Education Commons^™

A Study Of Preservice Teachers' Preparedness To Teach Reading, Kelli Williams-Page

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Only 35% of fourth graders in the United States can read at the proficient level, and only 34% of eighth graders can read proficiently (National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP], 2022). The purpose of this study was to determine how preservice teachers (PSTs) describe their experience of the methodology of teaching reading in their literacy courses. In addition, what specific strategies for teaching reading do PSTs describe as the focus for their teaching reading preparation, and how do PSTs describe the potential of the strategies learned in their coursework to help them teach reading in their future positions? This study …

Using L1 Student Narratives And Peer Teaching To Increase Secondary Education Mathematical Understanding, Marco Antonio Martinez Leandro

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This phenomenological study research presents an option to use both discourse in the native language and technology as an alternative to improve the understanding of mathematics in secondary education. 13 students whose native language is Spanish attended a high school in a large urban school district in the Southwest of the United States, participated in this study.

The study's main objective was to observe the effects of using students' discourse in their language and the support of technology to increase their academic literacy in mathematics. Solution-based pedagogy was central to helping students achieve the Development of Academic Literacy in Mathematics …

Digitally Rural: Identifying How Technological Inequity Impacts Rural Students In First-Year Writing Courses, Jo Anna M. Nevada

English Language and Literature ETDs

To teach composition in this era means to engage students with technology; it is all but an unspoken requirement at the majority of universities. This dissertation theorizes, however, that the imbricated use of technology in first-year writing (FYW) classrooms places rural students at an inherent disadvantage, with issues of inadequate technological proficiency and inconsistent access causing a substantial learning disparity between this student population and their urban peers. Through mixed-methods data analysis of student survey responses and final FYW course portfolios, this study reveals that the expectation of technological access and presumption of digital literacy is detrimental to rural student …

Student Perceptions Of Participation In Socratic Seminars At A Paideia School, Kurt A. Schmidt

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This phenomenological study considered Socratic seminars and student perceptions. Research on Socratic seminars considers student achievement, but lacks students’ perspectives. This study’s purpose is to describe seminar participation for students at a Paideia School. Research questions include 1) “From the students’ perspectives, and based on their personal judgments and perceptions, what is it the lived experience for high school freshmen and sophomores who regularly participate in Socratic seminars?” and 2) “What effect does regular participation in Socratic seminars have on students’ perceptions of their own engagement in school?” Fourteen students were interviewed. Analysis yielded four themes: Open Exchange of Ideas …

The Influence Of A Learning Management System (Lms) And Microblogging On Social Presence, Sense Of Community, And User Interface Satisfaction In A Distance Education Course, Andrew G. Leach

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The impact of social media on everyday life is undeniable. Social media has transcended its initial purpose of connectivity and branched into other sociocultural aspects. Educators must create a rich and active learning environment where students can actively engage with their educational curriculum. This study used a mixed methods approach to investigate the influence that learning management systems (LMS) and microblogging (social media) have on key elements of distance education design. These elements include social presence, sense of community, and overall user interface design. Students’ perceptions of these elements were collected from students enrolled in a graduate course during summer …

Speaker Diarization And Identification From Single-Channel Classroom Audio Recording Using Virtual Microphones, Antonio Gomez

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Speaker identification in noisy audio recordings, specifically those from collaborative learning environments, can be extremely challenging. There is a need to identify individual students talking in small groups from other students talking at the same time. To solve the problem, we assume the use of a single microphone per student group without any access to previous large datasets for training.

This dissertation proposes a method of speaker identification using cross-correlation patterns associated to an array of virtual microphones, centered around the physical microphone. The virtual microphones are simulated by using approximate speaker geometry observed from a video recording. The patterns …

Creating Lightbulb Moments: Developing Higher-Order Thinking In Family Law Classrooms Through Court Observations, Sonia Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

This article fills a critical gap in the family law literature by arguing that teaching doctrinal family law in conjunction with the application of established learning theory and pedagogy yields a deeper engagement with the subject matter and leads to more practice-ready lawyers. ABA Standards 301, 303, and 304 do not clearly articulate the distinction between experiential education and experiential learning; doctrinal law classrooms are often bereft of experiential learning activities. By incorporating active learning and inclusive pedagogy in the doctrinal classroom and following recommendations from the MacCrate Report and Family Law Education Reform Project, students will be better prepared …

Avid Graduates' Transition To College, Kathryn Cybele Leverett

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Graduates of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program have higher college-going and persistence rates, even in New Mexico where they face serious educational barriers as first generation, low income, students of color. In this exploratory, phenomenological study, a mixed methods approach was employed to answer Research Question 1, What is the lived experience of AVID graduates as they transition to college?

