Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Evolution Of An Introductory Electrical Engineering And Programming Course, Branimir Pejcinovic, Phillip Wong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our first year electrical engineering sequence includes two courses that involve programming and hardware interfacing. ECE 102 deals with engineering problem solving and MATLAB, while ECE 103 introduces C programming. We use MATLAB both as a problem solving tool and as an introduction to programming. Students utilize MATLAB to control a data acquisition device, which enables more realistic team-based projects that combine problem-solving, programming, and interfacing. As is widely recognized, these types of courses are important and difficult to teach. We identified areas that needed improvement in ECE 102: a) outdated lecture format, b) not enough timely feedback, c) insufficient …

Open Source Learning Materials For Introductory Chemistry Coursework In General, Organic And Biochemistry: Meeting Education Needs From High School To College, Patricia Flatt

Open Educational Resources Symposium

This panel discussion will focus on the development and pilot implementation of an interactive, multimedia online OER resource for the 100-level General, Organic and Biological Chemistry course series. This OER project has been developed by a team of faculty and upper division undergraduate students. The panel will present their team approach to developing these resources and the software utilized to create video tutorials, interactive PDF files, and online quiz materials. Stumbling blocks and program challenges will also be presented.

Oer Collaboration Between Colleges, John Schoppert, Jackie Ray

Open Educational Resources Symposium

In an ongoing effort to bridge OER collaboration between colleges, Blue Mountain CC, Columbia Gorge CC, and Klamath CC collectively worked on the adoption of several transfer courses. We worked with faculty teams who adapted OER for courses in sociology and US history sequences, and a communication course. Through cross-collaboration these teams adapted OER to fit their own needs while also adding OER resources accessible statewide. We will share how we developed bridges, managed collaboration, and tried to guide OER adaption in a collaborative environment.

How To Open Pedagogy: Tools And Techniques For Transforming Teaching, Robin Derosa

Open Educational Resources Symposium

In this workshop, we will explore the possible ways that OER and Open Pedagogy can enliven courses, empower students, and excite faculty. We will look at real examples of creative and successful Open Ped assignments from across multiple disciplines, and cover some of the most useful tools that are out there to help faculty engage students with their scholarly and professional communities beyond the university walls. There will be an opportunity to engage in a short design sprint focused around a course assignment, and participants will leave with concrete ideas about how they can reduce the cost of course materials, …

Oer-Enabled Pedagogy, David Wiley

Open Educational Resources Symposium

Lunch keynote

Statistics: The Text For Student Success, Larry Shrewsbury

Open Educational Resources Symposium

My session is for those looking for an open source textbook for Statistics (MTH 243). As a grant recipient the faculty from both Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College looked at several open source textbooks for our MTH 243 classes. We first looked at the very popular OpenStax Statistics, but the consensus was that it wasn’t as good as the textbook we’ve been using (Michael Sullivan’s Statistics, Informed Decisions using Data, 4th Edition). So we agreed to keep looking at more open source Statistics textbooks. We came across one that doesn’t seem to be very well known, but some …

The Oer As Open Creative Act, Jenn Kepka

Open Educational Resources Symposium

This session will discuss ways that OER texts can be opened for student and colleague input, both as a way to encourage open pedagogy and as a way to increase the work's sustainability. The example used will be the 2017-2017 writing texts created for WR121 and WR122. We will also discuss the constructivist and connectivist value of creating educational resources that are adaptable by students and faculty. Attendees will be invited to brainstorm and then workshop their own materials during the session so that they leave with an action list of next steps to take in opening their own class …

Human A&P: Collaborative Oer Adoption, Lindsay Biga

Open Educational Resources Symposium

Despite the availability of open source textbooks, few faculty have adopted OERs as primary course resources for several reasons. Faculty are dubious as to whether OERs are sufficiently rigorous academically and as extensively reviewed as traditional textbooks distributed by major publishers. Additionally, faculty note that many scientific disciplines rely heavily on high quality, scientifically accurate figures, an area in which OERs pale in comparison to traditional textbooks. Further, OER ancillary materials are often inferior when available at all. But perhaps most importantly, faculty have not adopted OERs because they are basically satisfied with their current textbooks and lack the time …

Introductory Psychology Oer Adoption, Alishia Huntoon

Open Educational Resources Symposium

Introductory psychology courses enroll many students each year, and at least one is typically taken by students at Oregon Tech for their general education requirements. The project's aim was to provide open educational resources, including study resources, for those enrolled in all sections, negating textbook purchase requirements. This presentation will cover this project's process and end products.

