BUILDING COMPREHENSION: A CAUSAL COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ORAL READING FLUENCY OF FIRST GRADERS

Teachers are charged with the task of reaching all students academically in hopes all students will become proficient readers by third grade. Oral reading fluency is a predictor in academic success since fluency reflects comprehension. Students often come to school unprepared in their earliest years due to a lack of opportunity and/or early literacy experiences, creating an achievement gap, a disparity in academic performance between groups of students. This study identifies the correlation between socioeconomic status, race, gender, and preschool enrollment and the oral reading fluency of first-grade readers as indicated by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 8 composite score, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 8 Oral Reading Fluency words read correctly (ORF-WRC) and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 8 Oral Reading Fluency accuracy (ORF-ACC) score. Key findings show that socioeconomic status, race, gender, and preschool enrollment are predictors of oral reading fluency

Publish or Perish: Can Scholarship and Teaching Coexist?

Faculty at institutions of higher education are experiencing constant requests to increase teaching loads and class sizes while, at the same time, continuing to meet the demands for scholarship and service. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can serve as one way in which faculty can simultaneously focus on improving their teaching and their students’ learning as well as meeting the rigorous demands for peer review and publication. The systematic approach of asking questions about one’s teaching, designing and conducting appropriate research methodologies to investigate those questions, analyzing the results, and subjecting the entire process and findings to peer review elevates good teaching to appropriate scholarship worthy of recognition in the tenure and promotion processes of higher education. This essay examines definitions and the history of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. In addition, it focuses on how faculty members can find time for and get started with SoTL work

Open policy for wireless computers in classrooms: What makes it a good or a bad idea?

Increasingly, studies and media articles have been looking into possible adverse effects of open policies for using wireless ready computers in classrooms. Tablet PCs, as indicated by some of those authors, are under suspicion more than laptops because they make it harder for instructor to determine whether they are used productively or for off-the-task purposes. In this study students were invited to voluntarily bring their personal wireless computers to introductory physics classes in order to utilize them with DyKnow software. We compare performance of students who consistently used computers in classroom with those who did so less frequently or not at all. We also gauge how student attitudes and recommendations related to DyKnow software and Tablet PCs vary by the type of computer that was available to them in this course

STEM and Branches: Update on the Columbus State University STEM-II Initiative

Two USG STEM Initiative awards to Columbus State University have spawned the growth of several STEM and STEM education programs and nearly $2.6 million in grants. We provide an update on STEM-II Initiative projects including a peer leader program for core math and science courses, a faculty mini-grants program to promote scholarship on teaching and learning and awareness of best practices models, and a service learning course. The infrastructure that emerged through the first STEM Initiative and continued to develop with the STEM-II Initiative paved the way for a$1.4 million UTeach replication grant and a $1.2 million Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grant. We describe key developments in these two programs designed to recruit and prepare more STEM teachers

Outgrowths of USG STEM Initiatives: Service Learning Courses and a STEM Honors Camp

We examine two programs that have developed out of USG STEM Initiative projects. With the first STEM Initiative, Columbus State University initiated an Academy of Future Teachers that has led to an expanded STEM Honors Camp for recruiting university students into high school teaching and heightening high school students’ interests in STEM careers. With STEM Initiative II, Columbus State launched a Project FOCUS replication that contributed to the establishment of the UTeach Columbus program for preparing high school STEM teachers

Assessing the Impact of Tutorial Services

This is a preliminary report assessing the impact of tutorial services on student performance. We discuss a statistical approach, and why regression models do not appear suitable for the analysis

The Effect of Peer Leader Instruction on Introductory University Science and Mathematics Course Performance: Preliminary Results

The Peer Instruction Leader (PIL) program at Columbus State University pairs courses having historically low success rates with dedicated peer helpers in an attempt to boost student learning and success. PILs are selected from undergraduate students who have demonstrated success in the targeted subject. They attend classes, meet with the assigned instructor periodically, participate in PIL training, and manage course focused discussion groups. The authors analyze data collected in the early stages of the program, which shows that students who attended the discussion groups fared better than those who did not

Developing a STEM Teacher Recruitment Pipeline

The Columbus Region Academy of Future Teachers of STEM (CRAFT-STEM), a Phase I Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, combines internships and scholarships, an exciting summer STEM Honors Camp, a new Teaching Connections Seminar, and an impressive array of existing resources to recruit, prepare, and graduate an increasing number of STEM teachers committed to serving high need high schools

Methodology and/or Technology: Making Difference in Improving Students\u27 Problem Solving Skills

Wirelessly networked, in-class computing opens a wide array of possibilities for active instructional methodologies (Hrepic, Rebello, & Zollman, 2009). Earlier studies showed a substantial potential that the pen input computers combined with interactive software like DyKnow (www.dyknow.com) may have in facilitating students’ problem solving ability. The session has two goals. The first one is to demonstrate the instructor-student classroom interaction dynamics enabled or facilitated by DyKnow software and pen-input computers. The second one is to present selected research findings associated with student learning while using this technology. The most recent of our studies was to isolate the effect of the methodology itself from that of the involved technology for improving student problem solving skills. References: Hrepic, Z., Rebello, N. S., & Zollman, D. A. (2009). Remedying Shortcomings of Lecture-Based Physics Instruction Through Pen-Based, Wireless Computing And DyKnow Software. In N. H. Salas & D. D. Peyton (Eds.), Reading: Assessment, Comprehension and Teaching (pp. 97-129): Nova Science Publishers; [reprinted in Journal of Education Research, 3(1/2), 161-190 (2009)]