In consideration of Research Question 2, What are the graduates’ perceptions of the AVID College & Career Readiness Framework (Rigorous Academic Preparedness, Opportunity Knowledge, and Student Agency)? Tinto’s Conceptual Schema for Dropout from College is aligned to AVID’s …

Between The Visceral And The Lie : Lessons On Teaching Violence, Brian Gibbs

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

Drawing from two qualitative case studies, one researching how teachers teach about war to the children of soldiers and the other examining how teachers teach lynching near historic lynching sites, this critical phenomenological study weighs how much horror and how much hope should be taught if the aim of the instruction is a liberating education. The author argues that a balance of both is necessary. Students cannot be left in the hopelessness of knowledge alone but must be taught how to engage their world with the possibility of making change.

Online Assessment Methods For Student-Centered Learning: Active Learning, Collaboration, And Application With Authentic Assessment, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Stephanie L. Moore Phd, Linda Barril, Kathiravelu Thabotharan

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Agenda

Introduction
Lani Gunawardena

A Learning and Pedagogical Foundation & Taxonomy for Selecting Assessment Methods
Stephanie Moore

Assessing Collaborative Learning
Lani Gunawardena

Student-Centered Assessment Methodologies at the University of Jaffna
K. Thabotharan

Technologies for Assessment
Linda Barril

Labs & Art Online - Assessing Practicals
Stephanie Moore

Questions & Discussion

The Effectiveness Of Mind Maps As A Study Tool In An Undergraduate Human Nutrition Class To Increase Knowledge, Exam Scores, And Final Grades, Suzanne Porter-Bolton

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The objective of this quasi-experimental study was to assess whether instructor-prepared mind maps increased knowledge, exam scores and final grades in undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory human nutrition course. Two sections of the same class (one intervention, one control) were taught by the same student instructor/investigator. Mind maps were posted online for the intervention class following each chapter lecture. Students tracked their study methods, including whether they used the mind maps. Exam scores and final grades were analyzed and compared for differences in learning and course performance between groups. There were no statistically significant differences in exam scores or …

Students’ Perspectives Toward A Curriculum That Incorporates Their Input, Janneth V. Chumana

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

This study describes the relationship between students’ attitudes, beliefs and perceptions about the foreign language curriculum at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador for the A2.2 (elementary advanced) level class and the students’ learning outcomes. It explores the factors that influence the attitudes and perceptions of undergraduate EFL students toward a curriculum as well as what happens when they are involved in the classroom curriculum development. The study took place in the spring of 2019, confirming its usefulness in the changing of students’ attitudes towards the English language learning process. At the same time it provided effective information to the …

Exploring Differential Effects Of Therapeutic Alliance Across Treatment Therapies, Alexandra T. Tonigan

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Effects of therapeutic alliance has been widely studied for depression, anxiety, and interpersonal problems and been found to have small to moderate positive outcomes. Consistent findings are lacking, however, regarding the relationship between therapeutic alliance, treatment therapy, and client characteristics, in alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment.

The current paper utilizes data from Project MATCH to assess the differential effects of therapeutic alliance on 12-month alcohol abstinence across clients receiving Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), and Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) treatment. Moreover, higher order interactions were explored to determine whether such effects differed across client characteristics. This research …

Perceptions And Clinical Applications Of Feedback Type If Dental Hygiene, Elmer Eleazar Gonzalez

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Purpose/Objectives: The study assesses whether or not feedback type and feedback delivery method play a significant role in students’ learning and clinical performance. The study explores Ego Stroking Sandwich feedback and Non-Sandwich feedback as the feedback types and Instructors feedback vs. Scoring guide feedback as the feedback delivery method. Students’ perceptions and clinical applications were considered as part of the study.

