The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a curriculum design-based (CDB) professional development model on K–12 teachers’ capacity to integrate engineering education in the classroom. This teacher professional development approach differs from other training programs where teachers learn how to use a standard curriculum and adopt it in their classrooms. In a CDB professional development model teachers actively design lessons, student resources, and assessments for their classroom instruction. In other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, CDB professional development has been reported to (a) position teachers as architects of change, (b) provide a professional learning vehicle for educators to reflect on instructional practices and develop content knowledge, (c) inspire a sense of ownership in curriculum decision-making among teachers, and (d) use an instructional approach that is coherent with teachers’ interests and professional goals. The CDB professional development program in this study used the Explore-Create-Share (ECS) framework as an instructional model to support teacher-led curriculum design and implementation. To evaluate the impact of the CDB professional development and associated ECS instructional model, three research studies were conducted. In each study, the participants completed a six-month CDB professional development program, the PTC STEM Certificate Program, that included sixty-two instructional contact hours. Participants learned about industry and education engineering concepts, tested engineering curricula, collaborated with K–12 educators and industry professionals, and developed project-based engineering curricula using the ECS framework. The first study evaluated the impact of the CDB professional development program on teachers’ engineering knowledge, self-efficacy in designing engineering curriculum, and instructional practice in developing project-based engineering units. The study included twenty-six teachers and data was collected pre-, mid-, and post-program using teacher surveys and a curriculum analysis instrument. The second study evaluated teachers’ perceptions of the ECS model as a curriculum authoring tool and the quality of the curriculum units they developed. The study included sixty-two participants and data was collected post-program using teacher surveys and a curriculum analysis instrument. The third study evaluated teachers’ experiences implementing ECS units in the classroom with a focus on identifying the benefits, challenges and solutions associated with project-based engineering in the classroom. The study included thirty-one participants and data was collected using an open-ended survey instrument after teachers completed implementation of the ECS curriculum unit. Results of these three studies indicate that teachers can be prepared to integrate engineering in the classroom using a CDB professional development model. Teachers reported an increase in engineering content knowledge, improved their self-efficacy in curriculum planning, and developed high quality instructional units that were aligned to engineering design practices and STEM educational standards. The ECS instructional model was acknowledged as a valuable tool for developing and implementing engineering education in the classroom. Teachers reported that ECS curriculum design aligned with their teaching goals, provided a framework to integrate engineering with other subject-area concepts, and incorporated innovative teaching strategies. After implementing ECS units in the classroom, teachers reported that the ECS model engaged students in engineering design challenges that were situated in a real world context and required the application of interdisciplinary content knowledge and skills. Teachers also reported a number of challenges related to scheduling, content alignment, and access to resources. In the face of these obstacles, teachers presented a number of solutions that included optimization of one’s teaching practice, being resource savvy, and adopting a growth mindset.

abstract: Effective professional development has been shown to improve instruction and increase student academic achievement. The Train the Trainer professional development model is often chosen by the state Department of Education for its efficiency and cost effectiveness of delivering training to schools and districts widely distributed throughout the state. This is a study of the Train the Trainer component of an innovative K12 professional development model designed to meet the needs of the state's lowest performing schools that served some of the state's most marginalized students. Pursuing a Vygotzkian social constructivist framework, the model was developed and informed by its stakeholders, providing training that was collaborative, job-embedded, ongoing, and continuously adapted to meet the needs of the School Improvement Grant participants. Schools in the multi-case study were awarded the federal ARRA School Improvement Grant in 2010. Focus questions include: What influence does the Train the Trainer component have on classroom instruction specifically as it relates to formative assessment? and To what extent does the trainer support the implementation of the Train the Trainer professional development at the classroom level? The action research study took place from August 2011 to February 2012 and used a mixed-methods research design. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

abstract: Co-teaching is one of the most popular models for supporting students with disabilities in general education classrooms. In spite of this, there is a paucity of research on student perceptions of co-teaching. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate student perceptions of co-teaching in a high school biology classroom. Over nine weeks, data was collected from students in a co-taught and traditional classroom through observations and focus groups. Qualitative content analysis identified three themes and eight categories which highlight student perceptions of co-teaching. Themes and categories that emerged were: 1) Environment which included the categories of availability of help, students feeling supported and normalcy of the classroom, 2) Instruction which included student engagement, lesson activity and teacher(s) role(s) and, 3) Relationships which included relationships between teacher(s) and student(s) and parity between teachers. Information from the study deepens researchers' and practitioners' understanding of how students perceive co-teaching and provide new avenues for future research and best practices. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Special Education 2012

