Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

“No Other Agency”: Public Education (K-12) In Washington State During World War I And The Red Scare, 1917-1920, Jennifer Nicole Arleen Crooks

All Master's Theses

This paper examines the impact of World War I and the Red Scare upon public education in Washington State. Schools, expected to be the instruments of governmental policy, played an important role in the everyday lives of people on the American homefront. Although many helped in the war effort willingly, this wartime drive included both instilling nationalism and loyalty to American political and economic institutions as well as the assimilation of immigrants. While these forces existed well before World War I and the Red Scare, they strengthened and became more publicly acceptable in 1917-1920 as more people grew convinced that …

How Much Is Enough? Teachers’ Perceptions Of Literacy Instruction And Common Core State Standards, Carol L. Butterfield, Sulee P. Kindle

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

As public school districts and teachers seek to understand the Common Core State Standards and what it means for literacy instruction, preservice teachers in universities are also learning about literacy and standards. The International Literacy Association (2016) defines literacy as "Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context." How is this definition applied to real-life teaching in the classroom? In this study preservice teachers are involved in analyzing interview data in regards to practicing teacher perceptions and attitudes about literacy instruction and the CCSS.

Mathematics And Music: A Search For Correlation, Isaac Sarver

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Several studies have been conducted, which have shown connections between content in music and mathematics. Concepts such as fractions, ratios, etc. are mathematical concepts that also can be found or expressed through music. Although these connections have been made, they primarily address connections within the subject matter of music and math. This study attempts to find a correlation between a high school student participating in a school sponsored music program and receiving a higher average math grade. In the study, two school districts provided anonymous student math score data, while also showing which students participated in a music program. From …

Engaging The Power Of Peer Observation, Kate M. Cassada, Julie Harris, Bobby Herting, Tara Warren, Damia Brown-Kidd

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

As a college professor, I have taught hundreds of graduate students in instructional leadership and reflective teaching courses. The overwhelmingly consistent report I hear from these active and engaged educators is that they rarely, if ever, have time to see each other teach. Teaching remains an isolated event - protected time for teachers to share their craft through thoughtful peer discussion and observation rarely. exists. When time is devoted to these activities, it usually is prescribed by building or division-led professional development initiatives, experiences teachers say do not feel genuine, safe, and focused on true reflection and growth. As Daniels, …

Intuition And Curriculum: From Precognition To Agency, Sandra Martinaitis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The dissertation is a speculative essay using the framework of Joseph Schwab’s (1969) commonplaces of: subject matter, student, teacher and milieu to examine how intuition can and should form part of curriculum. The overarching theme is that intuition and intuitive teaching and learning is an iterative path which leads to self-knowledge, reflection, cognition and acceptance of ‘other’ -- the Freirian (2010) notion of tolérance-- resulting in critical thinking and agency to ameliorate lives -- particularly of the oppressed. It embraces the clichéd notion of education leading to informed citizens who will make the right choices for society as a …

Role Emerging Placements In Undergraduate Occupational Therapy Training: A Case Study, Martin Fitzgerald, Abigail Kate Smith, Nazman Rehman, Michelle Taylor

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Role-emerging placements in occupational therapy training are contributing to professional and workforce development because of their strong occupational focus and placement of students in emerging practice. This manuscript explores how one role-emerging placement challenged and developed student theoretical and clinical skills, presented new ways of working at the recipient site, and enhanced service delivery. Methods: The background to role-emerging placements in occupational therapy is explored through the use of a case study which reflects on and analyses how the assessment and treatment of occupation enhanced service delivery at a local, non-traditional site. Eight students in England developed and …

Developing And Promoting A Nuclear Security Curriculum At Amity University, India: Beginnings, Successes And Challenges, Ms. Kawalpreet Kalra, Ms. Archana Yadav, Dr. Alpana Goel

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Amity University is one of India’s leading research- and innovation-driven private universities. The Amity Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (AINST), established in 2009, contribute to Amity’s mission to promote national development through philanthropy, education and research. Very recently, courses related to nuclear security and security culture have been added to the existing AINST curriculum. The purpose of introducing this course was to enhance the understanding of technical, policy, and regulatory challenges associated with nuclear security and to create a nuclear security culture among relevant local institutions. This paper describes the process involved in establishing nuclear security as an elective …

Teacher Knowledge And Selection Of Evidence-Based Practices: A Survey Study, Maria B. Sciuchetti, John W. Mckenna, Andrea L. Flower

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Federal legislation and state and local policies mandate the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and aim to improve the quality of education for all students. Federal mandates (No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001) coupled with teacher training requirements and the need for identifying effective practices for use with students with and without disabilities, highlight the need for teachers to not only implement EBPs but to identify such practices for implementation. The passage of NCLB marked the first time in education that the use of scientific research to inform instructional decisions was mandated.

