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Advisor Perceptions Of Technology In Academic Advising Practices In West Virginia Educator Preparation Programs, Kandice Kaye Rowe

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this research was to gain, from the academic advisor’s perspective, an understanding of what technologies are being used in advising practices, the effectiveness of these technologies, and advisors’ perceptions of quality advising set forth by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. A qualitative phenomenological approach was utilized to connect academic advisors’ perceptions of the usage of technology while participating in the advising experiences. Through a combination of purposeful and snowballing sampling techniques, academic advisors from fourteen educator preparation programs in West Virginia were chosen to participate in this study. One-on-one, semi-structured interviews were …

Individual Public-School Teachers’ Influence On Technology Implementation, Aletcia Whren

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many teachers in the United States, despite access to and demonstrated benefits of instructional technology, are reluctant to integrate these innovations into their teaching. Although public schools spend millions to supply the technology to improve instruction and student academic achievement, teachers often choose not to adopt it. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to understand better how and why many teachers are reluctant to integrate instructional technology in their classrooms. Guided by cultural historical activity theory, the study occurred in two phases. First, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model Stages of Concern Questionnaire was used to identify a sample of …

Elementary Teacher Experiences Regarding Use Of Technology In The Western Pacific Islands, Lynn Ordonez Mendiola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the Western Pacific Islands School District (WPISD), technology standards were last developed and adopted in 2008. These standards have not been revisited or revised. The problem is that teachers are expected to use the latest educational technology, but technology standards are not current for preparing students for the 21st century workforce. The purpose of this basic qualitative inquiry was to explore how elementary teachers use current classroom technologies to address 21st century skills as mandated by the WPISD, despite having outdated technology standards. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework guided the study in order to integrate pedagogy, content, …

Perceptions Of K-12 Principals Regarding Integration Of Technology Into The Curriculum, Jaalyn Elisha Richardson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe research problem was that K-12 school principals struggled concerning integration of technology into the curriculum (ITC). The purpose of this basic qualitative research study was to explore perceptions of K-12 school principals concerning ITC. The conceptual framework was the Hallinger and Murphy model focusing on institutional management, including school goals for principals to frame and communicate to school personnel. Perceptions of K-12 school principals concerning ITC were addressed. Data were collected using semistructured interviews via Zoom. The sample was 10 K-12 school principals who were purposively selected. These participants had at least 3 academic years in their jobs. Thematic …

The Effects Of Blended Learning On Student Achievement Within Various Environments: A Program Evaluation, Christine Nicole Harris

Dissertations

Educational K-12 learning environments have had limited to no change over many decades. Due to recent initiatives to social-emotional programs, school safety measures, and the need to increase academic achievement, there has been a push for school choice options that go beyond the traditional ways of learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of blended learning on student achievement within various environments in Grades 3-8. I used a mixed methodology to compare quantitative extant data from Achieve3000®, State Standardized Assessments, as well as qualitative data through teacher, parent, and student surveys. I collected 229 student extant …

Technology As A Tool For Support: Classroom Teachers And Resource Specialists In Collaboration And Communication Practices, Mackenzie Jones

Education | Master's Theses

Classroom teachers and resource specialists face hectic schedules that include supporting students and meeting the core curriculum standards. In order to support students with disabilities in the classroom, collaboration between classroom teachers and resource specialists is essential. With busy schedules and increasing demands that teachers face, there is an urgent need to support teachers with effective systems of collaboration. This research focuses on the problem of unorganized and ineffective systems of support, which teachers face when trying to collaborate and communicate with their colleagues. While many prior studies address the significance of providing time for educators to collaborate in the …

Educational Intervention On The Use Of Zoom For Spanish Speaking Families, Lundi Barroso

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Rebekah Children Services is a non-profit agency that implements the Family Resource Center to provide additional resources such as workshops and home items, for families in need of child and family behavioral services; especially to the low-income Spanish-speaking families in the Gilroy community. The macro level problem is clients not receiving assistance for their mental health needs. The micro level problem is the decrease in parent engagement with the FRC online services. The purpose of this project is to increase parent engagement with online workshops via zoom. The project will promote the knowledge of technology to be easily accessible to …

From Barriers To Success: How Elementary School Principals Strategically Lead Schools To Become 21st Century Learning Exemplar Schools, Heather Gold

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the barriers and support systems elementary principals describe, through the lens of Activity Theory, they experienced while leading their schools to achieve 21st century learning exemplar status.

