Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

A Critical Review Of The Application Of Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory Applied Through The Use Of Computer Based Simulations Within Virtual Environments, 2000-2016, Daniel J. Grady

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This integrative research review aims to examine the application of Kolb’s theory of experiential learning through the use of simulations within virtual learning environments. It will first cover the framework of experiential learning as stated by Kolb, a learning theory that is finding new life within the context of simulations, role-playing games (RPGs), massive multiplayer role playing games (MMORPGs) and virtual environments. This analysis was conducted by making use of combined research strategies that focused specifically on both qualitative and quantitative reviews that utilized Kolb’s experiential theory of learning (ELT) within the context of the application of computer based simulations …

Faith Integration: Curricular Considerations For Student Affairs Faculty, Jeannine Kranzow

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

There is an expectation that faculty members teaching in Christian colleges will integrate the Christian faith into their disciplines. In spite of the willingness and desire to do so, many faculty members who attended secular institutions are not sure how to approach academic faith integration in their discipline. This qualitative study examines new and experienced faculty perspectives on courses and topics within the student affairs curriculum that provide opportunities for academic faith integration. Results can assist student affairs faculty members in their professional development as it relates to academic faith integration.

What Efl Student Teachers Think About Their Professional Preparation: Evaluation Of An English Language Teacher Education Programme In Spain, Juan De Dios Martínez Agudo

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Given the importance of programme evaluation in the EFL teacher education, this research paper of exploratory-interpretive nature mainly focuses on both strengths and weaknesses identified through the analysis and/or critical evaluation of an EFL teacher education programme carried out in Spain. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used in the study. The current TEFL programme has several strengths, but also certain significant shortcomings in light of the high percentage of undecided responses. The TEFL programme was evaluated positively by participant student teachers in general, in terms of pedagogic competence and promotion of reflection, although more input on English proficiency …

Fostering Creative Ecologies In Australasian Secondary Schools, Leon R. De Bruin, Anne Harris

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigates and compares elements of creativity in secondary schools and classrooms in Australia and Singapore. Statistical analysis and qualitative investigation of teacher, student and leadership perceptions of the emergence, fostering and absence of creativity in school learning environments is explored. This large-scale international study (n=717) reveals the impact of teacher behaviours, teaching environments and school leadership approaches that promote and impede the enhancement of creative, critical, and innovative thinking, organisation, and curriculum structures. Implications for Australian schools and teaching urge for secondary education to challenge current, practices, pedagogies and environments, arguing for school-based strategies and considerations that enhance …

Educating Globally In Medical Imaging In Latin America And Caribbean Via Webinars, Carmen Teresa Saunders

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Professional development courses that focus on increasing knowledge and improving skill sets are an integral part of a medical imager's career. This study was a qualitative formative evaluation with purposeful sampling of participants in a professional development webinar course offered to medical imaging professionals in 35 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The goal of this study was to aid the agency with identifying areas in which the efficacy of the program implementation and delivery could improve. The conceptual framework model, interest-problem-based learning (INTEREST-PBL) model, and Malcolm Knowles's theory on adult learning were used to ground this project. The research questions …

Relationship Between Sense Of Coherence And School Connectedness Among Online Public High School Students, Brad Hilliard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between sense of coherence and school connectedness among online public high school students. The connection students make with their school can affect their well-being based on the stress they perceive from the school and its environment. The variables of interest were the sense of coherence score and the school connectedness score. A bivariate correlational research study was performed to determine if there was a significant relationship between the two variables. The sample was 83 high school students enrolled in an online public school. Each completed the Sense of Coherence – …

Design-Based Research Mobile Gaming For Learning Jewish History, Tikkun Olam, And Civics, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

How can Design-Based Research (DBR) be used in the study of video games, religious literacy, and learning? DBR uses a variety of pragmatically selected mixed methods approaches to design learning interventions. Researchers, working with educators and learners, design and co-design learning artifacts and environments. They analyze those artifacts and environments as they are used by educators and learners, and then iterate based on mixed methods data analysis. DBR is suited for any "rich contextualized setting in which people have agency." (Hoadley 2013) such as formal or informal learning environments.

