Education Commons^™

Service-Learning: A Powerful Pedagogy For Promoting Academic Success Among Students Of Color, Michelle C. Sterk Barrett, Isabelle Jenkins

Scholarship and Professional Writing from the J.D. Power Center

This article discusses a mixed-methods study that investigated the service-learning experiences of students of color at College of the Holy Cross to better understand how service-learning may be an effective pedagogical tool for reducing cultural dissonance and addressing related achievement gaps. Quantitative data were collected from over 1,500 students who had enrolled in 59 different service-learning classes. In addition, interviews were conducted with 13 students of color who had participated in service-learning. Findings indicated that students’ service-learning experiences paralleled study participants’ descriptions of how they learned most effectively. Furthermore, the findings suggest that service-learning may resonate for students of color …

Virtual Reality As A Pedagogical Tool To Design For Social Impact: A Design Case, Tiffany Roman, Jon Racek

Faculty and Research Publications

Three-dimensional (3-D) virtual environments have key affordances that can improve learning, particularly when context, culture, and pedagogical aims are aligned to a given learning situation. One challenge in detailing effective uses of 3-D virtual environments in teaching and learning contexts is that the design judgments involved are not always made explicit. We argue that the transparency of design judgments, as it relates to the use of 3-D virtual environments, are critically important. This article advances scholarship of emerging technologies by detailing the design judgments of a university instructor within a Design for Social Impact cross-disciplinary course. To address learner needs …

Mobile Learning And Cognition, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The rise of mobile learning in schools during the past decade has led to promises about its power to extend and enhance student cognitive development – for example, by providing greater pedagogical opportunities for students (Mifsud, 2014). However, others claim that mobile devices are most often used to support traditional pedagogical approaches whereby students only passively consume content (Cochrane & Antonczak, 2014; Frohberg, Goth & Schwabe, 2009; Rushby, 2012). As schools invest resources in providing students with opportunities to use mobile devices as tools for learning, it is important to critically examine their use in practice.

Assessment Strategies To Promote Peer Learning In An Online Course, Pauline Rooney, Caitríona Ní Shé

Conference papers

The value of peer learning in higher education is now well recognised. Just as we continually learn from eachother in our everyday lives, so our students also learn from eachother as part of informal and formal learning experiences. Within educational programmes, peer learning is facilitated through a variety of pedagogical strategies which promote active participation, collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and ideas. With the increasing ubiquity of social networking and online learning platforms, new opportunities for facilitating peer learning, have emerged. Within online courses – where students often study at geographically disparate locations – peer learning strategies assume arguably …

Evaluating The Way Forward In Online Student Engagement., Patricia Schmaltz, Julia Carpenter, Dan J. Petersen

Publications

Several factors make up the successful instructional experience in online higher education classes. With the advanced offerings in online learning, educational institutions are compelled to innovate all aspects of their online classes (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). The innovation can lead to a higher caliber learning environment. This paper advances a simple model for Instructors to follow, an Instructional Online Model (IOM), with the intent of improving student engagement, knowledge retention, leading to increased business profit. Instructors who model the discussed techniques may find increased student’s satisfaction with their courses, leading to the students pursuing further online education. Technological advancement …

You Live Where? Maximizing O&M Services In Rural And Remote Areas Through Distance Consultation, Amy T. Parker, Mary J. Tellefson

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The region served by Portland State University’s Orientation and Mobility (O&M) and Visually Impaired Learner (VIL) hybrid preparation program is geographically vast. The states of OR, WA, ID, MT, AK, and HI comprise 28% of the US's geography, covering more than 1,061,000 square miles. Because of regional personnel shortages, faculty must prepare candidates to serve geographically dispersed children and adults with visual impairment or deaf-blindness using technologies that support distance-based consultation.

As a part of a federally funded grant from the US Department of Education, faculty in the O&M program developed an online learning module for candidates to use as …

Learning Ideas - Understanding Accessible Educational Materials (Aem) And Their Use: Tips For K-12 Educators, University Of Maine Center For Community Inclusion And Disability Studies

Professional Development

Students arrive in classrooms with a variety of skills, interests and needs. For many learners, the typical curriculum—including instructional methods, classroom materials, and assessments of knowledge—may contain barriers to educational participation and achievement. Students who are unable to access print materials face particular challenges. Accessible educational materials reduce barriers and provide rich supports for learning. By using accessible educational materials, educators enable all learners to gain knowledge, skills and enthusiasm for learning.

