Search results for author:"Rhonda Christensen"
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Rhonda Christensen
Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning, University of North Texas
Rhonda Christensen, Ph.D. is a research scientist in the Learning Technologies Department in the College of Information at the University of North Texas. She is an associate director of the Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning at UNT. She is a Co-PI for the Going Green! Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World (MSOSW) project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technologies Program. She serves as the Chair of the IT Council at SITE. She has co-authored and taught a pre-service technology integration course for more than 15 years. She also teaches doctoral courses on research design and analysis. Her research interests are the impact of technology integration in education, enhancing STEM education in middle schools and mobile learning in education.
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Internal Consistency Reliability for the Teachers Attitudes
Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1998 (1998) pp. 843–844
The Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Information Technology Questionnaire (TAT) was developed during the second phase of the 1995-97 Matthews Chair for Research in Education Project at the University of North Texas. During Phase I (1995-96) activities...
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Advancing Teachers Through Stages of Adoption of Technology in the Classroom
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2002 (2002) pp. 1983–1987
Stages of Adoption of Technology are used in conjunction with other assessment instruments to determine attitude, skill and technology access changes that assist in moving a teacher further along in his/her level of classroom technology integration. ...
Topics: Teachers, Integration, Professional Development, Developmental Stages
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Advancement of Student Technology Integration Skills through University Pre-service Coursework
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2000 (2000) pp. 1505–1510
In the United States (U.S.) there is a shortage of new teachers possessing skills to integrate technology into the classroom. The U.S. Department of Education has recognized this problem and has funded projects targeted at pre-service teacher...
Topics: Educational Technology, Teachers, Integration, Classrooms
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Blending Formal and Informal Learning Through an Online Immersive Game Environment: Contrasts in Interactions by Middle School Boys and Girls
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (Mar 21, 2016) pp. 535–540
Analysis of data gathered from a game-based learning environment produced for an NSF-funded STEM education project has demonstrated that middle school teachers can increase time on task and enhance interest in richer learning of classroom content...
Topics: Games & Simulations
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Relationships Between Teacher Personality Type and Technology Integration Indicators
Rhonda Christensen; Michele Williams
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2014 (Mar 17, 2014) pp. 2745–2753
High school teachers in their first year of a one-to-one mobile learning environment completed surveys related to technology integration. Many teachers also completed the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. Multiple measures of technology ...
Topics: Integration, Personality, K-12 Teachers and School Leaders Related, Research & Evaluation, Information Technology Diffusion/Integration
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Connecting Students to Mars and Stars using Innovative Technologies
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia Vol. 29, No. 3 (July 2020) pp. 181–192
Using innovative technologies to study Mars and the sun and other stars is one way to engage students in learning more about our solar system and how it impacts us on a daily basis. The focus of this paper is to highlight several innovative...
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Validating a Handheld Computing Self-Efficacy Scale
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2004 (2004) pp. 879–884
The use of handheld technologies is becoming widespread in the K-12 environment. While students seem ready to embrace these devices it is not as easy to identify readiness in educators. Teacher and educator familiarity is essential prior to...
Topics: Integration
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Preservice Educator Learning in a Simulated Teaching Environment
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2009 (Mar 02, 2009) pp. 938–946
Assessment of learning within a simulated teaching environment is addressed within the context of a federally funded project to improve the maturity and retention of preservice teachers. Analysis of matched treatment and comparison data from two...
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Validating the Computer Attitude Questionnaire (CAQ)
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Annual Meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association 1996 (Jan 26, 1996)
The Computer Attitude Questionnaire (CAQ) is a Likert-type self-report instrument with paired-comparison items added to provide supplemental information. The CAQ is intended for use in the middle school environment, grades six to eight. A 1993...
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Evolution of an Online Data Acquisition System
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2001 (2001) pp. 1999–2001
The evolution of online data collection systems implemented by the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Millennium Project team (US Dept. of Ed. Capacity Building Grant # P342A990474) during the 1999-2000 school year is described....
Topics: Databases
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Changes in Cognitive Knowledge Structures During an Online Educational Technology Course
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2019 (Jun 24, 2019) pp. 388–395
The preparation of teachers to integrate technology is a critical component for their future use of technology in the classroom. Changes in relationships among technology related variables during a semester long online course revealed that students...
Topics: Performance and outcome assessment, Teacher education and technology integration, online learning environments
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Predictors of STEM Career Interest Among Middle School Students: Implications for Educational Reform, Policy, and Innovation
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2019 (Jun 24, 2019) pp. 625–630
Pre-post matched pairs data were collected from 499 males and 416 females in grades six and seven during 2015-2016 from 24 classrooms in nine US states. Fourteen cognitive and non-cognitive indicators of content knowledge, attitudes toward climate...
