Education Commons^™

Please Help Your Teachers Play Hookey With Us, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Posting about the 2014 National Council of Teachers of English annual convention and why it's good for both teachers and students from Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care - a blog advocating for authentic writing instruction.

http://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/please-help-your-teachers-play-hookey-with-us/

Forum: Teacher-Writers: Then, Now, And Next, Anne Elrod Whitney, Troy Hicks, Leah A. Zuidema, James E. Fredricksen, Robert P. Yagelski

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

In this article, the authors reflect upon “the teacher as writer” and describe how they see this concept and movement developing. They articulate a view of the teacher-writer as empowered advocate. Using examples from their scholarship, they illustrate how this powerful idea can transform research conducted about and with teachers. Finally, they draw attention to the potential of the teacher-writer stance as a means of resistance to current reform efforts that disempower teachers.

Education As Formation, David J. Mulder

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Most all of us have had a "long internship" in school--from kindergarten through high school--and we think we know what teachers do. Teaching is a very public profession, after all. But there is more to being a teacher than sharing information."

Posting about the formative nature of education from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/education-as-formation/

Critical Thinking And High-Level Discourse: Teaching, Learning, And Professional Development In A 1:1 Environment, Valorie L. Zonnefeld, Ryan G. Zonnefeld

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Rich Problem Solving Tasks, Valorie L. Zonnefeld

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Using Design Hierarchy In A Linear Circuits Class To Illustrate The Scientific Method As A Human Invention, Douglas Deboer

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

There are various ways to classify academic studies. One might make a “two cultures” division, separating academic studies into the humanities and sciences. Or one might have three divisions: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Or one might choose to classify academic studies along the lines of traditional academic disciplines such as theology, law, art, music, economics, social studies, languages, political studies, history, psychology, biology, physics, chemistry, math, etc. In our era of global commerce, where does engineering fit in these types of classification? What should engineers study? In a 2008 presidential debate, candidate Barack Obama said that, “Ensuring that …

Support And Ideas For Economic Education, Ed Starkenburg, Erica Vonk

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Presentation covers opportunities to engage K-12th grade students in hands-on financial and economic materials that meet Iowa's content requirements. Also introduces the Dordt College Center for Economic Education and the services available and free resources available to teachers.

Augustinian Approach To Holistic Christian Pedagogy, Adam Schultz, Neal Deroo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Presenters explain how in their CORE philosophy class they seek to demonstrate that their students' real life-spiritual life distinction is symptomatic of a dualism endemic to contemporary Christianity (section 1), and that their reading of Augustine's Confessions can provide a unified and holistic corrective to it (section 2) and that doing so helps students see a more radical vision of Christian faithfulness, one that calls for a holistic, life-wide response to the work of Christ that will not allow for an easy distinction between ‘spiritual’ life and everyday life (section 3).

Engaging Students In Financial And Economic Literacy With Free Resources, Erica Vonk, Ed Starkenburg, Art Attema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Presentation covers opportunities to engage 3rd-12th grade students in hands-on financial and economic materials that meet Iowa's content requirements. This session will introduce you to the Dordt College Center for Economic Education, the services available and free resources available to teachers.

Love, Creation, Virtue As Models For Environmental Education, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

A look at how love, creation, and virtue should shape our conversations about the environment and environmental education.

Arts Of War: Reconsidering Conflict Through Interdisciplinary Artistic Collaboration, John Macinnis

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

CORE 160: Introduction to the Arts is required as part of the core curriculum at Dordt College and is team taught every semester by four professors who each address a different art form: Music, Theatre, Film, and Visual Art. Semesters are divided in half, and students select two art forms for special attention. Additionally, all students meet in two mass sections in which the team of professors address topics spanning all the arts. These mass sections are an opportunity to demonstrate for students that interdisciplinary collaboration around a given topic often produces remarkable insight.

Last year, in recognition of the …

Using Dialogic Discussion To Boost Vocabulary, Gwen R. Marra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Workshop presentation on reading aloud to young children given at the 2014 Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children Conference in Altoona, Iowa.

