<p>  </p> <p>The pandemic disrupted and challenged higher education institutions across the United States to find an effective and feasible solution to deliver instruction without impacting students’ social interaction and performance. HyFlex model, which blends the best of the two modes of instruction namely, face-to-face, and online instruction, emerged as an effective solution during the pandemic and proved that it has the potential to stay relevant even in the post-pandemic world. The purpose of this study was to examine if the attendance patterns of students during group work in a HyFlex classroom affect their group performance. Evidence from literature studies on HyFlex has focused their investigation on understanding how attendance patterns affect students’ <em>individual </em>performance while there are limited studies that have looked into <em>group</em> performance. The guiding theory behind this study is social constructivism. The research question investigated the relationship between the extent to which teammates were remote and the group’s assignment grades. This study used a sample of 645 students enrolled in first-year undergraduate course which involved working on two significant group projects at a Midwestern university during Fall of 2021. There were 168 and 146 project groups across 18 sections of the course. Data were analyzed using the non-experimental Pearson correlational design method, where the two continuous variables included <em>group remoteness</em> (number of times students participated remotely in a group) and <em>group performance</em> (points received in group assignments for each project). The results of the study indicated a slightly negative correlation that was not statistically significant between group remoteness and group grade for Project 2 (r = -.068, p= .38) and Project 3 (r= -.095, p= 0.25). Even though the results were non-significant the negative correlation hints that the remote participation might affect the group grades. Based on the weak correlation between student participation and group grades, we can recommend that the Hyflex model can be adopted in the future for courses that involve working in groups even in the post-pandemic period.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Developing students' global awareness and competencies is crucial in our increasingly interconnected world. This qualitative case study explored what influences social studies teachers' curricular decisions regarding incorporating global topics into their classrooms. The study focused specifically on five high school teachers in Indiana, USA who identified as interested in global education. Data collection involved individual semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Interviews provided insights into teachers' purposes, goals, barriers, and decision-making regarding global curriculum integration. Observations and teaching artifacts offered direct evidence of classroom practices. Data was coded using a flexible inductive-deductive approach incorporating both data-driven and theory-driven codes.</p><p dir="ltr">Key findings were that teachers' own global experiences and mindsets strongly shaped their desire to develop students' global perspectives, despite facing external constraints like standardized curriculum and testing requirements. Teachers were driven by aims to expand students' worldviews, foster cultural appreciation, build skills for an interdependent world, and ignite passion for lifelong global learning. However, restrictive standards, content sequencing, and time limitations posed challenges. Still, internally driven<del> </del>teachers leveraged their agency as curricular gatekeepers to creatively infuse global topics through discussions, activities, and resources aligned with mandated outcomes. The study highlights the importance of developing internal global orientations in teachers while allowing curricular flexibility for meaningful global education. Findings inform efforts in teacher training, hiring, and professional development to support global citizenship teaching within systemic bounds.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The interactive computer-generated simulation, virtual reality (VR), is growing as an educational and training tool. The primary objective of this research is to explore the effectiveness of VR in teaching in-flight engine failures to beginner flight students, with the intention of integrating it for Purdue University’s curriculum. The methodology for this study is a quantitative descriptive data analysis method. Participant progression and test scores were monitored and translated to statistical data to represent the findings. From the nationwide Flight Academy program, 30 Purdue University JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps) and ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) cadets with little to no flight experience were selected to participate. The population flew a C172S at Purdue Aviation through the Flight Academy program and were tested on in-flight engine failure knowledge to measure student comprehension. Experimental participants practiced in the TakeFlight Interactive flight training program in a virtual C172R and were able to interact and control the simulated aircraft with the use of the HP Reverb G2 head mount display (HMD), Logitech joystick, and Logitech rudder pedals. The statistical analysis revealed no significant difference in comprehension between the VR and control groups, challenging the initial hypothesis.</p>

