VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Hicks, David"

Browsing by Author "Hicks, David"

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An Analysis of Highly Qualified Special Education Teachers in High Poverty Urban and Rural Areas
Campbell, Stephen Patrick (Virginia Tech, 2018-04-30)
The purpose of this study was to provide a descriptive analysis comparing highly qualified and non-highly qualified special education teachers in the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey. It examined how the qualifications of special education teachers varied among K-12 public schools according to the urbanicity of the school and the proportion of students in poverty within a school. Variables included those related to teacher qualifications, demographic characteristics, and school characteristics. The findings demonstrated that there were differences in the demographic characteristics of highly qualified and non-highly qualified special education teachers. There were no statistically significant differences found for urbanicity alone. There were statistically significant differences found for poverty levels. Statistically significant differences were also found for both highly qualified and non-highly qualified special education teachers when poverty quartiles were analyzed by urbanity locales. The findings emphasize the need to provide targeted interventions to promote, retain, and supply all schools with qualified special education teachers. The findings also indicate there is an unequal distribution of highly qualified special education teachers within identified poverty levels and urbanicity.
ARCritique: Supporting Remote Design Critique of Physical Artifacts through Collaborative Augmented Reality
Li, Yuan; Lee, Sang Won; Bowman, Douglas A.; Hicks, David; Lages, Wallace S.; Sharma, Akshay (ACM, 2022-12-01)
Critique sessions are an essential educational activity at the center of many design disciplines, especially those involving the creation of physical mockups. Conventional approaches often require the students and the instructor to be in the same space to jointly view and discuss physical artifacts. However, in remote learning contexts, available tools (such as videoconferencing) are insufficient due to ineffective, inefficient spatial referencing. This paper presents ARCritique, a mobile Augmented Reality application that allows users to 1) scan physical artifacts, generate corresponding 3D models, and share them with distant instructors; 2) view the model simultaneously in a synchronized virtual environment with remote collaborators; and 3) point to and draw on the model synchronously to aid communication. We evaluated ARCritique with seven Industrial Design students and three faculty to use the app in a remote critique setting. The results suggest that direct support for spatial communication improves collaborative experiences.
Biotechnology Education: An Investigation of Corporate and Communal Science in the Classroom
McLaughlin, John (Virginia Tech, 2006-05-04)
It is impossible to imagine our schools or community without framing such a view around a corporate structure. Money, capital, and economic stakeholders are all around us, building a corporate landscape that all members of the community must travel through in the course of their everyday lives. To suggest that education should be void of any type of economic influence would be to deny that a very important thread of our communities' tapestry exists. As we look at the way that these education intentions move outside our own communities and connect us to other communities and the world, we see corporate education economics framed in either a global or communal perspective. A corporate science education perspective tends to treat science with strict positivism, and technology with hard determinism. Communal theories of science education view science as post-positivistic and technology with a softer determinism; as a result social implications emerge, and the science becomes more socially constructed. It supports the personal capital of all students, regardless of their view of science or technology. It allows students to "border cross" more easily so they can "scaffold" new science information onto previous learning. This research consists of exploring how biotechnology education emerged within the state, how the resources intersected within a biotechnology conference and how teachers conceptualized biotechnology practices in their own classrooms. The researcher pieced together a sketch of the history of how biotechnology curriculum arose in high school biology classes. The researcher also explored the hybrid nature of biotechnology resources such as an educational conference where teachers attend workshops and lectures. The practices of two teachers in a public high school and one in a private school setting were also analyzed.
