Education Commons^™

Comparing Public And Private Schools, Emily Scheper

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

School is an experience shared by most Americans, but each individual’s experience with school is very different. Many people assume that the biggest determinant of an individual’s success in life stems from choosing the right school. Many parents take this choice very seriously, trying to determine the best environment for their child. In most cases, the choice is between a public/city school and a private/religious school that charges tuition. The question is, though, why do parents decide to spend extra money to send their children to a private school when the same education is offered for free at any local …

Fostering Creativity: Ontario Teachers’ Perceptions, Strategies, And Experiences, Catharine M. Dishke Hondzel

Catharine Dishke Hondzel

This study provides a broad overview of perceptions elementary school teachers hold regarding creativity, the strategies those teachers use to foster creative thinking and behaviour in their students, and the environmental challenges and opportunities they navigate when striving to develop 21st century skills in students. Earlier research examining teachers’ perceptions and creativity-fostering behaviours have typically asked teachers to describe their classroom practices, or self-report their perceptions regarding creative children or children’s creative actions. Using a mixed-methods approach, in this study 22 Grade 5-7 teachers working in Ontario completed an online questionnaire which measured their creativity-fostering behaviours. Following the survey, 12 …

What Is The Transformational Learning Experience Of Secondary Teachers Who Have Dealt With Burnout?, Julius Sims

Dissertations

Abstract Burnout is a syndrome consisting of emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalization (DPZ) (Yong & Yue, 2007). Teachers who fall victim to burnout are likely to be less sympathetic toward students, have a lower tolerance for classroom disruption, be less apt to prepare adequately for class, and feel less committed and dedicated to their work (Betoret, 2006; Byrne, 1991; Fisher, 2011). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the burnout experiences among secondary teachers and the ways they cope with the adverse conditions. The participants were eight school high teachers from a large metropolitan area school district. Using …

Teaching Self: The Ambiguity Of Lived Experience In Classroom Discourse, Scott V. Gealy

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Inspired by Paul Heilker’s notion of the essay as a form of exploration over argument, embodying an anti-scholastic and chrono-logical approach, and Candace Spigelman’s endorsement of experience as evidence in academic discourse, this thesis weaves memoir into more traditional scholarship in an effort to complicate the archetype of the effective teacher. Furthermore, the essay seeks to deconstruct conventional student, teacher, and cultural binaries with the help of the theoretical work of Deborah Britzman, Parker Palmer, Mikhail Bakhtin, Joy Ritchie and David Wilson and others, while using Scott Russell Sanders’ narrative essay “Under the Influence” as a mentor text for …

Teacher Effectiveness And Experience Comparing Evaluation Ratings And Student Achievement, Janice Marie Garnett

Student Work

The purpose of this quantitative study was to discover and describe the relationship of teacher experience and evaluation ratings aligned with student achievement results in a public school setting. The research question guiding this study: Is there a significant relationship between teacher effect data in elementary school mathematics and reading and a teacher’s years of experience and performance ratings?

Analysis Of Participation In 21st Century Community Learning Center After-School Program And Student Grade Five Achievement, Willie T. Herbert

Student Work

This study explored the fifth grade achievement in reading, math, and language as measured by the California Achievement Test for students who were selected because of at-risk factors into an after-school achievement and enrichment program. Students in grades one to five attended this 21st Century Learning Center Program from one to five days per week. Means of fifth grade achievement from participants in 2008-2012 were compared to the means of students within the same school setting.

