Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

The Right To Learn: Preparing Early Childhood Teachers To Work In High-Need Schools, Julie Diamond, Fretta Reitzes, Betsy Grob

Occasional Paper Series

Three teacher educators trained in the 1960's reflect on how to ensure educational equity in high-needs schools of today. The article starts with a description of the education the writers want for all children, and outline the processes and practices needed to sustain it. This is followed by a discussion on how schools of education can equip teachers with the values, understandings, and strategies they will need to achieve these goals.

From Tele- To Online Courses: Transforming Hist 132, Torie Wynn

SIDLIT Conference

Wichita State University’s History Department and Instructional Technology and Design (IDT) office teamed up to eliminate the HIST 132 telecourse and replace it with an online course. This presentation will discuss stages of the transformation, including: Inception and Barriers, Design & Development (using theories from Green Light Design and the LEARN Model and adopting an OpenStax OER textbook), Delivery, and Challenges and Changes. IDT will provide a brief tour of the course shell and suggest ways in which a model like this may work at your university.

#Dearnextpresident: Passionate Student Engagement, Terri Summey

SIDLIT Conference

Engaging students in the educational process is something that educators struggle to achieve. To increase student engagement in a course long research project, this faculty member decided to build on causes that students are passionate about. Using a hashtag / video campaign sponsored by Fusion.net, #DearNextPresident, students identified and researched causes that they want the next President to focus on. At the end of the semester, students’ findings were presented in a variety of formats, including a video asking the next President to support their cause and presenting facts about the issue. Because the research focused on a topic that …

Static Course Modules? Zap! Librarians Create Interactive Online Lessons, Julie Hartwell, Heather Healy

SIDLIT Conference

Tired of voiceover PowerPoints? Looking for more than just another video link? NLA to the rescue! The New Literacies Alliance (NLA) is a project that creates interactive, online, and open access lessons addressing basic concepts of information and related literacies. Student scores on activities and assessments are captured using SoftChalk. The lessons are institution and LMS agnostic, allowing users from any organization to deploy the lessons in their online environment. Discover how librarians and instructors freely embed these lessons into their courses and collaborate remotely in the creation of new lessons. The session examines planning for initial lesson use, differing …

Going From Quality Learning Objectives To Quality Assessments, Kendra Barker

SIDLIT Conference

Great course design requires strong learning objectives that power quality formative assessments. In this session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to write learning objectives that create formative and measurable outcomes, when working with a qualified Subject Matter Expert. Participants will learn the “do’s” and “don’ts” of writing assessments, types of assessment questions to use, and how to format those questions to meet the course’s learning objectives.

Activities, Assignments, And Design Tools To Promote Self-Regulated Learning In Online Classes, Deborah Taylor

SIDLIT Conference

Studies have shown that the most successful online students are motivated and self-regulated. What if we could use activities, assignments and design to help all of our students become self-regulated learners? In this session I will share some research based instructional strategies, as well as some suggestions for activities and assignments that can be used across the curriculum to promote behaviors that will strengthen their self-regulation skills in online classes. Several design tools will be shared that have been proven to promote student success in online classes. This information can be used by faculty teaching online classes and instructional designers …

Mathematics Without Calculations – It’S A Beautiful Thing!, Jason J. Molitierno

Mathematics Faculty Publications

All students should have the opportunity to do mathematics in a meaningful way for the sheer fun of it. Such experiences, if well designed, improve students’ effective thinking skills, increase their appreciation of the beauty and utility of mathematics, and prepare them to be mathematically-literate members of society. This session invites talks on how we can engage the liberal arts student through courses specifically designed for them. We welcome presentations on innovative course design, pedagogy, projects, or activities, as well as talks on tools used to assess such courses. Presentations should include a research basis for the design or pedagogical …

Book Review: Competency-Based Education In Aviation: Exploring Alternate Training Pathways, Scott Burgess

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This review provides insight on the content and a review of the quality of the recent release of Competency-Based Education in Aviation: Exploring Alternate Training Pathways from Ashgate Publications.

This review does not reflect the views of IJAAA or ERAU. This work was not peer reviewed.

