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This three-paper dissertation examines the curriculum for a Language and Cultural Exchange (LACE) course from three different perspectives through a lens of Transformative Learning (TL). The first paper, found in chapter 2, is a design case chronicling the design decisions that were made in the process of transforming a LACE course from a face-to-face learning environment to an online learning environment. The second paper considers how to measure TL and applies a rubric for TL to student work across an entire semester. The final paper dives deep into one particular activity, related to academic integrity, to evaluate if small interventions, intentionally designed, can lead to TL through attitudinal change. When considered together, all three papers point to the possibility of measuring TL, the effectiveness of small educational interventions that are easy to implement in a classroom, and several key questions instructional designers should address when they are designing for TL. <br>

<p>The Elon Research Seminar, <i>Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer</i>, was a coalition of rhetoric and composition scholars’ attempt at codifying writing transfer knowledge for teaching and research purposes. Although the seminar was an important leap in transfer research, many ‘behind the scenes’ decisions of writing transfer, often those not involving the writing program, go unnoticed, yet play a pivotal role in how writing programs encourage and reproduce writing transfer in the classroom. This dissertation study, inspired by a pilot study conducted in Fall 2018 on writing across the curriculum programs and their role in writing transfer, illustrates how an institution’s context systems (e.g., macrosystem, mesosystem, microsystem, etc.) affect writing programs’ processes—i.e., curriculum components, assessment, and administrative structure and budget—and vice versa. Using Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ (2006) bioecological model, I show how writing programs and their context systems interact to reproduce writing transfer practices. Through ten interviews with writing program administrators at state comprehensive universities, I delineate specific actions that each writing program could take to encourage writing transfer. I develop a list of roles and responsibilities a university’s context systems play in advocating writing transfer practices. The results of the study show that research beyond the writing classroom and students is necessary to understand how writing transfer opportunities arise in university cultures of writing.</p>

Speculative realism/historical fantasy are labels coined by Stanford University’s Ramon Saldivar. Saldivar describes this genre as “a way of documenting things that have happened, or could happen” (the realist component), but warping realism into science fiction and fantasy, blending and bending the genres (Dickason). In his 2013 article “The Second Elevation of the Novel: Race, Form and the Postrace Aesthetic in Contemporary Narrative,” Ramon Saldivar brings an interesting perspective to how a new generation of authors have taken this genre and exposed utopia as fraud. He argues that as many writers (often members of minorities) seek to challenge the status quo and explore new territories with their prose, a new genre has been born from the utopian and dystopian schools- the genre he coins “speculative realism.” Implicit in his labelling of a new genre is the assumption that existing genres (created and nurtured by the dominant groups in society) are inadequate vehicles for the sort of work these authors seek to do, and in order to make their unique contributions, they have had to become pioneers in the field. Specifically, these authors have focused on utopian and dystopian worlds and have exposed the ruling class ideology hidden in the resolution. This new genre provides perfect material from which to draw texts that encourage students to grapple with the difficult concepts of how society should be organized, and what means might be required to achieve it. This project was developed with high school pedagogical practice in the forefront, therefore texts are chosen based on genre, grade level/interest, and thematic/ideological content. Within each group, the texts are chosen to highlight the deliberate indoctrination present within the current curriculum, and through comparison demonstrate how substituting speculative realist and historical fantasy for dystopian and historical fiction novels both educates and empowers students. In the dystopian genre, the commonly taught Lord of the Flies by William Golding is compared and contrasted with Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series. To explore novels based on history, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is contrasted with the historical fantasy The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

<p>Performing autoethnographic explorations as curriculum development strategies, and using autoethnographic modes (e.g., storytelling) as curriculum, may provide queer multicultural social justice education curriculum workers, and explorers, with opportunities to explore their own multicultural identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, exceptionality, religion, sexual orientation, and gender), how their identities may intersect with curriculum development, and their stories alongside those of others. In Part One, I tell three (hi)stories highlighting how multicultural education, queer theory, and autoethnography support the practice of identity awareness (of self and others). In Part Two, I share nine explorations developed for this project, along with my performances and reflections of each exploration, which include how <i>performing </i>the explorations impacted their development. Finally, in Part Three, I apply these ideas to my practice of becoming a queer educator. I reflect on some of the tensions I wrestled with, on being aware of myself as a teacher and a student <i>simultaneously</i>, and on my use of language and curriculum development practices. In sum, I advocate for queering autoethnography and using it for curriculum development—thus, simultaneously queering the act of curriculum development—for the purposes of developing identity awareness (of self and others) and of honing queer multicultural social justice education curriculum development practices. During your engagement with this text, I invite the reader to reflect on these practices, perform the explorations, and ponder how these explorations may impact your curriculum development practices. <i>I also encourage you to share your stories.</i> </p>

