Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Developing A Student Learning Strategy To Bridge Virtual Learning And Hands-On Activity, Gon Namkoong, Hargsoon Yoon, Yonghee Suh

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the effectiveness of combined virtual and physical hands-on activities in students’ learning which was infused in the capstone senior design project. Senior design projects are open-ended and are similar to the research that scientists perform toward a more comprehensive understanding of nature or new scientific knowledge. As a reinforced learning methodology to greatly assist students’ reasoning and problem-solving skills, virtual learning was first integrated at the planning stage of their projects. This approach is in contrast with the typical senior design courses where only limited resources are available for planning experiments. Using virtual learning, students are able …

Navigating The Pre-Tenure Review Process: Experiences Of A Self-Study Researcher, Brandon Butler

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Four years after the first Castle Conference, Cole and Knowles (1998) wrote of teacher educator concerns in conducting self-study research: "Concerns about institutional responses to self-study mainly are rooted in issues associated with tenure and promotion ... " (p. 225). The publication of Studying Teacher Education and increased acceptance of self-study research in teacher education journals provide an avenue for self-study researchers to publish in respected, refereed journals. Questions of self-study's validity, rigor, and trustworthiness have a long history (e.g., Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001). However, questions remain around the acceptance of self-study research among tenure and promotion committees. Institutional context …

Preparing Future Faculty (Pff) Program Annual Report, 2014-2015, Wie Yusuf

Career Pathways

It is the mission of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Program at Old Dominion University (ODU) to introduce graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to the diverse roles, the responsibilities, and the rewards of an academic career. In doing so it focuses particularly on the teaching and service roles sometimes not included in doctoral training. Fundamental research skills, such as grant writing, publishing, and academic job searching, are also addressed.

The PFF program offers a ‘Preparing Future Faculty Certificate’ to graduate students who document completion of specific activities related to preparing for an academic career. Any ODU and NSU degree-seeking graduate …

Multimodal Composing Across Disciplines: Examining Community College Professors’ Perceptions Of Twenty-First Century Literacy Practices, Elizabeth Bensen

English Theses & Dissertations

Providing a close examination of how professors approach twenty-first century literacy practices and production of multimodal texts, this project focuses on community college professors’ perceptions and expectations of students’ composing abilities pertaining to academic discourse across disciplines. Participants included 24 professors from a variety of disciplines at a large community college. The project examined survey responses, assignment guidelines, course syllabi, course outcomes, and video interviews of five of the 24 participants. Video interviews provided greater insight into participants’ perceptions and expectations. Additionally, research questions targeted course and assignment design, course outcomes, and assessment practices. Data findings suggest that despite access …

Community, Identity, And Transition: Student Veterans And Academic Writing At The Two-Year College, Mark Edward Blaauw-Hara

English Theses & Dissertations

Higher education is experiencing an almost unprecedented influx of student veterans. However, research is sparse on their transition to college, and, in particular, their experiences with college writing. Additionally, current scholarship focuses mainly on veterans at four-year schools. This dissertation describes six student veterans’ transitions to academic writing at the community college. Based on a case-study approach, the study seeks to identify key themes in student veterans’ experiences with learning and writing in the military and compare them to their experiences learning and writing in college. In addition to locating areas of disconnect, the study highlights typical strengths student veterans …

Strategy Use Of Russian Pre-Service Tefl University Students: Using A Strategy Inventory For Program Effectiveness Evaluation, Alla Zareva, Anna Fomina

English Faculty Publications

The focus of the present study is on identifying categories of learning strategies that are mostly used by Russian university students in an English Linguistics Program with a TEFL concentration. The more specific goal of the study is to offer a model of evaluation of the effectiveness of TEFL-oriented programs in terms of the language learning strategies their students use and recognize as pedagogically applicable to their EFL environment. To this end, two groups of students were compared on their self-reported frequency of strategy use -- 1st year students (n = 23), who had just entered the program, and 4th …

