Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

The Visport Project: Visualization Of Port Logistics, Petros J. Katsioloudis, Ginger S. Watson

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The article focuses on the introduction of Visualization in Port Logistics (VisPort) web-based tool project for the visualization of port careers and logistics in the U.S. It outlines the educational objectives of the project including the virtual reality experience associated with port operation, the multimedia environment for the learning of students, and the simulation of port logistics. It mentions that the scientific and technical visualization curriculum offered to students enhances the skills related to scientific and mathematical concepts as well as the experience on graphic techniques.

Research Summary: Assessment, Robert Michael Capraro, Mary F. Roe, Micki M. Caskey, David Strahan, Penny A. Bishop, Christopher C. Weiss

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Assessment is important for middle level teachers and their students. In fact, the National Middle School Association (NMSA) highlighted curriculum, instruction, and assessment in This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (NMSA, 2010). The intention of this summary is to establish assessment’s rightful position as one priority for middle grade teachers and their students. When used wisely and well, teachers obtain information about their students’ strengths and needs, and their students remain informed about their achievements. To begin, educators need an operational definition of assessment. Based on the work of many scholars (e.g., Delclos, Vye, Burns, Bransford, & Hasselbring, …

El Atlas De Oregón Para Estudiantes, Teresa L. Bulman, Gwenda H. Rice, Center For Spatial Analysis And Research. Portland State University, David Banis, Anamaria Esparza

Instructional Materials

Un atlas para los estudiantes de primaria y secundaria

The Impact Of Revisionist History On Pre-Service And In-Service Teacher Worldviews, Franklin Titus Thompson, William P. Austin

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Students sometimes find the study of history to be boring and irrelevant. Many question the accuracy of accounts given. The introduction of revisionist history to a convenience sample of students (A^ =164) from a college of education program located at a Midwestern university made a positive difference in historical learner perspective. Students gained a greater appreciation for the study of the past, as well as a better understanding of how the melodramatic hyping of events and heroes discourages the formulation of a balanced and accurate view of history and its leaders. Pretest-to-posttest changes in mean scores were found to be …

Student-Led Learning In The Pharmaceutical Sciences Curriculum, Melinda E. Lull, Jennifer L. Mathews, E. C. Jannetta, Christine R. Birnie

Pharmacy Faculty/Staff Publications

Objectives: A challenge of primarily didactic courses lies in keeping students engaged in a potentially monotonous learning environment. The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of incorporating student-led activities into the pharmaceutical sciences curriculum. This alternative approach to traditional lecture-based learning allows for student engagement and ownership of materials. These activities were incorporated into P1 Pharmacology, Biosystems, and Calculations courses.

Methods: A variety of student-led learning activities were conducted in three courses (n=78 students). Following each activity, students were asked to participate in a survey rating the effectiveness, relevancy, productiveness, and overall impression of the activity using …

A Grounded-Theory Study Of The Teaching Methods Of Jesus : An Emergent Instructional Mode, Liv Fønnebø

Dissertations

Problem. While models of teaching and teaching methods have manifested themselves in the wake of most major world philosophies and thus are accessible to present-day educators, a defined model of teaching based on the Christian worldview is harder to find. This is strange, given the fact that the person who, by definition, stands as close to the Christian worldview as one can possibly get, Jesus Christ has the reputation of being one of the greatest teachers ever. Institutions that offer an education aligned with the Christian worldview should be the ones showing greatest interest in a model of teaching derived …

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Literacy Achievement Of Secondary Students, David P. Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Proficiency in language arts and communication skills is essential to success in the global workforce. Most states assess students in language arts literacy (LAL) through standardized tests that assess a student's ability to read, interpret literature, and write expressively. Although educational reformers strive to improve the foundations that prepare students in literacy, reforms have not fully incorporated the theory of emotional intelligence (EI), which explains a student's ability to use, understand, perceive, and manage their emotions in order to think critically, make decisions, and solve problems. Although it is not known whether EI directly correlates to literacy, emotional skills are …

