Education Commons^™

Discussion In The College Classroom: Getting Your Students Engaged And Participating In Person And Online. Jay R. Howard, 2015, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 224 Pp., $38.00 (Hardcover)., Tiffany Flowers

Journal of Research Initiatives

Discussion in the college classroom is an important and timely book for college level instructors who want to improve, revise, and deliver engaging courses across disciplines. The purpose of this work is to help college instructors understand the purpose behind fostering classroom discussions. Issues related to participation, classroom management, and class facilitation is discussed within this work. College instructors who teach face-to-face and online courses will find the content of this book useful. In the next section of this review, the reviewer provides a detailed overview of each chapter in the book and discusses the importance of this body of …

Connect 222 - December 2016

Connect

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Student And Instructor Experiences With Types Of Teaching And Learning In A Computer Course, Emily Carter Gray

Doctoral Dissertations

Research has shown that active classroom engagement increases the learning performance of students in higher education (Cross, 2000; Reese, 2013). This study sought to examine the experiences of students and instructor in a computer applications course in which the pedagogy was changed to encourage additional interaction among students and between students and the instructor. The goal of the study was to generate useful, practical knowledge (Reason & Bradbury, 2001) to help the instructor better understand her pedagogy with the intention of improving both her teaching practice and student learning outcomes, as well as to contribute to related literature in adult …

Student Behavioral Engagement Of Fifth-Grade Gifted Students In A General Education Class, Charron Rodriguez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This observational study surveyed the engagement of fifth-grade gifted students who spend the majority of their academic day in a general education classroom. This study looked at students in a K-6 public school district in Southern California. This study was a qualitative study with some quantitative data to confirm observational findings. The methods included observations, observational notes, audio and video recordings. After the observations the recordings were reviewed to assure the observational notes accurately portrayed the actions of the target students. The measures included student surveys, observational data via the Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools instrument, and teacher interviews. …

Increasing Student Learning Through Arts Integration, Codi Feland, Kylie Petrik, Jacob Larson

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research study was designed to examine the effects of the arts integration on student learning. Student learning was broken down by focusing on student engagement, critical thinking, and creative response. Research was conducted with 72 participants from fourth grade, fifth grade, and ninth grade classrooms within the social studies curriculum. Data collection methods included a pre-assessment survey, student journal prompts, observation tally sheets, student self-assessments, and the post-assessment survey. The results of our study indicated that student learning in each classroom maintained or improved when the arts were integrated. Students showed enthusiasm and felt optimistic towards integrating the …

Transfer Student Experiences At A Four-Year University, Virginia Kay Stewart-Hattar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In recent years attention has been concentrated on the experiences of traditional college students, with very little research or attention on the experiences of transfer students. The purpose of this causal comparative mixed-methods study was to describe the experiences of transfer students who engage in the experiential learning activities of service learning and/or internship activities at a four-year public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the Inland Empire. Relationships were found between transfer students who participated in service learning and/or internship activities and those transfer students who did not participate in those activities on the following: level of satisfaction with their …

An Exploration Of Student Views On Grading And Learning In An Alternative School Setting, Lisa Heipp

Dissertations

Reducing barriers to learning is vital. High school teachers focus tirelessly on how best to engage students in learning; however, grading, which is a fundamental aspect of a teacher’s responsibilities, may be a significant barrier to learning. This dissertation examines students’ views on grading and learning in an alternative high school setting. The twelve students who are the focus of this research have experienced traditional school settings and an alternative charter school setting, thus they offer a perspective on grading and learning that is more widely informed than the majority of students in schools. This study is motivated by three …

Imagine, Interrupt, Innovate: Internationalising Teaching And Learning Practice, Sherry J. Hattingh, Steven W. Thompson, Peter Williams, Lindsay Morton

Lindsay Morton

Internationalisation of the curriculum is a key research area at the intersection of teaching and learning. Increasing numbers of international students in Australian schools and tertiary institutions necessitate the reconceptualisation of curriculum to incorporate global perspectives and develop intercultural competencies of both students and teachers. Accordingly, this research project identified key discipline areas at Avondale College of Higher Education in which to perform pedagogical intervention with an internationalisation focus. Three lecturers undertook action research in the areas of Primary Education, Business and Theology, resulting in the production of culturallyinformed perspectives, increased cross-cultural awareness and the identification of areas for future …

Imagine, Interrupt, Innovate: Internationalising Teaching And Learning Practice, Sherry J. Hattingh, Steven W. Thompson, Peter Williams, Lindsay Morton

Sherene Hattingh

Internationalisation of the curriculum is a key research area at the intersection of teaching and learning. Increasing numbers of international students in Australian schools and tertiary institutions necessitate the reconceptualisation of curriculum to incorporate global perspectives and develop intercultural competencies of both students and teachers. Accordingly, this research project identified key discipline areas at Avondale College of Higher Education in which to perform pedagogical intervention with an internationalisation focus. Three lecturers undertook action research in the areas of Primary Education, Business and Theology, resulting in the production of culturallyinformed perspectives, increased cross-cultural awareness and the identification of areas for future …

