Education Commons^™

Green Genius, Zoe Zingler

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

No abstract provided.

Developing Metacognition: Leveraging A Spiral Curriculum To Enhance Strategy-Learning Programming, Matthew Brooks

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

There is significant converging literature that emphasizes the value of learning metacognitive strategies. Current approaches to teaching metacognition focus disproportionately on domain-specific strategies. These strategies emphasize domain-specific subject material rather than the metacognition itself. The following intervention proposal aims to develop a multi-level (5th-12th grade) metacognition program designed using a spiral curriculum. This novel approach flips the paradigm and chooses to center metacognition. Additionally, this program leverages encoding, retrieval, transfer-appropriate processing and, delivered specifically through the spiral curriculum, delivers content in a manner that encourages distributed practice, a concept that has been well-documented to be beneficial for learners. The proposed …

Teaching Music Theory Through Covid-19, Donna Deloy

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

This thesis surveyed music theory instructors throughout the United States. Throughout the interviews, instructors shared their insights during COVID-19 as a college instructor. This thesis seeks to describe and inform college instructors of the changes made to the undergraduate curriculum and classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic; as a result, instructors found and created new ways to engage students in a classroom through an online format. While creating an online music theory course is challenging, instructors share their experiences navigating this temporary shift beginning in March 2020. A suggestion of implementing more technology into the music theory core could create a …

Justice For All: Social Justice Curriculum For The Young Adult Centered English Classroom, Genevieve Hawkins

Honors Theses

This project is a curriculum-based approach to exploring the integration of social-justice texts, topics, and themes into the secondary English classroom. Discussion of such topics will take place in the context of teaching the contemporary novels The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed, two young-adult novels that discuss how the teenage experience is impacted by instances of racism and police brutality. This examination of race in modern society will be accompanied by supplemental texts, included but not limited to Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine and NPR’s podcast “On the Shoulders …

The Role Of The Next Generation Science Standards In Teachers' Curricular Choices In The Life Science Classroom, Amy Tankersley

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 2013 a group of experts used A Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) to draft the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which aims to increase science literacy through integrating the concepts and practices of science into comprehensive standards for science (NGSS Lead States, 2013). As students learn to explore the content and practices of scientists, ideally, they should increase their ability to think and reason in ways that will benefit their ability to participate in society. Because of the complex nature of systematic education reform, teachers need to put significant time into implementing NGSS to fulfill the goals …

Museum Exploration Club, Celeste Kenworthy, Aurora Kenworthy

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Afterschool club that virtually visits museums in order to help students gain an appreciation for museums and learn about concepts related to art, history, and science.

Course Portfolio For Mech 300: Thermal Systems And Design, Spring 2021, Mohammad Ghashami

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Thermal Systems and Design (MECH 300) is a three-credit course for junior students at the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which is taught every fall and spring semester. The usual enrollment in this course is about 40 undergraduate students most of whom are junior or sophomore students from the MME department. This course plays a significant role in completing students’ learning from MECH-200 and linking that to more advanced systems and real-life applications. There are two purposes for this portfolio. The first aim is that this portfolio serves to collect and document the …

Effects Of Career Courses On Career Self-Efficacy And Outcome Expectations, Celeste Spier

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine two required career courses to determine if they produced an increase in career self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and which components of the learning theory from Social Cognitive Career Theory have the strongest influence. Participants were undergraduate business students at a midsized, Midwestern university enrolled in two required career courses and a comparison group of students not yet enrolled in the courses. Students took four measures (i.e., Career Exploration and Decisional Self-Efficacy Scale, Career Search Self-Efficacy Scale, Career Expectations Survey Scale, and Career Exploration and Decision Learning Experiences Scale) at two points in …

Reflections On Teaching Cyaf 374, Curriculum Planning In Early Childhood Education: A Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio, Christine Kiewra