Topics: Teacher education and technology integration, Learning technologies for transformational change, Environmental education
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Pathway for Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Infuse Technology
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Computers in the Schools Vol. 23, No. 3 (Feb 16, 2007) pp. 1–21
The Millennium Project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program for four years spanning 1999-2003. The project was led by the University of North Texas and sought to increase the...
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Effect of Technology-Based Programs on First- and Second-Grade Reading Achievement
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Computers in the Schools Vol. 24, No. 3 (Jan 18, 2008) pp. 23–41
Data gathered from 25 rural public school districts in Texas during 2002-2003 were used to assess the impact of educator professional development and technology-intensive classroom learning activities on first- and second-grade students' reading...
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Internal Consistency Reliabilities for 14 Computer Attitude Scales
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Journal of Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 8, No. 4 (2000) pp. 327–336
A compendium of 14 previously-published instruments for assessing teachers' attitudes toward computers was adminis-tered to 621 educators in Texas, Florida, New York, and Cal-ifornia during 1995-96. A total of 284 items extracted from 14 previously...
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Effect of technology integration education on the attitudes of teachers and their students
Rhonda Renee Christensen
(1997) pp. 1–150
This study analyzed the effect of technology integration education on teachers' and students' attitudes toward information technology. Two instruments measuring similar attributes were used to assess teachers' and students' attitudes. Differences in ...
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Impact of Technology-Intensive Professional Development on Classroom Gains in Reading Achievement
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2004 (2004) pp. 2339–2346
This paper contains a corollary study of scientifically-based research conducted to verify the impact of one large-scale U.S. Dept. of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant's activities (Grant # R303A99030, 1999-2004) on K-3 reading...
Topics: Achievement, Educational Technology, Professional Development
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Constructing the Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers (TAC) Questionnaire
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Annual Meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association 1996 (Jan 26, 1996)
This paper reports on the first stage of the construction and refinement process underway in pursuit of developing a brief composite instrument to measure teachers' attitudes toward computers. Items (n=284) from 14 questionnaires assessing teacher...
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Perceptions of Early, Mid or Late Career Teachers Regarding Technology Integration, Technology Proficiency and Access to Tools and Resources
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 946–953
This study is based on teacher classifications according to the number of years spent teaching. Teachers are classified as Early, Mid and Late Career. Differences among categories of teachers are examined with regard to technology proficiency,...
Topics: Research & Evaluation, Teaching and Learning with Emerging Technologies
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Teacher and Student Perceptions During the First Year of a One-to-One Mobile Learning Initiative
Rhonda Christensen; Michele Williams
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2015 (Mar 02, 2015) pp. 1604–1609
Data were gathered from 73 teachers and 833 students in an all male high school in the southwest region of the United States. This paper is based on data collected the first year in which all students were provided an iPad mobile learning device....
Topics: Mobile Learning
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Capitalizing on Informal Learning Opportunities to Enhance Formal Learning in Classroom Environments
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2018 (Mar 26, 2018) pp. 1920–1926
Three middle school sites are compared to assess the measured impact of informal space science education activities on science content knowledge, enthusiasm for an event such as a total solar eclipse, and longer-term dispositions toward space...
Topics: Science Education, Research & Evaluation
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Preparing K-12 Schools for a Pandemic Before It Occurs
Rhonda Christensen; Curby Alexander
Journal of Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 28, No. 2 (2020) pp. 261–272
While almost all K-12 schools closed for the COVID-19 pandemic with little or no preparation, one school began to prepare 12 years ago for a time such as this. In 2006, the school leadership began to consider what would happen to teaching and...
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Preservice versus Inservice Educators' Attitudes Toward Information Technology
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1999 (1999) pp. 1319–1322
This paper compares and contrasts attitudes of preservice teachers to those of inservice teachers and administrators. In the first section we describe categories of preservice and inservice educators from which data has been gathered, while the...
Topics: Teachers, Educational Technology, Preservice Teacher Education
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IT Competencies and Attitudes: A Worldwide Perspective
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (Mar 19, 2006) pp. 1671–1676
This paper introduces one of the key topics addressed in the symposium, Information Technology in Education Worldwide. The focus in on the importance of attitudes and competencies in the implementation of information technology in education....
Topics: Attitudes, Educational Technology
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Contrasts in Student Perceptions of STEM Content and Careers
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013 (Mar 25, 2013) pp. 2048–2053
Attitudinal data were gathered from 160 high school students participating in their second year of a residential science and mathematics program on at university campus in which they finish their last two years of high school in conjunction with...
