Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Three-Year Health-Related Fitness Knowledge Growth In One Curriculum Context: Impact Of Sociodemographic Factors, Xihe Zhu, Justin A. Haegele

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study aims to (a) examine elementary school students' health-related fitness knowledge growth under one curriculum condition and (b) examine the impacts of student/school-level factors on health-related fitness knowledge and its growth rate in physical education. Method: We used an observational, longitudinal repeated-measures design, and conducted analyses on an existing dataset. Participants were 7,479 third, fourth, and fifth graders (48.9% girls) from 152 elementary schools. Measures were a knowledge test and sex at the student level, and socioeconomic data, academic performance, and student–faculty ratio at the school level. We ran three-level hierarchical linear models on the data. Results: Fitness …

Saudi Arabian Students In Postgraduate Dental Programs: Investigating Factors Associated With Burnout, Asiri Amal

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Burnout related to emotional and physical study or work demands affects an individual’s performance and well being. This study focused on Saudi Arabian dental residents studying in the United States and the United Kingdom who are faced with many challenges in pursuit of a higher education degree. A survey including demographic and MBI questions was distributed to assess this population’s level of burnout. The Maslach Burnout inventory (MBI) was has been widely used in the literature to assess three components of burnout: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DEP), and (diminished) personal accomplishment (PA). Potential predictors of burnout level, tested for statistical …

Epistemic Trust In Online Higher Education : A Mixed Method Phenomenological Research Study, Lisa F. Rapple

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this study was to explore the online instructor’s role in building epistemic trusting relationships with adult learners in their online classrooms. A mixed-method phenomenology research (MMPR) approach was used to discover if certain instructor actions influenced an epistemic trust relationship to develop between the instructor and the adult learner. This study examined the instructor’s classroom management actions, communication immediacy actions, and regulatory actions, as well as the level of epistemic trust in 48 fully online courses, focusing on 4 exemplar cases for cross-case analysis. It was determined that the instructor’s classroom management actions and communication immediacy actions …

Transformative Technology For English Language Learners, Lashonda K. Gardenhire

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Across the United States, communities are becoming more linguistically and culturally diverse. Throughout previous times of change, schools have been the bedrock of transforming society and it’s workers. However, if education in the United States is ever going to level the playing field between the affluent and the poor, white students and minority students, native-born and foreign-born, it will not be enough for English Language Learners to simply learn to read and write in English. Educators must reflect on how to adapt their teaching practices for a plethora of student needs. Subsequently, the focus of this paper will specifically be …

Promoting College And Career Readiness With Middle School Youth With Disabilities: Lessons Learned From A Curriculum Development Project, Meg Grigal, Lori Cooney, Debra Hart

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Engagement and academic success in middle school is critically important to ensure students with disabilities complete high school and have a viable path to and through postsecondary education. Although most middle school students say they want to pursue postsecondary education or training, a significant proportion are not actively engaged in college and career readiness (CCR) activities in middle school. This transition in practice article highlights the importance of early CCR instruction for middle school youth with and without disabilities. Lessons learned from developing an online CCR curriculum and implementing it with middle school youth in inclusive middle school settings will …

Memories Of The Teacher: A Reflection Of Enduring Ideals, Katherine Cooke

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In order to educate my students in my first year of teaching, I embarked upon a research project that would allow me to get to know their strengths and needs in addition to identifying my own possible biases and pre-conceived educational ideas. My research spreads from my own life to the lives of three focus students from various populations: one English learner, one student who receives special education services, and one student who has had significant life experiences that might contribute to his academic work. I interviewed all three students and their families to develop an action plan to help …

Quality Management Of Ceibal En Inglés, Gonzalo Negrón, Graham Stanley, David T. Lind

International Programs

A chapter in Innovations in Education Remote Teaching

This chapter examines the role of quality management in Ceibal en Inglés, which has grown in scope from the small-scale observations of teachers undertaken during the pilot phase of the project in 2012 (Banegas, 2013:181) into a complex quality management system, involving approximately 300 teachers, which is “coherent and comprehensive and the largest teacher observation, development and evaluation system the British Council has globally ... in which every remote teacher is observed and evaluated, as well as trained according to needs” (Knagg and Searle, 2016). The need for quality management in Ceibal …

An Examination Of The Relationship Among The Intentions, Features, Affordances, And Outcomes Of Saturday Academy For Math Professional Development For Mathematics Teachers, Brian Buckhalter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using a design framework to connect the features of SA4M to the affordances reported, participants of SA4M deepened their content knowledge on both conceptual and skill specific levels, and expressed intentions to incorporate many of the tasks from SA4M into their practices. There are implications for those tasked with creating and evaluating professional development for teachers.