Literacy Instruction In Three Preschool Programs: A Multiple Case Study, Cherrie Lovejoy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many preschool students enter kindergarten without the oral language and phonetic awareness skills necessary for academic success. Qualitative research is also limited about the instructional practices preschool teachers use to improve the literacy skills of their students. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers used developmentally appropriate instructional practices to improve the literacy skills of preschool students. The conceptual framework was based on the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in relation to language development. A multiple case study research design was used. Participants included 6 teachers from 3 different preschool programs in an urban school district in …

Supporting Introductory Test-Driven Labs With Webide, Thomas C. Dvornik

Master's Theses

WebIDE is a new web-based development environment for entry-level programmers with two primary goals: minimize tool barriers to writing computer programs and introduce software engineering best practices early in a student's educational career. Currently, WebIDE focuses on Test-Driven Learning (TDL) by using small iterative examples and introducing lock-step labs, which prevent the student from moving forward until they finish the current step. An initial set of labs and evaluators were created as examples of how to use WebIDE and were used in a pilot study in a CS0 course where students were split into two groups, one that used WebIDE …

Developing And Managing I-O Online: What’S Behind The Virtual Classroom?, Maura J. Mills, Patrick A. Knight, Kurt Kraiger, William F. Mayer, Kathryn Lafontana

Psychology Faculty Publications

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of courses and degree programs offered online. This is particularly true in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, wherein many students are working professionals who, while unable to leave their jobs, are seeking convenient ways to supplement their experience with the necessary education. Despite this surge in student interest, many educators lack explicit training in making the transition to online education. Here, a variety of individuals experienced in various aspects of developing online I-O degree programs—both undergraduate and graduate—discuss best practices for such a program as well as …

Opportunity To Learn (Otl) And The Alignment Of Upper Division Mathematics Learning Outcomes, Textbooks, And The National Assessment In Belize, Gabriel Cal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study I investigate the degree of alignment among the learning outcomes, textbooks, and the national assessment in Belize. To establish the degree of alignment, Webb‘s Four Cognitive Levels of Depth of Knowledge was used to analyze the levels of cognitive demand for each curriculum. The degree of alignment of the learning outcomes with the test items and textbooks was used to determine the extent to which the textbooks provide students with the opportunity to study the learning outcomes assessed by the national assessment. The opportunity to learn (OTL) measures addressed were the curricular content coverage and types of …

Can Havruta Style Learning Be A Best Practice In Law School?, Barbara P. Blumenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Havruta is a traditional Jewish method that seems compatible with legal education because of its focus on process, and so adaptable to law school training in legal reasoning, and because it is based upon dispute and resolution, another aspect that corresponds with the study of law. A unique form of collaborative student centered learning involving pairs of students, this article considers the application of Havruta to the law school setting and whether it should be incorporated into the law school curriculum.

E-Textbooks Are Coming: Are We Ready?, Meg C. Murray, Jorge Pérez

Faculty Articles

Textbook options are expanding and the electronic text is poised to become prevalent in the college classroom. Cost pressures are driving this trend even as the academic value of e-textbooks has yet to be established. Limited research is available that examines the effectiveness of the e-textbook as a learning tool. This paper presents the results of a study that compares student performance in two sections of an online course, one using an e-textbook and the other using a paper-based text. No significant difference in student performance was found. However, until e-textbook format and features are standardized and business models generate …

Cylinders And Spheres : Toddlers Engage In Problem Solving, Rosemary Geiken

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Every day more six million infants and toddlers (children under 3 years of age) enter some kind of out-of-home care, with 22% of this group attending center-based programs. Studies on the quality of care in centers indicate that 40% of these children are in poor quality settings while 51 % are in mediocre to medium quality settings. Two factors contributing to these low ratings are lack of age-appropriate materials and lack of learning opportunities. To address these data Piaget's theory of constructivism guided the design of a study to provide evidence of construction of knowledge that occurred when toddlers were …

Active Learning, Isabelle D. Cherney

Education Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Psychology Of Gender, Isabelle D. Cherney

Education Faculty Publications

This chapter presents examples of active learning activities and how these experiential learning exercises are adapted to the course goals and objectives in a psychology of gender course. The focus of the chapter is on how to best integrate new research findings to the students’ existing knowledge base to create a new appreciation of these complex issues and how they influence each individual’s life

Generalization Or Specialization In High School Based Health Careers Transition Programs: What Is The Impact On The Health Care Work Force Shortage?, James Wm. Taylor

Dissertations

Background: Health care experts are predicting major shortages of caregivers as a result of aging demographics and anticipated retirements of health workers. Numerous approaches are being used to increase the supply of health care workers, but little, if any, literature demonstrates the role of secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs in helping meet the anticipated demand.

