Doctoral Dissertations

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Browsing Doctoral Dissertations by Department "Education"
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    A COMPARISON OF NARRATIVE AND EXPOSITORY TEXT COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS AT VARYING LEVELS OF SES: A LATENT GROWTH CURVE ANALYSIS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-04-10) Briggs, Laura C. ; Kim, Jwa ; Elleman, Amy ; Jin, Ying ; Education
    Research on secondary student reading comprehension performance is scant, yet demands for improved literacy at college and career levesl indicate that an understanding of trends and growth patterns is necessary to better inform teaching and learning for high school students. To improve understanding of reading performance at the secondary level, reading growth trajectories were investigated for 9th (n = 5752) and 11th (n = 3754) grade students. Free or reduced lunch membership (FRL) served as a proxy variable for student socioeconomic status (SES). Item performance of narrative and expository text was examined based on SES status by trend analysis and by latent growth curve anaylsis (LGCA) to determine if SES impacts initial starting point and growth on reading comprehension. Results revealed linear and quadratic trends of reading comprehension growth for 9th and 11th grade students. The dominant linear trend for 9th grade performance suggests that performance improved throughout the academic year. The dominant quadratic trend for 11th grade performance indicates that student performance declined at the second test administration before improving at the third test. Performance on English I expository tests showed a negative intercept-slope relationship indicating that students who scored lower initially performed better on subsequent exams compared to those who scored higher initially. The positive SES-intercept impact suggests that SES is correlated with performance on initial test administration. The negative SES-slope impact suggests that, during the academic year, student SES does not correlate with comprehension growth, possibly owing to the equalizing effects of the school environment on student achievement (Alexander, Entwistle, & Olson, 2007; Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse, 1996; Entwistle & Alexander, 1992, 1994; Heyns, 1978; Jamar, 1994; Pfost, Hattie, Drfler, & Artelt, 2014). Performance on narrative items revealed a positive relationship on the intercept and slope as well as a positive impact for both SES-intercept and SES-slope. For English III scores, results indicated positive relationships on intercept-slope, SES-intercept, and SES-slope for expository items. Due to the poor model fit for the narrative models, impact and relationship among these variables could not be determined.
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    A PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF TEACHER-MADE BENCHMARK ASSESSMENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-03-24) Milligan, Andrea ; Kim, Jwa ; Elleman, Amy ; Magne, Cyrille ; Education
    ABSTRACT
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    AN ANALYSIS OF SCIENCE INSTRUCTIONAL BELIEFS AND ACT SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-11-10) Porter, Jeffery ; Vanosdall, Rick ; Khan, Zaf ; Kiltz, Gary ; Krahenbuhl, Kevin ; Education
    Preparing secondary students for the ACT Science assessment requires giving them a skill set of reasoning that can be developed over the course of several school years. Much of this development depends on the science instruction that takes place in classrooms. Because the ACT Science assessment is not based on any single discipline or course, it is up to school science teachers collectively to prepare students with the necessary skill sets. This study used the Teacher Beliefs about Effective Science Teaching (TBEST) questionnaire as a measurement of instruction taking place in science classrooms. The questionnaire served two purposes: to measure teacher beliefs in relation to science instructional Learning Theory and to measure alignment of beliefs among science teachers. The factors of beliefs corresponding to science instruction Learning Theory and the alignment of beliefs between science teachers were statistically compared to ACT Science achievement. Teachers from four schools in a southeastern United States school district participated in the study. Results of the study showed similar beliefs about science instruction among teachers in each school’s science department and between schools in the school district. The results also indicated that the school district experienced growth in ACT Science achievement over the course of three years. The sample size of the study, however, hindered identification of a correlation between teacher beliefs about science instruction and ACT Science achievement.
