Honors Projects

What We See and Why It Matters: How Competency in Visual Literacy can Enhance Student Learning

Anneliese Tillmann — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:39:48 PDT

In today’s world, we use more visuals than ever before. Research suggests that the balance between words and images has shifted considerably calling for new forms of literacy (Brumberger, 2011). Visual literacy goes above and beyond the traditional concepts of reading and writing, expanding literacy to include visuals. The analysis and review of current visual literacy research suggests teaching visual literacy is necessary for students to become capable of navigating the visually driven world in which we live. The research highlights the importance of incorporating visuals into the literacy curricula and explores practical uses of visual literacy in present day society. Findings suggest that developing the ability to create images will help students better learn to decipher, understand and communicate with images. If there is a better understanding of how and why visuals are developed, then the use of visuals can become more effective, ergo enhancing student learning.

Creative Dramatics as a Teaching Technique for Language Arts in the Primary Grades

Debra Madeline Engle — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:47:17 PDT

For hundreds of years, imparting knowledge was considered the major purpose of education, which was predominated by a method of instruction with focus on the teacher rather than the pupil. Today, knowledge, though important, is not enough. Individuals must develop the skills,the know how, and the desire to use knowledge to

further both their personal well being land the advancement of society. Pure "knowledge," whether locked in book or in a human mind, is of little value. As the philosopher Alfred Lord Whitehead pointed out, "Not knowledge, but the utilization of

knowledge is the aim of education."

A Study of Departmentalization on the Elementary Level

Carolyn Bowersock '70 — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:11:25 PDT

The past decade has been filIed with many supposedly innovative ideas which have been designed to improve and upgrade the education process. Organizational patterns involving a team of teachers , the removal of letter and/or class grades, as well as a revamping of curriculum represent some of the changes which have occurred.

A Study of Team Teaching as Implemented in the Elementary School

Mary E. Myers '68 — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:14:31 PDT

At present , education is in an era of widespread experimentation, perhaps more extensive than a t any other time in its history. An intense examination of the methods of elementary school operation has been under way on a national scale and has resulted in the development of numerous new organizational and instructional approaches.

A study of teacher aides

Janis Kolb — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:30:31 PDT

In the scientific, industrial world of today, specialization is a key word. With increasing frequency, jobs that used to be performed by only one or a few persons are being analyzed and, for the sake of greater effectiveness, broken down and assigned to specialists in the field. One area that has been slow in following this trend is that of education, Years ago, the teacher in a one-room school was assigned such diverse duties as snow-shoveling, hauling water, cutting wood, and keeping a fire going. In today's schools, these non-instructional chores are replaced by such duties as ordering films, setting up a projector, making transparencies, setting up a resource library, collecting money, making attendance reports, doing clean-up chores, planning individualized instruction, and attending meetings, graduate courses, and in-service training programs.

Teachers' Training, Knowledge, and Attitudes Towards Mainstreaming Behaviorally Disordered Students in Regular Classrooms

Christine K. Chaille '92 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:08:59 PDT

Public Law 94-142 requires that special education students be placed in "the least restrictive school environment" possible and that teachers who work with special needs students in regular classrooms receive training and help from special educators. According to Vandivier & Vandivier (1981), teachers have reservations about including children with "particular types" of disabilities in regular classes, and Mooney & Algozzine (1978) reported that teachers consider "socially defiant" behaviors to be more disturbing than those associated with learning disabilities. This study was designed to determine the relationship between experienced classroom teachers' willingness to accept behaviorally disordered (BD) students in regular classrooms and their knowledge of effective and ineffective intervention strategies for mainstreaming them. Twenty experienced, regular classroom teachers from three central Illinois elementary schools volunteered to complete a survey. Knowledge scores were determined by assessing respondents' ability to accurately identify effective and ineffective strategies as described by Duquette & O'Reilly (1988), Fagen & Hill (1977), Knoff (1985), and Wells (1983). Training in special education and experience with BD students were also assessed. The hypothesis that teachers' willingness to mainstream would correlate positively with knowledge of effective intervention strategies was not statistIcally supported (Chi-Square = .9, df= 1, p >.05). However, of the 8 teachers willing to mainstream, 5 had high knowledge scores. Other findings included: 1) the more behaviorally disordered students teachers had taught in the past 5 years, the more willing they were to mainstream (Chi-Square =9.36, df = 3, p < .025); 2) of the 5 teachers who had mainstreamed 11 or more BD students in the past 5 years, 4 had high knowledge scores; 3) teachers' assessments of their own skill level did not correlate with their knowledge scores 4) nearly half (9 out of 20) of the teachers had no courses or in-service training which addressed the needs of BD students; and 5) only 3 out of 20 teachers in the study, 15%, were knowledgeable, willing to mainstream BD students if given a choice, and, in fact, had mainstreamed 11 or more BD students in the past 5 years. This pilot study leads to the following concern: Will school districts be forced to group and segregate the increasing numbers of BD students because regular classroom teachers are not prepared to work effectively with them?

