Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation

In a collaborative effort between university researchers and high school science teachers, an inquiry-based laboratory module was designed using two species of insecticidal nematodes to help students apply scientific inquiry and elements of thoughtful experimental design. The learning experience and model are described in this article. (Contains 4 figures and 17 online resources.)

The centennial celebration of The American Phytopathological Society (APS) has reminded us of the achievements of plant pathologists over the past century. Each discipline in plant pathology has contributed significantly to the advancements of our science. In 2007, a symposium was held at the APS meeting in San Diego to celebrate more than two and a half centuries of plant nematology since the discovery of plant-parasitic nematodes by Needham in 1743. This article has been produced and synthesized by the organizers and speakers from the symposium. We do not attempt to present another history of plant nematology, since the history has been reviewed extensively by Barker, Schmitt, Webster, Potter, Evans, Poinar, and recounted thoroughly by our predecessors Chitwood and Chitwood, Thorne, and Viglierchio. Rather, we will highlight the contributions of plant nematology to plant pathology by providing a few key examples that cover a wide range of studies in nematology.

Little is known about the effect of diversity surrounding a focal plant species on the belowground community under that species. At least two alternative hypotheses exist. First, studies involving a range of ecosystems and taxonomic groups have shown that changes in diversity in one group of species can promote diversity in other groups. Alternatively, many studies in soil ecology have shown that belowground communities are strongly determined by the dominant aboveground species. To better understand the role of aboveground diversity on belowground communities, we examined soil nematode communities directly under Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) in areas of high and low surrounding plant diversity. We found that soil nematode diversity under switchgrass in areas of high plant diversity (native prairies) was not significantly different from soil nematode diversity under switchgrass in areas of extremely low plant diversity (switchgrass monocultures), indicating that an agricultural monoculture can maintain high levels of belowground diversity on a plant scale. However, reduced plant diversity surrounding focal switchgrass plants resulted in a compositional shift in the belowground community toward fewer herbivorous nematodes. This evidence for the influence of surrounding diversity on belowground communities under a focal plant species is a major shift in perspective from the conventional view on belowground community ecology. Furthermore, the work has broad implications for ecological perspectives on agricultural systems.

This chapter begins by reviewing the many definitions of the term open educational resources and concludes by discussing challenges and opportunities for the approach. Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials either licensed under an open copyright license or in the public domain. Neither the term “open educational resources” nor the term “open” itself has an agreed upon definition in the literature. Research regarding open educational resources focuses on methods of producing OER, methods of sharing OER, and the benefits of OER. Significant issues relating to OER remain unresolved, including business model and discovery problems.

Proponents of open educational resources claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the classroom. Over a period of two years we worked with twenty high school science teachers (collectively teaching approximately 3500 students) who adopted open textbooks to understand the process and determine the overall cost of adopting an open textbook. The teachers deployed open textbooks in multiple ways. Some of these methods cost more than traditional textbooks; however we did identify and implement a successful model of open textbook adoption that reduces costs over 50% compared to the cost of adopting traditional textbooks. In addition, we examined the standardized test scores of students using the open textbooks and found no apparent differences in the results of students who used open textbooks. Finally, we investigated student and teacher perceptions of open textbook quality in a community college context. Results revealed that, overall, students and faculty had a very positive experience using OER in their classroom for a wide range of reasons.

Proponents of open educational resources claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the college classroom. We investigated student and faculty perceptions of OER used in a community college context. Over 125 students and 11 faculty from 7 colleges responded to an online questionnaire about the cost and quality of the open textbooks used in their classrooms. Results showed that the majority of students and faculty had a positive experience using the open textbooks, appreciated the lower costs, and perceived the texts as being of high quality. The potential implications for OER initiatives at the college level seem large. If primary instructional materials can in fact be made available to students at no or very low cost, without harming learning outcomes, there appears to be a significant opportunity for disruption and innovation in higher education.

Despite increased development and dissemination, there has been very little empirical research on Open Educational Resources (OER). Teachers and students involved in a large-scale OER initiative at eight community colleges across the United States were given a detailed questionnaire aimed at uncovering their perceptions of the cost, impact, and quality of the OER used in their courses. Teachers and students alike reported significant cost savings and various impacts on pedagogy and learning due to the implementation of OER in the classroom. In addition, most students and teachers perceived their OER to be at least equal in quality to traditional textbooks they had used in the past. Implications for further research are discussed.

