Scholarly Works, School of Education

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https://hdl.handle.net/10919/23745

Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Personality traits in describing entrepreneurial intentions: a sequential mixed methods study
Neupane, Sagar M.; Bhattarai, Prakash C.; Lowery, Charles L. (2025-05-09)
Entrepreneurship is shaped by personality traits and driven by personal intention, and it is crucial for economic mobility and societal progress. Despite being an underexplored area, the relationship between traits and entrepreneurial intention is vital for understanding how educational entrepreneurs differ from non-entrepreneurs. This study used a mixed-methods approach to investigate how personality traits influence entrepreneurial intentions. The study’s first phase was a survey of 171 teachers and 125 school owners, employing a validated scale to identify traits such as need for achievement, ambiguity tolerance, enthusiasm, creativity, locus of control, and risk-taking. The results showed that these traits collectively explained 89% of entrepreneurial intention, with enthusiasm as the strongest predictor. The second phase involved case studies of four individuals with extreme trait scores, revealing that school owners possessed stronger traits and excelled at resource utilization and overcoming challenges, unlike the schoolteachers—the non-entrepreneurs. Findings revealed that stronger personality traits significantly impact entrepreneurial intention. The contrasting result was found in individuals with weaker traits characterized by their favor toward traditional job security. The findings enhance our understanding of the psychological drivers behind entrepreneurial intentions and the implication of cultivating these traits through program interventions for entrepreneurship. Recommendations include policy makers fostering specific traits by creating enabling environments and supporting educational entrepreneurs in developing personal confidence and traits like risk-taking and adaptability. The study also calls for a cultural shift to prioritize entrepreneurship over traditional employment.
Technology Education and Designerly Ways of Knowing: The Pedagogical Goal of Design is Understanding
Wells, John G. (2019-11)
Improving student understanding by connecting content and practices through curricula that integrates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been a national priority in the United States for well over half a century. This educational reform has resulted in the U.S. now fully embracing technological/engineering design based learning (T/E DBL) strategies as a means of ensuring STEM integration and achievement of student understanding. Student understanding is the principal learning outcome to be attained through T/E DBL where the instructional goal is explicit in “having students design to understand” when working toward the development of a viable technological and/or engineering solution that meets a human need (Wells, 2016, pp. 14-15). Immersing students in T/E DBL experiences develops their habits-of-hand (designerly abilities) that intentionally leads to their developing the habits-of-mind (designerly ways of knowing) requisite of true understanding. As an approach to acquiring knowledge and achieving understanding, designerly ways of knowing (Cross, 1982) is unique to the T/E design based learning approach. This article provides classroom exemplars as a means of demonstrating how T/E DBL uniquely imposes on learners a need-to-know requiring them to draw on multiple STEM subjects as they move between convergent thinking (what they know) and divergent thinking (what they need to know) when working to learn the content knowledge and practices needed in designing technological or engineering solutions.
Design Based Biotechnical Learning: Distinct Knowledge Forms Supporting Technology and Science Conceptual Understanding
Wells, John G. (Brill Sense, 2021)
Schooling is the means through which literate populations are prepared. Literacies developed in the humanities, sciences, maths, and technologies all reflect different forms of knowledge (Hirst, 1965). Each knowledge form has their own distinctive ways of coming to know, which employs a discrete set of intelligent actions recognized as a Knowledge Acquisition Heuristic (KAH) unique unto that knowledge form. STEM education reform over the past several decades has given rise to design, technological and engineering specifically, as an accepted knowledge form, inclusive of its own discrete knowledge acquisition heuristic. Accepting design as a distinct knowledge form calls for a paradigm shift in technology education that recognizes understanding as the primary learning outcome of design where solving ill-structured design problems, tame or wicked, is the pedagogical framework within which learners design to understand (Wells, 2016a). A logical step toward acceptance entails a pedagogical paradigm shift to (a) recognize design as a unique knowledge form, (b) distinguish problem solving in science from that in design, (c) intentionally teach, with disciplinary fidelity, inherent co-occurring disciplinary concepts, and (d) unpack the instructional strategies used in guiding learners through phases of design toward conceptual understanding. Biotechnology is a content area within the field of technology education that is well suited for explicating the elements of just such a pedagogical paradigm shift where conceptual understanding is the primary learning outcome of design. Biotechnical systems reflect a complex and dynamic set of relationships between the biological requirements and the technological systems necessary to support the biology. Designing biotechnical systems naturally imposes on the designer a need to be knowledgeable of the disciplines inherent within the development of a functional artifact proposal. The biotechnical designer must be able to draw on the full breadth of their disciplinary content and practice knowledge associated with thinking and working across differing disciplinary perspectives. These cognitive demands foster the seamless development of critical thinking necessary for achieving a conceptual understanding of systemic relationships among the biological and technological components. As a pedagogical approach, Design Based Biotechnical Learning engages learners in design with the educational intent of having them achieve deep understandings of targeted technology and science concepts – learners design to understand.