The Challenges For A Closed-To-The-Public Animal Sanctuary: Prioritizing Animal Welfare While Engaging In Educational Community Outreach, Lisa Tweed

All Master's Theses

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is a small primate sanctuary in Cle Elum, Washington, and is presently home to seven chimpanzees who were retired from biomedical research. I used this sanctuary as a case study to find out how a closed-to-the-public sanctuary can engage in educational outreach without compromising the welfare of the residents. I employed a combination of semi-structured interviews of sanctuary personnel, ethnographic participant-observation as a volunteer caregiver, and an online survey offered to the local community to help me understand the goals and limitations of sanctuaries. I also designed and conducted two educational programs for local area schools as …

Teaching Science Through Active Learning: Sports, Alexis Ropchock

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Students have a variety of different learning styles and cognitive abilities, so when teaching abstract concepts in areas like physical science it is often hard to engage and develop all of the students in a class. This project focuses on middle school students and more specifically how they learn physical science. The case study and research included examines the effectiveness of teaching science through sports as a best teaching practice. The study involves a group of 8th grade learners engaging in a physics lesson using gymnastics to explain forces and motion, the results from their assessments, and the impact the …

Big Five Technologies In Aeronautical Engineering Education: Scoping Review, Ruth Martinez-Lopez

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The constant demands that technology creates in aerospace engineering also influence education. The identification of the technologies with practical application in aerospace engineering is of current interest to decision makers in both universities and industry. A social network approach enhances this scoping review of the research literature to identify the main topics using the Big Five technologies in aerospace engineering education. The conceptual structure of the dataset (n=447) was analyzed from different approaches: at macro-level, a comparative of the digital technology identified by cluster analysis with the number of co-words established in 3 and 8 and, a keyword central structure …

Multiage Education: An Exploration Of Advantages And Disadvantages Through A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Michelle Ronksley-Pavia, Georgina M. Barton, Donna Pendergast

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This systematic quantitative literature review explores existent empirical studies with an interest in multiage education in small school settings, with a specific focus on curriculum and pedagogy. Database searches were methodically conducted across six data bases. The inclusion criteria specified the need for empirical research, and publication dates ranged from 1997 to 2017. The article begins by setting the scene for the systematic review, exploring historical and international practices related to multiage complexities and terminology. Curriculum and pedagogical practices are explored to identify key advantages and disadvantages associated with a multiage approach in small school contexts.

The Effects Of The Flipped Classroom Model On Students' Learning In A College English Class In Shanghai, China, Xiaoying Wei

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

For many decades, college English teaching in China has been teacher-centered, mainly focusing on the enhancement of students’ four basic English language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, with little attention paid to the cultivation of students’ higher order thinking skills (Tang, 2016; Wang, Xu, & Zhou, 2016). The teacher-centered teaching approach has led to the problem that after having learned English for many years, students cannot speak English fluently (Dai, 2001). There has been a call for promoting the student-centered teaching model in China (NACFLT, 2000). One relatively new approach to support student-centered active learning is flipped instruction …

Preschool Teachers In Shanghai, China: Pre-Service Piano Skill Development, Perception Of Adequacy, And Current Instructional Usage, Chenyan Dai

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of preschool teachers’ perceptions of the adequacy of their undergraduate piano skills training on the frequency of their use of piano skills with their students in Shanghai, China. In addition, the study explores the possible influence of these adequacy perceptions regarding their piano skills training on their usage of various piano skills in the classroom. The researcher-designed questionnaire covered twelve specific functional piano skills including improvisation, playing piano repertoire, accompaniment, sight reading, solo singing with self-accompaniment, composition, score reading, techniques, chord progressions, harmonization, transposition and modulation. They also reported on their perceived use and training …

Problem Based Learning Resources And Exposure In Higher Education: Evidence From The Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology, Kumasi - Ghana., Richard Bruce Lamptey, Gaberial Okyere, Richard Tawiah, William Oduro

