Education Commons^™

Supporting Healthy Identity Development Using Text Selection And Instructional Activities In Secondary Language Arts Classes, Carla Beuning Obleman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Adolescence is a critical juncture in the process of identity development and has implications for secondary-level students. This project connects the topics of adolescent identity development with literature instruction at the secondary level, investigating the question “How can secondary language arts teachers support healthy identity development in adolescent learners using text selection and instructional activities?” A literature review provides a theoretical basis of adolescent identity development, including foundational theories such as Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory and contemporary ideas like Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality. The review provides a framework for understanding how text selection and instructional activities affect adolescent …

How Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect Children In School And What Protective Factors Can Teachers Provide For These Students, Michelle Moorer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this Capstone Project is: How do adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect children in school and what protective factors can teachers provide for these students? I will start by giving an overview of ACEs, ACEs impact on adulthood, trauma and toxic stress, trauma informed practices, and finally discuss protective factors for children with ACEs. Research shows that having exposure to childhood adversity is connected to negative health and life outcomes. Protective factors against ACEs can be a buffer against the negative effects of ACEs. These factors can be provided in different contexts, for example in relationships, …

A Menu About Me: A Next Generation Science Standards Aligned 9-12 Life Science Curriculum Adapted For Students With Limited Or Interrupted Formal Education, Madeline Carras

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

In order to face the challenges of a rapidly changing world, it is imperative that thinkers with diverse backgrounds and perspectives are supported in the development of their scientific skills and voice. However, very few, if any, high school life science curricular resources are available that are specifically adapted with the assets and needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) in mind. The widely adopted Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are uniquely designed to center the learner’s authentic thought process and pre-existing funds of knowledge–a framework which also happens to be aligned with the strengths of SLIFE …

How Music Can Be Integrated Into Life Science Teaching In A Way That Enhances Scientific And Musical Learning In Middle School, Erin Hustad

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has shown that students who learn interdisciplinary content lessons in school have a better understanding of the interconnectedness of the world they are entering. This paper, and the resultant project, focus on the interconnectedness of science and the arts, eventually ecology and music, in order to teach students both scientific and musical concepts. The project was created using backwards design, in order to ensure students have long term learning outcomes that center both science and music. Students first experience the scientific process and reflect on the similarities between scientific inquiry and artistic processes. Students then explore ecosystems and music …

Utilizing A Culturally Relevant Ecology Curriculum To Help Students See Intersections Between Their Scientific And Cultural Identities, Emma Singer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone was to create a two-week long ecology unit for high school biology students rooted in culturally relevant practices. The project sought to answer the question “How can utilizing a culturally relevant ecology curriculum help students see intersections between their scientific and cultural identities?” Data shows that people of color and women are underrepresented within the sciences. Disengagement and lack of interest in the sciences begins in middle and high school, suggesting students feel the material is irrelevant or disconnected from their lives. To address this gap, this project utilized a culturally relevant lens to create …

An Intervention To Support Comprehension During Independent Reading Time, Jacob Klis

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The question that guided this project was: How can using an intervention based on a comprehension strategy increase student reading interest? This question guided research on digital and print texts, student reading interest, and a brief history of balanced literacy. Many schools use a mix of digital and print resources and students need to be prepared to understand each. Using independent reading time at school has shown to give students greater success in literacy and other areas of school. It has shown that dedicated independent reading time is important at school. The goal of this project was to make independent …

How Canadian School Leaders Perceive Their Capacity To Foster Culturally Responsive School Practices To Influence Student Outcomes, Heather Saunders

All Theses And Dissertations

Despite numerous studies on race relations and racism in Canada, there is a relative paucity of research on school leaders’ perceptions of cultural responsiveness in the Canadian educational system. Racial diversity among students enrolled in Canadian schools has increased dramatically over the last few decades. The diversity gap between a racialized student population and White school leaders continues to widen, with more than 95% of Canadian school leaders being White (Turner, 2015). The primary objective of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore school leaders’ perceptions of how culturally responsive practices improve student outcomes. This study was guided by the …

Light & Faith: July 2022, Taylor University

Light & Faith

No abstract provided.

