OU-Tulsa Research Forum 2020

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https://hdl.handle.net/11244/324958
The OU-Tulsa Research Forum 2020 was held virtually Monday, April 6 to Friday, April 10. The OU-Tulsa Research Forum is an annual event to showcase research conducted by current OU-Tulsa fellows, residents, students, or staff and University of Tulsa students. The event was presented by the OU-Tulsa Assistant Vice President for Research, the Office for Research Development and Scholarly Activity, the OU-Tulsa Schusterman Library, and the Tulsa County Medical Society

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Browsing OU-Tulsa Research Forum 2020 by Subject "Education"

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    App-Based Longitudinal Infectious Disease Curriculum for Pediatrics Residency
    (2020-04) Nguyen, Andrew; Guzman, Janitzio; Mather, Keith; Escala, Michelle
    BACKGROUND: Infectious disease comprises 7% of the American Board of Pediatrics general pediatrics board exam and covers hundreds of different organisms that cause disease. Covering each of these topics all together in one presentation at our weekly academic afternoon quickly becomes overwhelming. Additionally, we understand residents have dozens of other responsibilities. Our aim was to develop a longitudinal weekly curriculum that could be replicated at other programs that would deliver the required material to all residents, allow residents to cover material quickly at their own pace, and improve Infectious Disease sub-scores on the in training exam. METHODS: Starting in summer 2019, the Pediatrics and Medicine-Pediatrics chiefs at University of Oklahoma-Tulsa School of Community Medicine have developed a longitudinal infectious disease curriculum that uses technology to aid in education. Every week, a short board-style quiz is released to the residents via Google Classroom, which gets pushed directly to the phones of our residents. Each week a different organism or group of organisms is covered, focusing on the most common organisms on the test. Google classroom allows us to attach study guides, the appropriate Red Book chapters, and YouTube videos that explain each topic, allowing for residents to review topics and answer questions at their own pace. RESULTS: We have recommended, but have not required our 24 residents to complete each assignment. Since beginning the project, 58% of our residents have completed at least 75% of the assignments with an average score of 70%. Initial participation was robust, but as the busy winter season approached, participation rates decreased. Reminder notifications, and an incentive was introduced in the winter which temporarily improved participation from 54% to 75-83%. Our academic benchmark is to measure average infectious disease In-Training Exam sub-scores per class in comparison to our baseline test in June 2018 and 2019. CONCLUSION: Educating residents on infectious disease as a year-long longitudinal curriculum has the potential to be an effective way to present material relevant to the ABP General Pediatrics exam. Providing this content as an mobile-app based curriculum allows for self-pacing and interactive content. Our first cycles have shown residents will voluntarily participate in this curriculum and the seasonal limitations of voluntary participation, with possible steps programs could take to improve participation. The extent to which this curriculum improves ITE sub-scores will be determined at the next exam this summer. We hope this information can be used by other programs wishing to implement similar curricula.
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    Early Childhood Teachers' Perspectives and Needs for Professional Development
    (2020-04) Evans, Samantha; Kwon, Kyong Ah; Malek, Adrien
    BACKGROUND: Many early childhood programs offer various professional development opportunities in different formats for teachers (Guskey, 2003). However, the effectiveness of professional development trainings on teacher practices is often questioned (Son, Kwon, Jeon, & Hong, 2013). This could be due to trainings not being tailored to individual teachers’ characteristics, needs, and preferences. There have been few studies that examined teacher experiences with professional development trainings, their views on future training opportunities (Buell et al., 2000; Dunst & Raab, 2010) and an assessment of the teachers’ unique professional development needs. Thus, this phenomenological study examined early childhood teachers’ experiences with and needs for professional development trainings and how their views differ by their characteristics (i.e., age group they serve, level of education, teaching certification). METHODS: Forty teachers from 14 early childhood settings were interviewed for an hour and completed a survey created for the Early Childhood Educator Workforce study. They came from diverse racial (17.1% African American, 43.9% Caucasian, 12.2% Hispanic, 17.1% Native American, 9.8% Biracial) and educational backgrounds (39.1% hold bachelor's degrees or higher). Participants had a range of teaching experiences with a mean of 11 years (SD = 9.27, range of 0.7 to 41.0). Participants were purposefully selected to participate by teaching in an infant/toddler or preschool classroom in a southwestern state. InVivo coding was used for data analysis as way to gain a better understanding of the participants’ perceptions on professional development. RESULTS: Preliminary analysis using InVivo revealed 100% of participants found conferences, workshops, and coaching style trainings effective for learning. Desired content for future trainings varied by teachers’ characteristics. For example, needs for learning more about effective instructional and individualized learning strategies, including differentiating between student levels, individualized learning plans, and new activities for children, were prevalent among teachers with higher educational levels and infant and toddler teachers. How to handle challenging and difficult behaviors were the content focus for future trainings from non-bachelor's degree holding educators and non-certified teachers. Conscious discipline was identified as a desirable topic for preschool teachers. CONCLUSION: Regardless of individual characteristics, all teachers believed more curriculum related training was needed and preferred an interactive hands-on approach to learning. From these results, we suggest professional trainings may be more effective in engaging early childhood teachers if they accommodate the situation, needs, and characteristics of teachers.
