Education Commons^™

Active Learning With Silent Participation, A.E. Dreyfuss

Publications and Research

Silence by participants in peer-led learning sessions is often viewed as lack of engagement and interpreted as lack of participation or interest. This paper addresses facets of silence, suggesting linguistic, cultural, and other reasons for quietude, and provides methods of facilitation that incorporate silence to give voice to noiseless participation as a bridge to learning.

Teaching Muscle Function And Physical Fitness: An Afterschool Program For Elementary Schools, Julianna Peters

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

For this creative project, a nine-week club curriculum about muscle function and exercise was designed for upper elementary students (4^th-6^th grade), integrating science and physical education. This curriculum aims to introduce students to a basic understanding of muscle function and their body utilizing a scientific lens while also encouraging movement through the education of different muscle groups. It principally covers the three types of muscle with an emphasis on skeletal muscles. Students engage in experiments and activities focused on different aspects of muscle function and then do exercises focused on certain muscle groups. Additionally, it aims to …

Trauma-Informed Supports For Rebuilding School Communities, Nancy S. Stockall, William H. Blackwell

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This manuscript describes four principles of trauma-informed supports that can guide school leaders in rebuilding school communities that have been fractured by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the work of Hobfoll et al. (2007), these principles are: a) promoting a sense of safety, b) addressing safety within behavior support practices, c) building relationships, and d) promoting self-efficacy and instilling hope. As schools slowly reopen, there is a risk that the re-opening will signify that the crisis has ended and schools can return to their previous policies and systems of support. However, the lingering and long-term effects of the isolation and …

Secondary Administrators’ Perspectives On Their Involvement In And Barriers To Supporting Secondary Transition Programs For Students With Disabilities, Dottie H. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

To address disparities in post-school outcomes for students with disabilities, federal legislation mandates appropriate education programs to include transition planning and programs for students with disabilities. Because administrators are held responsible for ensuring appropriate educational programs for all learners including those with disabilities, it is important to understand their perspectives on secondary transition; however, research on administrators’ involvement in secondary transition activities is limited. Using a single-state survey, this study examined the perspectives of secondary school administrators on their involvement and engagement in providing effective transition programs and services for students with disabilities and their perceptions of barriers to providing …

Middle And High School Experiences That Lead First-Generation College Students To Select A Stem Major, James A. Byrum

Theses and Dissertations

Careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are increasing but the number of qualified individuals to fill these positions are not meeting the demand. One way to increase the number of qualified STEM employees is to garner the interest of students from underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. One of these underrepresented groups are first generation college students (FGCS). Understanding what experiences led FGCS to pursue a degree in a STEM field may help attract more students to STEM and help meet the demand of filling future STEM jobs.

In this study, FGCS in the Opportunity Scholars Program …

Personalized Geometry Instruction: A Mixed Methods Action Research Study Implementing An Adaptive Web-Based Learning Environment To Support High School Students’ Geometry Problemsolving Skills, Catherine D. Jordan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the implementation of an adaptive web-based learning environment to personalize geometry instruction and practice for high school students at a private school in North Carolina. This study was guided by the following three research questions: (1) How and to what extent does implementing personalized geometry instruction and practice through an adaptive web-based learning environment affect high school students’ knowledge of geometry? (2) How does using personalized geometry instruction and practice through an adaptive web-based learning environment affect students’ motivation to learn geometry as well as their mathematics self-efficacy, anxiety, and …

A Project-Based Learning Approach To Community-Based Learning: Action Research To Explore Transformative Change In 1st Year Occupational Therapy Students’ Awareness About Contextual Barriers, Occupational Justice, And Advocating For Community Health And Wellness, Patricia Ann Wisniewski

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing reflexive photography as a means for a transformative community-based learning (CBL) experience. CBL is an experiential teaching pedagogy that helps prepare college students for a rapidly changing and diverse society that fosters social, health, and cultural awareness about individuals and populations. Students engage collaboratively within the local community to help solve societal problems.

