Poster Session
Community Connections in a Digital World: Learning Communities, Community Engagement, and Micro-credentials View Digital Media
Poster Session Tracy Bonoffski
This project focuses on a learning community for first-year students at a large, urban university in the US that has a community engagement theme. The learning community offers students an opportunity to earn a community engagement micro-credential that is designed highlight specific skills and competencies, including: cultural awareness, civic engagement, community based research, innovation and entrepreneurship. This high impact program is designed to model the idea that giving back to the community is an important college outcome, and that working with community partners is good preparation for citizenship, work, and life. Students within this learning community have the opportunity to not only mold their professional trajectory with an academic major or minor, but also through the completion of micro-credentials. Micro-credentials are short, competency-based pathways that provide students with recognition and demonstrate mastery in intentionally, focused area(s). The integration of micro-credential pathways are meant to be personalized, flexible, and performance-based so that learning community students have a marketable quality to share with future employers and graduate programs. These students are earning a community engagement micro-credential designed to increase cultural awareness and collaborate with diverse populations.
More Than a Test Score: A Case Study of Career Readiness Programming in Rural Minnesota High Schools View Digital Media
Poster Session Maggie Velasco
This mixed-methods, multi-site case study explores the implications of a robust career readiness program that utilizes national readiness metrics, on the implementation and design of rural Minnesota high school career readiness programming. Building leadership teams involving administrators, educators, and counselors utilize a distributed leadership model to design and implement a career readiness program that focuses on maximizing resources, measures student impact, engages communities and higher education, and provides opportunities for small rural school districts to work collaboratively. There are legislative, national and statewide, implications of this research. Along with providing rural districts with a blueprint for effective career readiness programming using a distributed leadership model, this research provides an alternative lens for assessing and communicating student achievement and district health. Paired with state and national test scores, the Redefining Ready metrics can enhance the picture of instructional success and inform leadership on how best to maximize resources for greatest student impact.
Communicating Educational Research Effectively in Light of Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs
Poster Session Elana Joram, Anthony Gabriele
Teaching has long been considered a profession that draws on the personal intuition and craft knowledge of teachers, as well as a rich body of knowledge about learning and instruction, grounded in educational research. Studies of teachers’ research use, however, demonstrate that they most often refer to personal knowledge or that of a trusted colleague, with published educational research rarely mentioned. Studies of teachers’ research utilization have primarily drawn attention to various impediments such as lack of time or research training, while teachers’ beliefs about knowledge sources have received less attention. In this proposal, we report on data from a qualitative study of middle and high-school teachers’ epistemic beliefs about the use of educational research for their practice. We present a conceptual framework of teachers’ beliefs about research utilization that is informed by their practical values, epistemic and practical goals and aims, and epistemic beliefs about educational knowledge. Based on this model and our participants’ responses, we offer recommendations for effective research communication strategies with teachers, taking their epistemic beliefs into account. Although not typically included in discussions of research literacy and utilization, we suggest that including research communication strategies in these discussions is essential for increasing the likelihood of research use by practitioners.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education in Geopolitics: STEM Higher Education as 'Soft Power’ View Digital Media
Poster Session Abhijit Sen
Higher education can be a powerful form of 'soft power' for a country where students receive world-class education and engage with the local culture by creating networks of like-minded people and contributing billions of dollars to the growing economy. Soft power initiatives are viewed as an important segment of a nation’s 'public diplomacy' by promoting a combination of its culture, political values and foreign policy objectives. The power of attractive ideas and the ability to influence what other countries want is subtly connected to ‘intangible power' sources such as culture, ideology, institutions and education that other countries want to emulate. To sustain the stability, peace and ‘rules based international order,’ maintaining and promoting principles of U.S. ideology, science & technology, and culture in the form of soft power, are crucial to achieving the intended goals in geo-politics. Methodology used in analyzing texts, analytical reports, news commentary, and opinion pieces for my study is textual-narrative analysis which is a subset of media research methods known as interpretive analysis. The theoretical basis of this paper is the concept of 'soft power.' Soft power arises from the positive elements and images of a nation’s culture, political ideals and policies. Soft power is also the ability to get what one wants through enticements and attraction rather than through coercion or bribery. First postulated by Joseph Nye, a Harvard scholar, the theory conceptualized a nation’s ability to persuade and influence other nations via soft power as an alternative to hard power.
