Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

What Do Freshmen Really Know About Research? Assess Before You Teach, Jean Caspers, Steven Mark Bernhisel

Faculty & Staff Publications

The article describes an effort to assess the information literacy skills of entering first-year college students. An instrument was developed and information was gathered on students' experience and comfort in conducting library research as well as their perceived competence with specific information literacy skills. In addition, students completed a skills test to assess specific knowledge and skills relating to information literacy. Entering first-year students generally self-reported their skills to be less than "excellent." This finding was supported by the results of the skills test. Strengths and weaknesses in information literacy skills are reported, as well as implications for librarians who …

The Effects Of School Location On Math And Science Achievement Trends: A Primer On Growth Modeling In Education Policy Research, Edward B. Reeves

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

The effect of school location on math and science learning is currently an important policy issue in the United States and in other countries, such as Australia. The present paper uses a 5-year series of math and science achievement data from the state of Kentucky to determine the effects of school location on learning in these subject areas. Adopting an organizational assessment approach, I show how growth models may be used to estimate achievement trends. I also demonstrate methods for discovering two important sources of invalidity in growth models: regression artifacts and spuriousness. Failure to account for these sources of …

Service Learning Manual For Coupeville High School, Kenneth J. Stange

Graduate Student Projects

This project examined the need for increased service learning in schools as well as current practices being used by educators who employ service learning as a regular part of curriculum. The review of literature found that service learning, when conducted properly, has shown benefits to students, educators, and communities. In addition, there were five main components of an effective service learning program: preparation, action, reflection, presentation, and recognition. Included is a service learning manual, specifically designed for Coupeville High School, focused on the five pa1is of a service learning program. The overall purpose of the manual was to ensure that …

A Technology Integrated Curriculum For An 8th Grade History/Civics Class, Kathy Colleen Chavez

All Graduate Projects

To ensure educational technology is used effectively, educators must put together a curriculum that will encourage students to ask questions and think about what they need to learn (Schrum, 2003). Educators must value the exploration that technology lends itself to and realize it can be a vital teaching tool. They must seek out professional development in the use of appropriate technology and become models of life-long learning for their students. In using technology within the classroom, educators must become comfmiable with and then develop ways technology can enhance what they teach (Schrum, 2003). This project's goal was to develop a …

Gender Differences In Student Learning: A Review Of The Literature From The Neuroscience And Psychology Perspectives, Noreen Ann Clark

All Graduate Projects

Literature from the fields of psychology and neuroscience were examined to establish what scientifically based information was available regarding gender differences. Myths of the past, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives, gender specific differences for students with genetic and metabolic-based exceptionalities, gender specific changes in behavior through maturation, and the educational implications for gender differences were included. The results indicated that children show developmental differences in expression of emotion, metacognition, and cognition, and the developmental differences are influenced by gender. The implications for educational practices are that curriculum, instruction, and assessment can be aligned to meet the unique need of both male …

Narratives Of Adolescent Students: The Integration Of Health And Learning Through Application Of Nursing Theory, Marjean Huber

Dissertations

Problem. There are few resources to show educators how to help students improve learning by improving health and mental well-being. There is a lack of integration in the literature in terms of how practitioners can reach these students in order to help them learn effectively and develop into successful, productive adults with meaningful lives. This study has three major sections. First, I examine my experiences within education to determine what values, truths, and principles mold my practice. Second, I identify my teaching practice in relationship to nursing theory integrating it with learning theory, thus highlighting the relationship between the health …

The Effects Of School Location On Math And Science Achievement Trends: A Primer On Growth Modeling In Education Policy Research, Edward B. Reeves

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

The effect of school location on math and science learning is currently an important policy issue in the United States and in other countries, such as Australia. The present paper uses a 5-year series of math and science achievement data from the state of Kentucky to determine the effects of school location on learning in these subject areas. Adopting an organizational assessment approach, I show how growth models may be used to estimate achievement trends. I also demonstrate methods for discovering two important sources of invalidity in growth models: regression artifacts and spuriousness. Failure to account for these sources of …

Fighting For Freedom: The 1649 War Between The Cossacks And The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Adrian Mandzy

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

To most westerners, the Cossacks remain a mysterious and romanticized people. Nineteenth century writers and artists depict the Cossacks as extraordinary horsemen. This image is often reinforced by descriptions of Cossacks immune to the vigour of the Russian winter as they continued to nip at the heels of Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812. Novels, like Gogol’ s Taras Bulba, and the opera Mazepa, suggests the Cossacks were both cruel and crafty, while others highlight their barbarity and backwardness.