This study focused on three research questions, each exploring how a reflexive photography project (RPP): (a) changes how students view occupational justice, (b) influences students awareness about contextual barriers that may impact community residents …

The Role Of The School-Based Speech-Language Pathologist In The Identification, Assessment, And Remediation Of Dyslexia In Secondary Students, Lisa Marie Alves

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods action research study was to increase the awareness and knowledge of secondary school professionals on dyslexia, including the role of the school-based speech-language pathologist. Two research questions guiding the quantitative data collection centered on the impact of a PowerPoint dyslexia training on the participants' knowledge and attitudes about dyslexia in the schools. In addition, two qualitative research questions guided the study involving the participants’ perceptions of the role of speech-language pathologists in a dyslexia protocol, and how to implement a dyslexia protocol in secondary-level schools. The results of the study indicate that the training …

The Google Tour Project, Colton Saylor

Assignment Prompts

Context: This assignment helps culminate our class theme, “Reading and Writing the City,” in which we explore representations of urban life from a variety of perspectives and academic disciplines. Our final unit takes on the issue of gentrification; more specifically, we explore how the issue revolves around stories of either progress or subjugation (depending on who is telling the story). After scaffolding some background on the issue and what it means, students form into groups and create these digital tours that serve as visual essays. In creating their own arguments either for or against gentrification, they take on their own …

Hiv-1 Transcription Elongation By Tat-Mediated Recruitment Of P-Tefb, Elizabeth Griggs

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Over 38.0 million people live with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as of 462019. HIV hijacks the host's cellular machinery to replicate its viral DNA and transcribe the corresponding RNA. HIV-1 transcription relies on both cellular and viral transcription factors for proper regulation. The viral transcriptional activator Tat is a primary regulator. Transcription activation and elongation is controlled through the interaction of Tat with Positive Transcription Elongation Factor b (P-TEFb), a cellular transcriptional activator. The focus of this paper is 1) an in-depth understanding of the interaction between P-TEFb and Tat in HIV transcription, and 2) a review of recent …

How To Effectively Reach Farmers And Assist Them In Reaching Their Precision Management Goals, Courtney Nelson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Precision and digital agriculture have been popular buzz words floating around the last several years. These broad terms cover a plethora of topics including GPS ear tags for livestock, soil moisture probes, and aerial imagery. With such a wide number of technological advances at their fingertips, it can be overwhelming for farmers to know where to start.

A study conducted by Purdue University in 2019 took a deeper look at data and software usage across 800 farms larger than 1000 acres (DeLay et al, 2020). Their research revealed that over half of farmers who don’t use farm data or software …

A Walk Through History: Interactive Tours Of The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln’S Historic City Campus, Emily Vanek

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The main purpose of the creation of an interactive walking tour of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) city campus was to bring to light the history of some of its most important buildings, as well as to bring awareness to some of the buildings that no longer stand as digital heritage. A key emphasis is to help preserve the contributions of the namesakes of these buildings as they are often just as valuable as the history of the buildings themselves. The scope of this project includes a website that is the main hub of information, and two digital forms of …

Addressing The Harms Of Pornography, Gillian Allison

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Within this paper I look at the existing philosophical work on pornography, from scholars like Catherine MacKinnon, Ronald Dworkin, and Rae Langton to show the current state of the pornography debate that I intend to enter by presenting my own argument about the morality of pornography. I argue that while pornography is harmful, these harms are best resolved through increased sexual education and the popularization and production of more inclusive pornography. The harms pornography causes are so great because pornography is where a lot of people learn about sex. Pornography was never designed to depict an average sexual experience. If …

Identity Before Production: An Analysis Of Female Asian Representation Within Screenwriting, Kim Larkin

Postgraduate

This thesis investigates how representation and self-representation are constructed in screenplays. Film scholarship has primarily focused on the constructions of identities by examining the exhibited film product. The screenplay, which forms the foundation of the film text, is rarely examined for its impact on issues of representation and self-representation. Nelmes and Selbo’s ‘Women Screenwriters: An International Guide’ only addresses representation twice and does not reference self-representation within its 900 pages (Nelmes & Selbo, 2015).