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    Individual Myanmar Children's Experiences in Head Start Classrooms
    (2020-04) Lim, Boo Young; Castle, Sherri
    BACKGROUND: Early childhood is a crucial period for children who are dual language learners (DLLs), struggling to learn the new language as well as other skills for school readiness. In contrast to comprehensive research in ECE, there are relatively few studies conducted with DLLs, and mainly for the Latino DLLs, no other language groups. Recently, Myanmar migrants are growing rapidly and make up 25% of the total migrant population in Tulsa (NBC news, 2017). Previous studies have shown that DLL children differ in various developmental outcomes because of a myriad of factors including poverty, systemic racism, and oppression. The researchers examined the classroom experiences of Myanmar children in a Head Start program by measuring their individual language use and level of engagement then, comparing them to other racial groups. METHODS: The participants included 3- and 4-year-old children (n=1,101) in a Head Start program in Northeast OK. The measure used the Child Observational Protocol, which involved 3-second sweeps which snapshots of individual children’s behavior across a period of time in the classroom. Observers spent approximately 4 hours in the classroom on a typical morning. All children in the classroom were observed and had an average of 9 sweeps per child. The current study specifically focused on the proportion of sweeps in which a child was listening to or talking to someone else in the classroom (in any language) and the proportion of sweeps a child was observed speaking in English. Descriptive analyses were conducted using ANOVA in SPSS. RESULTS: Results indicated that children who speak Myanmar at home had fewer times observational sweeps in which they were speaking in English (15%) compared to their African American and White peers (19-20%). However, whereas Latino children were observed more frequently to be neither speaking nor listening (45% of sweeps), Myanmar children were not significantly different than their Latino peers. Instead, Myanmar children were more likely to engage in passive instruction (15%) than their African American (10%) and White (12%) peers. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that Myanmar children who were enrolled in a Head Start program had bit fewer opportunities to practice their language skills and are less likely to be engaged in their classroom activities. Further research is needed to see whether these outcomes are due to language proficiency, cultural aspects, or influenced by others. This information also leads to the need for further study of how teachers interact in the classroom based on the racial groups.
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    Preservice Teachers' Use of a Translation App with Dual Language Learners
    (2020-04) Ross, Raeanne; Lake, Vickie; Beisly, Amber
    BACKGROUND: Many practicing teachers face challenges with effective technology integration (Keengwe & Onchwari, 2009). Teachers who do integrate technology into their educational practices understand that it is not an end-all solution, but rather a support to their current pedagogical and content practices. However, a simple question remains among current early childhood educators, how can technology be effectively used and integrated into classroom environments in order to facilitate children’s learning and development? Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how pre-service teachers (PSTs) integrated technology (a translation app) into their lessons and how students (or dual language learners) responded to the use of this technology. The study was guided by the following research questions:    1. How do pre-service teachers integrate Speak & Translate with dual language learners?   2. Based on PST's observations, how do dual language learners respond to the use of Speak & Translate?  METHODS: This qualitative, phenomenological research study was conducted in a teacher preparation program in the Midwest. Thirty-one female PSTs participated in the study. During their field placement experience, each PST taught 3 small group lessons with preschool children using the Speak & Translate (S&T) app. After each lesson was taught, PSTs completed a lesson reflection that was uploaded into Dedoose. Analysis included level 1 (priori coding) and level 2 (thematic coding) in order to analyze the reflections and explore PST’s use of S&T with DLLs and how DLLs responded to this experience. RESULTS: Across all lessons, S&T was utilized a total of 46 times and was primarily used to translate key vocabulary of the lesson or content of the book. PSTs also used the app to model an activity, model material use, and provide instructions and directions. The most exciting finding was the changes PST’s noticed in DLL’s body language, engagement, and motivation when they used the app in their lessons. CONCLUSION: PSTs were asked to focus on the integration of technology (S&T), which produced a lesson that met all aspects of the TPACK framework. Based on PST’s reflections, they not only experienced a shift in their own thinking and pedagogical approaches, but they also noticed a shift in DLLs’ engagement and motivation during their technology supported lessons. Findings from this study hold promising and important educational implications for pedagogical practices not only for PSTs, but also for current educators who work with DLLs.