The Choices and Uses of Technological Tools in High School Government Classes
Wigginton, Erin O'Donnell (Virginia Tech, 2011-10-31)
The purpose of this study was to examine how government teachers make decisions regarding the type of technological tools they incorporate in their instruction. As a case study of two teachers, this work was oriented by the question: How are U.S. Government teachers' beliefs and perspectives about learning and teaching reflected in their pedagogical practice and use of technological tools. There is little work about how teachers prepare students for the 21st century. Teaching U.S. Government or about the U.S. government has been ignored in much of the research of social studies classes. Additionally, most studies that examine the use of technological tools in the social studies classroom have either investigated the use of non-digital tools specifically or the use of digital tools specifically. Few studies combine how social studies teachers use both non-digital and digital tools in their instruction. My goal was to shift the gaze and include the swirl of influences shaping U.S. Government teachers' decision-making process as when both types of technological tools are used with their classes. This study has its antecedents in my desire to examine Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, TPCK. TPCK is a theoretical framework that posits that technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge are the key elements to understand teachers' instructional choices. The findings in this study indicate that while TPCK can offer teachers a framework to help begin to understand knowledge bases one could consider when planning class instruction, it falls short of providing the complete picture necessary to describe teacher decisions.
Constructing Oneself as a Teacher of History: Case Studies of the Journey to the Other Side of the Desk by Preservice Teachers in England and America
Hicks, David (Virginia Tech, 1999-07-16)
The research described in this dissertation has its antecedents in my own experiences as a student and teacher of history in both England and the USA. Reflecting back on such experiences as a teacher educator in the US has led to a hypothesis that history teaching is conceptualized and performed differently by teachers in England and the US. This study used contrasting case studies of two English and two American preservice history teachers to illuminate and compare how the development of their understanding of history and evolving construction of self as history teacher influenced their everyday pedagogical performances as they began to teach history. Detailed portraits of teaching developed for this study show how the pedagogical approach to teaching history with an emphasis on developing historical understanding through learning the skills of the discipline of history in England contrast with the American emphasis on content coverage through the pedagogy of telling the tale of the past. The study revealed the participant's adherence to these two contrasting traditions in the teaching of history. This can be understood by examining two continually interweaving components: 1) well remembered events, and interactions associated with learning history and history teaching that form a "biographic conception" of history teaching, and 2) ongoing experiences and expected outcomes of planning and teaching history in a particular way. Within the scope of this study, particular attention was given to the participant's contextual understandings of: A) official history curriculum, B) their cooperating teacher and C) their students as they began to plan and teach history within their internship. The case studies compare and describe how the participants' biographic conceptions of both history and history teaching act as a filter through which the differing expectations of their respective history curriculum, their cooperating teacher and departments were mediated and negotiated. While the biographic conception of history exerted an enduring influence on their understanding of what it means to learn and study history in high school, the study revealed that the participants' ongoing classroom interactions with their students in conjunction with meeting the expectations of their cooperating teachers and departments constrained and limited the participants' perspectives as to what they believed was possible within the history classroom. The case studies here highlight the interactive forces and complexity of learning to become a teacher of history and have further implications for exploring the possibilities and constraints of two competing traditions in the teaching of history. This comparative study raises questions and opportunities for examining such epistemological questions as What is history? and How should it be taught in high school? The work shows that the role of history teacher can be and should be more than a teller of the tale of the past. It also highlights the problems faced by teachers and students when the primary goal of history is focused on the difficult task of learning historical skills and concepts. However, if the goals of history teaching in the US are truly for the development of knowledgeable, critically thinking citizens, then teacher educators must begin to provide opportunities and create communities of practice which encourage preservice teachers to not only break their attachment to the pedagogy of telling but also develop their skills to think historically to the end of organizing learning experiences that emphasize the doing of history within their classrooms.