“Lots of talk, but nothing formal”: Exploring administrators' sensemaking about the recruitment and retention of women of color faculty in STEM
Lane, Tonisha B.; Woods, Johnny C.; Johnson, Whitley M.; Johnson Austin, Saundra (2023-10-02)
Exploring institutional retention support initiatives for retaining women of color STEM faculty
Lane, Tonisha B.; Woods, Johnny C.; Huggins, Natali; Darko, Samuel; Tahir, Faika; Johnson Austin, Saundra; Kos, Lidia (2023-06-25)
Exploring the Importance of Bonding and Bridging Capital for Graduate Women Accessing Academic and Professional Pathways in STEM
Lane, Tonisha B.; Lewis, David Bruce; Woods, Johnny C.; Steele, Rebecca (ASEE Conferences, 2023-06-25)
Characteristics of effective models for classroom demonstrations
Johnson, Marcus Lee; Burns, Emma (Routledge, 2023-07-05)
Use of peer models during classroom demonstrations can be an effective teaching practice to support student learning and self-efficacy. According to social cognitive theory, modeling is a form of vicarious experience: those experiences through which students are able to learn and acquire knowledge through observation. As a critical source of self-efficacy, vicarious experiences involving peer models are likely to support students’ efficacy. Although qualities of effective peer models have been identified, there has been less translational work that discusses the tensions between best practice and the practical considerations by educators in identifying, selecting, and using peer models for classroom demonstrations. The aim of this paper is to review the qualities of peer models research and discuss how effective peer models can be implemented in diverse classrooms. Here we pay particular attention to the perceived similarity of ability and identity between the model and student observers. This paper also outlines gaps in the research and identifies pathways for future research.
Polytrauma and Executive Functioning: A Review of Cognitive Protective Mechanisms and Resilience
Rose, Mackenzie S.; Johnson, Marcus L. (Elsevier, 2025-03)
Flexible Assessment in Higher Education: A Comprehensive Review of Strategies and Implications
Barua, Lumbini; Lockee, Barbara B. (Springer, 2025-02-01)
The article highlights the growing significance of flexible assessment in higher education as institutions adapt to the increasingly diverse needs of their student populations. The demand for customizable educational experiences, heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, has made flexibility in assessment essential for sustaining and improving student engagement, satisfaction, and outcomes. This review explores various strategies for implementing flexible assessment, including flexible tasks, formats, weighting, deadlines, feedback, and deliberate planning. It also addresses the challenges, such as choice overload and increased instructor workload, that can arise when flexibility is not carefully implemented. Through a comprehensive review of existing and recent research, the article reiterates the proven benefits of flexible assessment while offering evidence-based recommendations for effective implementation. It calls for further research to develop assessment practices that can contribute to a more adaptable and equitable assessment environment for today’s modern learners.
A review of strategies to incorporate flexibility in higher education course designs
Barua, Lumbini; Lockee, Barbara B. (Springer, 2024-08-20)
While the movement for flexibility in higher education can be traced back to the first corresponding courses in the 18th century, the recent pandemic has led to an unprecedented demand for flexible learning, particularly in higher education settings. This review of the literature delves into the evolution of flexible course design and defines flexibility as a multifaceted concept encompassing time, place, content, pace, and pedagogy, with learner autonomy situated at the core. This review explores the key components of flexible course design, including both pedagogical and logistical aspects, and their implications for developing a learner-centered approach to enhancing engagement and motivation. By synthesizing the current literature, this review highlights strategies to incorporate flexibility in course design through content adaptation, pedagogical modifications, assessment diversification, and adjustments in time, place, and pace of course offerings and learning. This review underscores the significance of flexible course design in light of the rapidly diversified learner demographic and their changing needs emphasizing the necessity of further research on flexibility for building more empathetic and adaptable learning environments.
Toward the Next Generation of Research in Adult Literacy Instruction
Clark-Stallkamp, Rebecca; Lockee, Barbara B. (University of Southern Mississippi, 2024-12)
In November 2019, the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) from 2017 (Institute of Education Sciences [IES], 2019) depicted no significant change in the concerning status of adult literacy in the US. More than 52% of adults between 16 and 45 scored below functionally literate levels. While shortcomings are attributed to various factors such as high attrition rates in program, ill-conceived policy planning, and more, significant focus is placed on the impact of effective instruction. The study reviews core cognitive component theory experimentation and instructional intervention research in adult literacy to explain contributions and limitations in current research. To address limitations in research, the review further emphasizes the interdisciplinary role instructional design and technology, and associated research methods such as design-based research that may offer future research on instructional interventions for Adult Basic Education literacy.
