Scholarly Works, School of Education
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- Instructional Designers as Organizational Change AgentsBond, Mark Aaron; Lockee, Barbara B.; Blevins, Samantha (Educause, 2023-10-31)Systems thinking and change strategies can be used to improve the overall functioning of a system. Because instructional designers typically use systems thinking to facilitate behavioral changes and improve institutional performance, they are uniquely positioned to be change agents at higher education institutions.
- Motivational climate predicts effort and achievement in a large computer science course: examining differences across sexes, races/ethnicities, and academic majorsJones, Brett D.; Ellis, Margaret; Gu, Fei; Fenerci, Hande (2023-11-13)Background The motivational climate within a course has been shown to be an important predictor of students’ engagement and course ratings. Because little is known about how students’ perceptions of the motivational climate in a computer science (CS) course vary by sex, race/ethnicity, and academic major, we investigated these questions: (1) To what extent do students’ achievement and perceptions of motivational climate, cost, ease, and effort vary by sex, race/ethnicity, or major? and (2) To what extent do the relationships between students’ achievement and perceptions of motivational climate, cost, and effort vary by sex, race/ethnicity, and major? Participants were enrolled in a large CS course at a large public university in the southeastern U.S. A survey was administered to 981 students in the course over three years. Path analyses and one-way MANOVAs and ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences between groups. Results Students’ perceptions of empowerment, usefulness, interest, and caring were similar across sexes and races/ethnicities. However, women and Asian students reported lower success expectancies. Students in the same academic major as the course topic (i.e., CS) generally reported higher perceptions of the motivational climate than students who did not major or minor in the course topic. Final grades in the course did not vary by sex or race/ethnicity, except that the White and Asian students obtained higher grades than the Black students. Across sex, race/ethnicity, and major, students’ perceptions of the motivational climate were positively related to effort, which was positively related to achievement. Conclusions One implication is that females, Asian students, and non-CS students may need more support, or different types of support, to help them believe that they can succeed in computer science courses. On average, these students were less confident in their abilities to succeed in the course and were more likely to report that they did not have the time needed to do well in the course. A second implication for instructors is that it may be possible to increase students’ effort and achievement by increasing students’ perceptions of the five key constructs in the MUSIC Model of Motivation: eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring.
- Preparing the Expert Novice: Preservice Teacher Thinking and Efficacy in Inquiry DesignBrugar, Kristy A.; Allen, Amy E.; Roberts, Kathryn L.; Ratcliff, Kamrin; Capps, Caitlin (Sage, 2023-11)In this study, we share the understandings and the reflections of preservice teachers as they engage in focus group interviews about inquiry in social studies, generally, and their reactions to publicly available Inquiry Design Model blueprints. These preservice teachers first discussed their understanding of inquiry, which was rooted in their university coursework. They then described their self-efficacy for implementing inquiry, generally, and the IDM blueprint, specifically, in their current field placements and future classrooms. This envisioned implementation often involved adaptations of the blueprints. Our goal in this research was to reconsider how preservice teachers experience and learn about social studies inquiry and, as a result of these experiences, whether and how they see themselves implementing social studies inquiry with students. This study can inform teacher educators to proactively address common barriers and better support preservice teachers.
- Whoz Ya People?: Musings from the Author on her Lumbee Children's BookHunt, Brittany (2023-10-26)
- Historically Native American Fraternities and Sororities (HNAFS): Women Reclaiming Space for Native Students in Higher EducationPeters, Brian; Hunt, Brittany; Faircloth, Melissa; Mcmillan, Ashley (IAP, 2023)
- Searching for safe space: Student veterans' uneven pathways to STEM careers by raceHunt, Brittany; Lim, Jae Hoon (Begell House, 2023)As the student demographics of higher education in the United States continue to diversify, as well as the United States military, the enrollment numbers of student veterans of color are on the rise. And while higher education has served as a space of knowledge, community, and self-discovery for many students, it maintains itself as primarily a space of White hegemony which has been the cause of persistent difficulties and traumas for students of color, whilst maintaining comfort and homogeneity for White students. This study focuses on the identity and relational experiences of three graduate student veterans, one White male, one White female, and one Black male, in their higher education journey as student veterans. This work examines the ways that the military and higher education provide privileged and normalized spaces of safety and belonging for Whiteness–even if these spaces are more haphazard for White women–while marginalizing Blackness by posing enormous challenges to Black veterans trying to find a support system on campus.
