Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

A/R/Tography As A Guide For Curriculum Design, Michelle M. Hrbek

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

A/r/tography is not a method for curriculum development. Rather curriculum designers who see themselves as artist, researcher, and teacher best serve their students by creating lessons and units that encourage the learners to discover the a/r/tographer in themselves. Students who research themes presented in the visual arts classroom, create images that build on their personal experiences and communicate their individual perspective, and then teach others about their process are more likely to have relevant visual arts experiences. This paper explains the idea of a/r/tography and shows how a/r/tography as an overarching guide can inform curriculum whereby student artists construct meaningful …

Creating Space In The Curriculum For Workplace And Generic Skills, Brian Campbell

Stream 6: Global University

There are competing forces affecting university credibility. On the one hand there is credibility in the competitive academic environment that results in the expansion of the curriculum. And on the other hand there are the increasing pressures from outside the academy for university graduates to have economically relevant workplace skills. In this paper I analyze some of the difficulties that result from these competing pressures and speculate on how they might be resolved. The example of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology is used as a new university in attempting to establish its credibility. I suggest that collegial review …

Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk

Faculty Publications & Research

Why Tolkien?

Let us start with the obvious—if cynical—question, almost certain to come from a skeptical administrator or colleague: why would any serious, self-respecting English teacher want to teach an author whose work is about dragons, fairies, and the fantastic? With all the increased attention to standardized testing and with the demand for rigor in read- ings in the average English curriculum, choosing a popular text might raise eyebrows among critics. The question that an English teacher may be asked (or indeed, may ask him- or herself) is: doesn't teaching Tolkien as "serious" literature just fan those flames?

Curriculum, Classroom, Culture And Connectedness, Mary O'Rawe

Stream 2: Curriculum

Curriculum and pedagogy are central to many contemporary debates on fostering a successful student experience, particularly in a massified higher education sector. These themes are evident in discussions from policy level to the staffroom in many countries. Attention has been specifically directed at the transition point from ‘second level’ to ‘higher/third level’ education, resulting in the development of many initiatives and materials around the ‘first year experience’ (‘FYE’). Central principles have been identified as curricula that engage students in their programme, modules and learning. Indeed the term ‘student engagement’ has evolved as a focal point of these debates as the …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Using A Hybrid Pbl Approach In The Teaching Of The Java Programming Language To First Year Third Level, James Doody

Stream 2: Curriculum

First year students on third level Computing courses find Software Development difficult: learner outcomes are poor, with high failure rates and low learner retention. A number of research studies have shown that novice programmers have low intrinsic motivation and low programming self-efficacy. One of the other possible explanations for the difficulties many learners have with Software Development is that it may be a Threshold Concept in Computing. The literature suggests that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) can improve the teaching of difficult concepts, and it has been promoted by professional and funding bodies as a teaching strategy that can improve learner outcomes …

Mia's Music, Miranda L. Bubenheim

Student Publications

Mia’s Music is a story narrating what I view as an ideal curriculum being put into practice. Music educators have an advantageous and unique position to explore a medium with students that truly has the power to bring people together and help them to understand one another. A curriculum based in the cultural themes that students identify with will challenge them to learn through sharing their experiences and understanding others'.

Toward Developing An Academic Discipline, Tim Brady, Alan J. Stolzer

Publications

It is not often in the life of an academic or of an academic institution that circumstances coalesce to bring about a new academic discipline. But it happened recently, thus a review of the circumstances may be of interest and potentially instructive. Disciplines are typically characterized as a field of study at institutions of higher learning; they have a definable body of knowledge, scholars who contribute to that body of knowledge, teachers who teach in the field, a community of people who identify with the field, a refereed journal, are often associated with a professional practice and, in many cases, …

Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Don Dosch

Faculty Publications & Research

"Leave with effective ways to identify and address misconceptions about evolution, with a particular focus on supporting explanations with evidence."

