Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Teaching Juan Rodriguez: Enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy In Elementary Social Studies, Natalie Kuhl

Graduate Student Independent Studies

A fourth grade social studies curriculum and corresponding rationale are presented on the topic of Dominican historical figure Juan Rodriguez, his appearance in the Hudson harbor in 1613, and his legacy as captured by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute in upper Manhattan. Curricularized racism in education and the responsibility of teachers to correct entrenched curricularized racism is addressed in undertaking the writing of an original curriculum centered on the known scholarship of Juan Rodriguez. As a relatively unknown historical actor and a free man of color from colonial La Española (modern-day Dominican Republic), his story is leveraged to help Dominican …

Cowboy City: An Original Children’S Book, Erica Lynch

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Cowboy City is an original children’s book written for eight to ten year olds that touches on themes of race and representation. Too often the stories of Black cowboys go untold. The book was created to provide children with an accurate portrayal of who the cowboys of the Wild West were, as well as who they are now, while also providing teachers with a tool to introduce the concepts of racial representation throughout history. Told through the voice of nine-year-old Jayden, an African American boy living in the city, Cowboy City follows Jayden’s normal school day, interrupted by an extraordinary …

2018 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference: Otterbein University And The Public Good, Academic Affairs

Spring Great Expectation Faculty Conference

The 2018 Great Expectations Spring Faculty Conference featured a talk by John C. Burkhardt, drawing on his work to talk about how faculties can be more inspired and effective.

John C. Burkhardt is a professor of clinical practice in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. He was the founding director and currently leads the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, which was established in 2000 to better understand and influence the changing role of higher education within a diverse, dynamic, democratic society. For three years, 2013-2016, John directed …

The Art Curriculum As A Model Approach For Cultivating Higher Order Thinking Skills, Nicole Ross

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

As a life-long learner, I am fascinated by the abyss of knowledge that characterizes and composes a life of consciousness. As a teacher and mentor, I am committed to igniting this quest for knowledge in others and developing effective practices in doing so. The curriculum functions as an invitation to knowledge—or what can be seen as the crux of an education. The question I am most interested in answering is: “how can we most effectively approach curriculum in a way that inspires higher order thinking?” Throughout this study, I examined the factors that go into the formation of curriculum, the …

Competition: Motivating Or Declination Of Academic Success, Nicholas Mazza

Honors Projects

This study examines if competition in the classroom is more of a motivating or declining factor. I am examining the positive and negative effects of competitions on students. Games and individual worksheets will be employed to explore influence on academic achievement. Through my research, I did not find competition to be motivating for students. However, I did find the competition intervention to provide higher average quiz scores.

Opening Up: Why Are We Not Using More Open Educational Resources (Oer’S)?, Daniel A. Sabol

CSIS Technical Reports

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the ability to alleviate student drop out rate, make faculty course design easier, allow faculty to contribute and participate in the OER undertaking that is swiftly spreading through our nation. In addition we are able to save our students $2,000 - $3,000 dollars over the course of their education. This work looks at findings from a survey which was sent out to list serves and direct email to faculty. The survey posed questions to try to determine why faculty were having a difficult time accepting and using OER’s in their own classroom. It was discovered …

Authentic Learning Experiences: Investigating How Teachers Can Lead Their Students To Intrinsic Motivation In Meaningful Work, Rhonda Van Donge

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study investigated how an authentic learning experience impacted the motivation and engagement of students toward finding intrinsic value in meaningful work in a sophomore English classroom at a private Christian high school in the Midwest. The participants were 57 sophomores at the high school taking required English 10. The students participated in an authentic learning experience (ALE) designed by their teacher in which they were split into 10 teams, each team writing and designing one issue the sophomore class’s newspaper. The 57 students completed an anonymous survey at the conclusion of the authentic learning experience. Eight students …

Do Kindergarten Readiness Screenings Predict Academic And Social Success?, Lori Schaap

