Education Commons^™

Following The "Iron Lady" And Finding A University: A Phenomenological Study Of Organizational Identity, Erin Pearson

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Higher education culture is steeped in institutional identity and ties to history. But what happens when that history is challenged, and an institution must change its name? While a merger was not initially intended for Kearney State College, merging into the University of Nebraska system was the only way to reflect the change and growth that emulated the type of institution it had become. By interviewing sixteen participants that lived the experience of the merge, a concise and collective history of the events that led to the creation of the University of Nebraska at Kearney was obtained and studied. Through …

Pennsylvania Principals’ Describe Their Work, Examined Through The Theory Of Transformational Leadership, Shannon O'Donnell

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Being raised in a district composed of rural and suburban communities and later spending years teaching in urban and suburban school districts, I was able to define one key factor: successful students had one or more significant adult who provided them with meaningful guidance and support. For many, a classroom teacher and the experiences, mentorship, and compassion they provided happen to be that significant factor that changed the lives. I observed that as a classroom teacher, individuals are only responsible for designing instruction and activities, and regularly interacting with 20-30 students on a consistent basis. I felt that as an …

Alcohol Expectancies Among Students In The City Of Pokhara, Nepal, Niran Tamrakar

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alcohol plays a vital role in various aspects of Nepalese society. It also presents public health risks. Though adolescents in Nepal are at high risk for negative consequences from alcohol use, there is limited information available on their alcohol behaviors and beliefs. The present study aims to describe alcohol expectancies among a sample of secondary students in Nepal to identify and understand motivations underlying their alcohol-related behaviors. A self-report survey was administered to 591 students from different Englishmedium schools in the city of Pokhara. This study began with the Chinese Adolescent Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (CAAEQ), then used qualitative methods to …

Examining Admission Policy Change At A Private, Tuition-Dependent, Baccalaureate Institution In An Urban Setting: A Qualitative Case Study, Christopher B. Gage

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Higher education in America is resilient; in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, higher education manages to weather the storm of change, pressure, doubt, and criticism. Consider the following challenges: shifting demographics, escalating tuition, decreased state funding, retention and graduation rates, flat tuition revenue, competition for students, student preparedness, and student loan debt. Enrollment managers navigate these formidable impediments through innovative policy change, leadership and faithfulness to institutional mission (Eckel & Kezar, 2003b; Hector, 2016). Test-optional admission policies are changing the landscape of the enrollment management profession. Critics say some institutions adopt test-optional admissions to improve their national rankings by …

Principals’ Perspectives On The Roles And Skills Of School Psychologists, Jill Mccaslin-Timmons

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite decades of literature on how school psychologists could be utilized to better meet needs in school, the way a school psychologist is used still varies and schools still admit that they have unmet needs. Teachers and administrators ask for more staff to help support student needs while taxpayers want to know why more staff are needed. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of principal perspectives on the roles and skills of school psychologists in order to better understand why roles vary, what barriers exist and what can be done to help both school psychologists and …

Teacher Reaction To Change In The Lutheran Elementary School: A Grounded Theory Approach, Kim D. Marxhausen

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Schools, and the teachers and administrators who work in them, need the flexibility to adapt to current student needs. Past research has focused on organizations and plans for change; little research has been done on individual teacher reaction to change situations leaving a gap in the literature. The goal of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore how individual teachers, in LCMS Lutheran elementary schools, react when presented with change. Data were collected through interviews involving an event history calendar to facilitate memory. A theoretical sampling process was used to collect and analyze data utilizing a constant comparative method. …

The Impact Of Academic Advising On The Retention Of First-Year Students In A Gulf-Arab University, Selma Hagahmed

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated academic advising and retention in a Gulf-Arab university. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered in order to understand how academic advising could have potentially contributed to the improvement of student retention. The focus of the study was on first-year students in the College of Business and Economics and the College of Law in a Gulf-Arab national four-year institution. The study compared the Grade Point Average (GPA) and the number of credit hours in two groups of first-year students: 1) a treatment group of students who utilized academic advising services and (2) the control group of students who …

The Association Of Wellness Policy Quality And Percentage Of Obesity In Schools, Bryce M. Abbey

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Schools possess a unique opportunity to reach a large captive audience and are becoming one of the battlegrounds for childhood obesity. To address the school environment’s role on the influence of American children’s nutritional intake and participation in physical activity, the United States (US) Federal Government adopted the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, placing an emphasis on implementation of the local school wellness policy (LSW). The purpose of this study was to examine the association between LSW and percentage of obesity in school districts within Nebraska. Aggregate district-wide body mass index (BMI) percentile data were utilized from previously collected …

Structures And Relationships Between The Business Executive And Information Technology Executive At The University: A Mixed Methods Study, Angela K. Hollman

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study uses an explanatory mixed methods methodology to attempt to determine the reporting relationships between business and IT executives within the university. The study also explores IT and business executives thoughts on these relationships. Supporting research from organizational studies and business-IT alignmfent is combined in order to enhance the study. In the first quantitative phase, an exploratory factor analysis is used to determine organizational dimension factors while simple response and frequency analysis are used to model the top occurring organizational structures between IT and business executives. The second qualitative phase used semi-structured interviews with 12 random CIOs and CFOs …

Effect Of Racial Socialization And Racial Identity In Adolescent African American Males On Academic Achievement, Rasheema Pitt

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examined possible influences of racial socialization and racial identity in minority’s academic achievement. Qualitative data sources (in-depth, personal interviews, focus groups, and a survey) were collected from 10 minority students and 8 administrators. In addition, a quantitative survey was used to supplement qualitative data. The researcher established her own set of questions for the interviews and focus groups. The pre-established measures used were the Does Your School Have High Expectations for All Students survey and the School Climate survey.