Choosing My Best Thing: Black Motherhood And Academia, Kaavonia Hinton-Johnson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Scholars argue that White feminist theoretical undertakings concerning mothering are not appropriate for studying Black mothers because they rarely take race and culture into consideration (Collins, 1991; Joseph, 1991). Collins (1994) argues that the experiences of Black mothers are paramount to any inclusive discussion about mother/child relationships. Scholars who have turned their attention to the Black mother often do so via literary works and/or criticism (see, for example, Crews, 1996; Morrison, 1987; Wade-Gayles, 1984; Washington, 1990; Williams, 1986) or in reality (Collins, 1991, 1994; Roberts, 1997a). However, a computerized search for studies on the Black mother produces literature …

Perceptions Of Virginia Community College System Faculty And Administrators On The Purposes For And Composition Of A Comprehensive Evaluation System For Teaching Faculty Members, William H. Hightower Jr.

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

A survey instrument was developed to measure community college faculty and administrator views on the faculty evaluation process. Responses were then compared based on demographic characteristics such as primary area of instruction, supervisory responsibility, years of experience, and gender. Open-ended survey questions asked respondents to identify the strengths, limitations and changes needed for their current faculty evaluation plans.

A total of 404 faculty members and 67 administrators completed the survey. Significant differences were found between faculty and administrator responses with respect to the reasons for conducting faculty evaluations, the relative importance of including certain elements in the evaluation process, and …

A Utilization-Focused Evaluation Of A Community College Adjunct Faculty Professional Development Program, Gordon Edenfield

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Nationally adjunct faculty comprise almost 70% of all two-year institution faculty while in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) adjunct faculty teach 60% of the community college courses, and should past trends continue, the number of adjunct faculty members is expected to grow 10% within the next fifteen years (Caliber, 2007; Phillipe & Sullivan, 2005). Research conducted regarding adjunct faculty in the community colleges (Gappa & Leslie, 1993; Rouche et al., 1995) has tended to focus on descriptive characteristics and attitudes of adjunct faculty (Valadez & Anthony, 2001) and on quality of life issues (Rhoades, 1996). While these national studies …

Adjunct Faculty Organizational Sense Of Belonging And Affective Organizational Commitment, Constance L. Merriman

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

In recent years all public higher education institutions have increased their reliance on adjunct faculty. Adjuncts provide expertise in key areas, are available at times that meet the needs of the changing student demographic, and cover an increasing number of introductory courses. It has been suggested that adjunct faculty may be more weakly linked to their students, colleagues, and institution. This may, in turn, be detrimental to the organizational health of the institution. Prior research has indicated that adjunct faculty have different motivations and expectations from teaching that impact the connections they form in the higher education workplace. This study …

The Impact Of On-Line Training On College Faculty Attitudes And Knowledge Of Students With Disabilities, Wayne M. Pollock

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Due to legislation, advances in technology, and hopefully, a more positive social acceptance, students with disabilities are entering college at a faster rate than has ever been experienced. Data reveal that the largest increase in identified disabilities of incoming college freshmen are in the area of learning disabilities. However, many students with disabilities do not complete their college education, partly due to faculty members' lack of knowledge about various disabilities, less than accepting attitudes, and the lack of accommodations made for them. Using the Scale of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons (SADP) and the Disability Knowledge Questionnaire, the impact of an …

Bringing "Abnormal" Discourse Into The Classroom, Virginia M. Tucker

English Faculty Publications

Assuming student discourse is prone to error, teachers have long implemented rules that ensure "safe" discourse, particularly in composition instruction. My fifth grade teacher taught me to place a comma in a sentence whenever I take a breath rather than teaching me the language of comma rules. To my dismay, many of my first-year composition students raise their hands in agreement that they too have been taught to place a comma wherever their lungs suggest. These students learn to call independent clauses a complete sentence, and to them an ellipsis is merely “dot, dot, dot.” In an attempt to reach …

Angela Johnson: Award-Winning Novels And The Search For Self, Kaavonia M. Hinton-Johnson, Angela Johnson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