Methods: Data from secondary educational health career programs were obtained from students completing five area programs (Allied Health, Health Occupations, Emergency Medical Technology, Dental Assisting, and Pharmacy Technician). Data analysis was performed on student demographics (chi-square), academic performance on standardized exams (ANOVA), and …

The Effect Of Repeated Reading With Pairs Of Students In A Large-Group Setting On Fluency And Comprehension For Students At Risk For Reading Failure, John N. Frame

Dissertations

Problem. Some students are failing to develop acceptable reading skills; however, instructional time allocated to reading fluency can increase reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to compare students who received repeated reading with pairs of students in a large-group setting with those who did not in terms of reading fluency, rates of reading fluency growth, and reading comprehension for students at risk for reading failure in a school in a Midwestern mid-sized city.

Method. An experimental pretest-posttest with control group design was used with grade level stratified (2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade) intervention (N = 27) and …

Emerging Issues Of Management Education In The 21st Century, Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, Cristina M. Giannantonio, Bruce Dehning

Business Faculty Articles and Research

There is a need for the development of international course material studying corporations outside of the United States. The development of these materials is going to require new forms of cooperation between universities and corporations. Little research exists which examines whether practitioners read, understand, or use the material contained in academic journals. This paper examines the relationship between universities and corporations by reporting the results of a study which surveyed executives about their relationship with academic research. The paper then discusses methodologies for improving collaboration between the two constituencies and offers suggestions for the development of international course materials.

The Effects Of Tinkerability On Novice Programming Skill Acquisition, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This paper reports on an exploratory study which used a graphical programming environment, Scratch, to facilitate the comprehension of a scripting programming language, ActionScript. Online survey questionnaires were distributed to 34 enrolled students, in a graduate level programming course with a 70% response rate. Findings indicated that Scratch contributed to the understanding of basic programming concepts such as event handling, sequential, and conditional statement but it was less helpful in assisting students’ understanding of more abstract concepts such as variables. This study also suggests that students’ learning style preference and proficiency with programming also make a difference in their perception …

How “Struggling” Readers Engage In Literacy Events In Middle School Science: An Analysis Of Interactions In Literacy Events, Kristin Cartwright Palmer

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This study examined opportunities for participation and learning for "struggling" readers in a sixth grade science classroom. Literacy practices, language differences, activity structures, and the social and cultural identities and associated practices and everyday funds of knowledge of both "struggling" and nonstruggling readers in one sixth grade science classroom were documented and analyzed using a qualitative research design. Over sixteen hours of audio and video recordings as well as numerous student work samples were transcribed and analyzed. Analyses of the classroom interactions and artifacts documented in this study revealed several important affordances available in the context of this classroom related …

A Review Of Curricular Approaches And Quality Of Life Indicators In The United States For Individuals Displaing Profound Multiple Disabilities, Jonna L. Bobzien

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

During the last two decades in the United States, there has been an increase in research studies on two salient areas of interests impacting individuals with profound multiple disabilities (PMD): providing access to appropriate educational curriculums and enhancing overall quality of life. Despite this interest, attempts to link positive quality of life indicators and appropriate educational curriculum for students with PMD have not been explored. The purpose of this literature review is to identify articles related to curriculum issues, as well as those addressing the importance of skill acquisition activities that lead to an improved quality of life. Implications for …

Readers' Workshop In The Elementary Classroom, Alaina Terese Daters

Graduate Research Papers

In this research project, Reader's Workshop is defined and explored in relation to an elementary classroom setting. The literature review describes the importance of independent reading, the structures and components of readers' workshop, how readers' workshop motivates and engages readers, and finally how to get started with readers' workshop in the elementary classroom. Following the literature review, there is a three-year professional development plan that lays out the key components of readers' workshop and its format for training a staff on how to implement this structure into their elementary classroom. Year one of the professional development project discusses what reader's …