Methodology: This phenomenological study examined the perceptions of 15 elementary and K-8 principals and their respective assistant principals regarding the barriers and support systems they experienced while leading their schools to achieve 21st century learning exemplar status. Participants were selected based on the criteria that they had been identified as exemplary by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21); were public, non-private, …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of African American Women In Undergraduate Stem Degree Programs, Vernon H. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide a better understanding of the lived experiences of African American women in STEM undergraduate degree programs at a 4-year degree granting institution in the southernmost part of central Virginia. The central problem is that there is disparity between the number of African American women with STEM degrees and that of other races in the STEM job market. The existing literature has gaps in the research of African American women’s perception of undergraduate STEM programs. Further, the researcher posits there is a lack of consideration for diversity that is detrimental to the United States; …

Teacher Perceptions Of Curriculum-Driven Technology After Working With Instructional Technology Coaches In Middle Schools In One Southeastern School District, Julie Pepperman

Ed.D. Dissertations

The use of curriculum-driven technology in K-12 public schools was mandated by federal law. School and district leaders were required to provide curriculum-driven technology professional development and support to teachers. The use of the curriculum-driven technology coach was an option some schools chose to meet the curriculum-driven technology professional development requirements and needs of their teachers. The purpose of this research was to explore one school district’s middle school teachers’ perceptions of the importance of curriculum-driven technology and their perceived self-efficacy in using curriculum-driven technology in instructional practice after collaborating with a curriculum-driven technology coach. This qualitative study was conducted …

The Barriers Students Of Color Experience During The Online College Application, Tichaedza Stephen Chikuni

Online Theses and Dissertations

Recruitment of Students of Color (African American and Latino) is a growing obligation of colleges and universities around the United States (Bauman et al., 2019). Personally, the culmination of my passion for diversity recruitment and my experiences with information technology has led me to study why Students of Color encounter barriers during their online college application process. A vicious cycle of seeing Students of Color students not being able to access key resources during their college application process has frequently left me heartbroken. There are an abundance of excuses and I want to be a part of the solution.

How Principals Learn To Be Technology Leaders: A Critical Incident Qualitative Study, Leon R. Edwards Ii

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate how principals learn to be technology leaders by examining the different ways principals learn and exploring the skills principals perceive are needed. The study also examines what principals do differently to develop a successful technology integration (or not). Using the critical incident method, 18 principals were interviewed from across the state. The in-depth interviews were transcribed for all participants interviewed and then analyzed using coding and theming with the aid of memos. From this, three predominant categories emerged: learning, skills, and challenges.

The findings from the study reveal that principals learn primarily …

Culturally Responsive Leadership And Distributed Leadership Practices In A Stem School, Cynthia Bradley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Culturally responsive leadership practices and distributed leadership are strategies that could aid racially diverse students to become successful in STEM courses and later in a STEM field. The purpose of this study was to explore culturally responsive leadership practices and distributed leadership within a STEM school to support racially diverse students. Distributed leadership and culturally responsive leadership practices were the conceptual frameworks of the study used to explore the rationale for the decision-making within a school. The research questions addressed the challenges and opportunities of implementing culturally responsive leadership practices and distributive leadership to enhance the diversity of students in …

Survey Of Teachers’ Use Of And Preferences For Professional Development Regarding Available Technology, Shannon Main-Petelka

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem in a medium-sized school district is the lack of data regarding what currently accessible technology and technology learning activities (TLAs) teachers use, have access to, and for which technology and TLAs they desire professional development (PD). There is a gap in practice in that technology directors lack data-based plans for PD. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to analyze teachers’ ratings of technology access, use, and desire for PD including the correlation between teachers’ use of technology and their previous PD hours as well as between teachers’ desire to use technology and their location in their …

Enabling And Threatening Factors Affecting Persistence. A Qualitative And Quantitative Study On Rural First-Generation Stem Students’ And Stem Faculty's Perspectives., Travis A. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study focuses on the factors that enable and threaten rural first-generation STEM students’ persistence. Limited empirical studies are available that focus on rural first-generation STEM majors’ persistence. Quantitative analysis was conducted using Kruskal Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests to determine any significant differences with the survey results. Content and thematic analysis was conducted on the student and faculty interviews to determine themes of enabling and threatening factors affecting persistence.

