Educational Methods Commons^™

The Myth Of Mobile Learners, Matt Farrell

Faculty & Staff Publications - Language & Liberal Studies

An emerging body of literature suggests that there are benefits to incorporating mobile learning into higher education (Jacob & Issac, 2007; Mehdipour & Zerehkafi, 2013). Moreover, teaching and learning resources implore faculty to incorporate mobile learning into their classrooms (Baran, 2014). Despite the apparent momentum, mobile learning is far from being widely adopted. This presentation will discuss a recent research project at Fanshawe College that explored student and faculty attitudes about mobile learning. The project found little appetite for an expanded use of mobile learning approaches. While mobile learning could provide more creative opportunities for engaging with course material, significant …

Rodeo In The Classroom: Activity Based Costing Simulation, Nikki Shoemaker, Marie Kelly

Faculty Publications

This paper describes a classroom Activity Based Costing simulation called Rodeo in the Classroom. This simulation has been used in several introductory managerial accounting and cost accounting courses in order to help students understand the difference in the application of overhead between Job Order Costing and Activity Based Costing methods. Each student is assigned their own rodeo simulation and must calculate its cost using specific cost drivers. To verify their calculations, students with the same rodeos are grouped together to compare costs. Final rodeo costs are presented to the class where differences in cost allocations and reasons for these differences …

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of Mathematics Through Drawings, Adam Akerson

Faculty Publications

Research indicates that mathematics anxiety is particularly high in pre-service teachers (Bekdemir, 2010; Gresham, 2007; Hembree, 1990). These future teachers will soon be entering classrooms of their own, responsible for teaching mathematics to young children, who need strong teachers. A 2013 report from The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), found that 42% fourth-graders performed at or above the proficient level in math (NCES, 2013. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary pre-service teacher candidates (PSTCs) perceptions of mathematics, through drawings. Drawings were analyzed before and after a semester-long field experience in a constructivist mathematics environment. The participants …

Best Practices Developing Service Learning Protocol For Hospitality Administration, Mary Olle, Chay Runnels, Gina Fe Causin, Todd Barrios

Faculty Publications

Developing Service Learning Protocol for students in the Hospitality Administration program at Stephen F. Austin State University provides an opportunity for students to experience these values such as networking, commitment, and building self-confidence. In 2015 SFA Hospitality Administration faculty made a decision to institutionalize service learning throughout their program. This presentation discusses its implementation.

Innovation In Organisations, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Inter-team competition activates information coordination and innovative performance of teams; implication of team members’ narcissism

New Era Of Teaching, Learning, And Technology: Teachers’ Perceived Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge And Self-Efficacy Towards Differentiated Instruction, Robin A. Millen, Robert Gable

K-12 Education

Shifting from an industrial model of education to a model that best provides students with differentiated instruction (Tomlinson, 2014) requires educational philosophical change (Fullan, 2014) as well as innovation diffusion (Rogers, 2003). The problem is not the amount of research that exists on differentiation, the diffusion of innovations, or the change process. The problem is what new technological pedagogical content knowledge (Koehler & Mishra, 2008) do educators need to make this change process happen? How is this knowledge communicated to finally change the “fundamental processes of schooling” (Elmore, 1996, p. 4)?

This sequential, mixed-methods study addressed the following condensed research …

Inquiry-Based Instruction – Cultivating Analytical Habits Of Mind With 21st Century Skills: A Qualitative Study, Kimberly A. Laliberte, Robert K. Gable, Felice D. Billups

K-12 Education

Significant challenges face the United States regarding global competition as 21st century workforce skills lag behind corporate demands in STEM-based careers (Bucher, 2011; Campbell & Pedersen, 2007; Kramer, 2010; Savitz & Elias, 2011; Scott, 2007). Strategic interventions for inquiry-based, 21st century skills development are of grave necessity for K-12 education to encourage post-secondary STEM opportunities (Abaidoo, 2012; Mouhammed, 2009; Porter & Rivkin, 2012; Rombel, 2012).

