Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Evaluating The Intersection Of Continuous Growth And Assessment In The Field Of English As A Second Language, Madison Johnson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This teaching portfolio contains a compilation of the author’s personal teaching experiences and research interests while in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). The sections of this portfolio highlight collaboration with current USU professors in the field of teaching English as a second language and the author’s personal experiences working in a second-grade elementary school classroom as well as teaching English in a community education setting. Much of the mentioned research focuses on the subfield of second language assessment. This is an area of interest to the author as an area for personal …

A Critical Inquiry Exploring The Relationship Between Critical Consciousness And Community Engagement Educators, Carol Difalco

Counseling and Psychology Dissertations

Community engagement programs are shaped by the educators who facilitate them. Due to a curtailed critical consciousness, such programs are not always sensitive to the negative implications for the communities they are attempting to support. Guided by critical ethnographic and interpretive phenomenological analysis, this study examines how educators perceive their relationship with critical consciousness, its impact on their community engagement initiatives, and what we can learn from educators using community engagement to work towards social justice issues. As expected, results from the participants revealed varying awareness and understanding of how structural power and institutional oppression impact community engagement initiatives. Some …

Engaging Students In Community, Sheena Steckl

Celebration of Teaching

Vincent Tinto’s Schema for Dropout From College, posits “it is the individual's integration into the academic and social systems of the college that most directly relates to his continuance in that college” (96). I have sought to improve student integration through group-centric, community-engaged learning classes, where we spend nearly half our class time serving in the community.

These community-engaged learning courses entail a fair amount of group work. Students are assigned in groups that serve together, do in-class group assignments together, and work on multifaceted group projects. Their time spent outside the classroom serving together, be it driving to …

Making The Connection Explicit: Service Learning, The Sdgs, And The University’S Third Mission, Chloe Bissell

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Service learning (or community engaged learning) is a rapidly growing form of experiential education that results in mutually beneficial partnerships between students, institutions and local communities. SL (or CEL) is well-developed at European universities, and a variety of networks exist to further SL as a pedagogy. We examined how a range of universities consider SL a part of their institutional missions, and if explicit connections were made between SL and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (a universal framework of 17 goals to achieve by 2030) and the university’s third mission (an orientation toward the public good). This study will …

Design Of A Freight Transportation Outreach Curriculum, Breanna Stoesz

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project is centered around finding a solution to the shortage of truck drivers within the freight industry. Specifically, this project aims to lessen this shortage by ensuring potential future drivers are aware of the benefits of the industry and are encouraged to consider this career path for themselves. By producing an engaging and educational freight transportation curriculum for middle and high school students to go through in outreach programs, these students would have an increased likelihood of joining the trucking profession and encourage others to become informed about the profession as well. In addition to the direct driving role, …

Impact Of Positive Classroom Environment On Elementary School Students’ Learning, Marisa Contrada

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

When students are asked if they like school or not, their answer is typically negative for the reason that they don’t feel comfortable in the classroom. Classroom environment is where their mindset could be changed. Classroom environment has not been a prominent topic of discussion. This senior capstone research report was designed to shed light on the importance of classroom environment. Through the use of literature review, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and anonymous student survey, positive classroom environment has a tremendous impact on students learning. This senior capstone examines the importance of classroom environment as well as strategies in creating …

Seltec: Service And Experiential Learning Through Engagement In The Community: A Level I Fieldwork Model: Part 2, Amanda J. Mohler, Andrea B. Brown

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

The SELTEC model of Level I fieldwork was developed and published in 2020. The SELTEC model combines service and experiential learning to benefit student learners, the educational system, and the community. The purpose of the study was to determine students’ perceptions of a SELTEC model experience compared to a traditional Level I fieldwork experience. The research team administered a 24-item survey to thirty students who participated in the study. All participants received both a traditional one-week and SELTEC level I fieldwork experience during their occupational therapy education at Arkansas State University. Seventy-nine percent (n=23) of the respondents selected the SELTEC …

Serving Through Transcribing: Preserving History While Building Community, Julie Centofanti, Mollie Hartup

