Education Commons^™

A Critical Humanist Curriculum, Kevin Magill, Arturo Rodriguez

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay is a critical humanist discussion of curriculum; a departure from the technicist view of education [education meant to support a global capitalist economy] and an analysis of curriculum considering critical humanism, political economy and critical race theory among other modes of critical analysis and inquiry. Our discussion supports a revolutionary curriculum: the turn from a static coercive system of domination where the everyday lives of students are controlled to a dynamic liberatory education where education supports a student's imaginary (Pinar), creativity and their everyday practice of freedom (Freire, Greene, hooks).

A Comparison Of Learning In Dual Credit Introductory College Physics, Eric L. Thies

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Dual credit courses have been offered for over fifty years and have helped students save time and money during their college education. However, little has been done to study the quality of the dual credit courses themselves. The literature is unclear about whether students in dual credit programs learn the same material as the students enrolled in the same course at the university level.

The purpose of my study was to determine whether students in a concurrent enrollment introductory physics course achieve the same knowledge growth as university students enrolled in the same physics course. I used the Force Concept …

Finding Success In Elementary Science Across Socioeconomic Boundaries, Jill K. Hettinger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Elementary science education provides a platform for intellectual development, building a foundation of scientific literacy and a first entry point into interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. A significant body of research on elementary science education clearly defines what high-quality science education should look like at the elementary level. However, there is little understood about how to implement high-quality science instruction effectively within a school system. Prior research indicates that this problem is further compounded in low socioeconomic elementary schools by a lack of resources, time, and high teacher mobility. I used descriptive research to identify the …

Moving From Education 1.0 Through Education 2.0 Towards Education 3.0, Jackie Gerstein

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article compares the developments of the Internet and the Web with those of education. The web influences people's way of thinking, doing and being, and people influence the development and content of the web. The evolution of the web from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and now to Web 3.0 can be used as a metaphor of how education should also be evolving, as a movement from Education 1.0 towards that of Education 3.0. The Web, Internet, Social Media, and the evolving, emerging technologies have created a perfect storm or convergence of resources, tools, open and free information access. …

The Battle For Higher Standards, Tom Luna, Mike Rush, Rod Gramer, Roger Stewart

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the aftermath of the federal mandates imposed through No Child Left Behind, the state-led effort to establish common math and English standards across states—known as the Common Core State Standards—seemed a welcome change in the approach to improving student achievement and success. However, the effort to ensure that students were ready for college or the workforce became the political target of those who distrust federal mandates and fear a nationalized education agenda bent on social engineering. The standards became intertwined with NSA spying, data mining, and federal grants for education with strings attached.

Children's Choices Through The Years: Some Surprising Results, Stan Steiner, Maggie Chase, Eun Hye Son

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

It’s difficult to ignore all the recent teacher talk about the importance of helping our students become adept users of nonfiction texts. With this rising interest and attention being focused on nonfiction books, spurred by the adoption of Common Core Standards, we decided to look at the Children’s Choices finalists over the last ten years to determine if there was a connection to what children liked to read. We were especially curious about how many of the award winning books selected by children were actually nonfiction. Given our findings, we also decided to investigate further by analyzing all the publishers’ …

Nacherzeugung, Nachverstehen: A Phenomenological Perspective On How Public Understanding Of Science Changes By Engaging With Online Media, Wolff-Michael Roth, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is widely acknowledged in science education that everyday understandings and evidence are generally inconsistent with the scientific view of the matter: “heartache” has little to do with matters cardiopulmonary, and a rising or setting sun actually reflects the movements of the earth. How then does a member of the general public, which in many areas of science is characterized as “illiterate” and “non-scientific,” come to regard something scientifically? Moreover, how do traditional unscientific (e.g., Ptolemaic) views continue their lives, even many centuries after scientists have overthrown them in what are termed scientific (e.g., Copernican) revolutions? In this study, we …

Waldenfels’ Responsive Phenomenology Of The Alien: An Introduction, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Merleau-Ponty has famously said of phenomenological reflection that it “steps back to watch the forms of transcendence fly up like sparks from a fire; it slackens the intentional threads which attach us to the world and thus brings them to our notice” (1962, p. xiii) Bernhard Waldenfels, whose notion of responsivity forms the focus of this reflective review, studied under Merleau-Ponty at the Collège de France in the early 1960s. Waldenfels has characterized his own work as “a further development of the existential-structural phenomenology in Merleau-Ponty’s sense” (1997, p. xvii). At the same time, Waldenfels diverges in fundamental ways from …