Connect 221 - October 2016

Connect

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Apps For Enhancing Student Engagement And Learning, Chrissann Ruehle, Mary Martin, Cuauhtémoc Luna-Nevarez, Nick Barnes

WCBT Faculty Publications

Individuals in todays on the go society frequently rely on mobile devices and apps to manage their daily business. Common uses for apps include entertainment, online banking, travel planning and ecommerce in addition to a host of other activities. Factoring in the proliferation of mobile devices, marketing educators are searching for innovative tools and techniques to boost student engagement through the use of apps. The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework for integrating apps into the curriculum as well as provide specific examples that educators can utilize to strengthen engagement and learning.

The Cu Online Handbook 2011, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Kathleen Pounders, Joanna C. Dunlap, Elizabeth Conner, Howard Cook, David Thomas, Jeffrey R. Nystrom, Rodney Muth, Kelly Bergman, Margarita Bianco, Dan Mccollom, Sherri Clemens, Melissa Kreider, Barbara J. Dray, Stephanie Townsend, Storm Gloor, Tod Duncan, Jozianne Mestas, David Paul, Connie L. Fulmer, Anna Thai, Brian Yuhnke, J. Dobrovolny

Margarita Bianco

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Transdisciplinary Threshold Concepts On Student Engagement In Problem-Based Learning: A Conceptual Synthesis, Maggi Savin-Baden

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

There has been much recent discussion about student engagement in higher education, and in the last few years a number of authors have undertaken extensive international research on the topic, which has been summarized in a number of literature reviews. However, to date, there has been relatively little in-depth exploration of student engagement in problem-based learning (PBL) or the impact of different forms of engagement on distinct forms of PBL. Drawing on a number of studies over the last 15 years, this paper argues that student engagement in PBL can be troublesome as both a concept and a practice. It …

The Key Of Connection, Lori Desautels

Lori Desautels

Over the past few weeks, I have learned deeply. My students were paramount teachers as I was privileged to share a part of their interior worlds, their "private logic" that is a culmination of accumulated beliefs, experiences, values, thoughts and feelings. This inner world is often kept tucked away unless an environment is created that allows for feelings of safety and an untainted sense of belonging. When any child or adult enters into a space that accepts, inspires and affirms their "ever-changing personhood," we have finally found the key that unlocks the door to extravagant learning! What is that key? …

The Adolescent Brain: Leaving Childhood Behind, Lori Desautels

Lori Desautels

There isn't a more profound scene in the film Inside Out than the death of Bing Bong, Riley’s imaginary friend. As the main character approaches her 12th birthday, her brain is beginning to develop in ways that leave her imagination behind. This is the time when children between the ages of 10 and 14 begin dying to their childhoods to be born into their adolescence.

Contagious Emotions And Responding To Stress, Lori Desautels

Lori Desautels

Neuroscience research suggests that emotions are contagious. Our brains are social organs, and we are wired for relationships. When we encounter or experience intense emotions from another individual, we feel those feelings as if they were our own. Mirror neurons in our brains are responsible for empathy, happiness, and the contagious anger, sadness, or anxiety that we feel when another person is experiencing these same feelings.

Brain Labs: A Place To Enliven Learning, Lori Desautels

Lori Desautels

Although emotion and cognition originate in different parts of the brain, they interact and play a powerful role in learning and memory. According to neuroscientists like Eric Jensen, priming the brain for particular states of engagement -- such as curiosity, intrigue, surprise, suspense, a bit of confusion, skepticism, and the feeling of safety -- prepares the mind to learn. Furthermore, incorporating emotion into our instruction and content supports long-term memory. This might not be news to teachers, but not enough students know how to optimize their brain for learning. That's why every child should have the opportunity to explore …

3 Things Students Desire To Hear From Teachers, Lori Desautels

Lori Desautels

A year and a half ago, I decided that I needed to return to the K-12 classrooms and really experience ground-level teaching, testing, core standards, differentiating, and emotionally connecting with children and adolescents in ways I had not for many years. I have been and still am an assistant professor in the school of education at Marian University, but the environments, experiences, and my own learning have grown and changed immensely from returning to the classroom 18 months ago.

