Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Table Of Contents

Early College Folio

(2023) "Table of Contents," Early College Folio: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/earlycollegefolio/vol3/iss1/1

Coalescence: A Carnivore Coexistence Curriculum That Braids Indigenous & Western Ecological Knowledge Into A Relevant And Experiential Learning Opportunity For Youth, Stephanie Anne Barron

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horriblis) begin to reoccupy more of their historic range, and as humans and large carnivore populations continue to increase, incidences of human carnivore conflict are on the rise. A decolonial curriculum designed in collaboration with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe’s wildlife biologists stands to increase awareness of Indigenous ecological knowledge and teach youth about the importance of coexistence with carnivores. Additionally, this project could greatly influence youth perceptions of grizzly bears and other large carnivores. This research project examines the development and implementation of a carnivore coexistence curriculum for youth that is guided by …

Review: Teaching Stem To First Generation College Students: A Guidebook For Faculty And Future Faculty By Gail Horowitz, Jessica S. Robbins

Early College Folio

Book Review: Gail Horowitz’s Teaching STEM to First Generation College Students: A Guidebook for Faculty and Future Faculty (Information Age Publishing, 2019). Horowitz taught chemistry at Bard High School Early College Newark.

Artist Into An Educator—Educator Inside An Artist, Raheela Qabool Abro Ms

Early College Folio

This study is a self-investigation of the author's identity by exploring her two professions: an artist as well as an art educator. Her insights as an educator provided a background for her as an artist through the production of this series of miniature artworks created with cell phone SIM cards. A SIM card, which stands for “Subscriber Identification Module,” contains information tied to the identity of the individual using it. For this reason, the author chose it as a medium for creating an art series to represent identity. In the dialogue of artist and educator, Abro confronts changes to the …

Teaching Food Studies In Early College: Experiments In Collaboration, Cynthia Brown, Maryann Tebben

Early College Folio

This article outlines the process of designing and teaching a collaborative course on sustainable food and agriculture on multiple campuses at once, including two early college institutions. The authors offer insights on the specific elements of the course they designed as well as methods for designing the course, what worked in practice, and what they would change. This article will be useful for faculty who would like to work with other early college colleagues to plan a collaborative course in general or a specific course on sustainable food and farms.

Commitment To Access: A Conversation About The Unconventional And College-In-Prison, Elías Beltrán, Megan Callaghan

Early College Folio

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) currently operates full-tuition scholarship Bard College degree programs across seven New York State prisons, three Microcollege campuses created in partnership with community-based institutions, and on the Annandale campus of Bard College, where adult students are completing degrees through the BardBac. Since 2005 when the first degrees were granted to BPI students, the program has issued over 5,000 credits and more than 700 degrees.

This conversation between BPI alumnus Elías Beltrán, who earned his Bard College bachelor’s degree in 2017 while incarcerated, and Megan Callaghan, the program’s Dean, touches upon Elías’s upcoming transition to BPI faculty, …

Rolling A Boulder Up A Mountain: The Path To Higher Education In Displacement Concepts, Rebecca Granato

Early College Folio

Students in contexts affected by displacement and forced migration are at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing and successfully completing higher education, as well as translating their learning into post-graduation opportunities. Universities with clear social missions and networks of institutions have the power and the obligation to support the creation of “opportunities pipelines” for these populations.

Solving Higher Education In Burma, The Global South, And Beyond, Myat Su San

Early College Folio

By introducing readers to a migrant student from Burma, the author unpacks the longstanding and increasingly complicated barriers to higher education, which many students face across the Global South. Readers are then introduced to one institution seeking to dismantle those barriers through innovation and expansive access, Parami University.

Move, May Honey Maung

Early College Folio

“Move” is a call to action that urges leaders to work together to create a world where education is accessible and inclusive to everyone regardless of their socioeconomic status or background. Drawing inspiration from the author’s own educational experiences as both a student and employee of Phaung Daw Oo, this poem is a reminder that education is not a privilege but a fundamental human right; we all have a responsibility to ensure that it is available to all learners. The author—whose country is currently facing violence and economic and educational instability due to a February 2021 coup d’état—relays the hopeful …

Case Study: Phaung Daw Oo International University, Yee Wai Than Ma

Early College Folio

The case study discusses an unconventional path to education in Myanmar, one that serves as an alternative to government-controlled institutions. The article highlights the challenges faced by students and educators in the country and presents Phaung Daw Oo Monastic School (PDO) and its mission to contribute to society through excellence in education and lifelong learning. The school provides necessary schooling for children who did not receive adequate education at the traditional age, students who are up to five years off from what is considered aligned with the expectations of state-sponsored education. The article also discusses the establishment of Phaung Daw …

Editor's Note, Kyaw Moe Tun

Early College Folio

Editor's Note, Early College Folio, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Spring 2023).