abstract: The purpose of this study was to construct an instructional systems design model for chemistry teaching laboratories at the undergraduate level to accurately depict the current practices of design experts. This required identifying the variables considered during design, prioritizing and ordering these variables, and constructing a model. Experts were identified by multiple publications in the Journal of Chemical Education on undergraduate laboratories. Twelve of these individuals participated in three rounds of Delphi surveys. An initial literature review was used to construct the first survey, which established the variables of design. The second and third surveys were constructed based on the answers from the previous survey and literature review. The second survey determined the priority and order of the variables, and the third survey allowed the participating experts to evaluate the preliminary design model. The results were validated by interviewing three additional experts who had not participated in the surveys. The first round survey produced 47 variable themes identified by the experts as being important to chemistry laboratory design. Of these, 46 variable themes were determined to be important based on their responses to the second-round survey. Second-round survey results were used to determine the order in which participants consider the themes, allowing for construction of a preliminary design model. In the third round, participants found the model to be accurate, organized appropriately, easy to understand, and useful. Interviews supported these results. The final design model included five main phases with individual considerations or steps. These five phases were named planning, development, implementation, revision, and evaluation. The first four phases form a cyclic process, and they are supported by the continuous evaluation phase. The strengths of the model developed in this study include the participation of experts within the field, the ability of the model to start discussions regarding design, and the high level of agreement on the final model. This model could be refined and evaluated to determine its efficacy in assisting novice or expert designers in creating and improving experiments that support learning. The method used in this study could be used for model development in other fields. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Technology 2012

Gráficos e textos são os principais recursos didáticos utilizados na confecção do material instrucional. A linguagem visual tem qualidades diferenciadas que podem ser exploradas no processo de ensino e aprendizagem, tais como a concisão, a obtenção de visão diferenciada a respeito do conteúdo, e a estimulação motivacional. Sabe-se que gráficos de diferentes tipos – fotografias, diagramas e ilustrações – podem ser utilizados de forma efetiva para melhorar o aprendizado. Entretanto, no âmbito educacional, a linguagem verbal sempre foi considerada mais importante em relação à linguagem visual. Como consequência, os profissionais do ensino e de outras áreas relacionadas à produção de materiais instrucionais não sabem utilizar gráficos de forma eficaz para atingir propósitos instrucionais. Portanto, esta pesquisa pretende contribuir para este contexto com a proposição de diretrizes para o projeto de gráficos instrucionais estáticos, que objetivam obter a qualidade dos mesmos. Como fundamentação teórico-metodológica, buscam-se conhecimentos nas áreas do design instrucional e design visual, englobando aspectos desses gráficos, da instrução e aprendizagem, e do âmbito do projeto visual. A metodologia da pesquisa é desenvolvida em três fases principais, nas quais são: levantadas orientações de projeto; sintetizado um conjunto de diretrizes de projeto de gráficos instrucionais estáticos; e verificada a qualidade desses gráficos por meio de avaliação com especialistas. Como principais contribuições desta pesquisa destacam-se: o conjunto de 19 diretrizes projetuais que pode ser utilizado em uma variedade de suportes e tipos de gráficos; o modelo de processo projetual para a concepção de gráficos instrucionais estáticos; e os critérios de qualidade desenvolvidos para os mesmos gráficos que podem ser utilizados também como fatores de análise e avaliação de gráficos. Com a aplicação dessas contribuições, é possível tornar mais eficiente o processo projetual, contribuir para a qualidade dos materiais instrucionais e facilitar a aprendizagem de usuários que utilizarem esses materiais. Além disso, esta pesquisa contribui para o desenvolvimento dos campos teóricos do design instrucional e design visual, especificamente relacionada aos gráficos instrucionais estáticos. / Graphics and texts are the main teaching resources used in the production of instructional material. The visual language has different qualities that can be exploited in the process of teaching and learning, such as brevity, obtaining different view about the content, and the motivational stimulation. It is known that graphics of different kinds – photographs, diagrams and illustrations – can be effectively used to enhance learning. However, the educational level, verbal language has always been considered more important in relation to visual language. As a result, school staff and other areas related to the production of instructional materials do not know how to use graphics effectively to achieve instructional purposes. Therefore, this research aims to contribute to this context to propose guidelines for static instructional graphics design, which aim to get the quality. As theoretical and methodological foundation, are sought knowledge in the areas of instructional design and visual design, encompassing aspects of these graphs, education and learning, and the scope of the visual design. The research methodology is developed in three main phases, in which are raised design guidelines; synthesized a set of static instructional graphics design guidelines; and verified the quality of these graphics through evaluation with experts. The main contributions of this research are: the set of 19 projective guidelines that can be used in a variety of media types and graphics; the design process model for designing static instructional graphics; and quality criteria developed for the same graphics that can also be used as factor analysis and evaluation chart. By applying these contributions, you can make more efficient design process, contribute to the quality of the instructional materials and facilitate the learning of users who use those materials. Additionally, this research contributes to the development of theoretical fields of instructional design and visual design, specifically related to static instructional graphics.

