Experiential Statistics: A Case Study In Favor Of Using Project-Based Learning To Advance Preliminary Statistics Content Knowledge In The Algebra I And Geometry Classroom, Trey Michael Earle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Preparing secondary students for college entrance requirements and the expectations of the job market, a market which is actively seeking the employees who are most qualified to take on jobs that require data analysis skills, is becoming increasingly important. Federal, state, and local education administrators and personnel must rewrite many of the general education curricula to incorporate data organization, collection, manipulation, application, and analysis in order to better prepare students for the expectations of college entrance and an ever-changing employment market. From a purely pedagogical standpoint, while traditional educational structure has been commonplace for decades in the United States, projects …

University Faculty Design-Thinking Personas For Online Course Development: A Q Methodological Study, Jennifer Margaret Morrisette

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

To overcome the inherent complexities of planning and implementing effective online learning experiences at scale, it has been suggested that design-thinking tools and practices can be leveraged by faculty and collaborative support staff (e.g., instructional designers). However, little is known about what design-thinking approaches are perceived by faculty to be important to the online course design process, and what tools and practices might be prioritized or avoided given planning stage and individual context. Understanding these nuances would provide much needed insight to align support directly with faculty needs. This study used Q methodology to explore the subjective viewpoints of 20 …

College Expectation And Matriculation: High School Students Journey To Postsecondary, Sabrina Juanita Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Racial group membership and social-economic status (SES) among academically talented students are recognized as powerful predictors of matriculation and college expectations. Moving or transitioning from high school to college is an essential pathway for success in life. Previous research suggests that college enrollment is correlated to resource opportunities available to students that they can access through their relationship with their parents, peers, school staff, teachers, and others.

These relationships are vital in increasing college matriculation by providing academic assistance, emotional support, psychological encouragement, relevant information, and guidance to students in the complex college application process.

College preparatory or outreach programs …

The Impact Of Type Of High School Institution On University Retention Of Undergraduate Students, Rachel Pierson Gill

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the type of high school completed and selected academic and demographic characteristics on university retention to degree completion at a research university – very high research (RU/VH) in the Southern Region of the United States.

The dependent variable of this study was persistence to graduation within six years of first enrollment. The target population was defined as traditional-age undergraduate students enrolled in a research university – very high research (RU/VH) in the Southern Region of the United States. The accessible population was defined as traditional-age undergraduate students enrolled …

Developing A Competency Model For Highway Safety Engineers: A Delphi Method, Garrett K. Wheat

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the core competencies needed by State DOT Highway Safety Engineers as perceived by Highway Safety experts in the United States. First, a list of competencies was identified. Next, a panel of Highway Safety experts determined the importance of each identified competency for the current year (2020) and for the future (year 2030). Finally, ratings provided by the panel were tested for the presence of consensus.

For this study, the researcher used a Delphi Method as classified by Delbecq, Van de Ven, and Gaustafson (1975). Through this method, a panel of forward-thinking …

A Single Case Study On The Impact Of Louisiana's Induction Program On High School Beginning Teachers, Lorita Ann Eichelberger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the growing body of literature that suggest that beginning teachers need additional support throughout the first couple of years in the profession, there is little research on the impact of induction programs for high school beginning teachers. The purpose of this single case study was to analyze the encounters of three beginning teachers, three mentors, one teacher induction coordinator, and one administrator participating in a teacher induction program in Louisiana and examine the impact of the induction program on teacher development. This qualitative study addressed three research questions: What are the perceptions of beginning teachers about the teacher induction …

Village Folk: Exploring The Female Black School Counselor's Perception Of Role Confusion And Burnout In Urban Schools In South Louisiana, Christianne Leah Ricard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study examined female Black school counselor’s perceptions regarding their role when working with students – specifically Black students. More so, this study looked at cultural influence on female Black school counselors’ thoughts and feelings relative to role confusion and burnout. Black Feminist Thought and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs served as the theoretical framework that guided this study. In consideration for cultural differences, female Black school counselor’s perceptions can be used to further explain the phenomenon of role confusion and burnout.

