Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Information Literacy Skills As A Critical Thinking Framework In The Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum, James E. Van Loon, Heather L. Lai

Library Scholarly Publications

Information Literacy (IL) instruction embedded into the engineering design curriculum can provide a framework for the development of critical thinking skills which are essential for students to master to solve open-ended engineering problems. At Wayne State University, a lecturer in biomedical engineering (BME) and a science librarian are collaborating in an ongoing effort to integrate IL instruction into the BME undergraduate design curriculum. The paper will provide a vision and rationale for integrating IL instruction into the engineering design curriculum, and discuss aspects of the Wayne State effort to effect this integration. A review of the place of critical thinking …

Cssc Program [2014], Cssc

Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative (2011-2025)

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Instructional Technology Integration And Situational Interest In Math, James A. Thompson Iv

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Motivating students to be engaged in learning, especially in math, has been a perennial challenge for educators. Over the past 20 years, instructional technology has become an increasingly prevalent teaching tool that, according to many educational observers and researchers, can have a transformative effect on teaching and learning because of the way that it engages today’s students. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relationship between students’ perceptions of technology integration and situational interest in middle school math so that educational planners will be better informed when making instructional decisions concerning the use of technology in the …

“Women Made It A Home”: Representations Of Women In Social Studies, Mardi Schmeichel

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This article explores recently published P–12 social studies lesson plans that include women to examine how attending to women is “getting done” in the field and how the lessons represent women and women’s experiences. Using discourse analysis methodologies, the author demonstrates that women have been included as topics in ways that do not work toward disrupting problematic discourses about gender norms. Through their avoidance of issues of power and patriarchy, most of the lessons fall short of addressing gender inequity—in the past or the present—in a significant way. More critical attention to women and gender in lessons, as well as …

Spoken Spanish Language Development At The High School Level: A Mixed-Methods Study, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Janine Theiler

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Communicative approaches to teaching language have emphasized the centrality of oral proficiency in the language acquisition process, but research investigating oral proficiency has been surprisingly limited, yielding an incomplete understanding of spoken language development. This study investigated the development of spoken language at the high school level over five consecutive years, involving more than 1,500 students representing 23 school districts. Quantitative Standards-Based Measure of Proficiency speaking scores and student-produced qualitative spoken samples (n > 6,000 samples) contributed to an understanding of the development of spoken language. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed a consistent growth trajectory of spoken language development, and results …

The Effect Of Morphological Strategies Training For English Language Learners, Q. Deng, G. Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Native speakers have a vocabulary size of about 50,000 when they enter college, but English as a second language learners (ELLs) have a size between 3500 and 4500 word families to take TOEFL exam (Chujo & Oghigian, 2009). It is not difficult to conclude that, when students enter college, the vocabulary size of native speakers is about 12 times of that for ELLs. Of the recently developed Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000), more than 82% of the entries are of Greek or Latin origin, indicating that the knowledge of morphemic structures, such as prefixes, suffixes, and word stems, positively affects …

International Students In The Classroom: A Faculty Learning Community, Carolina De La Rosa

Capstone Collection

International students represent about 5.4% of the total student body at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh. However, roughly a third of academic dishonesty cases which have been reported since the 2010-2011 academic year have been international students. The needs assessment and literature review presented in this paper point to the importance of involving academic departments in strengthening support for international students not only in avoiding plagiarism, but also in being academically successfully. Furthermore, it is argued that international students’ cultural diversity holds incredible potential for enhancing the educational experience of all students.

Based on that rationale, …

Teaching Standards In Environmental Site Assessments, Angelo Lampousis

Publications and Research

Since 2010, the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of City College of New York (CCNY) has successfully implemented a two-semester sequence course entitled Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments. From the very beginning of this effort, a total of ten standards per semester were used as mandatory reference material. Based on this experience, several practical ideas emerge as successful means of integrating standards into an academic curriculum.