- Behold the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how to keep pace with workplace competencies in an ever-changing world of work!Mukuni, Joseph (IntechOpen, 2023-10-30)In recent years, the workplace has been changing constantly in terms of the nature of work and the processes, tools, and competencies required to support sustainable productivity and competitiveness of enterprises. The factors responsible for this change include massive technological innovations, demographic changes, and unforeseen circumstances such as the COVID -19 pandemic. These changes in work have exacerbated the alignment of skills supply and demand, putting pressure on providers of education and training to reform their curriculum content to include the in-demand technical and socioemotional competencies and the signature pedagogies best suited for the ever-changing curriculum content. This chapter identifies the Fourth Industrial Revolution with its attendant digital innovations as one of the key causes of change and proposes some pedagogical approaches to the teaching and learning of in-demand skills. The suggested pedagogies shift the burden of skills acquisition from the instructor to the learner through learner-centered methodologies that prepare students for lifelong learning, problem-solving, and interdisciplinary collaborative searches for solutions to unforeseen challenges associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution innovations.
- Impact of a regional community of practice for academic developers engaged in institution-level support for SoTLLukes, Laura A.; Abbot, Sophia; Henry, Dayna; Wells, Melissa; Baum, Liesl M.; Case, Kim; Brantmeier, Edward J.; Wheeler, Lindsay (Routledge, 2023-04)Academic developers play a key role in advancing instructor engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) at their higher education institutions, but face structural and epistemological isolation. To leverage the knowledge and experience of developers leading SoTL efforts at their respective institutions, a group of academic developers co-created a regional community of practice (CoP) centered on developing evidence-based strategic plans and programming models to advance SoTL at their. We describe the development and outcomes of this regional CoP. Future directions for the use of such a regional CoP model to collaboratively develop cross-institutional offerings are also discussed.
- Using Motivational Theories to Study Imposter Phenomenon Among AcademicsTaasoobshirazi, Gita; Hord, Amy; Vaughn, Ashley; Treadaway, Hailey; Johnson, Marcus Lee (2023-05-01)The present study analyzes Imposter Phenomenon (IP) through the lens of three different motivational frameworks. Expectancy Value Theory, Attribution Theory, and Self-Determination Theory were used to study IP among academics. With 72% of participants experiencing frequent or intense IP levels, IP was prevalent among those sampled. Females experienced higher IP than males, although race and first-generation status did not significantly impact IP levels. Post docs had higher IP scores than tenured faculty and full-time non-tenured faculty had higher IP scores than tenured faculty. Younger academics had higher IP scores. Analyses of the motivational frameworks showed significant differences by IP level.
- Validating a measure of motivational climate in health science coursesJones, Brett D.; Wilkins, Jesse L. M.; Schram, Ásta B.; Gladman, Tehmina; Kenwright, Diane; A. Lucio-Ramírez, César (2023-08-02)Purpose The aim of the study was to examine the validity evidence for the 19-item form of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory (College Student version) within health science schools in three different countries. The MUSIC Inventory includes five scales that assess the motivational climate by measuring students’ perceptions related to five separate constructs: empowerment, usefulness, success, interest, and caring. Background The 26-item form of the MUSIC Inventory has been validated for use with undergraduate students and with students in professional schools, including students at a veterinary medicine school, a pharmacy school, and a medical school. A 19-item form of the MUSIC Inventory has also been validated for use with undergraduate students, but it has not yet been validated for use with medical school students. The purpose of this study was to provide validity evidence for the use of the 19-item form in heath science schools in three different countries to determine if this version is acceptable for use in different cultures. If validated, this shorter form of the MUSIC Inventory would provide more differentiation between the Interest and Usefulness scales and could reduce respondent fatigue. Methodology Cook et al’s [1] practical guidelines were followed to implement Kane’s [2] validity framework as a means to examine the evidence of validity through scoring inferences, generalization inferences, and extrapolation inferences. Students (n = 667) in health science schools within three countries were surveyed. Results The results produced evidence to support all five hypotheses related to scoring, generalization, and extrapolation inferences. Conclusions Scores from the 19-item form of the MUSIC Inventory are valid for use in health science courses within professional schools in different countries. Therefore, the MUSIC Inventory can be used in these schools to assess students’ perceptions of the motivational climate.
- CoSINT: Designing a Collaborative Capture the Flag Competition to Investigate MisinformationVenkatagiri, 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.
