Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Encouraging Family Literacy In Spanish-Speaking Homes, Christian Peña, Brad Wilcox

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the fall of 2008, I founded a service program called Conexiones. This service program seeks to organize and send Brigham Young University students into the homes of local Latino families to encourage literacy by reading with the children and parents. The program provides no curriculum, but relies heavily on the volunteers and participant families developing close friendships and thereby increasing the positive experience related to reading. Over the last year and half, Conexiones has grown from an idea to a pilot semester that involved two families and four volunteers and most recently to a university sponsored service organization with …

The Impact Of Educational Method Courses On Student Teaching, Gwyn C. Franson, Dr. Blaine Moore

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Fall semester 1994, Brigham Young University Department of Elementary Education began its first Cohort program for the training of elementary school teachers. This program focuses on integrating traditional methods classes into a two semester field-based pre-service experience. It provides for the placement of university professors on site. These professors are encouraged to (1) first model teaching strategies in a “real world” classroom, and (2) second provide opportunities for the pre-service teacher to practice and receive evaluation on the concepts taught in this same field-based atmosphere. The hope is that the combination of a field-based experience and on-site methods courses will …

Evaluating The Purpose And Effectiveness Of The Standards For Teaching Television Production Curriculum In Utah High Schools, Seth Warburton, Dr. Geoff Wright

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to compare Utah high school television production teaching practices and standards to industry television production standards and techniques. The intent of this study was to evaluate (a) if schools are teaching appropriate television production standards and techniques; (b) if the limited equipment schools can provide adequately prepare students to work in an environment that requires such diverse technology; (c) what the relative impact teaching television production to high school students is having on students in regards to career exploration, preparation, academic achievement, and so forth.

A Comparison Of Textual Materials Found In A Utah Elementary School Classroom And A New Zealand Elementary School Classroom, Arisa Sanchez, James S. Jacobs

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One of the most essential things a child will learn in elementary school is how to read. Countless hours of research have been done trying to discover the best methods of literacy instruction. As I was taking my education classes to prepare me to be an elementary school teacher, I too wondered about the best methods of teaching children how to read. Many of the methods and theories that are taught as “best practice” originate in New Zealand.

Print-Rich Classrooms Of New Zealand And America, Hallie Shumway, James Jacobs

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My research was to compare the difference of print-rich classroom environments at a school in America and a school in New Zealand. I used a 33 point scale created by a BYU alumnus to grade each classroom. I then randomly chose a representative grade from each level, Kindergarten through sixth, and compared the overall data from each school.

Story Time: Improving Oral And Literacy Skills In A Second Language, Krysta Rubio Belliston, Ray Graham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In this generation, the demand for education has been steadily enforced year by year. Since English is an internationally spoken language, parents and children alike want to improve their eligibility and employability through an English-language education. Guatemala does have some programs for students to learn English as their class curriculum, yet this is offered mostly to the children in the city. Also, I noticed that many of these programs lack English educational resources, and they rely largely in the grammar-based (direct instruction) approach, based mostly on writing drills.

Education In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Angel G. Orozco Chavez, Dr. Ted Lyon

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Education: important, yes; beneficial, extremely; yet for a people where a disproportionate and discriminatory rate of progress seems to prevail, educational opportunities are scarcely available. The people of Mexico five in a place where the rich seem to speedily move up the ladder of success, wealth, and consequently education, while the poor seem to be caught in a never-ending cycle from which only a few are able to escape. I have personally seen in my extended family, the results of limited opportunities due to limited education. That is precisely the reason why I decided to embark on a combined internship/field …

Understanding Student Ethnic Identity In Schools, Carol Ann Litster, Dr. Erin Feinauer Whiting

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to understand the tensions Latino students feel in understanding their ethnic and academic identity and what motivates these students to do well in school. Using Latinos in Action as a case study, we uncover tensions for high school students’ identity development in the context as a minority ethnic group in a white community. Programs that foster both academic and ethnic identity exploration such as Latinos in Action permit students the opportunity to have a safe place to explore their student identity. Through comprehending their situation, in their own words, we uncover their motivations, perceptions, …

Equipping Teachers With Democracy, Kathryn Davis, Dr. Byran Korth

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to research and compile recommendations for developing positive teacher-student relationships in order to better prepare prospective teachers to establish a democratic classroom. We have addressed this challenge through researching and compiling positive teacher-student relationship recommendations, along with seven specific democratic classroom principles.

