DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / See the attached abstract below

<div>Previous studies indicated that calculus courses are considered `weed-out' courses as a lot of students in STEM majors struggle to pass. Instructors and researchers explored various instructional methods to facilitate calculus learning, however, more tailored instructional strategies are still needed. Inventing Contrasting Case is a strategy that has been proven effective in transfer, yet, its effect when combined with the motivational factor and across various content areas should be investigated further. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between participants' motivation, instruction condition, and the performance on the direct application and transfer problems using Calculus 1 content. The data was collected from undergraduate students in STEM majors at a Midwestern university who were required to complete a Calculus 1 course to attain their degree. Eighty-one students participated for the study. Participants were assigned to either the iCalCulus (iCC) group or the Tell and Practice (TP) group. The study consisted of two separate sessions. In Session 1, participants were provided with a motivation survey, calculus course experience survey, pre-requisite knowledge check test, ICC task or TP task, and post-test. Seven days later, participants took a delayed post-test (Sesson 2). Google Forms was used to create study materials. The results from Bayesian independent sample t-test analyses indicated that the iCC group did not outperform the TP group in direct application problems. In addition, the iCC group did not outperform the TP group in PFL problems in either test. However, the ICC group outperformed the TP group in the further PFL problems from the delayed post-test (BF01 = .096, p = .003). The results from Bayesian one-way ANCOVA analyses indicated that there was the moderate idence that supports the effect of group condition on direct application, Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) performance from the post-test, while controlling for the average pre-requisite knowledge check test score and motivational level. The results also indicated that there was from moderate to strong evidence to support that group condition had an eect on PFL performance from the delayed post-test (Session 2), and the further PFL performance from both post-test and delayed post-test while controlling for the average pre-requisite knowledge check test score. In addition, motivational level was shown to not be an effective moderator between instructional condition and performance in PFL problems. The results from GLM repeated measure analyses showed the ICC strategy had a more significant effect on the participants regarding PFL performance and further PFL performance over time as there was a significant cross-over interaction effect between the time and the instruction condition (p = .012, <b>η_p²= .</b>08 for PFL performance and p = .003, <b>η_p²</b> = .11 for further PFL performance). The direction for potential future studies is addressed in the conclusion section including the importance of developing curriculum to train students' transfer ability; and a new type of assessment to measure transfer is offered for consideration.</div>

Despite school leaders' attempts to implement technology designed to provide resources for parent and student use at home, many parents of at-risk children are reluctant to use the learning platforms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the meaning of human experiences as they related to parents' reluctance to using learning management systems (LMSs). Elements from Rogers's innovation diffusion theory, Davis's technology acceptance model, and Epstein's parent involvement model were combined for the study's conceptual framework. The research questions addressed the challenges parents encounter with learning platforms; parents' experiences with teachers and schools with regard to training, orientation, and using learning platforms; and parents' feelings about establishing a learning institute to support their LMS use. Six parent participants from a small suburban school district in Southeastern United States who self-disclosed that they used LMS less than 3 times per week and had a child that scored at the beginning level of the mandatory state test were purposefully selected for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed via Moustakas's modified van Kaam method, which uncovered 4 major themes. The findings indicated that parents avoided using LMSs for several reasons, which included parents' lack of knowledge regarding accessing and using LMSs, ineffective orientation practices, lack of technical support, and lack of support for training. This research contributes to the existing body of literature and advances social change by illuminating parents' challenges with implemented technology. School leaders may use the findings to devise strategic plans to facilitate training programs for parents.