Methods: Eleven participants were included in the study. One group was the Ego Stroking Sandwich type feedback (n=5) and the other was the Non-Sandwich Type feedback (n=6). Each group performed two dental impressions (a maxillary and a mandibular) while …

What About Students’ Experiences: (Re)Imagining Success Through Photovoice At A High-Achieving Urban “No-Excuses” Charter School, L. Trenton S. Marsh

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

The article highlights the use of photovoice, a method that gives power to creators of images to capture experiences that are central to their life. Students verbal considerations of success in the context of the “no-excuses” school is included, as is a sample of students’ visual data about what success is outside of the “no-excuses” context. The study reveals the “no-excuses” orientation fosters an oppressive definition of success in the context of classrooms. However, the photovoice component reveals students are able to resist the limited view as four emergent findings reveal how students make meaning of success: (1) human connection; …

The Critical Need For Mental Health Education To Be Mandated In New Mexico's Public Schools, Bonnie L. Murphy

Shared Knowledge Conference

Based on a review of research and best practices in mental health awareness and skills, this inquiry project argues for state legislative policies that would require mental health awareness and skills in the K-12 curriculum. Mental health affects individual accomplishments in every stage of people’s lives beginning in early childhood and throughout the life cycle. Prevention and treatment of mental illness plays a key role in the ability of an individual to cope with loss and develop resiliency and perseverance in challenging times and to make better decisions that improve the individual’s life and the lives of those around them. …

Drop In Or Drop Out: A Case Study On The Effects Of Academic Track Placement, And Levels Of Student Skill And Will, On Successful Ninth-Grade Completion, Channell M. Wilson-Segura

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The ninth grade is a transition year from middle school to high school where many students struggle to successfully navigate a new environment, new teachers and peers, new academic and behavioral expectations, and the concept of graduation requirements. This qualitative study examined the effects of academic track placement, and student levels of skill and will, on successful ninth-grade completion in one New Mexico Title I high school. It also provided insight into their perceptions of the success factors and challenges that they felt impacted their ability to successfully promote to the tenth-grade, and thus, remain on-track for graduation.

This study …

Building A Call To Action: Social Action In Networks Of Practice, Damien M. Sánchez

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The three research papers completed as part of this dissertation explore how people contributing to #BlackLivesMatter build knowledge, using social construction of knowledge (SCK), and what they are building knowledge about, using critical consciousness, because understanding how these processes play out on Twitter provides a way for others to understand this social movement. Paper 1 describes a new methodological approach to combining social network analysis (SNA) and social learning analytics to assess SCK. The sequential mixed method design begins by conducting a content analysis according to the Interaction Analysis Model (IAM). The results of the content analysis yield descriptive data …

American Indian Student Motivation At A Tribal College, Rebecca L. Izzo

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between motivational characteristics of American Indian college students attending a tribal college. The Inventory of School Motivation (ISM) was utilized to identify motivational constructs. The literature in general continues to portray American Indian students as the lowest academically achieving subgroup as well as having a lack of persistence and high dropout rate in higher education. This study identified areas that support motivation to attend college, which then can be shared with the tribal college to develop programs and innovations to recruit and sustain American Indian students in education, as well as …

Video Games And Virtual Reality As Classroom Literature: Thoughts, Experiences, And Learning With 8th Grade Middle School Students, Miles M. Harvey

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative study utilized video games and virtual reality in an eighth-grade public middle school media literacy elective classroom in which the head researcher was also the official teacher for the students in the study. The nineteen students and their teacher used video games in small groups for five consecutive weeks. The teacher and nineteen students recorded data about their thoughts, experiences, and learning as they played in the classroom. Students responded to open-ended reader-response questions about their experiences after playing video games each day for forty-five minutes. Students reflected about their experiences in a thought journal. The teacher responded …

The Heart Of K'E: Transforming Dine Special Education And Unsettling The Colonial Logics Of Disability, Sandra Yellowhorse

American Studies ETDs

This paper takes up the roles of ideology and spatiality as they impact Diné students and learners in understanding conceptions of normativity, neuro-diversity and bodily variance. I am concerned with how the movement and creation of Indigenous schools and their praxis still maintain and often times produce settler colonial ideologies of being, personhood, difference and ability. I illustrate the challenges that Diné planners and educators face in entrenching cultural knowledge and language into their educational initiatives, while some of the problematic manifestations and expressions of normativity present themselves through state polices, federal law and mainstream curriculum.