<p> This quasi-experimental study compared academic learning in project-centered instruction with group projects, project-centered instruction with individual projects, and teacher-led instruction. A repeated measures pre and posttest design was used to measure the change in Social Studies content learning in sixth grade students for three different instructional units taught with each of the three teaching approaches. ANOVA was used to compare pre and posttest scores. All three teaching approaches were compared, and the two project-centered conditions were compared to identify possible learning differences related to cooperative learning. Students in the group project condition demonstrated the greatest gains in content learning. Students in the individual project condition demonstrated the smallest gains from pre to posttest. The results of this study suggest that for most students the opportunity to engage in discourse about content through group work, or via teacher talk and class discussion enhances academic learning to a greater degree than individual study and research for middle school students.</p><p>

Esta pesquisa objetiva dar continuidade à evolução dos sistemas de gerenciamento de cursos a distância através do estudo de técnicas de design instrucional, design de interfaces e hipermídia adaptativa, com ênfase no processo de criação e alimentação de conteúdos instrucionais em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem. Para alcançar os resultados esperados, a pesquisa se dividiu em três vertentes: design instrucional, que é o estudo dos métodos de organização de conteúdos instrucionais com foco na eficiência da transmissão e fixação do conhecimento; educação a distância, através da qual as técnicas de design instrucional são aplicadas com o auxílio de sistemas de informação para permitir transferência de conhecimento entre pessoas ou entidades que estão em locais distintos; hipermídia adaptativa, que é um conjunto de técnicas e tecnologias capazes de tornar sistemas de hipertexto adaptáveis a diferentes perfis de usuários. O resultado esperado da pesquisa é a criação de uma ferramenta adaptativa de alimentação de conteúdos em um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem com o objetivo de tornálo capaz de gerar cursos adaptados a diferentes perfis de estudantes. / This research aims to continue the development of course management systems through the study of techniques for instructional design, design of interfaces and adaptive hypermedia with emphasis in the creation and supply of instructional content in virtual learning environments. To achieve the expected results, the research was divided into three dimensions: instructional design, which is the study of methods of organization of instructional content with a focus on efficiency of transmission and determination of knowledge, distance education, through which the design of instructional techniques are applied with the aid of information systems to enable transfer of knowledge between persons or entities that are in different places; adaptive hypermedia, which is a set of techniques and technologies capable of make hypertext systems adaptable to different profiles of users. The outcome of the research is the creation of a adaptive tool for content feeding in a virtual learning environment with the goal of making it capable of generating tailored courses to different profiles of students.

Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Juliana Cristina Braga / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação, 2016. / O planejamento possui um peso grande no ensino tanto presencial como também a distância auxiliando professores a lidar com o ensinamento de conteúdos inter-relacionados visando uma aprendizagem efetiva. Mas, não é de agora que os educadores apontam uma série de problemas no planejamento das aulas devido às lacunas de métodos utilizados para esse fim. Dentre os problemas, cabe citar a reprogramação de aulas devido à, por exemplo, adequação do conteúdo aos diferentes perfis de aluno ou mudanças advindas de necessidades do mercado de trabalho. Essa reprogramação, muitas vezes exige grande esforço em pouco tempo. Em vista dos problemas em torno do planejamento no ensino, este trabalho objetiva criar uma metodologia pautada em conceitos da área de Engenharia de Software com um conjunto de modelos que represente o resultado do planejamento guiado pelo Design Instrucional. Além dessa representação com modelos, outros conceitos serão empregados durante o processo de planejamento e execução das atividades de ensino que auxiliarão na resolução dos problemas expostos. Por fim, será apresentado como a execução desse planejamento pode ser integrada a outros processos com foco na criação de conteúdos educacionais como a INTERA, por exemplo. / Planning has an important role in presencial or online teaching, helping professors to handle with teaching inter-related contents in order to prepare students for effective learning. But, for a long time, educators have pointed several problems involving the class planning due to gaps found in some methods. These problems grow up when it involves class reprogramming aim at fitting content to student profiles or adopt content update came from job market needs. It obliges to struggle having a time scarce. Considering the problems around teaching planning, this work aims at creating a methodology focused in Software Engineering concepts based in a set of models which represents the result of planning guided by Instructional Design. Besides the models, other concepts will be used in the teaching activities of planning and executing processes, to solve the problems will be discussed. Finally, this work will present how these practices can be integrated to other process focused in educational content creation like INTERA.