The case covered in this chapter is a mobile Augmented Reality …

Examining Community College Faculty Attitudes Toward Open Educational Resources: A Mixed Methods Study, Denise Cote

Library Scholarship

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study situated at a large community college in the midwestern United States was to examine faculty attitudes, knowledge, and use of open educational resources (OER) and to identify institutional initiatives that would support OER adoption. The goal of the first, quantitative phase of this study was to replicate a national survey of higher education faculty on the subject of OER. Local faculty responses to the survey were compared to those of their national peers. The second, qualitative phase of the study was the development and analysis of a single case study that …

Course Quality And Hosting Platforms: Implications For Massively Open Online Course (Mooc) Design And Delivery, Rita Diane Schmallegger

Theses and Dissertations

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) began as an experiment in connectivist learning in 2008 (Downes, 2012). While the number of MOOCs offered has risen, as has the number of universities offering MOOCs (Brown, Costello, Donkon, & Giolla-Mhichill, 2015), perceptions of the quality of MOOCs have been mixed (Bali, 2014; Peterson, 2014). From a perspective of Merrill’s first principles of instruction (2013), this qualitative study examined MOOC delivery platforms to determine what learning platforms and what specific characteristics may best promote and sustain MOOC quality. MOOCs selected for this study include those offered in English, open to anyone with Internet access, …

Teachers Report Card: Teachers' Perceptions Of Education And Their Profession, Australian College Of Educators

Australian College of Educators - National

The inaugural ASG-ACE Teachers Report Card, a joint initiative between ASG and the Australian College of Educators (ACE) surveyed teachers on a range of issues including testing, curriculum, stress, wellbeing, support, engagement, satisfaction, technology and opportunity at schools. The report confirmed teachers are passionate about their job, with 96 per cent of respondents saying they find teaching rewarding, and 91 per cent of teachers either 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with their profession. Nine out of 10 teachers reported a sense of pride about their profession and speak positively about their jobs to their friends and family. This is not surprising …

Learning Transfer: The Missing Link To Learning Among School Leaders In Burkina Faso And Ghana, Corinne Brion, Paula A. Cordeiro

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on development aid and training around the world. However, only 10% of this training results in the transfer of knowledge, skills, or behaviors learned in the training to the work place. Ideally, learning transfer produces effective and continued application by learners of the knowledge and skills they gained through their learning activities. Currently, there is a limited body of research examining the factors that hinder and promote learning transfer in professional development, particularly the professional development of school leaders in developing countries. This qualitative exploratory study sought to address the gap in the …

Program Design, Delivery, And Evaluation: Lpc Us Host Family Program, Gillian Wigton Bell

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper outlines the design, delivery, and evaluation processes of the 2017 LPC US Host Family Program, a short-term, pre-camp host family experience administered by the LPC Board, a US support group of Luethi-Peterson Camps, International. It seeks to evaluate the program effectiveness and to determine a set of recommendations for future organizers, based upon the results of evaluative surveys and literature review.

A full review of the research proposal was conducted by the SIT IRB, due to the sensitive nature of research participants below the age of 18. Once approved, online surveys were disseminated to participating campers, camper …

Career Preparation For Interdisciplinary Science Phd Students: A Case Study, Sabrina Gordon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study intended to collect and analyze responses from stakeholders of the UCF Modeling and Simulation graduate program regarding the ways in which interdisciplinary (IDS) science PhD students could be prepared for diverse career paths. A mixed methodology study was executed and quantitative survey (N=96) and qualitative interview (N=10) data were collected to address three research questions. Overall, stakeholders for this case study were found to represent the three main career paths of academia, government, and industry. Survey data were utilized to gauge the level of importance that survey participants perceived for various survey scales and items. The scales …

Fact Book, Academic Year 2016, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Fact Book

The Fact Book presents important campus information in data tables and charts. Included are details regarding students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Generally, data are broken out by college, rank, level, gender, age and ethnicity for both spring and fall semesters, past to present. There are a few academic year tables that include information on tuition & fees, student credit hours by program, and degrees conferred. We wish to thank the many individuals and departments at the University for their contributions to the Fact Book.