Vincentian Education: The Role Of Compassion, Jerrold Ross

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

The renowned Vincentian Center of St John's University brings with it additional prestige and recognition to the research faculties who produce important findings for all levels of Catholic education and for the perpetuation of a tradition long associated with the University. Beginning with Catholic education in preschool and continuing through higher education, Vincentian education, now in its second century, should provide Hope, answer our dreams and refresh its reaction to a vibrant social context, so that people can understand its meaning beyond philosophical statements.

Jovsa: Editorial, Marc E. Gillespie

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Vincentian Universities are engaged in service at so many levels and in so many ways, yet it is easy to move through our day unaware of the herculean efforts that our students and colleagues are engaged in. The Vincentian Universities seem rooted in the idea of service. For us, service is not another trend that we adopted, but rather it has always been part of our constitution. The work presented in this issue provides two direct examples of how we can better serve.

The Role Of The Secondary Principal As A Transformational Leader In High Performing, Project Based Learning Schools In California, Daniel P. Ching

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The Role of the Secondary Principal as a Transformational Leader in High Performing, Project Based Learning Schools in California

by Daniel Ching

Purpose: California (CA) schools are facing increased pressure to implement new content standards and perform well on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). The new standards focus on higher level thinking skills, technology, and skills that cross multiple content areas. These expectations are aligned with project based learning (PBL) as an instructional model. However, there are very few models for PBL schools that are considered high performing. To implement PBL in high schools requires …

Education Through Simulation, Melody A. Padilla-Collings

Master's Projects and Capstones

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/Mac/Desktop/653Abstract.docx

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if education through simulation was effective in an undergraduate ADN nursing program to improve nursing confidence, knowledge, skill competency, and nursing care. Two groups of second year RN students were selected in their fall semester to participate in a before and after survey to compare traditional learning (required course readings, assignments, and lectures) with the PROMPT Birthing Simulator that allows hands on, interactive learning, and feedback in preparation for the Mother-Baby clinical setting. The first PDSA cycle with Group A revealed 21% were confident in their knowledge with the traditional …

If Only They Tried; The Complicated Crusade For Salvation In The Post-Katrina Education Reform Movement, Brooke Wanamaker

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Education reform is shifting the landscape of New Orleans public schools, where alternative certification programs are thriving and changing the demographics of core teachers. This study follows a Teach for America (TFA) Corps Member from 2007 (just after the historic flooding from Hurricane Katrina) who brought a promise of innovation through idealism and green wisdom. The teacher’s preparation and motivations are shown to be problematic. Examining the assumptions and privileges that underlie the import of inexperienced talent to urban education systems, this study considers the ways that community voices have been lost or undervalued in New Orleans schools. The thesis …

Differentiating Instruction Through Math Stations And Literacy Centers, Olivia Bates

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Differentiating instruction based on students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles is essential for creating effective and meaningful learning activities. Identifying these characteristics allows teachers to meet students’ needs and engage them in learning. By differentiating instruction, educators target specific students’ strengths and challenges in developing lessons to support their understanding of content. Two useful strategies for differentiating math and literacy instruction include stations and centers. In stations and centers, students work on specific skills catered to their educational needs while rotating activities in flexible groups. This guide supports teachers in identifying strategies and understanding the benefits of differentiating math and …

Teacher Strategies To Improve Education Outcomes For Indigenous Students, Theresa Papp

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Abstract

The article presents the teaching strategies that supported education success for Indigenous students of New Zealand from a case study research approach. Interviews were conducted with teacher participants that revealed four dominant strategies that were perceived to improve Māori education outcomes and were confirmed by national testing results. These strategies were: Building and repairing relationships through a relationship-based pedagogy; student focused school and classrooms; teachers that provided feedforward and feedback to students; administrative leadership, and the regular incorporation of Māori culture in the school and the classroom. Over a six-year timeframe, implementation of these strategies more than doubled Māori …