Managing Small Group Instruction Through The Implementation Of Literacy Work Stations, Carrie Kracl

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This case study explored the journey of four first grade teachers in their pursuit to improve the quality of their small group instruction time through increased engagement of students away from the small groups, thus allowing for quality instruction taking place in the small group.  The teachers participated in professional development on literacy work stations that included video and an accompanying text.  Based on the qualitative data from observations and interviews, all four teachers believed that the quality of their small group instruction improved with the implementation of literacy work stations through increased student engagement and motivation and the subsequent …

Structure Strategy Use In Children's Comprehension Of Expository Texts, John V. Holsgrove

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study reviewed a body of literature largely written between the mid 1970s and 1990s that was concerned with the rhetorical structure of written expository text and its relationship to memory and comprehension. This dissertation follows from an argument that the earlier research often confused memory and comprehension and that it was limited in its attempt to clarify the relationship between text structure and reading comprehension. The current study sought to provide a fuller description of the manner in which schoolchildren of different ages and abilities employ rhetorical structure in the comprehension process. In contrast to the earlier research this …

Impact Of Project Based Learning In Introduction To Engineering/Technology Class, Alok K. Verma

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Project based learning (PBL) has a proven record as a teaching tool. Concepts that are often hard to grasp are made easy by the use of project based activities. The constructivism learning theory suggests that people learn better by actively participating in the process of learning. The Introduction to Engineering and Engineering Technology class has been modified to include project based learning kits to engage freshmen early on in the program. The goal is to demonstrate students the link between the scientific principles and their engineering applications. The course is team taught by faculty from various engineering and technology disciplines …

Helping Students Act As A Result Of Classroom Lessons, John Hilton Iii, Brandon B. Gunnell

Faculty Publications

President Thomas S. Monson taught, “The goal of gospel teaching . . . is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members. . . . The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles.” In this same talk he emphasized the importance of taking action as it relates to learning, saying, “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I learn.” Thus a key responsibility in the role of a religious educator is to help students do things as a result of …

Urban High School Students' Attitudes Toward Democratic Citizenship: A Comparison Of Students In The Njrotc Program And Students In Traditional Civics Classes, Ruthann Burns-Mcfadden

Wayne State University Dissertations

Conscientious and informed citizenry is essential in maintaining the integrity of American democracy. On the other hand, continued lack of engagement in and lack of positive attitudes towards civic participation can cause democracy to suffer. During the 21st century, schools are expected to prepare and motivate students to participate in their government. Research provides evidence that a positive relationship exists between civics education and increased civic and political knowledge; however, classroom instruction alone cannot provide all that is needed to promote a community of civic-minded individuals. Further, a survey of state level civics standards acknowledged the important relationship between participatory …

Elementary Teachers' Views Of Environmental Education, Rose M. Hotchkiss

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' views of environmental education (EE) at the elementary level. The study addresses teachers' attitudes toward the EE at the elementary school level and their self-efficacy in teaching EE.

The study's sample consisted of 201 randomly selected kindergarten through fifth grade United States public school teachers. The participants completed an on-line survey with eight percent of the respondents participating in follow up interviews. The questionnaire measured two constructs; Teachers Attitudes Toward EE and Teacher Efficacy in EE. Teachers Attitudes Toward EE had 3 subscales; Advocacy for EE, Stewardship in EE, …

The Role Of Web 2.0 And Social Media Community In Education As A Form Of Teacher Personal Professional Development, Brandi Evans Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers are facing greater technological demands. They are expected to use and teach their students to use various forms of collaborative technology (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2010). Personal professional development is professional development that teachers seek on their own, strictly on a voluntary basis, so that they can meet the needs of their students or address issues that are unique to their classroom. This study used a survey to examine the relationship between how teachers’ reported using social media community in education for personal professional development and the criteria for effective professional development, teachers’ integration practices, teachers’ frequency of …