Addressing Misconceptions About Evolution, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll, Don Dosch

Evolution

"Leave with effective ways to identify and address misconceptions about evolution, with a particular focus on supporting explanations with evidence."

Engineering Education For High-Ability Students, Branson Lawrence, Diane Hinterlong, Laurie S. Sutherland

Publications & Research

Over the course of their careers, engineers command a breadth and depth of knowledge from science, mathematics, society, politics, and economics that is needed for continuously updating their knowledge of the latest discoveries and advances. Driven by curiosity and enabled by rapid information technology, engineers are kept abreast of the latest advancements almost instantaneously. Today’s scientific knowledge is fluid and complex, yet these traits of engineering remain constant: the ability to define structure, plan, repeatedly evaluate, and align results to the initial objective. Engineering teachers need to facilitate their students’ ability to access information effectively and to apply it appropriately, …

Sustainability In The Curriculum And Teaching Of Economics: Transforming Introductory Macroeconomics, Madhavi Venkatesan

Economics Faculty Publications

Present models of economic growth primarily focus on the role of expenditures as captured in the commonly cited economic indicator, gross domestic product (GDP), where GDP is defined as the sum of final goods and services sold within a country’s natural borders. Noting that a country’s expenditures are referred to as “aggregate expenditures” and that the majority of spending is specific to consumption or consumer spending, especially in the United States where this spending category is nearly two-thirds of annual GDP (other expenditure categories for GDP include investment spending, government spending and foreign spending as proxied by net exports), there …

Bridgewater State University Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog 2015-2016, Bridgewater State University

Bridgewater State University Catalogs, 2010-

This 2015-2016 Bridgewater State University Catalog outlines programs of study.

This catalog is an official publication of Bridgewater State University. The rules, regulations, policies, fees and other charges, courses of study, and academic requirements that appear in this catalog were in effect at the time of its publication.

Whether noted elsewhere in this catalog or not, the university reserves the right to change, eliminate, and add to any existing (and to introduce additional) rules, regulations, policies, fees and other charges, courses of study and academic requirements that appear in this catalog, in the Student Handbook or on its website or …

Bridgewater State University Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog 2015-2016, Bridgewater State University

Bridgewater State University Catalogs, 2010-

This 2015-2016 Bridgewater State University Catalog outlines programs of study.

This catalog is an official publication of Bridgewater State University. The rules, regulations, policies, fees and other charges, courses of study, and academic requirements that appear in this catalog were in effect at the time of its publication.

Whether noted elsewhere in this catalog or not, the university reserves the right to change, eliminate, and add to any existing (and to introduce additional) rules, regulations, policies, fees and other charges, courses of study and academic requirements that appear in this catalog, in the Student Handbook or on its website or …

Bringing The Outside In: Connecting Literacy Practices In A Layered, Technologically-Driven Seventh Grade Honors English Curriculum, Geneva L. Scully

Wayne State University Dissertations

As technology consumes our society today, it was one intention of this study to examine whether purposeful curriculum design that both scaffolded and layered technological tools into a unit of study in a seventh grade honors English classroom would lead to more critical and creative thinking. Through a qualitative design, case study analysis of three students whose experiences demonstrated how students were able to achieve increased levels of critical thinking was described. Another intention of this study was to examine whether or not students connected their in-school and out-of-school literacies through this experience in a more meaningful way as contributors …

North Central Sociological Association 2014 Teaching Address: The John F. Schnabel Lecture—Sociology’S Special Pedagogical Challenge, Jay R. Howard

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Instructors and students must overcome a course’s special pedagogical challenge in order for meaningful and important learning to occur. While some suggest that the special pedagogical problem varies by course, I contend that the special pedagogical problem is likely to be shared across a discipline’s curriculum, rather than being unique to each course. After reviewing a three-part typology of learning outcomes for sociology, I argue that the development of students’ sociological imaginations is sociology’s special pedagogical challenge; I then offer some general guidelines for teaching strategies to enhance the students’ success in developing a sociological imagination.

