The purpose of this study was to determine the practical value of selecting upper primary spelling words from the developmental reading program. Two major aspects of the study were: (1) Will upper-primary children more easily learn to spell words which have previously appeared in their developmental reading program? (2) Will they retain the spelling or those words longer than other words of similar spelling difficulty?

This three-article dissertation examined the perceptions of school-based agricultural education teachers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama on self-efficacy and professional development activities since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first article was an examination of teacher self-efficacy in delivering instruction in three classroom settings: face-to-face, remote, and hybrid, which is a combination of face-to-face and remote simultaneous instruction. The second was a descriptive study of teacher experiences and perceptions of professional development activities related to instructional technology over the past two years. The third article examines the correlation between each of the teacher self-efficacy instructional setting constructs and perceptions of professional development experiences. The last chapter ties the three research articles together, concluding that teacher self-efficacy is stronger in face-to-face instruction and weakest in remote instruction. Key areas of low efficacy are in managing the hands-on components of an SBAE program, such as managing an agricultural mechanics laboratory and a greenhouse. When teachers receive follow-up and individual feedback from professional development leaders, higher self-efficacy is possible.

<p>Fluid power education would benefit from the adoption of an alternative to traditional hands-on instructional methods. Hands-on education is invaluable because it offers students experience interacting with and controlling fluid power systems and components, but systems are typically space-consuming and expensive. The study sought to prove the viability of mixed reality (MR) as an alternative to traditional hands-on fluid power instruction through the creation of MR lab exercises. A summary of design methodology was created to demonstrate how virtual fluid power components were modeled and presented in a mixed reality environment. Data was collected from students enrolled at Purdue University who participated in traditional and mixed reality fluid power lab exercises. Student responses were expected to express a positive reception of mixed reality as a fluid power instructional tool. The study anticipated that utilizing mixed reality in a fluid power laboratory setting would increase student comprehension of fluid power concepts. Educational variables were limited by restricting testing to students within the advanced fluid power course of Purdue University’s Polytechnic Institute. Students in this course provided feedback that drew comparisons between traditional and mixed reality instructional methods. Labs were created to remain within the course schedule so as not to disrupt course curriculum. Data from Likert-type surveys were analyzed from pre- and post-lab questionnaires as well as student feedback from their experience after completing each mixed reality (MR) lab. Analysis showed that MR is a viable alternative to traditional hands-on instructional methods as students showed an increase in material comprehension of both fluid power components and concepts. Students perceived MR as a beneficial instructional tool but continued to show preference towards physical interactions with components. A combination of instructional methods is recommended.</p> <p>  </p>

Economic projections reveal a need for one million more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professionals over the next decade than the United States is producing at the current rate. As a result, STEM education is a major focus of recent legislation and funding in Congress as the number of STEM professionals is inadequate to support innovation and the ever-changing economy. In response to the urgent need for more competitive STEM professionals, there has been a widespread implementation of workshops, organizations, and school programs aimed at amplifying K-12 student STEM literacy and interest. Some programs are even created to specifically reach and attract women and unrepresented minorities to STEM. Despite the increase in outreach programs, they remain limited to a straightforward discussion of a narrow scope of STEM topics. Many workshops and programs continue to validate the positive impacts of utilizing hands-on projects but cease to inform about broader STEM applications through the exploration and integration of storytelling, culture, and community. Professors and students from the Liberal Art and Engineering Studies program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo founded the Seeds in STEM organization to develop K-12 STEM workshops that incorporate a participants’ culture and community in the learning process per a storyline that guides the participants through several STEM activities. This paper discusses the impact of adding a workshop activity that introduces motion capture technologies and their application to the Seeds in STEM workshop held on April 30th, 2022. The results collected from the activity via three forms of assessment demonstrate generally positive trends in the attitudes of the participants regarding STEM topics and the careers encompassed by STEM.

Programming is a key skill in many domains outside computer science. When used judiciously, programming can empower people to accomplish what might be impossible or difficult with traditional methods. Unfortunately, students, especially non-CS majors, frequently have trouble while learning to program. This work reports on the challenges and opportunities faced by Physical Chemistry (PChem) students at Cal Poly, SLO as they learn to program in MATLAB. We assessed the PChem students through a multiple-choice concept inventory, as well as through “think-aloud” interviews. Additionally, we examined the students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards programming. We found that PChem students are adept at applying programming to a subset of problems, but their knowledge is fragile; like many intro CS students, they struggle to transfer their knowledge to different contexts and often express misconceptions about programming. However, they differ in that the PChem students are first and foremost Chemistry students, and so struggle to recognize appropriate applications of programming without scaffolding. Further, many students do not perceive themselves as competent general- purpose programmers. These factors combine to discourage students from applying programming to novel problems, even though it may be greatly beneficial to them. We leveraged this data to create a workshop with the goal of helping PChem students recognize their programming knowledge as a tool that they can apply to various contexts. This thesis presents a framework for addressing challenges and providing opportunities in domain-specific CS education.