English Language Learner Program Improvement Study, Amy Jones, Dr. Erin Whiting

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Parental involvement is a key focus of educational debate today because it has been shown to be correlated to academic achievement. I chose to help research and collect data to include in a longitudinal study conducted by Dr. Erin Whiting and Dr. Ray Graham of Brigham Young University. This purpose of this on-going study is to understand how parents of Hispanic students are involved in their child’s education, and in what ways that may differ from parents of other ethnic groups.

Wanda Grant, Wanda Grant, Institute Of Child Nutrition. Child Nutrition Archives.

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Wanda Grant is a retired School Nutrition Director with over 35 years of experience. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Food, Nutrition and Institutional Management from Washington State University and is a registered dietitian. Her career took her from Washington to Alaska and finally to California. She is a credentialed School Nutrition Specialist with the School Nutrition Association (SNA), has served on the Executive Board of SNA, and was honored nationally in 2009 as Outstanding Director of the Year. Wanda is a certified ServSafe^® instructor and a consultant trainer for the National Food Service Management Institute.

Mothers’ Involvement In Children’S Learning, Khush Funer Murtaza

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.

Elementary Teacher Candidates' Images Of Mathematics, Diverse Students, And Teaching: An Exploratory Study With Implications For Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education, Bernd Richard Ferner

Dissertations and Theses

Children from many culturally diverse backgrounds do not achieve in mathematics at the same rates as their counterparts from the dominant White, European-American culture (Gay, 2010). This so-called achievement gap is an artifact of an educational system that continues to fail to provide equal learning opportunities to culturally diverse children (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Nieto & Bode, 2011). Teachers who employ culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2010) may help to close this opportunity gap and hence, the achievement gap. This study investigated, "How do elementary teacher candidates perceive teaching mathematics in a multicultural environment"; Using a critical constructivism research paradigm, this qualitative instrumental …

Active Learning And Assessment Strategies, Patricia Hoffman

All Resources

PowerPoint presentation on active learning and assessment strategies.

Spanish Vocabulary Online Profiler (Svop): A Linguistic Tool For Literacy And Second Language Acquisition, Maria Snachez Wals, Katherine Washburn, Nathan Glenn, Ray Graham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

According to research, a reader needs to understand at least 95% of running words in a text in order to comprehend the text and to learn new words from context (Hu & Nation, 2000; Nation 2006). In an effective language and literacy program, selecting the appropriate text and pre-teaching key vocabulary is essential; but for teachers it is a time consuming task to find leveled texts and identify the key vocabulary words in the reading.

Teacher Self Reflection: It’S Affect On A Teacher’S Understanding Of Students, Erika Peterson, Dr. Stefinee Pinnegar

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the field of education, self-reflection is an important skill to help teachers assess and enhance their own teaching. As stated by Samaras and Freese, “When teachers critically reflect on their practice, they makes sense of the complexities of teaching and participate consciously and creatively in their own growth and development” (2006.) This active role in developing one’s work can greatly improve a teachers’ teaching. Self-reflection is a skill that can be developed and strengthened with practice. However, as a preservice teacher (a college student studying to become a teacher), self-reflection is a skill I am still developing.

Heritage Language Speakers: Developing An Important Resource, Elise Williams, Ray Graham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The goal of this project was to begin to create a curriculum which will enable Spanish teachers to help heritage language speakers (those who grew up speaking Spanish in their homes) to develop academically in their native language (L1). The secondary goal of this project is to collect preliminary data to examine the effect of such a curriculum on Hispanic adolescents’ development of academic Spanish.