A Word From The Writing Team (July 2022), Pam Walter, Mfa, Liz Declan, Ma, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Research Support News from Liz D’Angel in the Academic Commons
• Writing Prize Deadline
• Writing Tip: Accountability
• Reminder

Computer-Aided Response-To-Intervention For Reading Comprehension Based On Recommender System, Ming-Chi Liu, Wei-Yang Lin, Chia-Ling Tsai

Publications and Research

In 2019, New York State Education Department announced 54.6% of all students in grades 3 to 8 not meeting the standard of reading proficiency. Motivated by the need for a more efficient intervention model, we propose a recommender system to leverage the technology in machine learning to recommend suitable reading materials for effective intervention. The recommendation is based on the student's prior reading comprehension assessments and also assessments of other students at the same grade level using collaborative filtering. No other prior academic or demographic information of students is available. Two main challenges are lack of explicit ratings of reading …

A Qualitative Study Of The Factors That Support Female Educators While Raising Young Children, Christine M. Dean

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this research study was to examine the personal and professional factors that support female educators while raising young children. This study was designed as a bounded case study that included six women who taught in a Christian school while they were raising children. Their interview data revealed three major themes: conflict, personal supports, and professional supports. Participants reported conflicts such as conflicting obligations between their teacher and maternal roles, expectations, and priorities. Key supports helped to resolve or avoid these conflicts. Personal factors such as supportive and extended family members assisted teachers as they balanced the responsibilities …

Freeman Asia Internship Program Continues After Pandemic Gap, Mj Soria

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Access To Online Formative Assessments In Introductory Biology Courses: Investigating Barriers To Student Engagement, Allison M. Upchurch

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Instructors use a variety of online formative assessment (FA) activities to support learning outside of class. Previous studies have revealed barriers for students in online courses, but little is known about the barriers students experience when completing online FA assignments. Understanding these barriers to access is critical to fostering more inclusive learning for all students. Using a framework from previous work in online learning, we examined student perceptions of online FA access with respect to five barrier categories: technical resources, instructor organization, social interactions, personal engagement, and learning environment. We developed and administered a survey to over 1200 undergraduate biology …

Using Learning Progressions To Enhance Student Outcomes And Performance, Andrea Werner

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Learning discrepancies are difficult for students to recover from. In earlier years, rote memorization, drill-and-practice, and whole-group instruction have proven little success. Students continually lack proficiency and have minimal gain year after year. More recently, small groups and interventions have made improvements on student proficiency, but they still struggle to increase overall student achievement. Research suggests learning progressions as a dynamic, individualized approach to increase not only academic achievement, but also depth of knowledge and student efficacy. Learning progressions allow for flexibility in levels of learning, the content taught, and how a student grasps information. Then learning progressions promote rigorous …

Improving Reading Skills: A School Improvement Project, Riley Mars

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Reading proficiency in American schools has been a topic of conversation for over a quarter of a century. Although much focus and funding has been put towards this topic, many students are still not able to read proficiently. As students progress through their academic careers, lack of reading proficiency becomes more detrimental and more difficult to remedy. This school improvement plan was created to restructure MTSS in a newly formed upper elementary building serving 4th and 5th grade. This restructuring will clearly define the roles of each Tier, ensure data-based decisions are being made, and support students with research-based interventions.