This study originally pursues determining how widely diffused Iowa Communications Network (ICN) is as a technology of distance education. To be clear, the question to be answered is: How do representative adopters of the ICN feel about using this technology? Theoretically, positive opinions of these adopters regarding the ICN as a technology of distance learning are viewed as indicating that the technology is fairly diffused. The representative adopters in this study are selected from among experts and educational leaders. Further in the study, it is also sought to explore how distance education might progress in the future. A major point of departure for the study is that favorable opinions toward an innovation help influence its diffusion. Extensive information is thus provided regarding theories of opinion leadership from late 19th century to present. Three different lines of thought are identified among these theories: imitation and modeling, influence from mass media, and influence from the Internet. The study has used these theories to develop three research tools. Two of these tools are used to measure the diffusion of the ICN. The last one is used to make predictions about the future of distance education. The story of the ICN is closely related to what distance education might be like in the coming times. Distance-learning tools would of course grow increasingly advanced. But virtual education that became refined through using the ICN seems to hardly go through drastic change in the foreseeable future.

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Prior research has shown teachers’ attitudes, teachers’ preparation for using technology, and the availability of technology had significant positive associations with technology integration. However, research has shown that teachers do not fully utilize technology, they fail to implement it thoroughly due to a lack of time needed for planning the implementation of technology into the curriculum, and they do not have adequate training which contributes to underutilization of technology. Due to a lack of research from the teachers’ perspective of technology acceptance, the purpose of this study was to examine high school teachers’ acceptance and use of technology and determine the relationships between Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions and Privacy Concerns. To investigate the current status of adopting and implementing laptops in high schools, this study adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model with an addition of Privacy Concerns. The online survey was sent in the fall semester of 2018 to teachers who taught in a North Mississippi School District that has implemented a 1:1 initiative laptop program. A total of 121 high school teachers made up the population and sample in the study, and 112 teachers replied with a 92% return rate. Overall, this study found that Performance Expectancy and Social Influence had the highest mean score at 5.6 (agree), and Privacy Concerns had the lowest mean score 3.8 (neutral), on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 for ‘strongly disagree’ to 7 for ‘strongly agree.’ The average mean score for Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, and Privacy Concerns was 5 (somewhat agree), indicating that teachers perceived all 5 variables somewhat affect high school teachers’ intention to accept and use of technology. When analyzing whether Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, and Privacy Concerns predict high school teachers’ behavioral intention to accept technology, Effort Expectancy was the only variable that predicted teachers’ behavior intention to accept technology. The findings of this study will provide valuable information with the current status of adopting and implementing technology in the context of 1:1 initiative programs in high schools.

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of multimedia classrooms at East Tennessee State University regarding technologies in multimedia classrooms, students' learning achievements, instructors' instructional methods, and students' learning styles. Two surveys in multimedia classrooms and traditional classrooms were designed to measure and compare students' perceptions of multimedia classrooms. The VARK (Fleming, 2002b) learning style survey was used to calculate the students' learning styles. The research was conducted during spring semester, 2002. Participants in this study included 187 students in multimedia classrooms and 110 students in traditional classrooms at East Tennessee State University. The majority of students were from the School of Business and the College of Applied Science and Technology. The results of data analysis showed that there were no significant differences in students' perceptions of multimedia classrooms regarding technologies, learning achievements, and learning styles. However, there were significant differences in students' perceptions of multimedia classrooms regarding instructors' instructional methods. Students in multimedia classrooms had better perceptions of instructors' instructional methods than students in traditional classrooms. Furthermore, the majority of students in multimedia classrooms and traditional classrooms had positive attitudes towards multimedia classrooms. Several recommendations for future research, VARK learning styles, and administrators and policy makers at East Tennessee State University resulted from this study. A future study with a larger and more diverse population using both quantitative and qualitative methodology is recommended to further explore the effectiveness of multimedia classrooms in higher education. Reinforcement of training, technical support, and classroom maintenance are recommended to administrators and policy makers at East Tennessee State University in order to use multimedia classrooms more effectively.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship that exists between the reported implementation and integration of computer based technology into the middle schools of Tennessee and the achievement test scores of the middle school students in grades 6, 7, and 8. In January of 2004, 2005, and 2006 the Tennessee Department of Education implemented the EdTech Tennessee Online Technology Evaluation System (E-TOTE) Survey of technology implementation and integration to gather data from public schools. This survey was intended as a means of providing a measure of the status of technology to the federal government required under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Annually students in Tennessee take the state mandated Tennessee Comprehensive Achievement Program (TCAP) test. The reports of the test results are aggregated by school and by grade. This study investigated possible correlations between these 2 sets of data. The technology implementation and integration levels of the schools were analyzed to determine if there were any correlations between reported technology levels for the schools and the school-level TCAP achievement scores in reading and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Specific technology indicators that were examined included the level of technology integration, teaching and learning, educator preparation and development, administration and support services and infrastructure for technology, number of computers, network access, and capabilities and percentages of 8th grade technology literacy. The study population consisted of 154 middle schools in Tennessee that were comprised of grades 6, 7, and 8 for which school3 level Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program scores were available and who completed the E-TOTE survey in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The findings include: The correlations identified in this study indicate that there is a very small relationship between the implementation and integration of technology in Tennessee middle schools. The school-level TCAP scores were also found to be increasing for each year from 2004 through 2006 in reading and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Over the same period the number of computers in these schools are increasing, as is the level of technology implementation and integration as measured by the E-TOTE survey system.

