1-10 of 14 results

  • The Rise and Fall of the Veterans' Airlines

    PI Alan Bender

    This is an investigation into a practically unknown chapter in U.S. airline history: the advent of a brand new breed of airlines in the aftermath of World War II, mom-and-pop discounters immensely popular with the general public but very threatening to the established airlines and to the federal regulatory system.

    Postwar America was a land full of opportunity. Economically and socially, in both industry and education, it was the dawn of a new era. But such was not the case in the U.S. airline industry. New technology meant faster, bigger, safer, more comfortable aircraft, yet traveling by air remained unaffordable to the vast majority of Americans. This is the story of opportunity lost due to rampant government protectionism and powerful vested interests. Utilizing historical materials from the National Air and Space Museum, National Archives, Library of Congress, four presidential libraries, and various oral history collections, a book is being prepared and written that documents the history of these long forgotten - yet historically very significant - airline companies that truly pioneered affordable airline transportation in America.

    Tags: college of arts and sciences social science and economics worldwide campus

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Developing Autonomous, Targeted Feedback in Precalculus

    PI Darryl Chamberlain

    The overriding goal of this project is to investigate student knowledge in a Precalculus course at ERAU-W in order to construct autonomous, targeted feedback for free-responses questions to enhance students' online learning. This will be accomplished by analyzing student responses to exam questions and interviewing students to probe how their mathematical conceptions correspond to their exam responses. 

    Tags: Targeted Feedback Distractors

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • A Comparison of Online and Traditional Undergraduate Introductory Physics

    PI Emily Faulconer

    CO-I John Griffith

    CO-I Beverly Wood

    CO-I Soumyadip Acharyya

    CO-I Donna Roberts

    While the equivalence between online and traditional classrooms has been well-researched, very little of this includes college level introductory physics. Only one study explored physics at the whole-class level rather than specific course components such as a single lab or a homework platform. In this work, we compared the failure rate, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates in an introductory undergraduate physics course across several learning modes including traditional face-to-face instruction, synchronous video instruction, and online classes.

    In this study, statistically significant differences were found for student failure rates, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates but yielded small effect sizes.  Post-hoc pair-wise test were run to determine differences between learning modes.  Online students had a significantly lower failure rate than students who took the class via synchronous video classroom.  While statistically significant differences were found for grade distributions, the pair-wise comparison yielded no statistically significance differences between learning modes when using the more conservative Bonferroni correction in post-hoc testing.   Finally, in this study, student withdrawal rates were lowest for students who took the class in person (in-person classroom and synchronous video classroom) than online.  Students that persist in an online introductory physics class are more likely to achieve an A than in other modes. However, the withdrawal rate is higher from online physics courses.  Further research is warranted to better understand the reasons for higher withdrawal rates in online courses. Finding the root cause to help eliminate differences in student performance across learning modes should remain a high priority for education researchers and the education community as a whole.

    Tags: SoTL worldwide campus college of aviation

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • A Review of Allelopathy of Schinus terebinthifolius: Using published data to inform future research

    PI Emily Faulconer

    CO-I Zachary Dixon

    The Brazilian pepper plant (Schinus terebinthifolius) has been identified as an invasive species in multiple geographic regions around the globe. One characteristic that contributes to its invasiveness is allelopathy. This review provides a comprehensive look at the current research on phytotoxicity and cytotoxicity and presents the characterizations of the terpenoid and phenolic allelochemicals provided in previous works. Future areas of research are identified as a result of this review. 



    ​The Brazilian pepper plant (Schinus terebinthifolius) is an invasive species that displays multiple characteristics that allow for habitat invasion in many regions globally, including allelopathy. This review analyzes the existing literature that characterizes the Brazilian pepper’s extract and its allelopathic effects, established through bioassay and pot cultures. This review reveals that studies characterizing the extract should include specific information to include specific geographic region, plant part used (leaves versus fruit), and flowering state of the plant when collected. While this review does firmly establish the broad allelopathic effects of the plant, it reveals the need for pot culture and bioassay studies to perform a characterization of the extract in order to draw conclusions regarding the allelopathic effect and the extract composition. We also suggest field studies to firmly establish the broad allelopathic influence of the plant as well as to investigate persistence of Brazilian pepper’s allelopathic chemicals in their surrounding environment.  