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The limited literature on problem based learning (PBL) in the context of Ghana instigates the doubt as to whether universities in the country apply this educational strategy. To clear this doubt, the present study is conducted to outline the experiences and review the resources that are inclined to the environments of PBL, using survey data from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Survey participants were educational managers, teachers and students of the university. In our results, we identified experiences among teachers and students that agree with the principles of PBL. The participants largely admitted that the university …

Using Stories To Teach, Julianna Cajka

Honors Projects

By nature, human beings are drawn to stories. Even from a young age, a good story can capture our attention, engage our emotions, and build a sense of community. The contextualizing function of stories is an essential tool for making sense of information and events, and we tend to remember stories better than information communicated in other ways. These are all reasons why stories can and should have a place in classroom teaching. My project contains a portfolio of lesson plans written to be used in middle or high school language arts classrooms. These lesson plans (and other instructional materials) …

Using Case Studies To Teach Cybersecurity Courses, Yu Cai

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

This paper introduces a holistic and case-analysis teaching model by integrating case studies into cybersecurity courses. The proposed model starts by analyzing real-world cyber breaches. Students look into the details of these attacks and learn how these attacks took place from the beginning to the end. During the process of case analysis, a list of security topics reflecting different aspects of these breaches is introduced. Through guided in-class discussion and hands-on lab assignments, student learning in lecture will be reinforced. Overall, the entire cybersecurity course is driven by case studies. The proposed model is great for teaching cybersecurity. First, the …

Museum-School Partnerships: From Creative Discourse To Resource Development, Emma Doctors

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper aims to explore museum-school partnerships and best educational practices within each entity's efforts to collaborate. The project surveys museum education and explores programmatic and curriculum development that help to serve as enrichment for students. These partnerships are important to the museum studies field as it fulfills a fiduciary responsibility that museums hold - to educate the public. By fulfilling the needs of both entities (museums and schools), creative discourse ensues, creating solutions for students to enrich their learning. I end with a project to propose the development of an exhibition resource guide that would combine the knowledge and …

Limited By Design: Expanding The Boundaries Of Schooling Policies From Demanded Passivity To Transformative Practice, Natalia T. Carvalho-Pinto

Masters Theses

Schooling is often imagined as the great equalizer and the primary venue towards personal and collective liberation. However, hegemonic ideals and practices have limited the ability for educators to craft and utilize policy in a way that best benefits their students. In this thesis, I utilize the state of Michigan’s Common Core curriculum to examine the limits beyond policy and practice. Specifically, I argue that the demands for student passivity and institutional measurable as signs of success, prohibit student growth. Throughout the document, I describe hope in the ability to instill a variety of transformative educational theories and practices that …

A Case Study Of A Technical College's Faculty Perceptions Regarding The Value Of Professional Development Activities, Kermelle D. Hensley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate technical college faculty members' perceptions of the professional development. Most of the literature was focused on four-year higher educational institutions. For the purposes of this qualitative case study, the researcher addressed the limited amount in the literature about professional development in two-year technical colleges. The researcher investigated faculty perceptions concerning the usefulness of professional development in a two-year higher education institution through survey research design with 8 participants. The main themes were 1) technical college faculty desired professional development; 2) technical college faculty needed for follow up from the professional …

Outcomes Teacher Mentoring Has On Professional Learning And Delivery Of Instruction, Susana A. Zapata-Burguete

Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative study using grounded theory was conducted to discover how educational mentoring was transferred to subsequently transform instructional delivery in the second year of teaching for novice secondary school teachers. The study was conducted in a Deep South Texas public school district during the 2017–2018 academic year. After concluding a year of mentoring, interviews were conducted to reveal how the mentoring phenomena helped transform their present day delivery of instruction. Data was gathered through face-to-face interviews with seven participants. During this second year, the novice teachers primarily relied on both what was learned through their mentoring experiences and networking …

The Role Of Teaching Presence On Academic Achievement In Fully Online Asynchronous And Hybrid Undergraduate Mathematics Courses, Shaghayegh Azadi Setayesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate how mathematics student perceptions of teaching presence differ by course delivery mode and student achievement. Online learning has had a steady growth in higher education, and mathematics courses are also offered in fully online and hybrid modes, but the research on online mathematics learning and academic achievement is limited. In order to contribute to the body of research in this field, the focus of this study was on teaching presence and academic achievement in two delivery modes: fully online asynchronous, and hybrid.