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Community is a foundational element in honors education. During the global pandemic, students reimagined ways to connect in order to build community and serve one another. Authors describe a virtual collaboration in transcription, where honors students gathered to participate in digital transcribe-a-thons. These informal groupings evolved into a transcribing club that met three times a week (collectively logging more than 1,600 hours) and transcribed over 16,000 historical documents. A study of participating transcribers reveals enhanced historical knowledge, skill building, and opportunities for relationships with students of varying interests and backgrounds despite edicts for social distancing. While a common feature of …

A Case Study Of Four Districts' Procedures For Identifying And Serving Culturally, Linguistically, And Economically Diverse Gifted And Talented Students In One State, Mackenzie Anderson

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

The underrepresentation of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students is a problem historically researched in gifted and talented programs. This problem largely comes from the way districts identify for giftedness as well as the programming for gifted students. Traditional methods of identification often largely exclude students due to racial or ethnic bias and harsh cut-off scores on tests. This study investigated the current identification procedures of four districts in one state. Additionally, the study addressed programming and how these districts specifically targeted underserved populations within their district. Data were collected through interviews with four District Coordinators from school districts with …

Service Learning And The Experiential Learning Cycle In Elementary School, Brittney D. Rose

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

There has been an increase in interest in service learning in the past decade (Kuh et al., 2017). However, there has been less attention given to service learning in elementary school, particularly to service learning that does not focus on academic outcomes for the students (Scott & Graham, 2015). This qualitative instrumental case study utilized focus groups with fifth grade students, interviews with educators, education specialists and a nonprofit representative, and observational notes to explore students’ and educators’ experiences as they participated in a service learning project in conjunction with a nonprofit organization. Findings indicate that specific collaborative practices, such …

Reflections Of Hope: The History, Development, And Growth Of Service Learning At An Urban Catholic High School In West Virginia, Susan Divita Malinoski

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to capture the history, atmosphere, and experience of HOPE (Housing Outreach Project Express). Charleston Catholic High School’s HOPE is a story of service and learning put into action. For 25 years, Charleston Catholic students, teachers, administrators, and alumni have been involved in home renovation projects for fellow West Virginians in need. Since 2005, this service has been focused on the families of Clay County, and during the past 12 years, 124 families in Clay County have warmer, safer, and drier homes as a result of HOPE. HOPE is the call to build a just …

Seltec: Service And Experiential Learning Through Engagement In The Community: A Level I Fieldwork Model: Part 1, Andrea B. Brown, Amanda J. Mohler

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Securing effective and quality fieldwork experiences is an area of concern in occupational therapy education. Academic Fieldwork Coordinators and occupational therapy programs are looking for new models and innovative methods of instruction to provide fieldwork experiences to students. A team of occupational therapy faculty developed and implemented an innovative Level I fieldwork model called Service and Experiential Learning Through Engagement in the Community (SELTEC). The model incorporates service and experiential learning while engaging the occupational therapy program and faculty educators in the community. The SELTEC model utilizes the student, educational system, and community to promote a service relationship to provide …

The Effects Of A Literacy-Based Mentoring Program On Empowering Preadolescent Girls In Their Development Of Confidence, Self-Concept, And Leadership Skillset, Sophia Vincent

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study focuses on empowering preadolescent girls to develop confidence and move from a fixed to growth mindset, take responsibility for their actions, turn failures into learning opportunities, and cultivate a love for self. GIRLS: Leaders on the Rise is a literacy-based mentoring program for preadolescent girls designed to improve confidence, positive self-concept, and develop a leadership skillset through five targeted aspects of leadership: growth mindset, integrity, resilience, love and loyalty, and strengths. Adolescence is a time when students are discovering who they are and shaping their identities. Girls decline in their self-confidence during adolescence due to fear of failure, …

Teaching Stem For The Public Good, Rita Basuray

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

The Development Of The Wise (Writing To Inspire Successful Education) Writing Mentoring Program: A University-School Collaboration, Bradley H. Smith, Michael S. Mathews, Serrae N. Reed, Michelle Q. N. Tran, Caroline Mousa, Mauricio Lozano, Erica S. Rodriguez, Andrew Hamilton, Jonathan T. Mathews