Caught In The Tractor Beam Of Larger Influences: The Filtration Of Innovation In Education Technology Design, Justin Olmanson, Fitsum Abebe, Valerie Jones, Eric Kyle, Lyrica Lucas, Katie Robbins, Guieswende Rouamba, Xianquan Liu

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

While emerging technologies continue to emerge, research into their use in learning contexts often focuses on a subset of educational practices and ways of using technologies. In this study we begin to explore the extent to which educational designs are influenced by larger societal and education-related factors not usually explicitly considered when designing or identifying technology-supported education experiences for research study. We examine patterns within and between factors via a content analysis across ten years and 19 different journals of published peer-reviewed research on technology-supported writing. Our findings have implications for how researchers, designers, and educators approach technology-supported educational design …

Rhinocéros: Animals, Ideologies And Global Awareness, Brenda Crosby

French

French IV-V students read the Theater of the Absurd play Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco. The foci of this unit are more oriented toward history, politics, global awareness, and unexamined assumptions (les idées reçues) than theater as such. Students do, however, present most of the play in the Reader’s Theater style. The pre-reading activity introduces the final evaluation of the unit. Students first associate animals to ideologies and concepts. This first activity also allows the instructor to introduce the ideas fanaticism, totalitarianism, and conformism. The final assessment asks each student to chose one country, not necessarily a French speaking country. For …

Curriculum-Related Trends In K-12 Adventist Education In The North American Division: An Inductive Analysis Of The Profile Surveys--1987-2007, Monica Desir

Dissertations

Problem

For several years, curriculum developers in the North American Division (NAD) have used the biennial results from the Profile Surveys to help guide their decisions in terms of educational policy. While some comparisons have been made between individual studies and ensuing results have been used to influence curriculum development, overall trends in the 10 studies up to 2007 have not been identified. As the studies increased in number, an integrative effort was needed in order help reveal the trends in the combined results and to make them available in more compact form for use by curriculum developers.

Method

The …

Biological Evolution In Canadian Science Curricula, Anila Ashgar, Sarah Bean, Wendi O'Neill, Brian Alters

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"The social controversy around biological evolution and creationism continues to persist throughout North America (Alters and Nelson 2002; Berkman and Plutzer 2011; Moore and Cotner 2009; Wiles and Alters 2011; Winslow and others 2011; Rissler and others 2014). This fierce debate has been quite visible in the United States, but seems to be relatively muted in Canada, which may lead many to believe that the dispute does not exist north of the border. While this issue has been researched and documented thoroughly in the US, relatively little is known about its dynamics in Canada, despite the powerful presence of such …

Expanding The Literary Enterprise: How We Experience The Texts Of The Advanced Placement English Literature And Composition Curriculum, Molly Ostrow

Honors Theses

How we read the texts of the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition curriculum.

Treasure Hunt Without A Map: Archival Research At The University Of Pennsylvania, Meghan Strong

English and Creative Writing Independent Study Projects

Under the supervision of Meredith Goldsmith in the English Department, I spent this semester developing archival research projects for lower level students in the humanities. My project corresponded with the aims of the Council for Undergraduate Research, which works to develop undergraduate research skills throughout the disciplines. The Kislak Center is a nearby resource that has the potential to provide students with opportunities to develop crucial research skills while discovering little pieces of history that are hidden away in the archives. The final exercises presented here focus on the subjects of Walt Whitman, Marian Anderson, and Michel de Montaigne.

