Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The effects of incorporating organization in notebooks to synthesize knowledge in a high school chemistry class(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2021) Herrington, Kendia Clara-Emma; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg FrancisThe lack of organization in a science notebook makes it difficult for students to put multiple science concepts together in a chemistry class. This research study looked at how incorporating organization in notebooks through reflections on activities, group conversations, class discourse, summaries of labs, and creating a graphical organizer will impact their class conversation, self-regulation, and assessment scores. Three classes were studied over a full unit on bonding in a suburban chemistry class. Two classes were given a treatment of daily organizational support towards making a graphical organizer while the comparison group was given the same time without the guided questions or organizational support. A weekly survey of students' feelings on their understanding was given. The survey showed that overall students felt the graphical organizer was helpful. The comparison group found it overwhelming to complete without the guidance that the treatment received. The time each group took showed a significant difference in their ability to answer beginning of class questions. The treatment group showed a significant growth in their ability to make a graphical organizer. The students showed self-regulation by not completing different class assignments and assessments. The class discourse was very limited by both groups due to the class being online on Zoom. The treatment group showed a positive gain in supporting students in organizing a reflection notebook in their chemistry class because it forced them to do discourse.Item The effect of classroom organization on student success(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Politte, Destiny Nicole; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg FrancisThe purpose of this study was to see how student organization affected success in the classroom and can the student take over their own education through organization. Students were provided with a unit binder organized by the teacher. This binder was not only be used for daily classwork but was also allowed to be used on formative assessments. To see if the organized unit binder was helping students actually learn, the formative assessment scores were compared to the scores of a summative assessment where the student were not allowed to use the unit binder. The results from this study showed no significant difference in the scores between the formative and summative assessments and that students completed more work during the treatment unit. This concludes that students did benefit from the use of the classroom organization.Item The effects of a digital learning environment on the work flow of students and teacher in a language-based learning difference science classroom(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2016) Cannici, Stephen Joseph; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Students at Middlebridge High School typically have challenges sorting and organizing their work in binders as well as completing multistep tasks. In other words, their executive functioning ability is often impaired. When attempting to complete something like a lab, or even something as simple as a small homework assignment, some of the assignment can easily go missing in the shuffle of the school day. Technology can often be sold as a 'silver bullet' to solve many of these issues. But, how well can technology really help these students? Is the current state of technology in education robust enough to handle the day-to-day issues of a pupil who is susceptible to misplacing parts, or the whole of, an assignment? Students in a chemistry class were cycled through four phases where they alternately used completely digital methods of managing a workflow to complete homework and lab assignments, and analog methods such as traditional paper with a writing implement and a physical binder organization system. As these phases were cycled through, data was collected to see how well they kept track of artifacts (items of school work) and how efficiently they completed their work. Some of the technology solutions employed were Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Docs, GoodReader, and DocHub. In addition, the effect of these technology solutions were measured for the teacher. For these students, it turned out that technology hindered more than it helped. Some of the technology was very frustrating to use by the students, since a single bug in the software, or one user-unfriendly feature, could stop a student working in his or her tracks. Students kept track of assignments less efficiently when using digital methods of work management, evidenced by longer times of retrieval to find assignments and a lower completion rate of assignments. However, there were some promising results for the teacher's use of these digital methods. Some of the methods made it easier and faster for the teacher to grade and return work for students. The technology solutions utilized seemed immature and too fragmented for efficient use by students, seemingly turning a workflow into a 'workslow.'