This study investigated inquiry techniques in K-12 urban classrooms where greatest equity gaps reside and explored teacher self-efficacy with respect to promoting 21st century skills. Changes needed to promote sustainable, inquiry-based, analytic habits of mind …

The Effects Of Visual Vocabulary Strategies On Vocabulary Knowledge, Maria Phillips

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of picture word pairing and semantic mapping strategies on the vocabulary understanding of second grade students. Fourteen second grade students were given a teacher created pretest on vocabulary words found in their story for the week. Then, the teacher enhanced the usual vocabulary instruction with two visual strategies, picture word pairing and semantic mapping strategies. Finally, they were given a posttest to show how much they improved. Results indicated that the intervention improved all participants’ scores by 15%. Eight out of fourteen had a score of over 80% on the …

Education All A'Twitter: Twitter's Role In Educational Technology, Rikki Elaine Mccormick Lowe

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine whether current uses of Twitter by educators correlate with the literature on the uses and advantages of using Twitter in education through an examination of United States educators and West Virginia educators. Data was obtained from responses to the online survey, Education All A’Twitter: Twitter’s Role in Educational Technology, content analysis of public Twitter feeds, and semi-structured interviews that were sorted, coded, organized, and analyzed to identify emergent themes. The study had a population that included 97 survey responses, 78 Twitter feeds, and 8 semi-structured interviews. There were survey respondents …

A Study Of Outcomes Based Educational Interventions And Moral Development Of Undergraduate College Students, Jay Christopher Robert Wildt

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Discussions regarding moral development and subsequent behavior are common in political and philosophical arenas. The consensus is that resolutions of moral dilemmas are best accomplished through careful deliberation and the use of principled moral reasoning. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in moral development in undergraduate college students who participated in an outcomes based education program. The study also investigated the influence of certain demographic and attribute variables on moral development within the same population.

This study examined extant data from 295 University of Charleston (UC) students who took the Defining Issues Test as freshmen and then …

A Case Study Of A Professional Development School In Rural West Virginia, Cheryl Ann Terry Jeffers

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The focus of this qualitative research study is the Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between a university and an elementary school in Central Appalachia. Data were collected through participant observation, individual and focus group interviews, and document analysis. The research focused on the participants’ experiences and perceptions of the Professional Development School and any enabling and/or constraining factors related to its effectiveness. Participants included school-based individuals ─ students, teachers, and administrators of Dolen Elementary (pseudonym) ─ as well as university-based participants. The most significant finding was a genuine willingness to learn that was exhibited by participants, both school-based and those …

3.0.C Hands-On Liquid Nitrogen, Christopher F. Bauer

Day 03 Jan 29 The thermometer. Chemothermal sensation.

WELCOME to WINDOWS on the INQUIRY CLASSROOM!

You have landed on a piece of a National Science Foundation Project (DUE 1245730) directed by Professor Chris Bauer, Chemistry Department, University of New Hampshire. This is one part of a completely documented inquiry-based university science course called “Fire & Ice” which explores the nature of heat and temperature. There are multiple video perspectives and commentary from instructors and students, and documents of all course materials (agenda, instructions, student work). It’s too complicated to explain here. Take a look at the user orientation document at this link.

Inattention, Distraction, And Dysfunction - Modern Challenges For Business Education And Practice, Michael T. Roberson, Beth Polin

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Students of every generation have faced factors that limited the amount of time available for study based on responsibilities such as family and jobs. There were also potential distractions that challenged students’ willpower to focus on academic activities instead of other completely discretionary uses of their time. The choice was between activities that provided immediate gratification versus academic activities that would yield a far greater payoff over the long run.

The last decade has seen a significant array of new temptations in the form of smart phones and other personal technologies that are powerful, portable, and pervasive. While these technologies …

Using Constructivism As An Alternative To Teacher-Centered Instruction, Jacquelyn W. Jensen, Helyne I. Frederick

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Constructivism is the idea that learners “actively try to organize and make sense” of information (Ormrod, 2012, p. 154). To do so, students “must individually discover and transform complex information” (Slavin, 2012, p. 218). Students compare new information with what they already know, and revise their understanding. Active learning is a focus of the constructivist classroom, so the instruction is most often student-centered. Students construct their knowledge instead of soaking up or only record information (Eggen & Kauchak, 2013). This means that teachers help students to make sense of new information rather than merely lecturing or controlling all of the …

Dig Into Learning: A Program Evaluation Of An Agricultural Literacy Innovation, Erica Brown Edwards

Education Dissertations and Projects

This study is a mixed-methods program evaluation of an agricultural literacy innovation in a local school district in rural eastern North Carolina.

