Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Deliberate Use Of Creative Problem Solving In Art Making, Rebecca Dame-Seidler

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the productivity of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) tools in the visual art making process. The project offered the opportunity for high school student volunteer’s to participate in an after school program called Creative Art Group Experience (CAGE). Volunteers learned and made use of CPS tools to guide their art making. The project researched the effectiveness of using CPS tools in art making documenting volunteer progress and feedback. As an art educator, I had the opportunity to evaluate the impact of using CPS tools with the art-making process. The results of CAGE will benefit how CPS tools …

The Journey Home From Ecuador: A Reentry Guide For Tandana Foundation Volunteers, Heidi Bohn

Capstone Collection

The Tandana Foundation is a small, non-profit organization that works with communities nestled in the Andes of northern Ecuador, providing service-learning opportunities for students and professionals in the Otavalo region. The Journey Home from Ecuador: A Reentry Guide for Tandana Foundation Volunteers (The Journey Home) is a self-directed guide that serves to prepare interns and volunteers with the Tandana Foundation (Tandana) in Ecuador for reentry after their work abroad with the organization. In addition, it introduces the concept of reverse culture shock and provides tools and resources for a successful transition home. Living in rural Ecuador generally between …

Cuisenaire Rods: Pedagogical And Relational Instruments For Language Learning, Sevilay Akarcay

MA TESOL Collection

Cuisenaire Rods are pedagogical and relational instruments with great potential for exploring the way a language works. With their flexibility and simplicity, they allow the students to focus on the process of learning; helping them notice patterns, make associations, and engage in a social and personal relation with the language and deepening their awareness of themselves as learners. The Cuisenaire Rods’ potential for creating simplicity within complexity enables a way of working with language that engages the playful and creative powers of the users. In the introductory part of the paper, the author explores Caleb Gattegno’s approach to learning and …

Efficacy Of A Basic Public Speaking Course Delivered Via A Virtual Community College, Stephen Bradley Bailey

Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to: (a) determine if taking the basic public speaking course in face-to-face, hybrid, and online format statistically significantly reduces public speaking anxiety; (b) determine which course format, if any, reduces public speaking anxiety to the greatest extent; (c) determine if students’ satisfaction with learning is statistically significantly different in the three course formats; (d) determine faculty’s perceptions of students learning in the basic public speaking in the three course formats.

Pre- and post-data were collected from 263 participants taking the basic public speaking course in a virtual community college in January 2012 and in …

Investigating The Instructor's Role In New Student Sense Of Classroom Community, Alix E. Davidson

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study is to determine whether an instructor’s intentional effort to build community in his/her classroom results in a higher sense of classroom community among students. This study also examined what types of community building activities were conducted by each instructor and measured the students’ responses to each different activity. This was intended to establish a preliminary set of best practices for creating classroom community. A two-part questionnaire, including an adapted version of the Classroom Community Scale, was administered to instructors (n=5) and students (n=113) enrolled in two or four unit courses at California Polytechnic State University. …

San Antonio High School Food Justice Program: A Handbook And Evaluation Of Edible Education, Katherine B. Tenneson

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior environmental studies thesis explains and analyzes edible education through a food and gardening program at a continuation high school in Claremont, California. The first chapter situates the program-specific analysis by providing background information of the edible education movement, a history of the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California, and an explanation of why food is a powerful teaching tool. The second chapter delineates the program by describing all of its components and compiling essential resources and teaching documents. The third chapter is based on interviews with 9 of 12 involved students and 7 teachers, and thoroughly explains the outcomes …

The Impact Of Information Literacy Instruction On The Library Anxiety And Information Competency Of Graduate Students, Rodney G. Birch

Ed.D. Dissertations

Many persons enrolling in graduate programs of study do so with varying levels of research skills. The lack of research skills often results in students experiencing some level of library anxiety, which occurs most often at the outset of a research assignment. The role of information literacy instruction is to provide students with the skills necessary to define the information need, understand the resources available to fill the need, understand the process for evaluating information, and understand what it means to use information in an ethical manner. This study explored the relationship between the library anxiety and the information literacy …

Exploring German And American Modes Of Pedagogical And Institutional Sustainability: Forging A Way Into The Future, Lindon N. Pronto

Pitzer Senior Theses

Rooted deep in Germany's past is its modern socio-political grounding for environmental respect and sustainability. This translates into individual and collective action and extends equally to the economic and policy realm as it does to educational institutions. This thesis evaluates research conducted in Germany with a view to what best approaches are transferable to the United States liberal arts setting. Furthermore, exemplary American models of institutional sustainability and environmental education are explored and combined with those from abroad to produce a blueprint and action plan fitting for the American college and university.

Comparative Models Of Cooperative Journalism, Mercedes N. Rodriguez

Journalism

No abstract provided.

