Education Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experience Of Parents Whose Child Has A Disability And Attends An Online School, M.K. Shires

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study was to describe the lived experience of parents whose child has a disability and attends an online K-12 school. The theory that guided this study is Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory. This theory posits three universal psychological needs that promote or erode individual growth and well-being. The satisfaction or frustration of parents’ psychological needs and their impact on their parenting have guided this study’s research questions, interview questions, and data analysis. In-depth interviews, journal prompts, and focus groups were conducted with 12 parents whose child has a disability and attends a full-time online …

Late To The Game: A Phenomenological Study Of The Educational Experiences Of Females With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Tammara Clevenger

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the K-12 educational experiences of females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The theory guiding this study is Bandura’s social cognitive theory, as it states that people are the operators of their lives, and not passive entities within their environment. However, individuals with ASD often have difficulties with social communication, communication interaction, and restricted, repetitive behaviors, which impact their ability to regulate themselves in various environments. The study used transcendental phenomenology to understand the K-12 educational experiences of females with ASD. A total of 10 participants were used. The participants and their …

Unlv Mental Health Initiatives: Unifying Through Innovation And Collaboration, The Lincy Institute, Unlv Practice, Behere Nv, Unlv Department Of Psychology

Lincy Institute Events

Nevada persistently ranks at or near the bottom in the country for overall access to mental health services despite the need (Mental Health America, 2015-2023). UNLV faculty are developing initiatives to change this unacceptable situation. The Lincy Institute, in partnership with UNLV PRACTICE, BeHERE Nevada, and researchers from the Department of Psychology, offered a community forum showcasing three mental health initiatives harnessing faculty collaboration and innovation to drive overdue changes in Nevada’s mental-health landscape. Following the presentations policymakers engaged in open discussion with UNLV presenters and the audience. The three main initiatives showcased in this forum …

The Greatest Miracle, Anna Katherine Green, Office Of Communications & Marketing

Press Releases

I believe a testimony is a lot more than just when you came to know Jesus as your personal savior – it’s about everything the Lord has done in your life. So, I’m going to start at the very beginning of my life, when God miraculously saved my physical life before I was saved spiritually.

There are a lot of things you can probably tell about me from the outside and even just by my walking around on campus. I’m a senior, I’m an elementary education major, I love to go on walks, and I am a part of the …

Influence Of K-12 Oss Experience On Black Students Who Have Graduated From Post-Secondary Programs: A Qualitative Study, Andria Michelle Watkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of African Americans who had served at least two out-of-school suspensions (OSS) during their K-12 epoch but whose life outcomes did not reflect the deficit outcomes that researchers often use to describe that population. The central research question asked: What are the lived experiences of African Americans who had served at least two OSS and persisted to the completion of a post-secondary program? Guiding questions were implemented to understand further the phenomenon: How do African Americans believe their identity has been positively or negatively influenced by OSS? and …

3 Education Wins Sustained By District Technology Directors Post-Pandemic, Jennifer Hill, Tracy Reimer

Teacher Development Faculty Publications

Technology directors express optimism about the opportunity to reimagine school as a consequence of the pandemic. They describe three important wins post-pandemic: marked increases in teachers’ technology proficiency and improved digital pedagogy, addressing educational equity barriers through online learning models, and reimagining schools vs. long-held traditional educational models.

A Phenomenological Understanding Of K-12 Leaders’ Lived Experiences Of Changing From Teacher-Centered Practices To Student-Centered Practices, Claudia Burregi

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to understand the process of changing from teacher-centered practices to student-centered practices for K-12 educational leaders at Blue Ocean school district (pseudonym) in Louisiana to equip students with 21st-century skills. The theory guiding this study is Lewin’s change theory, which undergirds the premise that as individuals embrace change, they are better equipped to support the vision of why change is needed, ultimately leading to lasting change. A transcendental study was used to capture the essence of the change from TCL to SCL experience of ten educational leaders from seven schools in BOSD …

Ouachita To Host Called To Teach Conference On July 21, Felley Lawson, Office Of Communications & Marketing

Press Releases

Ouachita Baptist University’s Huckabee School of Education will host its annual Called to Teach Conference on Friday, July 21, in Walker Conference Center, 485 Campus Drive. Called to Teach is open to the public; attendees can receive six hours of professional development credit through the Arkansas Department of Education.