This evaluation describes the use of a theory-based framework, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), in accordance with Stufflebeam’s Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model by evaluating the implementation and use of Dig into learning: An agricultural Literacy Innovation. This study evaluated teacher perceptions and use of agriculture as a context for teaching and learning in Grades K-5 by utilizing Stages of Concern (SoC) and Levels of Use (LoU) components of CBAM in relation to the CIPP model for …

Cultivating Literacy And Relationships With Adolescent Scholars Of Color, Noah Asher Golden, Erica Womack

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The authors explore strength-based learning projects that value the lived realities and literacies of adolescent scholars of color, setting the stage for the powerful relationships through which meaningful learning happens.

Using Self- And Peer-Assessments For Summative Purposes: Analysing The Relative Validity Of The Aasl (Authentic Assessment For Sustainable Learning) Model, Sean Kearney, Timothy Perkins, Shannon Kennedy-Clark

Education Papers and Journal Articles

The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof of concept of a collaborative peer-, self- and lecturer assessment processes. The research presented here is part of an ongoing study on self- and peer assessments in higher education. The authentic assessment for sustainable learning (AASL) model is evaluated in terms of the correlations between sets of marks. The article provides an explanation of the assessment process, and analyses sets of marks as a means of justifying the validity of the process. The results suggest that students, even those with no prior experience in peer- or self-evaluation, in their first …

Field Ecology Curriculum On White Tail Deer Population In Maine, Shellbe Flynn '20

Capstones, Research Projects, and Curricula

Essential question:

How do scientists use ecological data to make decisions about populations and ecosystems?

Guiding questions:

How do matter and energy flow through biological and physical systems?

How are species interdependent and interrelated?

How do populations respond to positive and negative inputs?

How do ecosystems respond to positive and negative inputs?

Prefiguring Alternative Worlds: Organic Critical Literacies And Socio-Cultural Revolutions, Miguel Zavala, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper offers a vision of critical literacies that speak to education, revolution and the institutional arrangements of capitalism. We provide a path forward for educating within/against neoliberalism and for understanding the imperative to prefigure spaces and a language of possibility. Our aim is to situate the need for critical spaces in revolutionary struggles, and to delineate a theoretical framing of organic critical literacies while grounding them in generative exemplars. Drawing upon the concept of prefigurative politics, we demonstrate how mediation and place-based praxis must be at the core of critical literacies that challenge capitalism and its institutional arrangements, …

“Where Words Fail, Music Speaks”: The Experience Of Adapting Literature To Music, Laney J. Fowle, Kyle Bishop, Matthew Nickerson

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Adaptation is a relatively new yet growing academic field consisting mainly of research on the modification of book into film. This study endeavors to expand the discourse on adaptation to the modal transformation of literary works to music. By using this specific adaptive type to examine the process and functionality of adapted works, I was able to address several key aspects of modern adaptation, including the hot-button issue of fidelity to an established source text, the role of adaptor as co-author, and the ability of solitary artistic modes to augment each other when combined. The resulting personal attempts at adaptation …

Godspeed, Noah Rucker

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

March 18th, 1944

The sea is more restless of late, here overlooking the Pacific. It bashes against the bluffs with some prodigious strength of nature, milling away at the ancient rock outcroppings that have stood sturdy for so long. One can’t help but be impressed by the ocean’s fury, yet I feel loathe to liken such enigmatic capabilities to that of nature. More seems at work here than that.

A rather morbid note with which to begin this letter, and at the end I fear you’ll wish your eyes never to have met its contents. I’ll let you judge whether …

Dollhouse, Samantha Richardson

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Dolls have been used to reinforce gender roles way before Barbie became a household name. In 1879, Henrik Isben published A Doll’s House, a play in which a Norwegian housewife has a groundbreaking epiphany about how marriage has reduced her life to child’s play. There has been controversy about the critique of the domesticated housewife as a concern for women’s rights. Many women enjoy their role as homemakers, wives, and mothers. However this series, Doll House, was made as a very personal response to how growing up in poverty and a small, isolated community can really distort gender identity by …

Of Love And Other Ills, Enrique Quezada

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

All went as it had for fifteen years in the Rivera González household until the day Matilde saw José Juan coming home from school with vomit on his lips, his skin so pale she thought he was a ghost. Matilde hesitated, but decided to open the door after concluding that, if that pallid personage who resembled her aunt Catalina—God bless her soul—was a messenger of death, she wouldn’t put up resistance. She was ready to bid farewell.