Feminist film criticism of cinema has been heavily critical of the patriarchal male gaze in response to positioning women within film. The works of De Lauretis …

In Tandem, Lucy Clark

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

A young legal assistant, Deidre Burroughs, finds the dead body of Kit Briggs on a morning jog. As she looks further into the woman’s life, and subsequent death, she discovers the circumstances surrounding finding her body are suspicious. As she investigates the true story behind Kit’s death, Deidre falls further and further down a psychological rabbit-hole, discovering things about both Kit and herself she could never have imagined. Following the question, “what happens after the femme fatale dies?” this neo-noir inspired screenplay is a psychological thriller with a twist. Questions of identification, patriarchal violence, truth, and consequence are all at …

2021-10-01 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress newsletter from October 1, 2021.

Learning Opportunities 2021/2022, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Course Catalogs

The graduation requirements of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy are established by the IMSA Board of Trustees. Each semester students must take a minimum of five academic courses (2.5 credits) for a letter grade (not Pass/Fail) not including Fine Arts, Wellness, SIR, Internship, and Independent Study. Students may enroll in a maximum of nine courses each semester including academic courses, Fine Arts, Wellness, SIR, Internship, and Independent Study. The College and Academic Counselor approves enrollment for students in all courses and experiences. Only courses taken for a letter grade will count towards graduation credit.

The Professional Constructor, Full Issue, Volume 46, Number 02

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

How Can Equity-Focused Inquiry Uncover The Causes For The Opportunity Gaps Our Students Of Color Experience?, Stephanie Becks

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how equity-focused inquiry could uncover gaps in opportunity for our students of color and determine root causes for those gaps. Through Inquiry as Stance and Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the driving frameworks, this study used practitioner inquiry to understand what gaps, if any, were present for students of color within our school. If gaps in opportunity were present, this study also aimed to discover what school level factors were contributing to the gaps. Three cycles of inquiry were used to help answer the following questions: (1) What common gaps in opportunity …

School Psychologists’ Involvement In Transition Programming, Valerie Bell

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the extent school psychologists reported pre-service training programs addressed involvement in transition programming (e.g., planning, monitoring, and evaluation); their involvement in it; their desire to be involved in transition; possible factors influencing school psychologists’ involvement in it; and if pre-service and professional training in transition affects school psychologists’ involvement and perceptions of their role in the process. Four hundred-fifteen respondents completed and anonymous, online survey. Results indicated participants had not received pre-service training or professional development related to transition; they were rarely or never involved in transition at the elementary, middle, and/or high school levels, although they …

Develop Or Diminish? An Exploration Of Adolescent Athlete Flow Experiences, Hayes Mayfield Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of flow was birthed from positive psychology specifically to uncover individuals’ most positive experiences and “understand the roots of happiness” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2004). Because of the nature of flow experiences, individuals continually seek out opportunities to have more of these experiences (Seifert & Hedderson, 2010; Swann et al., 2018), however, little is known regarding how adolescents experience flow. For early-adolescents (11-14 years old: Holt, 2007), sports represent an environment that often produces physical, psychological, and social benefits (Crane & Temple, 2015), and combats negative factors (Pluhar et al., 2019). Unfortunately, adolescent athletes are particularly vulnerable to burnout and sports …

Creating Crescent: Using Youth Participatory Action Research (Ypar) And Public Media To Promote Epistemic Agency Among Black Girls In South Carolina, Salandra Bowman

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses womanist methodology and youth participatory action research (YPAR), centering the ways of knowing of Black girls, with a focus on epistemic agency, to engage Black girls in the production of educational media. Such a study is necessary because Black girls are underrepresented in educational media, overrepresented in cases of school discipline, and overrepresented in reports of physical violence in schools. As public media is recognized as a transformative intervention in improving learning outcomes for children, addressing the underrepresentation of Black girlhood therein creates opportunities to address these intersecting issues and create humanizing educational media for all students. …

Classdojo And The Effects Of Gamification On Student Engagement Within The Third-Grade Art Classroom: An Action Research Study, Amanda Wrenn Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of technology integrated gamification strategies on third-grade students’ engagement in an art classroom at an elementary school with a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) based curriculum. To increase student engagement, educators and evaluators not only need to understand how engagement has been defined, but also how to assess the options for measuring it. Appropriate use of technology and gamification in classrooms may increase aspects of student engagement, evidenced by taking initiative and responsibility for learning, using resources wisely, and having an interest and desire to pursue information …