    References:

    Alves, L.A., Freires, I., de Souza, T.M.P.A., & de Castro, R.D. (2012). In vitro activity of schinus terebinthifolius (brazilian pepper tree) on candida tropicalis growth and cell wall formation. Aca Odontologica Latinoamercana 25, 287-292.

    Australian Government Department of Environment and Energy. (2011). Schinus terebinthifolius. Retrieved from Australian Government website.

    Bargeron, C.T., & Moorhead, D.J. (2017). EDDMapS - Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System. University of Georgia - Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health .

    de Assis, C.P.O., Gondim Jr., M.G.C., de Siqueira, H.A.A., & da Camara, C.A.G. (2011). Toxicity of essential oils from plants towards tyrophagus putrescentiae (schrank) and suidasia pontifica oudemans (acari: Astimgata). Journal of Stored Products Research 47, 311-315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jspr.2011.04.005

    El-Massry, K.F., El-Ghorab, A.H., Shaaban, H.A., & Shibamoto, T. (2009). Chemical compositions and antioxidant/antimicrobial activities of various samples prepared from schinus terebinthifolius leaves cultivated in Egypt. Journal of Agricultural Food and Chemistry 57, 5265-5270. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf900638c

    Gomes, F.S., Procopio, T.F., Napoleao, T.H., Coelho, L.C.B.B., & Paiva, P.M.G. (2012). Antimicrobial lectin from schinus terebinthifolius leaf. Journal of Applied Microbiology 114, 672-679. https://doi.org/10.1111/jam.12086

    Kweka, E.J., Nyindo, M., Mosha, F., & Silva, A.G. (2011). Insecticidal activity of the essential oil from fruits and seeds of schinus terebinthifolia raddi against African malaria vectors. Parasite Vector 4,129. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-4-129

    Silva, A.G., Almeida, D.L., Ronchi, S.N., Bento, A.C., Scherer, R., Ramos, A.C., & Cruz, Z.M.A. (2010). The essential oil of brazilian pepper, schinus terebinthifolia Raddi in larval control of stegomyia aegypti (linnaeus, 1762). Parasite Vector 3, 79. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-3-79

    Tags: worldwide campus college of arts and sciences

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Improving Undergraduate Student Persistence, Performance, and Perspectives in Online STEM Courses via a Community of Inquiry and Decreasing Students' Cognitive Load

    PI Emily Faulconer

    CO-I Darryl Chamberlain

    CO-I Beverly Wood

    ​This project aims to serve the national interest in high-quality undergraduate STEM education by designing and studying a pilot program to improve online discussion forums in STEM courses. The goal of the project is to positively impact student persistence, performance, and perspectives in asynchronous online STEM courses.

    This project aims to serve the national interest in high-quality undergraduate STEM education by designing and studying a pilot program to improve online discussion forums in STEM courses. The overall goal of the project is to improve students’ performance and persistence in online STEM courses, while simultaneously improving their attitudes toward STEM itself. To achieve this goal, the project focuses on introducing practices that reduce extraneous cognitive load, while also improving educators’ instructional and social presence, and students’ social and cognitive presence. The project will study a specific practice: a faculty-student learning community that uses discussion forums and other online components to minimize non-relevant technical complexity. The project intends to produce guidelines for creating a productive online learning community that does not require additional effort that is unrelated to the intended learning. The project will provide professional development to support instructors’ implementation of the guidelines. It is anticipated that the guidelines may be transferable to other online STEM courses. The projects’ data about student retention, persistence, and attitudes toward STEM will provide a base for additional research on online STEM learning.

    The goal of the project is to positively impact student persistence, performance, and perspectives in asynchronous online STEM courses. It expects to do to by supporting learning communities in ways that mitigate the impacts of extraneous cognitive load. To this end, the project will design and test a pilot program for infusing the components of the Community of Inquiry framework into asynchronous course discussions, including a best practices redesign of the discussion prompts, rubrics, and instructions by subject matter experts and instructional designers. The pilot program will use existing institutional structures to support the redesign and to provide faculty with the related professional development. In a mixed-methods research study, information will be collected about students’ academic success (course grades, discussion transcript analysis), persistence (withdrawal rate), and perspectives (surveys on STEM attitudes, cognitive load, and community of inquiry). These data will be complemented by results from focus group interviews. The project intends to generate a Community of Inquiry – Cognitive Load framework for asynchronous online STEM courses that supports student outcomes by promoting social, teaching, and cognitive presences via the Community of Inquiry, while mitigating cognitive load that is disconnected from disciplinary learning. The framework may be transferrable and scalable to other asynchronous online STEM courses. By identifying reasons for persistence and retention in online STEM courses, the project expects to lay the foundation for further research on interventions that improve student outcomes in online STEM courses. The NSF IUSE:EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