Mollenhauer & Forgotten Connections: An Intellectual/Biographical Sketch, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Klaus Mollenhauer was born in 1928 in Berlin. Like other Germans born at the end of the 1920s (e.g., Jürgen Habermas), Mollenhauer was forced to join the German army as a teenager at the end of the Second World War. After he was captured by the Soviets and imprisoned for almost seven weeks by British forces, Mollenhauer returned to school in 1946. Then he attended the College of Education in Göttingen in what was then West Germany. When asked about an underlying theme in his life’s work, Mollenhauer responded by re-stating a question originally formulated by hermeneutician Friedrich Schleiermacher: “I …

The Wingman Project: An Exploratory Study Of School-Based Communication With Grandparents, Meghan Eliason

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, I explain the design and implementation of an e-newsletter created to engage grandparents with public schools. A brief literature review, the process for creating the e-newsletter, and my data collection methods are explained. The conclusions and implementations offered provide insight into how public schools can engage grandparents as important members of their school communities.

Perceived Reactions Of Elementary School Students To Changes In School Lunches After Implementation Of The United States Department Of Agriculture's New Meals Standards: Minimal Backlash, But Rural And Socioeconomic Disparities Exist, Lindsey Turner, Frank J. Chaloupka

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2014

Background: Updated standards for meals sold through the USDA's National School Lunch Program took effect at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year. The current study assessed the perceptions of school staff regarding student reactions to these changes in school lunches and how perceptions varied across schools.

Methods: Mailback surveys were gathered from administrators and food service staff at a nationally representative sample of 557 US public elementary schools in the second half of the 2012-2013 school year.

Results: Half of the respondents (56.4%) agreed that students complained about the meals at first, but 70% agreed that students like the …

Gravity & Einstein: Assessing The Rubber Sheet Analogy In Undergraduate Conceptual Physics, Tiffany Rae Watkins

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The rubber sheet analogy for Einstein’s General Relativity model of gravity is a popular way to visualize the effect mass has on the curvature of spacetime. My single group, quasi-experimental study with repeated measures was designed to assess the effectiveness of the rubber sheet analogy in teaching gravitational fields. I developed instructional materials, including a hands-on lab, to engage university students in thinking about gravity using the rubber sheet analogy. Previous research on students’ ideas about gravity informed the development of the pre/post-test. My work is an important first step in establishing a standard assessment on gravity.

Approximately 97 students …

Reasoning & Proof In The Hs Common Core, Laurie O. Cavey

Laurie O. Cavey

No abstract provided.

How Do They Know It Is A Parallelogram? Analysing Geometric Discourse At Van Hiele Level 3, Sasha Wang, Margaret Kinzel

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, we introduce Sfard's discursive framework and use it to investigate prospective teachers' geometric discourse in the context of quadrilaterals. In particular, we focus on describing and analysing two participants' use of mathematical words and substantiation routines related to parallelograms and their properties at van Hiele level 3 thinking. Our findings suggest that a single van Hiele level of thinking encompasses a range of complexity of reasoning and differences in discourse and thus a deeper investigation of students' mathematical thinking within assigned van Hiele levels is warranted.

Using Solution Strategies To Examine And Promote High School Students’ Understanding Of Exponential Functions: One Teacher’S Attempt, Jonathan L. Brendefur, Kim Bunning, Walter G. Secada

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Much research has been conducted on how elementary students develop mathematical understanding and subsequently how teachers might use this information. This article builds on this type of work by investigating how one high-school algebra teacher designs and conducts a lesson on exponential functions. Through a lesson study format she studies with her colleagues how other algebra students have mathematically modeled a bacteria growth problem with no prior formal instruction. Analysis revealed that the teacher was able to use students’ algebraic thinking to structure her class and begin promoting mathematical understanding. The implications for building on students’ conceptions of algebra are …

Enhanced Storytimes: Effects On Parent/Caregiver Knowledge, Motivation, And Behaviors, Roger A. Stewart, Stephanie Bailey-White, Staci Shaw, Erica Compton, Saroj Ghoting

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article offers information regarding the released of the Every Child Ready @ your library initiative's second edition of the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children in 2011. It states that the initiative features five practices based in high-quality oral language development in children such as reading, writing, and talking. It mentions that the initiative will help children in early literacy development and will educate caregivers and parents.