Increasing Phonemic Awareness Instruction: A School Improvement Plan, Becca Gaffney

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research findings show phonological awareness is one of the most important skills and predictors of future reading success. Studies have also shown the link between phonemic awareness to reading abilities and the lack of pre-service and in-service teacher knowledge of basic language constructs. While looking at the research findings, a school improvement plan was created to include a supplemental phonemic awareness program to increase student knowledge and skills. It also increased teacher knowledge through a training and additional professional developments based on teacher needs. This project will add to previously collected data which compares proficiency in Lambert Elementary students to …

Improving School Culture Through Crucial Conversations Among Staff Members, Melissa Tuzzio

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan aims to improve school culture through crucial converstaions among staff. School culture is the set of norms, values, and beliefs that make up what a school believes in, which affects multiple areas of a school, including student success, teacher retention, and job satisfaction. Crucial conversations are discussions between two or more people who hold opposing opinions about high-stakes issues and where emotions run strong. The plan addresses ways to strengthen a school's culture, beginning at the administrative and teacher leadership level, using book studies. In addition, a literature review was conducted to support the plan and …

Trauma-Informed Practices: Professional Development For Elementary School Teachers, Hannah Humpal

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan addresses the need for trauma-informed practices to be implemented at Timber Ridge Elementary School in Johnston, Iowa. Students who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more likely to have poor attendance and lowered academic achievement compared to students without ACEs. Trauma-informed practices allow educators to understand such experiences and have resources available to teach students who have experienced trauma. Trauma-informed practices allow students to be present in school; therefore, increasing academic and behavioral success. This school improvement plan includes a detailed literature review surrounding trauma-informed practices. Additionally, this plan outlines a three-tiered professional development plan …

Utilizing Mindfulness And Movement To Promote Executive Function And Self-Regulation, Sonia Bockoven

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Self-regulation and executive function skills are imperative to learning in school and success later in life. The current reality shows that these skills are not often taught, yet early childhood remains a vital time of development and is an ideal time to introduce these skills. This school improvement plan presents mindfulness and movement as strategies to explicitly teach self-regulation and executive function skills in an inclusive setting. As strategies are implemented, reflection and assessment will occur to better understand their effectiveness. Families will also be involved to encourage application of skills and strategies outside of academic settings.

Improving The Daily Student Attendance Rate At An Inner-City Public School, Christina Quinn

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

chronic absenteeism, urban schools, attendance policies

Playground Improvement Plan, Joan Ketelsen

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Physical activity is important to the growth and development of children of all ages. The purpose of this paper is to use what we know about physical activity and the connection between social development, cognitive development and overall health to physical activity to improve the current opportunities for physical activity in school age children. Fundamental movement skills (FMS) mastery level of students will be used to implement this improvement plan as well as incorporating more physical activity opportunities in the school day to promote more movement and less sedentary time in the school day on a regular basis and to …

Comparing The Effects Of Phonics Instruction Provided To Students With Disabilities, Ashley Rohlf

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Special education teachers work each day to implement effective curricula to help students with disabilities receiving special education services reach grade-level standards. Recent research supports the need for implementing a comprehensive reading program that includes phonics instruction. With numerous curricula available, this action research seeks to inform educators of two methods of instruction that have a heavy phonics component that leads to growth in student reading skills. Two methods were evaluated: one method used multiple curricula to target all areas of a comprehensive reading program while the other method used a single curriculum that targeted all of the same areas. …

Sped 874: Language Arts And Literacy For Students Who Are Deaf/Hard Of Hearing, Anne E. Thomas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents the process I used to critically analyze the structure, teaching methods, assessment, and students learning in SPED 874 Language Arts and Literacy for Children who are Dear/Hard of Hearing. This is a course that students in the Deaf Education Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) take while pursuing a master’s degree and/or graduate endorsement in Deaf Education. This portfolio documents how I aligned the course objectives, content, and activities to the Council for Exceptional Children - Initial Specialty Set for Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (CEC-DHH). I share the results of one method I use …

Show Me! Do Videos Make A Difference In An Asynchronous Online Course?, John Griffith, Emily Faulconer

Publications

This study attempted to determine if placing videos in an asynchronous course influenced the learning experience. Data were examined for an introductory college statistics course comparing results pre and post implementation of videos in support of discussions, assignments, homework, quizzes, and exams. Frequency of external tutoring was significantly reduced (40%) for the course sections that included embedded videos. This finding supports the idea that videos reduced the amount of friction or extraneous cognitive load experienced by students since using tutoring resources external to the course requires additional time and effort on the part of students and tutors. A significant majority …

