Digital Commons Network^™

A Mixed Methods Investigation Of The Faculty Teaching Role: Values, Intention, And Practice, Robin Dankovich

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research is a mixed methods investigation of the faculty teaching role through the exploration of values, intentions and practice of college professors. To compliment the research questions the literature review explores the forces shaping the professoriate over time, contemporary context of higher education, values, and conceptions of teaching. To frame the discussion Argyris and Schön’s (1974) theory of espoused values and values in use is coupled with the codification of human strengths offered by positive psychology.

The results of the study indicate that all faculty espoused values focused on love of learning, honesty, fairness and judgement. Those interviewed provided …

College And Career Readiness:Texas House Bill 5 Reform Realities In A Far-West Texas School District, Tomas Sigala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Efforts by the 83rd Texas Legislature (2013), along with decades of state legislative measures to address access and equity for Texas school children, helped create House Bill 5 (HB 5). This policy stipulates that public schools need to more accurately reflect a college and career readiness culture through the expansion of curriculum options for students, the reduction of standardized testing, and the enhancement of school accountability (Texas Education Agency, 2014a). These type of outputs provide the structure and guidance that schools need to streamline a successful student pathway aimed at preparing them for a college and career choice. If students …

Collegiality Among Full-Time Professors In A Mexican University: Perceptions And Challenges, Carlos Alberto Castañon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Currently, institutions of higher education in Mexico have some changes in their educational and institutional policies on training and updating of the professorate. In this context, reforms of higher education, academics have had to adapt to new forms of academic work in both ways individually and collectively. Today it is possible to identify the diversity of functions that have Mexican academics to achieve a quality education. However, today, collegial work among professors has not been solved efficiently in universities of Mexico. The current study addresses the collegiality among full-time professors in a higher education institution in Northern Mexico. The purpose …

Teacher's Sense Of Self Efficacy And Grit And Its Relationship To Student Achievement, Dino M. Coronado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Darling-Hammond (2006) stated that "one of the most damaging myths prevailing in American education is the notion that good teachers are born and not made" (p. xi). On the other hand, if there is a need to improve the education system in the United States, there must be a conscientious effort to identify, recruit, select, and develop quality people to become teachers-there needs to be an emphasis on "quality people."

The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine the relationship between a high school teacher's grit and sense of self-efficacy and the Houston Independent School District's teacher's Educator Value-Added …

Política Educativa Y Cambio Institucional En México: Un Estudio Interpretativo De Una Iniciativa De Reforma En La Educación Superior, Maria Teresa Esquivel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This interpretive qualitative study examines the links between education reform in higher education and institutional practices. In particular, it analyzes the Program for Faculty Development (PRODEP) formerly known as the Professorate Improvement Program (PROMEP), contextualizing it within the entire reform process, as it was implemented at a public university in northern Mexico. The study provides information on changes of the administrative functions that the institutional managers found themselves to be forced to make, due to new regulations enforced by federal educational institutions. Moreover it also describes from the perspective of institutional administrators and professors, the interpretation and practice translated into …

The Gateway Grade: The Ninth Grade Academy Practice In Terms Of Student Performance, Adam Robert Starke

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the concept of the ninth grade academy structure in Texas high schools affects a variety of variables indicative of student achievement. Data representative of performance by students served in 30 schools with a separately structured ninth grade academy were compared to data representative of performance by students served in ninth grade at 30 schools with a traditional high school setting. A group of six variables in the category of student assessment performance were analyzed, and a group of four variables that are related to college readiness or the risk of not …