More than 10 invitations to participate, interviews were conducted with five female Black school counselors. The research questions …

Race, Gender, And Salary Equity: A Cross-Classified Random-Effects Approach To Examining Faculty Pay And Salary Equity Within Higher Education Research Institutions, Kimberly G. Lecompte

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study expands on decades of research by exploring inequities in faculty salaries between gender as well as race/ethnicity while acknowledging the complexities of the higher education labor market that influence salary. Drawing from human capital, structural, and academic capitalism theory, this analysis utilized three recent surveys administered by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics matched with aggregated institutional data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for the years 2013, 2015, and 2017. The results indicated that the variance observed in faculty salaries is largely due to demographic and human capital variables such as experience, rank, and …

Text-Influenced Expressions Of Understanding: Differences In Kindergartners’ Discourse And Written Retellings Of Traditional And Digital Texts During Buddy Reading, Julie Parrish

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Buddy reading a text is a collaborative act that typically generates discourse that provides researchers with a glimpse of the comprehending taking place. However, in recent years, the infusion of technology in classrooms has resulted in many traditional texts being replaced by digital versions. Thus, this qualitative case study examined the spoken and written discourse of 12 kindergartners (6 dyads) as they buddy read a traditional and digital text.

Drawing upon two distinct lenses—sociocultural and comprehension signifier—video recordings, transcriptions, and written retellings were analyzed. Specifically, process coding and in vivo coding were used to construct categories and uncover sociocultural patterns …

Delving Into The First Year: A Case Study Of The Novice Teacher Induction Experience, Lindsay Stewart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The issue of high teacher turnover and low teacher retention rates are the driving force of this research. Teacher retention begins with understanding how induction practices are carried out both formally and informally and what support novice teachers need. The majority of research around teacher induction and turnover works with large data sets to produce pertinent percentages and figures (Ingersoll, 2012; Glazerman et al., 2010; Redding & Henry, 2018; Ronfeldt & McQueen, 2017). To supplement the existing research around new teacher induction, this case study was conducted to 1) combine the research-based induction practices with the theoretical underpinnings of these …

Access Granted: The Journey Of Conditionally Admitted, First-Generation College Students At An Hbcu, Zackeus Dontrell Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative case study was undertaken to understand the perspectives of first-generation, conditionally-admitted students, regarding how their participation in a college access program may or may not have contributed to their persistence at a Historically Black College and University. This study was grounded in Tinto’s (2012) Model of Institutional Action for Student Success, Schlossberg’s (1990) Transition Theory, and Astin’s (1984) Student Involvement Theory. This single case study was positioned at a university in the South, named Success State University for this research. The study included 5 female participants who participated in virtual interviews due to the unforeseen Coronavirus 2019 outbreak. …

Investigating Leadership Styles Of Childcare Directors, Michelle P. Grantham-Caston

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study was to contribute to the literature on childcare director’s leadership styles and director’s self-perception. For leaders in childcare to be effective they must possess skills, characteristics, and traits of effective leadership which have been identified in the seminal literature of Bass (1995) and Burns (1979). This quantitative study examined early childhood leaders self-identification with the leadership styles in The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass & Avolio, 1995) as well as other demographic variables which could contribute to early childhood leaders’ self-perception of leadership styles. This study was to break apart the three overarching leadership styles …

A Case Study On Alternative Spring Break: Supporting Black Women At An Hbcu, Aeryel Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is a college-based travel program in which students spend their traditional spring break vacation traveling to a new domestic or international city to complete a service-learning project such as community restoration in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. As a result of participating in Alternative Spring Break, students gain invaluable experiences and transferable skills that can be applied to their academic and career goals. In this dissertation, the specific transferable skill explored is emotional intelligence.

The purpose of this dissertation is to illuminate the lived experiences of Black women who have participated in a college-based travel program …

Characterizing Middle School Students’ Physical Literacy: A Sequential Mixed Methods Study, Yang Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation study was (a) to characterize middle school students’ levels of physical literacy (PL) and PL domains by gender, grade, socioeconomic status (SES), weight status, race, and ethnicity; and (b) to capture PL trajectory change as a result of receiving a theory-informed pedagogical workshop. Participants (N = 350) in sixth and seventh grades were recruited from a public middle school located in a southeastern U.S. state. These students completed the second version of the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL-2). A subsample (n = 49) received a pedagogical workshop (four sessions over eight weeks), …

Empathy, Fiction, And An Educational Ecosystem: A Narrative Case Study Of A High School Ela Classroom, Danielle Marie Klein

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores how empathy exists, as an experience, in an English Language Arts classroom. The research was conducted in an 11^th grade classroom during an instructional unit with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as the anchor text. The study relies upon Transactional Reader Response Theory (Rosenblatt, 1988) to justify the exploration of the aesthetic, evocative nature of a text. Narrative inquiry methodology was used to collect and assemble the instances of empathy as inspired by the play. Guided by Doll’s (1993) premise of the classroom as an ecological, open system with multiple contributing forces, data was collected through classroom …

Spatial Production And Nomadic Subjectivities In A Buddhist Learning Space, Chau Bao Le