Continuity and Change: Curriculum and Instruction in the World History Classroom
Shelburne, Suzanne P. (Virginia Tech, 2022-05-17)
This dissertation explores curriculum and instruction in the world history classroom through two manuscripts. These manuscripts describe the effects of educational policy and environmental contexts on the work of world history teachers. The first study analyzes the world history curriculum, and the second study looks at how curriculum was enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, these studies make visible trends of continuity and change in the world history curriculum and teacher decision-making. The first manuscript is a qualitative analysis of the representation of women and gender in Virginia's world history curriculum. This study examines the representation of women and gender in the curriculum by analyzing curricular choices and discourse within the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) and the Curriculum Frameworks. Through content analysis and critical discourse analysis, the study identifies a lack of inclusivity in the world history curriculum and addresses how language reproduces gender stereotypes and negates the contributions of women in comparison to their male counterparts. This study is important for two reasons. First, it adds to the literature on teaching world history which is a lesser researched content area in social studies. Second, it examines how curriculum can influence inclusivity and representation in the historical narrative. This study was recently published in the Iowa Journal for the Social Studies. The second manuscript is a qualitative case study that explores the educational and environmental contexts created by the COVID-19 pandemic and how these contexts affected the curricular-instructional decisions and pedagogical practices of four world history teachers. Initially, I planned to study the effects of teacher knowledge, specifically content knowledge, on the teacher-curriculum relationship. However, the focus shifted to teacher-decision making during the pandemic. This research is vital and useful because it addresses how teachers tried to continue as normal during uncertain times. Data collection included classroom observations, participant interviews, and analysis of instructional materials. Findings reveal that teachers relied on the continuity of the curriculum while changing methods of instructional delivery, adapting classroom assessment practices, and modifying existing assignments. The most promising finding of the study reveals that teachers employed formative assessments to check for understanding and the presence of remote students. Teacher decisions show evidence of pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of students, and knowledge of contexts. The research shows that teachers made curricular-instructional decisions in reaction to pandemic educational contexts, but these choices often aligned with the research on effective and wise practice in areas like classroom assessment.
Controversial Issues in United States History Classrooms: Teachers' Perspectives
Nichols-Cocke, Cathy Marie (Virginia Tech, 2014-05-04)
The purpose of this study was to understand how secondary level United States History teachers approached controversial issues in their standards-based, high-stakes testing classrooms. Controversial issues consisted of multiple points of view, were socially constructed, and had the potential to challenge belief systems. The audience and their perception of a topic determined the degree of controversy. The questions explored were what factors did secondary level United States History teachers identify as influential in creating controversy in their classrooms and how did they introduce what they considered controversial issues into their standards-based, high-stakes testing classrooms? To answer these questions, twelve secondary level teachers who taught 6th, 7th, or 11th grade United States History participated in this study. Information was garnered through interviews of individuals and focus groups. Some participants provided resources used in their lessons and scenarios of their teaching experiences. My principle findings were: • Place played a role in teachers' willingness to incorporate controversial issues into their classrooms. This was due to students' preconceived notions developed by their geographical location and family. • The experiences of teachers and students influenced discussion of controversial issues. This included how long the teacher had taught the content or past experiences with parents and administrators. Students' experiences were derived from their family and community, which influenced incorporation of controversial issues. • Teachers were influenced by the standards they were required to teach. Though some saw these as a restriction in teaching, others used them as a springboard to what they perceived as deeper, meaningful teaching.
CoSINT: Designing a Collaborative Capture the Flag Competition to Investigate Misinformation
Venkatagiri, Sukrit; Mukhopadhyay, Anirban; Hicks, David; Brantly, Aaron F.; Luther, Kurt (ACM, 2023-07-10)
Crowdsourced investigations shore up democratic institutions by debunking misinformation and uncovering human rights abuses. However, current crowdsourcing approaches rely on simplistic collaborative or competitive models and lack technological support, limiting their collective impact. Prior research has shown that blending elements of competition and collaboration can lead to greater performance and creativity, but crowdsourced investigations pose unique analytical and ethical challenges. In this paper, we employed a four-month-long Research through Design process to design and evaluate a novel interaction style called collaborative capture the fag competitions (CoCTFs). We instantiated this interaction style through CoSINT, a platform that enables a trained crowd to work with professional investigators to identify and investigate social media misinformation. Our mixed-methods evaluation showed that CoSINT leverages the complementary strengths of competition and collaboration, allowing a crowd to quickly identify and debunk misinformation. We also highlight tensions between competition versus collaboration and discuss implications for the design of crowdsourced investigations.