Thematic and theoretical analyses procedures were used to identify emerging themes and patterns, with particular attention to what minority …

Effective Science Teachers’ Professional Development: A Multiple-Case Study Of District-Level Science Supervisors’ Perspectives, Chris J. Schaben

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

At its heart, science teachers’ professional development is about continual growth and improvement (Yager, 2005). Conducting research to understand what constitutes effective professional development is inherently complex (Hewson, 2007). The imperative to link research on professional development to student achievement (Fishman, Marx, Best, & Tal, 2003) increases complexity of research on the topic. These complexities require multiple research approaches and indicate that all stakeholders could provide insights to identify what constitutes effective professional development. District-level science supervisors’ voices are missing from the data on effective science teachers’ professional development and this provides a potential gap in the literature (Banilower, Heck, …

Does Being Rural Matter?: The Roles Of Rurality, Social Support, And Social Self-Efficacy In First-Year College Student Adjustment, Allison L. Bitz Phd

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

One out of every three first-year college students will not return for a second year of college (Postsecondary Education Opportunity, 2010). Due to a variety of factors, minority students are at an even higher risk of dropping out of college. Rural youth, comprising approximately 22% of the nation’s total youth, form a significant minority population; yet the rural student experience in college has not yet been widely considered in research. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore college adjustment and its predictors among first-year students, with an emphasis on the role of rurality in college adjustment. Social self-efficacy, …

An Investigation Of The Potential Use Of Advanced Placement Examination Scores In The College Admission Of Transfer Students, Andrew Callahan Dwyer

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Faced with making college admission decisions on an increasingly large number of applicants, many higher education institutions have begun to consider using additional information to assist with those decisions. Unlike college admissions practices for the population of first-time freshmen, however, admission practices for the population of transfer students have been largely ignored in the literature. There is evidence that the transfer student population is growing and will likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future, which emphasizes the need for colleges and universities to find additional suitable information to use in transfer student admission. Using data from the University of …

Exploring Student Perceptions To Explain The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Academic Achievement In Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Study, Megan J. Hylok

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A nationwide survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2007 reported 65% of high school students did not meet the recommendation that youth participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week (CDC, 2008). While research has focused its attention primarily on bodily health, growing evidence supports the benefits of physical activity on brain health (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008). Physical activity is important and many adolescents are not meeting the recommendation, therefore, it is important to explore the adolescent perceptions to understand which factors influence physical activity participation. The significance of this study …

Teacher Collaboration As Professional Development In A Large, Suburban High School, Marlie L. Williams

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative study explored the impact of teacher collaboration in a professional learning communities (PLC) school on teacher self-efficacy. Through the collection and analysis of personal interview data from 20 teachers in a large, suburban Midwestern high school, the impact of structured teacher collaboration was evaluated for its impact on changes in teachers’ instructional practices, their feelings of responsibility for student learning, positive adult interdependence, and changes in teacher self-efficacy. Experts in educational professional development identify the importance of sustained, collegial learning. This study explored the structure of one high school’s professional collaboration model, the measures in place for goal-setting, …

A Correlational Study On Parental Attachment And Moral Judgment Competence Of Millennial Generation College Students, Deidra Graves Stephens

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Theorists and observers have speculated that Millennial Generation college students may progress through cognitive-structural models differently than previous generations. These models, such as Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, require individuals to shift from accepting authoritarian views to making their own meaning of the world. Millennials are deferential to the role of parents in their lives, accepting authority, convention, and structure, and acquiescing to rules, order, and expectations. On the other hand, some have predicted that Millennials’ unique view of the world and their place within it may generate more advanced levels of cognitive development than previous generations.

This quantitative …

A Correlational Study On Parental Attachment And Spiritual Development Of College Students, Mary-Ellen Madigan

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

During college, students search for meaning in their lives and question their beliefs, behavior, and mortality (Garber, 1996). One way that students search for meaning is through their spiritual lives. Spirituality is “the personal quest for understanding of ultimate questions about life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred or transcendent” (Koenig, McCullough & Larson, 2001, p. 18). Parental attachment theory explains that students who have developed a secure attachment with their parents see their parents as a secure base from which to explore their environment (Kenny & Donaldson, 1991, p. 480). This environment may be internal or external. …

A Study Of Chief Academic Officer Perceptions Of Professional Development In The Emerging Louisiana Community And Technical College System, Barbara Rumohr Jones

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative multi-site case study was conducted to investigate current practices, experiences, support, and perceptions as expressed by Chief Academic Officers (CAO) concerning professional development in the seven Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) community colleges. Criterion sampling was used to select the participants for the questionnaire and interview based on their knowledge of and responsibility for professional development. The participants for the questionnaire were the CAOs at the seven LCTCS community colleges. The participants for the interviews were the CAOs, other key personnel identified by the CAOs, and the President of the LCTCS.

Data were collected through the …