Exploring The Impact Of Role-Playing On Peer Feedback In An Online Case-Based Learning Activity, Yu-Hui Ching

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explored the impact of role-playing on the quality of peer feedback and learners’ perception of this strategy in a case-based learning activity with VoiceThread in an online course. The findings revealed potential positive impact of role-playing on learners’ generation of constructive feedback as role-playing was associated with higher frequency of problem identification in the peer comments. Sixty percent of learners perceived the role-play strategy useful in assisting them to compose and provide meaningful feedback. Multiple motivations drove learners in making decisions on role choice when responding to their peers, mostly for peer benefits. Finally, 90% of learners reported …

Establishing An Equitable And Fair Admissions System For An Online Doctoral Program, Ross A. Perkins, Patrick R. Lowenthal

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The field of educational technology has seen marked growth from just a small number of distance-based doctoral programs to nearly 20 today. Creating and sustaining a quality doctoral program of any kind requires a substantial amount of work; the additional challenges of online programs both increases and changes the nature of the efforts required. Among these challenges is creating an admissions process that treats people fairly, does not create a burdensome system for applicants or those involved in the selection process, and ensures the selection of a solid foundation of high quality candidates with whom faculty can mentor, who add …

Creating A Stem Identity: Investment With Return, Janet Callahan, Patricia Pyke, Susan Shadle, R. Eric Landrum

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Establishing a strong STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) identity at Boise State University, a metropolitan campus with approximately 3,655 undergraduate STEM students and a total undergraduate enrollment of approximately 19,042 (16,136 FTE) has been an important step toward creating a climate conducive to facilitating fundamental change. Examples of such change include building collaborations among faculty within and across departments, establishing the identity of students as part of a community beyond their chosen major, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of university systems, and perhaps most importantly, developing a framework to think deliberately about ways to effect change. This paper is …

Private Lives And Interior Spaces: Raja Ravi Varma's Scholar Paintings, Niharika Dinkar

Art, Design & Visual Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Between 1900 and 1904, the celebrated Indian academic painter Raja Ravi Varma painted two depictions of men reading (plate 1 and plate 2). The works are unusual, so much so, as to be quite unrecognizable from the mythological paintings and princely portraits that earned Ravi Varma his reputation with patrons and clients. Ravi Varma was best known for his paintings of lovelorn women gazing comely at the viewer and although men had featured in several commissioned portraits they were rarely presented as idealised figures. His sketchbooks feature several examples of men in everyday scenes, so it is evident …

Integrated, Interactive Learning In Museums, Terra Feast

Art Graduate Theses and Projects

For this project, I researched, developed, and integrated, interactive and participatory educational components directly into the Boise Art Museum’s (BAM) exhibition spaces in order to create more pathways for learning about art among different types of visitors. My project is based on a review of best practices in museum education and visitor engagement, focusing on in-gallery interactive and participatory learning opportunities, as well as in-depth, onsite research conducted at five leading museums in London, England. After I returned from London, BAM received funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support the integration of in-gallery educational components …

Holistic Approach To Promoting Student Engagement: Case Studies Of Six Refugee Students In Upper Elementary, Kathleen Mullen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The pre-migration context experienced by many refugees significantly impacts their ability to develop human capital. This, combined with increased placement in areas with little immigration history, can make it more difficult for refugee students to engage fully with school. This study explores the pre-and post-migration experiences of six upper elementary refugee youth and the experiences of school staff new to working with refugee students. Staff found that these students expanded the skill range they needed to address but, like native-born youth, they were best able to engage with school when staff used a holistic focus to promote student learning.

