The Relationship of Sequential Patterns to the Music Teaching Effectiveness of Elementary Education Majors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of sequential patterns of instruction (a direct instruction teaching cycle) and the individual components of these patterns to overall teacher effectiveness of music lessons taught by elementary education majors. Sequential patterns included (1) teacher task presentation, (2) student response, and (3) teacher reinforcement. A second focus of the study was the comparison of two instructional methods for providing training in the use of sequential patterns of instruction. Students enrolled in three sections of a music methods course for elementary education majors served as subjects. All subjects completed five teaching tasks which were videotaped and analyzed. The first four teaching tasks served as training for the presentation and analysis of a 6 minute music concept lesson which provided data for the study. The Contact Control Group (n = 20) received teacher modeling in preparation for the five class activities. Two classes serving as Experimental Groups 1 (n = 21) and 2 (n = 20) received teacher modeling identical to the Control Group, as well as instruction and training in the use and analysis of sequential patterns. Experimental Group 1 received instruction and written practice in patterns, and Experimental Group 2 received instruction and active practice in patterns. Music concept lessons were analyzed for time spent in the three components of sequential patterns (task presentation, student response, reinforcement) and for frequency percentage of patterns and pattern components. In addition, these videotaped lessons were evaluated by a master teacher for overall teacher effectiveness with scores ranging from 0 to 10. Teacher effectiveness scores were correlated to sequential pattern data (time spent in pattern components and frequency of patterns and components) to examine the relationship between overall teacher effectiveness and teaching patterns. The performance of both Experimental Groups was also compared to determine the effect of instructional approach. Comparisons of teacher effectiveness scores and 11 variables related to sequential patterns yielded correlations too low to serve as predictors of effective teaching, though significant correlations occurred with four variables associated with reinforcement and accurate task presentation. Group comparisons showed significant differences between the Control Group and Experimental Group 1 regarding time spent in task presentation, time spent in student response, and in frequency of patterns using nonspecific reinforcement. No differences were evident between the two Experimental Groups, which perhaps indicates that variation of instructional method during sequential patterns training is not consequential to student achievement. The approach used for Experimental Group 1 required less class time than the procedure used for Experimental Group 2

Teaching Place: Heritage, Home and Community, the Heart of Education

This dissertation examines the implementation of a Place-conscious pedagogy as a means to teach heritage and sense of place. This pedagogy is framed upon the premise that trying to understand our heritage and place—ourselves—are crucial elements in our ability to live well as individuals who are connected school/community members, who help our schools/communities thrive, becoming Place-conscious citizens. I argue that in teaching in such a culturally diverse community, tensions rise as immigration has become a main focus. Our school/community has experienced many ethnic groups with vast social differences for which Place-conscious education offers practical solutions. These students have a great need to feel a sense of belonging and their families need help in overcoming the challenges in school and local policies that come with immigration. Students who are native-born also experience challenges. Within this pedagogy’s framework, my students were first given the task to interview family members for oral, written, and digital history narratives; then they utilized mapping exercises to create deep maps, family trees and / or diagrams to enhance learning. The end product of this heritage work was to produce authentic writing that resulted in self-knowledge of where the students’ families immigrated from and to honor and give voice to that heritage, and, end in promote community and active citizenship. I examined the patterns, themes, and understandings that emerged in student writing practices within the framework. These historical narratives involved generational connections. Students investigated how their ancestors’ purposes for coming to the Great Plains impacted their lives. I examined the appreciation of place and identity as place; I laid the groundwork for or planted the seeds of stewardship, conservation, and ecology of place—sustainability. I concluded that one critical aspect of these Place-conscious assignments brought solidarity: we are all immigrants and need to feel a sense of belonging and community. Through these assignments, student realized the historical forces, which led all of their family members to America. We understood the need to all work for our mutual good, not self-interest. We need social justice. I see great hope in this conclusion. These assignments enhanced critical-thinking skills. Advisor: Robert Brook