I asked the university for a course release, taking the lectures, research, and strategies into the early adolescent grades. And three …

Connect 220 - August, 2016

Connect

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The Stem Teacher Enrichment Academy : Evaluating Teachers’ Approaches To Implementing Stem Education In Secondary School Contexts, Judy Anderson

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Amidst calls for a greater focus on STEM education in schools, attention is inevitably drawn to the quality of teaching and to appropriate means of supporting the teaching workforce so that more young people are engaged and interested in STEM subjects. This presentation describes the development and implementation of a STEM Teacher Enrichment Academy at the University of Sydney, and presents some of the outcomes from teachers’ efforts to implement STEM education across a variety of school systems. The findings draw on survey and interview data from two cohorts of participant teachers and their STEM mentors as they progressed through …

Drawing To Learn In Stem, Russell Tytler

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Scientists, mathematicians and engineers draw and model to create knowledge. This presentation will describe a guided inquiry approach to teaching and learning science that involves students actively creating visual and other representations to reason and explain as they explore the material world. The approach has been successfully used in a number of major professional learning initiatives in Victoria and NSW. Evidence will be presented of increased student engagement and quality learning flowing from the approach, which aligns classroom processes more authentically with processes of imaginative scientific discovery. Examples of activities and student drawings and model construction will be used to …

Facilitating Student Documentary Projects Toward 21-Century Literacy And Civic Engagement, Steven Goodman

Occasional Paper Series

The author describes how he uses video making as a way to engage students in high-needs schools. Goodman believes video making projects can help counter the ways minority students are made invisible by school curriculum and the culture of testing. More importantly, creating video documentaries allows students to use multiple literacies and does not exclude those who struggle with the written word.

Acer Research Conference Proceedings (2016), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

The focus of ACER’s Research Conference 2016 will be on what we are learning from research about ways of improving levels of STEM learning. Australia faces significant challenges in promoting improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning in our schools. Research Conference 2016 will showcase research into what it will take to address these challenges, which include: the decline in Australian students’ mathematical and scientific ‘literacy’; the decline in STEM study in senior school; a shortage of highly qualified STEM subject teachers, and curriculum challenges. You will hear from researchers who work with teachers to engage students in studying …

The Manifestation Of Student Engagement In Classrooms: A Phenomenological Case Study Of How Teachers Experience Student Engagement And How It Influences Pedagogical Decision Making, Andrew Goodman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to understand the essence of student engagement and how it impacted teacher pedagogical decision making in elementary classrooms. Through phenomenological case study, seven participants described their lived understanding of student engagement in order to develop a contextually-based understanding of the phenomenon. This study took place in an urban area of the Southwestern United States where students of color make up a majority of the school’s population. This study found that the essence of student engagement is student interaction and that teachers make pedagogical decisions before and during their lessons in order to engage students …

Designing Case Study Research For Pedagogical Application And Scholarly Outcomes, Jacqueline R. Luedtke, Juan R. Merkt, Brent D. Bowen

Brent Bowen

The purpose of this paper is to present the pedagogical/andragogical model of case study research in capstone courses in collegiate aviation programs. As higher education continues to advance in examining new or different ways to engage students, case study research in a capstone course affords seniors the opportunity to engage in learning how to plan, investigate, write a case study research report and present their findings on a topic of interest.

Stable Beginnings In Engineering Design, Mary E. Mccormick, David Hammer

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Novel Engineering activities are premised on the integration of engineering and literacy: students identify and engineer solutions to problems that arise for fictional characters in stories they read for class. There are advantages to this integration, for both engineering and literacy goals of instruction: the stories provide ‘‘clients’’ to support students’ engagement in engineering, and understanding clients’ needs involves careful interpretation of text. Outcomes are encouraging, but mixed, in part owing to variation in how students frame the task. For instance, although students often pay close attention to the stories, interpreting and anticipating their fictional clients’ needs, they sometimes focus …

A Correlational Study Of Teacher Efficacy And Culturally Responsive Teaching Techniques In A Southeastern Urban School District, Roberta F. Callaway

Education Dissertations and Projects

This study investigated the level of personal and general teacher efficacy of teachers from three high schools within a southeastern urban school district. Additional research questions focused on correlational relationships between teacher efficacy and culturally responsive teaching, instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management as measured by the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES), Culturally Responsive Teaching Techniques (CRTT) Scale, and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES).

This study was conducted in a large urban school district located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States; three of the five high schools in the district participated. The CRTT Scale and TSES were …

Factors Influencing Student Engagement, Maria Devito

EDL Sixth Year Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess and outline major factors influencing student engagement in the middle school context. In order to contribute to the existing body of research and to benefit students by outlining the particular aspects of learning experience that are related to engagement, a case study has been carried out, which sought to analyze the students’ schooling experience as a source of valuable data. Qualitative methods of data collection were applied during the study. The survey, focus-group interview, and observations allowed classifying the factors influencing the levels of engagement among the study participants into five major …

Connect 219 - June 2016

Connect

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Monitoring Risk And Return: Critical Insights Into Graduate Coursework Engagement And Outcomes, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

Coursework graduate courses have been a significant growth area over the last few decades and are of immense importance to Australian higher education. The knowledge and skills achieved through postgraduate study make a significant contribution to individuals and society. Nearly one quarter of all higher education students in Australia are enrolled in a coursework postgraduate degree. These students generate substantial income for institutions through the fees they pay. Nearly one third of all international students in Australian higher education are enrolled in postgraduate coursework degrees. Overall, international students make up around 50 per cent of all coursework masters enrolments, a …