No one had seen her so determined since she yelled at her husband in the consulting room of Dr. Guardado demanding that they …

"So Dead And Bald" Destroys The World: A Psychological Critique Of Object Metamorphosis In Infinite Jest's Game Of Eschaton, R. Christian Phillips

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

"Do not underestimate objects! . . . It is impossible to overstress this: do not underestimate objects" (Wallace 394). Even the most cursory reading of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest reveals the importance of objects to this work. Objects affect and vigorously direct all the characters throughout, from the tennis balls being continuously squeezed by students at the elite Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA) to the veil Joelle van Dyne wears to the plethora of drugs being consumed and, most importantly, to the cartridge of James O. Incandenza's final film, which is given the ultimate power of life and death over …

Movements In Dialogue: Kaleidoscope And The Discourse Of Underground News, Jeb Ebben

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

From 1967 to 1971, Kaleidoscope shared new and revolutionary ideas, challenged its readers, and created an important venue for intramovement dialogue. Beginning as an outlet for Milwaukee’s burgeoning counterculture and evolving into an important part of the mass movement, Kaleidoscope’s willingness to honestly interrogate the issues facing the community it served meant that it was an arena for tensions to be resolved. That Kaleidoscope, unlike many of the underground papers of the era, never transformed into an unofficial party organ for the New Left allowed it to be uniquely critical of the politics of the mass movement while at the …

Palm Epiphyll Cover Shifts To Higher Elevations In Tropical Cloud Forest, Indicating Local Climate Change, Maya Spaur

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Intensifying patterns of weather and climate as caused by anthropogenic climate change have already caused extensive species extinctions, migrations, and range contractions in endemic species (Parmesan 2006), and pose the potential to induce substantial biodiversity loss on a global scale (IPCC 2014). Such trends have proven exceptionally apparent in tropical montane forests, where the disappearance of range-restricted species indicates a lifting cloud base as caused by rising sea surface temperature (SST) (Pounds et al.1999). Epiphylls serve as a bioindicator of local climate change due to their heightened sensitivity to water availability (Drake 2005). An altitudinal transect of percent epiphyll cover …

The Mechanics Of Scientific Belief, Michael Cook

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

In "Science: Conjectures and Refutations," Karl Popper establishes a criterion for the scientific character or status of a theory: its falsifiability. And in one move, he turns a host of common scientific postulates—like the Ideal Gas Law, the Law of Conservation of Mass, Newton's First Law, and the Theory of Evolution—into "metaphysical research programs" whose nature renders them impossible to disprove though observable experiment ("Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind"). According to Popper, the nature of such postulates transcend the physical world; making them just as unfalsifiable as a spiritual power, or a god. In this way, they concern …

Connexin-43 And Traumatic Brain Injury: A Potential Target For Therapeutic Intervention, Lauren R. Moore

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a widespread, degenerative affliction with no current therapeutic interventions. The long-term degradation caused by TBI results from secondary injury cascades that are initiated by primary injury. An early and important step in the damage process is reactive astrogliosis in astrocytes. Astrocytes communicate through gap junctions, which are composed of two connexon hemichannels from the two communicating cells and these connexons themselves are composed of six connexin protein subunits. Connexin 43 (Cx43) is a particularly important connexin to gap junctional communication and could act either to preserve the astrocytes from oxidative stress, or to propagate the …

"My Paintings Would Be No Different Than A Picture In A Biology Textbook", Andi Kur

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

I find that there are innate balances in life, universal dichotomies that permeate our understanding of the world. My paintings are about a duality such as this that exists between art and science. We are told from youth that these subjects are poles in constant strain, as miscible as oil in water. I spent thirteen years in school believing that I must choose between the two, that it is unnecessary to carry both with me. Drawn between a distinct love of each, I realized how vehemently I disagreed. Everything: every rock to every tree to every person is suspended between …

Symptoms Of The Virus, Emily Haase

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUS BY DR. HENRY ESQUIRE III MD CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 1. Severe hunger, often voicing their distress. 2. Chronic moodiness, confusion, sullenness. 3. Irritability, otherwise emotionally unstable. Paranoia. 4. Homicidal tendencies – full takeover of the disease. Handle with caution.

“Making a list of symptoms of the zombification virus. Like, Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 … except I don’t know what to say about how it’s spread, which is probably what’s most important. Through the air, d’you think?”