Bringing Ethics into the Introductory Finance Curriculum: A New Approach View Digital Media
Poster Session Valeria Martinez
Despite many years of bringing ethics to the forefront as crucial to doing business, we still see the need for improved ethics instruction and behavior among business professionals. Current research indicates there is a need for innovative pedagogy in business ethics. This study introduces an innovative ethics pedagogical tool in the undergraduate introductory finance classroom. The objective of this pedagogical innovation is to improve ethics education among future business professionals in the finance field by increasing students’ ethical awareness in the business-finance world. The new ethics pedagogical tool consist of introducing students to a series of practical and concise questions that guide them through the analysis of the ethics of a finance situation. Students then use this series of questions during the semester of our introductory finance course to analyze the ethics of various financial situations that occur in the news during the time of our course. I assess the effectiveness of this tool by analyzing students’ ethical perceptions before and after the ethics pedagogical tool is implemented in the introductory finance classroom.
Developing Soft Skills Competencies through Project-based Learning and the Use of AI View Digital Media
Poster Session Beatriz Martín Marchante
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the teaching and learning of languages in higher education is nothing new, as it has been used in its most basic form, the word processor, within the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) methodology for decades. Also, automated writing evaluation (AWE) and intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) have been integrated, giving rise to the so-called ICALL, or intelligent CALL. But the rise of generative artificial intelligence has sparked concerns in the field of education, highlighting the importance of examining its benefits and risks. This case study proposes tasks for Design Engineering students taking Technical English at the Universitat Politècnica de València. The tasks require the use of ICT and AI, specifically ChatGPT, and are designed to incorporate active and collaborative methodologies through project-based work. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of ChatGPT as a tool for enhancing professional attitudes in academic projects conducted in English. To address this question, a qualitative analysis was conducted on the academic projects of 30 students. Various rubrics were utilized to assess and provide corrective feedback. Contrary to what was expected, the analysis of the academic projects conducted using ChatGPT did not show any overall improvement compared to work conducted without ChatGPT in the participants' professional attitudes, including initiative, autonomy, creativity, critical thinking, punctuality, and integrity.
Wide-open Spaces: International Studies as Transformative Learning in Global Competency
Poster Session Elizabeth Peters
International studies is one of the most exciting, transformative learning approaches that not only gives students a growth opportunity of a lifetime, but also introduces them to important skills that will help them serve as global citizens in an increasingly diversified world. Studies show that experiences from travel abroad raises GPA, increases employment opportunities, and results in students earning higher salaries post-graduation when compared with non-traveling cohorts. Empirical research also shows that students who study abroad gain a host of soft skills employers are looking for such as critical thinking, empathy, cultural appreciation, communication, global awareness, problem-solving, confidence, and leadership. This assessment included global learning competencies as a transformative learning experience. The assessment group consisted of N=12 participants in the OSU-OKC Travel Abroad Program to London & Paris, Spring 23. Participants had to have been present to consent and complete the pre-assessment at the pre-travel meeting on February 28th, 2023, as well as completed the travels to London and Paris, and the post-test after travel. Difference scores were analyzed in SPSS as a one-way within-subjects Analysis of Variance with repeated measures. Results showed overall statistical significance between the pre and post-test scores, which was recognized as an associated function of the travel abroad experience to London and Paris. The multivariate tests showed a significant effect between pre and post-test scores. Wilk’s Lambda = .51, F(1,11) = 10.70, p < .05, multivariate ƞ^(2 )= .50. Results indicated a significant increase in learning as an associated result of the students' travels abroad.
Assessment Strategies for Small Group Learning Exercises View Digital Media
Poster Session Denise Hileeto
Small group learning exercises have been established as an efficient method to inspire students to learn, but a defined format for assessment of small group learning has not been established. We compared two collaborative quiz assessment strategies for small group learning - in the first one we assigned fixed participants (FP) to small groups of ~4 students at the beginning of the term, and in the second, we assigned variable group participants (VP) every time. In both formats, students were given a multiple-choice quiz and instructed to collaboratively find solutions to the 30 quiz questions within their small group. The mean scores of 4 collaborative quizzes were calculated and compared using t t-test assuming unequal variance for two cohorts of 90 students for the FP and VP small groups respectively. The mean scores obtained in the FP small groups were unrealistically high (96%+/- 0.1%) and statistically different (p<0.01) compared to the scores in the VP small groups (92%+/-0.3%). The FP format quiz assessment also shows an unrealistically narrow spread of only 6% difference between the highest and the lowest scores (93%-99%). In contrast, the scores range spread in the VP format was 17% (lowest score 82%, highest-99 %), values and a range spread similar to the traditionally observed in this course in the past. Adding a collaborative quiz assessment to small group learning exercises is an effective format of assessment if randomization of participants is performed immediately before the exercises.