O Ensino à distância (EaD) procura utilizar propostas pedagógicas para desenvolver sistemas inclusivos de ensino e aprendizagem. Estas propostas tem colaborado no sucesso que a EaD tem alcançado no meio empresarial corporativo. Neste meio, a demanda por cursos de formação técnica tem sido tão alta, que as empresas envolvidas no design instrucional de EaD criaram a noção de cursos à distância expressos, ou seja, cursos cuja a concepção e elaboração devem atender as tradicionais necessidades de rapidez do mercado de trabalho. Esta dissertação procura soluções para um tipo de ensino à distância ainda pouco explorado. O cenário que procuramos equacionar é o do ensino de ferramentas (softwares) para desenho vetorial, onde a metodologia de ensino é parte do processo de ensino corporativo. No processo atual de ensino de ferramentas de computação gráfica, o aluno submete ao professor, normalmente pela internet, o seu trabalho para que uma avaliação seja feita. Nesta dissertação sugerimos que este processo seja modificado de duas formas. Primeiro, no design instrucional para esta situação, trabalhamos constantemente a questão de avaliação não só na sua forma tradicional (atribuição de graus e valores) mas também como aperfeiçoamento do processo de ensino. A hipermídia adaptativa entra nesta proposta como facilitador da relação alunoprofessor-conhecimento, permitindo individualização de um ensino voltado para as massas. Em segundo lugar, propomos que a avaliação das tarefas sejam automatizada. O aluno oferece as partes (objetos) da solução que são avaliadas individualmente através de algoritmos computacionais. Isto permite uma menor participação do professor, o que é compatível com a proposta de cursos expressos. Para que isto seja possível a tarefa proposta pelo professor é dividida em objetos componentes, sendo o aluno estimulado a criar cada objeto segundo o modelo padrão oferecido. A comparaçào de cada objeto criado pelo aluno com o padrão a ser alcançado pode ser feita por diversos algoritmos computacionais existentes ou criados especificamente pelo autor do curso. Neste trabalho apresentamos exemplos desta abordagem e um protótipo que demonstra a viabilidade da proposta. / Distance learning aims to use eduacational approaches in order to develop comprehensive courses. These approaches are some of the reasons distance learning has been widely accepted by large corporations. The nowadays matket has a steady and constant demand for technical courses and skilled employees. This demand has been so high among corporations that they have coined the term Distance Learning Express Couses for courses developed in very short time, for short term necessities. This dissertation aims to offer possibilities for a less employed type of distance learning couse. The situation we intend to deal is the teaching of graphics computing tools. In the current status of such type of distance learning course, the student submits, normally by Internet, his or her pieces of work so an evaluation of his or her performance may be made. In this dissertation we propose to change this process in two ways. First we intend to use evaluation as a pivotal part of the educational process. Evaluation is no longer used only at the end of the tasks but during the teaching procedure as student feedback. Thats the reason we also employ Adaptive Hypermedia. It makes possible a more personalized teaching and student oriented guidance. Secondly, we also suggest that tasks evaluation may become automatic. The student offers the parts (objects) of the overall solution and these parts are evaluated individually by computing algorithms. This allows less teacher participation and less type spend on evaluation. In order to do so, the teacher has to divide the task in small components (objects) and to ask the student to deal with these components as models to be achieved. The comparison of the object created by the student with the model object maybe performed by several available computing algorithms or specifically designed algorithms by the author of the course. In this work we introduce an example of this approch and a prototype which shows the feasability of our proposition.

The present study investigated the job satisfaction of 205 adjunct faculty teaching standardized online courses at a private university in the United States. The extent of the relationship between demographic, motivator, and hygiene factors associated with adjunct faculty job satisfaction were identified. Results from this study indicate that adjunct faculty value work recognition, technical and instructional technology support, and take pride in their teaching. Important faculty satisfaction predictors based on analyses of hierarchical regression models were motivator factors recognition, achievement, and work itself, and hygiene factors policy and administration and salary.