Education Commons^™

Don't Let Their Future Blow Away: An Integrated Methodology To Inform School Leaders Of The Dimensions And Determinants Of School Vulnerability Leading To Disaster Learning Loss, Kaleen Daneil Weiland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School leaders play a key role in the critical functions of emergency response in a school system, including purposefully sustaining safe, secure, and healthy learning environments for all students before and after a disaster. Despite these values, school leaders remain underprepared and often unaware of the vulnerabilities associated with weather, climate, and other disaster events and the potential threat that climate change poses to both student achievement and access to education. This study presents school-leaders with a landscape-scale geospatial vulnerability assessment of school districts exposed to, or threatened by, hurricanes in order to improve mitigation efforts in schools. In this …

Exploring The Moderation Mechanisms Of The Association Between Acculturative Stress And Social Self-Efficacy Among Asian International Students, Jinzhao Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asian international students account for 70% of international students in the U.S., which makes 4.3% of total population enrolled in American universities and colleges. They experience stress related to adapting to mainstream culture in the U.S. (i.e., acculturative stress), which negatively impacts their mental health and view of self. The negative impacts also include willingness and ability to perform social behaviors and to maintain interpersonal relationships (i.e., social self-efficacy). Previous acculturation studies proposed from a theoretical perspective that several factors may alleviate the negative impact of acculturative stress and enhance Asian international students' social self-efficacy. These factors include acculturation orientation …

The Intersection Of Mindfulness, Teacher Efficacy And School Climate: A Pilot Study, Sarah K. Killion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Burnout, teaching self-efficacy, and school climate are hot topics in education. Daily stressors create feelings known as burnout, including emotional exhaustion, detachment from teammates, and a decline in feelings of professional competence. The alarmingly high rate of educator turnover illustrates a critical juncture in education. Therefore, interventions are required to improve a teachers' ability to manage student behaviors, provide quality instruction, maintain student engagement, and sustain an atmosphere of collegiality with teammates and administrators.

Mindfulness is a concept that is best understood as moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness cultivated through the practice of meditation and calming activities. These interventions are being utilized …

Telling Our Stories: Exploring The Path Toward Successful Mathematics Degree Attainment At An Under-Resourced Predominantly Black Institution, Lauren E. Mckittrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The under-representation of Blacks in mathematics related professions stems from an American educational system of inequity. Many Black students, including a substantial proportion of those who enroll at Predominantly Black Institutions, attend elementary and secondary schools in under-resourced districts with limited access to quality teachers and rigorous, culturally-relevant instruction that would adequately prepare them for college attainment in mathematics.

The primary research question guiding this study was: What are the challenges and opportunities associated with building and sustaining a successful mathematics degree program at an under-resourced Predominantly Black Institution? Concurrently, this interpretive case study examined and documented the experiences of …

A Trauma-Informed School-Based Mental Health Counseling Intervention To Promote The Social-Emotional And Academic Functionality Of Children Living In Poverty, Mary Perleoni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a trauma-informed school-based mental health counseling intervention (TI-SBMHCI) on students enrolled in three Title I elementary schools. This study aimed to examine the impact of a TI-SBMHCI on participants' social-emotional functionality, trauma symptomology, and academic behavior. Counselors-in-training provided a 10-week TI-SBMHCI based off of Bath's (2008) The three Pillars of Trauma-informed Care and data was collected at pretest (first session), mid (fifth session), and posttest (tenth session). In addition, this investigation examined if participants showed greater improvement in academic behavior in comparison to students who did not receive a …

Dialogic Feedback And Its Effects On English Language Learners’ Writing Development: A Case Study, Shokhsanam Djalilova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory case study aimed to investigate the meanings that second language (L2) learners derive from their writing purposes revising processes and their engagement with dialogic feedback. The goal was to grasp the meaning that revision experiences had for L2 learners (n=17) and to understand the context within which they were operating and its influence on their revision behavior. In order to gain a better understanding of L2 learner engagement and investment in the revision processes which were bound to time and context the case study was built upon an ecological-semiotic approach to learning. The case study aimed to construct …

African American Student-Athletes: Factors Influencing Choice Of Graduate School, Tanner Feterl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although support systems are in place for student-athletes, African Americans remain underrepresented in careers requiring a graduate education, including intercollegiate athletic departments (Okahana, Feaster, & Allum, 2016). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the factors influencing an NCAA Mid-major, Division I African American student-athletes’ choice of pursuing graduate school. Researchers identified themes utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Student Involvement Theory frameworks to explain the influencing factors. The participants consisted of nine African American sophomore, junior, and senior student-athletes who participated in different sports and were chosen using purpose sampling. Each participant took part in an …

Analysis Of Factors Influencing College Choice Decisions Of Mid-Major Ncaa Division I Swimmers, Kaden Huntrods

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student-athletes face an ever-increasing challenge of selecting a higher education institution that meets their desired criteria academically and athletically. Coaches and recruiters have sought to discover how to best recruit student-athletes over the history of college athletics. Understanding these factors can assist coaches and athletes to create athletic programs to best fit the desired student-athletes. This study examined the factors that influence the college selection process of mid-major NCAA Division I, male and female swimmers. The instrument utilized in this study was the Student Athlete College Choice Profile Survey (SACCPS). The participants included 141 student-athletes from seven mid-major NCAA Division …

Students’ Relationships With First-Year Advisors And The Transition To Faculty Advisors: A Qualitative Study Of Appreciative Advising And Its Effects On College Students., Robert Mclean

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated questions that were created to (a) help improve the quality of academic advising within professional advising and faculty advising at a public university in the Midwest as well as (b) provide additional support to the importance of Appreciative Advising in the advising role and in student services. The theoretical framework for this thesis was Appreciative Education also known as Appreciative Inquiry and Appreciative Advising (Bloom, Hutson, He & Konkle, 2013). Student testimonials were gauged through face-to-face, one-on-one interviews to analyze students’ interactions with their professional and faculty academic advisors and to determine which connections with their …

Positive Behavior Intervention And Supports Impact On Discipline In An Alternative School, Alina Michelle Harges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this sequential-explanatory mixed methods study was to first determine what impact if any did Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) have on the number of office disciplinary referrals (ODRs) received by students after three years of implementation. The second part of the study was to obtain feedback through interviews from the administrator and certified teachers on their perspectives of PBIS implementation in this rural alternative school setting. Quantitative data was collected first folloby the collection of the qualitative data. This method of data collection was necessary in order for the researcher to make better sense of quantitative …

Examining The Effects Of Energy Drinks On Academic Performance, Alyssa P. Roberson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reports of energy drink (ED) consumption have grown among the United States population. Research suggests reasons for consumption vary across populations, including increased attention and enhanced endurance performance. However, ED consumers could suffer from negative effects of ED, including health problems, caffeine overdose, and death. Energy drink consumption is also linked to substance use. Despite risks of consuming ED, heavy use of EDs remains among college students, often to help with academic performance; however, research has not examined effects of ED consumption on perceived and actual academic performance. This study evaluated relationships among ED consumption, self-efficacy, and academic performance in …

The Multicultural Center's Role In Black Male Success At A Predominantly White Institution, Stephan Tramaine Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many scholarly works have focused on the problems that Black males face in higher education at predominantly White institutions (PWI). However, few have explored specific factors that lead to the success of Black males. This study focuses on the Multicultural Center’s role in Black male success a PWI. There are a myriad of issues that Black men face when pursuing higher education ranging from a lack of financial resources to “invisibility” in the collegial environment. These challenges are further exacerbated for Black men who are enrolled at a PWI. The Multicultural Center (MC) is among the essential modalities that can …