<div> <div> <div> <p>In today’s global environment, agricultural students need the skills to thrive among a workforce made up of individuals with diverse experiences and perspectives. One promising way to prepare students is through the development of intercultural competence (IC). This thesis addresses several different methods of developing IC in undergraduate students. Chapter 2 addresses incorporation of intercultural interventions into a short-term study abroad program coupled with and a follow-up semester-long on-campus companion course to specifically target empathy development. The study found that overall students did not increase significantly on the IDI, but did show positive growth in empathy development throughout the semester. Chapter 3 describes differences in IC of students completing intercultural learning (ICL) assignments throughout a face-to-face introductory animal agriculture course compared with students not completing ICL assignments. The intervention group showed significant increase according to the IDI and increased on average 9.46 points. In addition, the intervention group increased significantly more than the control group (87.54 ± 2.09 vs. 94.76 ± 1.67) (p <0.004; df=1; f=13.23). </p> <p>Studies described in Chapter 4 build on those of methods followed a similar approach to the methods discussed in Chapter 3 but examine the impact of including reflection based ICL assignments using global animal agriculture as a medium. Notably, the course also occurred in an emergency remote learning setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the study discussed in Chapter 4 showed that the intervention group increased significantly more than the control group (86.75 ± 2.11 vs. 95.29 ± 2.35; p < 0.004). In addition, the intervention group also showed positive results in developing the specific skill of empathy throughout the semester. </p> <p>The last study discussed in this thesis (Chapter 5) details the process of creating and validating a scale to specifically measure the competence levels in level of undergraduates’ essential skills in undergraduates. Cronbach’s alpha was reported for each skillset that was being evaluated and deemed acceptable.</p></div></div></div><div><div><div> <p>Each of the studies discussed was designed to fill gaps in the literature regarding skill development in animal science undergraduate students. The development of such skills, and IC in particular, is necessary for all students whether they pursue careers with as possible the opportunity to develop these skills, not just those who participate in international elements. As such, developing validate means to provide students opportunities to hone such skills is necessary to student future success. Toward this end, the studies described here seek to measure the efficacy embedding intercultural learning into undergraduate agricultural curriculum at providing such opportunities. </p> </div> </div> </div>

<p>  </p> <p>Widely recognized as bridging graduate coursework and independent research, doctoral examinations also (re)-produce disciplinary norms and map trajectories for graduate student professionalization. This institutional ethnography investigates doctoral exam processes as a component of curricular infrastructure, a term that I describe in functional, relational, temporal, and heuristic terms. This study begins with a discipline-wide survey (Chapter 3) reaching 81 PhD programs in Rhetoric and Composition, building on previous programmatic research in the field to identify constellations of exam formats and their stated purposes. From this broad view, institutional ethnography re-orients analysis by focusing on the standpoints of individual stakeholders (graduate students and faculty) and the ways that work processes point toward broader structural tendencies and assumptions.  From the survey, individual perspectives through interviews with faculty at nine different universities (Chapter 4) and a large focus group with graduate students (Chapter 5) to identify work practices and the institutional and disciplinary factors that direct them. This project yields an empirically grounded description of current graduate pedagogical practices, and through those practices, describes several contours of curricular infrastructure. Temporal boundary objects describe how the meaning and significance of an experience like a doctoral exam can change across time, yielding insight into how curricular practices transfer from one intuition to another. Institutional inertia appears as common iteration of curricular infrastructure, representing the tendency of intuitions to self-replicate and resist change, and nonverbal visually embodied actions serve as a key to understanding communication about institutions that avoids talking about institutions. The project culminates in Chapter 6 with a three-part heuristic, described as an aspect of curricular infrastructure, designed as a resource to faculty and administrators who are in decision-making positions with respect to doctoral exams.  </p>