In their new book about the history and future of the Society
of Nematologists (Agriculture, Nematology and the Society of
Nematologists, published by Schmitt & Associates of Marceline,
2007), former SON president D. P. Schmitt and his daughter
J. M. P. Schmitt follow the advice of Machiavelli: “Whoever
wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human
events ever resemble those of preceding time. This arises from
the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions.”

Nematodes or roundworms are of inherent biological importance, and although they are popular model organisms in research laboratories and ubiquitous in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments, they are often given little significance in most secondary science education curricula. The important ecological niches occupied by these organisms make the study of nematodes in high school classrooms an exciting topic and justify a place in the biology core curriculum (Tylka and Jasalavich 2001).

I am a doctoral student enrolled in an educational research program. While completing an action research course, I conducted research to improve my academic writing and to develop skills for formulating arguments about educational issues. From this research I developed an appreciation for and an understanding of good writing habits and elements of strong arguments. Writing allowed me to explore how my experience shaped my perception of educational issues. I used writing as a tool for advocating for individuals to own their development and advancement and for addressing complexities inherent in education. The results illustrate that academic writing can be perceived as a form of action research, in that writing allows for exploration of possibilities of individual and institutional growth, generates knowledge of self and social and political worlds, and creates relevant knowledge that can contribute to change.

A Case Study on the Facilitation of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in a Public Elementary School John Todd Shumway Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation, BYU Doctor of Philosophy Disruptive behaviors in elementary schools are a serious concern for teachers. With mounting pressure from school district administrations, state and federal government agencies, and the communities in which these schools reside, teachers often struggle to determine the best path to achieve consistent student engagement. When inappropriate behaviors are not managed effectively, academics suffer. Positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) have been shown to be effective in reducing such behaviors. Professional Learning Communities (PLC) have also become very common in schools as teachers are organized into teams to collaborate and plan learning opportunities and methods for the instruction and assessment of students. The present study examined the effects of PBIS implementat...

Curriculum integration is a unique approach to teaching. Twenty-first century skill approaches to curriculum integration train teachers in the process of curriculum integration, such that they are able to integrate various subject combinations in their teaching that produce new skills and dispositions in their students. Yet no scale to measure teachers’ beliefs about the value of and efficacy beliefs towards implementing curriculum integration exists that is universal in the sense that it can be used any time any subject combination is integrated. Using a sample of 196 teachers at a professional development meeting in a mid-sized suburban school district in the Mountain West, this dissertation tests a scale that measures teachers’ beliefs about the value of and efficacy beliefs towards curriculum integration and assesses its psychometric properties.  The UCI21-T scale loaded as a bifactor model with one general factor and two specific factors.  Conceptually and practically, however, the scale is best scored and reported as a two-correlated factor model. The scale demonstrated evidence of validity and reliability and shows promise for use by administrators and professional developers when assessing teachers’ beliefs about the value of and efficacy beliefs towards 21st century curriculum integration.

Choosing the Best (CTB) is a set of new abstinence education curricula using a multi-year, sequential approach for students in the 6th through 9th grades. CTB was developed incorporating elements of social learning, cognitive learning and inductive ...

There is some debate whether asking questions to those who have experienced abuse and victimization forces them to relive the trauma, and if asking the questions is therefore justified. This question is further complicated when deciding whether to ask these questions to youth or adolescents as opposed to fully grown adults. In the small number of studies found on this topic, the authors stated also being surprised by the small amount of previous research done. Most studies asked questions about previous victimization and abuse, with some other sensitive topics also being covered such as violence, suicide, drug use, STDs, etc. The major findings were: • In defense of asking sensitive questions to youth, caregivers and young people indicate that sensitive surveys are important to conduct (Fisher, 2003; Helweg-Larsen, Sundaram, Curtis, & Larsen, 2003). • In studies assessing the impact of sensitive questions that involved youth (Ybarra,, only a small percentage of participants indicate...