Education Commons^™

The Interactive Read-Aloud: A Case Study Of Children With Intellectual Disabilities, Christine Cuozzo

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Interactive read-alouds engage children in active thinking while reading, with the overall purpose of helping them understand that text should make sense (Scanlon et al., 2017). During an interactive read-aloud, adult readers read books aloud to children and include comments and questions before, during, and after reading aloud to initiate conversations. Discussions and transactions with text can also occur spontaneously (Scanlon et al., 2017). A paucity of research exists on how children with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience interactive read-alouds. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to determine how children with ID experience interactive read-alouds delivered by a parent …

Successful Admissions In A Time Of Great Uncertainty: A Case Study Of Employees' Perceptions Of Employee Well-Being And Emotional Intelligence, Sarah Freed

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This qualitative embedded single-case study explores admissions employees’ perceptions of departmental success and individual employee well-being, including the role emotional intelligence has on these outcomes, through the lens of Bolman and Deal’s Four Frame Model (1984). This study is necessary because of the turbulent higher education landscape and because social factors contributing to this turbulence are expected to stay the same. More specifically, this study is situated in a thriving Office of First-Year Admissions at an institution within a public university system in a rural setting experiencing an unstable organizational landscape. I interviewed sixteen employees in a successful mid-size public …

Navigating The Financial Aid Application Process: The Voices Of First-Generation College Students, Holly Kirkpatrick

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This qualitative case-study explored how the financial aid application process contributed to or detracted from the persistence of first-generation college (FGC) students. FGC students are the first in their families to attend college and make up one-third of college-going students each year (RTI International, 2019). FGC students use financial aid at a higher rate than their continuing generation peers, are less likely to have funding from outside sources, such as their parents (Martinez et al., 2009), are more likely to default on their student loans, and do not persist to graduation at the same rate as their non-FGC peers. Semi-structured …

Exploring The Tensions Between Teacher Beliefs About Integrating Technology: A Case Study, Monica Frank

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This single case study examines teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward technology integration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on how teachers’ beliefs have shifted since schools pivoted to virtual learning in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many schools continuing some form of virtual learning, such as a hybrid model. The single case study design incorporated a survey instrument and semi-formal interviews during the two-phase study. The 20-question survey collected data on the participants’ demographics, teachers’ knowledge of technology integration, and their beliefs and perspectives on technology integration’s impact on student learning. The study participants …

Implementing Content Literacy And Disciplinary Literacy: A Mixed Methods Study Of Middle School Teachers' Pedagogical Dispositions, Madison Weary

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Researchers uphold that teachers' beliefs toward reading influence their planning and implementation, and that content area teachers are often reluctant to implement literacy strategies and skills within their instruction (Ness, 2009; Nourie & Lenski, 1998; Richardson et al., 1991). Much of this reluctance stems from teachers’ lack of familiarity with content area and disciplinary literacy or misconceptions surrounding instruction that supports literacy implementation (O’Byrne et al., 2020). However, within the field of literacy, there are tensions between the implementation of content area versus disciplinary literacy (Graham et al., 2017).

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school content …