Like other social institutions, universities have been
created and administered by and for a white-male dominant
culture that continues to marginalize women and anyone else
designated as -Other- according to race, class, ethnicity,
ability, age, size, and sexuality. This discussion
questions the dominant model of standard written discourse
in the...
This thesis examines the challenging situation high school dual credit teachers in Oregon face teaching first-year composition in the high school location. I argue that thorough training, support, and professional development are vital for high school teachers teaching dual credit writing courses, who without it may find themselves faced with...
College Algebra is a prerequisite for calculus and is thus an important stepping stone in the careers of STEM-intending undergraduates. However, College Algebra has low pass rates across the United States, interrupting students’ pathways to success. To address this concern, a research-oriented university in the Northwest United States restructured its...
Over the last few decades, the methods and tools through which humans collaborate, share knowledge and generally communicate have been advancing at a rapid pace. Thanks mostly to advances in broadband internet, cheap data storage and fast microprocessors, humans now have the ability to work together in ways that even...
Although there is research into student learning on the Web and other computer-supported environments, there has been little investigation into the practice and pedagogy of university Web teachers. This qualitative study used a series of interviews of eight higher education faculty to gather data on their Web teaching practices, and...
Background
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded multiple research projects dedicated to the development of research and evidence based instructional strategies in an effort to improve the state of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the US. These efforts have led to an abundance of research based...
Multiple factors are known to influence student success in higher education. Barriers to postsecondary success for underrepresented STEM students are numerous and well documented. We detail an exploratory study of STEM faculty notions of successful students and the instructional practices they employ to cultivate student success. We use a conceptual...
Gender has been the subject of study in engineering education and science social research for decades. However, little attention has been given to transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) experiences or perspectives. The role of cisgender or gender conforming status has not been investigated nor considered in prevailing frameworks of gender...
This dissertation arose out of an awareness of difficulties undergraduate linear algebra students encounter when solving linear algebra problems from novel, non-isomorphic settings, even when the problems could be solved with matrix representations and similar procedures as problems from a more familiar setting. This mixed-methods study utilized both traditional and...
The following thesis presents a case study analyzing a service-learning project implemented in a second-year level Writing in Business course at Oregon State University. The classroom project required business writing students to serve as cultural ambassadors and conversation partners with international students through INTO OSU's Cultural Ambassador Conversant Program. Relying...
The management of hazardous materials is a rapidly expanding global concern and the need for Hazardous Materials Management Technicians is increasing to keep up with this demand. During the late 1980's, community and technical colleges began responding to the needs of industry and started developing curriculum for a Hazardous Materials...
First year college writing classes originated in the United States at Harvard University in 1874. Since then, theorizing such a course has proven a place of contention, as its purposes and subjects have proven difficult to sort and impossible to agree upon. When Harvard first began teaching introductory composition, literature...
It has been held that heuristic training alone is not enough for developing one's mathematical thinking. One missing component is a mathematical point of view. Many educational researchers have proposed problem-based curricula to improve students' views of mathematical thinking. The present study reports findings regarding effects of a problem-based calculus...
The Oregon State University (OSU) Writing Center: History and Context provides a detailed and multi-faceted view of the Writing Center from its start in 1976 through the present. The information was gathered from interviews, annual reports, archival sources, and scholarly research. Chapter One examines the scholarly conversation about writing centers,...
Prior research has noted the changing demographics of higher education since the Civil Rights Movement and the expanded need for multicultural education. Armando Hernandez Morales (2003) wrote that, “A multiculturally competent person is aware of and knowledgeable about cultural differences, their own cultural identity, and the history and contemporary struggles...
The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the use
of vocationally - oriented applications on the achievement and attitude
of community college beginning algebra students. The applications
were chosen to be representative of problems encountered in
a variety of occupations. They were in contrast to the...
Purpose of the Study:
The purpose of this study was to analyze, in the mathematics
classrooms, career-oriented verbal mathematics problems on the
achievement and attitude of the vocational mathematics student.
These career-oriented mathematics problems, used as advanced
organizers, were contrasted with mathematics word problems of a
more abstract and generalized...