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study investigated the correlations between kindergarten readiness screening scores and kindergarten academic success, kindergarten social success, and third grade academic success. The participants included eighteen students who were given a readiness screening prior to kindergarten entry. These participants continued to be enrolled in the same school and were given a standardized academic test at the end of third grade. Additionally, kindergarten screening scores were compared to teacher surveys rating the participants’ academic and social ability in kindergarten. The screening scores were also compared to find if a correlation existed between the kindergarten screening scores and the third …

Student Ownership, Engagement, And The Love Of Learning: Investigating The Correlation Of Student Ownership To Student Engagement, Kevin Koeman

Master of Education Program Theses

This research study sought to determine whether providing students with increased student ownership opportunities leads to increased student engagement. Previous literature showed that when teachers allow increased student ownership, the engagement of students in class increased. One hundred and five students participated in this three-week study in an upper level English composition and literature class. For this study, students were surveyed to identify the correlation between student ownership of learning and their overall levels of student engagement in learning. The results, as a whole, confirmed that students are more engaged in learning when given more ownership opportunities.

Flipped Classrooms And The Video Creator’S Impact On Achievement, Kailee Davelaar

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study investigated the correlation between the creator of a flipped instructional video and the math achievement of the students. The researcher designed a study to examine the pre- and post-test math scores of 19 7th grade participants who viewed instructional math videos created by their classroom teacher and instructional math videos available via YouTube. After students completed one math unit with each video type, they also completed a voluntary survey investigating their video preference. Quantitative data collected from the pre- and post-tests were analyzed and the researcher found the results to be inconclusive for student achievement. The …

Formative Feedback And Student Attitudes: Investigating The Impact Of Teacher Feedback On Student Attitudes In The Classroom, Aaron Vedder

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research study explored the impact of formative feedback on student attitudes in the classroom. Four Grade 12 college-stream English students from an independent school in southwestern Ontario participated in semi-structured interviews where they responded to questions surrounding their attitudes towards their own self-efficacy, towards the English course content, and towards English instructors. Responses reflected on experiences in English courses throughout their high school career. The results of this study suggested that formative feedback has a strong impact on student self-efficacy and their relationship with the instructor, but minimal effect on student attitudes towards English course content.

Do Pop Quizzes Have A Positive Effect On Exam Grades?, Victoria V. Frisch

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

A quasi-experimental study was conducted over a seven week period between two sections of a level two American Sign Language class to determine if pop quizzes better prepared students for their midterm exams than announced quizzes would. Data collected were four quiz scores and midterm grades. Analysis conducted consisted of calculating the mean of each assessment, and running a series of t tests to compare mean scores between the control group receiving pop quizzes, and the experimental group receiving announced quizzes. The analysis showed no significance between the two groups.

Graduate Internship Report Aged 539, Frank C. Roche Iii

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship and project report includes documentation required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The documents are concurrently used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process at Corcoran High School conducted by representatives of the California Department of Education. The supporting material includes information to receive state and local funding, outline the goals and objectives of the program, along with an overview of Corcoran High School, the agriculture program and the community.

Supporting English Language Learners Inside The Mathematics Classroom: One Teacher’S Unique Perspective Working With Students During Their First Years In America, Amy Marie Fendrick

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

Reflecting upon my personal experiences teaching mathematics to English Language Learners (ELL) in a public high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, this essay largely focuses on the time I spent as the only Accelerated Math teacher in my school building. From 2012 – 2017, I taught three different subjects at this high school: Advanced Algebra, Algebra, and Accelerated Math. This essay highlights why I chose to become a math and ELL teacher, as well as the challenges, issues, struggles, and successes I experienced during my time teaching. I focus on the challenges I faced teaching students who did not share my …

Hands-On Activities To Increase Student Engagement In Undergraduate Structural Dynamics Course, Chad D. Facciolo, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

This report documents the design and implementation of several physical models and hands-on lab activities incorporated in an undergraduate structural dynamics lecture and laboratory course pairing offered at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in the Architectural Engineering department during the Winter 2018 quarter. In previous quarters, the laboratory course has lacked opportunities for students to conduct their own physical experiments and has consisted primarily of MATLAB programming activities. Efforts to illustrate the dynamic behavior of various structures have primarily involved instructor demonstrations or online videos.