The Community of Inquiry was the theoretical framework of this study, where …

Writing Development Of Emerget Bilinguals: School-Wide Contextual Factors, Alma Rosa Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) measures Texas public school students’ knowledge and skills in many areas, including fourth grade writing. This system requires that students meet a certain performance standard score in writing to be successful. This state mandate impacts many Texas districts, teachers, and students. Districts must be prepared with necessary resources and tools to meet the writing needs of all students, including emergent bilinguals.

This case study focused on investigating how a bilingual teacher in a bilingual campus taught writing to her emergent bilinguals. Using the writer’s workshop approach, which many districts implement to …

Using Virtual Exchange To Advance Media Literacy Competencies Through Analysis Of Contemporary Propaganda, Renee Hobbs, Christian Seyferth-Zapf, Silke Grafe

Journal of Media Literacy Education

With the rise of so-called fake news as a global phenomenon, interest in propaganda analysis has advanced along with the recognition of the fundamentally social process of interpretation. In this essay, we explore the use of cross-national dialogue among German and American undergraduate students who are seeking to better understand how media messages are interpreted and how they inform and guide the civic actions of citizens. We describe and analyze five lessons that used a virtual exchange using a variety of digital media platforms, texts and technologies to support the cross-national study of contemporary propaganda. We observed that cross-national dialogue …

“College Material” Structural Care At A New York City Transfer School, C. Ray Borck

Publications and Research

Based on ethnographic research at Brooklyn Community High School (BCHS), a transfer high school in New York City I demonstrate that students narrate their educational histories in terms of their experience of care, or lack of care, from teachers. Contributing to research on student-teacher relationships, care, resilience and retention, I develop the concept structural care, arguing that teachers’ ability to demonstrate care for their students, and students’ ability to perceive that care, is enabled or constrained by larger, socio-structural forces such as the national educational policy landscape, widespread cultural beliefs about schools and students, and processes of racialization, criminalization, and …

A Storied Tale: Melding Digital Storytelling, Service-Learning, And Digital And Information Literacy Skills For Pre-Service Teachers, Heather K. Beirne

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Today’s teachers, a diverse body of individuals with a variety of technological backgrounds and skill sets, often find themselves working from a “digital immigrant” perspective. Even pre-service teachers, who may be classified as digital natives, report “strong positive beliefs in technology, yet moderate confidence and reserved attitude in using technology” (Lei, 2009); Lei reports that, though they are often viewed as “innovative users of available technology and eager adopters of new technology,” pre-service teachers are also not utilizing digital technology to its fullest advantage, self-report that they do not feel comfortable with or proficient at the use of higher level …

Re-Playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games To Teach Religious Legal Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for

Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of

Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval

religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games

of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of

processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning.

It includes the background leading to the author's work

in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for

the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind

working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then

discuss the …

Reenvisioning Education For Civic Engagement In The Social Media Century, Ryan T. Knowles

Democracy & Education

The reviewed article, “The Impact of Student Political Identity Over the Course of an Online Controversial Issue Discussion,” represents a timely response to the eye-opening influences of social media in modern political climates. Particularly, the project provides a useful model and relevant findings for future teachers and teacher educators to incorporate online political discussions. The study clearly demonstrates the value of online discussions, especially in mixed partisan groups. Based on the findings, three additional considerations were identified and elaborated on within this response. These include a renewed consideration of quantitative analysis, a focus of identity in civic education, and a …

The Impact Of Student Political Identity Over The Course Of An Online Controversial Issue Discussion, Christopher H. Clark

Democracy & Education

As civic educators become increasingly concerned about polarized political environments, researchers have begun explore the ramifications of contentious political discourse on young people. Through a quantitative analysis of data gathered from two rural, Midwestern schools, this study provides evidence that the degree to which a student socially identifies with a political party is influential over the course of an online discussion. Strength of identification was associated with students’ relative amount of knowledge for and against their position on a controversial issue and with the types of contributions students made to the online forum.

Teaching Science Through Inquiry Based Field Experiences Using Orientation And Mobility, Danene K. Fast, Tiffany A. Wild

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Instruction in science can be difficult for students with visual impairments due to the use of visual instruction that is often used for conceptual understanding. Pedagogical approaches to teaching science continue to evolve, with inquiry-based science instruction as a primary instructional method used in current classrooms.

In teaching students with visual impairments, inquiry is a strategy that has been traditionally been used in orientation and mobility (O&M) instruction, in an effort to teach students with vision loss to explore and make conclusions about their environments through the use of all senses.

The purpose of this review is to outline how …