Use Of Data For Instructional Decisions, Barbara Quillen Shoemaker

Online Theses and Dissertations

One of the common themes in education reform is the use of data-driven decision making. The data provides the information we use to improve our knowledge of classroom instruction. Teachers need professional development to improve their ability to enable data driven decision-making. What data are available? What information can be gleaned from the data? What instructional changes based on data occur? Professional development, the nature of coaching, and their effect on teacher use of data have not been adequately treated in educational literature. This study will be based on an evaluation of an academic coaching project in a large urban …