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    An Investigation of Charter Schools' School Leader and Teacher Level of Assessment Literacy
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-07-11) Pfeiffer-Hoens, Mareen ; Snead, Donald ; Burriss, Kathleen ; Patterson, Patricia ; Education
    Assessment of student performance is one of the most critical responsibilities of school leaders and teachers. Teachers and school leaders must acquire an understanding of assessment literacy for utilizing data to make sound data-driven decisions. The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the levels of assessment literacy among elementary teachers and school leaders in charter schools. The target population was approximately 200 educators from one elementary charter school network with schools primarily in an urban district in Tennessee and in an urban district in California. The instrument used for this research study was the Classroom Assessment Literacy Inventory (CALI) (Mertler, 2003). The inventory consists of two sections. The first section of the survey consists of demographic questions regarding years of experience, level of education, intensity of assessment training, and type of teacher education program. The second section uses the CALI to measure the level of assessment literacy of teachers and school leaders. A total of five school leaders and 58 teachers completed the survey. The data from the survey showed that teachers and school leaders averaged 20.23 out of 35 questions correct (57.8%). The average is slightly lower than the average obtained in the study of in-service teachers by Plake et al. (1993) and in the study of in-service teachers by Mertler (2003). Findings indicated that the level of assessment literacy has not changed significantly in over twenty years. The results are discussed in terms of use to establish a baseline that can be used in further study of assessment literacy of both classroom teachers and school leaders, especially through professional development.
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    APPLICATION OF THE IRT AND TRT MODELS TO A READING COMPREHENSION TEST
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-06-19) Kim, Weon Hee ; Elleman, Amy ; Jin, Ying ; Albakry, Mohammed ; Education
    The purpose of the present study is to apply the item response theory (IRT) and testlet response theory (TRT) models to a reading comprehension test. This study applied the TRT models and the traditional IRT model to a seventh-grade reading comprehension test (n = 8,815) with eight testlets. These three models were compared to determine the best model for a testlet-based reading comprehension assessment. The goodness-of-fit indices such as -2 log likelihood, Akaike information criterion, and Bayesian information criterion were utilized as model comparison indices. The standardized local dependence X2 statistic was computed for a comparison of local dependence among the three different models. Scatter plots were obtained to evaluate parameter-estimation consistency among models. Correlations and mean differences between the estimated parameters were also examined to detect and quantify the magnitude of inaccuracy due to the use of a worse-fitting model. Finally, items were evaluated based on the item parameters from the TRT models and compared to the results from the Coh Metrix.
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    BEYOND SCREENING AND PROGRESS MONITORING: AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELIABILITY AND CONCURRENT VALIDITY OF MAZE COMPREHENSION ASSESSMENTS FOR FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-04-06) Brasher, Casey Faye ; Elleman, Amy ; Kim, Jwa ; Holt, Aimee ; Education
    ABSTRACT
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    COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS BENCHMARK ASSESSMENTS: ITEM ALIGNMENT TO THE SHIFTS IN TENNESSEE
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-03-18) Stugart, Melissa Stugart ; Kim, Jwa ; Elleman, Amy ; Herman, James ; Education
    Our nation is in the midst of one of the largest education reforms in decades centered on the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and aligned assessments. In an era of rising accountability measures and declining literacy proficiency, it is vital to ensure that educational resources, such as benchmark assessments, are appropriately aligned to state education reform movements. The purpose of this study was to use exploratory factor analysis (EFA), classical test theory (CTT), and item response theory (IRT) to consider if factors aligned to the three instructional shifts of CCSS can be confirmed within benchmark assessments designed to measure student progress across three grade levels: 4th, 8th, and 10th. Data samples were specific to a test administered to Tennessee students during the fall and winter of the 2014-2015 school year. The researcher hypothesized it would be more likely that the benchmark items would align more strongly with a four-factor solution because the tests were designed to assess four strands of the CCSS (Language, Reading Informational Text, Reading Literature, and Writing). However, EFA revealed a stronger alignment with a three-factor solution after removal of misfit items using CTT and IRT. Overall, the results were inconclusive and additional study is required to determine if benchmark assessments are being designed to assess not just the CCSS, but the theoretical underpinnings of the standards. Benchmark assessments must align with the CCSS in order to provide the best possible information to aid both student learning and teacher development.
