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Preparing for an AI Future: How Educators and Businesses Approach AI Adoption
No full textBusinesses are rapidly adopting AI and GenAI tools to improve operational efficiency and outcomes. Meanwhile, education lags in AI adoption. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how businesses are leveraging AI and GenAI to achieve their goals and solve problems, while also examining how secondary educators, through the lens of the TPACK Framework, are preparing students to effectively use AI and GenAI tools. The TPACK model can evolve to include AI considerations and can structure a perspective from which to research the use and impact of AI and GenAI tools for educators. Teachers can improve their awareness and readiness to use AI through professional development. This enables teachers to utilize AI and GenAI tools in their pedagogical practices, which can lead to positive outcomes. In addition, teachers can develop AI literacy in students through formal education on AI concepts. This integration of AI into the educational environment will require financial and mental investment from schools, administrators, and educators to be successful
Among Friends Fall 2024 Vol 25 No 1
No full textContents: Welcome Matthew! What Drives Us Forward The Importance of Remembering Refreshing Library Spaces AI and the Library Scholarship Awarded New Books Footnoteshttps://spark.bethel.edu/library-newsletter/1043/thumbnail.jp
Trauma Informed Practices in Education
No full textTrauma-informed teaching has become widely known since the COVID-19 pandemic despite it being adopted into teaching practices after trauma-informed care was introduced by Harris and Fallot in 2001. Through the many years of research surrounding trauma and its impact on the brain of developing children, studies have addressed the in depth information on how trauma-informed teaching can pave the way of success for our students and support school personnel. This thesis will explore the research regarding trauma-informed care and teaching in order to further define what trauma is, how it can impact children and their learning process, how children perceive the impact of trauma, how teachers can develop their own knowledge of trauma-informed teaching, and how all of those pieces come together to make a cohesive puzzle
The Impact of Visuals and Graphic Organizers on Student Learning of Social Studies
No full textThis literature review examines the impact of nonlinguistic teaching methods on enhancing student learning. The review covers studies on using visuals, Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs), videos, and animations to improve vocabulary and content comprehension. Additionally, it investigates graphic organizers in both interactive and pre-made formats as tools to support learning. The findings indicate that combining nonlinguistic and linguistic approaches can significantly increase student understanding. Complex visuals should be paired with verbal explanations and sufficient processing time. Videos are particularly effective for illustrating complex vocabulary. Graphic organizers require careful scaffolding to minimize cognitive load. Premade graphic organizers are effective tools, especially when reviewed at the end of a lesson. Further research could identify the most effective nonlinguistic tools for high school social studies educators
Teachers’ Attrition: Relationship Between Principals’ Communication and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction
No full textThis study investigated the relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and teachers’ satisfaction with their salary, the number of years teaching, and the principals’ communication about the kind of school they want. Teacher attrition in the K–12 public school system is a well-documented problem citing many motives and causes. The recruitment of educators and retention of teachers in public schools has vastly decreased, creating a significant teacher shortage problem. Resulting complications are fewer applicants for open positions, applicants without the desired licensure, added stress on current teachers to fulfill duties, decreasing student academic progress, and dissatisfied teachers. This quantitative study used pre-existing data from the 2020–2021 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to determine the significance of Minnesota public school teachers’ job satisfaction in relation to teachers’ satisfaction with their salary, the number of years teaching, and the principals’ communication about the kind of school they want. The correlations were tested using a binary logistic regression. The results indicated teachers are more satisfied in the profession when principals communicate the kind of school they want. Teacher satisfaction with their salary was also highly correlated to overall job satisfaction, but the number of years teaching was not. Future research could compare teachers from various states using the same variables to determine if the results are similar across the nation. In addition, future research could narrow the scope of respondents to individual licensure areas and demographics to identify more potential focus areas
Better Understanding Race/Ethnicity and the Student Mental Health Crisis: Disproportionate Long-term Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThe study aimed to better understand elementary students’ mental health and well-being before and after the COVID-19 pandemic as well as whether there are differences in elementary students’ self-reported mental health between racial groups. Minnesota Student Survey results were analyzed, and the results of Bonferroni post-hoc tests found significant differences in worrying a lot and feeling sad between racial groups. Hispanic or Latino/Latina students are significantly more likely to worry a lot than all other racial/ethnic groups. Black, African, or African American students are significantly less likely to feel sad than all other racial/ethnic groups except White students. Hispanic or Latino/Latina students reported the largest increases in worrying and feeling sad between 2019 and 2022. Study findings hold implications for practice, including building educators’ cultural responsiveness, increasing mental health support in the schools, and implementing social-emotional learning in elementary schools