Completions 2017-18, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

IPEDS Completions

Welcome to the IPEDS Completions survey component. The Completions component is one of several IPEDS components that is conducted during the Fall data collection period. It collects the number of degrees and certificates awarded by field of study, level of award, race/ethnicity, and gender. The reporting period for the Completions component is during the 12-month time period beginning July 1 of the previous calendar year and ending June 30 of the current calendar year; therefore, for this year’s Completions component, the reporting period is between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017. The Completions component is also collecting the number …

Assessing Student Performance In Written Communication: An Evaluation Of The University Of Kentucky's Quality Enhancement Plan, Abigail Stockwell

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

University of Kentucky assessment findings reveal that UK undergraduate students are not meeting expectations in the area of written communication. More specifically, compared to other four-year institutions, UK students are not achieving expected levels of value-added from their junior to senior year in analytic writing tasks. In response to these findings, UK launched the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), Presentation U – a multimodal communication training initiative. One of the initiative’s core components is the Faculty Fellows Program. Faculty members who choose to participate in the program receive training in oral, written, and visual communication instruction. UK has invested a great …

From Wearing To Wondering: Treating Wearable Activity Trackers As Objects Of Inquiry, Joel R. Drake, Ryan Cain, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Wearable technologies represent a rapidly expanding category of consumer information and communications technologies. From smartwatches to activity tracking devices, wearables are finding their way into many aspects of our lives, changing the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. The rapid adoption of these tools in everyday life hints at the possibilities these devices may hold in school and other educational settings. Drawing on examples taken from a five-year study using wearable fitness tracking devices in elementary and middle school classrooms, this paper presents two examples of how wearable devices can be appropriated for use in school …

Assessing Stem Literacy In An Informal Learning Environment, Maureen Ann Lafemina Cavalcanti

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This mixed methods study investigated methods for assessing STEM literacy amongst middle grades students participating in an informal learning environment, specifically, a summer STEM camp. Adopting a situated perspective on STEM literacy, this dissertation employed psychometric techniques and discourse analysis to answer the overarching research question: How can STEM literacy amongst middle school students be assessed in the context of a summer STEM camp? An integrated review of literacy within and across STEM disciplines first offered a new direction for conceptualizing STEM literacy. With this understanding, subsequent research methods applied novel approaches for investigating STEM literacy in the context of …

Work Placement Reflective Assessments And Employability Enhanced Through Highlighting Graduate Attributes, Julie Dunne

Articles

This paper reports on a study which investigated the effect of activities to promote awareness of specific prioritised graduate attributes on the quality of reflection displayed in student work-placement reflective blog assessments. The focus of the paper is on the results from a thematic analysis of reflective writing assisted by NVivo software from a control and research group, using the a priori codes of ‘reflection’ and ‘graduate attributes’, as part of a Participatory Action Research study. The findings show an increase in reflection associated with graduate attributes in the research group compared to the control group. More importantly, there is …

Quality Measures Of Universities And The Determinants Of Tuition In South Korea, Young Hoon Ko

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

University tuition had increased in highly excess of the inflation rate from 1990s until 2008. Many people are wondering whether the quality of university education is proportional to the tuition level. Thus, this capstone project examines whether the quality measures in higher education can predict the tuition level.

After analyzing eight-year data of 146 private universities in South Korea, I get the result that university tuition is not a function of quality measures in terms of educational costs. However, tuition is a function of quality measures related with attractiveness, accomplishment, and satisfaction. Incoming student recruitment rate, and drop-out rate have …

A View On Research In Mathematics Education In Republic Of Srpska During 2010–2015 Through Quantitative Analysis Of Published Texts, Ryan Nivens, Daniel Romano

ETSU Faculty Works

Studies of the publishing practices in mathematics education have situated sets of journals in tiers of quality. These reports document the rankings and prestige of only a subset of the wealth of journals available for publishing in mathematics education. We posit that there is value, quality, and purpose to be found in journals that present studies that are of value on a regional level, and that the studies are extremely important to the field. This is particularly important for journals published in languages other than English, and the studies referenced above are almost entirely English-language journals. In this paper we …

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.

The Departmental Work Lives Of Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Faculty, Pamela Jane Clouse

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This qualitative phenomenological dissertation explored The Departmental Work Lives of Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Faculty (FTNTT) at two public four-year universities located in the Southeastern region of the United States. This study is based on interviews with twelve (FTNTT) faculty members representing departments traditionally associated within the College of Arts and Sciences. This study found FTNTT faculty participants highly credentialed and reasonably satisfied in their positions. This study adds the descriptor heterogeneous to FTNTT faculty members’ job roles, work environments, daily engagements, and work experiences and contradicts existing literature that finds FTNTT faculty positions to be resource deficit and administratively non-supporting. …