<p>John, it is October, 2001. The U.S. has just occupied Afghanistan, and you’re happy about that, but you’re only twelve years old, too young to act on any nationalistic impulses. In your eighth grade yearbook at age fourteen, you’ll write in your third person biography that someday you hope to be an author and a U.S. Marine. When you’re nineteen, you’ll enlist in the Marines, and then join the occupation of Afghanistan at age twenty-one, from which you’ll return home safely. Now you’re twenty-three and you’re going back to school, mature enough to understand the complicit nature of your involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom. By the time you reach grad school at age twenty-seven, you’ll begin to feel a nagging guilt, and you’ll bear the full impact of this guilt by the time you turn thirty and begin writing your thesis. You’ll want to write a book reflecting your experience in a real-life war, describing what it was like to be there, and what it was like to be a part of something that people had forgotten about before you were even old enough to participate. Instead of reporting the facts, which you will do on many occasions throughout your book-length project entitled <i>The Militia House</i>, you’ll write about the experience as a haunting. John, if this manuscript reaches your hands in 2001 via some means of time travel, I want you to know that you’ll have accomplished your goals, but at a significant cost. Even though you will survive the war, you’ll leave a part of yourself in Afghanistan forever. But perhaps even worse, a piece of Afghanistan will come back with you to live inside of your body and your mind, and it will haunt you for the rest of your life.</p>

<div> <p>For several decades, educators have used Howard Gardner’s (1983) Multiple Intelligences Theory in a variety of ways to make teaching and learning more effective. However, within flight instruction, little or no attention has been focused on the concept of Multiple Intelligences and their impacts on student learning and retention. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine if Certified Flight Instructors (CFI) who have been provided with information about Multiple Intelligences perceived a positive relationship between their new knowledge about Multiple Intelligences and their instructional effectiveness. The study used participant journals, focus groups, and individual interviews to determine if CFIs perceived Multiple Intelligences Theory to be valuable when applied to flight instruction. The results indicated that the participants believed Multiple Intelligences Theory added value to their flight instruction. Implications for practice and directions for future research are provided.</p> </div> <br>

<p>This novel began as a short story collection exploring aspects of blackness that dealt with homosexuality, family dynamics, violence, Christianity and societal constructs. The first draft was titled <i>Innerworkings</i>. My goal was to show how the actions or inactions of others can easily affect someone else’s life by focusing on each character individually before their story intertwined without another’s. This current thesis manuscript steams from my experience of talking to family members and peers, each with a different option about how the topics stated should be handled. Most of the conversations left me with more questions and feelings of guilt or questioning what my life looks like vs what it should look like. With the current thesis manuscript, I strive to find a way to bring up a new way to handle discussions where spiritually and unspiritual topics can be handled respectfully. </p> <p> </p> <p>Reading Jesmyn Ward’s <i>Sing, Unburied Sing</i> and <i>Salvage the Bones</i> allowed me to see how a story could play out when each character is given their individual spotlight while also giving the reader insight to how they view the other characters. The work here is also influenced by Tomi Adeyemi’s novel <i>Children of Blood and Bone </i>and Marlon James’s <i>Black Leopard, Red Wolf</i> that showcased how important maps and character charts were in helping the readers understand the world and plot by giving them insight before they cracked open the first chapter. With time, I hope to be able to integrate maps and family tree dynamics into the novel so that The Community can be properly showcased as a character and its changes over time. </p>

Kelsey Wort's Masters thesis

<p>  </p> <p>Students from rural communities undertake postsecondary education at rates lower than their counterparts from urban and suburban communities, and mathematics is a known gatekeeper along the pipeline toward a college degree. This study investigated the mathematics identity formation of students from a rural school who were college-bound to determine what existing strengths a rural school could build from in providing students with experiences in school mathematics that align with a college-bound path. Data collected included individual interviews with college-bound students, their AP Calculus teacher, and their guidance counselor, group interviews with the students, and classroom observations conducted in the participants’ AP Calculus class. The findings are presented as three narratives, each corresponding to one of the participants in the study, that detail the processes by which they developed their mathematics identities and their paths toward college, as well as the convergences and divergences between the two. Common themes in the participants’ narratives include family, the agricultural and industrial base of the local rural community, grades, the social status attained by achievement in school mathematics, and the benefits of high-quality mathematics instruction. These findings indicate that mathematics served a largely instrumental purpose for the participants, but that this does not prevent them from appreciating and learning from a teacher who frequently used pedagogical techniques associated with reform mathematics. This further implies that students in rural schools would benefit from increased access to mathematics instruction informed by best practices, as well as a lowered focus on grades in school mathematics. </p>