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this course portfolio, I reflect on teaching methods and materials as they relate to course goals and learning outcomes for an undergraduate early childhood education course, CYAF 374. This course offers students a developmental, child-centered approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating learning experiences for children from birth to grade 3. The course is for students who are preparing to teach in Early Childhood, Inclusive Early Childhood, or Primary classrooms. The focus of my reflection and evaluation is on principles of effective teaching practice, experiential learning, reflective practice, and collaboration implemented throughout the course. Finally, I reflect upon successes and …

Green Club After School Program Curriculum, Megan Willburn

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Green Club is an after school program which encourages students to develop environmental empathy, passions for environmental sustainability, and knowledge about the workings of environmental systems.

My Pop-Up Shoppe, Brenna Backemeyer

Honors Theses

My Pop-Up Shoppe is a curriculum to teach students problem-solving and independent learning through running a small business. Everything needed to facilitate a My Pop-Up Shoppe experience where students will take part in a hands-on, real-life entrepreneurial journey is included. During My Pop-Up Shoppe, students will receive a product provided by the facilitator, school or organization and be challenged to turn the product into a running business with real sales and customers. The facilitator will empower students to be startup founders. The suggested timeline of My Pop-Up Shoppe is anywhere from a weekend to two-weeks.

The curriculum package gives instructions …

Cyaf374: Purposeful Planning—Reflection And Practice In Enriching Students’ Lesson Design, Kelley Buchheister

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents my process of embracing, modeling, and implementing reflective teaching practices to enhance the lesson designs of my prospective early childhood professionals in CYAF374: Curriculum Planning in Early Childhood. Throughout this project I attended to and applied five critical components emphasized in the peer review of teaching project and integrated these ideas within the foundational elements of Japanese lesson study in order to implement instructional practices that would benefit my students. These five elements are extensively discussed throughout the portfolio on multiple levels: (a) understanding the role of reflective practice, (b) identifying goals through backward design, (c) outlining …

Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work, Deryl K. Hatch, Naomi Mardock-Uman, Crystal E. Garcia, Mary Johnson

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Objective: Beyond understanding whether first-year student success interventions in community colleges are effective—for which there is mixed evidence in the literature—this study’s purpose was to uncover how they work to realize observed outcomes, including at times unanticipated undesirable outcomes.

Method: This qualitative multiple case study used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to unpack interactions and tensions among programmatic-level features and individual-level experiences and actions. We conducted classroom observation, document analysis, and interviews with instructors and students in four student success courses across diverse contexts.

Results: Regardless of particular designs and course emphases, we found in all cases a blurring of …

Creating And Reflecting On A Graphic Arts Unit For 8th Grade Computer

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This paper deals with the issue of incorporating the teaching and learning of 21st-century skills within a classroom setting. These skills include critical thinking, collaboration, communication, technology integration and more. Although implementing 21st-century learning can be intimidating, it is necessary in the educational and business climate that exists today. Lewis Public Schools currently provides many opportunities to incorporate 21st-century learning and skills. The 8th grade multimedia class is one class where the implementation should be easy and seamless. Unfortunately, the curriculum is not well-laid out and assessments are vague. Using the literature, research, and ISTE standards as a guide, a …

Mech 350: Introduction To Dynamics And Controls Of Engineering Systems—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Benjamin S. Terry

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

There are two purposes of this portfolio. The first purpose is to outline and explain my approach to teaching this classic and fundamental course. I highlight in detail the purpose and curricula, the desired outcomes, and the goals and objectives. I also describe how the course activities and my teaching methodology support the course objectives. The second purpose of this portfolio is to describe a simple course modification—the introduction of a recitation session—and to test in a preliminary way the effect of this change on students’ attitudes towards the examples worked out in class. The results show that in the …

Reconceptualizing Pedagogical And Curricular Knowledge Development Through Making, Steven Greenstein, Justin Olmanson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

