Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Education tools'

Resource consumption continues to increase as the population grows. In order to secure a sustainable future, society must educate the next generation to become "sustainability natives." Schools play a pivotal role in educating a sustainability-literate society. However, a disconnect exists between the hidden curriculum of the built environment and the enacted curriculum. This study employs a transformative participatory professional development model to instruct teachers on how to use their school grounds as teaching tools for the purpose of helping students make explicit choices in energy consumption, materials use, and sustainable living.

Incorporating a phenomenological perspective, this study considers the lived experience of two sustainability coordinators. Grounded theory provides an interpretational context for the participants' interactions with each other and the professional development process. Through a year long professional development experience - commencing with an intense, participatory two-day workshop -the participants discussed challenges they faced with integrating facilities into school curriculum and institutionalizing a culture of sustainability.

Two major needs were identified in this study. For successful sustainability initiatives, a hybrid model that melds top-down and bottom-up approaches offers the requisite mix of administrative support, ground level buy-in, and excitement vis-à-vis sustainability. Second, related to this hybrid approach, K-12 sustainability coordinators ideally need administrative capabilities with access to decision making, while remaining connected to students in a meaningful way, either directly in the classroom, as a mentor, or through work with student groups and projects.

Educational technology can be a powerful tool and the advantages of using it in instruction are abundant. However, it is important that instructors use technology effectively. Recent rapid changes in technology have coincided with rapid growth in online learning. Since the 1990s, learning management systems (LMS) have been adopted in higher education as a means for providing instructors with educational technology tools to manage and facilitate their higher education classes. LMS tools play a significant role in the facilitation of online learning. The changes in educational technology and the growth in online learning have led educators in higher education to examine best practices for integrating technology in online learning. Retention is a major focus of higher education administrators. Thus, student satisfaction in online courses is a concern in order to decrease attrition and improve student persistence in online education. This study examines the relationships between student perception of the usefulness of LMS tools and student online course satisfaction in higher education.

This study explores teacher perceptions of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs in the classroom, with a focus on teacher use, student equity of access, and student ability to use their devices as learning tools. While one-to-one laptop programs (students assigned identical school-owned laptop or tablet) has an extensive body of literature behind it, BYOD has relatively little peer-reviewed research.

A framework was developed to guide this research that related teacher technology use, equity of student access, and student ability to learn to use the devices they brought. Two instruments were created to collect data: (a) an anonymous online survey to collect information from 108 teachers already incorporating BYOD into their classes, (b) a semi-structured interview with eleven teachers who volunteered after completing the first instrument.

Findings suggested that teachers with constructivist compatible beliefs were likely to have more positive perceptions of BYOD, as were those who worked in schools with a more positive atmosphere. Very few teachers (12%) thought that BYOD programs were inherently inequitable, although 25% thought the programs in their own school was inequitable. Teachers were concerned that all students have access to an effective device when the student did not bring one and they primarily looked to school-owned technology to be available. Teachers also reported that students could learn to use their individual devices by working with other students and through working on assignments, while teachers had specific techniques they used to support this learning. Teachers overall did not view themselves as being responsible for providing technology support to students, and instead expected students to resolve their own technology problems. Many teachers (42%) liked that students had different types of devices.

A key advantage of BYOD is the knowledge the students bring when they bring their own device. These results provide tentative support for Bring Your Own Device programs as a viable, cost- effective way for students to use their own technology for learning.

The purpose of this study was to examine the sustained impact of participation in the Tools of the Mind preschool program on language arts, mathematics, reading and writing achievement in middle school, the specific impact of participation on racial subgroups and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and the effects of student mobility on academic achievement. Using a nonexperimental, quantitative, longitudinal design, the achievement of the original cohort of students who participated in the program was examined over 2 consecutive years. The results of the study suggest that participation in the Tools of the Mind program increases the overall achievement of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and the writing performance of African American students. Analysis of student mobility data revealed that a high rate of student mobility has a negative impact on student achievement. These study results are consistent with decades of research into the impact of participation in a high-quality preschool program. Caution should be taken in interpreting the results because promotion of the development of self-regulation and executive function, aspects that set the Tools of the Mind program apart from other preschool programs, is not measured by the NJASK, and thus the impact of the program may have been underestimated.