<p>This qualitative study was conducted to understand the instructional strategies used by high school integrated STEM (iSTEM) teachers to apply real-world problem solving in their classrooms in the state of Indiana. The problem addressed by this study was the need to understand the instructional strategies employed by iSTEM teachers in their classrooms. Using a basic qualitative approach, data was collected through teacher interviews, classroom observations, and documents. The thematic analysis revealed several themes: (a) there is no single instructional strategy, but teachers adapt their strategies to the context, (b) the importance of preparation using various sources and building on student’s prior knowledge, (c) a focus on asking "why" questions as a priority, (d) the necessity of making group work tangible, (e) the use of modeling as a common strategy, including data collection and analysis, sketching and documentation, (f) the promotion of student independence by being aware and performing tasks independently, (g) the integration of real-world issues to relate learning to student lives, and (h) the challenges posed by time and diversity of student abilities. These findings suggest that iSTEM teachers should be flexible in their approach and emphasize preparation, questioning, modeling, group work, and real-world connections to improve student learning in an integrated STEM approach. The findings contribute to the existing literature on iSTEM teaching and have implications for iSTEM teachers, school administrators, and policymakers. The findings of this study can inform professional development programs for iSTEM teachers and can help school administrators design collaborative and problem-solving learning environments. Lastly, policymakers can use the findings to develop policies that promote the integration of real-world problem-solving into STEM education, thereby contributing to the development of a workforce that is prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.</p>

<p>Cultivating cross-disciplinary understanding across science and engineering instruction will be essential to preparing the next generation of scientists to prosper in an increasingly interdisciplinary STEM workforce. This study reports on the culmination of a project that has been aimed at addressing this challenge by investigating how science and engineering students use the first law of thermodynamics, a guiding principle of the crosscutting concept of energy and matter, to transfer across disciplinary boundaries. A qualitative interview study was undertaken in which chemistry-, engineering-, and physics-major students were recruited and tasked with addressing familiar and unfamiliar first law problems that incorporated the systems, language, and notation of each respective discipline. Guided by the dynamic transfer framework, data were analyzed via a general inductive approach to categorize the contextual resources, or target tools, students leveraged to address the provided problems. This analysis revealed three unique guiding epistemologies whose frequency and character of emergence signify field-specific approaches to transferring into an unfamiliar disciplinary context. Connections are drawn to highlight the capacity of the derived findings and developed methodology to support cross-disciplinary understanding in the classroom and in future transfer of learning research.</p>

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation explores the integration of Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) into formal K-12 curriculum through a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach. The overarching purpose is to develop a NGSS-aligned quantum-infused science curriculum unit for middle school students, aiming to enhance student understanding and engagement in quantum randomness. The study emphasizes the sequential introduction of concepts (from radioactive decay to quantum computing), interdisciplinary inquiry-based learning, and alignment of content and assessment strategies by leveraging Learning Progressions (LPs) and Hypothetical Learning Trajectories (LTs). Methods employed in this DBR study included iterative design processes, teacher feedback, and teaching experiments with 10 participant in-service middle school science teachers as well as quantitative assessment and evaluation of students’ learning and engagement data. Also, it is aimed to focus on professional development for teachers, incorporating NGSS and the Framework as the foundational guidelines. Findings highlighted the importance of teacher feedback in refining educational strategies, the challenges of teaching advanced quantum concepts at the middle school level, and the benefits of using classical physics as a gateway to introduce quantum concepts. This study is also manifestation of a structured teaching-learning pathway, guided by validation and hypothetical LPs, to support students' progression of understanding towards more sophisticated knowledge in QISE. Implications included the potential for enhancing coordination and sequencing of QISE teaching at the K-12 level, contributing to the cultivation of a diverse and quantum-savvy workforce. This DBR study hoped to set a foundation for future research endeavors, emphasizing the need for comprehensive teacher training in K-12 QISE education and the transformative power of education in fostering deeper comprehension and engagement with complex subjects.</p>