The Teacher in Transition: Learning to Let the Child Lead

Angela Hill '92 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:08:56 PDT

Whole language is an interdisciplinary method of teaching which is becoming a political movement in the schools. It empowers both student and teacher, allowing the student to become self-directed and freeing the teacher from a primarily authoritarian role. Uteracy activity in the whole language classroom resembles reading and writing in the real world, so that school work is seen as purposeful by students. Ideally, students plan and work cooperatively in cross-grade groupings.

In this ethnographic study of two first grade classrooms, a participant-observer identified those factors which support and hinder a teacher's transition from the traditional model of teaching to whole language orientation. Data were collected through one week of tull day participation in a whole language college laboratory classroom in Georgia, and a semesterlong internship with a public school teacher in Illinois who is moving from traditional commercially-driven teaching to whole language child-centered instruction. Theoretical and empirical literature, classroom observations, and teacher interviews were analyzed.

Factors identified as assisting the transition from basal to whole language instruction were a) a support network of administration, teachers, and parents to share information and encourage risk-taking b) less restriction on how time is spent throughout the day, since subjects are not drastically separated; c) teacher's skill and experience with positive classroom management; d) the creation of new definitions for teacher and student success, i.e., less performance-oriented, in terms of standardized measures of achievement, and more mastery-oriented, in tenns of improvement, individual goal-setting, and self-examination for improvement; and e) teacher's realization that the child's writing is the best text for beginning reading instruction.

Factors found to limit the transition to whole language included: a) the allocation of funds for workbooks and skill sheets rather than for the purchase of trade books and quality literature; b) school-district assessment documents geared toward the evaluation of isolated skins with standardized quantitative scores; c) reluctance to change teaching style, take pedagogical risks, and deviate from principles taught in teacher education classes; d) absence of unified commitment to whole language instruction among teachers, administrators, and parents; e) failure to comprehend the political nature of whole language philosophy, e.g., giving up basal readers but not the teacher-centered classroom; f) fear of sharing authority and responsibility, losing control of students, and changing the nature of the student-teacher relationship.

A Comparison of Personality Type and Learning Style of Elementary Education Majors, Math Majors, and Math Professors: Cultures in Conflict

Jane Martin '92 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:08:55 PDT

National concern exists regarding the math performance of women and minorities. It is a common concern that the current educational system is not meeting girls' needs. Girls and boys enter school equal in measured ability, but years later, girls have fallen behind their male counterparts in key areas such as higher-level mathematics. A critical step in correcting the inequity is to adequately prepare those responsible for the education of children: the future teachers of America. Educational excellence in America's schools is dependent on educational equity.

Integrating the Fine Arts Across the Elementary Curriculum

Emily Gilbert '00 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:08:53 PDT

I began my research with the intention of discovering in what ways elementary teachers incorporate the fine arts across the curriculum. For those teachers who do, I wanted to know where they learned how to do so, and how their students respond to the integration of the arts. I have a strong personal connection to this topic. The fine arts always have been an integral part of my life, which I attribute to my education: my teachers introduced me to the arts and fostered my love of the arts. From an educational standpoint, I began to wonder how teachers incorporate the arts, in order to learn ideas and approaches that I might adopt as a future educator.

My original proposal was to explore the arts across the curriculum as a means to learn how educators incorporated the arts as part of the overall education of their students. I had some concerns that the special programs in arts would be eliminated when budget cuts occurred in school districts. How could teachers then sustain the arts education and experiences in their classrooms? While I followed through with my plans to explore why and how the arts can be incorporated, I chose not to focus on schools that had eliminated the fine mts as "specials". Although this remains a concern, schools that have eliminated the arts are not the only elementary programs necessary to address. There is no such thing as overexposure to the arts, so even those students who are fortunate to experience special art, music, drama, and dance classes in their schools could benefit from an integrated arts curriculum within the classroom as well.