Recent literature suggests that communicative language tasks widely used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to try and improve Japanese students’ learning have had little effect on improving their language ability and their intrinsic motivation to improve. Consequently, a number of teachers are now using interactive technology in the classroom although it has not been systematically implemented or widely studied. Understanding the approaches of successful EFL teachers—specifically, how teachers using an andragogic approach through experiential learning might affect student engagement—was the purpose of this qualitative study. The conceptual framework focused on student-centered learning and included Knowles’s theory of andragogy and Kolb’s experiential learning. The perceptions of 10 EFL teachers chosen through purposeful sampling and who regularly used technology in the classroom were gauged through structured interviews, direct observations, and document analysis. Emergent themes were extracted from the data through interpretive analysis. Results supported the fact that andragogic-based tasks with technology increased student engagement in the Japanese EFL university classroom by directly improving interaction between students and by stimulating communication and autonomous learning. The outcome of the study was a professional development program that was designed to provide better teacher training on facilitating technology-based lessons that engage learners and improve their language skills. Positive social change will result from providing better teacher training that focuses on facilitating technology-based lessons that engage Japanese university learners’ full potential and improve their language skills in more meaningful ways.

In addition to the memorization, algorithmic skills and vocabulary which is the default focus in many mathematics classrooms, professional mathematicians are expected to creatively apply known techniques, construct new mathematical approaches and communicate with and about mathematics. We propose that students can learn these professional, higher level skills through Laboratory Experiences in Mathematical Biology (LEMBs) which put students in the role of mathematics researcher creating mathematics to describe and understand biological data. LEMBs are constructed so they require no specialized equipment and can easily be run in the context of a college math class. Students collect data and develop mathematical models to explain the data. In this work examine how LEMBs are designed with the student as the primary focus. We explain how well-designed LEMBs lead students to interact with mathematics at higher levels of cognition while building mathematical skills sought after in both academia and industry. Additionally, we describe the online repository created to assist in the teaching and further development of LEMBs. Since student-centered teaching is foreign to many post-secondary instructors, we provide research-based, pedagogical strategies to ensure student success while maintaining high levels of cognition.

Experts have argued that hoarding disorder occurs in part because hoarding behaviors help individuals avoid distress and feel positive emotions in the moment. For example, when people who hoard choose to save something rather than discard it, they may avoid feelings of anxiety, and when people who hoard acquire something new, they may feel excited. However, no previous studies have examined whether or not these changes actually occur in the moment. These processes could also potentially be altered by how individuals respond to their emotions in the moment. For example, individuals who hoard may have stronger emotional reactions, distinguish less between different emotions, tend to avoid their emotions more, or tend to be inattentive of their experience, which could change how their emotions in the moment affect their behavior. Therefore, this study examined whether or not the anticipated effects of hoarding behaviors on mood occurred, and whether or not there were differences between those with higher and lower hoarding scores on how they respond to their emotions, in a sample of 61 college students. Participants completed two online surveys one week apart, and responded to questions on their mobile phone throughout the week. As expected, the students with higher hoarding scores had stronger emotional reactions to stress, avoided their emotions more often, and were less attentive to their ongoing experience. Both those with higher hoarding scores and lower hoarding scores vi reported that they acquired new items primarily to feel good. However, acquiring, discarding, working with items, and looking for items did not change either group’s mood in the moment. Overall, these findings suggest that people who hoard do have differences in how they respond to their emotions, which could mean that treatments that target these responses may be useful for these people. They also show the importance of understanding why working to put yourself in a good mood through acquiring is problematic for some people and not others, and suggest that there may be a difference between how these behaviors are intended to perform and their actual results.