Fearless: Nadejiah Towns, Nadejiah Z. Towns

SURGE

This week we would like to recognize Nadejiah Towns ’15 as a fearless fighter against poverty. This summer she has served as a Heston intern for the South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) and has spent the majority of her time with the Work Ready program, a “welfare to work” organization that helps low-income community members gain the skills needed to by obtaining a reliable, professional job and become self-sufficient.

Impact Of Teachers' Planned Questions On Opportunities For Students To Reason Mathematically In Whole-Class Discussions Around Mathematical Problem-Solving Tasks, Sarah Elizabeth Enoch

Dissertations and Theses

While professional developers have been encouraging teachers to plan for discourse around problem solving tasks as a way to orchestrate mathematically productive discourse (Stein, Engle, Smith, & Hughes, 2008; Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2009) no research has been conducted explicitly examining the relationship between the plans that teachers make for orchestrating discourse around problem solving tasks and the outcomes of implementation of those plans. This research study is intended to open the door to research on planning for discourse around problem solving tasks.

This research study analyzes how 12 middle school mathematics teachers participating in the Mathematics Problem Solving …

Lighting The Fire: How Peer-Mentoring Helps Adult Learners Increase Their Interest In Stem Careers: A Case Study At The Community College Level, Patricia Marie Deturk

Dissertations and Theses

In the U.S., about 7,000 high school students drop out each school day, representing a loss of talent and ability. Concurrently, there are a decreasing number of enrolled students taking science-related courses at the high school and college levels. Adults, who return to obtain their General Educational Development (GED) certification, are an untapped resource that could be steered toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. In this case study, 15 GED students were shown a STEM video, and then peer mentored by 8 CLA (Clinical Laboratory Assistant) students, in a student-centered laboratory experience. Individual interviews of the GED students …

Mechanical Design Of Pird (Principal Investigator Rack Drawer) For Sofia, Hari Prasad Shetty Mr., Murali Krishna Kandlagunta Mrs., John Miles Mr., Zaheer Ali Mr.

STAR Program Research Presentations

SOFIA, the world’s largest airborne observatory with 2.5-meter diameter infrared telescope is equipped with 7 instruments: EXES, FIFI-LS, FLITECAM, FORCAST, GREAT, HAWC, and HIPO. Flying at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet, SOFIA avoids 99% of the atmospheric water vapor, records and analyzes the infrared radiation from the cosmos. SOFIA is able to observe the occultation of stars by solar system objects. By determining the size, compositions, and atmospheric structures of these objects, SOFIA can help answer the questions on creation and evolution of the universe, formation of the stars and planets, and nature of black hole at the center …

If It Isn’T Tested, It Doesn’T Work: Automated Verification Of Sofia Data Handling Software, Garrett Holthaus, Brett Stroozas, Zaheer Ali

STAR Program Research Presentations

This project involves writing code to automate the verification testing of the Data Handling Working Group (DHWG) software tools for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The DHWG tools extract engineering data from SOFIA missions. Engineering data includes a variety of information on the operations and status of SOFIA systems during a flight, including computer network traffic, user commands, and images acquired from cameras mounted on the telescope assembly. It is important to review engineering data because this data can lead to the discovery of any problems or inefficiencies in SOFIA hardware and software. Analysis of engineering data can …

Jellyfish Identification And Quantification In The San Francisco Estuary, Amalia Borson, Lindsay L. Sullivan, Wim Kimmerer

STAR Program Research Presentations

As potential predators and competitors of plankton-eating fish, jellyfish have the potential to negatively impact fish populations. Jellyfish were collected weekly with plankton tows from the RombergTiburonCenterpier in Tiburon, CA. Since some jellyfish were too small to identify, one tow was collected and preserved to record abundances, and a second tow was collected to rear jellyfish until distinguishing characteristics were visible enough for identification. Jellyfish in the preserved tows were then identified, measured, and counted, and their abundance (number m^-3) was calculated. Jellyfish from the second tows were reared in plastic buckets that were lightly bubbled using aquarium …