An Analysis Of A District-Led Leadership Seminar On The Dispositions Of Certified Staff Members, Michael J. Rupprecht

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not a district-led, grow-your-own leadership seminar had a significant impact on the dispositions of its members compared to staff members who did not participate in the program. The participants involved (N = 20) included a naturally formed group of certified staff members (n = 10) who attended and completed a nine-month, district-led, grow-your-own leadership seminar and a demographically-matched, randomly selected group of certified staff members (n = 10) who did not attend or complete the leadership seminar. The dependent variable used in this study was the Administrator Disposition Index (ADI), …

Martin Buber's For The Sake Of Heaven: Prophetic Education, Joseph Lee Hall

Doctoral Dissertations

The author proposes to examine the ontological and epistemological foundations of Martin Buber’s novel, For the Sake of Heaven, in this philosophical study. He purposes to use what he finds to address questions regarding the ways that educational communities often ignore the underlying ontological narratives that are important to communities. After describing Martin Buber’s idea of dialogical relations, the author explores dialogical relations as a current running through the novel. Using the model of the epistemic commentary, he describes the Hasidic community of the character known as the prophet in the novel. Themes of ontology and epistemology are developed. The …

Museum And P-12 School Collaborations And The Role Of A Third-Party Facilitator, Katherine Somerville

Museum Studies Theses

This paper will trace a brief history of museum and P-12 school collaborations in the United States including recent reforms in formal education and the marketization of museums. It will explore different models of collaboration exemplified by national and local programming in a variety of school and museum settings. Details about collaborations between Western New York museums and schools were gleaned through personal interviews with museum personnel, mainly museum educators. This paper will also include criteria for successful collaborations and challenges to overcome in creating and sustaining collaborations between two structurally different organizations.

Finally, this paper will explore the role …

A Case Study Investigating How Art Education Fosters Collaboration In An Urban Environment Through The Lens Of Public Pedagogy, Tracy Fox

Art Education Projects

This case study examines how one particular after-school arts program in an urban environment bridges the gap between a university campus and the community it serves, creating opportunities for collaboration via the arts. The study was conducted at a community center run by Buffalo State.

Over the course of the study, ten interviews were conducted with a variety of people connected to the Community Arts Center’s (CAC) arts programs, including partners in the public arts initiative. The data was collected and analyzed over the course of eight weeks through the lens of Henry Giroux’s public pedagogy, which focuses on educational …

Qualitative Action Research On The Benefits Of Adding Humor And Aspects Of Play In An Elementary Art Education Classroom With Sixth Graders, Kelly Macagnone

Art Education Projects

This qualitative action research study explored the benefits of using humor and aspects of play as teaching strategies in the art classroom. This study was conducted in a small Catholic elementary school located in Western New York. One sixth grade class, composed of nine students, participated in this study. Data was collected and analyzed a period of ten weeks. Conducted through the theory of constructivism, students were engaged and encouraged to construct deep understandings of important concepts in the art classroom through the tools of humor and play. My focus was how the students’ perceived humor and play in the …

Educational Outcomes From The Openorbiter Small Spacecraft Development Program, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter program [1] is developing a low-cost framework for the creation of space-craft by researchers and educators worldwide [8]. In addition to the technical objectives, ed-ucational assessment [2, 3] has also been a key focus. Students working on development of the spacecraft [4] were asked what types of benefits they sought from their participation [5]. The assessment of the attainment of these benefits is ongoing, in conjunction with continued development in pursuit of the crea-tion of a set of designs that can be used to build a spacecraft with a cost of under $5,000 [13] .

Openorbiter Combined Software Work Breakdown Structure, Jeremy Straub, Timothy Whitney, Tyler Leben, Kelton Karboviak, Zach Maguire, Christoffer Korvald, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

As part of CSCI 297, students created work breakdown structures for different areas of the OpenOrbiter project’s software groups. In CSCI 207, they learned about all aspects of project management via experiential learning. They acted as project management ‘consultants’ to the OpenOrbiter software teams. To facilitate the creation of the work breakdown structures, they interviewed team leads, attended team meetings and discussed current progress and needs with members of the teams. In some cases, they collected additional information from reference sources and/or spoke with other teams which would be the ‘customer’ of a particular area of the software system. These …

Advancing Southern Nevada’S Regional Priorities: Overview Of The 77th Session Of The Nevada Legislature, David F. Damore

Brookings Mountain West Publications

On January 10, 2013 the elected leadership of Southern Nevada met to discuss the region’s governance, K--‐12, higher education, infrastructure, economic development, and health care needs. From that bipartisan discussion emerged policy priorities for the 77^th Session of the Nevada Legislature. This report examines the degree to which the region’s elected senators and assembly members advanced these priorities and represented the interests of Southern Nevada in state government.