Methods For Marine Ecosystems Research Through The Use Of Pdas With Preservice Teachers, Antoinette P. Bruciati, Maria Lizano-Dimare

Education Faculty Publications

Science teachers are charged with the task of providing students in grades K-12 with opportunities that will enable them to make sense of science and develop habits of mind. One goal of science education is to prepare well-rounded citizens who are scientifically literate. Through inquiry-based learning, students formulate questions, perform investigations, and construct new understandings.

It is important for preservice science teachers to be introduced to current techniques, discoveries, and debates in the field of science. The use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) can provide K-12 students with increased opportunities for exploring and learning through scientific investigations. In order for …

Perceptions Of Effective Web-Based Design For Secondary School Students: A Narrative Analysis Of Previously Collected Data, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

In this article, I present the findings of a study on the perception of course developers and electronic teachers on the characteristics of effective web-based design for secondary school students. Through interviews, the perceptions of these participants on the use of various web-based components, how to incorporate sound instructional strategies into the web-based material, and the effectiveness of both the asynchronous web-based content and the synchronous delivery of that content are investigated in a virtual high school context.

University Studies Annual Assessment 2004-2005, Portland State University. University Studies Program

University Studies Annual Assessment Reports

No abstract provided.

Schoolwide Safety Manual For Tyee High School, Melissa A. Routh

All Graduate Projects

This project is an analysis of school safety issues and protocols that were designed to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of all school community members. The review of related literature and research proved that it was essential for all schools to create a site-specific manual that was collaboratively created, implemented, and monitored continuously. Included is a safety manual designed for Tyee High School that includes detailed instruction for a wide range of crisis situations. The overall purpose of the manual was to create a resource that students, staff, administrators, and parents could refer to that was comprehensive and all-inclusive.

Imbedding New Technologies Into Current Practice: A Guide For Administrators Of Physical Education, Thomas J. Haeck

All Graduate Projects

Many new technologies are available to the Physical Education teacher, yet few are commonly used. This project contains findings from a review of literature regarding Physical Education technology use in today's schools. The guidelines presented in this project were designed to facilitate the integration of Physical Education technology into the schools curriculum. The project was designed with the fundamentals of the constructivist classroom in mind, as well as including all students in the process. Students from historically marginalized groups, low socio-economic status, high and low achieving students, students with physical exceptionalities and special education students were all included in this …

Preventing Plagiarism In The High School, Robin Brooke Rushing

All Graduate Projects

The project provides high school teachers with a handbook to aid their effort in teaching summarization skills and MLA citation format. Because research articles have become easier to obtain over the internet, plagiarism among high school students has evolved and become a problem in American high schools. This handbook is not only a resource for teachers to utilize in their lesson plans, but provides various opportunities for students to practice key writing and research documentation skills.

Creating A Small Learning Academy At My. Rainier High School, Gerald A. Turner

All Graduate Projects

This project examined the essential components of a small learning academy to be established at Mt. Rainier High School. The review of current research found that six components are necessary for a small learning academy to be successful when breaking down large comprehensive high schools into small learning communities. The components that are evaluated include personalization of education, creating studentcentered and authentic curriculum, adaptive teaching strategies, performance-based assessment with high expectations, teacher collaboration and professional development, and strong community connections. The overall purpose of the guide is to focus attention on the components that matter in the establishment of the …

Growth No. 5 (2005) - Full Issue

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

The full issue of the fifth edition of Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development.

In A Strange Land? Educational Identity And The Market System, Todd Ream

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

Systemwide Assessment Of Utah's General Education Courses, Philip I. Kramer

Office of Academic Review and Curricular Advancement Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Teacher Preparation Programs On Student Achievement And Nctm Standards In Algebra I Classrooms, Belinda Gimbert, Linda Bol, Denelle Wallace, Dean S. Cristol

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The impact of traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs on student achievement and the instructional delivery methods used in secondary school Algebra classrooms was explored through a mixed method comparative design. The research site was a high-need urban, majority-minority school system in partnership with a local university, a school-university partnership that offered a Transition To Teaching program. The data analyses revealed that alternative teacher preparation program is a viable avenue for meeting the needs of public schools for qualified and highly effective teachers in mathematics classrooms at the middle school and high school levels. Disaggregated data from the standardized state …