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a service learning writing mentoring program designed to close the achievement gap in writing proficiency for economically disadvantaged seventh grade students. Compared to writing mentoring studies found in the published literature, this program has three distinguishing components. First, it focused on economically disadvantaged middle school students. Second, it provided writing mentoring through a university-school partnership in which college students provided the intervention in collaboration with a seventh-grade teacher. Third, the program used technology to facilitate the mentoring process. Over the course of an academic year, mentors created videos with feedback on 19 writing …

Profile Interview With Norman E. Fenn, Shannon L. Castek

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Shannon L. Castek is a fourth-generation Boilermaker and fourth-professional-year student in the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. Throughout her time in pharmacy school, Shannon has enjoyed supplementing her curricular work with service-learning activities, participating in health screenings and immunization events with the Purdue chapter of the American Pharmacists Association–Academy of Student Pharmacists. She plans to pursue a pharmacy residency following graduation to achieve her dream of becoming an ambulatory care pharmacist. In this article, Shannon highlights the service-learning endeavors of Dr. Norman Fenn in the College of Pharmacy.

Research For Non-Profits, A Service Learning Class In Grantseeking Research, Alyssa Wright

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This chapter describes Research for Non-Profits a 300/500 level service-learning course that introduces non-profits and grantseeking while teaching research and information literacy skills. Students in the course create a funder research portfolio for a non-profit client with a funding need. As students draft, revise, and polish the portfolios, they hone their research skills as well as engage with larger information literacy concepts, particularly the value of information, information creation as a process, and how authority is constructed and contextual. The chapter describes the course’s long development road as well as how partnerships were built, not only with the campus center …

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 …

The Impact Of Classroom Engagement In A College Civic Engagement Classroom: An Action Research Study, Kimberly Seibles

Theses and Dissertations

At Southern College (pseudonym), a liberal arts college in South Carolina, students were enrolled in an introductory civic engagement course. The purpose of this action research study was to examine how an introductory civic engagement course influenced students’ perspectives on civic engagement. Additionally, the research focused on how a civic engagement course prepared students to engage in service learning. The dissertation sought to explore how peer conversations, course readings, and direct instruction would impact students’ attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives toward civic engagement. The study was implemented over a 14-week period. The researcher collected and analyzed data using a mixed methods …

Philanthropy At Parkside Elementary School: The Kindness Project, Ron Morris

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Democratic citizenship reflected an underlying philosophy of interactions between competing values such as enculturation, invention, community, individuality, order, and freedom. Students who did not investigate the underlying values of their service learning participated in indoctrination programs an idea repugnant in democratic education. Teachers provided students with opportunities to think and question as they practiced the skills they used as a citizen in the community. Fourth grade students engaged in a service learning project reflected the experience of democratic citizenship. Students navigated these values in service learning project to learn to enrich the commonwealth of their classroom, school, and extended community …

Service Learning In The Social Studies, Shaun Conway

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Education reform of the future starts with public service. Over the last two and a half years, I have built a public service program at Lake Park High School in Roselle, IL. The class allows students to pursue topical areas of self-interest in a classroom setting, while supplementing those subject topics with in-depth public service opportunities and experiential learning methodology outside the school building. Students can opt to take the semester elective during their junior or senior year (although the course was recently approved to be offered in full year format).

Reform of the future must start with public service …

Impact Of Service Learning On The Inter-Cultural Competency Of Pre-Service Teachers, Andrea Faye Gangoso-Aguila, Jonathon Arndt, Yuseina Brito-Lino, Chandler Gooding, Alyssa Harter, Sean O'Rourke, Amanda Rousemiller, David Edwards, Tori Smith

Education Presentations at National and International Conferences

The population of the U.S. is becoming increasingly diverse in language and culture. And, the population of students in elementary and secondary schools is becoming more diverse, as well. Therefore, it is critical that pre-service teachers (PSTs) experience and understand other cultures. Teachers will need to become more inter-culturally competent (ICC). According to Hammer & Bennett (2010), ICC is "the capability to accurately understand and adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonality.” One way to do this is for PSTs to participate in Service Learning. According to the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC), service learning is “a teaching and learning strategy …

Administering High Impact, Faculty-Led, International Travel Courses, Christopher Hirschler Phd, Kira Espiritu Phd

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Chairs can play an important role in the creation and sustainability of high impact, faculty-led, international travel courses. Engaging faculty is critical to the success of campus internationalization initiatives. This session presents best practices for utilizing faculty-directed programming as a means of campus internationalization.