From Common Core To Charter: The Economic Remedy To Nc Education, Hunter B. Winstead

Senior Honors Theses

Although numerous factors contribute to the decline of North Carolina’s economic prosperity, one of the most prevalent is the waste that occurs through the ineffective funding of education. In the last century, this system has become progressively centralized and bureaucratized which restricts the presence of diversity and hinders economic choice. The purest evidence of this movement is demonstrated through the state’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), an initiative designed to serve as a basis for federal entanglement in education. Proponents of CCSS claimed that the system would accomplish a variety of rigorous educational goals; however, none of …

A Descriptive Case Study: Investigating The Implementation Of Web Based, Automated Grading And Tutorial Software In A Freshman Computer Literacy Course, Glen J. Coulthard

Open Access Dissertations

Students in higher education require satisfactory computer skills to be successful. While today’s students may have greater exposure to technology, research shows that their actual computer knowledge and skills are superficial and narrow. As a result, the freshman computer literacy course remains an important curricular component. This study investigates the implementation of an innovative Web-based technology for delivering software proficiency training for Microsoft Office. Building upon decades of end-user computing satisfaction and technology acceptance research, the purpose of the study is to describe the instructor and student experiences that result from the implementation and use of MyITLab educational software. The …

Refreshment For The Soul: A Phenomenological Study Of The Student Experience Of Beauty In School, Paul Reiff

Dissertations

Prompted by the ratio-scientific emphasis in the curriculum, I conducted this study to explore the lifeworlds of students to understand their lived experience of beauty in school. This investigation entailed a phenomenological study, the method of which included in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with four high school students. This study aimed to examine the essence of beauty in the lived experience of students in school, to explore the perceptions of students regarding school as a place to appreciate beauty, and to understand the needs of students as a place that develops their aesthetic sensibilities. The findings include the description …

Examining The Influence Of Number Line Fraction Task Characteristics On Student Work, Sharlee Hatch

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Research supports the claim that classrooms with teachers who respond to student thinking in the mathematics classroom will see greater student gains and student success (Lamon, 1996; Sleep & Boerst, 2012). The topic of fractions is both difficult to teach and learn, but has important implications on future success in mathematics and in life. This study set out to explore the ways in which student work is influenced by characteristics of number line fraction tasks. By examining task type, number line structure, and number choice this study shares the way these task characteristics influenced student strategies. The relationship between task …

Using Minecraft To Integrate Common Core Activities Across Elementary School Curriculum, William A J Couling

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Minecraft, an open world sandbox game rich with educational possibility, has been a growing sensation among elementary age children across the US. Though there has been some experimentation in a number of schools across the United States, there has been no mass movement to embracing Minecraft as a virtual learning environment. With advances in the fields of Virtual Learning Environments and the new wave of educational thinking known as the “Maker Movement,” the modern educational field has an opportunity for radical new ways of teaching. Using an elementary school as a model in the Monterey Bay area, I surveyed a …

The Development And Evaluation Of A Lean Six Sigma Advanced Manufacturing Methodologies Course For Aeronautical Engineering Technology Curriculum, John Michael Davis

Open Access Dissertations

Successful completion of the Lean Six Sigma advanced manufacturing methodologies practicum course provides undergraduate Aeronautical Engineering Technology (AET) students with the experience and knowledge appropriate to perform successfully in an advanced manufacturing environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine (a) Did the knowledge level of AET students increase following exposure to Lean Six Sigma and completion of the advanced manufacturing methodologies course? and (b) Did the course meet the AET students’ expectations following participation in the Lean Six Sigma advanced manufacturing course? The expected outcomes of the course included:

1. AET students will have the competencies to …

How Select Groups Of Preservice Science Teachers With Inquiry Orientations View Teaching And Learning Science Through Inquiry, Peggy Diana Ward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although hailed as a powerful form of instruction, in most teaching and learning contexts, inquiry-based instruction is fraught with ambiguous and conflicting definitions and descriptions. Yet little has been written about the experiences preservice science teacher have regarding their learning to teach science through inquiry. This project sought to understand how select preservice secondary science teachers enrolled in three UTeach programs in Arkansas conceptualize inquiry instruction and how they rationalize its value in a teaching and learning context. The three teacher education programs investigated in this study are adoption sites aligned with the UTeach Program in Austin, TX that distinguishes …