Influence Of Language Arts Instructional Practices On Early Adolescents’ Motivation To Read: Measuring Student And Teacher Perceptions, Sarah E. Pennington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early adolescence is a critical time for examining academic motivation, specifically motivation to read (Hervey, 2013). In order to support self-determined motivation to read, students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness must be met within the classroom context (Miller & Faircloth, 2014). Since classroom instructional practices are a key component of adolescents’ daily experiences in the classroom, research which investigates the influence of these practices on students’ self-determined motivation to read is needed. In addition, the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the degree to which classroom instructional practices meet students’ needs as well as the influence of classroom instructional …

All Pbl Starts Here: The Problem, Woei Hung

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

One essential piece of implementing of PBL is the problem. There have been calls from practitioners in the PBL field for a systematic process for designing effective PBL problems. Yet, the research efforts to explore, develop, and test PBL problem design methods or processes are still sparse. From an instructional designer and researcher’s perspective, I deem problem design to be the first step to ensure not only the proper affordance of the learning goal but also the students’ overall learning process in PBL implementation. PBL problem design is the area I have studied most consistently and passionately. In this paper, …

Cyber Security Training Tools For The Nuclear Energy Sector, Vu A. Pham

STAR Program Research Presentations

Nowadays, cyber security should be a priority for everyone when they connect their laptop to the internet; however, not many internet users have sufficient knowledge about cyber security. A cyberattack on an individual’s computer could result in the loss of personal information, financial information, or other resources. The damage from a cyberattack on a nuclear facility or other critical infrastructure could have much greater consequences. The attackers could impact the confidentiality of data, the availability of key systems, or the integrity of those safety or operating systems. Therefore, the National Nuclear Security Administration has tasked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with …

Pathways To Kindergarten Readiness., Ashley T. Forrest, Stephanie Nutter, Deborah Rivera

College of Education & Human Development Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone was to explore pathways for increased kindergarten readiness by examining the relationship between kindergarten readiness as measured by the Brigance Kindergarten Screener (BKS) domains of cognitive/general knowledge and language/communication and each of the following variables: school funding, school location, school classification, teacher credentials, teacher years of experiences, music inclusion, and time allotted to music instruction. Participants included 174 preschool students from 17 classrooms in an urban school district. This capstone used preexisting data from the school district including demographic variables of race, socioeconomic status (SES), prior setting, attendance, and the school-level variable of climate. A …

Let’S Build Together: Expanding Comprehensive Sex Education In The United States, Olivia Cecchi

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper seeks to critique the current state of sex education in the United States by examining the history of funding and the perceived effectiveness of some programs. In the past the American government has overwhelmingly supported abstinence-only methods of sex education through several federal funding streams. Yet there is little evidence to show that abstinence-only programs even work, thus there has been efforts to shift support to comprehensive sex education programs. This paper analyzes the results of several studies, which compare and evaluate the effectiveness of different types of sexuality education programs. Although these studies provide measurable evidence in …

Curriculum, Classroom Assessment, Instruction, And Science Outcomes : Evidence From Kentucky's Scholastic Audits., Steven Patrick Riley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, Kentucky enacted sweeping reform that sought to equalize educational finance. With the foundational principle that all children can learn at high levels, the Kentucky Department of Education penned the Standards and Indicators for School Improvement (SISI) to guide the Scholastic Audit—a school improvement process, underscored by the nine standards and 88 indicators of the SISI. With the theoretical framework of Systems Theory, the current research investigates Kentucky reform through the lens of the SISI and Scholastic Audit. The central research question for the current study is the following: To what extent is …

Academic Performance, Retention Rates, And Persistence Rates Of First-Year, First-Generation, Latino College Students, Jaime Duran

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was to examine the relationships between the efficacy of a Summer Bridge Academy (SBA) and the impact on students by measuring the Grade Point Averages (GPAs), retention rates, and persistence rates of first-generation, first-year, Latino college students who participated in a SBA at Central Valley Community College against like students who did not participate in same program. The independent variable was participation in a 6 week long SBA, which took place during the summer of 2011. The dependent variables were GPAs, retention rates, and persistence rates, and the control and intervening variables, students …

Teaching History: Effective Teaching For Learning History - Chronological Vs. Thematic Approaches To Student Historical Comprehension, Shane Williams