Targeted Cognitive-Based Tier Ii Interventions To Increase Student Achievement, Rachel K. Wakefield

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine whether targeted cognitive-based reading interventions are more effective than traditional evidence-based Tier II reading interventions. Ninety students who performed in the lowest third on a state reading test from a rural school district in Virginia were placed into three groups: 1) students who received traditional evidence-based reading interventions, 2) students whose teachers were trained in Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory and whose teacher chose an intervention that he/she thought would be most tailored to the student’s cognitive needs, 3) students who were tested using the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-III) and were …

Assessing The Presence And Use Of Nonverbal Communication In Primary Reading Instruction, Amelia C. Ferrell

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research examined the presence and types of nonverbal communication presented in primary reading instruction. Primary instructors were surveyed about their use and types of nonverbal communication employed during reading instruction. Nonverbal communication variables studied were determined from relevant literature regarding nonverbal immediacy, primary education, and reading instruction. Findings revealed that almost all nonverbal communication variables studied were employed frequently and most respondents had no prior training. Findings suggest how future studies can better evaluate the role of nonverbal communication in reading instruction and provide education for primary teachers in hopes of improving literacy education.

Parent Expectations Linked To Parent Satisfaction In A Summer Enrichment Program Evaluation, Laura E. Saltsman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to determine if parent expectations were a determining factor in the level of satisfaction of the parents of students who attended the Marshall University Graduate College Summer Enrichment Program of 2011. Data of parent satisfaction was collected using a revised survey based off of parent satisfaction surveys from previous years while parent expectation data was collected from applications completed by parents prior to the start of the program. Analysis using independent samples t-test determined parental expectations was not a predictor of parent satisfaction. Further exploration of the data indicated the most common expectations were …

The Use Of Humor In The Classroom: Exploring Effects On Teacher-Student Immediacy And Student Learning, Francisco Antonio Galindo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The field of education is constantly evolving; however, the goal of bridging the gap between teacher and student relationships remains the same. The focus of pedagogical theories is to inform and orient educators on how they can maximize the learning experience of their students through effective and constantly evolving teaching methods. Many studies have been conducted in regards to how educators can establish a positive learning environment while promoting solid comprehension and lasting retention of the material being taught. Among the methods being tested and practiced by educators is the use of humor (Garner, 2005) in order to achieve immediacy …

Investigating Young Children's Music-Making Behavior: A Developmental Theory, Paul G. Morehouse

CGU Theses & Dissertations

We have many developmental theories contributing to our understanding of children as they meander steadfastly toward maturation. Yet, none have reported on how young children interpret the qualitative meaning and importance of their own music-making experiences. Music created by average, not prodigious, young children is perceived by adults as “play” music rather than “real” music. But do young children take the same view as adults? When Piaget speaks of the young child’s qualitatively unique view and experience of the world (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988), can we assume that his statement encompasses young children’s predispositions related to music-making?

Music is understood …

The Politics Of Physical Education Reform, Ari Zyskind

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of the paper is to determine why today's youth are so physically inactive by examining the role and efforts of physical education, and the state and federal governments responsibility in supporting these programs, in fighting today's obesity epidemic by creating generations of healthy and physically active children. Research led to the determination that states have failed to maintain and improve physical education resulting in a physically inactive youth. Therefore, the nation should look to federal legislation to support state-led physical education, which this paper found to be constitutional if the enactments followed the provisions established in South Dakota …

Study Skills, Organizational Skills, Self-Awareness And Understanding Self Skills: A Development Of Skills Curriculum For Middle School Students, Aliina Vivant Peterson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The skills curriculum: Study Skills, Organizational Skills, Self-Awareness and Understanding Self Skills: A Development of Skills Curriculum for Middle School Students was created for the guidance staff at Twin Oaks Middle School. Each lesson is designed around an issue or topic that has been identified as a common subject matter during scheduled group sessions during this age of adolescence. The purpose of the skills curriculum allows for the guidance staff to have an additional resource to pull material from regarding specific subject matters.

Specifically, each lesson is based upon research and literature that supports the introduction, education, and implementation of …

A Postcolonial Comparative Study Of Secondary Education And Its Ideological Implications For West Indian Communities In Puerto Limon, Costa Rica ; Bluefields, Nicaragua ; And Old Providence Island, Colombia, Raquel Sanmiguel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present study sets out to identify the ideological implications that the current national systems of secondary education have for West Indians who ended up living in the “"buffer zone"” between Latin American and Anglophone Caribbean histories: Raizales in Old Providence Island, Colombia; Afrolimonenses in Limón, Costa Rica, and Creoles in Bluefields, Nicaragua. The axis of examination is the school curriculum both as practice and as a set of pre-determined content and goals that teachers have to follow. It is a critical analysis of the ideologies that inform education, supported by an inquiry into the historical and cultural factors that …

The Impact Of Mindfulness And Relaxation Techniques Implemented Within Minnesota School Settings: A Program Proposal For Waseca Junior And Senior High School, Laura Bartsch

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research project is to gain insight into the extent of the use of relaxation oriented curriculums within Minnesota schools through the distribution of an email survey. Additionally, a review of empirical literature was conducted to identify and evaluate evidence based relaxation-oriented curriculums and to create a proposal for implementation at Waseca Junior and Senior High School.