The addition of physical models in the Winter 2018 offering promotes an engaging …

A Phenomenological Study On Teacher Perception Of Change In School Culture As A Result Of The Implementation Of Mindfulness, Justin Penley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore the phenomenon of teacher perception of change in school culture as a result of the implementation of mindfulness. This study used a phenomenological methodology, enabling the researcher to gather information by focusing on and describing the impact of mindfulness on school culture in a deep comprehensive manner.

The investigator was able to extract meaning and code data, leading to the emergence of themes that supported and aligned with the study’s research questions and thus led into a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. This was accomplished through data analysis of rich, in-depth interviews, onsite …

Success Rates Of Second Semester Anatomy Students In Online And On-Ground Classes At A Community College In East Tennessee, William Sproat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educators expect the number of institutions offering online courses and the number of students enrolling in these courses to increase as many students, particularly nontraditional students, discover the advantages of online content delivery. Online courses require new methods of communication between students and faculty as well as discovering new ways to build relationships, earn student trust, conduct appropriate assessment, and deliver useful course content. Many institutions—public, private, and for-profit—offer a wide variety of online coursework but faculty, employers, and the public have expressed concerns about the quality of online course content. In particular, online delivery of coursework in the natural …

A School Of Choice: A Case Study Of An Instructional Learning Model In A Public School System, Samuel Mccord

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study focused on the understandings of the administration and teaching staff with regard to the implementation and student academic growth of the B-L Upward program. The understandings were formed from data collected through structured, face-to-face interviews. The questioning of the staff members assisted in determining an understanding of the instructional model of the B-L Upward program. The experimental nature of the B-L Upward program allowed students, primarily those graduating from eighth grade and heading into high school, to choose an alternative to the traditional secondary learning environment. The current case study is an examination of the B-L Upward …

A Phenomenological Exploration Of Secondary Teachers' Perceptions Of The Flipped Classroom Model, Jami Weidmann

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to describe secondary teachers’ experiences implementing a secondary flipped classroom model (FCM) in the United States. A FCM is a framework wherein students work at their own pace and use in-class time for active learning activities. The following questions were researched: (a) How do secondary FCM teachers describe their lived experiences from implementing the FCM? (b) What benefits, if any, do secondary teachers describe from implementing the FCM? (c) What challenges, if any, do secondary teachers describe from implementing the FCM? (d) What necessary resources do teachers perceive important for successful …

An Intrinsic Case Study Examining Adaptive Recreation Instructors Who Address The Needs Of Athletes With Disabilities In Northwestern Colorado, Jenna Jordan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to understand the experience and pathway to becoming an adaptive recreation instructor at Oscar’s School Center for Adaptive Recreation (pseudonym). Knowledge is often missing in the preparation and training of instructors via non-traditional certification programs, on-the-job training, and background education and experience of persons working in adaptive recreation, adaptive physical education, and adaptive health education. I used an intrinsic case study to examine the perspectives of 17 participants including the executive director, program director, marketing director, and adaptive recreation instructors at Oscar’s School Center for Adaptive Recreation in Colorado, to obtain the …

Understanding High School Students' Motivation And Amotivation To Read In And Outside Of School: A Phenomenology, Matthew Deibler

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the motivation and amotivation to read of 9th-12th grade adolescents in a large semi-urban high school in southwestern North Carolina. The principal theory guiding this study is Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991, 1994, 2000) as it explicates three universal human needs underpinning adolescent motivation to read. This investigation was guided by the following principal research question: How do high school students in southern North Carolina describe their motivation to read? General education high school students (n=12), balanced for gender, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, and initial reading motivation, were observed, …