“Building Relationships” is the theme for the 2023 conference, which will feature guest speaker Marilyn Rhames, founder of Teachers Who Pray. Rhames is a Doctoral Academy Fellow in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, where her research is focused on the intersection of religion and race in …

Child Science Identity Interview Guide And Protocol, Heidi Cian, Remy Dou

Department of Teaching and Learning

While many data collection tools exist to elicit how individuals think about prototypical STEM persons (e.g., the Draw-a-Scientist assessment), such tools fail to capture the nuance of how individuals think about STEM and STEM personhood and how those perceptions change according to context and “in real life”. We designed the Child Science Identity Interview Guide and Protocol to learn about how youth see everyday experiences as “STEM” (or a particular subfield) and think of themselves and those in their social orbits as STEM persons.

A Case Study Examining School Leadership And General Education Teachers' Perceived Preparedness For Inclusion Of Students With High-Functioning Autism, Melony Yvonne Marciniak

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study in a Pre-K-12 Christian school environment was to understand the perceived preparedness and perceived efficacy of education professionals and general education middle- and high-school teachers for inclusion of students with high-functioning autism (HFA). The education professionals included a school nurse, one special education teacher, a director of special education and a religion teacher. Three theories guiding the research were self-fulfilling prophecies as defined by Merton (1948), Gilbert and Wilson’s (2007) theory of prospection, and Bandura’s (1995) theory of self-efficacy. The central research question was: How do education professionals and general education teachers in a …

Computational Thinking For Teachers, Susan Imberman

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for a course in computational thinking. The course described introduces preservice and inservice teachers to the fundamental concepts of computer science, including web design, coding, ethics, computational thinking, course resources, etc.

Towards Bringing Human-Centered Design To K-12 And Post-Secondary Education, Saadeddine Shehab, Mike Tissenbaum, Luettamae Lawrence, Daniel Rees Lewis, Matthew Easterday, Spencer Carlson, Adam Royalty, Helen Chen, Sheppard Sheri, Shelley Goldman, Annie Camey Kuo, Kimiko Lange, Melissa Mesinas, Rose K. Pozos, Dhvani Toprani, Mona Alqahtani, Yu Xia, Marcela Borge, Keith Sawyer

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a growing field that has the potential to positively impact students’ learning. A general consensus on the terms, practices, scaffolds, and assessments of HCD can foster its effective implementation in K-12 and post-secondary education. This session brings together researchers whose work is focused on implementing HCD across K-16 classrooms. It aims to develop a coherent definition of HCD, its methods, practices, and assessments, to help frame the field and reduce ambiguity at a critical time in its broader adoption.

Supporting Students Through Online Learning, Kristen M. Carlson

Teacher Development Faculty Publications

With the onset of a pandemic, there were opportunities and challenges for supporting learners. Schools and universities were physically closed while interaction shifted to a distance learning modality. In some instances, courses became asynchronous, while other courses met synchronously using video conferencing. Educators were adaptable when the pandemic occurred, quickly setting up home offices to meet their learners’ needs. This occurrence showed that it was in educators’ best interest to understand distance best practices. Distance learning has been utilized at institutions in the United States for the past two decades. However, it has not been widely adopted as mainstream because …

The Effects Of Technology On Student Engagement And Academic Success, Austin Reese

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The prevalence of educational technology has grown exponentially over the last decade. As schools continually increase use of educational technology throughout the various classroom environments and settings, does educational technology actually increase student engagement and academic success? A multitude of research studies regarding educational technology use in various K-12 classroom settings were analyzed while writing this literature review. The research found various educational technologies and methods, when applied appropriately for differentiated populations, can be a contributing factor to yield increased student engagement and increased academic success.

Practitioner Perception Of The Implementation Of Evidence-Based Practices In The Special Education Classroom: A Case Study, Jolene G. Swezey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to identify factors that inform the decision-making process of 11 special education practitioners for the implementation of evidence-based practices in the classroom at Central Combined School (pseudonym). The theoretical framework for this study is Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy theory. Street-level bureaucracy theory states that social services workers use discretion to administer required policies. Understanding how special educators act as street-level bureaucrats will provide new insights into teacher perception of the decision-making process for implementing evidence-based practices. The central research question asked, What are the factors that inform the decision-making process for special …

Engineering Technology Programs Outreach To K-12, Alok Verma

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The Engineering Technology (ET) degree emphasizes hands-on application and implementation. Graduates holding this degree play a valuable role in economically growing the US and keeping it internationally competitive. However, “engineering and engineering technology, are widely misunderstood… the public sector (employers, students, high-school counselors, politicians and the general public) needs to be educated as to the particular value of each,” according to Engineering.com [1]. The National Academy of Engineering states, “Unlike the much better-known field of engineering, engineering technology is unfamiliar to most Americans and goes unmentioned in most policy discussions about the US technical workforce. This is even though workers …

A Literature Review Of Quantum Education In K-12 Level, Yuming He, Shenghua Zha, Wu He, Theo Bastiaens (Ed.)