Contributors

Early College Folio

Contributors, Early College Folio, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Spring 2023).

Table Of Contents

Early College Folio

Table of Contents, Early College Folio, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Spring 2023).

Mathematical Identities And Tracking: An Exploration Of Efficacy In Children And Women, Emma Hagan

Education | Master's Theses

This study seeks to understand the impact of elementary school mathematical identities and mathematics tracking on the identities of women and girls. “Tracking” is an institutionalized education method developed in the 1960s and 1970s in which schools sort their students into smaller class-sized groups based on their observed achievement (Domina et al., 2016). Too often, when students test onto the lower track, they are confronted with a sense of futility and a lack of self-efficacy (Domina, Hanselman, Hwang & McEachin, 2016; Houtte & Stevens, 2015). Further, in STEM disciplines, students who identify as female report lower self-efficacy rates than those …

Meet Me In The Middle: A Scoping Review On Understanding Adolescent Needs In Climate Communication, Gwendolyn Monica Hoff Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

The greatest effects of climate change are likely to be felt by youth. Young people are disproportionately affected by climate change due to their critical developmental stage and lack of power, and they experience both higher severity and prevalence of mental health issues related to climate change. Strong emotions have long been recognized as potential catalysts for action, or they may lead to paralyzing feelings of being overwhelmed. Climate communication is a critical tool to spark climate concern and encourage action. Activism, in turn, may help youth manage their anxiety about climate change. This scoping review examines emerging evidence on …

Growth Mindset Intervention And Its Impact On Productive Struggle In The Eighth-Grade Mathematics Classroom, Jordy Wilson

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

This study aims to seek means to increase student productive struggle while adhering to the strenuous performance demands by our school systems. This study examines connections between growth mindset interventions, attitude towards struggle, and productive struggle in the mathematics classroom. Growth mindset interventions have been shown to change mindsets and to help students become more willing to engage in challenging problems and deal with difficult situations and struggle. Productive struggle is the engagement with difficult problems with the understanding that breakthroughs occur from confusion and struggle and has been linked with students’ conceptual understanding in the mathematics classroom. It has …

Addressing The Poor Science Performance Of Filipino Learners: Beyond Curricular And Instructional Interventions, Marissa O. Calleja, Macario O. Cordell Ii, Jude Michael Teves, Sashimir A. Yap, Unisse Chua Ms., Allan Bernardo

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Philippines performed abysmally in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 science literacy assessment: only 22% of the 7,233 15-year-old Filipino students who participated in PISA achieved the minimum level of competency (Level 2) in science literacy (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2019). This performance in the science assessment places the Philippines near the bottom of the 79 countries and economies that participated in PISA 2018. In a study that used a machine learning approach, we identified 15 variables that identified the poor-performing students in science literacy. These variables can be grouped into four clusters, namely, metacognitive …

The Early College Research Tradition And The People Who Made It: A History Of Interventions That Shaped The Field, Russ Olwell

Early College Folio

Early college as an educational reform has had a unique trajectory over the past two decades. School reform in the United States (with a few exceptions) has been a top-down movement, and the majority of attention has centered on grades three through eight, the grade levels the No Child Left Behind Act focused on. Early college, by contrast, has been a grassroots movement in many areas and has focused on high school students and their aspirations for college. This article describes the story of early college through the lens of individuals whose research helped to reorient the field and broaden …

The House Of Seminar Needs Overhaul: The General Education Seminar In Theory And Practice, Matthew J. Park

Early College Folio

Matthew Park's intellectual and institutional history of the General Education Seminars at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. This historical analysis, which the author revolves around a discussion of the genealogy and philosophy of Seminar more broadly, serves as a multidisciplinary lens through which teachers and students of Seminar across the Bard Early Colleges may center current and future discussions of the course(s).

Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Project-Based Learning (Pbl) Education: A New Mexico Case Study For Equity And Inclusion, Kimberly A. Scheerer

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This research addresses how student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) education activities encourages underrepresented minority student achievement in STEM career field trajectories. Seven New Mexico high school counselors and 12 STEM organization personnel were interviewed during this study. Their responses represent the nuanced professional voices where New Mexico public education intersects with STEM student interest and cultural influence.