Pedagogy Of The Edges: Anarchism And The Implicate Order, Jenka Soderberg

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

The ecological, structural and epistemological crisis that the planet is facing right now cannot be resolved within the modern educational model. Education can be a means for the transformation of society to a more just, sustainable future – but only if education itself is transformed and re-envisioned by looking to the perspectives that have been most marginalized. This new kind of pedagogy will develop outside the realm of an academic discourse, and will be found in transformative social justice movements and the relationships that are formed in these movements.

Creating A Virtual World For Mathematics, Young Rae Kim, Mi Sun Park

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications

A virtual world was created using the popular sandbox game Minecraft to support the development of preservice teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics. Preservice teachers explored the virtual world for a geometry activity involving area and volume problems. They then discussed how this integration of technology could support students’ effective learning of mathematics in a meaningful way. The findings of the study demonstrated that to a certain extent the Minecraft activity supported the transfer of knowledge from preservice teachers’ mathematics content knowledge to their mathematics pedagogical and instructional practice knowledge. Preservice teachers appreciated the usefulness and effectiveness of the Minecraft activity …

A Correlational Study Of Teacher Practice Versus Belief, Christopher A. Heery

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this research study was to examin the correlation between what kindergarten teachers identified as developmentally appropriate practices in kindergarten classrooms and what is included in their actual daily classroom practices. This quantitative research used a correlational research design to investigate the strength of the relationship between what teachers identied as their beliefs in developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood education and their self-reported use of developmentally appropriate practices within their own classrooms. The population included kindergarten teachers who currently teach in the northeastern counties of Pennsylvania. The participants completed an online survey developed for teachers of kindergarten …

Understanding The Experiences Of Middle School Social Studies Teachers Creating Personalized Learning Classrooms: A Phenomenological Study, Robert Lee Carlyle Iii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine teachers’ experiences of implementing personalized learning in the social studies classroom at middle schools in Georgia. Personalized learning is the ability to tailor learning to each learner’s interest, strengths, and needs. The theory guiding this study is the discovery learning theory, which was introduced by Jerome Bruner. The central research question guiding the research was “How do middle school social studies teachers in Georgia describe their experiences creating personalized learning classrooms?” Sub-questions used to further refine the central question were: (1) How do teachers motivate students in the personalized learning …

Differences In High-School Student Learning By Instruction Type And Mbti Personality Type, Jeffrey R. Ober

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Differentiated instruction is a part of the education process today, and it is a time-consuming process used to attempt to reach more students and increase their learning and education. There is currently little empirical research dedicated to measuring the academic effects of differentiated instruction in the classroom. This research examined differentiated instruction in the form of learning styles (audio and visual) combined with personality types in an attempt to determine if there is a measurable significant effect on the academic achievement of students based on their own personality types and different applied learning styles in the classroom. No statistically significant …

Assessing Content Mastery: Using Quasi-Experimental Research To Study The Effect That Standards-Based Progress Reporting To Parents May Have On Student Achievement In Science At One Georgia Middle School, Matthew Scott Odell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With the establishment of standards-based testing as the key assessment of student knowledge gains and with the increased accountability first brought by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and now with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the role of the teacher and the methods of assessment have continued to change. To reach the national goals established by NCLB and the state guidelines established to allow the states to guide education in the ESSA, the testing of students’ previous knowledge and the identification of their strengths has become important to show teachers how to meet their students’ needs. More empirical research …

An Architectural Design And Evaluation Of An Affective Tutoring System For Novice Programmers, Hua Leong Fwa

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Affect is prevalent in learning and it influences students’ learning achievement. This paper details the design and evaluation of an Affective Tutoring System (ATS) that tutors student in computer programming. Although most ATSs are purpose built for a specific domain, making adaptation to another domain difficult, this ATS is architected for adaptability and extensibility. This study also addresses a lack of research exploring the theories and methods of integrating affect and learning within the learning process by proposing methods of regulating the negative affect of students. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used for evaluation of the effectiveness of the …

High School Teachers’ Sense Of Efficacy: Traditional Teaching Vs. Teaching With A Learning Management System, Kelly Yolanda Backenstoe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teacher efficacy has an impact on how students achieve in the classroom. There is a variety of ways teachers help students learn. For example, the method of traditional instruction includes the use of a textbook and teacher lectures. However, a current trend in education is for schools to use a Learning Management System, like Schoology, to help teachers organize and distribute resources to students. This study will help administrators understand if teachers have a stronger or weaker sense of efficacy through the use of traditional instruction or instruction with the use of Schoology. The study is important because administrators need …

The Effect Of Experiential Learning On The Mathematics Achievement And Mathematics Anxiety Of African-American Students, Andrew Hanson Wynn