Technology And Engineering Education Doctoral Students' Perceptions Of Their Profession, Gene Martin, John Ritz, Michael Kosloski

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The growth and vitality of both technology and engineering education professions rely on the quality of contributions of its new and emerging leaders. Many of these leaders are currently enrolled students in doctoral programs. These students will be challenged to assume leadership roles in which they are not currently engaged (Ehrenberg, Jakubson, Groen, So, & Price, 2007). Some students may choose to focus their careers in developing new curricula; some will become active in grant writing and grant procurement some will choose to serve as officers in their professional organizations; and others will contribute to the body of literature in …

Improving Enrollment In The Construction Management Graduate Program Through Students’ Perspectives, Mouloud Messaoudi

Master of Technology Management Plan II Graduate Projects

Low enrollment and the decrease in graduation and retention rates are challenges facing the growth of the Master’s in Technology Management – Construction Management (MTM-CM) program at BGSU. In addition, the competition between the universities to enroll and retain more in-state, out-of-state, and international students is aggressive. There is a need for a revaluation for the MTM-CM program in order to attract more students in the future. This study is a necessary step to know what the MTM-CM students think about the product delivered to them at BGSU. There was no prior study investigating the satisfaction level of the construction …

Classroom Management And The Librarian, Heidi Blackburn, Lauren Hays

Criss Library Faculty Publications

As librarians take on more instructional responsibilities, the need for classroom management skills becomes vital. Unfortunately, classroom management skills are not taught in library school and therefore, many librarians are forced to learn how to manage a classroom on the job. Different classroom settings such as one-shot instruction sessions and for-credit courses require different management techniques. Also, individuals are often more comfortable with certain strategies compared to other strategies for managing a classroom. With different course settings and personalities of instructors the need to learn classroom management strategies must be recognized for its importance in successful classes taught by librarians.

Targeting Point Of Need To Increase Traffic To Library Resources, James C. Miller

Georgia Library Quarterly

This paper examines the effect of creating LibGuides tailored to a student’s point of need and focuses on their potential to boost usage of library resources. In this study, LibGuides were designed for specific assignments and introduced to students during library instruction sessions. Pre- and Post-LibGuide web traffic suggested that LibGuides increased web traffic to library resources. This article suggests that library resources should not only provide sources for assignments but also assist a student through the stages of completing an assignment. As a corollary benefit, creation of assignment-specific LibGuides also increased collaboration and discussion between faculty and librarians.

Nuestros Sonidos: A Case Study Of Bilingual Music And Play Among Primary-School Age Heritage Language Learners, Sara P. Alvarez

Theses and Dissertations--English

The demographics in the United States continue to show a dramatic increase of immigrant students who speak a language other than English at home (Smitherman; U.S. Census); however, schooling ideologies and practices continue to treat developing bilingualism as a detriment to students entering school rather than a resource (Canagarajah; Heath; Matsuda; Valdés et al; Richardson; Santa Ana; Street). In this case study, conducted in the “Nuevo New South” (Mohl; Rich and Miranda), I observed how bilingual music and play in school-like settings can promote bilingual literacy practices and bridge gaps between traditional schooling practices and communities ways of languaging. Engaging …

Language Proficiency: Perceptions And Mediated Actions Of A Kentucky World Language Educator, Laura Roché Youngworth

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Since the inception of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act in 1990, Kentucky has undergone numerous educational changes. Regarding world languages, recent changes include a new state World Language Standard, a K-12 world language program review, and university language proficiency entrance requirements. These changes create an interesting context in which world language educators negotiate their perceptions and pedagogical choices. This study explored the perceptions, influences, and pedagogical choices of one Kentucky world language educator regarding language proficiency and cultural tools of context, standards and assessments. A constructivist framework guided the case study design. Data collection included interviews, observations, and artifact collection …

African American Female Narratives And Identity Development: A Case Study Of Language, Literacy, And Identity Development In The Beauty Salon, Felicia C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This four-month case study explored the connections among language, literacy, and identity development of five African American women as they shared narratives within a beauty salon context. The questions that guided the study were: (a) What language and literacy practices are enacted in the beauty salon? (b) In what way do African American women narrate their experiences? (c) What stories are shared by African American women in the salon? (d) What are the effects on the listeners of the narratives shared in the salon? and (e) How are social and cultural identities (co)constructed and performed in the narratives?