Michigan’s Food, Agriculture, and Resources in Motion (FARM) Science Lab is a 40-foot mobile classroom outfitted with 10 learning stations including scientific equipment and iPads. This quasi-experimental study analyzed preexisting data provided by Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom to evaluate the effectiveness of the FARM Science Lab mobile classroom as a method of teaching agriculture-themed, standards-based lessons to third- through fifth-grade students in order to increase their understanding of agriculture. From January through June 2018, more than 1,258 students participated in these lessons and completed the pretest and posttest and 72 teachers completed the post survey. Research questions not only addressed student learning but also teacher’s perceptions of the mobile classroom program and measured differences between rural, suburban and urban student populations. Four lessons were offered to students in third through fifth grade during the time of this study. Each lesson had a unique pretest and posttest provided to each school by Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom using Google Forms. Students and teachers participated in the agricultural lessons within existing classroom groups; therefore, this was not a random sample of either population. During the timeframe of this study, all sections of each grade level for each participating school were engaging in FARM Science Lab programming; therefore, no control groups were used in this research. The student and teacher data were analyzed using standard statistical tools including t-tests and Cohen’s d.Difficulty and item discrimination values provided more confidence in the reliability of the question as a measure of knowledge change after participation in the FARM Science Lab intervention. Results indicated there were statistically significant differences in knowledge between pretest and posttest scores for nearly all grade level/lesson groups. Each individual question was analyzed for statistically significant change in addition to overall test scores. Some questions did not see statistically significant changes from pretest to posttest for each group. These results suggested the FARM Science Lab was making a difference in students’ agricultural understanding, at a basic knowledge level, after a short intervention. The assessment questions tested the recall of facts rather than an understanding of a whole concept about science or agriculture. Teacher surveys indicated the FARM Science lab did address appropriate educational standards for their respective grade levels. Teachers also believed agriculture could be very effectively used to contextualize science concepts. The final research question addressed differences in rural, suburban and urban student gains from pretest to posttest. The FARM Science Lab did not visit any urban schools during the time of this study. Of the grade/lesson groups which did have a rural and suburban population to compare, there were some differences in scores between students’ responses in each geographic location. These populations were small therefore these differences may not be generalized to the larger population.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Simulation is an educational strategy used in prelicensure nursing education that has been demonstrated to effectively replace selected clinical experiences. Simulation experiences may include the use of differing roles including the active participant, who makes decisions during the simulation and the passive observer, who watches the simulation unfold. There is a lack of rigorous research testing whether students in the passive observer role during simulations demonstrate and retain knowledge similarly to those in active participant roles. In addition, differences in knowledge applied to a contextually similar case between those who actively participate and passively observe have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nursing student’s roles in simulation and cognitive knowledge demonstration, retention, and application about two contextually similar cases of respiratory distress. An experimental, pretest-multiple posttest, repeated measures study was conducted with a convenience sample of 119 baccalaureate prelicensure nursing students from a large multi-campus Southwestern university. Two knowledge instruments were administered throughout different stages of the simulation and four weeks later. Associations between role in simulation and scores on the knowledge instruments were examined using t-tests and mixed repeated measures-analysis of variance. Of the 59 active participants and 60 observers, there were no significant differences in knowledge demonstrated or retained after simulation, after debriefing, or four weeks later. Additionally, there were no significant differences in knowledge demonstrated when applied to a contextually similar case after debriefing or four weeks later between active participant and observer. Future research is needed to examine these relationships in larger and more diverse samples and different contextual clinical situations in simulation. These results will contribute to the further testing and implementation of using observation as a strategy for teaching and learning with simulation for nursing and health professions education.