    NSF Award Search: Award Abstract #2044302

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Representations of the Military in 20th Century Ethnic American Literature

    PI Kara Fontenot

    Building on existing literary and ethnic studies scholarship with respect to the construction of American identity, I am considering the political work of representations of the U.S military in ethnic American literature. Ethnic American texts that contain representations of the U.S. military are an essential yet understudied part of a politicized, nation-centered critical discourse that examines strategies for constructing and negotiating national identity, practices of inclusion and exclusion with regard to citizenship and relationships between individual, racial group, ethnic group and nation.



    The U.S. military has long been vital to the ways in which individuals’ and groups’ relationships to the U.S. nation-state have been imagined. For example, in his now tirelessly cited study of nationalism, Imagined Communities (1983), Benedict Anderson emphasizes the significance of military service for constructing an imagined affiliation for a diverse citizenry.He reminds us that wars fought for the nation provide a shared experience for citizens, whether they are wars against foreign enemies or even a domestic civil war.Anderson also asserts that memorials to soldiers killed in the service of the nation link the dead and the yet unborn in a shared collective, which secularizes a role religion played in the past, substituting the nation-state for the church. His history affirms that militarism has long been a tool of official nationalism and a venue for visual pageantry that reaffirms the power and glory of the nation-state. Anderson even figures “willingness to die for one’s country” as the traditional measure of one’s commitment to a nation, and, indeed, historically military service has been one of the paths to legal citizenship in the United States.

    In addition to considering the enormous weight of military service in the national imagination, we should consider the ways experiences of military force and military service have long characterized racial and ethnic minority life in the United States. U.S. military force has been deployed against every major ethnic minority group in the nation.In various, complex, historically specific situations, the U.S. military has served as a tool to kill, terrorize, oppress, imprison and seize land and/or property from Native Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans and Asian Americans. Many literary representations of military service by ethnic Americans may be read as critiques of ideology in which ethnic minorities are nationalized yet simultaneously excluded from full citizenship in the nation.

    However, members of ethnic American groups historically excluded from full citizenship have proudly served in the U.S. military since the American Revolution, earlier in small numbers within integrated enlisted ranks, then in large segregated units during World War II, and last in disproportionately large numbers during the Vietnam War and other wars fought primarily by soldiers drafted or recruited from the American working-class. For many members of ethnic minority groups, U.S. military service has become an avenue for socio-economic mobility and a path to legal citizenship in the U.S. nation-state.Many literary representations of military service by ethnic Americans may be read as attempts to expand existing constructions of American identity by writing previously excluded groups into the national body.

    Literary representations of the U.S. military in Ethnic American literature are also part of an ongoing national discourse on whiteness, white privilege, citizenship and national identity. For example, in The Possessive Investment in Whiteness (2006) George Lipsitz argues that in the United States white privilege has been constructed and preserved legally, institutionally and socially, which has resulted in a conflation of American identity and white identity that historically has excluded ethnic minorities from full, equal citizenship in the U.S. nation-state. Certainly, in ethnic American literature, representations of soldiers nationalized by service in the U.S. military yet simultaneously excluded on the basis of ethnic or racial identity contribute to the national discourse on whiteness, white privilege, citizenship and national identity.

    These representations of military service are also part of an ongoing national discourse about class struggle. Anderson, Lipsitz and other scholars of nationalism, such as Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, agree that the exclusion of ethnic minorities from national identity on the basis of race is simultaneously a reflection of class struggle. In Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities (1988), Balibar and Wallerstein in suggest that imagination of a national community is constructed through both language and race, resulting in a notion of kinship that Balibar coins “fictive ethnicity.”  Balibar and Wallerstein point out that through this conception of shared identity, the “nation” as a historical construct is used to project present institutions and antagonisms into the past (often a mythical past).  For example, Wallerstein observes that the inclusiveness of national identity often expands and contracts according to the present need for labor for the lowest paid, least rewarding jobs. Certainly, in ethnic American literature, literary representations of disproportionately large numbers of ethnic soldiers drafted and recruited into the enlisted ranks of the U.S. military and their often racially-inflected experience of service contribute to the national discourse on the relationship between race and class struggle.