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    CONNECTIONS BETWEEN TEACHERS' SENSE OF EFFICACY, CLASSROOM PRACTICE, AND PERCEPTIONS OF ACCOUNTABILITY
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-07-13) Campbell, Christa Dawn ; Huddleston, Tracey ; Haun-Frank, Julie ; Bass, Alyson ; Gilbert, Linda ; Education
    ABSTRACT
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    DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: HOW PERCEIVED EDUCATOR ENGAGEMENT AFFECTS STUDENT LEARNING
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) Homan, Melicent McCranie ; Education
    Length of time teaching shapes educators’ competence with intentional integration of democratic engagement in the classroom. This study finding stems from a pivotal understanding of civic engagement refocused and defined as democratic engagement by Saltmarsh and Hartley (2011). The authors determine that democratic engagement as an ideal includes far more than the civic participation element of voting. These authors suggest that for a representative democracy to thrive, communities and civic institutions must partner to create civic agency among not just the individual, but collective, social, and government entities. In this study, educators in a small to medium sized K-6 district are surveyed to identify differing levels of democratic engagement among demographic indicators as identified by Saltmarsh and Hartley (2011). Democratic engagement constructs of community engagement, political voice, civic participation and political knowledge combine to create a Civic Index Scale measure. This measure describes a sample population of highly democratic engaged versus disengaged participants. Identified educators with the most engaged, somewhat engaged, and disengaged civic scores were interviewed for attitudes, beliefs, and professional practice in relation to democratic engagement. A series of two interviews per educator yielded unexpected results. The study found that democratic disengagement does not equate to disengagement in the classroom, poor teaching, or lack of effort to promote citizenship as developmentally appropriate. A disengaged educator in the study was professionally fulfilled, and successfully created classroom community. A medium engaged educator identified in the interview process exhibited highly effective teaching practice as a seasoned professional with lower levels of job satisfaction and difficulty in classroom management. The highly engaged educator in the qualitative analysis exhibited not only effective teaching practice, but also intentional relationship building, and highly effective classroom management. Hierarchical Regression analysis indicated that time teaching, age, race, and gender were significant in the model and that time teaching persisted as a key factor contributing to variance in the model.
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    Development of a discovery-based organic chemistry lab module: Evaluation of student attitudes and ability to interpret spectroscopy
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2014-10-31) Martin, Leah ; Dunlap, Norma ; Fuller, Dana ; Patterson, Pat ; Phelps, Amy ; Sanger, Michael ; Education
    Laboratories are a central component of the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum. For years, educators have questioned the effectiveness of laboratories in science classes, their impact on students' learning, and what constitutes an effective laboratory experience. This research examines the addition of a discovery-based (guided inquiry) component to the traditional organic chemistry laboratories at Middle Tennessee State University and its effect on students' abilities to interpret NMR spectroscopy and their attitudes toward the laboratory.
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    EDUCATOR PERSPECTIVES OF TENNESSEE’S RESPONSE TO INSTRUCTION AND INTERVENTION IMPLEMENTATION SPECIFIC TO INCLUSION CLASSROOMS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-10-17) Ralston, Anna Marie ; Vanosdall, Rick ; Gilbert, Suzette ; Winters, Jeremy ; Education
    The federal government-supported Response to Intervention Program (RTI) is an initiative to serve students with gaps in their education. This initiative was developed to strive for all students performing at or above grade level. Understanding the impact of these initiatives on students has been a recent topic of investigation in professional literature. Tennessee adopted the RTI program in 2013 and revised it to include instructional practices for all students in the general education classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions of the state of Tennessee’s mandated Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI2) regarding their Tier I inclusion classrooms. These students were previously enrolled in the extended resource program and now participate in a general education inclusion classroom. RTI2 exposed students to a standards based curriculum, a larger class size, and a more rigorous set of academic expectations. General education teachers and special education caseworkers working with these students were surveyed on their knowledge of strategies or appropriate modifications and accommodations used when working with special education students. From those surveys a common understanding was created for a teacher and case manager focus group regarding their perceptions of the academic functioning of those students in the classroom. Finally, interviews were conducted with a subset of the focus group members to gain further insight regarding the perceived students’ academic success in the general education classroom setting. The outcome of the study proved how much both teachers and students (as perceived by the teachers) are struggling with this new Tier I inclusion classroom in regard to this change in the learning environment.