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined whether or not there were any significant differences between the anxiety and achievement levels of African-American students enrolled in College Algebra courses taught using traditional instruction methods and those taught using experiential learning, as used in The Algebra Project curriculum. The classes were taught for the same amount of time for one semester, using the two curricular methods, and student anxiety was measured prior to the course and immediately following the implementation of an experiential learning module. Additionally, student achievement on selected questions focusing on the functions unit from the midterm exam were collected and analyzed to …

Teacher Vs. Tutor, Brady Maynes

Writing Center Analysis Papers

The goal of this paper is to explore the differences between the roles of a tutor in the writing center and a teacher grading their student’s papers. I discuss ways in which tutor and teacher are similar as they both evaluate student’s papers but the end goal is significantly different. A tutor does not nor should they assign a grade to any paper they read in a tutoring session. One of a teacher’s primary intentions is to assign a grade to their student’s papers that reflects the feedback given. There is also a barrier, whether purposely constructed or placed by …

Pedagogical Sandhi, Arie French

Writing Center Analysis Papers

In both composition courses and writing center tutorage, concepts like organization and structure are frequently stressed. Despite this emphasis, students continue to have difficulty in understanding what organization entails. In this piece, I use the Sanskrit language and my experiences as both a teacher and writing center peer tutor, in order to argue that learning to draw connections in writing equips students to transform their papers from distinct sections and evidences to a radically-new whole.I propose several methods that instructors and tutors can implement to equip students with connection-making skills.

Praising Students’ Writing: How Compliments Encourage And Motivate, Emma George

Writing Center Analysis Papers

How to praise students in either the role of a teacher or a tutor is daunting task. These two different roles require different techniques as to the amount and quality of praise that can be given to writers. As a teacher, it is difficult to give specific praise to every single one of your students due to time limitations and volume, but tutors can and should give specific compliments to writers to increase their confidence and motivation in writing. This paper outlines several tutoring practices that have been successful on an individual level in helping students gain confidence in their …

Systems Thinking In A Second Grade Curriculum: Students Engaged To Address A Statewide Drought, Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Amy Ardell, Laurie Macgillivray, Rachel Lambert

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Faced with issues, such as drought and climate change, educators around the world acknowledge the need for developing students’ ability to solve problems within and across contexts. A systems thinking pedagogy, which recognizes interdependence and interconnected relationships among concrete elements and abstract concepts (Meadows, 2008; Senge et al., 2012), has potential to transform the classroom into a space of observing, theorizing, discovering, and analyzing, thus linking academic learning to the real world. In a qualitative case study in one school located in a major metropolitan area in California, USA teachers and their 7- and 8-year-old students used systems thinking in …

Digital Badges: A Focus On Skill Acquisition, Ben Malczyk

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Statement of the issue: There has been a trend in higher education to focus less on content coverage and to instead focus on student skill development. Digital badges represent one approach to focus on student demonstration of skill. Badges provide students with opportunities to learn, practice and ultimately be assessed on demonstration of a skill.

Description of the project: Social work faculty designed two social work courses to incorporate badging exercise. The course required students to complete badges in areas such as self-care, utilization of APA citations, uploading videos into Canvas, and other skills necessary for students to succeed. Rather …

Writing To Learn: Embedding A Crucial Study Skill In A Gateway Science Course, Shylaja Akkaraju

Publications and Research

Handwriting is a multisensory process known to enhance memory, focus, engagement, and cognition in the learner, thereby making it a valuable study skill. In an attempt to embed handwriting as a study skill in a gateway science course, I used a combination of scaffolding and individual student consultations. Scaffolding emphasized the use of desirable difficulties and retrieval practice through the implementation of techniques such as the flipped learning approach and take home-in class hybrid essay exams. While the former helped to increase overall student success the latter technique was aimed at enhancing written fluency in the subject, curbing procrastination, and …

Five Generations: Preparing Multiple Generations Of Learners For A Multi-Generational Workforce, Olimpia Leite‐Trambly, Sharon N. Obasi

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

First Name: Toni

Last Name: Hill

Department: Family Studies

Campus: UNK

Email: hilltl@unk.edu

Phone: 3088658232

Track: Pedagogy and Instructional Design

Title: Associate Professor

Session Type: Formal Presentation

Session Title: Five Generations: Preparing Multiple Generations of Learners for a Multi-generational

Workforce

Availability: Anytime

Presenters:

1. Olimpia Leite-Trambly, Instructional Design Specialist,

University of Nebraska at Kearney, eCampus, Communications Center, Room #213, Kearney NE 68849 308.865.8503 office, 308.865.8090 fax, leitetrambod@unk.edu

2. Sharon Obasi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Family Studies, Assistant Program Director, Early Childhood and Family Advocacy, University of Nebraska Kearney

West Center 153, Kearney 68849-2130, Office:(308) 865-8225, email: obasis2@unk.edu

3. Toni Hill, Ph.D., …

Schedule Nu! Schedule Sc!, Jean Padrnos, Corrie Svehla, Cheri Polenske

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Schedule NU! Schedule SC!