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study investigated the effects of different types of instruction on student learning of historical thinking. There are several instructional methods to teaching history but most fall into two major approaches: chronological or thematic. This study used twenty-eight high school students in two sections of a junior-senior World History course. The research project utilized three full eighteen day instructional units: The World War II unit was taught from the chronological perspective, the Cold War unit was taught from the thematic, and the instruction for the globalization unit utilized a blended approach or combination of the chronological and thematic …

Students’ Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening And School Readiness, Jeannette D. Triplett Mrs.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public school kindergarten programs have become increasingly more academic and have educators debating about what skills best serve children in kindergarten that will prepare them for later academic achievement. The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is a screening instrument used in Virginia to assess kindergarten students and students in grades 1 through 3. Kindergarten teachers want to make sure that with the more demanding curriculum, and increase in rigorous standards, that students enter kindergarten ready to learn.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between students’ kindergarten PALS scores and first grade PALS scores in a southwestern …

First Graders’ Use Of The Bar Model To Communicate Their Understanding Of The Equal Sign, Amber L. Van Vooren

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Students’ misunderstandings of the equal sign have been well documented in children as young as kindergarten. Misconceptions of the symbol (=) hinder students’ relational thinking and impede access to algebraic contexts. Symbolic equations (e.g., 4+2=__+3) have been widely used to test students’ understanding and communication of equivalence. The purpose of this study was to explore how first grade students communicate their understanding of equivalence when instruction involved using a bar model versus symbolic equations. It used a two-case study approach to compare an atypical instruction design (the bar model) to a traditional design (symbolic equations). Distinct patterns in communication and …

Mathematics Learning Support Models And Student Success At A Tennessee Community College, Bobby Allen Dixon Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every year thousands of students make preparations to pursue a college degree. Many are high school seniors, but a large percentage of the population are nontraditional age students who are years removed from a formal classroom setting. Included in the list of preparations is an examination whose results will be used to determine each individual’s readiness to be academically successful at the collegiate level. These examinations assess student’s abilities in the areas of reading, English composition, and mathematics. The results of these examinations show that at the community college level more than half of these students will need remediation in …

High School Teachers’ Perceived Self-Efficacy In Teaching Literacy Across The Curriculum In Tennessee First Core Region 1 High Schools, Ashley N. Keys

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the high school level teachers are often departmentalized by their content area and do not teach subjects outside of their specialties. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) introduced literacy standards across the curriculum requiring reading and writing instruction in all courses. The adoption not only affected traditional literacy teachers but also science, math, social studies, and career and technical education teachers who may have had little or no training or experience in teaching literacy to adolescents. These teachers, because of little training or experience in teaching literacy, may feel unprepared for the CCSS literacy shifts or inadequate in delivering literacy …

Interpreting Differences Of Self-Efficacy Of Gifted Or Talented Students With Grouping Practices In Middle School Mathematics, Amanda G. Waits

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in total scores on the Mathematical Self-Efficacy Scale, the mathematics task self-efficacy portion of the scale, and the math-related school subjects self-efficacy portion of the scale for middle school students between students assigned to a homogeneously grouped accelerated math class and students assigned to a heterogeneously grouped math class.

The instrument used to gather information for thus study on student self-efficacy was the Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES). The MSES measures 2 domains of mathematics-related behaviors and capabilities. The Mathematics Task Self-Efficacy scale is designed to …

Teacher Leadership: A Content Analysis Assessing The Impact On District Policies And Practices, Ashley P. Carter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze teacher leader models developed and implemented by the Tennessee Teacher Leader Network in order to assess the impact the models have on district policies and practices. Data were collected through a content analysis to analyze for recurring themes and differences to assess how models influence teaching and learning within districts. Fourteen district teacher leader models and strategic plans were analyzed for this study.