Engagement In An Online Course: Thestudents' Viewpoint, Michael B. Miller

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distance education is not a new phenomenon, distance education had its beginning with correspondence education through postal services in the 19th century (Daniel, 2000) and progressed into the 21st century with the use of computer-mediated instruction. Еvеn with аll оf itѕ соnvеniеnсе аnd роrtаbility, thе оnlinе сlаѕѕrооm iѕ ѕtill ѕееn by mаny аѕ lасking thе humаn “соnnесtivity” оf fасе tо fасе соurѕеѕ. Rесеnt findingѕ hаvе ѕhоwn thаt оnlinе lеаrnеrѕ’ lеvеlѕ оf ѕаtiѕfасtiоn, реrfоrmаnсе, аnd ѕеnѕе оf соmmunity аrе rеlаtеd tо thе intеrасtiоnѕ thеy hаvе with thеir inѕtruсtоrѕ, inсluding thе tyре аnd frеquеnсy оf fееdbасk thеy rесеivе оn аѕѕignmеntѕ аnd соurѕе …

Benefits Of Video Presentations In Product Design, Alex Lobos

Articles

Product Design uses a human-centered process to develop solutions that solve unmet user needs. Because of the sequential nature of this activity, final designs are often presented in printed process books or digital slideshows, which visually communicate the development of the solution from start to finish rather than focusing just on the final result. Storytelling is a key element to consider when creating these process books in order to communicate the design solution as well as where it came from. An alternative to these presentations is the use of short videos, which offer the advantage of communicating the design process …

Writer's Attitude And Writing Confidence: What Writing Instructors Need To Know, Audrey L. Thornborrow

Culminating Projects in English

This thesis describes the research conducted on junior high and high school students' writing attitude and writing confidence. It was conducted in order to shed light on the needs of students as well as what pre-service and veteran teachers need to know when teaching a writing course in order to ensure success of all students in the 21st Century.

The targeted population consisted of 37 eighth, 24 eleventh, and 19 twelfth grade students at a small, rural K-12 school in central Minnesota. The over-arching question this study addresses is what can teachers do to positively affect writing attitude, and what …

Education On The Underground Railroad: A Case Study Of Three Communities In New York State (1820-1870), Lenora April Harris

Dissertations - ALL

In the mid-nineteenth century a compulsory education system was emerging that allowed all children to attend public schools in northern states. This dissertation investigates school attendance rates among African American children in New York State from 1850-1870 by examining household patterns and educational access for African American school-age children in three communities: Sandy Ground, Syracuse, and Watertown. These communities were selected because of their involvement in the Underground Railroad. I employed a combination of educational and social history methods, qualitative and quantitative. An analysis of federal census reports, state superintendent reports, city directories, area maps, and property records for the …

Risky Business? An Analysis Of Teacher Characteristics And Compensation Preferences, Daniel Henry Bowen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teacher quality has a significant impact on both student learning gains and later life outcomes. With this is mind, policymakers implement reforms to attract and retain more effective educators. A major obstacle for designing these policies is that the ingredients for training, as well as initially identifying, effective teachers remain largely a mystery. However, there are strong theoretical arguments for certain education policy reforms producing improvements in the quality of the teacher workforce. One increasingly popular example is performance-based pay. Performance pay has the potential to better align teachers' incentives to produce increases in student achievement. Paying teachers based on …

Understanding Faculty And Non-Traditional Student Perceptions Of Self-Directed Learning In A Practical Nursing Program, Carmen Marie Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to identify and investigate nursing faculty and student perspectives of self-directed learning in a practical nursing program. It also explored the degree to which student's perceptions of self-directed learning exhibited factors consistent with that of critical thinking. This study is important because self-directed learning and its critical thinking elements are essential in providing safe, competent, effective, and efficient nursing care within practice and education. Using an explanatory case study design the practice of self-directed learning within a practical nursing program was examined through the use of: classroom observations, interviews with nursing faculty, nursing students, and document …