Response To Intervention At The Secondary Level: The Effectiveness Of A Tier One Model, Kimberly A. Berliner

Master of Education Program Theses

Research on the effectiveness of Response to Intervention (RtI) models used at the secondary level is limited. Most studies focus primarily on elementary settings. In addition to this, states vary in their progression through RtI implementation process. This study seeks to look at one model implemented at a high school with the purpose of increasing literacy for freshman and sophomore students. The study seeks to determine what are the most effective methods for implementing RtI and who should be tasked with the various roles within implementation.

Letter To The Editor: A Response To Dr. Teresa Terhaar’S “The Task And Role Of Theater”, John Schuurman

Pro Rege

Response to "The Task and Role of Theatre" by Teresa TerHaar, Pro Rege vol. 42, pp. 34-39. (March 2014).

More Than A Number, Kailee Wolterstorff

Staff Work

"Each student I talk with is a person created in the image of God and they matter in God's kingdom."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­encouraging prospective college students from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/more-than-a-number/

Vocabulary Growth Using Nonfiction Literature And Dialogic Discussions In Preschool Classrooms, Gwen R. Marra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The preschool years are a crucial time for children to develop vocabulary knowledge. A quality preschool environment promotes large amounts of language usage including picture book read alouds and discussions. There is growing research to support the use of nonfiction literature in preschool classrooms to promote vocabulary growth and knowledge of the world for preschool children. This research study compared vocabulary growth of preschool children using fiction and dialogic discussions versus vocabulary growth of preschool children using nonfiction and dialogic discussions following a six week study of autumn and changes that happen during this season to the environment and animals. …

Team Analysis And Review: Using Group Assessment For Learning, Kayt E. Frisch

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Team work is widely reported to be a highly desired skill by prospective employers and professional schools. To help my students develop teamwork skills I have been using group quizzes called “Team Analysis And Review” (TAARs) in my introductory algebra-based physics course. A TAAR takes the full 50-minute class period and the students will review the material on the quiz three times during the period: individually, in an assigned group, and finally as a whole class. The individual TAAR allows the student to identify personal gaps in their understanding of the material. The group TAAR encourages peer instruction and offers …

Weaving Experimental Skills Throughout The Introductory Laboratory, John Zwart

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The laboratory portion of an introductory course sequence can be used to meet a wide variety of goals ranging from illustrating phenomena studied in class, to building intuition about how the physical world works, to confronting the unexpected. Helping students develop experimental skills is a crucial goal that needs to be addressed in lab, especially in light of the fact that most introductory textbooks do not specifically address this topic. Important skills that students should learn in lab include how to analyze data, how to communicate results and the art of designing an experiment. This presentation will discuss how we …

Quantitative Evidence For The Use Of Simulation And Randomization In The Introductory Statistics Course, Nathan L. Tintle, Ally Rogers, Beth Chance, George Cobb, Allan Rossman, Soma Roy, Todd Swanson, Jill Vanderstoep

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The use of simulation and randomization in the introductory statistics course is gaining popularity, but what evidence is there that these approaches are improving students’ conceptual understanding and attitudes as we hope? In this talk I will discuss evidence from early full-length versions of such a curriculum, covering issues such as (a) items and scales showing improved conceptual performance compared to traditional curriculum, (b) transferability of findings to different institutions, (c) retention of conceptual understanding post-course and (d) student attitudes. Along the way I will discuss a few areas in which students in both simulation/randomization courses and the traditional course …

From Defending Theism To Discerning Spirits: Reconceiving The Task Of Christian Philosophy, Neal Deroo

Pro Rege

Dr. Neal DeRoo presented this paper at a joint meeting of the Society for Christian Philosophers and the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology, held at Trinity College, June 2014. The topic of the meeting was, "What is Christian Philosophy," celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the publication of Alvin Plantinga's landmark essay "Advice to Christian Philosophers."

Poythress’S Trinitarian Logic: A Review Essay, Calvin Jongsma

Pro Rege

Reviewed Title: Vern Sheridan Poythress. Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought. Crossway, 2013. 733 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4335-3229-0.

Jake Van Wyk’S Angels And Beasts -- An Art Exhibition: No Holds Barred, David Versluis

Pro Rege

David Versluis wrote this paper to celebrate the final art exhibition of Jake Van Wyk, Professor of Art at Dordt College.