A Cross-National Study of Civic Knowledge Test Scores
Gregory, Christopher Ryan (Virginia Tech, 2015-10-23)
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among student civic knowledge scores and several different variables each at the student, classroom/school, and national levels using the IEA CIVED study international data set collected in 1999 from 27 countries. The student level predictors included two elements of socioeconomic status (a student's parental education, their home literacy level measured by the number of books at home), student's perception of an open classroom climate, student aspiration of obtaining higher education, and other variables that were identified as relevant to the dependent variable in the literature. The classroom/school level predictors included teacher's degree in civics, in-service training, teaching confidence, and school safety in addition to the compositional variable created as the classroom/school averages by aggregating the student level variables. Then I investigated whether instructional methods focusing on the student activities the teacher employed in the classroom and an open classroom climate were associated after accounting for the above student and school level background variables. National level variables such as GNP, GINI index, democratic system, public education expenditure, and etc. as well as compositional variables obtained by aggregating the classroom/school variables were also added to the model to investigate if they were associated with students' civic knowledge scores and whether they could explain between nations variability. The study used a three-level hierarchical linear model to analyze the data, with number of students, N=56,579, number of classrooms/schools, J=3443, and number of countries, K=27. Some of the key findings was that there were significant variations of civics knowledge among nations, and significant variations of civic knowledge scores between school and within nations, no statistically significant association between teacher's practice and civics knowledge scores, however the student perception of an open classroom climate was significant at all 3 levels. These findings were interpreted in terms of policies and practices that could be implemented to improve students' civic knowledge.
Developing Heuristic Evaluation Methods for Large Screen Information Exhibits Based on Critical Parameters
Somervell, Jacob Paul (Virginia Tech, 2004-07-07)
Evaluation is the key to effective interface design. It becomes even more important when the interfaces are for cutting edge technology, in application areas that are new and with little prior design knowledge. Knowing how to evaluate new interfaces can decrease development effort and increase the returns on resources spent on formative evaluation. The problem is that there are few, if any, readily available evaluation tools for these new interfaces. This work focuses on the creation and testing of a new set of heuristics that are tailored to the large screen information exhibit (LSIE) system class. This new set is created through a structured process that relies upon critical parameters associated with the notification systems design space. By inspecting example systems, performing claims analysis, categorizing claims, extracting design knowledge, and finally synthesizing heuristics; we have created a usable set of heuristics that is better equipped for supporting formative evaluation. Contributions of this work include: a structured heuristic creation process based on critical parameters, a new set of heuristics tailored to the LSIE system class, reusable design knowledge in the form of claims and high level design issues, and a new usability evaluation method comparison test. These contributions result from the creation of the heuristics and two studies that illustrate the usability and utility of the new heuristics.
Development and Evaluation of Virtual World Instruction Based on a Constructivist Learning Environment Design Framework
Dannenberg, David Randall (Virginia Tech, 2014-01-16)
By their very nature, physical classrooms limit the external resources that are readily available to teachers and students. However, many educators desire to expand the student's learning environment to include outside resources (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009; NCSS, 2010; U.S. Dept. of Education, 2004). Much of this desire is due to the influence of constructivism; however, many teachers are without the knowledge and resources to implement a Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) (Diem, 1999; Mason et al., 2000; Swan and Hofer, 2008). Therefore, how to create a suitable community-driven learning environment that allows classroom teachers to utilize resources outside their immediate location is a problem faced by many of today's educators. Past research has identified five key attributes any CLE must incorporate: embedded within realistic and authentic environments, allow for communication and collaboration among and between students, teachers and mentors, allow for multiple perspectives and views to be seen and shared, promote a student's self-awareness and self-reflection, and allow the learner to be autonomous (Jonassen, 1994; Driscoll, 2005). When considering this list against technological affordances, the one technology that appears capable of fulfilling these requirements is virtual worlds (Kemp and Haycock, 2008). Designed as a developmental research study, this research validates the use of virtual worlds as a development tool when building a CLE within the K-12 environment.