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Instruments for Assessing the Impact of Technology in Education
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Computers in the Schools Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun 24, 2002) pp. 5–25
Ten years of instrument development are summarized and placed within a framework for assessing the impact of technology in education. Seven well-validated instruments spanning the areas of attitudes, beliefs, skills, competencies, and technology...
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Influence of Home Access on Attitudes, Skills, and Level of Use for Teachers and Students in Technology Integrating Classrooms
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2002 (2002) pp. 2037–2038
The interaction of home access and school use of computers has been a topic of discussion among educational researchers for more than a decade. Evaluation of a U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant and a Preparing...
Topics: Evaluation, Educational Technology, Teachers, Computers, Schools
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Teacher Home Access as a Primary Indicator of Stage of Adoption of Technology
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2003 (2003) pp. 867–870
The authors previously reported finding extensive differences in teacher attitudes and skills as well as student perceptions of technology, based on whether or not information technology users had access to a computer at home (Knezek & Christensen,...
Topics: Professional Development, Educational Technology, Integration, Teachers, Computers
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The Technology in Education Competency Survey (TECS): A Self-Appraisal Instrument for NCATE Standards
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2001 (2001) pp. 2288–2289
The Technology in Education Competency Survey (TECS v1.1) is a self-assessment rating form covering teacher competencies in major areas addressed by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards for the USA. It ...
Topics: Teachers, Educational Technology, Preservice Teacher Education, Competencies, Students
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Contrasts in Openness toward Mobile Learning in the Classroom: A Study of Elementary, Middle and High School Teachers
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA) 2017 (2017)
In a study involving 1414 elementary, middle school, and high school teachers from a large school district in the southwestern USA, the authors examine the similarities and differences among teachers at the three levels of K-12 education common in...
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Changes in Teacher Dispositions Among Participants in Hands-on Teaching of a STEM Curriculum
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 2067–2073
Going Green! Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World (MSOSW) focuses on students using energy monitoring equipment to assess the amount of standby power consumed by their home entertainment devices and appliances when not performing any useful...
Topics: Science Education, Research & Evaluation
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Researching Impact: Measuring Technology Enhanced Outcomes from the NASA Space Science Education Consortium
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching Vol. 39, No. 4 (2020) pp. 399–420
A conceptual framework for empirical research on the impact of NASA Space Science Education Consortium (NSSEC) activities is presented in this paper, along with a cross-referencing system between the NSF-based NSSEC evaluation framework and...
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Learner Attributes and Technology-Enriched Environments Associated with Positive Climate Change Attitudes and Energy and Environmental Science Knowledge in Middle School Students
Gerald August Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2018 (Jun 25, 2018) pp. 1736–1743
Pre-post data from 764 treatment and 553 comparison middle school students from nine US states were analyzed to examine STEM-related attitudes and dispositions aligning with climate change beliefs and intentions, and acquisition of energy and...
Topics: Learner-centered, and self-directed learning, Environmental education, Education for sustainable development
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Space Science Activities to Enhance Middle School Students’ Interest in STEM: Follow-up Assessment of Disposition Retention
Gerald August Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2019 (Nov 04, 2019) pp. 971–980
Sixth grade students participating in a four-hour hands-on technology enriched space science camp acquired more positive dispositions toward space science (ES = .46, p
Topics: Performance and outcome assessment, Learning technologies for transformational change, Augmented and Virtual Reality
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A Preliminary Analysis of the Teacher Educator Technology Competency Survey
Gerald August Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2019 (Mar 18, 2019) pp. 1174–1180
The Teacher Educator Technology Survey v1.0 is a 12-item Likert-type instrument developed during 2018 based on the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs). This instrument was administered to a convenience sample of 83 participants at the...
Topics: faculty development, Research & Evaluation
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Contrasts in Teacher and Student Perceptions of STEM Content and Careers
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen; Tandra Tyler-Wood
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 2011) pp. 92–117
Analysis of baseline attitudinal data gathered from a National Science Foundation Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers project uncovered large contrasts between the perceptions of practicing professionals and students toward...
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Testing a Will, Skill, Tool Model of Technology Integration
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen; Ricky Fluke
Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association 2003 (2003)
The Will, Skill, Tool (WST) model of technology integration (G. Knezek, R. Christensen, R. Hancock, and A. Shoho, 2000) postulates that enhancing an educator's will, skill, and access to technology tools leads to higher stages of classroom...
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Cross-Validating Measures of Technology Integration: A First Step toward Examining Potential Relationships between Technology Integration and Student Achievement
Robert Hancock; Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Journal of Computing in Teacher Education Vol. 24, No. 1 (2007) pp. 15–21
The use of proper measurements of diffusion of information technology as an innovation are essential to determining if progress is being made in state, regional, and national level programs. This project provides a national level cross validation...