The Impact Of Computer-Based Programs On Middle School Math Achievement, Kenyatta Gilmore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlation research study was to investigate the impact of computer-based learning on middle school math achievement of at-risk students. The participants for this study were drawn from a convenience sample of 83 middle school students located in southeastern Georgia. At-risk middle school students were achieving below their grade equivalent and failing to meet local and state proficiency standards. Computer-based instruction was implemented as an intervention to increase student achievement in mathematics. The study used a pretest-posttest control group design and used SPSS software to conduct the statistical analyses using an ANCOVA and t-test. The results indicated …

To What Extent Do Teachers And Administrators Perceive They Impact Student Engagement In A Rural Southwest Georgia School System, Priscilla G. Yarbrough

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of engagement emerged to understand and improve outcomes for students whose academic performance in school was marginal or poor. The importance of student engagement for achieving success in school was proven in many studies. Lessons designed to engage students helped to improve student achievement at all levels including lower academic performing students and helped to create positive school cultures and classroom learning environments. Very little was known about how teacher beliefs (perceptions of student engagement) influenced student engagement within the classroom. There were only a few studies in which student engagement was examined from the teacher’s perspective. To …

Latina Women At Columbus State University: The Struggle To Persist, Sharon Seneca

Theses and Dissertations

The Hispanic population in the United States increased tremendously over the years and Latinos are now the largest ethnic minority in the United States. The growth of the Latino community changed the face of the nation. Latina women are projected to account for a third of the total female population by the year 2060.

This growing segment of society represented untapped human capital, much of which has yet to be discovered and utilized. The Latino population at Columbus State University has also increased over the years. While the numbers of Latino students continued to increase, the fact that Latino students …

Library Publishing Curriculum Sustainability Module: Readme (Overview), Brian W. Keith, Laurie N. Taylor

Library Publishing Curriculum

The Sustainability Module addresses core concerns related to library publishing as a socio-technical system. In order for library publishing endeavors to establish longevity and long-term success, professionals need to address a range of concerns related to people, policies, communities, technologies, and financials.

Library Publishing Curriculum Sustainability Module: Financial Basics (Unit 2), Instructor's Guide, Brian W. Keith, Laurie N. Taylor

Library Publishing Curriculum

Financial Basics provides an overview of budgeting and reporting in relation to projecting, predicting, and planning. This unit also addresses considerations for accounting for non-monetary goals, including intangible assets (goodwill) and diversity.

Library Publishing Curriculum Sustainability Module: Business Basics (Unit 1), Instructor's Guide, Brian W. Keith, Laurie N. Taylor

Library Publishing Curriculum

The Business Basics unit differentiates projects and programs, and introduces concepts and considerations around costs, funding, profit, and economies of scale and scope. This unit also connects ethical and business considerations for library publishing, and it discusses how to plan for the longevity of published materials. By covering these important building blocks for the management and assessment of operations, this unit will support a shared vocabulary for communicating with other non-library stakeholders regarding business operations.

Library Publishing Curriculum Sustainability Module: Self-Evaluation Rubric, Brian W. Keith, Laurie N. Taylor

Library Publishing Curriculum

This rubric can be used to assess the learner's knowledge and preparedness before and after their engagement with the Sustainability unit.

Library Publishing Curriculum Sustainability Module: Staffing And Governance (Unit 3), Instructor's Guide, Brian W. Keith, Laurie N. Taylor

Library Publishing Curriculum

The Staffing unit provides an overview of position types, services and activities involved with staffing for library publishing, and types of staffing including external, outsourcing, contract workers, and employees. This unit addresses staffing along with considerations for staffing practices including diversity and ethical practices.

Library Publishing Curriculum Sustainability Module: Preservation (Unit 4), Instructor's Guide, Brian W. Keith, Laurie N. Taylor

Library Publishing Curriculum

Preservation anchors the socio-technical concerns of library publishing in relation to sustainability—including existing supports within libraries for digital preservation. This unit uses a case study to provide a contextualized example of digital preservation terms and concerns.