The Development of GIS Instructional Model to Facilitate Authentic Intellectual Work in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms in Kuwait
Alazmi, Huda Salem (Virginia Tech, 2020-04-24)
The adoption of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in social studies classroom practices has helped accelerate the achievement of educational goals. However, despite the value that GIS possesses for supporting student learning skills, few schools have adopted it so far. A reason for this deficiency lies in the absence of specific instructional models that demonstrate possible methods for incorporating GIS into class curriculum. This study sought to address this problem, tailored specifically for Kuwaiti social studies classrooms, with the design, development, and validation of a GIS Instructional Model to facilitate AIW. The study employed a design and development research methodology, comprised of five major phases, (i) selection of model components and theoretical foundation, (ii) analysis and development, (iii) formative feedback, (iv) revision, and (v) usability evaluation. In phase one, the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) format and components with AIW framework were selected to provide basic guidelines for the GIS Instructional Model. In phase two, following a comprehensive review of relevant academic literature, and in combination with personal experience, the researcher developed a preliminary GIS Instructional Model. In phase three, two expert reviewers evaluated the model, delivering their opinions by completing an online survey and taking part in follow-up interviews. The expert reviewers were primarily tasked with determining the model's ability to facilitate AIW in a social studies classroom, and providing suggestions for improving its performance. In phase four, the details gleaned from this formative feedback phase were then used to revise the model and enhance its effectiveness. In the last phase, six Kuwaiti expert reviewers assessed this updated version of the GIS Instructional Model to determine what barriers it might face regarding its implementation in the Kuwaiti educational system. They completed an online survey as part of this process and provided possible solutions to address perceived barriers. The data gained from expert reviewer feedback in these formative and usability evaluation phases were analyzed using qualitative methodologies. This step-by-step procedure helped to validate the model. As a result, a ready-to-implement teaching model, with all necessary teaching materials and instructions, was developed for Kuwaiti social studies classrooms. This model is proposed to enable social studies teachers to better understand how to integrate GIS into their classrooms to support AIW. Recommendations are provided for Kuwaiti educational policymakers and stakeholders to help overcome perceived obstacles that may hinder model implementation; suggestions for future research are also included.
Dewey, Disability, and Democratic Education
Mullins Jr, Ricky Dale (Virginia Tech, 2019-04-22)
This dissertation is comprised of three manuscripts that coalesce around the topics of Dewey, Disability, and Democratic Education. Each manuscript is formatted for publication and the dissertation itself is prefaced by information that explains my background and how it connects to my current research. As such, the work contained in this dissertation is a product of my experiences as a social studies teacher, special educator, and administrator. Henceforth, my work focuses on Dewey, Disability, and Democratic Education. My research interests culminate in a three-article dissertation. The first paper is entitled, "Using Dewey to Problematize the Notion of Disability in Public Education." A version of this paper is currently under review for publication. In this paper I situate Dewey's theoretical underpinnings in the conversation around special education. Previous scholars of Dewey and disability have examined the ways in which his work speaks to educational growth and educational opportunity; my work adds to this body of research. However, my work is unique in that not only do I discuss pluralistic, communicative, participatory democracy as it pertains to students with disabilities, I also examine how Deweyan democracy can take shape, specifically within the context of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting. I conclude by arguing that Deweyan democracy is not only ideal, but realistic, attainable, and necessary, especially in the lives of students with disabilities. In my second paper, I use the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) dataset in a paper entitled, "Can We Meet Our Mission? Examining the Professional Development of Social Studies Teachers to Support Students with Disabilities and Emergent Bilingual Learners." A version of this paper has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Social Studies Research. In this work, I first examine the social studies scholarship looking