Converting Calculus Oer Into A Multimedia Text, Alex Jordan, Carly Vollet

Open Educational Resources Symposium

We have used MathBook XML software to convert two popular OERs for calculus into a multimedia format that

integrates online homework support. We'll demonstrate various features of the output, and the methods we use to edit these OERs. As time permits, we'll peek at some other OER projects that are using MathBook XML.

Our goal is to promote these two particular OERs and also the use of MathBook XML, which, in spite of its name, is an excellent tool for writing OER in all subjects. Potential attendees who are not particularly interested in mathematics may still be interested in the …

Oer Impact Research, Zip Krummel, John Schoppert, Jennifer Lantrip, Jessica Knoch, Jenn Kepka, Amy R. Hofer

Open Educational Resources Symposium

Open Oregon Educational Resources sponsored a research group to measure the impact that OER have on teaching and learning. This session will report on preliminary research results from some of the research teams across the state.

Columbia Gorge Community College implemented a comparative research project looking at the effects of OER in the classroom. During the winter and spring terms of 2017, two psychology courses - 201A and 202A - were split in half. One half of the students in class used a traditional publisher’s textbook, the other half used OER developed by the instructor. Guided by the question “How …

A Living Text: Rethinking Developmental Reading & Writing, Monique Babin, Carol Burnell, Sue Pesznecker

Open Educational Resources Symposium

Carol Burnell, Nicole Rosevear, Susan Pesznecker, and Monique Babin of Clackamas Community College (CCC), along with Jaime Wood of Portland State University, are currently developing an OER for CCC's developmental reading and writing courses, WRD-090 and -098. This project grew from a desire to create a resource that would evolve and grow along with the experience of the students and educators who use it. Their OER provides practical advice for reading and writing about college-level texts (books, articles, websites, visual texts, videos, and other multimedia). It guides students to work with these texts in different ways, according to the demands …

Arabic And English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide, Cliff Breedlove

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This text explores verb time, tense, aspect, and mood through comparison of Arabic and English sentence patterns. It includes examples of the Arabic patterns from classical and popular sources so Arabic students can learn by explanation and example how to formulate cohesive and grammatically correct sentence structure.

While this guide is intended mainly for English-speaking students studying Arabic, the charts also provide a quick reference of English sentence patterns for Arabic speakers.

The book is designed as a supplement.

Adopt/Adapt
If you are an instructor adopting or adapting this PDXOpen textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out …

The Back Burner: A Case Study Of A Teacher’S Dilemmas When Working With English Learners, Amanda Sugimoto

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasingly, mainstream classroom teachers are working with (ELs), however, little is known about what dilemmas these teachers face in their practice with ELs. Using a dilemmatic spaces framework, this case study explored the dilemmas a fourth grade teacher negotiated while working with ELs in her low-incidence school. Drawing upon multiple data sources, (i.e., observations, interviews, and artifact analysis), and using iterative and thematic analysis techniques, three dilemmas were identified. These included: (1) a lack of professional experience with ELs, (2) lack of support from the ESL teacher, and (3) conflicting administrative expectations. These findings pose important considerations for the teaching …

English Learners' Positioning During Interactions With Monolingual English-Speaking Students, Amanda Sugimoto, Kathy Carter

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasingly, English Learners (ELs) are being educated in mainstream classrooms alongside English fluent students. Using a positioning theory framework, this multiple case study explored how ELs reflexively positioned themselves during interactions with their peers as well as how English fluent peers interactionally positioned ELs. Drawing upon multiple data sources, (i.e., observations, interviews, and artifacts), and using cross case analysis techniques, we found that ELs’ reflexive positioning was influenced by their language history and schooling context and peers’ interactional positioning moves limited ELs’ access to academic interactions. These findings pose important considerations regarding the academic and linguistic access of ELs in …

Communities Of Practice In Higher Education: Transformative Dialogues Toward A Productive Academic Writing Practice, Janelle De Carrico Voegele, Dannelle D. Stevens

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Because faculty have advanced degrees, it is often assumed that they have perfected the skills needed to be productive, successful academic writers. In reality, many faculty struggle with the demands of academic writing and the resulting loss of energy for teaching and other aspects of their roles. This article reflects on the impact of an academic writing program through a community-of-practice lens. We describe the program and its elements, its development into a thriving cross-discipline writing community, the role of central program elements such as accountability and dialogue, and the benefits stemming from a learning-community emphasis across program elements

Evaluating Tech Tools For Literacy: A Research-Based Checklist, Todd Cherner, Peggy Hopper

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

With an emphasis placed on students reading and writing digitally, this presentation offers attendees a resource they can use to evaluate the literacy implications for using different apps and websites.