Eleven research questions guided this study, and qualitative data were analyzed for recurring themes and differences. Findings from this study suggest teacher leader models are limiting the vision …

Student Outcomes In Traditional, Hybrid, And Online Courses In Community College Career And Technical Education Programs, Thomas R. Sewell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether differences in student course outcomes as defined by final course grades existed between three content delivery methods in career and technical education courses: Traditional (face to face), hybrid, and online. Final course grades in career and technical education courses at one community college for the Fall 2011 through the Fall 2015 semesters were used in this study to compare the success of students in courses employing the three content delivery methods. The outcomes for male and female students and the outcomes for traditional and nontraditional students in career and technical …

Ireach Blended Learning Model And Reading Lexile Growth Of Freshmen In Maryville City Schools, Whitney Ann Schmidt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Maryville City School system has implemented the first year of the iReach blended learning model for which all students in the school district have access to either a laptop or an iPad to support their learning every day. The availability of research on the impact of iReach is limited because the blended learning instructional model is relatively new and has not yet been subjected to numerous research studies. The purpose of this ex post facto quasi-experimental quantitative study was to compare student reading Lexile growth data collected through the use of the Reading Comprehension Assessment before and after iReach …

Response To Intervention: K-8 Regular Education Teachers' Perceptions Of Effectiveness, Whitney L. Bruner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the perceptions K-8 regular education teachers have of the Response to Intervention framework. Participants of the study included 1,036 K-8 regular education teachers from 4 East Tennessee districts. The survey achieved a 28% return rate for a total of 277 participants. Specifically, this research assessed K-8 regular education teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the RTI framework overall, in aiding in the accurate identification of students with learning disabilities, closing skills gaps for students, and in aiding in the early identification of students with learning difficulties. The data source analyzed consisted …

Nursing Students’ Perceptions Of How Working As Nursing Assistants Impacts Their Education, Jerry Harvey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to develop an understanding of how working as a nursing assistant impacts the ability of nursing students to meet the high demands of school during their junior year of a Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) pre-licensure program. Benner’s Novice to Expert Theory, Situated Learning Theory, and the Johari Window Communication Model each suggested that immersing oneself in the culture of nursing would have positive outcomes for the student working as a nursing assistant. A qualitative phenomenological design was used to explore the following research questions: (a) What are the unique experiences of …

Teacher Self-Perceptions And Student Academic Engagement In Elementary School Mathematics., Kathleen M. Cash

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between elementary students’ academic engagement in mathematics and their teachers’ self-perceptions in mathematics. Early success in mathematics is seen as crucial for later success academically and professionally. Framed in Social Cognitive Theory this study sought to build on past research studies, which have found that student affective characteristics such as academic engagement, comprised of both behavioral and emotional engagement, vary across genders and ability levels. This study sought to use a number of control and independent variables to examine academic engagement in students and the relationship of that engagement to teachers’ mathematics self-concept and teaching …

Common Core State Standards : Elementary Teacher Perceptions Of Administrator Supports With A Focus On Professional Learning Communities And Walk Throughs., Kara Joan Ammerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2009, there was a major instructional shift in the state of Kentucky. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted and funding was provided to the state by Race to the Top in order to facilitate implementation of the CCSS (Kentucky Department Education, 2014c). Within this framework, teachers and administrators have had to re-examine the education of students and, specifically, administrators have had to rethink their approach to supporting teachers. To address these new standards, teachers and administrators had to restructure how students were taught. Implementing CCSS requires teachers to teach students differently than they did before. Two widely implemented …

Academic Vocabulary Instruction And Adult English Language Learners In The Arabian Gulf: A Phenomenological Study Of Instructor Perspectives, Indrani Ibrahim

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe 11 ESL instructors’ experiences and perceptions of why some adult learners in their college level ESL programs in the Gulf States of the Middle East have challenges to academic reading comprehension success. The theories that guided this study were epistemological and axiological ones whereby participants’ descriptions of perceptions regarding academic vocabulary instruction, instructional self-efficacy, and experiences were explored. Adult learning theory of Malcolm Knowles’ coupled with the social cognitive theory espoused by Albert Bandura are the frameworks that underscore the adult learner context and their social learning and instructional environments within …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Assessment Practices In Mathematics: Comparing Rural And Urban Secondary Schools In England, Michael Jarrett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This causal-comparative study compared the mean scores on the measures to determine if there were differences in perceived frequency of usage and perceived skill in usage of classroom assessment practices between mathematics teachers in urban secondary schools and mathematics teachers in rural secondary schools in England. The study comprised 109 participants selected by a random sampling method. The sample consisted of 53 mathematics teachers from urban secondary schools and 56 mathematics teachers from rural secondary schools drawn from a population of secondary school mathematics teachers in England. The Assessment Practices Inventory (API) was used to collect data from the participants …