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Quantum computing is an emerging technology paradigm of computing and has the potential to solve computational problems intractable using today’s classical computers or digital technology. Quantum computing is expected to be disruptive for many industries. The power of quantum computing technologies is based on the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, such as quantum superposition, quantum entanglement, or the no-cloning theorem. To build a highly trained and skilled quantum workforce that meets future industry needs, there is a need to introduce quantum concepts early on in K-12 schools since the learning of quantum is a lengthy process. As fundamental quantum concepts derive …

A Comprehensive Audit Of Professional Development For K-12 School Leaders In The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Melissa Davis Hill, Melisa J. Naumann, Timothy M. Tillman, Major R. Warner Jr.

Doctor of Education Capstones

The intent of this paper is to provide a mixed-methods audit of professional development provided to K-12 school leadership in Virginia's diverse landscape to include identification of providers, funding, effectiveness, and expectations.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, geographical, political, and socio-economical differences across 132 school divisions cause variability in leaders' experiences with professional development. A mixed-methods approach was used, including a review of current literature, an online survey, virtual interviews, and virtual focus group discussions. This data collection results in a comprehensive audit of professional development provided to school leaders in Virginia's diverse landscape. The study defines effective professional development …

Facts And Trends Regarding Performance And Funding Of K-12 In Kentucky, John Garen

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

Kentucky’s K-12 experienced an 80% in increase in per pupil funds, after inflation, from 1990 to 2019. However, there have been only modest changes in its nationally-administered test scores, and no increases in the past decade. Moreover, per pupil funding seems to exceed that of all but the most exclusive private school tuition. Just over one-half of public funds goes directly to instruction and most funds to local schools come from Frankfort. Scoring on Kentucky’s own student assessment tests, the K-PREP, are higher than that of the comparable nationally-administered tests. Also, K-PREP shows improvement, while the other tests do not. …

Three Decades Of Research: The Case For Comprehensive Sex Education, Eva Goldfarb, Lisa D. Lieberman

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose

School-based sex education plays a vital role in the sexual health and well-being of young people. Little is known, however, about the effectiveness of efforts beyond pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention. The authors conducted a systematic literature review of three decades of research on school-based programs to find evidence for the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education.

Methods

Researchers searched the ERIC, PsycINFO, and MEDLINE. The research team identified papers meeting the systematic literature review criteria. Of 8,058 relevant articles, 218 met specific review criteria. More than 80% focused solely on pregnancy and disease prevention and were excluded, leaving …

Three Decades Of Research: The Case For Comprehensive Sex Education, Eva Goldfarb, Lisa D. Lieberman

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose

School-based sex education plays a vital role in the sexual health and well-being of young people. Little is known, however, about the effectiveness of efforts beyond pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention. The authors conducted a systematic literature review of three decades of research on school-based programs to find evidence for the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education.

Methods

Researchers searched the ERIC, PsycINFO, and MEDLINE. The research team identified papers meeting the systematic literature review criteria. Of 8,058 relevant articles, 218 met specific review criteria. More than 80% focused solely on pregnancy and disease prevention and were excluded, leaving …

Languages, Literacies, And Literate Programming: Can We Use The Latest Theories On How Bilingual People Learn To Help Us Teach Computational Literacies?, Sara Vogel, Christopher Hoadley, Ana Rebeca Castillo, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno

Publications and Research

Background and Context: In this theory paper, we explore the concept of translanguaging from bilingual education, and its implications for teaching and learning programming and computing in especially computer science (CS) for all initiatives.

Objective: We use translanguaging to examine how programming is and isn’t like using human languages. We frame CS as computational literacies. We describe a pedagogical approach for teaching computational literacies.

Method: We review theory from applied linguistics, literacy, and computational literacy. We provide a design narrative of our pedagogical approach by describing activities from bilingual middle school classrooms integrating Scratch into academic subjects.