    It is no wonder, considering the complex history of ethnic Americans’ service in the U.S. military that representations of the U.S. military in ethnic American literature are also complex and embark on a wide variety of political projects. What is surprising is that no book-length examination of representations of the U.S. military in ethnic American literature has yet been published.

    An extensive search of the MLA Bibliography’s database of peer-reviewed journal articles, covering over 600 sources, produced only six articles giving critical attention to representations of the U.S. military in Ethnic American texts. Four of these were close readings of a single text, one was a thematic exploration of Black Rough Riders, and the most comprehensive was an article by Perry D. Luckett, “The Black Soldier in Vietnam War Literature and Film” (1990). Similarly, a search of book listings in the WorldCat database produced many historical descriptions of experiences of ethnic soldiers serving in the U.S. military, collections of oral narratives of ethnic soldiers, memoirs of ethnic experiences of war, an anthology of war-themed writings related to Chicano/a experiences of Vietnam, Aztlan and Vietnam, by George Mariscal, and novels and short-stories that feature the theme of war. However, the search uncovered no book-length critical study of representations of the U.S. military in Ethnic American literature.

    The multiple ethnic literary traditions represented in this project emerge out of incommensurable histories of different US ethnic groups, yet they are all characterized by attempts to grapple with constructions of US national identity through representations of the U.S. military. The comparative methodology of this project allows me to consider the complexity and variety of ways in which literary representations perform political work as the texts articulate individual and group relations to American identity and the US nation-state through representations of the US military, both as a national institution and as a site of individual identity construction.

    In the course of my research, I will attempt to answer the following questions: How do these texts represent U.S. military service as a performance of American-ness (national identity) that fails to mitigate the legal exclusion and social stigmatization of racial and ethnic identity? Conversely, how do these texts represent U.S. military service as a performance of Americanness (national identity) that does mitigate the legal exclusion and social stigmatization of racial and ethnic identity?  What is the relationship between genre and politics in first-person narratives of ethnic American U.S. military service? How do representations of the U.S. military in ethnic American literature rewrite national histories and contest existing representations of the nation?

    Tags: college of arts and sciences english humanities worldwide campus

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Comparison of Grades Based on Learning Mode: How Learning Environment Impacts Grades

    PI John Griffith

    CO-I Donna Roberts

    CO-I Beverly Wood

    A comparison of failure rates and grade distribution will be conducted between four learning disciplines utilized by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide: Eagle Vision Classroom (synchronous classroom to classroom), Eagle Vision Home (synchronous home to home), Online and traditional classroom learning environments. Researchers will examine approximately 20,000 Embry-Riddle end-of-course student grades from the 2015-2016 academic year. The study will determine if significant relationships between failing grades and learning environment (modes) exist between the English, Humanities, Economics and Mathematics disciplines. Due to the continued technological advancements in course delivery, recommendations from previous studies in this area include continued research on the relationship of student performance and learning mode.

    Universities are offering a greater number of courses over the Internet in a synchronous mode of instruction, utilizing headsets and webcams along with traditional classroom and online instruction (Foreman & Jenkins, 2005). In light of this continuing shift, this student replicates Dunn's (2013) earlier work, at least in concept, by examining the relationship between learning mode and student performance through analysis of approximately 20,000 student grades.

    Embry-Riddle student course grades will be mined from the Campus Solutions database through the ERNIE Dashboard Portal. Data in the form of end of course grades (n=approximately 20,000) for the academic year 2015-2016 will be examined to test the hypotheses. No individual student identification will be obtained, used or reported in this study. Atypical grades including withdraws, incompletes or individual tutorials, will be excluded from the analysis. The researchers plan to use Chi Square tests at the appropriate degrees of freedom (α=.05) to evaluate the data (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2006). Four tests will be run for each course discipline (Economics, English, Humanities and Mathematics). The first two tests will evaluate the hypothesis regarding equivalency of failures for all modes of instruction. The first statistical test will compare the number of students who passed versus the number who failed for all modes (EV Home, EV Classroom, On-line and Classroom) of learning. A second statistical test will be conducted comparing just two modes at a time using a 2X2 contingency table to determine if modes and grades are related. Additional tests will be run to evaluate the hypothesis regarding equivalent grade distribution across the learning modes for each discipline. The third test will compare all the modes for each discipline to determine if learning mode and grades are related. The fourth test will allow researchers to compare two modes at a time using a 2X2 contingency table to determine if modes and grades are related.