Interdisciplinary Unit Planning for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) to Support Multilingual Language Learners
Get PDFThe research conducted in this thesis intends to consider the possibilities within the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) to establish similar levels of interdisciplinarity as the rest of the IB continuum, specifically in the support of multilingual language learners (MLL), given the high numbers of students completing the coursework in their second or third language around the world. In considering various IB publications and the research conducted by Ecctis (2021), the basic framework for how to define interdisciplinarity in the Diploma Programme would be established, but the methodology and support for MLL students in this academic level would come from several other studies from both primary and secondary schools around the world, as current research for interdisciplinary teaching specific to the IBDP is limited. From these studies, where the key focus was the expansion of students’ grasp on literacy, academic language, and successful building of communicative skills, there were several patterns that were extracted that would be used in preparing an effective interdisciplinary unit plan for the IBDP: objectives around building literacy; integration of the arts through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), thematic considerations to unite the coursework, and a project-based planning model that would allow for a culminating task across disciplines and for students to use the combined academic language
Christian Leadership Development: A Christian Leadership Development Curriculum to Increase Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Using A Multifauceted Approach
Get PDFThis study delved into the need for, design, and evaluation of a Christian Leadership Development curriculum aimed explicitly at increasing Emotional Intelligence among leaders within the Christian faith through a multifaceted approach that blended Spiritual Practices, activities, and periods of reflection, all underpinned by Experiential Learning Theory. Adopting a qualitative case study research design, Christian leaders currently serving in a pastoral role participated in a two-session workshop series utilizing the Christian Leadership Development curriculum. An Emotional Intelligence self-assessment, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, was utilized both prior to participation in the workshops, and immediately following the workshops. Participants also completed a survey developed by the researcher before the workshop and another survey after the workshops were completed. The researcher also conducted two post-workshop interviews at approximately one month and three months after the workshops with individual participants. These sources provided the primary data used to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum at increasing Emotional Intelligence EQ competencies
40 HZ SOUND WAVE EFFECTS ON CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM: NITRIC OXIDE RELEASE IN COLLEGE-AGED INDIVIDUALS
No full textResearch is limited on the physical effects of sound waves on the human body. This study investigates whether sound waves can stimulate endothelial cells to release Nitric oxide (NO), potentially impacting cardiovascular metrics like blood pressure (BP), blood oxygenation (O2), and heart rate (HR), without involving the auditory response. Methods: Twenty-four Bethel University students (14 males, 10 females, average age 21.67 ± 1.34 years) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: sound (S) or no sound (NS). They attended two sessions within 10 days. During each session, BP was measured before and after 15 minutes of sound exposure or no sound. HR and O2 were recorded before, during, and immediately after each 15-minute session. The paired samples t-test on SPSS V28 showed no significant change in BP, HR, or O2 in the S and NS groups after 40 Hz exposure. However, comparing between groups, those exposed to sound had significantly higher O2 (p = 0.038) and lower HR (p = 0.005). With no significant changes in BP with sound exposure, the increase in O2 and decrease in HR suggest NO directly modulating HR independent of baroreflex modulation
Ferritin Screening for Nonanemic Iron Deficiency in Pregnancy
Get PDFIntroduction: With increased iron demand in pregnancy, accurate and timely diagnosis of iron deficiency is especially important since its symptoms are life-limiting or life-threatening. Screening for ferritin, an indicator of iron storage, could lead to early diagnoses of nonanemic iron deficiency (NAID), though there is currently no consensus on universal ferritin screening in pregnancy. The purpose of this review was to identify the incidence of NAID, the current evidence and guidelines for ferritin screening in pregnancy, to determine if ferritin is the most appropriate test, and if so, what cutoff level has the highest specificity and sensitivity. Methods: Using the Whittemore and Knafl methodology design, we searched PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Science Direct using the keywords ferritin AND iron deficiency AND screening AND pregnant women OR pregnancy. We restricted the search to full-text publications available in English, published in the last 10 years. We excluded studies featuring multi-fetal gestations, severe malnutrition, chronic severe disease, or high-risk pregnancies. This method yielded 23 articles from 16 countries, which we assessed for quality and then synthesized. Results: Studies represented 51,411 pregnant women and used different ferritin cutoff values to define NAID. Ferritin of 30 mcg/L had higher specificity and sensitivity for identifying iron deficiency. Ferritin concentrations were affected by inflammation. Ferritin was lowest in the second trimester due to hemodilution and increased iron demand. In the first trimester more participants had NAID (20.2%-70%) than anemia (1.9%-16%). NAID was associated with multiple risk factors and hemoglobin was insufficient to screen for it. Discussion: The studies in this review found that screening ferritin in the first trimester identifies NAID and provides time to intervene before delivery. Current screening methods detect iron deficiency anemia (IDA), the end-stage of iron deficiency. Guidelines are needed to identify and treat NAID. More research is needed regarding the relationship of inflammation to ferritin