While making is typically tethered to narratives of entrepreneurship and business, it can provide a gateway to meaningful interaction and deepened understanding of both content and pedagogy. In this article we provide descriptions of two courses—one each at the pre-service and in-service levels—that engage teachers in making and design practices that we hypothesized would inform their pedagogical and curricular thinking. With a focus on the design of new tools to support teaching and learning through the use of human-centered design practices and digital fabrication technologies, these courses have teachers exploring at the intersection of content, pedagogy, and making. Specifically, they …

Instructionally Dense Literacy Practice In The Middle Grades: A Qualitative Study, Marissa A. Jorgenson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative, practitioner inquiry examined how a group of novice and experienced middle-grade reading teachers integrated facets of instructional density (Pressley, Wharton-McDonald, & Mistretta-Hampston, 1997) into their practice. Instructional density is a descriptor of effective teaching whereby practitioners layer their instruction in individual lessons with other elements of the curriculum. This occurs in the planning of instruction as well as during dialogic exchanges with students that are the natural outcrop of instruction. The researcher’s role was to conduct a series of observations and post-observation reflections and provide coaching that helped participants generate understanding of instructional density and how it could …

Agricultural Communications: A National Portrait Of Undergraduate Courses, Karen J. Cannon, Annie R. Specht, Emily B. Buck

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

Considerable research has been conducted regarding competencies needed by agricultural communication program graduates during the past four decades. However, no studies have considered actual program offerings. This study used a qualitative approach to analyze courses offered in agricultural communication programs in the United States. Using content analysis methods, researchers analyzed published course descriptions and discovered 21 categories among 172 courses. Most popular were writing courses, followed by courses introducing students to the major, internship courses, and writing for publication and graphic design courses. Categories with the fewest offerings included research, study abroad, and international focused courses. Findings from this analysis …

A/R/Tography As A Guide For Curriculum Design, Michelle M. Hrbek

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A/r/tography is not a method for curriculum development. Rather curriculum designers who see themselves as artist, researcher, and teacher best serve their students by creating lessons and units that encourage the learners to discover the a/r/tographer in themselves. Students who research themes presented in the visual arts classroom, create images that build on their personal experiences and communicate their individual perspective, and then teach others about their process are more likely to have relevant visual arts experiences. This paper explains the idea of a/r/tography and shows how a/r/tography as an overarching guide can inform curriculum whereby student artists construct meaningful …

Caught In The Tractor Beam Of Larger Influences: The Filtration Of Innovation In Education Technology Design, Justin Olmanson, Fitsum Abebe, Valerie Jones, Eric Kyle, Lyrica Lucas, Katie Robbins, Guieswende Rouamba, Xianquan Liu

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

While emerging technologies continue to emerge, research into their use in learning contexts often focuses on a subset of educational practices and ways of using technologies. In this study we begin to explore the extent to which educational designs are influenced by larger societal and education-related factors not usually explicitly considered when designing or identifying technology-supported education experiences for research study. We examine patterns within and between factors via a content analysis across ten years and 19 different journals of published peer-reviewed research on technology-supported writing. Our findings have implications for how researchers, designers, and educators approach technology-supported educational design …

Currere And The Beauty Of Soulful Classroom Moments, Jessica Sierk

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

Drawing on Pinar’s (1975, 2011) work on currere and the author’s own experience as an educator both in the K-12 and higher education arenas, the author argues that curriculum is a living entity and should therefore be allowed to deviate from the “plan” that most people think of when the topic of curriculum arises. Gaudelli & Hewitt’s (2010) idea of “the beauty of soulful moments” is also used to illustrate the utility of such deviations. Dewey’s (1934, 1938) themes of improvisation, participation, communication, and experience, as well as the idea of “the unexpected turn” also serve as backdrops to discussing …

Planning And Enacting Mathematical Tasks Of High Cognitive Demand In The Primary Classroom, Kelly Georgius

