Education Commons^™

How Decision Makers Learn To Choose Organizational Performance Measures, Annemarie N. Hooge

Theses & Dissertations

This study, framed by decision making, program theory, and performance measurement theory, explored the knowledge and experience that enable decision makers to identify organizational performance measures. It used a mixed method, exploratory sequential research design to discover the experience, knowledge, and skills (EKS) senior decision makers felt were important in learning to choose organizational performance measures. From the analyzed interviews, a survey was designed to measure the importance of the EKS characteristics. Qualitative analysis identified 55 life, work, or educational experience; knowledge; or skill characteristics and 23 effective measure characteristics. Regression analysis and PCA were used to extract 6 components. …

Learning To Heal: The Impact Of A Restorative Justice Program On Crime Victims, Jacquelyn P. Poplawsky

Theses & Dissertations

In the United States, someone is murdered, raped, robbed, or assaulted every 26 seconds (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2015). Violent victimization is a uniquely disorienting dilemma because it is the result of harm from another human being. Extensive research has shown that crime victims’ complex emotional and psychological needs are not adequately fulfilled by the dominant retributive system of justice. The other paradigm of justice that has received extensive consideration from theorists and scholars, with research that now covers multiple continents and 3 decades, is restorative justice.

Restorative justice theory and practice have become effective complementary, and at times, alternative …

Spirituality In A Faith-Based Institution: Faculty Experiences Of Facilitating The Spiritual Development Of Students, Darlene Carbajal

Theses & Dissertations

Practices of spirituality, particularly amongst faculty who teach at faith-based institutions of higher education, are underexplored in the current body of literature. This qualitative study uses an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach to examine faculty members’ attitudes about the role of spirituality in higher education and the pedagogical and mentoring approaches that faculty members in a faith-based institution use to facilitate the spiritual development of students. Participants described spirituality as foundational to student wholeness and naturally emerging from scholarship, as an opportunity for students to increase self-awareness and to have respect, empathy, and compassion for others. Findings of this study …

Teaching And Learning Courageous Followership: An Action Research Study, Karen Walker Schwab

Theses & Dissertations

Followership has been shown to be a developmental stage of leadership. Yet, there is a lack of followership theory in the health-care context. The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore how introducing Chaleff’s dimensions of courageous followership influences the undergraduate nursing students’ views of the follower role and informs their nursing practice. Secondary research questions asked how knowledge of these dimensions influences the nursing students’ views while advocating, collaborating, and addressing lateral violence. Using purposeful sampling, 12 participants were recruited for this study. After attending a followership seminar, they completed online reflections and participated in individual …

Teacher Retention In Zimbabwe: Love For Teaching Or Incentives?, Clifford Gomba

Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative interpretive study investigated the lived experiences of qualified teachers who have remained in teaching for more than 10 years in Zimbabwean rural secondary schools. In understanding how teachers make meaning of their remaining in teaching, the focus is also on the role and place of teachers in society. The experiences were investigated using a dialoguing unhu theoretical framework based on the writing of Lortie (1975) and unhu philosophy. Teacher participants were drawn from three rural secondary schools in Chirumhanzu district in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe. In addition, two teachers who left teaching in Zimbabwe and are resident …

Analysis Of Graded Gross Anatomy Dissections And Demonstrations As A Supplemental Educational Tool, Stephanie Leanne Cummings

Theses & Dissertations

Teaching and assessment modalities for human anatomy curriculums vary between schools. The University of Nebraska Medical Center utilizes an integrated gross anatomy lab curriculum including hands-on dissection, lecture, and 3-D models. The GCBA 909 course, Human Gross Anatomy Lab, just recently incorporated graded dissections and demonstrations into their master of medical anatomy (MMA) curriculum. Students were required to complete and demonstrate eight additional dissections compared to physician assistant (PA), physical therapy (PT) students. Upon completion of these dissections, students were assessed based on the quality of their dissections and were also required to demonstrate the cadaveric dissections to anatomy faculty …

Civic Engagement And Service Learning For Medical Students: A Phenomenological Study Of Transformation, Roy Rodriguez

Theses & Dissertations

Service learning is an effective academic technique that emphasizes integration of course instruction with outside community service and allows for a more enriched learning experience by promoting critical reflection. With medical students encountering a growing diversity in patients, service learning is essential in linking academic learning with their community experiences. This study was conducted at a local medical school using service learning programs in underserved communities. The purpose of this study is to understand the experience medical students had in a service learning program involved in some underserved communities. This study implemented a phenomenological research design in which semi-structured interviews …

An Exploration Of The Math Names For Numbers: An Early Childhood Mathematics Intervention, Suzanne Magargee

Theses & Dissertations

A longitudinal study of the effects of an early childhood mathematics intervention was conducted in 2 private elementary schools in a large city in central Texas. The study included 377 participants in prekindergarten through fifth grades. Explicit non-inverted number names were taught in English and Spanish to prekindergarten and kindergarten students, with formative assessments conducted during this timeframe. Summative assessment results from standardized achievement tests were collected in grades 1 through 5 from 341 of the participants. Normal curve equivalent scores of total mathematics achievement, problem solving, and mathematics procedures were compared among groups of children with no or up …

English Language Learners: English Language Proficiency Level Effect On Testing, Martha Alonso

Theses & Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 served as a refueling agent for education reform. It added the mandate of Title I, which focuses on aid for disadvantaged students. NCLB mandates that states set high academic standards with quantifiable goals. This challenge has been highlighted for states because subpopulations, such as English Language Learners and students with special needs, have become focus groups in trying to bridge the achievement gap. The purpose of this correlation research study was to determine the correlation between the students’ English Language Proficiency level and their performance on the STAAR reading assessment. There was …

Exploring The Educational Experiences Of Students Of Mexican Descent With Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals Status, Elizabeth A. Holbrook

Theses & Dissertations

In 2012, an Executive Order created DACA, providing some youth with undocumented citizenship status access to post-secondary options and a way to avoid deportation. With DACA, a student population previously hidden and lacking entrée became more visible and gained ways to seek post-secondary options. The newness of this population created a lack of research about students who have experienced the transition from having undocumented to DACA immigration status. Researchers, educational practitioners, and non-profit organizations needed knowledge of how this impacted their student identity development and how they navigated education processes. This study examined the unique strategies these students used to …

A Basic Interpretative Study Of Educators In The Childcare Profession: Collegiality As A Base Of Job Satisfaction, Lynda Yvonne Cavazos

Theses & Dissertations

This basic interpretative study explored 12 childcare teachers’ perceptions of job satisfaction and how their motivation has had an instrumental impact on their 10 years or more of job sustainability. In examining the childcare teachers’ perceptions of job satisfaction, the primary research question guiding this study was, “What are the motivational factors that childcare teachers perceive to have contributed to their job satisfaction and retention?” The theoretical framework underlying this study was the Self-Determination Theory, a theory that describes how interactions between early childhood teachers and the system within their work influences motivation in their teaching and their authentic well-being …