Involving Literacy And Technology: An Action Research Study To Improve Teacher Candidates’ Practice, Todd Cherner, Kristal Curry

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

As reflected in the new generation of “college- and career-ready” standards, developing students’ literacy abilities has become an educational initiative. In addition, software developers are continually releasing a range of educational website, apps, and programs intended to support student learning. The challenge then becomes how teachers can use these evolving instructional technologies to develop their students’ literacy abilities by combining them with their content and pedagogical knowledge. In this action research project, two teacher educators set out to study how their candidates used instructional technology during their internship for these purposes. In this article, the researchers will provide a background …

Educational Apps In The Blended Learning Classroom: Bringing Inquiry-Based Learning Into The Mix, Todd Cherner, Alex Fegely

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

With schools investing heavily in mobile technologies and emphasizing blended learning lessons, teachers are being required to create learning experiences that utilize these technologies to further prepare secondary students for college and the workforce. In this article, the authors first present a brief vignette intended to be representative of the emotions and pressures facing teachers as they prepare to teach with these new technologies. Next, the authors provide a framework teachers can use to create app-based lessons, which are lessons that use multiple apps to engage students in an inquiry-based learning experience. To provide further support, the authors include two …

Perceptions Of Hmong Parents In A Hmong American Charter School: A Qualitative Descriptive Case Study On Hmong Parent Involvement, Kirk T. Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Parental involvement plays an essential role in the United States (U.S.) educational system. However, parental involvement poses many challenges for Hmong parents in American schools. Many assumptions are made on the parts of teachers, staff, and Hmong parents about parents' roles pertaining to their involvement in their children's education. Hmong parents struggle to reconcile beliefs, attitudes, and values that they bring with them from Laos with the expectations found in the U.S. due to their unfamiliarity with the U.S. educational system.

This study employed the used a qualitative, descriptive case study approach to examine the perceptions of Hmong parents involvement …

Analysis Of Stakeholder Perceptions Of A Clinical Model Involving Co-Teaching And Extended-Field Experiences In An Inclusive Middle-Grades Setting, Barbara Ruben, Nicole R. Rigelman, Matthew Carl Mcparker

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

A qualitative study of the impact of a school university partnership in which eight teacher candidates from a two-year graduate program were placed together in a poverty level middle school was conducted. Teacher candidates in this particular program receive a master’s degree, as well as a teaching license in their content area and special education. Using primarily focus group interviews with school leaders, cooperating teachers in special education and content classrooms, and teacher candidates, we wanted to determine the influence of the partnership on all stakeholders. We read transcripts to identify themes and coded by those themes. Later, we tracked …

The Intermediate Value Theorem As A Starting Point For Inquiry-Oriented Advanced Calculus, Stephen Raymond Strand Ii

Dissertations and Theses

Making the transition from calculus to advanced calculus/real analysis can be challenging for undergraduate students. Part of this challenge lies in the shift in the focus of student activity, from a focus on algorithms and computational techniques to activities focused around definitions, theorems, and proofs. The goal of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) is to support students in making this transition by building on and formalizing their informal knowledge. There are a growing number of projects in this vein at the undergraduate level, in the areas of abstract algebra (TAAFU: Larsen, 2013; Larsen & Lockwood, 2013), differential equations (IO-DE: Rasmussen & …

Webinar: Investigations In Transportation: Partnering Industry Professionals And Elementary Teachers In A Stem Unit Of Study, Carol Biskupic Knight

TREC Webinar Series

Investigations in Transportation was an elementary school partnership and curriculum development project, engaging STEM professionals in school-based design projects.

Fifth-grade students in two Oregon communities teamed up with transportation professionals from ODOT to redesign their school parking lots, resulting in better traffic flow and increased capacity. The immersive learning experience received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students, teachers and administrators.

This webinar will demonstrate how the Portland Metro STEM Partnership was facilitated to bring transportation education into elementary school classrooms, offering students unparalleled access to STEM professionals working in their communities and to real-world applications of engineering principles.