Teaching Place: Heritage, Home and Community, the Heart of Education

This dissertation examines the implementation of a Place-conscious pedagogy as a means to teach heritage and sense of place. This pedagogy is framed upon the premise that trying to understand our heritage and place—ourselves—are crucial elements in our ability to live well as individuals who are connected school/community members, who help our schools/communities thrive, becoming Place-conscious citizens. I argue that in teaching in such a culturally diverse community, tensions rise as immigration has become a main focus. Our school/community has experienced many ethnic groups with vast social differences for which Place-conscious education offers practical solutions. These students have a great need to feel a sense of belonging and their families need help in overcoming the challenges in school and local policies that come with immigration. Students who are native-born also experience challenges. Within this pedagogy’s framework, my students were first given the task to interview family members for oral, written, and digital history narratives; then they utilized mapping exercises to create deep maps, family trees and / or diagrams to enhance learning. The end product of this heritage work was to produce authentic writing that resulted in self-knowledge of where the students’ families immigrated from and to honor and give voice to that heritage, and, end in promote community and active citizenship. I examined the patterns, themes, and understandings that emerged in student writing practices within the framework. These historical narratives involved generational connections. Students investigated how their ancestors’ purposes for coming to the Great Plains impacted their lives. I examined the appreciation of place and identity as place; I laid the groundwork for or planted the seeds of stewardship, conservation, and ecology of place—sustainability. I concluded that one critical aspect of these Place-conscious assignments brought solidarity: we are all immigrants and need to feel a sense of belonging and community. Through these assignments, student realized the historical forces, which led all of their family members to America. We understood the need to all work for our mutual good, not self-interest. We need social justice. I see great hope in this conclusion. These assignments enhanced critical-thinking skills. Advisor: Robert Brook

Interview with Laurabel Simpson

An interview with Laurabel Simpson regarding her experiences in a one-room school house.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/ors/1171/thumbnail.jp

"So, Tell Me What Users Want, What They Really, Really Want!"

Equating users' true needs and desires with behavioural measures of 'engagement' is problematic. However, good metrics of 'true preferences' are difficult to define, as cognitive biases make people's preferences change with context and exhibit inconsistencies over time. Yet, HCI research often glosses over the philosophical and theoretical depth of what it means to infer what users really want. In this paper, we present an alternative yet very real discussion of this issue, via a fictive dialogue between senior executives in a tech company aimed at helping people live the life they `really' want to live. How will the designers settle on a metric for their product to optimise

Actors, Avatars and Agents: Potentials and Implications of Natural Face Technology for the Creation of Realistic Visual Presence

We are on the cusp of creating realistic, interactive, fully rendered human faces on computers that transcend the “uncanny valley,” widely known for capturing the phenomenon of “eeriness” in faces that are almost, but not fully realistic. Because humans are hardwired to respond to faces in uniquely positive ways, artificial realistic faces hold great promise for advancing human interaction with machines. For example, realistic avatars will enable presentation of human actors in virtual collaboration settings with new levels of realism; artificial natural faces will allow the embodiment of cognitive agents, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, putting us on a path to create “artificial human” entities in the near future. In this conceptual paper, we introduce natural face technology (NFT) and its potential for creating realistic visual presence (RVP), a sensation of presence in interaction with a digital actor, as if present with another human. We contribute a forward-looking research agenda to information systems (IS) research, comprising terminology, early conceptual work, concrete ideas for research projects, and a broad range of research questions for engaging with this emerging, transformative technology as it becomes available for application. By doing so, we respond to calls for “blue ocean research” that explores unchartered territory and makes a novel technology accessible to IS early in its application. We outline promising areas of application and foreshadow philosophical, ethical, and conceptual questions for IS research pertaining to the more speculative phenomena of “living with artificial humans.

Enable people to identify science news based on retracted articles on social media

For many people, social media is an important way to consume news on important topics like health. Unfortunately, some influential health news is misinformation because it is based on retracted scientific work. Ours is the first work to explore how people can understand this form of misinformation and how an augmented social media interface can enable them to make use of information about retraction. We report a between subjects think-aloud study with 44 participants, where the experimental group used our augmented interface. Our results indicate that this helped them consider retraction when judging the credibility of news. Our key contributions are foundational insights for tackling the problem, revealing the interplay between people's understanding of scientific retraction, their prior beliefs about a topic, and the way they use a social media interface that provides access to retraction information