Stopping-Out Of College: The Students' Stories, Diane Simpson Webber

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study focuses on young adults under the age of 26 who enrolled in a 4-year college, left college, then later re-enrolled in either the same or a different college. The students stopped-out of college for various reasons. Purposeful sampling identified eight participants, mostly from New England, who were in different stages of the stopping-out process. Qualitative data was gathered through interviewing these participants. The purpose of this study is to construct stories from the students' words and interviewee observations as a way to better understand how students made meaning from their stopping-out experiences. An overview of retention missions and …

Acer 2004-2005 Annual Report, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

ACER Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Acer 1980-2004 Annual Report Index, Margaret Findlay

ACER Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Design-Based Research Strategies For Developing A Scientific Inquiry Curriculum In A Multi-User Virtual Environment, B. Nelson, D. J. Ketelhut, Jody Clarke-Midura, C. Bowman, C. Dede

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This National Science Foundation funded project is studying graphical multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) to investigate whether using this interactive medium in classroom settings can simulate real-world experimentation and can provide students with engaging, meaningful learning experiences that enhance scientific literacy. In the project's River City curriculum, teams of middle school students are asked to collaboratively solve a digital 19th century city's problems with illness, through interaction with digital artifacts, tacit clues, and computer-based 'agents' acting as mentors and colleagues in a virtual community of practice. This article describes the design-based research strategy by which we are currently extending an educational …

Simulating Instructional Roles Through Pedagogical Agents, Amy L. Baylor, Yanghee Kim

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the design and empirical validation of three distinct pedagogical agent roles (Expert, Motivator, and Mentor) for college students within the MIMIC (Multiple Intelligent Mentors Instructing Collaboratively) agent-based research environment. The pedagogical agent roles were operationalized by image, animation, affect, voice and script, and were developed in Poser 4 and implemented via Microsoft Agent. Two controlled experiments validated the instantiation of the three roles according to learner perception (N=78) and actual impact on motivation and learning (N=71). The results confirmed that the agent roles were not only perceived by the students to reflect their intended purposes but also …

In Teachers' Hands: Effective Literacy Teaching Practices In The Early Years Of Schooling, William Louden, Mary Rohl, Caroline Barratt Pugh, Claire Brown, Trevor Cairney, Jess Elderfield, Helen House, Marion Meiers, Judith Rivalland, Ken Rowe

Monitoring Learning

This project investigated the link between children’s growth in English literacy in the early years of schooling and their teachers’ classroom teaching practices. Using the LLANS literacy assessment tasks, 2000 children from every state and territory were assessed at the beginning and end of their first or second year at school. The teaching practices used by teachers whose students made most progress were explored. The effective teachers used a wide repertoire and demonstrated key teaching practices with greater consistency, skill and subtlety.

Job Satisfaction And Its Relationship To Organizational And Religious Commitment Among Workers At Northern Caribbean University, Donna Brown

Dissertations

Problem. Recruiting teachers and motivating them to stay in their jobs present a challenge to educational institutions in Jamaica. Given the importance of workers' satisfaction to the health of an organization and the link between job satisfactionand turnover rate, then an examination of job satisfaction at Northern Caribbean University (NCU) is a priority. Based on this background, the primary focus of this study was to investigate job satisfaction and its relationship to organizational and religious commitment among workers at NCU.

Method. This study utilized a quantitative, descriptive research design. A survey questionnaire was sent to all full-time administrators …

Good Data, Bad News, Good Policy Making ..., Gabrielle Matters

2005 - Using data to support learning

The New Basics Trial in Queensland (2000 –04) was about improving educational outcomes. At its heart was the idea that, to do this, there must be an orchestration of the message systems of curriculum, teaching and assessment – and that these changes must be in practices, not merely in statements of intention or expectation. This paper spans the trial period (2000 –04) and the immediate post-trial period (2005), showing how research evidence informed policy-making. The New Basics approach (which introduced three suites of Rich Tasks covering three 3-year spans from Year 1 to Year 9) to curriculum, teaching, assessment, reporting, …

Assessing “Discover Mojave” Instrument Development And Analysis, Lori Olafson, Gregory Schraw, Jeanne A. Klockow

Reports (DM)

We developed a comprehensive assessment plan and tested the curriculum to determine whether hands-on outdoor recreation events promote knowledge, attitudes, and performance among at-risk urban children. Knowledge, attitude, and performance assessments were developed, refined and conducted through various stages based on cultural and language barriers as well a variety of age groups participating within the events. Findings revealed that knowledge, attitudes, and performance increased substantially as a result of participating in the outdoor recreation events. We conclude that the implementation and assessment of the program is strong. We also make several recommendations for future programs.