at students with disabilities and emergent bilingual learners, as well as research about the nature of professional development within the social studies. I then analyze the number of students with disabilities and emergent bilingual learners that we support in the social studies to provide a portrait of the field. Next, I examine the extent to which social studies teachers receive professional development to support those student groups, as well as the extent to which the social studies teachers found the professional development to be useful. My findings indicate that social studies teachers do not receive substantial professional development to support the learning of all students, as evidenced by the limited amount of professional development received focusing on students with disabilities and emergent bilingual learners. In my third paper, I build on previous research examining the possibilities and benefits of participating in informal learning spaces such as Twitter in a paper entitled, "'So I Feel Like We Were Theoretical, Whereas They Actually Do It': Navigating Twitter Chats For Teacher Education." A version of this paper is also under review for publication. In this paper, specifically, I examine the experiences and perceptions of pre-service social studies teachers who particip¬¬¬¬ated in a discipline specific Twitter chat known as #sschat. My findings indicate that pre-service teachers found value in the chat when they were able to share resources with practicing teachers and build professional learning networks. However, there were instances when the pre-service teachers felt like they contributed little because they did not have direct experience with teaching. Additionally, the pre-service teachers expressed dissatisfaction with using Twitter as a platform for professional chats. However, I still contend and conclude that the utility of such chats outweighs the negatives. Therefore, this study sheds light on the potentiality and necessity of utilizing Twitter chats as a space to provide ongoing and systematic support to pre-service teachers to help not only them, but the field of social studies education move forward. These papers when considered together form a foundation of scholarship and further inquiry focused on Dewey, Disability, and Democratic Education, on which I plan to build in the years to come.
Early Career Special Education Teachers in High-and Low-Poverty Districts: A Comparison of their Qualifications, Work Conditions, and Career Commitments
Fall, Anna-Maria (Virginia Tech, 2008-12-10)
I used teacher data from the Study of Personnel Needs in Special Education (SPeNSE) to compare the characteristics, qualifications (e.g., credentials, preservice preparation, self-efficacy, and induction) and work conditions (e.g., school support, work manageability and induction support) of early career special education teachers in high- and low-poverty districts and the effects of these variables on teacher commitment. Organized as a set of thee articles, this research presents findings from a nationally representative sample of 935 early career special education teachers. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analyses, and logistic regression. Significant differences were found in the credentials and preparation of teachers working in high poverty vs. more affluent districts, with those in high poverty schools having fewer credentials and less preparation. In contrast, the two teacher groups reported similar induction opportunities and gave themselves comparable ratings on both self-efficacy and in skillfulness in various work tasks. Teachers in high poverty districts also reported less desirable work conditions than their counterparts in more affluent districts. When compared to teachers in low poverty districts, those in less affluent districts viewed their principals and colleagues as less supportive, perceived less involvement in school decisions, reported having fewer materials, and indicated higher and more diverse caseloads. In contrast, the two teacher groups reported similar professional development and induction opportunities. Finally, logistic regression results suggest that problems with work manageability were negatively related to teacher commitment, whereas positive school support and good match between preparation and assignment positively influenced teachers' commitment. However, district level of poverty, district support, and perceived helpfulness of induction support were not significantly related to teachers' commitment. These studies draw attention to inequalities in the education of students with disabilities in high poverty districts; and emphasize the critical need not only to recruit and prepare qualified teachers for high poverty schools, but also to address disparities in work conditions. Policymakers and educational leaders concerned with fostering teachers' commitment should consider developing supportive work environments, involving teachers in decision making, and creating manageable work assignments.