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    EFFECTS OF ATTENDING PREKINDERGARTEN ON KINDERGARTEN EMERGENT LITERACY SKILLS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-05-26) Osborne, Kimberly Dawn ; Snead, Donald ; Tharp, Terri ; Brooks-Dodson, Caresa ; Education
    With the cost of intervening being less costly prior to school entry, one strategy being used to decrease the achievement gap is to provide access to quality preschool education for economically disadvantaged children prior to kindergarten entry (Bailet, et al., 2011; Lee, Zhai, Brooks-Gunn, & Han, 2014). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a district’s prekindergarten program on kindergarten emergent literacy skills as measured by Primary-Measure of Academic Progress. The population for this study consisted of 275 students who attended the district’s voluntary prekindergarten program and 724 prekindergarten students who did not attend the district’s voluntary kindergarten program. The study utilized the Annual Measurement Objectives (AMO) used by the Tennessee Department of Education to identify the subgroup comparisons. The emergent literacy skills were measured in September, January, and April. The subgroup’s RIT scores were compared to determine if a statistically significant difference was present between the achievement levels of the two group comparison. This casual comparative study used a multivariate analysis (MANOVA) to test each of the eleven null hypotheses at the .05 level of significance. The results found that economics were a key factor in determining significance. Attending the voluntary prekindergarten program did not have a statistically significant effect on economically disadvantaged students’ academic performance when compared to like peers or non-economically disadvantaged students. The results did show continued growth between each of the three administration of the assessments by all students. As a result, research should be continued to determine if prekindergarten is a viable solution to closing the achievement gap that exists prior to formal school entry.
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    The Effects of Literature Circles on the Reading Achievement of College Reading Students
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2013-04-11) Thomas, Davonna ; Fain, Jeanne ; Blackwell, Aleka ; Elleman, Amy ; Kim, Jwa ; Education
    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of literature circles on the reading achievement of college reading students using a mixed method approach. A literature circle is defined in this study as students who form a group, read a novel, and meet on a regular basis to discuss what they have read. The researcher-developed intervention included three activities: collaborative oral re-tell, short written response to a prompt, and open discussion. The study employed an experimental design in order to examine the effectiveness of the intervention (literature circles); in addition, the sociocultural context of the college reading classes (and students) is described in detail. Grounded theory was employed to analyze reading attitude, reading motivation, response to participation in a literature circle, and textual engagement. Thirty-eight college students in required reading courses participated in the five-week study. Students were randomly assigned to either the treatment (participation in literature circle) or control (independent reading) condition. Students were able to choose from four pre-selected high-interest young adult novels. At the conclusion of the series of literature circle meetings (or upon completion of reading the novel independently, for control group participants), comprehension was measured using three measures: an oral re-tell of the novel, a twenty question researcher-developed open-ended book-specific assessment, and a twenty question assessment on a two-part high school level passage from the Qualitative Reading Inventory (Leslie & Caldwell, 2011). Textual engagement was measured by coding and counting responses to a semi-structured interview. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant main effect for group assignment, meaning that--when all four measures were combined into a linear function--the students assigned to literature circles outperformed the control group students. Given the significance of the overall test, the univariate main effects were examined. Significant univariate main effects were obtained for the researcher developed test and textual engagement. Qualitative analysis revealed that literature circles improve reading comprehension, depth of textual engagement, and provides an opportunity for discourse, collaboration, and social interaction for its participants. These findings suggest that literature circles lead to both improved comprehension and deeper textual engagement for college reading students.
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    THE EFFECTS OF SINGLE AND DUAL CODED MULTIMEDIA INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS ON CHINESE CHARACTER LEARNING
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2013-11-08) Wang, Ling ; Blackwell, Aleka ; Kim, Jwa ; Magne, Cyrille ; Education
    Learning Chinese characters is a difficult task for adult English native speakers due to the significant differences between the Chinese and English writing system. The visuospatial properties of Chinese characters have inspired the development of instructional methods using both verbal and visual information based on the Dual Coding Theory. This study investigated the effects of single (verbal or visual) and dual (verbal and visual) coded instructional methods on learning both concrete and abstract Chinese characters using computer-based multimedia while the spatial ability of the learners was statistically controlled. One hundred twenty adults with no prior knowledge of Chinese were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: a text-only method group, an animation-only method group, an animation-plus-text method group, an animation-plus-narration method group. All participants learned the same 24 Chinese characters, of which 12 were pictographs representing concrete objects and 12 were ideographs representing abstract concepts. Statistical analyses revealed a significant difference between the single coded and the dual coded instructional methods. The dual coded methods worked better than the single coded methods. Participants performed better on concrete characters than on abstract characters. In addition, under the single coded method, the animation-only method led to better achievement than the text-only method. In contrast, under the dual coded method, the animation-plus-narration method was superior to the animation-plus-text method. These results suggest that dual coded instructional methods involving computer animations with multi-sensory input have a significant positive influence on Chinese character learning. The study also discusses implications in the areas of not only foreign language instruction of Chinese characters including both integrals and compounds, but also native language acquisition by Chinese dyslexics as well as alphabetic language speakers.