Effects Of Peer Labeling On Middle School Student Engagement In Stem Subjects, Stacey Kristine Stanton

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Much attention has been given to the shortage of STEM professionals entering the workforce in the United States. Reasons for the disinterest in pursuing STEM degrees are many. Some argue students are disinterested with STEM content during early adolescence as a result of negative peer labeling, such as “brain” or “nerd,” towards individuals who demonstrate aptitude in STEM content. The purpose of my study was to investigate whether peer labeling in middle school is directed towards students who show an aptitude for STEM content, and further, to determine whether peer labeling impacts motivation and engagement in STEM content. There are …

Teachers’ Knowledge Of Formative Assessment Initial Instrument Validation Study, Amanda L. Bremner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Formative assessment research indicates that use of formative assessment positively impacts student achievement. Teachers ought to be provided professional development in formative assessment in order to make it an integral part of their classroom practice. Just as teachers need to assess student knowledge prior to instruction, teacher knowledge of formative assessment needs to be assessed in order to guide the professional development teachers receive. However, no instrument exists that assesses teacher knowledge of formative assessment. An instrument to assess teacher knowledge of formative assessment was created and piloted. The results of the pilot study indicated the instrument had modest reliability. …

Exploring The Reflective Practice Among Saudi Female In-Service Teachers, Ghada Almazrawi

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the reflective practice among Saudi female in-service teachers. The purpose of this research was to examine the reflective practice skills and attitudes that are used by Saudi teachers. It observed the voice of Saudi teachers during their reflection on their daily practice. Then, this study used the teachers’ narratives to understand how they actually use reflective teaching skills in their classrooms. This study followed convergent parallel mixed methods research design where quantitative and qualitative data were collected separately but concurrently. The study participants were chosen by following the process of stratified random sampling to provide proportional representation …

The Relationship Between Student Perceived Teacher Dispositions Of Care And Student Outcomes Of Belief, Understanding, And Application Of Lds Doctrine, Casey Alexander Fuhriman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between student-perceived teacher dispositions of care and student self-reported outcomes of belief, understanding, and application of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) doctrine. Since the release of the Teaching Emphasis in 2003, LDS seminary leadership has consistently emphasized the importance of positive teacher dispositions of care and the relationship it has with desired student outcomes of LDS seminary students. However, no known studies to date have gathered and analyzed data to determine if such a relationship exists. Data regarding student-perceived teacher dispositions of care and student outcomes of belief, understanding, and application …

Content Integration In Elementary Schools, Lauren Lucas

College of Education Presentations

There never seems to be enough time to teach all that teachers want to teach and all that is required in elementary schools. The purpose of this inquiry project is to take a deeper look into what it is that teachers are required to teach within the Common Core State Standards and see if there is a way to integrate these standards with other content areas. The goal is to provide more information for teachers and other professional educators as to the benefits and drawbacks of content integration. Research was performed through personal instruction, observations of instruction, and interaction with …

Successes Exhibited In 5th Grade Students Participating In Leadership Programs, Kelsey Lovell

College of Education Presentations

This project involves researching the academic and social effects of leadership programs for exceptional 5th grade students. These students attend a Title I elementary school in Boise, Idaho. Students attend bi-weekly leadership trainings to increase confidence as a leader and learn leadership skills. They will be observed during these trainings and in the everyday classroom. Results will be based upon academic fluctuation and successes accomplished from before the Everyday Leadership Program and throughout the program. Social constraints will also be researched through classroom interactions and observation, as well as behavior with other classmates, and overall self-confidence. All students personal information …

Goal Setting And Rewards For Addressing Nonresponse To Empirical Intervention, Jeremy W. Ford

Jeremy W. Ford

Reread-Adapt and Answer-Comprehend (RAAC) is an intervention targeting difficulties with reading fluency and comprehension. Previous research has demonstrated RAAC to be effective for students with and without disabilities. This study extended research using RAAC by using goal setting and rewards. Participants will learn how to use these strategies to implement less intrusive changes for when a student does not respond to an empirically-based intervention prior to more intrusive changes (e.g., duration, frequency, different intervention).

Cbms And Postsecondary Students With Developmental Disabilities: Examining Technical Adequacy, John L. Hosp, Jeremy W. Ford, Kiersten Hensley, Sally M. Huddle

Jeremy W. Ford

For students with developmental disabilities (DD), postsecondary education opportunities are increasing and they require focused academic skill instruction. Tools for progress monitoring (e.g., Curriculum-Based Measurement; CBM) are needed however, research with CBM and students with DD is limited. Participants will be able to evaluate the technical adequacy of these instruments.