The Effects of Substitute Teacher Training on the Teaching Efficacy of Prospective Substitute Teachers in the State of West Virginia
Trull, Cheryl (Virginia Tech, 2004-04-05)
Teacher absenteeism, retirement, and attrition have led to a widespread shortage of substitute teachers throughout the United States , resulting in the hiring of individuals who lack teacher certification and educational pedagogy. In the past decade, West Virginia joined many other states confronted with the decreased substitute teacher pool and the hiring of non-certified individuals in the classrooms. With the highly qualified teacher requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), focus was situated on the adequate qualifications of substitute teachers. Many substitute teachers do not have the educational pedagogy or teacher certification necessary to be considered highly qualified by the NCLB. Mandatory training for non-certified substitute teachers lacking proper certification and educational pedagogy became the focus to qualify these individuals for the classroom. This study focuses on the self-efficacy of non-certified individuals attending the substitute teacher training in the Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs) in the state of West Virginia to determine if their self-efficacy beliefs change after two days of mandatory substitute training or after classroom experience. The Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy (2001) was the instrument used to measure the self-efficacy of non-certified substitute teachers. Findings indicate that the teaching self-efficacy of non-certified substitute teachers significantly increased from pre-training to post-training, but significantly decreased from post-training to post-teaching experiences. Additionally, findings revealed that age and gender did not have a significant influence on self-efficacy from pre-training, to post-training, to post-teaching. Finally, applications and ramifications of these results are then discussed.
The Effects of Training, Modality, and Redundancy on the Development of a Historical Inquiry Strategy in a Multimedia Learning Environment
McNeill, Andrea Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2004-08-24)
Research in the area of multimedia instruction has yielded results that indicate that learning is better when verbal information is presented auditorily instead of visually (i.e. modality effect) and when redundant on-screen text is removed from the instructional environment (i.e. redundancy effect). The present study aimed to extend these findings by exploring the effects of presentation modality and redundancy of verbal information on students' ability to apply and recall a historical inquiry strategy. Fifty-six students were randomly assigned to three treatment groups, which differed according to the presentation mode combination used to present the strategy instruction. Specifically, students received the instruction either as animation and narration, animation and text, or animation, narration, and text. The students were engaged in a multimedia strategy intervention for a total of five days, for approximately 25 minutes a day. Three strategy application tests (i.e., pre-test, post-test, maintenance test) and a recall test were used to measure the students' learning. Data attained through the strategy application tests and recall tests were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedures. The results of the study revealed significant differences in the training main effects analysis indicating that strategy instruction can be effectively provided in a multimedia learning environment. However, no significant differences were found for the modality and redundancy main effects indicating that there was no difference in strategy application or recall between the groups. Although the results did not provide the statistical significance that supports the literature on the modality and redundancy effects, the implications of the findings of the research provide several viable areas for future research.
Examining Holocaust education museum-initiated professional development: The perspective of museum educators during planning and implementation
Pennington, Lisa Kelly (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-28)
Museums today frequently consider education as one of their priorities. As such, museum administrators will provide resources, field trips, or professional development opportunities to support teachers and schools. In an era of high-stakes testing, museums, like schools, are also influenced by standards that may dictate what information is taught and when. Therefore, to remain relevant and useful to school systems, museums have altered their educational practices to align with standards. Some museums choose to provide professional development workshops for educators that focus on a topic included within those standards. The Holocaust, a topic that is mandated by over 30 states, is an example of one such topic—albeit one that might also be difficult or controversial to teach. A regional Holocaust Museum that has chosen to provide a weeklong professional development opportunity for educators on teaching the Holocaust serves as an example of a museum providing support to local school divisions. However, the literature indicates that museums and teachers, while both working toward the goal of educating students, often have little communication with each other. While multiple studies have examined how teacher participants react to professional development workshops, far less attention has been paid to those that plan such opportunities. The multi-tiered issue of interest, then, is that little is known about how museum educators plan a Holocaust-related professional development opportunity, what role they play in workshop implementation, and what they consider to be crucial when preparing teachers to cover the topic This qualitative inquiry focused on understanding how museum educators planned and presented a weeklong Holocaust education workshop for teachers. The research question was developed to determine how museum staff members understand the Holocaust and Holocaust education, and how that understanding influenced their role when implementing the workshop. Data collection methods included observation and semi-structured interviews. Analysis methods utilized in this study included first and second cycle coding methods, as well as episode profiles for each participant. The key finding from this investigation suggests that museum educators' understanding of the Holocaust and Holocaust education greatly shaped their planning processes, as well as the role they fulfilled in workshop implementation. Though museum staff members agreed that the Holocaust is difficult knowledge, they each approached the topic and how it should be taught in a different manner. The implications of this study, its limitations, and suggestions for future research are detailed herein.