Each year, there is an increase of English Language Learners (ELLS) entering today's classrooms. A third grade teacher can be faced with having multiple ELLs in the classroom and still be required to teach them alongside native English speakers. Furthermore, third grade science teachers are also responsible for preparing all students in the classroom to comprehend and utilize scientific academic language based upon the Florida State Standards. Additionally, students are required on the FSA Florida Assessment to write about science content. Therefore, scaffolded instruction for ELLs, which will prepare them to write about science content is critical. This research study explored two third grade teachers' perspectives on implementing sentence frames and word banks in order to increase the writing levels of ELLs during science lectures. A professional development session was conducted by the researcher with the two participating third grade teachers regarding the use of sentence frames and word banks with ELLs while teaching science content. The teachers, thereafter, conducted a science lesson using the scaffolded strategy of sentence frames and word banks. It was found that when the third grade science teachers implemented sentence frames and word banks during science lectures, the ELLs showed improvement in their writing as well as their use of scientific academic language. Both teachers stated that their ELLs were somewhat completing more of their science worksheets than before the intervention. These results can conclude that implementing sentence frames and word banks during science lectures can increase the writing levels of ELLs during science lectures.

Since the mid-19th century, agricultural museums and living history sites, first in Scandinavia and then in the United States and Canada, have provided historical, cultural, and, sometimes, scientific information about farming to visitors. Many of these visitors have been school children on field trips. Assessment of this learning, however, has been scant, particularly within the free-choice style inherent in these types of educational venues. At the same time, assessment of free-choice learning, often analyzed through the Contextual Model of Learning (Falk & Dierking 2000), has taken place at educational sites like zoos, natural history museums, and science centers. This study, conducted in January of 2022 at a middle school in northern Indiana applied a two-group, mixed methods approach that analyzed knowledge gain and student attitudes about free-choice learning in an agricultural history unit. Both groups learned through traditional classroom methods of lecture, visuals, and an activity, while the treatment group participated in a virtual field trip to an agricultural museum but with a virtual component because of COVID-19 restrictions. Results demonstrated that, while the comparison group and treatment group scores between pre-testing and post-testing improved significantly, there was no statistically meaningful difference between groups. In addition, there were no meaningful differences in attitudes regarding the unit between the groups. Correlations between test scores and the questionnaire of student attitudes revealed few differences, the most significant being a significant negative correlation between feedback and scores in the comparison group. Qualitative questionnaire prompts answered by both groups and select interviews with treatment group participants were used to help explain the quantitative results. These explanations focused on a lack of novelty involved with virtual field trips for younger, technologically astute students, and, consequently, less emotionally connected and less motivated learners.

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological case study was to investigate the change in the attitudes of teachers pre and post implementation of a trauma-informed school initiative in a school in the Eastern Grand Region of Tennessee. As adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have become more recognizable in school age children by teachers and school staff members due to an increase in knowledge about ACEs, there has been an increase in the number of trauma-informed initiatives undertaken by schools across the United States. Due to the challenges associated with the implementation of trauma-informed initiatives in schools, it is important for administrators to have knowledge of the areas that need to be focused on the most to help the initiative be more successful. The attitudes of the school staff members offer a unique glimpse into the initiative's strength. The researcher used a qualitative methodology of individual teacher interviews, focus group interviews, and examination of school attendance and discipline to contribute to the study's results. The data from the interviews were coded and analyzed, and the results revealed common themes that emerged. Regarding Research Question 1, one theme that emerged was teachers have been adequately trained. A second theme that emerged regarding Question 1 was more training needed in the future. With reference to Research Question 2, a theme that emerged was growth in acceptance of the initiative. Secondarily, the belief that additional work still needs to be done 3 to bring apprehensive staff on board with the initiative was another theme from Question 2. Regarding Research Question 3, making better use of the reset room and other resources that are available to the staff was a primary theme. A separate theme of needing to provide the staff with additional tools to use with the students emerged as well from Question 3. This study supplied the field with additional information by providing specific information about teacher perceptions on trauma-informed practices and barriers to teacher commitment in a school that is a few years into the implementation process and contributed additional knowledge of barriers to teacher commitment of trauma-informed approaches in schools.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to further the understanding on how access to trauma-informed professional learning changed research-based practices in classroom and school-wide settings in K-12 schools. The guiding question for this quantitative study was: How has trauma-informed professional learning influenced changes in research-based practices in school-wide and classroom settings in K-12 schools? This research assessed the perceptions of elementary, middle, and high school teachers in one school district to investigate access to trauma-informed professional learning and potential changes in research-based practices in school-wide and classroom settings. Participants were teachers, in Northeast Tennessee, employed in urban schools implementing trauma-informed practices. Six research questions guided the study and quantitative data were analyzed using one-sample t-tests. Additionally, this researcher analyzed themes gleaned from the four-open ended questions at the end of the survey. The findings indicated that the means of all measures were significantly higher than the midpoint in elementary, middle, and high schools. The findings also indicated that trauma-informed professional learning supports the development of school-wide and classroom research-based practices and application of trauma-informed strategies in K-12 schools.

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence (EI) theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for the concept of contemplative practices in an endeavor to support an eclectic understanding of cognition. Contemplative practices may benefit graduate student disposition and inform areas of educator preparation through the use of emotional adeptness in higher education. The purpose of this study was to: (a) develop a self-report measure: Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE); (b) address the issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE; and (c) expand the understanding of contemplative practices in the literature. Data collected from an extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale items. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the factor model. Analyses resulted in a 30-item factor model with strong reliabilities.