Current Issues in Education (E-Journal, Arizona State University)
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Faculty's Perceptions of Students' Characteristics: A for Effort Please
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This pilot study explored how undergraduate students are perceived by higher education faculty regarding their initiative and abilities. Faculty tended to agree that students are engaged in class, but more specific skills and attitudes needed to perform successfully in college are not as apparent to them. Around half of faculty respondents with at least 10 years experience in higher education agreed these skills and abilities are declining. Emergent themes from comments suggest faculty believe students’ skills and work ethic have declined while their sense of entitlement (e.g., to high grades) has increased. Comments also suggest faculty believe the decline is a result of a lack of preparation in basic skills from secondary school, the overall culture and politics of secondary education, students’ unrealistic perceptions of the expectations in higher education, and students’ active lifestyles outside of classes.
 
Job Design for Special Education Teachers
Get PDFSpecial education teachers, especially those that teach students with behavioral/emotional challenges, have high attrition rates stemming from stress, job dissatisfaction, and low motivation. The external factors in the school setting and job contribute to special education teachers’ attrition and disengagement. A relationship between motivation and satisfaction to job characteristics is explored and applied to special educator’s role to determine the optimal job design. Designing the job of the special education teacher for participatory empowerment to address the factors associated with attrition, such as stress, lack of motivation, and low job satisfaction is recommended. This participatory effort requires a commitment from school administrators, professional development initiatives, and special education teachers.  
Human-Computer Interaction Factors in Designing Educational Video Games
Get PDF Educational video games present an opportunity to engage learners within immersive problem-solving experiences. Despite the potential benefits, educational video games may result in cognitive overload and thus preclude the informal learning benefits for those who lack experience. This study compared five males and five females when playing an educational video game. The goal of the study was to elucidate aspects that factor into the human-computer interaction and the subsequent learning engendered from these pedagogical tools. Descriptive data revealed that males improved in posttest scores to a greater degree when compared with females. Qualitative data was also gathered to ascertain educational video game aspects that were important to the human-computer interaction. Results suggest that concept interaction, sustained challenge, directions, and navigation might serve as instructional design principles for future educational video games construction.  
Urine Trouble: Drug Testing of Students & Teachers in Public Schools
No full textNon-individualized (so-called "random") drug testing in public schools presents issues of Constitutional law on both the federal and state levels, particularly with regard to citizens' freedom from "unreasonable searches and seizures." The trend toward increasing acceptance of such testing by the courts (and particularly the U.S. Supreme Court) stands in tension with public-health approaches to preventing abuse of psychoactive substances. This paper analyzes the major legal, social, and ethical challenges presented by random drug-testing in schools.  
Preventing the Development of Struggling Readers: Comprehension Instruction in the Science Classroom
No full textComprehension of text is developmental in that it begins with a child’s ability to listen and make sense of language. Though listening comprehension is often the predecessor towards reading comprehension; some children maintain difficulties in listening comprehension throughout schooling and into adulthood. Scaffolding plays an important part of a student’s learning, as teachers can gradually extend a student’s ability to understand texts of increasing difficulty and abstract content. The direct instruction of comprehension strategies such as the think-aloud facilitate the development of listening and reading comprehension simultaneously. This quasi-experimental study investigated the effectiveness of using a think-aloud strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension in science within a kindergarten classroom. Results depict that using think-alouds as a during-reading activity significantly increases a student’s comprehension in science class as compared to the control group. Findings provide relevant information about employing think-alouds as an instructional tool for teachers in the primary grade levels. 
Transfer of Active Learning Strategies from the Teacher Education Classroom to PreK-12th Grade Classrooms
Get PDFIn this study, researchers investigated the influence of modeling active learning strategies in an introductory foundations teacher preparation course: 1) on teacher candidates' perceptions of participating in active learning in the college classroom, 2) on participants' acquisition of course content, and 3) on participants’ later use of active learning strategies in their classrooms as practicing teachers. Results revealed there was a significant difference in teacher candidates' acquisition of course content in the course sections that incorporated active learning (AL) and ones that incorporated a traditional lecture format (TL). In addition, on a follow-up survey of participants who are now practicing teachers, there was little difference in the use of the active learning strategies; however, there was a difference in the level of conceptual understanding of the theories of human development and diversity and how that knowledge was utilized by the AL and TL groups in their classrooms. 
Investigating Characteristics of Award-Winning Grades 7-12 Mathematics Teachers from the Shandong Province in China
Get PDFInternational comparison studies indicate that Chinese students outperform many of their peers in mathematics tests and competitions. Since teaching is a major determinant in students’ learning gains, it is reasonable to hypothesize that this learning gap is associated with their teachers. The development of teaching expertise has not received sufficient attention in research investigations in mathematics education. By examining a group of award-winning grades 7-12 mathematics teachers from the Shandong province in China, this study identified the characteristics of these teachers and illuminated how their expertise had been developed over the years. The findings provide an insightful view of effective teaching practices in China from an international perspective.  
Twenty Years and Counting: A Look at Waldorf in the Public Sector Using Online Sources
Get PDF As the number of public Waldorf schools operating in the U.S. continues to grow, there is a need to examine the effectiveness of this approach in the public sector. This empirical study provides a beginning look at available quantitative and qualitative extant data on public Waldorf schools obtained from state and national websites. Available data included standardized tests and parent comment boards hosted by the independent source, GreatSchools.org. Public Waldorf schools were compared to their district standardized test scores in Reading and Math as well as matched comparison schools. Test score results suggested the Waldorf experience provided a slower academic build-up resulting in poorer test scores in the lower grades followed by higher levels of advanced performance in the 8th grade. Quantitative content analysis of parent comments supported the idea that public Waldorf is indeed a more holistic approach with greater emphasis on the arts, community and developmentally appropriate practice. Findings suggest standard measures of school quality may midjudge the effectiveness of holistic education particularly with regards to academics. Challenges for successfully bringing holistic education into the current cultural-political climate are discussed
Does Education Cause Spiritual Belief Change?
Get PDFCurrently, little is known about the influence classroom learning has on the spiritual beliefs of students. Despite this fact, decisions on educational policy, parental home schooling, and even whether to bring legal actions against school districts, often rest on the assumption that education can induce spiritual belief change. To begin the process of filling the current gap in academic knowledge, this qualitative interview study centers on the personal accounts of educational and religious histories of sixteen participants. The interview data collected suggests that education has a limited role in beginning the process of spiritual belief change, but that education is often relied on once an episode of belief revision begins to occur. Instead, major life events, such as the death of a family member, were often described as being the catalyst for spiritual belief change. The importance of emotion in both education and belief change is discussed
The Effects of Dual Enrollment Credit on Gender and Race
Get PDFThe researcher of this study examined dual enrollment and Huskins Bill course effects on academic success and graduation rates by gender and race. Quantitative statistical measures including parametric and non-parametric means comparisons, including ANOVA, t-test and chi-square tests, were used to analyze data from 15, 527 North Carolina community college students. The researcher found that dual enrollment and Huskins Bill courses showed positive effects on GPA and graduation rates for non-white students and positive effects in graduation rate for female students enrolled in community college programs.