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study offers an examination of two primary-grades teachers as they learn to transfer knowledge from professional development into their classrooms. I engaged in planning sessions with each teacher to help plan tasks of high cognitive demand, including anticipating and planning for classroom discourse that would occur around the task. A detailed description of the planning and teaching that took place during the study provides information about how a teacher can learn and what a teacher learns to consider in order to plan and implement meaningful mathematical lessons. This design experiment describes the work of two teachers who participated in …

Narrative Understandings Of A School Policy: Intersecting Student, Teacher, Parent And Administrator Perspectives, Elaine Chan, Vicki Ross

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this article, we examine one school’s experience with policy, as a means of shedding light on the intersection of factors contributing to challenges of implementing policies to support the academic achievement and social adaptation of immigrant and minority students in their school context. We begin with the presentation of a ‘big fight’ between two students of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and consider multiple perspectives of how the disagreement was addressed by teachers and administrators, to offer insight into how issues of race and policy might have been understood by members of the school community. We use a narrative …

Teaching With Poetic Insight: A Practitioner Reflection And Dream Of Possibility, Dorothy Marie Bossman

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

This reflection focuses on the case of a student who failed my English class when I was concurrently a PhD student and a middle school teacher. The pedagogical insight imbedded in the story of our time together adds to the literature on teacher content knowledge Shulman (1986) called the missing paradigm. The piece takes an unorthodox approach to a case study based on the twofold identity of the author as a researcher intrigued by the complexity of teacher thinking and an educator driven by concern for a particular student. This case reflects back on my experiences teaching this young man, …

The Curriculum Of Health And Nutrition Education In Czech Republic (Article), Jana Koptíková

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

ABSTRACT

The average one-year health expenditure per capita in the European member states has doubled in the last 15 years. Prevention is less expensive than treatment, and changes in diet and lifestyle remain the most effective way to reduce the financial health care costs. However, European health systems are primarily treatment systems, not preventive systems. Improper diet and lack of physical activity are the most critical factors contributing to the overweight and obesity pandemic. Along with heavy alcohol consumption and smoking, these four factors contribute the most to the development of chronic non-communicable diseases. These diseases kill more than 36 …

Health And Nutrition Education In Czech Republic (Poster), Jana Koptíková

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

ABSTRACT

The average one-year health expenditure per capita in the European member states has doubled in the last 15 years. Prevention is less expensive than treatment, and changes in diet and lifestyle remain the most effective way to reduce the financial health care costs. However, European health systems are primarily treatment systems, not preventive systems. Improper diet and lack of physical activity are the most critical factors contributing to the overweight and obesity pandemic. Along with heavy alcohol consumption and smoking, these four factors contribute the most to the development of chronic non-communicable diseases. These diseases kill more than 36 …

November 8, 2013 - Alec Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

September 13, 2013 - Alec Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Visual Literacy (Grade 9-12): Art Today -- Course Description And Outline, Kelli P. Dornbos

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Process is hugely contrasting among all artists around the world. Each artist has their own way of developing a way of thinking, seeing and making to reach their need to get something out (or in simpler terms, create art). In this middle school art class, students will explore the different mediums of art with strict guidelines of craft and technique but freedom in the subject of what they can create on their own. It is important for 6th grade students to cooperate with each other to solve problems and create an identity through their own art making process. Dewey explains …

Where Is Earth Science? Mining For Opportunities In Chemistry, Physics, And Biology, Julie Thomas, Toni Ivey, Jim Puckette

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The Earth sciences are newly marginalized in K–12 classrooms. With few high schools offering Earth science courses, students’ exposure to the Earth sciences relies on the teacher’s ability to incorporate Earth science material into a biology, chemistry, or physics course. “G.E.T. (Geoscience Experiences for Teachers) in the Field” is an exploratory program funded by the National Science Foundation aimed to increase teachers’ geoscience interest and content knowledge. Participant teachers (n = 7) included non–Earth science teachers from underrepresented groups and/or high schools with a high percentage of students from underrepresented groups. A variety of quantitative and qualitative measures assessed …