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Personal Educational Tools (PETs) for Type II Learning
Rhonda Christensen; Theresa Overall; Gerald Knezek
Computers in the Schools Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jul 21, 2006) pp. 173–189
This article introduces the concept of Personal Educational Tools (PETs) and places these tools within the context of existing rationales for using technology for teaching, learning, and instruction. An identification of the distinguishing...
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Changes in Teacher Attitudes During Information Technology Training
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen; Des Rice
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1998 (1998) pp. 763–766
A compendium of 14 previously-published instruments for assessing teachers’ attitudes toward information technology was used to measure pre-post changes among nine groups of K-12 educators completing six weekly training sessions in a southern Texas...
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Examining associations between perceptions of junior high friends and learning computer programming with implications for teacher preparation
Takahisa Furuta; Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 960–964
Two hundred (200) Japanese students from two junior high schools, aged 14 to 15 years old, completed a 62-item Likert-style questionnaire that included portions of the previously-validated Computer Attitude Questionnaire and also non-cognitive and...
Topics: Research & Evaluation
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Vampire Power and STEM Interests for Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World (MSOSW)
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek; Tandra Tyler-Wood
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (Mar 07, 2011) pp. 1436–1437
Classroom teachers and students will present project outcomes via video and audio conferencing software and through videos created by the students. Students have calculated their carbon footprints and will report amounts being wasted with stand-by...
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Demographic, Learning Style, and Attitude towards Technology Differences Between Online and Face-to-Face Students in an Introductory Level Special Education Course
Tandra Tyler-Wood; Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2007 (Mar 26, 2007) pp. 526–529
On-line courses have become a standard delivery method for teacher education classes. Questions continue to surface as to the effectiveness of online service delivery models for training future educators. The current study reviews a number of...
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Self-Efficacy Ratings of Technology Proficiency among Teachers in Mexico and Texas
Cesareo Morales; Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen
Computers in the Schools Vol. 25, No. 1 (July 2008) pp. 126–144
The Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment (TPSA) questionnaire was administered to 978 elementary and middle school teachers from Mexico City, and 932 elementary and middle school teachers from the Dallas, Texas, metroplex in the USA, in order to...
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Fostering Technology Integration Skills and Positive STEM Dispositions in Hawaii Middle School Science and Technology Teachers
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek; Tandra Tyler-Wood
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2014 (Mar 17, 2014) pp. 1386–1393
Data gathered from 100-200 Hawaii teachers in each of the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 across 40 middle schools were analyzed to assess the impact of the Hawaii FIRST Pre-Academy Professional Development Program. STEM disposition and technology...
Topics: Science Education, Workforce Education, Research & Evaluation
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Effect of a Makerspace Training Series on Elementary and Middle School Educator Confidence Levels Toward Integrating Technology
Jennifer Miller; Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 1015–1020
Makerspaces provide a learning environment that may be useful to improving teacher confidence levels toward integrating technology into the classroom. The Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment for 21st Century Learning (TPSA C-21) was utilized to...
Topics: Research & Evaluation, Digital Fabrication, Maker (Formerly Engineering Education)
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Alignment of Hands-On STEM Engagement Activities with Positive STEM Dispositions in Secondary School Students
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek; Tandra Tyler-Wood
Journal of Science Education and Technology Vol. 24, No. 6 (2015) pp. 898–909
This study examines positive dispositions reported by middle school and high school students participating in programs that feature STEM-related activities. Middle school students participating in school-to-home hands-on energy monitoring activities ...
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Transition Points for the Gender Gap in Computer Enjoyment
Rhonda Christensen; Gerald Knezek; Theresa Overall
Journal of Research on Technology in Education Vol. 38, No. 1 (2005) pp. 23–37
Data gathered from 10,000 Texas public school students in Grades 3-12 over the years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2005 were analyzed to replicate findings first discovered as a byproduct of evaluation of a large scale U.S. Department of Education...
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Changes in Teacher Attitudes During Information Technology Training
Gerald Knezek; Rhonda Christensen; Des Rice
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1997 (1997) pp. 763–766
A compendium of 14 previously-published instruments for assessing teachers’ attitudes toward information technology was used to measure pre-post changes among nine groups of K-12 educators completing six weekly training sessions in a southern Texas...
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Measures of Teacher Stages of Technology Integration and Their Correlates with Student Achievement
Rhonda Christensen; Darlene Griffin; Gerald Knezek
Annual Meeting of American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education 2001 (March 2001)
Two self-report measures of technology integration are introduced along with a formal model illustrating their utility as outcome measures for level of technology infusion in classroom environments. Findings from two Texas studies involving: (1)...