The narratives …

Measuring Student Satisfaction In Online Math Courses, Antoinette M. Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Colleges and universities worldwide have struggled to find a way to measure student satisfaction in online courses. This study examined the growth of math courses that are delivered in the online format. This study aims to address many gaps in the research literature concerning distance education using technology. In particular, it is the intention of this study to investigate satisfaction and performance of students as a result of taking online courses.

There has been an expanding concern over whether students are satisfied and can perform well in courses taken in an online environment. Satisfaction and performance in distance education have …

Learning To Retell Stories Through Comparative Teaching: Writing And Drawing, Rachel L. Lindle

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

Students who are emergent readers and writers are often difficult to assess, as they are unable to communicate understanding in writing. From my observations, these students communicate ideas best through concrete forms of expression, rather than the abstract formation of letters and writing that is unfamiliar to them. Drawing provides an alternate form of expression from writing. Based on information found in literature review and personal experiences from working with students who are emergent readers and writers, pictures and drawings are a bridge to communicate ideas with these students. This form of expression and communication may be a useful assessment …

A Microgenetic Approach To Examining Set For Variability: An Exploration Of Early Reading Development, Phil R. Cave M.A.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Learning sight words is a process that involves forming connections between letters and their sounds in order to connect spellings of words with their pronunciations as well as their meanings. During the development of sight word reading, children will sound out (phonologically recode) words that they do not yet know by sight (Share, 1995). Because English lacks transparency, sounding out according to grapheme-phoneme correspondences often only results in an approximation to the target word. The process by which a child must match a word they have recoded phonologically with a word that exists in their vocabulary has been referred to …

A Case Study Of Teachers’ And Administrators’ Experiences Integrating Project-Based Learning, Gastrid Harrigan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Implementation of project-based learning (PBL) has contributed to increases in students’ retention of concepts, engagement, and academic success. The problem for this study is that teachers’ and administrators’ experiences and perceptions have not been sought regarding the integration of PBL in the classroom at the school district. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to gain a deeper insight into the experiences of teachers and administrators implementing PBL. Centered on the theory of constructivism, the research questions focused on 10 teachers’ and 5 administrators’ experiences integrating PBL. Face-to-face interviews with participants and 10 classroom observations were conducted. Inductive …

Determining The Benefits And Designing An Externship Program For Medical Office Students At Marshalltown Community College, Kristin Murphy

Graduate Research Papers

The focus of this paper is to explore the potential benefits of and best design for an externship experience for the Medical Office program at Marshalltown Community College (MCC) in Marshalltown, Iowa. To that end, this paper provides background on Marshalltown Community College's Medical Office program; defines extemship education; highlights the value of extemships to the community college, students, instructors, and employers, as well as potential benefits specific to MCC's Medical Office program; discusses the design/setup factors that influence an effective externship program; and provides recommendations based on the findings for pursuing and implementing an externship program at MCC in …

Using Topology To Explore Mathematics Education Reform, Carling Sugarman

HMC Senior Theses

Mathematics education is a constant topic of conversation in the United States. Many attempts have been made historically to reform teaching methods and improve student results. Particularly, past ideas have emphasized problem-solving to make math feel more applicable and enjoyable. Many have additionally tackled the widespread problem of “math anxiety” by creating lessons that are more discussion-based than drill-based to shift focus from speed and accuracy. In my project, I explored past reform goals and some added goals concerning students' perceptions of mathematics. To do so, I created and tested a pilot workshop in topology, a creative and intuitive field, …

A Critical Assessment Of Spu’S Urban Plunge: A Proposal For The John Perkins Center, Scott D. Jackson

Honors Projects

This paper is written as an organizational report on the Urban Plunge Program for consideration by the John Perkins Center at Seattle Pacific University. I review Urban Plunge offering a critique and recommendations for re-imagining the program in its future development. I argue that the program needs to be clearly defined as an educational program, grounded in a conceptual framework, given a clarified and expanded mission, and guided by informed curriculum. Beyond critique, I create a proposal for programmatic content and organization to meet these identified needs.