Pdx Journeys: Studying And Living In The Us, Low-Intermediate Novel And Textbook For University Esl Students, Amber Bliss Calderón

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

Each unit begins with a chapter of fiction about a teacher and students in one ESL class. Reading comprehension and reading skills exercises follow. Prefix and suffix vocabulary-focus exercises are included. Academic Word List vocabulary exercises help students build a strong foundation in both receptive and productive knowledge. The following chapters in each unit expand on unit themes through non-fiction articles focusing on academic preparation, international experiences, and cultural adjustment. Vocabulary is repeated and comprehension and reading skills are further practiced.

Please see the Open Textbook Library for faculty Reviews of this textbook

Adopt/Adapt
If you are an instructor adopting …

Crisis In Education -- The Effect Of The Cold War On The American Education System, Spencer C.J. Gregg

Young Historians Conference

The Cold War era had a dramatic impact on the American educational system. Striving to demonstrate superiority over Soviet counterparts, new curriculum were developed to prepare the American youth intellectually, emotionally, and technologically to position the U.S. as a world power. With the American public polarized whether schools were a venue for the dissemination of national ideologies or institutions for the development of critical thinking; world events including nuclear warfare, space exploration, and military preparedness served as catalysts for the development of future citizens that would effectively contribute to the intellectual and technological growth of the nation.

Novice Teachers’ Narratives Of Seeing The Spectrum From A Lense Of Social (In)Justice: Preservice’ Teachers’ Well-Remembered Events Of Gender-Based Pedagogical And Policing Practices In Elementary School Settings, Amanda Sugimoto, Kathy Carter

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite very recent and hard-earned progress in national and state legislation explicitly prohibiting discrimination and bullying based on gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation, new teachers continue to report that their professional preparation programs do not adequately prepare them to address both the subtle and serious classroom-based bullying scenarios which routinely marginalize a particular group of students, those who identify as lesbian gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students (Jennings, 2007). To be sure, we, as a teacher education community, need to push forward in our work to develop socially just teacher education curriculum and tasks which prepare teachers to …

The Impact Of Daily 5 And Cafe Literacy Framework On Reading Comprehension In Struggling Fourth Grade Readers: A Case Study, Sandra Lee Duty

Dissertations and Theses

For decades, struggling readers have been a central focus of American public schools. In the United States, many students who struggle with reading comprehension are not receiving high-quality instruction that ensures comprehension of text. Elementary teachers are faced with the challenge of how to structure and organize literacy instruction that ensures growth in reading comprehension for struggling students.

The purpose of this case study is to explore the impact of a reading framework on fourth grade struggling students’ reading comprehension, attitudes and engagement. This case study looks specifically at the impact of the Daily 5 and CAFÉ literacy framework that …

Regenerative Change: Engaging At The Intersection Of Inner And Outer Work Through Contemplative Learning, Heather L. Burns, Celine Fitzmaurice

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article explores the intersection of the inner and outer work of regenerative change making through contemplative practices at Portland State University. It describes contemplative strategies employed with graduate students and university faculty including classroom practices and a professional development retreat series for faculty. The authors discuss the importance of inner work in fostering transformative teaching and learning, and explore the connections between inner work, contemplative practices, and transformative learning theory.

Social Studies In The Modern Era: A Case Study Of Effective Teachers' Use Of Literacy And Technology, Kristal Curry, Todd Cherner

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this research project was to highlight the practices and philosophies of two effective—but different—social studies teachers who balance the demands of teaching in the modern era while honoring their own philosophies for teaching social studies. This project was ground in the theoretical framework provided by TPACK and used a case study methodology for its research design. While the pedagogical content knowledge of the participants was strong and technology was used abundantly for instructional purposes, this research raised questions regarding how teachers can most effectively use technology to enhance instruction by helping students conceptualize content knowledge and apply …

A Detailed Rubric For Assessing The Quality Of Teacher Resource Apps, Todd Cherner, Cheng-Yuan Lee, Alex Fegely, Lauren Santaniello

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since the advent of the iPhone and rise of mobile technologies, educational apps represent one of the fastest growing markets, and both the mobile technology and educational app markets are predicted to continue experiencing growth into the foreseeable future. The irony, however, is that even with a booming market for educational apps, very little research regarding the quality of them has been conducted. Though some instruments have been developed to evaluate apps geared towards student learning, no such instrument has been created for teacher resource apps, which are designed to assist teachers in completing common tasks (e.g., taking attendance, communicating …