Education Individualized Through Technology, Rachel M. Leers

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will overview technology in the classroom and the impact as well as the potential that is has individualizing instruction in order to meet the needs of every kind of student. The thesis will consist of thorough research on the subject matter. Technology is a great tool to use for individualizing instruction as it consists of many recourses, it increases communication, increases discussion, has high availability, it is affordable, and consists of a variety of lesson plan ideas to meet the needs of each student. Individualized learning is especially important in the classroom as it increases student achievement, provides …

Words In Honor Of Peter London, Rain Gianneschi-Mcnichols

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Article contains presentation Patricia Rain Gianneschi gave at the Symposium for the Peter London Papers at the University of Illinois, Carbondale.

Front Matter Of Artizein: Special Edition, Jodi A. Patterson

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Contents includes: Editor/Editorial Board page, Table of Contents, Peter London quote, copyright information

What Kind Of Teacher For Our Citizens? A Book Review Of What Kind Of Citizen? Educating Our Children For The Common Good, Tony Decesare

Democracy & Education

Westheimer’s central argument in What Kind of Citizen? Educating our Children for the Common Good is that the current climate around public education—marked, in general, by standardization in our schools—is not conducive to the development of thoughtful and critically engaged public citizens. Westheimer demonstrated convincingly that schools—in response to recent education reform and, in some cases, pressure from parents and other education stakeholders—have increasingly emphasized individual goals at the expense of educating children for the common good. Furthermore and related, in this age of standardized testing, school curricula have become more narrowly focused on achievement in math and literacy at …

Deliberative Democracy: A Contested Interactive Space. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Esperanza De La Vega

Democracy & Education

This is a response to Liggett’s (2014) call to implement “deliberate democracy” in English language education classrooms. While the concept of participating in deliberate democracy is a solid ideal and worthy of pursuit, I present questions and scenarios that illustrate the complicated nature of the tasks. By sharing my testimonio along with the research, I propose that in order for teachers to guide their students' participation in deliberate democratic activities, they must step back and understand the context of the sociocultural interactive space created in the classroom and whether ELL students are able to and/or prepared to speak in an …

Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley

Democracy & Education

Spirituality has been identified as an important component of democratic education by influential scholars such as Dewey, Freire, hooks, and Noddings. However, many teachers in the United States do not engage openly with a framework for understanding, organizing, and integrating pedagogical knowledge of spirituality within the context of culturally conscious social justice education. Drawing from an analysis of the works of Dewey, Noddings, Freire, and hooks and using a critical construct of spirituality that emphasizes inquiry, practical experience, meaning making, and awareness of interconnectedness, I argue that spiritually responsive pedagogy is a vital element of emancipatory, culturally responsive education in …

The Cultural Contours Of Democracy: Indigenous Epistemologies Informing South African Citizenship, Patricia K. Kubow, Mina Min

Democracy & Education

Drawing upon the African concept of ubuntu, this article examines the epistemic orientations toward individual-society relations that inform democratic citizenship and identity in South Africa. Findings from focus group interviews conducted with 50 Xhosa teachers from all seven primary and intermediate schools in a township outside Cape Town depict the cultural contours of democracy and how the teachers reaffirm and question the dominant Western-oriented democratic narrative. Through ubuntu, defined as the virtue of being human premised upon respect, the Xhosa teachers interrupt the prevailing rights-and-responsibilities discourse to interpose a conception of democracy based on rights, responsibilities, and respect. …

Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie

Democracy & Education

This article was written by a white high school teacher (Sam) and a high school student of color (Cristina) in order to consider the harmful potential for schools in the United States to commoditize students of color at the expense of critical, antiracist work. It was written out of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study and uses a critical whiteness framework in order to examine how Cristina, in dialogue with Sam, came to theorize that her racial identity was commoditized as a cultural asset of their high school in exploitative ways. Her thinking, juxtaposed with Sam’s consideration of his …