Moving From Theory To Practice: Integrating Mobile Devices In Elementary Reading Instruction, Lisa Marie Bald

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Technology integration continues to be a professional development concern, especially in elementary schools. It remains unclear why there is a difference between how teachers talk about using technology and how they apply it in teaching reading. The purpose of this study was to explore professional development options that would help teachers connect theory to practice by studying their decision-making process. The conceptual framework was based on elements of the knowing-doing gap and reflective practices. The research questions explored (a) the decision-making process, (b) reflective practices used during decision-making, (c) professional development that facilitates closing the knowing-doing gap, and (d) recommendations …

La Jeunesse Et La Quête De Soi Un Scénarimage D'Un Remake, Brenda C. Crosby

French

Students most often see films as a consumable and not a resource from which one can learn about themselves and others. Students make a ten-image storyboard demonstrating a cultural adaptation, “une transposition culturelle”, for an American audience of one of the films. Non-historical films are better suited to this storyboard for a remake project. The cultural adaptation must demonstrate a very clear connection to American culture, experiences, and sensibilities, remain true to film’s original intent, and changes must be clear and logical. The characters’ roles, role of society and/or culture, setting (time and space), and ending must be clear and …

Project 3: Clip Et Critique D'Une Chanson, Brenda C. Crosby

French

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of A Concept-Based Curriculum On Nursing Students' Nclex-Rn Exam Scores, Patricia Allen Edwards

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Institute of Medicine and the National League of Nursing have called for curricular reform that promotes high first-time pass rates on the National Counsel of Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). A campus in the southeastern region of the United States implemented a concept-based curriculum; however, the effect on the first-time NCLEX-RN pass rates was unknown. The purpose of this comparative study was to determine if the concept-based curriculum improved student scores on the NCLEX-RN. Dreyfus' model of learning guided this study because of the andragogy tenets, which in turn supported the concept-based curricula. The research questions examined the …

Creating Theatre-Based Curriculum For Use In The Esl/Efl Language Classroom: A Model, Alexandra Williams-Fleck

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many countries require the study of the English language as part of the standard curriculum in K-12 schools. Unfortunately, many students lack the interest and motivation to learn, despite English’s potential to open future academic and professional doors. This is particularly true for students living in countries where English is not a nationally spoken language. They receive no language support from their surrounding environment, which affects their rate of language acquisition. Coupled with a prevalence of out-of-context materials and non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) who may be unable to impart the non-verbal and cultural implications of the language, students are at …

Content-Based Instruction And Corpus Linguistics Curriculum For Early Advanced Efl Saudi Students, Ahmed Alattar

Master's Projects and Capstones

For many years now EFL teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia has suffered from a lack of authentic life-related and meaningful materials. Most of the EFL books available, therefore, pay more attention to form and less attention to meaning. This has resulted in many Saudi EFL students having difficulty improving their L2 proficiency. For this reason, I developed a curriculum that incorporates content-based instruction and corpus linguistics. The curriculum is divided into six units. The units focus on the five basic language skills: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. Each unit focuses on different content and includes examples form several corpus …

Teaching Health Literacy In Conjunction With Esl, Dora Lee

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the United States, many English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers who have limited English proficiency also have low levels of health literacy. The purpose of this project is to create a curriculum that ESL teachers can implement to improve the English language proficiency and the health literacy skills of adult ESL speakers with limited English proficiency residing in the United States. The curriculum is designed for teachers who work with ESL speakers who may be having trouble obtaining, processing, communicating, or managing health information due to language barriers.

Teaching About Propaganda: An Examination Of The Historical Roots Of Media Literacy, Renee Hobbs, Sandra Mcgee

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Contemporary propaganda is ubiquitous in our culture today as public relations and marketing efforts have become core dimensions of the contemporary communication system, affecting all forms of personal, social and public expression. To examine the origins of teaching and learning about propaganda, we examine some instructional materials produced in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), which popularized an early form of media literacy that promoted critical analysis in responding to propaganda in mass communication, including in radio, film and newspapers. They developed study guides and distributed them widely, popularizing concepts from classical rhetoric and expressing them in …

Creating Critical Viewers, Renee Cherow-O'Leary

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This essay is a personal reflection on the implementation of Creating Critical Viewers, a national media literacy program sponsored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), an industry association, in 1995. The television industry’s decision to develop a media literacy curriculum in the 1990s was a powerful statement by certain broadcasters to take seriously the ethical and social questions being raised about the impact of their work and to learn how to address those questions through education.