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Space and place are an integral part in the geographies of education, therefore, knowledge about culturally complex and ethnically diverse transnational communities could inform curricular innovations that meet the needs of individual students. This year-long ethnographic study challenged the prevailing realities that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth, which caused students from ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious minority groups to feel structurally excluded and marginalized. Through examining the spatial production and nomadic subjectivities enacted over time in a transnational, diasporic space of a Buddhist temple in a U.S. southern state, the study …

The Road To The Presidency: A Case Study Of Hbcu Organizational Culture And Its Impact On The Career Progression Of Women Of Color, Akai Crystal Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The American workforce is currently experiencing an increased level of diversity in comparison to previous decades due to augmented representation of people of different races, socio-economic backgrounds and genders across sectors (Warner, 2014). However, there is one variable that has remained largely unchanged, the underrepresentation of African American women in executive positions in higher education institutions (Cook & Cordova (2007). Data suggests despite women’s advancement in areas of public life over the last thirty years, in higher education administration they still significantly lag behind their male counterparts. Researchers note that minority women face multiple barriers to their ability to obtain …

A Case Study Of The Campus Climate For Diversity At A Hispanic-Serving Institution: Perspectives From Latinx Undergraduate Students, Ariana Vargas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate how Latinx students perceive the campus climate in curricular and cocurricular settings at a four-year public Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Texas. In addition, the study examined Latinx students’ understanding of the HSI designation and how their expectations of institutional diversity and inclusion are shaped by this awareness. Specifically, the study explored elements of the climate for diversity, as related to the Multicontextual Model for Diverse Learning Environments (Hurtado et al., 2012), including classroom experiences, cocurricular experiences, and relationships with faculty, staff, and peers. The primary sources of data included interviews …

Evolution Of Computational Thinking Contextualized In A Teacher-Student Collaborative Learning Environment., John Arthur Underwood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The discussion of Computational Thinking as a pedagogical concept is now essential as it has found itself integrated into the core science disciplines with its inclusion in all of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2018). The need for a practical and functional definition for teacher practitioners is a driving point for many recent research endeavors. Across the United States school systems are currently seeking new methods for expanding their students’ ability to analytically think and to employee real-world problem-solving strategies (Hopson, Simms, and Knezek, 2001). The need for STEM trained individuals crosses both the vocational certified and college degreed …

A Chance For Success: Understanding How Latinx Students Make Meaning Of Federal Work-Study Employment, Raylea Danelle Rideau

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many students engage in Federal Work-Study as a means of additional income and part-time employment. However, few studies detail the program’s overall effectiveness and impact, especially from the perspectives of students of color. This qualitative study described, by way of multiple case study design, how Latinx students employed in at least one semester of an on-campus Federal Work-Study position make meaning of their employment experience. The researcher explored the varied experiences of six undergraduate Latina women employed through work-study through the theoretical lenses of happenstance, self-authorship, and career construction. Sources of evidence used for this study included interviews, documentation, written …

Valuing Voices: Construction Of Meaning Through Discursive Interactions During A Critical Service-Learning Partnership, Jane Helen Noble

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As teacher educators strive to prepare preservice teachers for careers as literacy instructors and advocates of social justice in education, critical service-learning pedagogy has been considered as an approach for teacher education programs. Tenets of academic study, reflective practice, social change, and the development of authentic relationships between universities and communities outline the structure for critical-based field experiences. What are preservice teachers learning in these spaces? How do they grow as part of critical service- learning courses? How do community organizations and members interpret experiences in the partnership, and how do they describe their roles?

This study highlights the voices …

Documenting Desire: Addressing The Educational Needs Of Undocumented English Learners, Alejandra Sofia Torres

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While research on motivation in second language acquisition is copious and the interest in undocumented youth within the education field is growing, there is a need to closely examine the intersection of being both undocumented and an English Learner (EL) and how this intersection often limits ELs, especially those in underserved schools. Using ethnographic methods, this dissertation documents the educational experiences of thirty-one Spanish-speaking ELs in a predominately of color, urban, working-class high school in the southeastern United States. EL participants were ages fourteen through twenty with varying non-citizen immigrant statuses. Semi-structured interviews and field notes were collected during the …

The Influence Of Housing In A Content-Based Residential College And Selected Demographic Characteristics On The Retention Of Students Enrolled In A College Of Business At A Research University (Ru/Vh) In The Southern Region Of The United States, Reuben Twijukye

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Statistics indicate that more than 40 percent of all college entrants leave higher education without earning a degree, 75 percent of these students drop out in the first two years of college, and institutions can expect that 56 percent of a typical entering class cohort will not graduate from that college ”(DeShields , Kara, , & Kaynak, P.129). Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of housing in the College of Business content-based residential college (CBRC) and selected demographics on the retention in the fifth semester of students in the College of Business.