- Organizational Communication through the lens of Ubuntu PhilosophyMukuni, Joseph (2023-04-27)Every teacher leader needs effective communication skills to succeed. Success entails getting things done through people by communicating to them what needs to be done, how, when, where, and why, in a manner that is clear and acceptable to them. The people with whom a teacher-leader needs to communicate include teachers, students, administrative staff, members of the public, and regulators of education and training. Within the school, the consequences of ineffective organizational communication include resentment, inertia, absenteeism, and a toxic workplace environment. This could lead to a high rate of teacher turnover, a phenomenon that can be very costly. Ineffective communication with external stakeholders such as the public, potential clients, and regulators of education and training can have an adverse impact on the institution’s mission, reputation, and survival This presentation suggests that in addition to the strategies that have traditionally been used to enhance organizational communication, teacher-leaders should consider adopting the African philosophy of Ubuntu that teaches traits which promote interpersonal harmony.
- Cognitive profiles in bipolar I disorder and associated risk factors: Using Wechsler adult intelligence scale-IVKo, Hayoung; Park, DongYeon; Shin, Jaehyun; Yu, Rina; Ryu, Vin; Lee, Wonhye (Frontiers, 2022-10)Background: Despite the growing evidence of cognitive impairments in bipolar disorder (BD), little work has evaluated cognitive performances utilizing the latest version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV), which is one of the most widely used neurocognitive assessments in clinical settings. Furthermore, clinical characteristics or demographic features that negatively affect the cognitive functioning of BD were not systematically compared or evaluated. Accordingly, the present study aimed to examine the cognitive profile of bipolar I disorder (BD-I) patients and associated risk factors. Methods: Participants included 45 patients, diagnosed with BD-I, current or most recent episode manic, and matching 46 healthy controls (HC). Cognitive performance was evaluated via WAIS-IV, and clinical characteristics of the BD-I group were examined via multiple self- and clinician-report questionnaires. Results: Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) results indicated that the BD-I group demonstrated significantly poorer performance compared to the HC group in subtests and indexes that reflect working memory and processing speed abilities. Redundancy analysis revealed that overall symptom severity, manic symptom severity, and anxiety were significant predictors of cognitive performance in BD-I, while age of onset, past mood disorder history, depression severity, and impulsiveness showed comparatively smaller predictive values. Conclusion: The current study suggests cognitive deterioration in the cognitive proficiency area while generalized ability, including verbal comprehension and most of the perceptual reasoning skills, remain intact in BD-I. The identified risk factors of cognitive performance provide specific clinical recommendations for intervention and clinical decision-making.
- Reconsidering resistance and challenges: Teacher agency during joint instructional inquiry with literacy coachesRobertson, Dana A.; Padesky, Lauren B.; Thrailkill, Darian; Frahm, Tia; Brock, Cynthia H. (Taylor and Francis, 2023)This qualitative study examined coach-teacher interactions among eight teachers, one administrator, and three university-based coaches in one rural elementary school. Framed within a theory of agency, we examined videos of coaching interactions as coaches and teachers debriefed and co-planned vocabulary instructional ideas stemming from a yearlong, schoolwide professional learning opportunity. We found that teachers’ agentive actions (i.e., intentionality, autonomy, reflectivity, efficacy doubt, principled resistance) were in response coaches’ talk that elicited reflection, sought clarification, expanded on instructional suggestions, and affirmed teachers’ contributions to coaching conversations. We also found that teachers’ challenges or resistance to presented vocabulary principles and literacy practices were not always acknowledged or taken up by the coaches. We conclude that reconsidering how and why teachers resist coaching suggestions might inform how we support and prepare coaches to work with teachers in ways that value and trust their individual contributions and prompt them to act agentively toward continuous improvement.
- Student Teachers’ Perceptions of Motivation, Independence, and Supervision Preferences: An Exploratory StudyFerand, N.; Coleman, B.; Bunch, J. (Advancements in Agricultural Development, Inc., 2022)The student teaching experience is one of the most impactful capstone experiences for the preparation of preservice teachers. The supervisor, either a cooperating teacher or university supervisor, plays a critically important role in the student teaching experience. The purpose of this study was to explore preservice teachers' perceived motivation and independence throughout their student teaching experience. It is recommended that early in the student teaching experience, a directive supervision style should be utilized. Then, as motivation starts to decline in the middle of the student teaching experience, the focus of supervision should shift to providing moral support and encouraging commitment to the profession of teaching. Recommendations for future research include replication of this study with future cohorts of student teachers across multiple institutions so data trends can be analyzed longitudinally. Additionally, it is recommended that future iterations of this study should administer a post-then version of the quantitative plotting instrument to control response shift bias.
