Educational Methods Commons^™

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of An Intervention Mathematics Class For Low Achieving Middle School Students In Northwest Georgia, Johnnie Coats

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

High-stakes testing has become crucial in public education, requiring students to meet increasingly higher standards, regardless of their ability levels. This causal-comparative study sought to determine the effectiveness of an intervention mathematics course in the middle school setting for at-risk, sixth grade students. The Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) math scores of 143 at-risk students enrolled in a remediation mathematics course were compared to scores from a control population of 143 at-risk students who did not participate in the class. Math scores from the 2008 administration of the CRCT test were used as covariates, and comparisons were made using …

The Effects Of Collaborative Strategic Reading On Informational Text Comprehension And Metacognitive Awareness Of Fifth Grade Students, Margaret Mccown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the effects of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on informational text comprehension and metacognitive awareness of fifth grade students. This study tested the theories of metacognition and social cognition with a focus on self-regulation and self-efficacy. Participating students included a heterogeneous mix of regular education students, students with disabilities, and English learners (ELs). Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design, this study examined the effects of CSR on informational text comprehension using the Qualitative Reading Inventory-5 (QRI-5) and Georgia's Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). Metacognitive awareness was measured using the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Data …

Learner-Centered Instructors' Beliefs About Adult Learning: A Phenomenological Study, Sarah Scherling

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The population of adult learners in higher education continues to increase. In many cases, the majority of faculty teaching adult learners are adjunct instructors. These instructors bring a rich background of experience and expertise to the classroom, but may lack experience in designing and implementing effective instructional practices for adult learners. Instructional practices of adjunct instructors are influenced by their beliefs about teaching and learning. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to examine learner-centered adjunct instructors' beliefs about adult learning and how these beliefs influence their instructional practices. The study used written reflection, interview, and classroom observation data …

The Impact Of Selected Initiatives On The Reading Criterion Referenced Competency Test Scores Of African-American And Disadvantaged Students In Grades 3, 5, And 8, Eric Fuller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to examine the impact of selected research-based whole-school reading reform programs, Success for All (SFA), Core Knowledge, and Direct Instruction (DI) on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) reading scores of African-American students and students from disadvantaged subgroups in Grades 3, 5, and 8 in a large urban school system. The target sample consisted of 61 elementary schools and 16 middle schools. Student data consisted of 3,533 data points for African-American students and 7,550 data points for disadvantaged students attending reform and non reform schools respectively. A causal-comparative research design was the methodology …

Assessment In Simulations, Chad Raymond, Simon Usherwood

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

Simulations are employed widely as teaching tools in political science, yet evidence of their pedagogical effectiveness, in comparison to other methods of instruction, is mixed. The assessment of learning outcomes is often a secondary concern in simulation design, and the qualitative and quantitative methods used to evaluate outcomes are frequently based on faulty paradigms of the learning process and inappropriate indicators. Correctly incorporating assessment into simulation design requires that an instructor identify whether a simulation should produce positive changes in students' substantive knowledge, skills, and/or affective characteristics. The simulation must then be assessed in ways that accurately measure whether these …

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Designing A High School Or Middle School Course (Or Unit) In Professional Writing, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article offers information on the development of professional writing course in English middle school or high school classroom. It mentions that a good syllabus not only provide answers to basic questions, but also to questions that Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins have pertained to as the essential questions. It notes that students learn from writing activities and assessments including how to write in genres, evaluate the settings of professional tools, and manage their writing processes.

Gamification Of Education Using Computer Games, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Venkata Telaprolu, Shashank Rallapalli, Pavani R. Venkata

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We review the literature on gamification and identify principles of gamification and system design elements for gamifying computer educational games. Gamification of education is expected to increase learners’ engagement, which in turn increases learning achievement. We propose a gamification framework that synthesizes findings from the literature. The gamification framework is comprised of principles of gamification, system design elements for gamification, and dimensions of user engagement.

A Comparison Of General Education Co-Teaching Versus Special Education Resource Service Delivery Models On Math Achievement Of Students With Disabilities, Tammy Nash

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Recent legislation in education mandates that students with disabilities be given access to the general education curriculum in order to reach higher academic standards. To meet these requirements, co-teaching has become a popular service delivery model for instruction of students with disabilities within the general education setting. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to compare math achievement of secondary students with disabilities in general education co-taught math classes to students with disabilities in special education resource math classes. Participants included 145 high school students with disabilities from four large suburban schools in Northeast Georgia. Learning outcomes were measured by …

Fostering Blended Learning: Successful Partnerships And Faculty Development For Institutional Change, Chantal Levesque-Bristol, Tomalee Doan, Donalee Attardo

IMPACT Presentations

Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT ) is a successful campus-wide course redesign and faculty development program at Purdue University. This session shows how blended course redesign is a potential catalyst for institutional change and demonstrates its effects on learning gains, including critical thinking, problem solving, and information literacy. The discussion focuses on the nuts and bolts of the innovative staff development and course redesign integral to IMPACT. Also covered are the research-based redesign curriculum and strategies; the financial and personnel support offered to faculty fellows; and the many successful institutional partnerships that were necessary for IMPACT’s success. The …

