Instructional Gaming

This action research will investigate instructional games as a strategy to increase third grade students’ engagement and motivation. A researcher-created behavior checklist and survey will document students’ behavior and attitudes during baseline, intervention, and post intervention. Analysis will investigate changes in engagement, motivation, and grades due to the gaming intervention

Web 2.0 Directed Learning Activities in Gifted, Fifth Grade Students

The proposed research project was developed to address students’ poor performance on weekly spelling tests. A blog format on the classroom website will be introduced as an ancillary homework activity. This study strives to find an engaging method for additional practice that improves students’ scores with use

Hands-On Activities and Engagement in Kindergarten Students

The purpose of this action research study is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing hands-on activities for increasing the engagement of kindergarten students. Participants will be the teacher/researcher’s 18 kindergarten students in a charter school. It is hypothesized that hands-on activities will increase students’ engagement in the class

Extracurricular Activities and Academic Achievement in Fourth Grade Students

This action research project will investigate the relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and academic achievement of students in the fourth grade. Students’ achievement scores on the FAIR exams will be the measure of academic success. Analysis will consist of a correlation between extracurricular activities and academic success

Application of an Education Research Lab (ERL) Model to a Community Sailing Program

This presentation showcases the application of a university-based education research lab (ERL) model to the evaluation of a community sailing program for individuals with disabilities. Presenters conceptualize the ERL model as a mutually beneficial relationship between universities and community education agencies

Engaged Scholarship: A Model for Creating an Education Research Lab

Paper Higher education, student affairs and lifelong learnin

Development and Application of a Multi-dimensional Strategy for Measuring Fidelity of Implementation of a Districtwide Intervention

This symposium describes a multi-dimensional strategy to examine fidelity of implementation in an authentic school district context. An existing large-district peer mentoring program provides an example. The presentation will address development of a logic model to articulate a theory of change; collaborative creation of a data set aligned with essential concepts and research questions; identification of independent, dependent, and covariate variables; issues related to use of big data that include conditioning and transformation of data prior to analysis; operationalization of a strategy to capture fidelity of implementation data from all stakeholders; and ways in which fidelity indicators might be used

Evaluating the Sandcastles Program: A Group Intervention for Children of Divorce

The Sandcastles program has been utilized nationwide as a one-time group intervention to assist children of divorcing parents. For several years Miami-Dade family court services mandated participation in the program for divorcing or separating families. Currently, there is a paucity of research and evaluation to ascertain the efficacy of the program. This symposium will provide details and discussion regarding the planning and process used to establish an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of the Sandcastles program for families in MiamiDade County. Any preliminary outcomes available at the time of the symposium will also be shared

College female-athlete identity in sport culture on campus: A narrative inquiry

This research seeks to uncover the experience of college female student-athlete as they construct their identities by participating in sport culture on a university campus. This research adopts Vygotsky’s culture-history activity theory (CHAT) to frame a qualitative inquiry by examining following overarching research question: How does sport culture on a university campus mediate college female-athlete identity? The participants included three college female-athletes who are college athletes that are members of college sport teams that participate in national sport competitions under the auspices of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The instrumentation of this research is an open-ended, in-depth, and semi-structured interview, and each of three interviews lasted 30 to 40 minutes. After the interviews were transcribed verbatim, the researchers used the constant comparative method to code the research data. Subsequent interpretation pointed to findings that superficial campus culture, united sport culture on campus, misunderstanding about being female athletes and college students, organized campus life, and inclusive identity all played a part in the formation of these athletes’ identities.Findings are discussed in the context of Vygotsky’s culture-history activity theory. These findings may help female-athletes to have a better understanding of their identities in their local communities