Middle Tennessee State University: Journals@MTSU
Not a member yet
1268 research outputs found
Sort by
The Eloi, AI, and Ruskin
Full text linkOne of the texts I most frequently teach is H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), and one of my favorite episodes from this book to discuss with my students is when the Time Traveller meets the Eloi. The accomplished man of science wanders into their world, expecting to find advancement and achievement, only to be disappointed by their mental degeneration. I talk with my students about how new technologies are often trade-offs—you get something great, but you typically must give up something in return, and how the Eloi evolved because of their preference for ease and comfort over doing things for themselves. By now it’s a familiar trope in sf—the society that has grown lazy because of its over-reliance on technology, but it is a powerful scene nevertheless. And even though this scenario is now a familiar idea, humanity has not always heeded its warning
Education: Words and Meaning
Full text linkThis first publication for the column, Education: Words and Meanings, describes the use and misuse of common research terms and words. These words are often used incorrectly and interchangeably, leading to confusion and misunderstanding, when accuracy and clarity are needed
The Science of Sand and Water
Full text linkSand and water play provides learning opportunities for young children to experiment with big concepts and fosters scientific inquiry. In using sand and water as a resource for learning, teachers observe preschoolers change and develop in their understanding of physical properties of the materials and see the child’s growing sophistication in understanding how the changes the children make affects the outcome of the play. In this article, teachers observe and scaffold children’s learning in the sand and water area based on cross cutting concepts from the Next Generation Science Standards and engage children in conversations that incorporate all disciplines
Mickey’s Christmas Carol at Forty
Full text linkThis year marks not only the 180th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, but also the 40th anniversary of Mickey’s Christmas Carol. This film is significant because it was the first time Mickey Mouse had appeared as a major character in a longer animation for many years, and because it served as a bright spot for Disney animation, which had experienced a drop in quality since Walt Disney’s death in 1966 that would last until the Disney Revival beginning with the release of The Little Mermaid in 1989. The voice acting, the animation (especially the sumptuous backgrounds), and the writing were all far superior to the animated feature-length films the Disney corporation had been producing for nearly two decades. For me, however, this production has a great deal of personal value. My parents recorded the network television premiere on VHS, and I watched it over and over. In it I found a different type of Christmas magic that had nothing to do with Santa and reindeer. It was a story of ghosts and other-worldly beings who shatter the stark realism of Scrooge’s counting house and Bob Cratchit’s poverty. It was a story that insisted upon the necessity to find good in the world, even in such a terrible miser. It was a story that taught me we are all interconnected and that we have obligations to one another. After a few years of watching Mickey’s Christmas Carol, I graduated to the VHS cassette my had father labeled “Versions of a Christmas Carol” that contained the adaptations starring Reginald Owen (1938), Alastair Sim (1951), and George C. Scott (1984). These films told the same story in different ways, and I became intrigued with the time period, with Dickens, and with the way a work of fantasy could comment on the social realities of our world. In many ways, Mickey’s Christmas Carol began me on my path to becoming a scholar of Victorian literature
Failing to Learn, Learning to Fail: Strategies to Create Empowered and Independent Learners
Full text linkIt’s hard to learn if we never make mistakes. The error. The stumble. The near win. These are all powerful self-teachers. Experts, in fact, guide themselves down the error-filled road to mastery. Pierce Brown (2016), in the epilogue to his novel Morning Star, provides a profound axiom for his readers: “Everything grand is made from a series of ugly little moments . . . All the works of people you and I admire sit atop a foundation of failures” (p. 523). This is the mindset we lose too often in the K-12 classroom. However, the culture of speed and the need to cover content persists, even in the chaotic aftermath of the recent school years where students juggled theuncertainties of in-person and remote learning. Many students navigated these experiences feeling like failures. Yet voices from inside and outside the education realm celebrate the same truth: failure is a key element of meaningful learning. As teachers, it is our responsibility to create learning environments that illustrate this truth in action. By using authentic examples from real-world innovators and creators, we send signals to our students that risks are the norm, uncertainty is an opportunity, and learning is not linear. When teachers surround students with proof that failure is a powerful learning tool, students will be more likely to start the unlearningprocess and embrace failing to learn, learning to fail as a way to navigate themselves down new paths toward deeper learning