    References

    Dunn, L. (2013). A study to compare and contrast student grades and satisfaction levels of traditional classroom and distance learning environments at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide Campus. (Unpublished master's degree Graduate Capstone Project). Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide Campus, Daytona Beach, FL.

    Foreman, J., & Jenkins, R. (20015). Full-featured web conferencing systems. Innovate 1 (4) Retrieved from https://courseware.e-education.psu.edu/resources/Article_FullFeaturedWebConferencingSystems.pdf

    Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasian, P. W. (2006). Educational Research: Competencies for analysis and applications. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

    Griffith, J. C., Roberts, D. L., & Schultz, M. C. (2014). Relationship between grades and modes of learning. The Journal of American Business Review, Cambridge, 3(1), 81-88.

    Tags: mathematics physical sciences eaglevision

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • A Tale of Two Airlines: A Comparative Case Study of High-Road versus Low-Road Strategies in Customer Service and Reputation Management

    PI John Griffith

    CO-I Donna Roberts

    This proposal represents an in-depth comparative case study highlighting the differences in marketing strategies, employee relations and customer (internal and external) service models between American low cost carrier Southwest Airlines and European low cost carrier Ryanair. Analysis will focus on the differing brand personalities of the two airlines, particularly with regard to customer service and its relationship to customer satisfaction and overall corporate success from the early days of these organizations through 2013.

    Using a qualitative toll, the differing business strategies will be examined with regard to their adherence or non-adherence to basic business principles as well as theories of psychology and consumer behavior. The researchers will attempt to identify underlying variables and principles that influence the diverging outcomes for these two airlines, paying particular attention to areas that are counter-intuitive and/or challenge some of the widely accepted business practices and ideologies.

    The insights gained from this analysis will provide a greater understanding of both the psychology of the air travel consumer and the relative effectiveness of differing marketing models and promotional practices. Based on its exploratory and analytic nature, this study may have possible implications for stakeholders at both the micro and macro levels, including the customers (both internal and external), the specific airlines studied as well as the wider airline industry, and other industries concerned with similar aspects of consumer behavior.

    References:

    Anderson, R.E. (1973). Consumer dissatisfaction: The effect of disconfirmed expectancy on product performance, Journal of Marketing Research, 10, pp. 38-44

    Druckman, D. (2005). Doing research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Eckstein, H. (1975). Case studies and theory in Fred Greenstein and Nelson Polsby, eds., Handbook of political science, Vol. 7, pp.79-138. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley

    Helson, H. (1964). Adaptation-level theory. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

    Lijphart, A. (1971). Comparative politics and the comparative method. American Political Science Review, 65, (3), pp. 682-693.

    Reimer A. & Kuehn R. (2005). The impact of servicescape on quality perception. European Journal of Marketing, 39 (7/8), pp. 785-808. doi: 10.1108/03090560510601761.

    Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods, 5th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.

    Yuksel, A., & Yuksel, F. (2001). The expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm: A critique. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Resarch, 25 (2), pp. 107-131. doi: 10.1177/109634800102500201

    Tags: aviation business management

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Effects of Institutional Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Undergraduate Faculty and Students Across STEM Disciplines

    PI Chelsea LeNoble

    CO-I Allison Kwesell

    The project's specific aims are to: (1) examine teaching and learning experiences of undergraduate faculty and students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) examine the effects of faculty and student reactions on undergraduate STEM teaching and learning; and (3) leverage findings to develop actionable recommendations for colleges and universities to best prepare and protect their faculty, staff, and students and the integrity of undergraduate STEM education.

    View the project website here, and the NSF Award abstract here

    Tags: STEM college of arts and sciences multidisciplinary worldwide campus

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Examining and addressing the content knowledge development needs of Florida's aspiring and newly-qualified mathematics teachers

    PI Catherine Paolucci

    CO-I Darryl Chamberlain

    CO-I Christopher Redding

    CO-I Sam Vancini

    CO-I Ashley Reese

    This project aims to support content knowledge development for secondary mathematics teachers, particularly those whose pathway to certification has included limited post-secondary studies of mathematics. 