The population …

Family Matters. Or Does It? Family Involvement In American Education, Isaiah Fink Avraham Cohen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Family Matters. Or Does It?” uses select data and waves from the 1996-2016 Parents and Family Involvement in Education Surveys to investigate the following research questions in its efforts to probe the influence of familial involvement: (1) Does child behavior influence family involvement; (2) has the effect of family involvement on academic performance persisted over the past two decades; (3) does school selection influence family involvement; and (4) are homeschooling families monolithic in their involvement? Results indicate that behavior has unique associations with involvement, with no support being found for the reactive involvement hypothesis. Family involvement has a generally positive …

The Perceptions Of Foster Care Alumni's Experiences With Four-Year Post-Secondary Institutions: A Case For Capital And Field Advantage, June M. Durio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study was to explore, through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s constructs of habitus, field, and capital, the post-secondary experiences of foster youth who transitioned out of the Louisiana foster care system. Specifically, this comparable multiple case study sought out to understand how cultural, social, and financial capital influenced the post-secondary educational outcomes of foster care alumni as compared to first-generation and continuing-generation students. Seven common themes emerged from the study: predisposing factors towards post-secondary education; values, knowledge, and skills associated with post-secondary education attainment; informal and formal social networks facilitating post-secondary support; financial resources addressing …

Summertime: A Mixed-Methodolody Study Exploring The Effects Of A University Career And Professional Development Course As First-Year Student-Athletes Transition Into The University, Lori Simone' Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand what, if any effect, an intervention such as a summer bridge program or course designed for incoming student-athletes had on the participants. Specifically, this study used Gaston-Gales (2004) Student-Athlete Motivation towards Sport and Academics Questionnaire (SAMSAQ) as a pre and post-intervention measure that examined the effect of the Student-Athlete Development Course 101 (SADC 101), which was designed and implemented mainly by athletics department personnel. The three constructs that the SAMSAQ instrument examined were: 1) Academic Motivation (AM), 2.) Student-Athlete Motivation (SAM), and 3.) Career-Athletic Motivation (CAM). The sample population (N=60) included only …

Interactions Between Federal Education Tax Credits And State-Based Aid Programs: An Analysis Of State Budgeting For Higher Education, Anna Castrillo Bartel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Prior empirical analyses on federal education tax credits have concentrated on the individual and institutional unit of analysis. These outcomes indicate mostly null effects on promoting college enrollments, along with distribution to higher incomes, and mixed results on tuition and fee increases. This analysis utilized institutional and state unit of analysis over a longer timeframe, Tax Year 2001 to Tax Year 2016, using difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the effects of education tax credits. The results indicated states have decreased appropriations to public, two-year institutions (charging less than $4,000) 14% less than their higher-priced counterparts, while states provided more appropriations to …

Examining Nursing Student Dropout Behavior: An Event History Analysis, Michele Lee Blackwell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined student-level data to identify factors that predict student departure from an undergraduate nursing program. National nursing shortages, declining enrollment, and high rates of attrition pose significant concerns for undergraduate nursing programs. The following research questions guided this study: 1) Which student-level variables predict nursing student dropout risks over time? 2) Which student-level variables predict nursing student retention over time? and 3) When are nursing students most likely to drop out?

The methodological approach was event history analysis, a form of linear regression that measures the likelihood of an event (nursing student dropout) at a particular time (semesters …

Professional Development And Supervision Of Live-In And Live-On Housing And Residence Life Professionals For Crisis Response And Management, Juterh Nmah

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is twofold: to examine the professional development and supervision of live-in and live-on housing and residence life professionals for crises response and management on colleges and universities. The literature review consisted of empirical research for crises, professional development and supervision. The study sample consisted of live-in and live-on housing and residence life professionals employed at colleges and universities across the United States. The researcher utilized a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design using a demographic survey, Synergistic Supervision Scale (SSS), for the first, quantitative phase, and a semi-structured interview format for the multiple case-study design for …

Unprepared To Be Culturally Responsive: An Examination Of Secondary Esl Educators In Rural Louisiana, Danielle Marie Butcher

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the problem of instructing English learners in a rural Louisiana district. The following questions guided this study: (1) How do the teachers perceive their pre-service and in-service training for English learners?, (2) How do the teachers perceive their ability to implement culturally responsive pedagogical practices for English learners?, (3) How do the teachers perceive the district’s approach to tangible, informational, and emotional supports for English learners?, and (4) What are the teachers’ perceptions, if any, of sociocultural inequities faced by English learners? And how, if any, do these sociocultural inequities affect the …