Screen Time: Issues and Recommendations
Full text linkPicture this: Students fully engaged in class activities on their laptops with instructions projected digitally at the front of the room. Meanwhile, some students are discreetly texting on their phones - three devices vying for attention and requiring focus. We often hear about the drawbacks of spending too much time in front of screens, commonly known as screen time. However, what constitutes screen time? Are all forms of screen time equal or detrimental, or are there benefits? What recommendations exist, and how can parents and teachers mitigate the adverse effects of excessive screen exposure? Exploring these questions will yield insights and recommendations
The Impact of Authentic Early Childhood STEM Experiences on Cognitive Development
Full text linkEarly experiences in STEM education can contribute to positive cognitive development in young children. When students have the opportunities to play, inquire, follow their interests/curiosities, develop STEM identities, be creative, and operate within concrete/contextualized STEM explorations, they will experience expansive cognitive growth. Cognitive benefits include expanded thought capacity, increased creativity, better problem-solving abilities, a developing capacity for research, better exploration processes, and better observational powers. Implications for practice and recommendations for educators are discussed
USING GAMES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT AND UNDERSTANDING OF STATISTICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Full text linkIn this article we present a series of light-touch, easy to implement, classroom activities designed to improve students’ understanding and interpretation of regression coefficients. Using an experiment, we evaluate the effectiveness of the activities by randomly allocating first-year undergraduate students into a seminar with the activities (treatment group) or not (control group). We demonstrate that the classroom activities have a large, positive effect on several domains including engagement (measured by seminar attendance), enjoyment of learning (measured by an end-of-term student satisfaction survey), and their understanding of the material (measured by test scores). These results suggest that adopting more varied pedagogical approaches to teaching statistics/econometrics can benefit students
The Intersections of Epistolarity and Sentimentalism in The Sorrows of Young Werther and Frankenstein
Full text linkMary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is a text that literary critics have long noted for its formal complexity. From layering multiple narrative levels to incorporating epistolary narration, the novel stands out as a fusion of diverse literary forms that is as hybridized as the Creature it depicts. This narrative structure inevitably carries interpretive weight while also shedding light on literature’s ability to reflect and complicate the cultural values that shape it. Sentimentalism, in particular, is a prominent social ideal with which Frankenstein engages, and the novel’s formal qualities affect how sentimentalism functions in the text. For instance, Kirsten Martin notes that “Shelley’s frames layer on top of one another to guide the reader through all of the novel’s disparate pieces. This technique … creates the conditions for sympathetic engagement” between readers and characters (601-02). Similarly, Hyewon Shin posits that “the epistolary frame fosters affective connections between characters (letter writers) and readers (their addressees)” (546). Such scholars associate sentimental emotions with the novel’s epistolary, multi-level structure, a formal quality that Frankenstein shares with one of the many texts that its characters reference, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). Of course, the explicit mention of this work in Frankenstein is admittedly brief; however, both texts’ combining of epistolary and framed narrative structures merits a closer reading that considers the evolving relationships between literary forms and cultural values that these novels exemplify. In short, a comparison of these works will bring to light a structural and functional shift in epistolarity, beginning as a vehicle for communicating interior emotional experience and transitioning into a simultaneous call for and performance of outwardly focused sentimental response. This transition will help to elucidate Frankenstein’s Gothic complication and distortion of cultural values, such as, in this case, sentimentalism
Mental Health of Youth Athletes and the Role of Coaches
No full textIt is no secret technology has had a profound impact on shaping the twenty-first century. Computers are thinner, TVs are bigger, and shopping can be done from the comfort of one’s living room. Despite all these changes, one thing that has remained constant is people’s love of sports. Whether it was to watch the game, the commercials, or the halftime shows, the 2024 Super Bowl set the record as the most viewed telecast of all time with the 2023 Super Bowl being the previous record holder. Among these viewers were children across the country with dreams of playing in their own Super Bowl, World Series, WNBA/NBA Finals, or World Cup. To achieve these dreams, coaches can play a significant role in helping youth athletes develop mental and physical stamina to compete in sports at the highest level