Findings: Translanguaging pedagogy …

Teachers’ Experience With Problematic Behavior And Educational Support: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Kristen Michelle Brashear

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation was conducted to discover how teachers of elementary and middle school-aged children experience the phenomenon of problematic behavior in their classrooms and the support they receive from the educational system in this regard. The literature review revealed that there is a dearth of research using a purely qualitative approach to exploring the experience of teachers in this area. The idea that teachers are rarely asked how they experience problematic behavior and support was evident in the findings of this study. I conducted this study using a phenomenological approach to interview six teachers from three states. The interviews were …

Hr_Covid-19 - K-12 School And Daycare Closures, Chris Lindstrom

University of Maine Communications

Email from Chris Lindstrom, VP Human Resources, University of Maine regarding the need for University of Maine staff to work from home due to K-12 schools, preschools, and daycares closing as a result of COVID-19.

A Collaborative Online Micro: Bit K-12 Teacher Pd Workshop, Roisin Faherty, Karen Nolan, Keith Quille

Conference Papers

This poster describes the use of online technology to deliver K12 teacher professional development (PD) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. Traditionally these sessions are delivered in person, with a focus on hand-on activities, but the sudden changes faced by the closures in Ireland required an alternative approach for delivering these sessions. The PD session presented in this poster was a more technically challenging micro:bit workshop, which was delivered online using the micro:bit classroom. This is typically used as an in-class, one to many instructor tool, and trialing this as a PD collaborative tool, was a novel approach. This poster …

Effect Of Implementing Subgoals In Code.Org’S Intro To Programming Unit In Computer Science Principles, Lauren Margulieux, Briana Baker Morrison, Baker Franke, Harivololona Ramilison

Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The subgoal learning framework has improved performance for novice programmers in higher education, but it has only started to be applied and studied in K-12 (primary/secondary). Programming education in K-12 is growing, and many international initiatives are attempting to increase participation, including curricular initiatives like Computer Science Principles and non-profit organizations like Code.org. Given that subgoal learning is designed to help students with no prior knowledge, we designed and implemented subgoals in the introduction to programming unit in Code.org’s Computer Science Principles course. The redesigned unit includes subgoal-oriented instruction and subgoal-themed pre-written comments that students could add to their programming …

Building The Future Of Oer Through Pre-Service Teachers, Liz Thompson, Melissa Wells, Jessica Lantz

Libraries

According to recent literature and research, in-service teacher awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons licenses continues to be uneven and relatively low. Providing OER education while teachers are focused on learning in their degree-granting programs could be a sustainable long-term strategy to build awareness of OER with PK-12 instructors. A small research team, consisting of two Librarians, an Instructional Designer, and an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at two higher education institutions, designed a survey and intervention for pre-service teachers to measure and increase their levels of OER awareness. The purpose of the survey is …

Cs For What? Diverse Visions Of Computer Science Education In Practice, Rafi Santo, Sara Vogel, Dixie Ching

Publications and Research

CS Visions highlights the importance of core values when it comes to computer science education. Understanding different reasons for teaching computer science isn’t just important so that we can get other people to care about CS, they should also shape what computer science education efforts look like - who gets opportunities to learn, what kinds of things get taught and in what ways. Our values should be expressed in our practice.

An International Benchmark Study Of K-12 Computer Science Education In Schools, Katrina Falkner, Sue Sentance, Rebecca Vivian, Sarah Barksdale, Leonard Busuttil, Elizabeth Cole, Christine Liebe, Francesco Maiorana, Monica M. Mcgill, Keith Quille

Conference Papers

There has been a growing interest and increase in work shared about national K-12 Computer Science Education (CSED) curriculum and implementation efforts around the world. Much of this work focuses on curriculum analysis, country reports, experience reports and case studies. The K-12 CSED community would benefit from an international strategic effort to compare, contrast and monitor K-12 CSED over time, across multiple countries and regions, to understand pedagogy, practice, resources and experiences from the perspective of teachers working in classrooms. Furthermore, there is a need for validated and robust instruments that can support comparable investigations into the current state of …

Latina/O Students In K-12 Schools: A Synthesis Of Empirical Research On Factors Influencing Academic Achievement, Amanda Taggart

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this systematic review is to provide a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of the empirical evidence to date on the factors related to Latina/o student academic achievement in the country’s increasingly Latina/o K-12 schools. Factors found to be related to academic achievement outcomes (e.g., grades, test scores, high school completion, college enrollment) for Latina/o students include a combination of (1) demographic variables, (2) sociocultural variables, (3) academic experiences, (4) psychological variables, and (5) school/institutional variables. In addition, this research synthesis identified several methodological trends in the research on Latina/o student success.