Helping High School Students Succeed Academically By Meeting Their More Basic Needs, Karen Eyler Martin

Theses and Dissertations

In this action research, I seek to show the connection between breakfast consumption and student academic achievement. Students skip breakfast for a variety of reasons, including not allowing enough time and not having enough resources for it. Others eat what they can obtain, including snack foods that are highly processed. In addition, school districts have gotten away from making their meals from scratch, and instead, use a third-party catering service that often serves food that is cheap and easy to heat up, which often means it is highly processed and does not have the same nutritional content as whole foods. …

Individualized E-Book Experiences: Personalized Reading Plans’ Impact On First-Grade Students’ Reading Motivation And Engagement, Hannah Brunson Miles

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to address the issue of first-grade students being unengaged and unmotivated to read independently for the recommended 20-minute block of time in class. Students were also not electing to read independently during any free time they had in class. This research was designed to investigate how implementing a personalized e-book reading plan (PRP) affected students’ reading motivation and engagement during independent reading. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) How and to what extent do the personalized e-book reading plans impact students’ motivation to read? (b) How and to what extent …

Inquiry-Based Teaching In A Secondary English Classroom, Jennifer L. Norman

Theses and Dissertations

Teaching and learning need to move away from a transactional model found in a traditional classroom to support the growth of 21st century skills and abilities. Inquiry-based teaching is a model that places the student at the center of instruction and allows the teacher to facilitate and guide learning. The classroom fueled by inquiry is a classroom that (a) breaks free from the traditional and transactional model to promote connections to past knowledge and build new understandings, (b) allows students to direct their own learning, and (c) promotes moments of self-reflection and metacognition. The purpose of this study was to …

Supporting The African American Prekindergarten Student Through Standard Academic English Instruction, Trent Gibson Rogerson

Theses and Dissertations

The objective for this research was to determine if prekindergarten African American students would show gains on English language assessments after receiving targeted Standard Academic English instruction. The research question asks, “How can a specialized English language intervention be utilized to identify the strengths and areas of improvement for African American preschool students?” The hypothesis was the students who received targeted instruction in Standard Academic English would perform better on the post-test than on the pre-test given before the instruction period. For this study, eight prekindergarten students were allowed to participate in the research. The students were administered an English …

An Action Research Study Implementing A Livescribe™ Pen And Cornell Note-Taking Strategy In A Personal And Community Health Course To Support Note-Taking And Comprehension Of College Student-Athletes With Learning Disabilities, Ivana Rich

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Livescribe™ Symphony smartpen and the Cornell note-taking strategy on the lecture comprehension and quality of written notes of college student-athletes with learning disabilities. To explore educational tools and strategies that can assist students with learning disabilities in overcoming academic challenges, this study focused on three research questions: (1) how does the use of the Cornell note-taking strategy supported with a Livescribe™ pen affect the note-taking quality of student-athletes with learning disabilities (2) how does the use of the Cornell note-taking strategy supported with a Livescribe™ pen affect the …

Administrative Support: What Teachers Say They Need, Jennifer Harris Watson

Theses and Dissertations

For more than three decades research has shown Administrative Support as a mitigating factor for teacher attrition. It has also been associated with teacher satisfaction and positive school climate. In all of these studies authors have failed to agree on consistent definition of the phenomena and attrition rates along with satisfaction rates have been relatively unchanged. In 1981, House established four dimensions of worker support (1981) to mitigate worker burnout and attrition. His theoretical framework consisted of emotional support, appraisal support, instrumental support, and informational support in a factory work setting. Littrell et al. (1994) used House’s work to attempt …

The Implementation And Impact Of The Leveled Literacy Intervention System On Middle School Students In Special Education, Krystin Mccormick Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to determine the effects of a direct, individualized, and intensive reading intervention on middle school students with identified learning disabilities in the area of reading. The Leveled Literacy Intervention System was used as the reading intervention in this study. Oral reading fluency and reading comprehension skills were measured, as well as the student participants’ attitude toward reading. Data collection methods included LLI system assessments, district level benchmark reading assessments, and student questionnaires. The teacher-researcher analyzed the data and determined the 18-week LLI intervention had positive impacts on the student participants’ oral …