It was over a decade ago when Rudine Sims Bishop (1992) prophetically dubbed Angela Johnson as possibly one of "the most prominent AfricanAmerican literary artists of the next generation" (616). At the time she had four picture books to her credit, but the following year she would publish her debut young adult novel, Toning the Sweep. From there, a number of other award-winners would follow and the total of young adult books would increase to eleven and counting. To date, Johnson has three Coretta Scott King Awards, a Michael L. Printz award, and the "Genius Grant" on her list of …

Implementation Of Problem-Based Learning In Senior Engineering Design-I (Ece 485w), Fawaz Muzaffer Hussain

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Problem-Based Learning is an approach where knowledge is acquired in the context of the problem. Students are provided with the problem specifications and resources that might prove to be helpful in solving the problem. They attack these real world problems in groups, analogous to the practice in the professional engineering world. This mode of teaching was adopted to deliver the Senior Engineering Design — I course (ECE 485W), offered to freshman engineering undergraduate students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Old Dominion University, Norfolk. This thesis documents the various pedagogical methods implemented into the course, which were introduced …

Urban University Adjunct Faculty Perceptions Of Professional Development Needs, Merodie Anne Hancock

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to determine Old Dominion University adjunct faculty members' perceptions of their professional development needs. A three-round Delphi technique was employed as the primary research tool. An initial stratified sample of 120 current adjunct faculty members was selected by college associate deans. The research was conducted with 57 adjunct faculty members completing all three rounds of the study.

The first research question was to ascertain Old Dominion University adjunct faculty members' perceptions of their professional development needs toward teaching for an urban university. Sixteen development needs were derived representing all of the inputs from respondents. …

Grading Teaching: An Evaluation Of Teaching Techniques Used By California Community College Introduction To Sociology Instructors, Lynette Ann Osborne-Estes

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Research on teaching techniques used in higher education report that instructors who use a mixed repertoire of styles promote optimal student learning. However, previous research also indicates that many college professors continue to use the less effective traditional lecture instead of implementing more student-centered methods of instruction. This thesis investigates two general research questions. (1) To what extent do community college instructors utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to promote optimal student learning? (2) What factors, if any, increase the probability of an instructor using the teaching techniques that promote optimal student learning? In order to address these questions …

Teaching Literature In The 1990'S: Meeting The Challenge, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

English teachers are currently beset by a variety of political forces vying for their attention. Education has become big news again for the first time since October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union inaugurated the Space Age by launching Sputnik, the first man-made satellite. In 1957, astonished at the Russians' success, Americans panicked and decided that their math science, and foreign language training was inadequate. Recent survey~ showing the superiority of Japanese and European students over American students have provoked serious concern about the quality of education going on in American public schools and in our colleges and universities. The …

An Exploratory Study Of Research Utilization By Virginia Nurse Educators, Evelyn M. Clingerman

Ellmer School of Nursing Theses & Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: to explore research utilization by three groups of Virginia nursing educators; and to determine if differences in stages of diffusion existed between nurse educators working in hospital diploma, associate degree and baccalaureate degree settings within the Commonwealth of Virginia. A stratified random sample included 28 hospital diploma, 41 associate degree and 37 baccalaureate degree nurse educators from the Commonwealth of Virginia, who completed the Nurse Educator Questionnaire (NEQ). Two free-response questions were used to identify factors which the nurse educators perceived as inhibitors and facilitators to research utilization. The results of a two-step mailed …

A Survey Of Burnout Among Dental Hygiene Educators, Sandra Boggs Ricks

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

A survey was conducted on 159 full-time dental hygiene educators in order to collect data on job satisfaction, morale, and perceived institutional/program effectiveness. Educators were chosen for the study by cluster sampling from two- and four-year accredited dental hygiene programs in the United States. The programs were selected at random from stratified groups according to type of institutional setting. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire which contained four major sections: demographic data, job satisfaction, institutional/program effectiveness, and feelings related to their position. Findings were analyzed utilizing contingency tables and Chi-Square analysis. No attempt was made to establish a cause …