<p> The limited numbers of women in advanced mathematics courses is a critical factor hindering women’s academic and professional access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Informal learning environments have the potential to play a significant role in promoting the participation of girls and women in mathematics/STEM fields. However, research that addresses the intersection of informal education, mathematics education, and women’s studies is minimal. Specifically, little is known about informal educators’ lived experiences in facilitating girls’ learning. Based on four years of working alongside Laura, the founder of Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) clubs, I conducted a narrative inquiry that explored our boundary crossing experiences as we engaged in a GEMS collaboration. The exploration focused on Laura’s narratives of her past, present, and future experiences that shape her identity as an informal educator. During the exploration of Laura’s experiences, I reflected on and inquired about my own personal and professional experiences across multiple contexts that inform my evolving identity as an educator. The theoretical framework of this study is informed by feminist theory and boundary-crossing perspectives. Feminist theory guides me to perceive our narrative of experiences from a women’s perspective while the boundary-crossing framework provides an analytic lens to understand our interpersonal and intrapersonal boundary crossing experiences. Because of the nature of the narrative inquiry, data were co-constructed between Laura and me in various forms: interviews, field notes, family stories, autobiographical writing, documents, conversations, emails, etc. I employed Polkinghorne’s (1995) <em>narrative analysis </em>and <em>analysis of narrative</em> approaches to analyze data. First, I utilized a <em>narrative analysis </em>approach to generate three holistic plots: (1) narratives of becoming female educators, (2) boundary-crossing collaboration in the midst of GEMS, and (3) conceptualizing mathematics across multiple contexts. An<em> analysis of narrative</em> approach was used to generate themes that unfold the meanings of stories, moments, and events and configure the plot. In the findings, I portrayed the three plots which allowed me to rediscover and reconstruct our personal practical knowledge across the contexts. Building on the findings, I discuss how female educators’ narratives of experiences inform their personal practical knowledge, which empowers girls’ and women’s personal and social experiences in mathematics/STEM. Laura and I cross multiple boundaries engaging in collaboration which provides an example of the boundary crossing collaboration between mathematics education and informal education. Based on the findings, I describe how informal learning STEM environments provide potential spaces to implement alternative curricula to humanize mathematics. Two evolving mathematics-related tasks illustrate our experiences of humanizing mathematics in GEMS. This study is situated at the intersection of mathematics education, informal education, and women’s studies, which significantly impacted Laura, myself, and GEMS, the context in which this study took place. This study provides an example of the possibilities of building boundary-crossing collaborations between the mathematics education community and the informal education community to empower girls and women in mathematics/STEM. Drawing on this dissertation study, one future research direction focuses on implementing and further developing humanized mathematics curricula in informal learning environments. Another research direction is using intersectional feminist theory to understand women’s differences regarding multiple social constructs (e.g., race, gender, class, ethnicity) to explicate the dimensions of inequality women face in mathematics/STEM. The study also suggests future practical work for mathematics education to foster alternative ways of conceptualizing mathematics regarding curriculum and approach. Mathematics educators could contribute to creating a learning community and providing professional development opportunities to support informal educators. </p>

<p dir="ltr">In response to the escalating demand for proficient programming skills in today's technological landscape, innovative educational strategies have emerged to mitigate the challenges inherent in mastering programming concepts. Contextualization, a pedagogical approach embedding learning within real-world contexts, has demonstrated efficacy in enhancing student engagement and understanding. However, its implementation in programming education encounters hurdles related to diverse student backgrounds and resource-intensive material preparation. To address these challenges, this paper proposes leveraging learnersourcing, a collaborative approach wherein students actively contribute to the creation of contextualized learning materials. Specifically, we investigate the viability of implementing a learnersourcing workflow in an advanced database programming class during the Spring semester of 2022 with a group of 23 students enrolled, where students are tasked with generating contextualized worked-out examples. The results reveal that students successfully incorporated diverse contexts into their WEs, demonstrating the potential of learnersourcing to enrich educational content. However, challenges such as vague problem descriptions and formatting errors were identified, emphasizing the need for structured support and guidance. Self-assessment ratings tended to overestimate clarity and educational value, while peer assessments exhibited variability among assessors. Ambiguities in evaluation criteria and limited granularity of rating scales contributed to inconsistencies in assessments. These findings underscore the importance of addressing challenges in learnersourcing implementation, including providing explicit guidance, scaffolding support, and integrating real-time feedback mechanisms. Additionally, efforts to enhance the reliability of self and peer assessments should consider standardization measures and clear evaluation criteria. Future research should explore alternative approaches to improve the validity and consistency of assessments in learnersourcing contexts.</p>