Lancaster V-VI

Cheri Polenske (NU ITS), Jean Padrnos (NU ITS), Corrie Svehla (NU ITS - UNL)

One of the goals of OneIT is to maximize the purchasing power by consolidating contracts and utilizing common systems. UNK, UNL and UNO utilized a product called EMS for event scheduling. CSC, UNL and UNO used R25/S25 for academic scheduling. The University was able to license the EMS scheduling solution for all of the Universities and State Colleges for both academic scheduling/optimization and event scheduling in one contract. The implementation of the shared EMS system is underway and will go-live …

Learning How To Learn: Powerful Mental Tools To Help You Master Tough Subject, Barbara Oakley

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Barbara Oakley didn’t begin learning remedial high school algebra until age 26. Now she’s a professor of engineering, a New York Times best-selling author, and instructor of the world’s largest massive open online course, with nearly two million registered students. How did this happen? She learned how to learn, and she now teaches others these practical insights. In this fun-filled keynote, you’ll hear true stories of remarkable transformation and discover intriguing insights from science about how you can change and grow, no matter your age or stage of life.

Using metaphor and analogy, which primes neural circuits for difficult topics, …

Fostering Quality By Identifying And Evaluating Effective Practices Through Rigorous Research, Tanya Joosten

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

In redesigning digital education courses, special attention is paid to sound instructional approaches and ensuring practices foster success for all students. In this session attendees will learn how to better provide support to faculty and staff in informing their instructional practices based on previous research and conducting rigorous research on their new innovations.

Synchronous Online And Inperson Classrooms: Challenges And Rewards Five Years Into Practice, Elsbeth Magilton

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

First Name: Elsbeth

Last Name: Magilton

Department: College of Law UNL

Campus: UNL

Email: elsbeth@unl.edu

Phone: 4024721662

Track: Leadership and Strategy in Online Education

Title: Exec Dir - Space & Telecommunication Pgm

Session Type: Formal Presentation

Availability: Anytim

e Presenters:

Elsbeth Magilton, University of Nebraska College of Law

Presentation Abstract:

Nebraska Law’s online Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law program is a part-time online option for industry professionals. The online LL.M. (a post-law degree masters level program) was created in 2012 to address the growing demand for the program by experienced practitioners who want to obtain an LL.M. degree while maintaining …

Improved Grade Outcomes With An E-Mailed ‘Grade Nudge.’, Ben Smith, Dustin White, Patricia Kuzyk, James Tierney

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

First Name: Ben

Last Name: Smith

Department: Economics

UNO Campus: UNO

Email: bosmith@unomaha.edu

Phone: 4025544816

Track: Emerging Technology

Title: Assistant Professor

Session Type: Formal Presentation

Availability: Anytime

Presenters: Ben Smith, UNO

Presentation Abstract: Near the end of the semester, students who've placed little importance in your course will wonder: "what's my grade?" This realization often happens so late that no amount of effort will result in an acceptable grade.

What if students cared as much about their grade at the beginning of the semester as they do at the end? This is the idea behind 'Grade Nudge.'

'Grade Nudge' is …

It Takes A System To Build An Affordable Content Program, Brad Severa, Jane Petersen, Kimberly A. Carlson, Betty Jacques, Brian Moore, Andrew Cano, Michael Jolley

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

First Name: Bradley

Last Name: Severa

Department: Information Technology Services UNL

Campus: UNL

Email: bsevera@unl.edu

Phone: 4024720606

Track: Emerging Technology

Title: Academic Tech Support Spec

Session Type: Panel Discussion

Session Title: It Takes a System to Build an Affordable Content Program

Availability: Anytime

Presenters:

Brad Severa, M.A., Academic Technology Specialist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Jane L. Petersen, Director, Academic Technology and Client Services, University of Nebraska-Kearney

Dr. Kimberly Carlson, Professor & Assistant Chair, Department of Biology, University of Nebraska-Kearney

Mrs. Betty Jacques, Senior Lecturer, Department of Biology, University of Nebraska-Kearney

Dr. Brian Moore, Professor of Music Education and Music Technology, Glenn …

One-On-One In A World Of Twenty-Four, Brittney Allen

Writing Center Analysis Papers

As a long-time tutor, I was startled by the lack of individual time I got with my students as I took on the more powerful role of Graduate Instructor. I fear that I lose a lot of my effectiveness due to no longer being a peer to English 1010 students. I explore why that is and potential ways to fight back against lost face-time in what ways I can.