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“Light memories” are visual episodic memories of a lighting composition that transcendedan emotional response. The study considers the memories and how they could be a wayto integrate users in the design process. Both designs and memories are considered twosubjective elements, for both designers and users. The purpose of the thesis is to firstly testif there are common light memories for users that share the same specifics of the cultureassociated to the availability of daylight and secondly to explore the possibility of creatinga design method to incorporate this light memory as a design tool, to recreate the similaremotional response of the memory in a newly designed setting. Two street typologies in Egypt were chosen to be the visual memories to be assessed. Apersonal daylight analysis was conducted to understand the designer’s perspective. And avirtual reality experiment was conducted along with descriptive questionnaire to understandthe emotional response of users to these streets. A comparison of the designer and usersresults helped in the creation of a scheme for design. The proposed method suggests theusage of perceptual tools such as the light distribution and contrast ratios and proposesthe analysis of the memory in terms of scales. The method is applied in the creation of twoexperiential models that abstract the essence of the light memories and puts them intoquestion for subjects to evaluate. The emotional response of users is recorded to evaluatethe method application. Based on the tests it was found that the existing of a common memory is possible. Theevaluation of the specific street memory through the experiential model results show that ahigh percentage among the users sharing the same daylight culture recognized the streets.Although most users had the same emotional responses to the models, but the agreementon the emotional percentage amongst them was lower than the recognition results.This indicates that the memory could be integrated into the design process but wouldn’tnecessarily have the same emotional impact on users. Having a strict design methodology isdifficult to implement yet could be an eye opener for ways to use the light memories.

Field trips are visits to an out-of-school setting designed for educational and academic purposes whereby as a result students gain firsthand knowledge and experiences. Historically, it was the potential for student learning that motivated teachers to utilize field trips. However, there is reasonable suspicion among scholars today that teachers are utilizing field trips less since the start of the new millennia; the common reasons being cited among others include a slumping economy, an increase in accountability due to high-stakes testing, and rising fuel costs. Unfortunately, there is no empirical evidence that can confirm or deny this suspicion. Therefore, the purpose of this survey research study is twofold. The first goal is to investigate what proportion of Florida K-12 public school teachers, within the field of social studies, science, mathematics, and language arts utilized a field trip during the 2012-13 academic school year; along with investigating the total number and frequency in which they used those field trips. The second goal is to identify if there were any significant differences in the number of field trips that those teachers utilized based on four independent variables (a) the grade level at which the teachers teach, (b) teachers' years of teaching experience, (c) the content focus of the field trips, and (d) whether teachers graduated from a teacher preparation program or not. The study utilized a non-experimental causal-comparative research design to conclude that there were some significant differences in the number of field trips teachers utilized as a result of two of the independent variables.

Counselor education programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) require their students to participate in a group experience as a member for 10 clock hours over the course of an academic term (CACREP, 2009). In addition, the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW) recommends that students participate in a group experience as a member or a leader for at least 10 hours and states that 20 hours of participation is preferable (ASGW, 2000). Counselor education programs satisfy the requirement in a variety of ways (Anderson & Price, 2001; Armstrong, 2002; Merta et al., 1993); however, the two most common types of groups are unstructured (e.g., personal growth) (48%), and structured (e.g., psychoeducational) (38%), both requiring some level of self-disclosure by students (Armstrong, 2002). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two group approaches on counseling students' empathy development, group leader self-efficacy development, and their experience of the therapeutic factors. More specifically, this study compared personal growth groups and psychoeducational groups on the constructs of: (a) cognitive and affective empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index ; Davis, 1980), (b) group leader self-efficacy (Group Leader Self-Efficacy Instrument ; Page, Pietrzak, & Lewis, 2001), and cohesion, catharsis, and insight (Curative Climate Instrument ; Fuhriman, Drescher, Hanson, & Henrie, 1986). In addition, the study explored pre to post intervention change for each group on the constructs of cognitive and affective empathy and group leader self-efficacy. The statistical analyses in this study included (a) MANCOVA, (b) disrciminant analysis, and (c) repeated-measures ANOVAs. The participants in personal growth groups valued catharsis and insight at greater levels than participants in the psychoeducational groups. Additionally, there was not a difference between the groups at posttest on cognitive empathy, affective empathy, or group leader self-efficacy. Further, neither group experienced a change in cognitive or affective empathy from pre to post. However, both groups did experience an increase in group leader self-efficacy from pre to post.