A Comparison Of Course Delivery Formats On Student Success Of Developmental English Students At California Community Colleges, Camilla Bantum

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the influence of campus-based and online-based community college developmental English courses on two student success factors: course persistence and course success. Retrospective data on all first year California community college students enrolled in developmental English courses between 2008 and 2011 were analyzed for differences between students. Descriptive statistics were used to compare differences in individual student characteristics of age, gender, and race, and the situational variables of enrollment status and eligibility for tuition fee waiver. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to examine the difference in likelihood of course success and course persistence of developmental English students in …

An Instrument Validation For A Three-Dimensional Worldview Survey Among Undergraduate Christian University Students Using Principal Components Analysis, Kathy Morales

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study examined the structure, validity, and reliability of the Three-Dimensional Worldview Survey-Form C (3DWS-Form C) for potential use in postsecondary Christian institutions. This instrument delineates from other worldview instruments in that it purports to measure three components of a person's worldview: propositions, behaviors, and heart-orientation. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to examine the underlying component structure and construct validity of the instrument. Cronbach's alpha and the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula were used to assess the internal consistency and reliability of the instrument. Participants were first-year university students attending a large Christian university in Virginia. Results of the study …

Choose Your Own Adventure: Integrating An Information Literacy Rubric Into Seven (Very) Different Colleges, Natalie Tagge, Char Booth, Alexandra Chappell, M. Sara Lowe, Sean M. Stone

Library Staff Publications and Research

It is no small feat to develop a replicable, dependable information literacy rubric that is appropriate to an institution’s unique student population. But once the rubric is created, how does it become edited, adopted, and utilized by campus stakeholders to actually improve information literacy learning? And, what happens when you multiply this by a consortial context, wherein one information literacy rubric is presented to five undergraduate colleges and two graduate schools, each with unique governance models, assessment profiles, and relationships with the library they share?
The visual nature of a poster will provide a perfect means to map out the …

A Digital Learning Experience In Tertiary Design Education, Kerry Meakin, Neville Knott

Conference Papers

This paper documents the results of a study of trialing an innovative teaching method to first year students while studying for a BA in Visual Merchandising and Display in an Institute of Technology in Dublin. Due to lower staff levels it was perceived this student cohort were not attaining the practical skills necessary in their future careers therefore it was hoped that an innovative method of delivering practical tuition would be beneficial to students and lecturers from both learning and teaching perspectives. An Action Research approach was taken, which took the form of trialing a digital artefact, compiled by one …

Quantitative Assessment Of Program Outcomes Using Longitudinal Data From The Fe Exam, Joe C. Guarino, James R. Ferguson, V. Krishna C. Pakala

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There have been many studies providing details on using results from the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam as metrics for meeting ABET program outcomes¹. However, implementing an FE-based set of metrics poses challenges not limited to assessing validity of results. Programs using FE-based metrics must also determine the position of the metrics in the overall assessment process. We present a method for using FE-based metrics as an integral part of the ABET program assessment process. The principle issues we address are: (1) The validity of using FE metrics for a group of graduating students when not all of …

The Use Of Music As A Pedagogical Tool In Higher Education Sociology Courses: Faculty Member Perspectives And Potential Barriers, Jerry C.L. Loveless

Dissertations and Theses

Previous research has identified student engagement as an important antecedent to student learning in higher education. Although student engagement is viewed as important for learning, a significant number of college students still report frequently feeling bored in their courses. The use of music as a pedagogical tool is believed to be beneficial for promoting student engagement and student learning in higher education sociology courses, yet it has been suggested that sociology faculty members do not commonly incorporate the technique into their courses. The purpose of this comparative interview study is to explore higher education sociology faculty members' understandings of the …

Integrated Stem Model-Eliciting Activities: Developing 21st Century Thinkers, Micah Stohlmann

American Association for the Advancement of Science Pacific Conference

Studies have shown that integrating math and science makes learning more connected and relevant and has a positive impact on student attitudes and interest in school, their motivation to learn, and achievement.

Engineering is becoming more prevalent in K-12 schools and can provide great problem solving opportunities for students to learn about mathematics, science, and technology while working through the engineering design process.

Comprehensible Output And The Effects Of Music And Movement In Spanish Language Acquisition, Tricia Pinkert-Branner

Student Research Initiative

Music and movement may have the potential to trigger memories and connections that affect mood and behavior. According to research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) (Del Campo, 1997), meaningful communication is composed of three important elements: gestures, verbal language and intonation. Gestures and movement account for nearly 70% of communication, whereas the remaining 30% of meaningful communication lies in intonation and verbal language. Earworms, or Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI), have played an important role in marketing by using music that gets “stuck” in the brain. Factors such as note duration, pitch intervals and exposure to an environment or movement associated …

Remembering Things We’Ve Never Done: Memory’S Daughters And The Literary Experience, William C. Johnson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Memory, essential in creative writing, inspires us to weave literary reading into the narrative of personal experience and to seek, through recollection, our psychic wholeness.