The Business Of Transition: A Curriculum, Hayley Hill

Honors Projects

This project consists of a basic money management and business skills curriculum that is intended for students aged 16-20 at the Uganda Orphans Fund (UOF) and has been developed with Uganda’s unique culture specifically in mind. The curriculum aims to equip the young adults at UOF for a successful life, both financially and vocationally, once they leave the orphanage. Currently, the students are equipped with neither personal money management nor basic business skills. With the addition of financial and business comprehension to UOFs current curriculum, students will be provided the students with the ability to make responsible financial and business …

The Caring Beliefs And Practices Of Effective Teachers, Barbara D. Mccollum

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Current educational reform tends to emphasize an impersonal test-driven approach to teaching while the present research maintains this reform is inequitable because it neglects the personal component of teacher caring, which is necessary to reach all students, especially disaffected underachievers. The purpose of the present multi-case study was to determine the caring beliefs and practices of six effective teachers in two Title I Elementary schools in a central Georgia school system, how these beliefs and practices manifested in the classroom, and in what ways the teachers’ beliefs and practices may have been influenced by their own cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds …

Prelude - An Augmented Reality Ios Application For Music Education, Kristen Brown

Honors Projects

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology which serves to enhance the real world environment through the addition of relevant digital content, and has many potential applications within a variety of different fields, including, but not limited to, fields such as marketing, entertainment, medicine, and education. The purpose of this project is to develop an iOS augmented reality application for music educators that will serve as a tool in teaching students to recognize specific music notes and symbols.

Food Landscapes: A Case Study Of A Cooking And Art- Focused Program For Teens Living In A Food Desert, Jessica R. Norris

Theses and Dissertations

This study constructs themes and propositions about the experiences of youth participants in the fall 2013 Food Landscapes program at the Neighborhood Resource Center in Richmond, Virginia. During the program, youth participated in cooking-based volunteerism with adults with disabilities and created short videos about their experiences. In this study, I analyzed pre- and post-program participant interviews, twice-weekly program observations, and facilitator reflections to understand how Food Landscapes affected youths’ conception of community engagement and communication strategies. This case study offers insight into how youth experience after-school programming of this design. Based on my findings, youth develop and rely upon a …

A Cultural Lens Into The Story Underneath: A Resource Guide Of African American Art, Artists And Culture For Art Education, Valerie Graves

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to create a qualitative resource guide of African American culture, art, and artists for an art education curriculum. This project encompasses four main themes to reflect an area of African American culture via a work of art created by an African American artist. These themes are, Family with the sub themes African American Male, Matriarch, and Children; Spirit with the sub themes Faith, Spirituality, and Inspiration; Identity with the sub themes Artist’s Voice, Triumph, and Hope and Vision; Community with the sub themes Ancestors, Social Issues, and Cultural Voice. These themes constitute …

Enhancing Critical Thinking In Clinical Laboratory Students: A Multimodal Model, Denise Marie Juroske Short

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to improve critical thinking skills in clinical laboratory technologists through the development, implementation, and assessment of a multimodal model targeting critical thinking skills. Clinical laboratory technologists influence patient care through the testing of laboratory samples. Employers of these entry level professionals identified a need for improved critical thinking skills. This quasi-experimental study aimed to design a multimodal critical thinking model, implement the model into the clinical laboratory educational curriculum, and assesses this skill set for students in a pre-test / post-test format. The model was delivered and assessed for 47 clinical laboratory students at …

Conference Program [2014], Georgia International Conference On Information Literacy

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

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Extending An Alternative: Writing Centers And Curricular Change, Joe Essid

English Faculty Publications

When our Writing Center staked its reputation and perhaps its survival on a proposal to change our first-year curriculum, we entered territory that would have been unthinkable to those in our field a few decades ago. Writing center directors and peer tutors may not like it, but the climate now is very different from the salad days of the 1980s, when scholars such as Tilly and John Warnock argued “it is probably a mistake for centers to seek integration into the established institution” (22). In both the United States and EU nations, we face curricular change driven by emerging technologies, …