A Cultured Learning Environment: Implementing A Problem- And Service-Based Microbiology Capstone Course To Assess Process- And Skill-Based Learning Objectives, Rachel M. Watson, John D. Willford, Mariel A. Pfeifer

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

In this study, a problem-based capstone course was designed to assess the University of Wyoming Microbiology Program’s skill-based and process-based student learning objectives. Students partnered with a local farm, a community garden, and a free downtown clinic in order to conceptualize, propose, perform, and present studies addressing problems experienced by these partners. Instructor assessments enabled understanding of student competencies, and according to external subject matter experts students demonstrated mastery of all learning objectives on the final research presentation. Community partners were completely satisfied with the students’ solutions, professionalism, and communication. Instructional diagnosis and student course evaluations showed satisfaction, engagement, and …

Integrating Service-Learning In The Public Speaking Course, Elizabeth A. Munz, Roger D. Gatchet, Matthew R. Meier

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This best-practices article endorses incorporating service-learning into the foundational public speaking course. The article explains connections between service-learning and the rhetorical tradition, highlights pedagogical approaches that would benefit from a service-learning component, and discusses the benefits of service-learning for community partners and students. The remainder of the article focuses on how to implement servicelearning in a public speaking course, including reflection and assessment recommendations.

"Diversity," Anti-Racism, And Decolonizing Service Learning In The Capstone Experience, W. Tracy Dillon, Judy Bluehorse Skelton, Vicki Reitenauer

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This retrospective on service learning in the development of University Studies Capstones, the senior-level requirement in the University Studies general education program at Portland State University, explores how the original framers of University Studies anticipated the pitfalls of "pedagogies of whiteness" in deploying service learning as the hallmark pedagogical feature of the program; includes a case study of a Capstone course that centers on Indigenous ways of knowing, learning, and teaching through its pedagogy; and identifies the formative presence of Capstone faculty committed to anti-racist and anti-imperialist pedagogies. From a variety of institutional and disciplinary standpoints and through long association …

Making The Case For Exploratory World Language Instruction In Catholic Elementary Schools Through University Partnerships, Brigid M. Burke, Eric D. Howard

Journal of Catholic Education

As a result of a university partnership, elementary students at two midwest Catholic elementary schools have been provided with exploratory world language instruction (FLEX) from pre-service teachers. To investigate students’ attitudes and learning of Spanish, researchers interviewed second and fourth graders. The students’ parents and pre-service teachers answered open-ended questionnaires. The research questions for this qualitative study were: 1) How does exploratory world language instruction (FLEX) affect children’s attitudes about learning world languages and cultures? 2) How does exploratory world language instruction (FLEX) affect children’s learning of a world language? The results showed that students possessed positive attitudes about world …

Service Learning As Pedagogy In Early Childhood Education: Theory, Research, And Practice, Kelly Heider

Kelly Heider

In The Service Of What? A Phenomenological Exploration Of African American High School Students' Self-Efficacy In Service Learning, Charemi A. Jones

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored how African American high school students from a large Midwestern city make meaning of their service learning experiences within the framework of mandated service learning participation required for high school graduation, and how their lived experiences inform their self-efficacy development. Scholars have previously posited, “student voice in service learning projects positively correlated with improved self-concept, political engagement, and tolerance” (Morgan and Streb, 2001). Within this context, voice is synonymous with students’ self- reflection.

One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted utilizing a pre-printed protocol consisting of open- ended questions designed to elicit authentic responses, allowing the voice of …

Teaching Note - Yes, We Can Make A Difference: Bsu Alumni Light The Way For Service Learning, Marybeth Tobin

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.