New Leviathan: How I Implemented The Aas’S Periodicals Database In My Traditional American Literature Survey Class, And Lived To Tell The Tale, Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This past summer, our small college’s library purchased a permanent subscription to the American Antiquarian Society’s new Historical Periodicals Collection (series 1-5). In northwest Iowa, where there is no such database for hundreds of miles, this purchase is a research boon for local scholars. The catch, though? I needed to implement the database thoroughly in the college’s only early American literature class, a traditional survey spanning 1492 to 1865. Beyond all of the topics, authors, and agendas that could be covered—and the typical dilemma between coverage and depth in a survey class—now I needed to incorporate the teaching of periodical …

Technology- Infused Teacher Preparation: Connecting Technology And Pedagogy, David J. Mulder

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Mulder asserts that as teacher educators move away from stand-alone technology courses towards the integration approach, clear descriptions for what knowledge and skills pre-service teacher must develop are needed. and once decided, faculty in teacher preparation programs will need to clearly articulate an approach for integrating technology into the program. He goes on to explain the TPACK framework, which currently serves as a preeminent model for exploring technology integration in education.

Game Time: Choosing Apps And Games That Align To The Common Core, Ryan G. Zonnefeld, Valorie L. Zonnefeld

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Kindergarten Phonics Instruction, Erika Hall

Master of Education Program Theses

Understanding phonics is a critical component in a young student's ability to read. Research studies have shown the important role phonics plays in helping students become strong readers. The purpose of this study was to discover the ways that kindergarten teachers in Christian schools in West Michigan are teaching phonics in their classrooms, and to determine if kindergarten teachers share a list of common phonics goals for each of their kindergarteners to achieve by the end of kindergarten. The present study was a qualitative design using a survey to collect information from teachers in private elementary school kindergarten classrooms in …

Effective Transitional Strategies For The First Grade Classroom, Ashley Rose Perrin

Master of Education Program Theses

Transitions take time in any classroom. First grade students make many transitions in a day. Students transition from activity to activity as well as moving from location to location. With a limited amount of instructional time, teachers strive to have their students engaged in learning and to increase the students’ time on task. There are transitional strategies available that teachers utilize to decrease transition time and increase student-learning time. Two such strategies are visual cues, such as a timer; and auditory cues, like a song. The goal of this research study was to discover effective transition strategies for first grade …

Teaching Third-Grade Writing Using The Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model, Ellen Korver

Master of Education Program Theses

Writing is a self-directed activity that involves the intelligent use of a variety of mental operations and skills. Christian teachers want their students to be able to write well because it enables them not only to examine God’s world for themselves, but also to communicate with others. This communication is essential in many areas of modern life. However, research studies show that many students have only partially mastered writing skills. In this study, the effectiveness of an instructional mode, the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model, was examined in order to determine if its implementation would have a positive effect on …

Self-Assessment In The Middle School Science Classroom, Stephanie Tanis

Master of Education Program Theses

Teachers using self-assessment in classrooms understand its vital role in a student’s ability to understand their own learning. The diversity of the student learners requires a diversity of assessment strategies. Specifically, in an inquiry-based science classroom, students must be able to identify their current skills and their areas of growth. The implementation of self-assessment strategies helps students to set goals and achieve them. The goal of the researcher in this study was to determine if self-assessment strategies are effective in the middle school science classroom and to determine if such strategies provide evidence supporting the growth of student achievement. Through …

Correlation Between Interactive Ebooks And Printed Text In Reading Achievement And Student Interest, Kimberly D. Beimers

Master of Education Program Theses

Interactive eBooks or traditional printed text? Teachers face difficult decisions when determining which are the most effective tools to use to increase student reading achievement. Studies (Chong, Lim, & Ling, 2009; Ciampa, 2012; Coyle, 2008; Huang, Liang, Su, & Chen, 2012; Jones, & Brown, 2011; Larson, 2010; Martinez-Estrada, & Conaway, 2012; Maynard, 2010), have found that students prefer the additional features of interactive eBooks over traditional printed text; however, studies have failed to prove that these additional text features increase student reading achievement over traditional printed text. There has not been enough evidence to show that student reading achievement increases …