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    Empowering School Librarians to be Literacy Instruction Leaders through Professional Development
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-11-02) Reed, Karen Nourse ; Oslund, Eric ; Elleman, Amy ; Milligan, Charles ; Tharp, Terri ; Education
    Federal education policy has long emphasized the importance of literacy in student academic success, and the most recent policy example of this literacy priority has been the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. ESSA is noteworthy for its explicit designation of school librarians as being members of the literacy instruction team. With this increased role for collaboration with reading specialists and classroom teachers comes the responsibility of heightened attention to reading instruction as part of the school librarian workload. Despite federal and professional mandates stipulating literacy instruction, many school librarians do not see this role as a priority within the scope of their other duties. This study sought to improve school librarian knowledge and perceptions of their literacy instruction role through a professional development series emphasizing reading comprehension strategies.
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    EXAMINING INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY ACQUISITION BY PERSON- AND ITEM-LEVEL FACTORS IN SECONDARY STUDENTS
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-03-28) Cooper, Jennifer LeeAnn ; Elleman, Amy ; Kim, Jwa ; Blackwell, Aleka ; Education
    Vocabulary knowledge is central to the process of reading comprehension (Cromely & Azevedo, 2007; Stahl & Nagy, 2005; Stanovich, 1986). The majority of our vocabulary knowledge is postulated to come from the process of incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) while reading (Nagy & Anderson, 1984). Prior studies have estimated an average probability of acquisition of 15% (Swanborn & de Glopper, 2000). Differential rates of acquisition for struggling readers have been demonstrated (Herman, 1985). Rates of acquisition may be influenced by manipulating the frequency of exposure during reading and the presence of morphologically complex words in a text. Morphologically complex words may be more easily acquired because the reader is familiar with some morphemes in the word and uses this knowledge to assist in determining the meaning of an unknown word containing any known morpheme (McBride-Chang, Wagner, Muse, Chow, & Shu, 2005). Multi-level item response crossed-random effects modeling statistical techniques allow a closer investigation into the person and word level factors that influence IVA which may provide clarification of which item-level factors (i.e., the number of contextual exposures and morphological complexity) and person-level factors (i.e., reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, basic reading skills, working memory, print exposure, and morphological awareness and analysis) (Cho, Partchev, & De Boeck, 2012). This study examined the influence of number of contextual exposures and morphological complexity of words as text level factors and the influence of general reading ability, vocabulary knowledge, working memory, and morphological awareness as person-level factors in a sample of 9th and 10th grade students (n = 78). Significant findings for item-level factors of exposure and person-level factors of reading comprehension, morphological awareness, and vocabulary were found as well as interactions between the number of exposures and reading comprehension ability.
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    EXAMINING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TEACHER’S LEARNING ABOUT LITERACY INSTRUCTION
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-03-24) Maxwell, Melanie B. ; Magne, Cyrille ; Durham-Barnes, Joanna ; Tharp, Terri ; Elleman, Amy ; Education
    The purpose of this qualitative case study (Merriam, 1988; Stake, 1994) was to understand how teacher perceptions of their knowledge, practice and students’ knowledge change in a professional development learning opportunity that is based on their background knowledge in literacy instruction and what is determined to be their zone of proximal development. This study will explore the impact of context-specific professional experiences on teacher attitudes and perceptions of student learning. Based on a theoretical framework of Balanced Literacy (Fountas and Pinnell, 1996; Short, 1999; Taylor and Pearson, 2002), job-embedded professional development (Bransford, Brown, Donovan, & Pellegrino, 2003; Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Guskey, 2003; Showers & Joyce, 1996, Yoon, 2007), and scaffolding and Zone of Proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978), this study will answer the questions: 1) How will teachers’ perceptions of knowledge about literacy instruction change over time? 2) What will take place in teachers’ perceptions of their practice when they have participated in embedded, contextual professional development? 3) Which supports (coaching, self-assessments, contextual teaching), if any, will teachers perceive were the most effective in helping them implement the literacy strategies and theories from the professional development opportunities? and 4) What are the teachers’ perceptions of the children’s learning as readers and writers?