The Exploration Of Teacher Efficacy And Influences Of Context At Two Rural Appalachian High Schools, Justin Aaron Blevins

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study examines teachers’ sense of personal and collective efficacy in two similar schools in Appalachian communities that achieved different results regarding students’ accountability test scores. Prior work in teacher efficacy, which is predominantly quantitative, is extended by the addition of teacher interviews that explore how teachers define the problems they face regarding student performance and how they work individually and collectively on strategies to support students’ success. The findings support that teachers with higher levels of efficacy in their work are associated with higher levels of student success. Further, the study offers insights into how teachers perceive problems and …

Creating Confident Writers: Implementing Writing Portfolios In A Secondary-Level Language Arts Classroom, Julia Smagacz

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper explores the implementation of a writing portfolio project in secondary-level English Language Arts classrooms. In addition to defining the project and describing its potential parameters, this paper describes goals and strategies that educators may use to implement this project, using research from multiple school district curricula and reputable state education resources. The paper includes testimonies from four current high school English teachers, in which each teacher details his or her experience with the writing portfolio. The teachers also provided feedback on the importance of writing and the writing process in general. Also included in this paper is a …

Experiential Learning And Its Place In A Quality Business Education, Zach Gollwitzer, Callie Mack, Brenna Mack

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this paper, the authors explore experiential learning pedagogy in the context of a business education based on the research of John Dewey (1897), David Kolb (2005), and Scott Wurdinger (2009). In addition to examining the definition of experiential learning and the various implementations of it, this research includes an examination of the business school standards body (AASCB) and of the components in a quality business education. The authors then delve into a literature review of experiential learning, which explores the social structure of education (Dewey, 1897), the process of experiential learning (Kolb, 2005), and specific experiential learning methods (Wurdinger, …

A Study Of Video-Mediated Opportunities For Self-Directed Learning In Required Core Curriculum, Debra T. Bourdeau, Donna Roberts, Beverly Wood, Johnelle Korioth

Publications

Improving a required course in our curriculum that has proven to be a challenge for our students was the focus of this study. Surveys of both students and instructors attempted to identify specific problem areas. Using the information from these surveys, the researchers developed a series of videos to explain vital course concepts and deployed these into the course sections. The purpose of the videos is to provide consistency across the multiple modalities in which we offer our courses (including online, classroom and via videoconferencing) and to improve overall student understanding. This project seeks to determine how supplemental content focusing …

Teacher Thoughts On Infographics As Alternative Assessment: A Post-Secondary Educational Exploration, Glen Bruce Gover

Online Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological case study is designed to investigate the learning outcomes, lived experiences, and perceptions of eight post-secondary teachers participating in a sketch-based infographic development training program. This research is designed to assess the viability of infographics as a learning and assessment strategy, providing insight into the application of infographics to the post-secondary education environment, and informing the development of an instructional and assessment model with prescriptive conditions for usage and training. This research provides much needed empirical support for specific applications of visualization tools in the post-secondary learning environment with a specific focus on teacher perspectives providing additional …

The Relationship Between Advanced Academic Services And College Readiness Among Public High School Students In Rural Remote Appalachian Kentucky, Franklin Brian Thomas

Online Theses and Dissertations

The importance of college to the individual and society has prompted recent policies and accountability systems to emphasize college readiness as the primary benchmark for high school success. Advanced/honors courses, Advanced Placement (AP)/dual credit courses, and gifted programs are the most common advanced academic service options available in public schools to ensure college readiness. This study investigated 2014-2015 school year data associated with 2,792 students in five high schools in five different school districts in rural remote Appalachian Kentucky. The goal was to see which advanced academic service was most associated with college ready students. College readiness was measured in …

Black Minds Matter: Black Student Perceptions Of Three Kentucky Regional Comprehensive Predominantly White Institutions And The Role Of Campus Support Initiatives In Reducing The Frequence Of Stop-Out And Drop-Out, Christopher W. Blakely

Online Theses and Dissertations

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2015), between 1996 and 2008, Black (African-American may be used interchangeably with Black, as defined through this study) college students had the lowest graduation rates among racial groups at four-year public institutions. Furthermore, more recent provisional data from the National Center for Education Statistics for 2008-2013, further support continued disproportional retention and graduation rates of Black college students. Therefore, given this, the present study examined the relationship between academic achievement and an increase in Black students' satisfaction with their college experience at Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) and institutionally funded supportive associations for …