Serving the Underserved Amid COVID-19: The Case of a Virtual, Culturally Responsive Summer Engineering Camp
Lane, Tonisha B.; Vomvoridi-Ivanovic, Eugenia; Cain, Leia K.; Willis, Selene; Ahmad, Salam; Gaines, Jonathan (Purdue University, 2023-01-23)
The societal disruptions due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are well noted, especially in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Absent a concerted effort to sustain hands-on learning opportunities in STEM amid the crisis, the consequences of COVID-19 may exacerbate existing inequities and racial disparities among youth of color further stratifying the STEM fields. In the current study, we applied a mixed-method descriptive case study design, using online learning theory and culturally responsive pedagogy as our conceptual framework, to describe how participants experienced this camp, held online due to disruptions of COVID-19, in the southeastern region of the USA. We also share findings from the implementation of a justice bots project, which enabled participants to connect social justice and engineering. Participants included middle school youth, undergraduate engineering students, and in-service math and science teachers. Data sources entailed focus groups, pre-post surveys, observations, and artifacts. Our results indicated that participants experienced gains in their communication skills, positive changes in attitudes toward STEM for middle school youth, established meaningful connections, and enhanced their technical knowledge. Middle school youth reported enjoying the online summer camp environment, though they had experienced more than a year of education online. Undergraduate engineering students asserted that it was challenging to communicate coding and other technical knowledge virtually but having to do so strengthened their capacity to teach others while honing their own competencies. Lastly, in-service math and science teachers reported a better understanding of the connection between engineering and social justice based on their experiences in the camp. We conclude this article with implications for engineering education.
Examining relationships that matter: A qualitative study of Black women in doctoral education
Lane, Tonisha B.; Patterson-Stephens, Shawna M.; Perez, Ebony; Pierre, Devona Foster (Texas A&M University Libraries, 2022-05-31)
The purpose of this study was to explore how and why various relationships bolstered the success of Black women doctoral students by contributing to their motivation and persistence in graduate education. Using the voices of 14 Black women doctoral students within the United States and community cultural wealth as a theoretical lens, this qualitative study sought to examine the nature and importance of supportive relationships that existed during their graduate studies. Findings from this study revealed that family served as a motivator for enrollment and degree completion, a sounding board during trying times, and a space for processing the doctoral experience. Friends and professional associations transmitted various forms of social capital, and mentors served as advocates and facilitators of professional socialization. Additionally, social media played a significant role in helping Black women establish networks when there was limited visibility of or access to other Black women in their graduate programs. From this study, academic programs may be able to glean which aspects of these different relationship types (e.g., family, friends, mentors) matter and develop mechanisms for incorporating them into the experiences of Black women (and other minoritized groups) in doctoral programs.
“That Cross-Curricular Business”: The Engineering Design Process in Mathematics and Science Classrooms
Vomvoridi-Ivanovic, Eugenia; Lane, Tonisha B.; Cain, Leia K.; Ahmad, Salam; Willis, Selene; Gaines, Jonathan E. (Nova Southeastern University, 2024-01-13)
The engineering design process (EDP) is one tool teachers can use to facilitate STEM integration. As part of a larger three-year longitudinal research project regarding engineering identity development among middle school youth in a summer robotics outreach program, this study aims to understand teachers’ willingness to incorporate engineering design in their classrooms through an exploration of their perceptions of the EDP, its applications to their subject matter and classroom context, methods of enacting the EDP, and perceived challenges to and supports for doing so. We conducted a qualitative case study and drew our results from focus groups and semi-structured interviews with eight teacher participants. Participants were successful in describing the EDP and its cyclical nature. However, classroom enactment of the EDP was predominantly indirect and often used to solve non-subject-specific classroom problems. Direct enactment was limited to projects already part of the existing curriculum. Issues with instructional resources, lesson planning, time, and student background were the EDP enactment barriers most frequently noted, while supports described were all responses to the identified barriers. The EDP offers a promising way to integrate engineering with math and science. However, additional support is needed for more meaningful classroom enactment of the EDP.
How Do Alternatively and Traditionally Certified Beginning Workforce Development Teachers Feel About Their Preparedness?