Student learning in upper-division physics courses is a growing area of research in the field of Physics Education. Developing effective new curricular materials and pedagogical techniques to improve student learning in upper-division courses requires knowledge of both what material students struggle with and what curricular approaches help to overcome these struggles. To facilitate the course transformation process for one specific content area -- upper-division electrostatics -- this thesis presents two new methodological tools: (1) an analytical framework designed to investigate students' struggles with the advanced physics content and mathematically sophisticated tools/techniques required at the junior and senior level, and (2) a new multiple-response conceptual assessment designed to measure student learning and assess the effectiveness of different curricular approaches. We first describe the development and theoretical grounding of a new analytical framework designed to characterize how students use mathematical tools and techniques during physics problem solving. We apply this framework to investigate student difficulties with three specific mathematical tools used in upper-division electrostatics: multivariable integration in the context of Coulomb's law, the Dirac delta function in the context of expressing volume charge densities, and separation of variables as a technique to solve Laplace's equation. We find a number of common themes in students' difficulties around these mathematical tools including: recognizing when a particular mathematical tool is appropriate for a given physics problem, mapping between the specific physical context and the formal mathematical structures, and reflecting spontaneously on the solution to a physics problem to gain physical insight or ensure consistency with expected results. We then describe the development of a novel, multiple-response version of an existing conceptual assessment in upper-division electrostatics courses. The goal of this new version is to provide an easily-graded electrostatics assessment that can potentially be implemented to investigate student learning on a large scale. We show that student performance on the new multiple-response version exhibits a significant degree of consistency with performance on the free-response version, and that it continues to provide significant insight into student reasoning and student difficulties. Moreover, we demonstrate that the new assessment is both valid and reliable using data from upper-division physics students at multiple institutions. Overall, the work described in this thesis represents a significant contribution to the methodological tools available to researchers and instructors interested in improving student learning at the upper-division level.

Professional Development Tools to Enhance the Abilities of Veteran Teachers in Pre-K Through Eighth Grades examined the variety of professional development tools available to veteran educators. The quasi-experimental study allowed veteran teachers to participate in a pretest survey consisting of questions about teachers’ desire for continued professional development, learning preferences, tools and ideas, and demographic information. An intervention in the form of PowerPoint was then presented to the veteran teachers outlining the adult learning theory and a variety of professional development tools. After the intervention, a posttest was conducted and compared using an ANOVA.

The results in the study indicate that while there is not a significant difference in the pretest and posttest following the intervention, veteran teachers are interested in learning, growing, and enhancing their classroom. Veteran teachers would like to be actively involved in the planning and expansion of professional development opportunities and would like to learn from their peers in how to make their classroom more effective. Veteran teachers also feel that their peers can learn from watching them teach in the classroom and would like to use the peer coaching model and Instructional Rounds to be able to learn from their colleagues. Veteran teachers feel that tools such as observations and feedback are helpful in the classroom and would like to learn more about student engagement, instructional strategies, classroom management, differentiation techniques, Instructional Rounds, growth mindset, and subject specific programs.

The results from the teachers’ survey were given to administrators for feedback about how to use the responses to develop effective professional development opportunities in schools. The interview results from the administrators revealed that teacher observation and collaboration are optimal for teachers to grow professionally. The one-on-one interviews also resulted in the overwhelming need to include teachers in the creation of professional development opportunities.

Research has documented numerous benefits of parent involvement in children's education including increased attendance, increased test scores and better behavior. Access to increased and meaningful communication between home and school enhances parent involvement. The utilization of technology through the use of the Internet and e- mail for school to home communications is growing rapidly as an additional means of two-way communications between home and school. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of emerging technologies, specifically social media use by school principals and how its use affects communication between schools and parents. Data gathered from three principals, parents in their schools and actual social media communications were triangulated across these three perspectives as part of a case study analysis, using a convenience sample to further our understanding of the benefits and challenges of using social media tools to build home-school partnerships.

Findings suggest that school principals are mainly responsible for social media use at the school. Consistent, child-centered use of these tools has the opportunity to complement face-to-face, two-way communications between home and school, provided there is a relationship with the school to begin with. In identifying the communication needs of the school, both technology and non-technology related communications must be utilized as part of a "menu of offerings" based upon solicitation of technology and non-technology related tools used by a school's families. This differentiated home- school communication approach allows for more families to engage in two-way communications with the school.

Ultimately, the outcomes of the study may help lead to changes in family and community partnerships, leadership practices by principals, as well as teachers and parent groups expanding their use of social media tools to build a connected and transparent learning community. The insights included in this study may be used to support the development and implementation of a school or district's communication strategies and professional development plans for all stakeholders.