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    EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A SENTENCE-COMBINING INTERVENTION ON THE WRITING QUALITY OF COLLEGE FRESHMEN
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2019) Gay, Victoria Marie ; Education
    ABSTRACT Tennessee’s public community college system implemented corequisite remediation for underprepared students during the Fall 2015 semester. As a result of the Tennessee Board of Regents corequisite remediation initiative, students with academic placement scores determined to be below college level on an instrument such as the ACT often work in the same college classroom as students who are better prepared to complete college-level work (Tennessee Board of Regents, 2016). Thus, underprepared students need effective academic assistance in order to perform well in not only the corequisite classes but also in other classes later in their college careers. English teachers, writing texts, and past research point to sentence combining as a writing strategy beneficial to students across all ages for the production of sentence variety and the development of syntactic complexity. This study sought to determine the effects of a semester-length sentence-combining intervention on the production of sentence variety, syntactic complexity, and teacher-evaluation of writing quality with students enrolled in corequisite Learning Support Writing and English Composition I classes. Following the intervention, student essays were analyzed based on sentence variety, syntactic complexity, and writing quality. Additionally, student self-efficacy was captured to determine whether students perceived the intervention as beneficial when compared to their peers who did not receive the intervention. No significant differences were found between intervention and comparison groups for sentence variety on two separate measures. There was no statistically significant main effect between the intervention and comparison groups for the syntactic complexity measure. There was a significant group main effect for quality for final essays with the comparison group scoring higher than the intervention group. There was also a significant difference in the self-efficacy measure between groups with overall higher totals for the intervention group than the control group. Moderator analyses indicated there was a significant interaction effect on syntactic complexity between group and reading placement as was established by the ACT/SAT/ACCUPLACER Reading score. Simple main effects indicated that the comparison group outperformed the intervention group at a statistically significant level in struggling readers. Simple main effects for adequate readers indicated no statistically significant differences between intervention or comparison groups; however, adequate readers in the intervention group did outperform struggling readers. There were no other statistically significant interaction effects. Overall, the sentence combining intervention did not significantly improve student writing as measured by sentence variety, complexity, or quality. Indeed, the comparison condition tended to outperform the treatment. Results do not support the use of exclusive, explicit sentence-combining instruction as a means of fast-tracking the writing progress of a corequisite English population; however, future research is needed regarding the possible unique attributes of the intervention that could improve writing performance. Also, the improvement of self-efficacy may lead to further improvements in later coursework as students’ motivation to succeed may be buttressed by their perceived ability to do so.
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    From the Voices of Kindergarten Teachers: Factors That Impact Decisions about When to Engage the Natural Curiosities of Their Students in Science
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-11-10) Hamilton, Frances ; Vanosdall, Rick ; Ridgley, Robyn ; Quick, Beth ; Education
    Students enter kindergarten as natural-born scientists, curious about the world around them. They enter middle school disliking science. Although implementing science in kindergarten has the potential to improve learning in other subjects in addition to science, it is not taught much in kindergarten. There are many reasons for this according to the literature. The purpose of the study is to gain insight into teachers’ thinking as they decide when and how to engage their students in science, to better understand why student enjoyment of science fades in early grades; to contribute teachers’ voices to the existing literature on teaching science in the early grades; and to investigate how teachers’ science teaching methods align with current research regarding how students learn best.
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    GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR…TEACHING ABOUT DISCRIMINATION THROUGH AN EXPERIENTIAL IMMIGRATION UNIT
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2016-06-10) Moore, Christy Shannon ; Vanosdall, Dr. Rick ; Caukin, Dr. Nancy ; Quarto, Dr. Christopher ; Education
    “You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee, 1960). Empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings and create an emotional connection with another human being (Brown, 2013). History will become relevant when its participants create connections with people of the past rather than view history as merely a collection of dead people and dates. Students must learn from mistakes in history in order to make positive changes in the future. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963, p. 2) said in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Historical mistakes, such as the disenfranchisement of others, are still current issues in today’s society. Exposing students to authentic experiences with discrimination is one way to teach empathy for the marginalized.