This study evaluated the usability of two types of performance-support interfaces that were designed using informational and experiential approaches. The experiment sought to determine whether there is a relationship between usability and the informational and experiential approaches. The general population under study was undergraduate education major students from the University of Central Florida. From the general population of three educational technology instructor-led classes, 83 students were solicited to participate in the study by completing a class activity. From the general population, a total of 63 students participated in the study. By participating in the study, the students completed a task and a questionnaire. Students were predominantly English-speaking Caucasian female education majors between the ages of 19 and 20; most of them were sophomores or juniors working part time. They possessed moderately low to high computer skills and most considered themselves to have intermediate or expert Internet skills. An experimental posttest-only comparison group research design was used to test the hypotheses posited for this study. The participants were randomly assigned to either the informational interface group (X1) or the experiential interface group (X2), and the experiment was conducted electronically via a Web-based Content Management System (CMS). The observed data consisted of five outcome measures: efficiency, errors, intuitiveness, satisfaction, and student performance. Two instruments--a checklist and an online usability questionnaire--were used to measure the five dependent variables: efficiency, intuitiveness, errors, satisfaction, and student performance. The CMS was used as the vehicle to distribute and randomize the two interfaces, obtain informed consent, distribute the instructions, distribute the online questionnaire, and collect data. First, a checklist was used to assess the students' performance completing their task, which was a copyright issue request letter. The checklist was designed as a performance criterion tool for the researcher, instructor, and participants to use. The researcher and instructor constructed the checklist to grade copyright request letters and determine students' performance. The participants had the opportunity to use the checklist as a performance criterion to create the task document (copyright request letter). The checklist consisted of ten basic yet critical sections of a successful copyright request letter. Second, an online usability questionnaire was constructed based on the Purdue Usability Testing Questionnaire (PUTQ) questions to measure interface efficiency, intuitiveness, errors, and satisfaction. While these test items have been deemed important for testing the usability of a particular system, for purposes of this study, test items were modified, deleted, and added to ensure content validity. The new survey, University of Central Florida Usability Questionnaire (UCFUQ), consisting of 20 items, was implemented in a pilot study to ensure reliability and content validity. Changes to the PUTQ were modified to fulfill a blueprint. A pilot study of the instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of .9450, and the final online usability instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of .9321. This study tested two approaches to user interface design for the Electronic Performance Support (EPS) using two HTML interface templates and the information from an existing training module. There were two interventions consisting of two interface types: informational and experiential. The SPSS Graduate Pack 10.0 for Windows was used for data analysis and statistical reporting in this study. A t test was conducted to determine if a difference existed between the two interface means. ANOVA was conducted to determine if there was an interaction between the interface group means and the demographic data factored among the five dependent variables. Results of this study indicated that students at the University of Central Florida reported no differences between the two interface types. It was postulated that the informational interface would yield a higher mean score because of its implementation of HCI guidelines, conventions, and standards. However, it was concluded that the informational interface may not be a more usable interface. Users may be as inclined to use the experiential interface as the informational interface.