Exploring Design Thinking for Instructional Practice
Banks-Hunt, Joan Maria (Virginia Tech, 2021-02-10)
This dissertation entitled, Exploring Design Thinking for Instructional Practice, is situated in the cognitive rigor of design thinking instructional practice and engineering design-based capstone courses. The content of the instructional practice connects with educators employing a wide range of intellectual activities or cognitive tasks in formulating their curriculum. Key attributes of design thinking were identified through a focused literature review with an emphasis on theoretical propositions applicable to instructional practice. This dissertation contains two manuscripts: (a) an exploration of the theoretical literature related to design thinking explicating implications for instructional practice, and (b) a case study involving a small, purposive, sample of undergraduate faculty members teaching engineering design-based courses with findings broadly applicable to design processes in college curricula. The faculty participants in the case study were educators at a large, public, research-intensive university in the southeastern region of the United States. The data analyses involved triangulation of semi-structured interviews conducted with faculty participants and their design-based course materials, including syllabi and lesson plan materials. The study's thematic findings were not tied to engineering but rather course design, design process, and course management. The findings show the utility of artifact creation for learning with understanding for everyone, not just engineers and other traditional designers. Overall, the dissertation contributes to pedagogy that promotes student-centered engagement for learning with understanding. It recommends design thinking instructional practice for inclusion in designing and making artifacts of constructed knowledge for learning with understanding engagements across the academy.
Factors Influencing the Persistence and Non-Persistence of African American Students in Scientific Majors at a Predominantly White University
Green, Andre M. (Virginia Tech, 2006-04-26)
Factors that influenced African Americans to persist or not persist within their scientific major while matriculating at a predominantly White university guided the focus of this study. The study explored the perceptions of African Americans that were both persistent and non-persistent within with their scientific major in order to gain a better understanding of what steps could be taken for the retention and encouragement of more African Americans in these fields at a predominantly White university. The study explored other factors besides intelligence that inhibited or promoted the success of African Americans in scientific fields. The study was qualitative in nature and participant interviews provided the data for the study. Actor network theory was used as a theoretical framework for exploring the factors that caused students to persist or not persist within a scientific major with the major implications of the study being: (1) The persistence of students had more to do with the open and closed networks they participated in rather than their intellect; (2) The student development of networks aligned with their ability to overcome the negative images associated with them in science; (3) Students’ development of closed networks were a means of protection.
The Floatplane Controversy: Proscription, Procedure, and Protection in Carroll County, Virginia, 1992
Wesdock, Ryan Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-19)
In March of 1992, Marion Goldwasser, a teacher at Carroll County High School in Virginia, came under fire for her use of the book, The Floatplane Notebooks, in her classroom. A local preacher and several parents objected to six pages which contained sexual content. Over the next three months, residents throughout Southwest Virginia entered into a debate over the merits of the book, and more broadly the purpose of education. This debate roughly divided into three camps with different perspectives not just on how to proceed, but on the very nature of the controversy itself. These camps were those who felt the controversy was primarily about the censoring of books, those who were primarily concerned with the proper procedure by which the book should be reviewed, and those who saw the book as a moral affront to religious, Christian values. These disputes remained intractable throughout the controversy reflecting underlying disagreements about the ethical role of state power, the public nature of public schools, and the connection between power and knowledge. By understanding these underlying intellectual causes for the intractability of censorship disputes, historians can engage other academics and the public on this important issue. Engagement can take multiple forms, including writing in handbooks designed to help educators deal with such controversies, writing amici curiae briefs on relevant First Amendment cases, and encouraging a broader and more lucid public discussion on censorship and free speech.

Browsing by Author "Hicks, David"

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