A Medical Humanities Course: A Pertinent Pause On The Medical Beat, Kathleen Welch

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This article summarizes the findings of one ethnographic study and demonstrates that, by emphasizing self- reflection and discussion, an interdisciplinary literature and medicine course provides medical students a brief but important, time for retrospection.

Writing Awareness, Gwen Gorzelsky

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The author argues that, by practicing embodied, metaphoric ethnography, educators can revise their roles in classroom social systems and so pursue the goals of critical pedagogy.

In The Name Of The Spirit, Lynn Briggs, Fred Schunter, Ray Melvin

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The authors argue that naming experiences "spiritual" is important to an expanded understanding of goals, struggles, and success in their writing center practice.

New Locations For Discursive Agency: The Story Of Anandamai Ma, Mary Ann Cain

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This paper aims to relocate our relationship to modes of knowledge that fall outside of Western rationalism and conceptual thought by relocating our understanding of agency through the figure of Anandamai Ma, a 20th century Hindu "saint.

Teachers As Actors? Lecturing Theory Classes, Yuk Kwan, Ricky Ng, Po San, Cecilia Leung, Kit Man, Gloria Chung, Lai Fong, Annie Lau

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

An Action Research To Enhance Learning And Teaching In Design, Pui Yik, Steven Chong

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Preparing Occupational Therapy Students For The Complexities Of Clinical Practice, Lisa J. Knecht-Sabres, Mark Kovic, Minetta Wallingford, Lavonne Ellen St.Amand

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

This paper examined the effect of a unique amalgam of adult learning methodologies near the end of the occupational therapy (OT) students’ didactic education as a means to enhance readiness for clinical practice. Results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis indicated that the use of standardized patients, in combination with a sequential, semistructured, and progressively challenging series of client cases, in an OT adult practice (intervention) course, improved the students’ self-perception of their level of comfort and skill on various foundational, yet essential, OT-related competencies.

Seeing Crucibles: Legitimizing Spiritual Development In The Middle Grades Through Critical Historiography, Audrey Lingley

Dissertations and Theses

Advocates of middle grades reform in the United States argue that curriculum and instruction, as well as leadership, organization, and community relationships, should be informed by knowledge of the developmental characteristics of 10 to 15 year-olds within physical, social, emotional, psychological, cognitive, and moral domains. Noticeably absent from their conception of human development are spiritual developmental characteristics of young adolescents.

This interdisciplinary research was a critical constructivist (Kincheloe, 2008) inquiry of the following question: What is the educational relevance of spiritual development in middle grades education? To study this question, critical historiographical research methods (Villaverde, Kincheloe, & Helyar, 2006) were …

A Cognitive Approach To Teaching Strategies, Emily Esch

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Our knowledge of how the mind works is growing rapidly. One area of particular interest to philosophy teachers is research on reasoning and decision making processes. I explore one model of human cognition that offers new ways of thinking about how to teach philosophical skills. The bulk of the paper is dedicated to exposition of the model and the evidence that supports it; at the end of the paper, I suggest ways these findings might be incorporated into the classroom.

Rethinking The Adventure Education Experience: An Inquiry Of Meanings, Culture And Educational Virtue, Benjamin Charles Ingman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is an investigation of the adventure education (AE) experience with particular attention to what happens during the AE experience, the meanings participants ascribe to the experience, how personal backgrounds and institutional cultures coalesce in AE, and the significance of the AE experience for schooling. These topics are explored through observing and interviewing participants of adventure education programs under the qualitative framework of educational connoisseurship and criticism. The experiences at the three sites of study—an outdoor challenge course, a wilderness backpacking expedition and a summer adventure program—are described in detail and illustrated through the qualities of the experience (celebratory …

Developing A Collaborative Virtual Learning Environment Between Students In Cross Disciplines In The Built Environment., Fiacra Mcdonnell, Ruairi Hayden

Articles

Integrated Project Delivery is a rapidly developing approach to Design and Construction.This approach uses business structures, new technologies, and newly developing practices to collaboratively utilise the talents and contributions of all participants in the Design and Construction process.This project replicated this approach by creating a collaborative project between the School of Construction and the School of Real Estate and Construction Economics. The term “collaborative learning” refers to a method of delivery in which students at various performance levels work together in small groups towards a common goal. The students were responsible for one another’s learning as well as their own. …

Benefits Of Pre-Lecture Assignments And Inquisition Based Learning In Comparison To Traditional Lecture Modes In Science Education, Lance Toppen

Biological Sciences

Experiment was an assessment of the efficacy of two different teaching styles: traditional lecturing and a question based approach. In a traditional lecture class students frequently come to class with little or no previous exposure to the lecture topic. This may limit comprehension, retention, and the development of critical thinking skills. The questioning approach we used involved flipping the classroom where students were expected learn the lecture material at home by answering a comprehensive list of questions from textbook chapters. They were expected to come to each class period prepared to engage in a discussion of the subject matter, prompted …