- Chinese Students’ Perceptions of the Motivational Climate in College English Courses: Relationships Between Course Perceptions, Engagement, and AchievementLi, Ming; Jones, Brett D.; Williams, Thomas O.; Guo, Yingjian (Frontiers Media, 2022-05-23)Effective teachers create a motivational climate that engages students in course activities in ways that lead to increased learning and achievement. Although researchers have identified motivational climate variables that are associated with students’ engagement and achievement, less is known about how these variables are related in different courses and cultures. The purpose of the two studies presented in this paper was to contribute to this research literature by examining these associations within the context of college English courses in two Chinese universities. Specifically, we investigated the relationships between students’ perceptions of the motivational climate (i.e., perceptions of empowerment/autonomy, usefulness, success, interest, and caring), cognitive and behavioral engagement, and achievement. This is the first study to examine the connections between all of these variables in one path model in college English courses in China. We administered surveys at two different Chinese universities (n = 332 and 259) and used regression and path analysis to examine the relationships among the variables. We demonstrated that (a) students’ perceptions of the motivational climate were related to their cognitive engagement, (b) cognitive engagement was related to their behavioral engagement, and (c) behavioral engagement predicted their achievement. These findings are consistent with and extend the growing body of literature on motivational climate and engagement, and they highlight the importance of some motivational climate perceptions over others as significant predictors of cognitive engagement. We conclude that effective English language teachers in China do the following: help students to believe that they can be successful, trigger and maintain students’ interest, and empower students by providing them with choices in activities and assignments.
- Putting Things Into Focus: Using a Focus Inquiry Design Model (IDM) to Cultivate Cross-Disciplinary Connections in the Elementary ClassroomTackett, Mary; Pennington, Lisa K.; Fortune, Donna (Journal of the Virginia State Literacy Association, 2022-12)“I don’t have time to teach Social Studies!” In today’s classrooms, this lament is all too familiar. As teachers, finding time to address all required and necessary content in a single school day can be challenging. With a greater testing emphasis on language arts and math, ancillary subjects like science and social studies are often squeezed into the final minutes of the day, put into alternative rotation, or disregarded (Fitchett, et al., 2014; McGuire, 2007). The Inquiry Design Model (IDM), provides a cross-disciplinary solution for infusing social studies concepts into language arts instruction so that history can become an asset rather than an afterthought. In this article, we introduce the IDM and provide two concrete examples of how this model can be used in lower (K-2) and upper (3-5) elementary school settings. These examples provide a case for how teachers can implement this engaging instructional tool in their own classrooms to integrate social studies into language arts instruction.
- ARCritique: Supporting Remote Design Critique of Physical Artifacts through Collaborative Augmented RealityLi, 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.
- Moral injury and psychosocial functioning in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemicWeber, Marcela C.; Smith, Andrew J.; Jones, Russell T.; Holmes, Glen A.; Johnson, Alicia L.; Patrick, Rafael; Alexander, M. David; Miyazaki, Yasuo; Wright, Hannah; Ehman, Anandi C.; Langenecker, Scott; Benight, Charles C.; Pyne, Jeffrey M.; Harris, J. Irene; Usset, Timothy J.; Maguen, Shira; Griffin, Brandon J. (American Psychological Association, 2023-02)Studies of moral injury among nonmilitary samples are scarce despite repeated calls to examine the prevalence and outcomes of moral injury among civilian frontline workers. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of moral injury and to examine its association with psychosocial functioning among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed health care workers (N = 480), assessing exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) and psychosocial functioning. Data were analyzed using latent class analysis (LCA) to explore patterns of PMIE exposure (i.e., classes) and corresponding psychosocial functioning. The minimal exposure class, who denied PMIE exposure, accounted for 22% of health care workers. The moral injury-other class included those who had witnessed PMIEs for which others were responsible and felt betrayed (26%). The moral injury-self class comprised those who felt they transgressed their own values in addition to witnessing others’ transgressions and feeling betrayed (11%). The betrayal-only class included those who felt betrayed by government and community members but otherwise denied PMIE exposure (41%). Those assigned to the moral injury-self class were the most impaired on a psychosocial functioning composite, followed by those assigned to the moral injury-other and betrayal-only classes, and finally the minimal exposure class. Moral injury is prevalent and impairing for health care workers, which establishes a need for interventions with health care workers in organized care settings.
- Determining the Efficacy of Immediate Feedback Delivered to Students Enrolled in an Online Educational Research CoursePackard, Abbot L.; Holmes, Glen A.; Rowland, Stacey; Kayanuma, Bryce Platt (University of West Georgia Distance & Distributed Education Center, 2022-07-25)This paper will present and discuss the analysis of research findings to determine the efficacy of immediate feedback delivered in an online educational research course. Feedback delivered via two instructional strategies (problem-based instruction and multiple-choice content assessment) are compared for their impact on student learning outcomes.