Enabling factors affecting persistence were found to be: Drive or Motivation, Experiences and skills, and Support. These were both faculty and student interview themes whereas a …

Does The Parcc Exam Alter The Landscape Of A School In Grades 3-6 In The Areas Of Evaluation, Curriculum, Staffing And Technology?, Michael Stefanelli

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This qualitative study explored whether the New Jersey PARCC exam altered evaluation, curriculum, staffing, and technology in Grades 3 to 6 of the state’s public schools. Semistructured interviews were implemented to determine whether administrators and teachers believed that the PARCC test changed the landscape of public schools. Fifteen administrators and teachers were recruited to participate in this study from a consortium of schools in northern New Jersey. The interview instrument for this study was based on existing literature.

Four major themes emerged from the interview data. The first related to PARCC’s influence on staff morale due to the tests direct …

The Impact Of 1:1 Technology Initiatives On Lesson Planning, Michael Amick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Districts across the country are quickly moving toward a 1:1 student to laptop ratio. Where computer labs or carts were once the norm, many districts are now purchasing all students a laptop to start the year. This movement is occurring at a rapid pace, despite a growing body of research that shows that increased technology does not automatically lead to achievement gains. The teacher plays a vital role in student outcomes, with or without technology. In particular, the manner in which teachers plan lessons is significant to classroom outcomes. This is evident in that the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching …

Teachers' Perceptions Of School District Professional Development Alignment With National Standards, Arlene Jean Wacha

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite ongoing delivery of teacher professional development (PD), educational leaders in the local district did not have an objective evaluation whether their implementation of the Marzano causal teacher evaluation model and the iObservation tool training were aligned with accepted national standards for PD effectiveness. Using Vygotsky's constructivist theory as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this quantitative descriptive, correlational study was to describe teachers' perceptions of the alignment of the district's PD with national standards and the relationship between teachers' reported self-efficacy and attitudes toward the PD program. A purposive sample of 80 middle school teachers completed the Learning Forward's …

Technology With Differentiated Instruction For Advanced Middle School Students' Reading Achievement, Clarissa Haymon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Educators offer rich learning experiences to all students, including advanced learners. A school district experienced a decrease in improvement percentiles on annual state reading achievement tests for advanced middle school students between 2012 and 2015. Guided by the theory of differentiated instruction, this quantitative study evaluated the effectiveness of Achieve 3000, a technology-enhanced program for differentiating reading instruction in a middle school that has a large percentage of advanced learners. The program was fully implemented for advanced 6th through 8th grade students beginning in the 2017-18 school year. Using a causal-comparative design, the archived reading scores of 120 advanced 6th …

Teachers Support For English Language Learners To Build Inquiry Skills In Online Biology Simulations, Hermione Joseph-Orelus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The population of English language learners (ELLs) is on the rise in the United States, but they are lagging behind English speaking students in several subject areas--including biology. Scholarly literature lacks information on how biology teachers use scaffolding strategies to support ELL students with inquiry skills during online simulations. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore how biology teachers support ELLs in learning biology, using biology simulations to promote inquiry learning. The conceptual framework for this study included the constructivist perspective regarding the zone of proximal development, Electronic Quality of Inquiry Protocol, and technology use in science …

The Impact Of A Sixth Grade Laptop Initiative On Student Attitudes Concerning Their Learning And Technological Competencies, Jamie Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explored the impact of a sixth grade one-to-one laptop initiative on student attitudes about learning and technological competencies. The study compared student preintervention and postintervention survey data prior to and after a sixth grade laptop intervention initiative. The survey responses were divided into 5 dimensions (School Subject Attitudes, Teaching and Learning Preferences, Computer Use Perceptions, Technology Skills, and Personal Attitudes and Behaviors) on both pre- and postsurveys. District means were compared with preintervention and postintervention data, as well as the means from the 5 dimensions, using a one-sample t-test with a midpoint test value of 3 on a …

Mentoring The Millennials: Induction Of The Millennial Generation In Education, Christopher M. Brown

Dissertations

This research explored who the Millennial teacher is and revealed the relevancy of current teacher induction programs for them, as well as through the lens of the school leaders responsible for induction programming.

Research Questions

1. How do millennial generation teachers perceive their induction programs as new teachers?

a. What are the perceived needs of millennials in their first year of teaching?

b. How does induction programming meet these needs?

c. What are the perceived effectiveness of these programs to meet millennial needs?