    This project aims to support content knowledge development for secondary mathematics teachers, particularly those whose pathway to certification has included limited post-secondary studies of mathematics. Initially, it will focus on teachers in Florida who do not have a degree in mathematics or a relevant field and have earned temporary certification by taking the 6-12 Mathematics Subject Area Exam (SAE-Math). Longer term, it aims to serve teachers with similar backgrounds on a national level.  

    Researchers recognize mathematical knowledge as an influential factor in teachers’ classroom practice (Ball, Thames & Phelps, 2008; Goldsmith, Doerr, & Lewis, 2014; Lampert, 2001) and have established the potential for advanced mathematical studies to positively impact their mathematical knowledge for teaching (Paolucci, 2015). Therefore, it is reasonable to expect teachers with little or no mathematical studies beyond their own K-12 mathematics education to require support similar to that needed by out-of-field mathematics teachers – qualified teachers assigned to teach mathematics when it does not match their subject area training (Hobbs & Törner, 2019; Ní Ríodáin, Paolucci, & O’Dwyer, 2017). This is of particular concern given links between out-of-field teaching and teacher quality and research suggesting that teachers most often teach out of field in schools where students are already underserved (Ingersoll, 2002; Nguyen & Redding, 2018).  

    In Florida, aspiring mathematics teachers with undergraduate degrees in unrelated fields can still earn temporary certification by passing the SAE-Math, which allows them to immediately begin teaching. Many then enroll in programs designed to meet professional certification requirements (e.g. UF’s Educator Preparation Institute (EPI)); however, because they have passed the SAE-Math, no content-focused coursework is required. As a result, preparation for the SAE-Math can be the primary means by which they develop the content knowledge needed to teach, prior to entering the classroom.  

    With this in mind, this project aims to examine the content knowledge development needs of Florida’s temporarily certified mathematics teachers, with a focus on those who were required to take the SAE-Math because they did not have an undergraduate degree in or related to mathematics. The following short-term goals apply to work expected to be completed during the 12-month CRIF funding period: 

    Goal 1: Establish baseline trends in the mathematical backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences of Florida’s aspiring and newly-certified mathematics teachers to better understand their content knowledge development needs.  

    This is valuable information for mathematics teacher educators and teacher education programs throughout Florida committed to offering professional certification pathways that better support content knowledge development. 

    Goal 2: Create an online dynamic assessment tool that addresses gaps and weaknesses in alternatively- certified teachers’ content preparation and supports content knowledge development aligned with Florida’s B.E.S.T. standards. 

    Outcomes from these two goals will inform preparation of a federal funding proposal with the following long-term goals that build on the work completed during the CRIF funding period: 

    Goal 3: Expand and measure the statewide impact of the dynamic assessment tool through partnership with school districts and institutions currently offering Florida’s 24 state-approved EPI programs.  

    Goal 4: Scale implementation and impact measurement to a national level through analysis of other state certification exams that can inform online learning tools for a range of certification pathways and programs designed to support out-of-field teachers (e.g. Teach for America). 

    Findings from this research will contribute to two areas of mathematics education research – understanding and addressing the needs of out-of-field mathematics teachers (Hobbs & Törner, 2019; Ní Ríodáin et al., 2017) and teachers’ development of the specialized content knowledge that has been linked to classroom practice (Ball et al., 2008). It is also likely to have state and policy implications for teacher education. In particular, the research will contribute insight to an ongoing international debate about the amount and nature of the mathematics content that should be required for teacher preparation. 

    An array of theoretical frameworks concerning the knowledge required for teaching mathematics have been developed by key researchers in the area (e.g. Ball et al., 2008; Davis & Renert, 2013; Rowland & Ruthven, 2011; Tatto et al., 2012). Such models provide guidance for designing experiences that target teacher knowledge development (Chapman, 2013), and particularly in this context, thinking about the development alternatively certified mathematics teachers. This project will incorporate and build on this work. The findings will also be valuable for mathematics teacher education in Florida as the state shifts to its new B.E.S.T. state standards in 2022.  

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

1-10 of 14 results