The Precariousness of Teaching Work in Higher Education: Some Reflections on The Last Years (2020-2021)
Poster Session Márcia Fragelli
The present work establishes a reflection on the precariousness of teaching work in higher education in the Brazilian reality and its relationship with some evidence cited by BOSI (2007). It consists of a bibliographic survey of this reality in view of the changes that occurred in the world scenario in the years (2020-2021), due to the health crisis triggered by COVID-19. As a result, we verified that teaching work was heavily impacted during this period and that the precariousness of these professionals' work in higher education presents a historical configuration being established in a scenario of privatization of the means of production of their work and in an environment marked by extreme competitiveness and productivity that contribute to a context of illness and the strengthening of Distance Education. This scenario is characterized by challenges, uncertainties and illness among professionals, including teachers, revealing the devaluation and depersonalization of the teaching identity and where academic productivism and the uberization and alienation of work are ratified, in the face of conditions of vulnerability that result in illness of professionals who are left to their own devices, impacting other consequences that can be analyzed in the short, medium and long term. We conclude that the pandemic is not directly responsible for all these issues, but it shows a fertile ground for the financialization of higher education, increasing precariousness, overexploitation, the impoverishment of education with a utilitarian bias, affecting peripheral and central capitalist countries differently.
Digital Dreams - Positive Associations: What Are Students of Teaching looking Forward to? View Digital Media
Poster Session Pavlína Bulušková, Lucie Brabcová, Jana Marie Havigerová
This study focuses on analyzing positive emotions associated with the perceptions of the future of students of teaching for primary education. Participants were asked to create a drawing representing their vision of the future and subsequently describe in a commentary what they looked forward to in that future. The collected data are analyzed using thematic analysis to identify the themes students were excited about. The research sample consisted of 50 students of teaching for primary education. The study's findings provide insight into positive emotions related to the future, particularly in the context of using digital technologies and anticipating the future development of the world, which can be valuable for shaping programs on how to prepare future teachers for tomorrow's schools.
Digital Dreams, Negative Associations: What Are Students of Teaching Afraid of? View Digital Media
Poster Session Lucie Brabcová, Jana Marie Havigerová, Pavlína Bulušková
This study focuses on analyzing negative emotions associated with the perceptions of the future of students of teaching for primary education. Participants were asked to create a drawing representing their vision of the future and subsequently describe in a commentary what they are afraid of in the future. The collected data are analyzed using thematic analysis to identify the themes students feared. The research sample consisted of 50 students of teaching for primary education. The study’s findings provide insight into negative emotions related to the future, particularly in the context of using digital technologies and anticipating the future development of the world, which can be valuable for shaping programs on how to prepare future teachers for tomorrow’s schools.
Integrating Ethnomathematics into the Teaching of Projective Geometry for Effective Distance Learning View Digital Media
Poster Session Wen-haw Chen
This study evaluated the impact of integrating students' cultural backgrounds into online learning to improve understanding and participation. It employed "simple house theory" and projective geometry in designing traditional houses to make complex mathematical concepts relatable. The instructional strategies included the Ethnomathematics project, which effectively enhanced active student involvement in distance learning. Data was collected from a joint course between Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM), Indonesia, and Tunghai University, Taiwan. The study involved 36students: 20 from UNM (Group I) and 16 from Tunghai University (Group II). Various tools like surveys, tests, and projects were employed for data collection. The survey had 23 Likert-scale questions, allowing a thorough evaluation of student feedback. Quantitative analysis of this data revealed that incorporating the Ethnomathematics projects into the curriculum significantly increased student engagement in remote learning. This was further evidenced by improved student performance in project work. The research underscores the benefits of culturally relevant teaching methods in enhancing engagement and understanding in online mathematics education. It highlights the effectiveness of embedding local cultural elements into online learning environments, creating more engaging and relatable experiences. The study suggests the potential of these approaches in other educational contexts and disciplines for future research.