2. How do building/district level leaders perceive the induction of millennial generation teachers?

a. What are the …

Confidence In The Use Of Technology Of Low-Income First-Year College Students' Retention, Irene Marie Hudson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Compared to their peers, low-income students are 90% less likely to graduate within 6 years and are more likely to drop out. At the local site, this problem is also evident in that the retention rate for the Fall 2014-15 cohort was 78.3%, but just 60.2% for those defined as low-income students. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of low-income 1st year college students' perceived confidence in their use of technology and how it influenced their decision to stay in college. Understanding the role technology plays in the decision to stay in college will shed …

Effect Of Technology On Community College Developmental Mathematics Course Completion Rates, Mandi Leigh Bradford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students who enter community colleges in need of developmental education are often at high risk of failure due to identities or perceptions of self, that do not conform to college expectations that can be problematized by age, gender, and ethnicity. Additionally, students' efficacy for using technology may affect completion rates which was examined at Midwest Community College (MCC) through observing a program shifting from teacher-directed course designs with greater teacher-student interaction to technology-directed course designs with greater technology-student interactions. The theoretical foundation of this study was Tinto's theory of student retention based on the belief that student success is facilitated …

Elementary Teachers' Experiences Integrating Technology With Literacy Instruction, Valerie Coward-Vaughn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Elementary educators at the urban elementary school in this study struggled with technology-enhanced literacy pedagogy to increase student success. The purpose of this case study was to examine the extent to which educators built relationships between technology and teaching to improve student success. The study was guided by Venkatesh's unified theory of acceptance which was used to examine how educators accept and use technology in literacy instruction. The research questions examined teachers' perceptions of how they can build better relationships with technology and teaching to enhance student literacy success and their perceptions of administrative and district support services to enhance …

Factors Affecting Employee Persistence In An Online Management Development Certificate Program, Todd D. Chester

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An important approach to prepare new managers for increased responsibility is participation in online management development programs; however, there is a lack of information about the factors that affect employee completion of these programs. This study addressed how chief executive officers (CEOs) can implement these programs to rapidly develop new managers who are qualified to serve in the leadership roles left behind by many retirees. This qualitative descriptive case study explored employees' perceptions about persistence in an online management development certificate program at a U.S. nonprofit organization. Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and Rovai's composite persistence model provided the conceptual framework for …

Perceptions Of Faculty Using Mymathlab In Traditional, In-Seat Math Classes, Kathleen Gromilovitz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

MyMathLab, an online interactive and educational system by Pearson Publisher, was implemented in 2 lower-level, traditional in-seat algebra courses to provide supplemental, instructional support to students in the fall of 2015 at the college under study. After the first year of use, no significant change in student success was reported, although more students passed intermediate algebra without first taking elementary algebra. The problem addressed in this study was that student results suggested there might be benefits to using MyMathLab that should be investigated. Knowles' theory of andragogy was used in this qualitative case study to gather perceptions of 7 2016-2017 …

Choice-Based Assessments And Their Use With 1:1 Technology Devices, Joshua Ottow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Choice-based assessments are classroom activities in which students are given some element of choice in how they meet defined learning objectives. As educators seek to adequately prepare students for the rapidly changing world that they will enter after high school, they have placed a greater focus on the types of assessment practices used in the classroom. Choice-based assessments, particularly when used with a 1:1 technology device, may have the impact of increasing student motivation to learn and enhancing the development of skills that they may need after high school (Schwartz & Arena, 2013; Tapscott, 2008). To date, there has been …

Managing One-To-One Initiatives: Implementation Analysis Through Expert Elicitation, Jordan R. Selvidge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to identify and analyze issues in the implementation of one-to-one computing initiatives and provide solutions for improvement. An understanding of the implementation process was developed through the analysis of data collected through 27 interviews with teacher experts in the field who have worked with the implementation of one-to-one programs. Teachers were purposely selected from the following groups: those who were completing their first year of teaching, those who had between two and ten years of teaching experience, and those who had eleven plus years of total teaching experience. This study distinctly addresses one-to-one initiatives …

Community College Basic Skills Math Instructors" Experiences With Universal Design For Learning, Sunny Greene

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Multiple approaches have been used in U.S. community colleges to address the learning needs of postsecondary students who are underprepared in basic skills math. The purpose of this exploratory interview study was to gain a deeper understanding of community college basic skills math learning through instructors' lived experiences using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach and its technology tool, a computerized pen. The conceptual framework for this study used Knowles's adult learning and Kolb's experiential learning theories with UDL principles. The central research questions investigated the professional development and teaching experiences of community college basic skills math instructors in …