I focus on the …

The Effects Of Different Teaching Methods On Student Attitude And Achievement In Calculus Recitations, Jocelyn Noelle Rios

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Many universities offer recitation sections in their calculus sequences; however, little research has been conducted on TA best practices in the recitations.This study first aimed to observe the different teaching methods that TAs employed in their recitations and then measure their efficacy in improving student course attitudes and achievement, focusing on student-centered and concept-based instruction. In addition, this study aimed to assess the quality of professional development offered to recitation leaders. Using a quantitative-dominant mixed methods design, 12 TAs were observed throughout the semester and TAs and calculus students were surveyed. This study found that student-centered instruction was positively correlated …

How Do Faculty At The University Of New Mexico Use Humor In Online Teaching, John T. Granato

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

Humor is a ubiquitous experience that facilitates learning, social coordination and wellbeing. This study examined how the faculty at the University of New Mexico used humor in its online courses. The process involved faculty interviews, a focus group of instructional online designers, questionnaires and documentation to collect data, and then used thematic analysis and code development to arrive at its findings. The study found that the humor pedagogy at the University of New Mexico has fallen into disuse for online courses because of (1) a hesitation (fear) to use humor, (2) fear of what students would think, and (3), hesitation …

The Fifth Function Of University: “Neutrosophic E-Function” Of Communication-Collaboration-Integration Of University In The Information Age, Florentin Smarandache, Stefan Vladutescu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The study is based on the following hypothesis with practical foundation: - Premise 1 - if two members of university on two continents meet on the Internet and initiate interdisciplinary scientific communication; - Premise 2 - subsequently, if within the curricular interests they develop an academic scientific collaboration; - Premise 3 - if the so-called collaboration integrates the interests of other members of the university; - Premise 4 - finally, if the university allows, accepts, validates and promotes such an approach; - Conclusion: then it means the university as a system (the global academic system) has, and it is, exerting …

Rhetoric, Referential Communication, And The Novice Writer, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Classical rhetoric is integral to teaching legal writing, and this essay argues that its use must be enhanced with audience awareness. This is so rhetoric can be successfully applied to teaching and the practice of legal writing.

This essay begins with a very brief overview of the relationship of rhetoric to legal writing and how audience awareness is a key factor in both. This overview leads to a definition of two distinct tasks that must be incorporated into the writing process: first, learning about and understanding specific audiences; second, learning how to implement writing that works for that audience.

A …

Teaching, Thinking, And The Legal Creative Process, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

The author asks how we can teach student how to think as she reflects on how many students with excellent basic writing skills were not fully developing the reasoning before writing their paper.

Part One of this essay formulates the creative process necessary for developing good legal analysis, arguments, and documents, and suggests its encouragement by non-result oriented teaching. Part Two explains a class the author designed, which succeeds, at least in part, in bringing thinking to the surface for study and discussion.

Can Havruta Style Learning Be A Best Practice In Law School?, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Havruta is a traditional Jewish method that seems compatible with legal education because of its focus on process, and so adaptable to law school training in legal reasoning, and because it is based upon dispute and resolution, another aspect that corresponds with the study of law. A unique form of collaborative student centered learning involving pairs of students, this article considers the application of Havruta to the law school setting and whether it should be incorporated into the law school curriculum.

A Photographer's Guide To Legal Writing, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

The author recounts a photography course that taught the three keys to an effective photograph: determining theme, focusing attention on char theme, and simplifying. This article adapts these three keys to legal writing to teach and remind writers of the necessary components of an effective legal document. This method provides a new way to look at old teachings.

An Experimental Laboratory Approach To The Teaching Of Botany In The Secondary Schools, Robert F. Miller

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

It was the purpose of this study: (1) to evaluate new techniques that utilize an experimental laboratory approach in the teaching of botany, and (2) to develop a laboratory manual based on the results of the experimentation emphasizing basic plant physiological concepts that can be easily used by high school sophomores.

A Report Of Fifth Grade Arithmetic Program In Which Intra-Class Grouping Was Emphasized, Harley Maggart

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Since education as a science is relatively young, much research still remains to be done to improve techniques and methods of teaching children in light of their native abilities.

It was the purpose of this study (1) to show the effects of grouping in a fifth grade arithmetic class in terms of change in skills and attitudes and (2) to show examples of activities and materials used to promote growth in understandings and skills within different groups.