The Liberal Professor? An Analysis Of The Beliefs Of Teacher Educators, Andrew Kemp, C. Steven Page

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

There is much discussion in public discourse about the liberal leanings of faculty in higher education. The researchers in this study investigated the validity of this assumption. Using data collected from faculty from colleges of education throughout the country, the belief systems of this group were analyzed. What was discovered was that faculty in colleges of education are not liberal. In fact, the opposite is true. Discussion about the implications of these finding leads to an analysis of current policies and practices.

Getting The Conversation Started: School Library Candidates Speak Out About The Importance Of Culturally Responsive Teaching, Bridget Kratt, Courtney Pentland

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

When hearing the term “culturally responsive teaching,” many people’s thoughts automatically go to race as culture. At the University of Nebraska at Omaha we have made a concerted effort to ensure that our Library Science Education Programs candidates come to realize that culturally responsive teaching is much broader and deeper than just considering our P-12 students’ race.

Response To Intervention: A District’S And School’S Implementation, Michelle L. Carter

Masters Theses

This paper demonstrates how the Response to Intervention (RTI) system was implemented in one district and school, and may serve as a model for others to follow. The RTI framework has the capacity to push participating schools to examine the quality of instruction and, more importantly, to use ongoing student assessments to determine the instruction each student needs to be academically successful. The leadership and policy literature as well as legislative and other reforms such as RTI, systematic assessment, instructional strategies, is reviewed. The results of the RTI implementation at the district and building level are shared. For example, in …

Techniques For Improving Student Engagement And Comprehension Through The Pairing Of Young Adult Literature With Classic Literature In Advanced Placement Or Honors Twelfth Grade Classrooms, Julie Kopp

HIM 1990-2015

Classics remain important to high school curriculum; however, they are also not palatable to today's students. This problem can be addressed by the use of young adult literature to help engagement and comprehension when paired with classic literature. By connecting the two, a student has the chance to learn something they will enjoy before moving on to what would be seen as efferent reading This thesis contains a review of literature on integrating young adult literature in the classroom in order to view its effects on the students' engagement and comprehension. This study focuses on twelfth grade students taking Advanced …

Integrating Student-Centered Learning To Promote Critical Thinking In High School Social Studies Classrooms, Elaine Sayre

HIM 1990-2015

Traditional teacher-centered methods of lectures and PowerPoint presentations are commonly used when teaching secondary social studies, yet these methods continually prove to be boring for most high school students and neglect to teach critical thinking skills. Student-centered methods are different than teacher-centered methods because these methods incorporate several learning styles, cooperative activities, and even technology in order to engage the student and promote critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is important for students to master because it gives them the skills to move past the obvious and make individual connections with the text. The intent of this thesis was to explore …

Meeting The Needs Of Gifted Students By Providing Year-Long Professional Development On Differentiated Instruction, Barbara M. Rollins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study focused on how teachers' planning and teaching methods changed after they acquired more confidence in applying differentiated strategies in their instructional units. Teachers were given a questionnaire about their skills, qualifications and teaching beliefs comparing teaching general education students and gifted education students within the typical classroom setting. Then teachers received several professional development opportunities within the school year exposing them to different forms of differentiation. Time was given between trainings so that teachers would have ample time to integrate what they learned into their planning and instructional design. At the end of the study, teachers were given …

Fall 2013 E-Certi Newsletter, Center For Educational Research And Teaching Innovation

CAFE Faculty Newsletters

Hello S&T instructors: Welcome back for the fall 2013 semester. In this issue, read about faculty member Petra DeWitt, who enjoys playing devil’s advocate to help students learn critical thinking, as well as Ron Frank, winner of the 2013 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education. Also, we offer a tribute to someone we will miss greatly this fall, Dr. Kent Peaslee.