Composing Her Growing Identities As A Mexican American, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This article studies the growing and changing cultural identifications of one early adolescent Mexican American girl as represented by her engagements with literacy. Her writing behaviors in particular manifested a changing cultural identity that reacted to and represented her response to a changing world. Her bilingualism and biculturalism manifested a dialogic innervation of distinct voices and truths, particularly set in the Trump-era United States. Through a theoretical framework of cultural hybridity and bordered identity, this study analyzes the complex linguistic, developmental, and cultural identities of a young Mexican American woman in the rural South.

Schooling Black Males: Hegemonic Discourses, Structural Barriers, And Strategic Resistance, Cleo Wadley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black males have scored at the lowest levels of academic achievement compared to other racial groups in many Texas school districts. The achievement gap for this population of students has been explained by both material constraints and oppressive hegemonic discourses. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to understand how such barriers and discourses affected these students and how the students negotiated their experiences in school. This study was designed to describe the problem, its background and to discuss a relevant theoretical framework. This study examined the academic achievement data for Black males and the current literature on adverse …

Volume 31, Number 2, Summer 2022, Office Of Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2018-present

VOLUME 31 | NUMBER 2 | Summer 2022

ON OUR COVER: Dr. Nurman Noor ’08 showcased his culinary skills as an eventual runner-up in The Great Australian Bake Off. Photo courtesy of Foxtel Publicity.

14 Baked with Love Dr. Nurman Noor ’08 may be a general practitioner by trade, but a passion for baking earned him a spot in the TV series The Great Australian Bake Off, where he won scores of fans with his likable personality, raw vulnerability and mouth-watering creations.

18 Breaking Through Angela (Tomazin) Hesemann ’09 found herself laid off at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, …

Why Teachers Remain Teaching In Rural Districts: Listening To The Voices From The Field, Nancy L. Leech, Carolyn A. Haug, Eleanor Rodriguez, Molly Gold

The Rural Educator

Retaining teachers is a problem in all districts but is especially difficult in rural areas. This survey research asked teachers in a western state to respond to open ended questions regarding their choice for teaching in a rural or urban area. Results indicate teachers work in a rural locale because they grew up in the area, already lived there as an adult, and/or had a spouse/partner with a job in the area. Both rural and non-rural teachers cited the importance of a positive school environment with supportive administrators and good working conditions. Teachers stated inadequate working conditions at school affected …

Understanding The Priorities And Practices Of Rural Science Teachers: Implications For Designing Professional Learning, Kerri Wingert, Jennifer Jacobs, William Lindsay, Abraham S. Lo, Cari F. Herrmann-Abell, William R. Penuel

The Rural Educator

In order to design professional learning that supports rural science teachers to effectively implement standards-based “five-dimensional” (5D) instructional and assessment practices, a critical first step is to elicit their perspectives, prior experiences, concerns, and interests. Based on survey data from 87 rural science teachers in Colorado, along with focus group sessions with 18 of those teachers, this article investigates teachers’ perspectives on what makes rural science teaching unique, the degree to which they use 5D science instruction, their curricular and assessment resources, and their professional learning experiences and preferences. Overall, rural science teachers in Colorado reported using rich practices for …

The Impact Of Racial Trauma: A Crucial Conversation In Rural Education, Tameka O. Grimes, Shannon K. Roosma

The Rural Educator

Coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting global health crisis, George Floyd's murder was broadcast on social media and popular news (The Marshall Project, 2021). While COVID-19 reports demonstrated the ways Communities of Color and rural communities were disproportionately disadvantaged in the U.S. healthcare system (Artiga et al., 2020; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021; Dandachi et al., 2021; Fortuna et al., 2020), marches and rallies for Black Lives Matter became emblematic of social discord and civic demand for social justice to upend a racist law enforcement and judicial system (Rickford, 2016). These recent examples of systemic racism …