Bowen, Bradley D.; Williams, Thomas O. (2024-08-14)
Retaining highly qualified teachers is critical since about 40% of teachers leave within the first four years. Over the past few decades, there has been a rise in alternatively certified Development, which has the highest percentage of teachers that enter the profession through alternative certification. However, there is a debate on whether or not a teacher entering the profession through an alternative pathway is as effective as a teacher certified through a traditional pathway. One of the critical factors in determining teacher effectiveness is how prepared a beginning teacher feels when entering the classroom. To identify how these beginning teachers perceive their preparedness when entering the classroom, this study analyzes self-reported data from the 2015-2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey to compare the perceived preparedness of alternatively and traditionally certified teachers. The results show that within the field of Workforce Development, traditionally certified teachers felt statistically significantly more prepared to enter the classroom than alternatively certified teachers. Also, within the individual constructs of Workforce Development, traditionally certified teachers felt statistically significantly more prepared in six of the ten areas. By better understanding the level of perceived preparedness of beginning Workforce Development teachers from both alternative and traditional certification pathways, teachers can be better supported to increase their effectiveness in the classroom.
How the Introduction of Content Relates to Performance in a Middle School Modeling and Simulation Environment
Bowen, Bradley D.; Peterson, Bryanne (2024-03-01)
Modeling and simulation activities are common in secondary technology and engineering education classrooms. Virtual simulations are used to integrate engineering design into classroom instruction. The quality of a student’s final virtual design depends on their ability to apply the knowledge they have learned during the lesson. When applying what they learned to the virtual design, a student may reach the limit to which the theoretical knowledge can be applied. At this point, students may resort to other problem-solving processes to improve the design, such as trial and error. The activity in this study is a bridge-building project where the students use virtual modeling software to design a truss. This study measures the performance outcomes of students introduced to the content in different formats to determine how the introduction of knowledge impacts their performance within a virtual simulation. Data was collected through the simulation program and a statistical analysis was used to compare the efficiency of truss designs of students initially introduced to the engineering content to those students not originally introduced to the engineering content. The results of the statistical analysis show that students with more exposure to the content at the beginning of the activity have significantly better performance outcomes in the initial designs. However, students that receive less content initially can perform equally well if given enough opportunities to engage in the simulation activity.
Pre-service teachers’ self-assessed proficiency for working with struggling readers
Sigmon, Miranda; Fortune, Donna J. (2021-03-01)
Pre-service educators should enter a classroom confident in their ability to deliver literacy instruction for all learners. To determine pre-service educators' level of understanding and confidence in implementing effective early literacy instruction, this study used the 15 principles for working with struggling readers created by McCormick and Zutell (2015) to analyze preservice teachers' perceptions of their ability to teach reading. The mixed method study includes data collected through an online survey using Likert scale and open-ended items. This article details the results of pre-service educators' self-assessments after they completed an early literacy methods course. Results indicate that the two lowest rated principles include enlisting parental involvement and letting research guide instruction.
Bridging disciplines - Driving change: Promoting classroom activism by utilizing picture books and the inquiry design model in educator preparation programs
Fortune, Donna J.; Pennington, Lisa K.; Tackett, Mary E.; Horst, Paige (Kentucky Council for the Social Studies, 2024-12-15)
Embedding inclusive strategies and practices into Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs), can ensure that future social studies teachers are well-equipped to create dynamic, inclusive, and empowering learning environments for all students. The Inquiry Design Model (IDM) provides a framework for encouraging social studies preservice teachers to explore activism and social change through the lens of children’s picture books. Such inquiry is essential for promoting equity, enhancing learning outcomes, and fostering critical thinking and empathy, while also preparing teachers for diverse classrooms and for meeting legal and ethical obligations to provide inclusive education for all students.
Wobble and transcending the challenges of novice teachers
Jansky, Timothy; Stewart, Trevor Thomas (2024-06-03)
This paper explores a novice teacher's experiences and challenges in order to discuss the importance of supporting new teachers. We examine the new identity that novice teachers take on as they enter the workforce, requiring them to bring two competing worlds into dialogue with one another. By highlighting the moments of struggle and uncertainty that one new teacher encountered, the paper calls attention to the need to support new teachers and help them transcend the persistent problem of isolation in the teaching profession. This article identifies how teacher educators can help prepare teacher candidates and novice teachers to respond to challenges.
Addressing Social Determinants of Mental Health to Improve College Access, Enrollment, and Retention
Mushunje, Rumbidzai; Dockery, Natese; Lin, Mickey; Johnson, Kaprea; Toole, Kristen; Henry, Sarah M.; Gantt-Howrey, Alexandra (2023-12-05)
Addressing non-medical factors that adversely impact mental health, wellness, and academic persistence is important to increasing access to college for vulnerable college students. This systematic review synthesized 63 articles on interventions to address college student SDOMH challenges. Researchers found that SDOMH themes were addressed in intervention studies at different rates, specifically, healthcare access and quality (n = 27, 42.3%), education access and quality (n = 24; 37.5%), social and community context (n = 11; 17.4%), economic stability (n = 3; 4.7%), and neighborhood and built environment (n = 1; 1.6%). Implications for higher education stakeholders conclude.

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