For students, STEM PBL can foster deep integration across educational disciplines and enhance STEM career trajectory interest and readiness. STEM education converged with PBL methodologies has the ability to leverage community support while broadening student networks. …

Implementing Diversity Training Targeting Faculty Microaggressions And Inclusion: Practical Insights And Initial Findings, Ellen Ernst Kossek, Patrice M. Buzzanell, Brittany J. Wright, Cassondra Batz-Barbarich, Amy C. Moors, Charlene Sullivan, Klod Kokini, Andrew S. Hirsh, Kayla Maxey, Ankita Nikalje

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the importance of faculty diversity training for advancing an inclusive society, little research examines whether participation improves inclusion perceptions and belongingness. Integrating training and diversity education literature concepts, this study examines the effectiveness of training targeting microaggressions in six STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) oriented departments at a research-intensive university. Reactions data collected at the end of face-to-face training suggested that participation generally increased inclusion understanding. Self-assessments on inclusion concepts collected from 45% of participants before and three weeks after training suggest participation increases perceptions of the importance of inclusion, microaggression allyship awareness, inclusive behaviors, and organizational identification. Compared …

Addressing The Poor Mathematics Performance Of Filipino Learners: Beyond Curricular And Instructional Interventions, Minie Rose C. Lapinid, Macario O. Cordell Ii, Jude Michael Teves, Sashimir A. Yap, Unisse Chua Ms., Allan B.I. Bernardo

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

This study aimed to determine predictive models that would identify the most important predictor variables for students in the lowest proficiency group in public schools and private schools. After experimenting with different machine learning approaches, the random forest classifier (SVM) models were found to perform most accurately (Lundberg & Lee, 2017). To identify the most important predictors of being a poor performer in mathematics, Shapley values were generated, which produces a ranked list of several features in descending order. To manage complexity in comparing the key variables for private and public student performance classification, the 10 most significant features for …

Mathematics Education As Dystopia: A Future Beyond, Peter Appelbaum, Charoula Stathopoulou, Constantinos Xenofontos

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

We argue that scholars and practitioners of mathematics education need to find new directions through recognition of its dystopic characteristics, and embrace these characteristics as both the source of challenges and method of response. This contrasts with the generally utopic approach of most scholarship in the field. We offer critical ethnomathematics education as a model, since it has its own origins in lingering dystopic legacies. A perpetual hopelessness and disempowerment is one implicit curriculum of contemporary mathematics education, where the mathematics one learns might help to describe things, yet hardly assists in transforming the reification of power and agency in …

Contributors

Early College Folio

Contributors, Early College Folio, Volume 1, Issue 2 (May 2022)

Table Of Contents

Early College Folio

Table of Contents, Early College Folio, Volume 1, Issue 2 (May 2022).

Review: Last Call On Decatur Street By Iris Martin Cohen, Nemesio Gil

Early College Folio

Book Review: Iris Martin Cohen’s Last Call on Decatur Street (Park Row, 2020), a novel set in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Cohen, who grew up in the French Quarter, is a Simon’s Rock alumna.

“Digital By Necessity”: An Interview With Dr. Jane Wanninger, Julia Carey Arendell, Jane Wanninger

Early College Folio

In the summer of 2020, Dr. Jane Wanninger participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute hosted by Agnes Scott College to learn about implementing digital storytelling in the classroom, which ironically, had to be completed digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her experience was the inspiration for this issue of Early College Folio as she pitched her ideas using the phrase “digital by necessity.” Issue Editor Julia Carey Arendell interviewed Jane, captured here, on all that she learned to think more deeply about using the virtual tool of digital storytelling as a teacher, a student, and …

Middle School Science Teachers' Vulnerability In The Written Discourse Of A Professional Learning Community, Eliza Jacobs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vulnerability is omnipresent in personal and professional human experiences (Gilson, 2011; Lasky, 2005) and an unavoidable condition of work as a teacher (Bullough, 2005; Kelchtermans, 1996). It plays a role in teachers’ interaction with themselves, their students, and their professional communities, as they engage in making sense of their role in these social environments (Uitto, Kaunisto, Kelchtermans, & Estola, 2016). This study examined the written reflection journals by 12 middle school science teachers in a professional learning community (PLC) in New England. Teachers engaged with each other to co-construct knowledge and emotional understanding of their practice within this professional community. …

The Impact Of Personal And Service-Related Factors On The Perceived Academic Success Among College Students, Ronnie Davis, Geraldine Doucet, Terayana Lamb, Sonya Sneed, David Fletcher

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

In recent years, student completion of the first year and second-year college curriculum has become a significant barrier to student success and retention especially at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Despite low pass and retention rates, many degree programs in the U.S. require at least one college-level mathematics course, and the failure in this math course has contributed disproportionately to the failure to complete the first- and second-year curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictability of the relationship between selected personal, academic, and service-related factors and the perceived academic success in mathematics among college students. Specifically, …

Philosophical Underpinnings Of Mathematics Teacher Educator's Work, Elizabeth Suazo-Flores, Signe E. Kastberg, Melva R. Grant, Olive Chapman

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) are turning research lens on themselves to explore their knowledge and practices and with that contribute knowledge to the field of mathematics teacher education. In this working group we build from our exploration of MTEs' work. MTEs will describe their work and their views of knowledge and being in their work as MTEs. We invite MTEs to join our working group and assert that MTEs' discussions of their work will provide opportunities for professional learning that reveals how their knowledge and identity inform their practice.