Criteria For Initial Appointment In Rank And Subsequent Promotion For Faculty In Two-Year Public Colleges, Michael Aaron Orf

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growth of community colleges over the last five decades has not been met with a commensurate expansion of knowledge about policy development. In order to address this gap in knowledge, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of rank among two-year colleges in the United States; to identify the criteria used to determine rank upon hire for transfer and vocational faculty; to identify the criteria used to determine promotion for transfer and vocational faculty; and to determine if there are differences in criteria between transfer faculty and vocational faculty at initial appointment and subsequent promotion. Additionally, the study sought …

The Relationships Between `Push' And `Pull' Factors Of Millennial Generation Tourists To Heritage Tourism Destinations: Antebellum And Civil War Sites In The State Of Arkansas, Kayla Diane Kesterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated `push' and `pull' motivational factors which influence Millennial Generation tourists' decisions to visit heritage tourism destinations and their knowledge of Civil War and Antebellum heritage sites within the state of Arkansas. A descriptive, six-section survey was distributed to Millennial students from varying degree fields at three universities within Arkansas. Four hundred twenty-four participants completed the questionnaire with measures of demographic information, visitation and frequency to heritage tourism sites, push factors, pull factors, heritage tourism sites in Arkansas, and historic preservation participation.

The results of this study showed that although Millennial students do not visit heritage sites frequently, …

Dropping Out In Southeast Kansas: Why Students Leave School Early, Garon Kent Wire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study takes a deeper look into the lived experiences of students in southeast Kansas who have dropped out of high school. As a result, school and community leaders are better informed to create effective strategy, policy, and practice in dropout prevention.

Framed as a phenomenology, data was collected by conducting in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 12 participants and a focus-group interview with four participants. The researcher administered a survey/questionnaire to an additional 15 participants. Utilizing the Streamlined Codes-To-Theory Model (Saldana, 2009); organizational, structural, and elaborative coding techniques were implemented to reduce the data into categories, which led to the …

Sexual Pleasure And Enhancement: Implications For College Sexuality Education, Jessica Maureen Harris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine what sexual activities and behaviors college students are participating in, including the use of sexual enhancement products during both partnered and solo sexual activities. Pleasure and sexual satisfaction remain largely absent from today's sexuality education curricula, resulting in most young adults not being aware of the importance of "sexual pleasure, including autoeroticism, as a source of physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual well-being" (WAS, 1994).This study looked at college students and their the use of sexual enhancement products during partnered and solo sexual activities, in order to provide a set of baseline measures …

Discipleship In Education: A Plan For Creating True Followers Of Christ In Christian Schools, Joseph Allotta

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Students are often tested to evaluate their academic knowledge, but few Christian schools evaluate whether a student has become a true disciple of Christ. Schools need to know what they can do that actually has an impact. This project will focus on high school seniors at Baptist schools in the Tampa Area. Students will take a custom survey to determine their biblical knowledge, use of spiritual disciplines, and beliefs on morality, along with what factors influenced them the most. School officials will be interviewed to identify how each is attempting to influence said aspects. Special attention will be given to …

Preservice Candidates' Rating Of Effectiveness In Agricultural Education Through Structured Communication With Cooperating Teachers, Christopher Lee Hunt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between cooperating teacher and student has been found as one of the key elements that affect the overall teaching efficacy of student teachers and their decision to enter the teaching field after graduation (Edgar, 2007; Edgar, Roberts, & Murphy, 2011,2008; Kasperbauer et al., 2007a; Roberts, Greiman, Murphy, Ricketts, Harlin, & Briers 2009; Roberts, Harlin, & Briers, 2007, Roberts, Harlin, & Ricketts, 2006; Roberts Mowen, Edgar, Harlin & Briers, 2007, Stripling, Ricketts, Roberts & Harlin, 2008; Wolf, 2011; Wolf et al., 2010). Therefore, determining impacts towards teaching efficacy during the student teaching experience could play a vital role in …

Perceived Impact Of Character Education Program At A Midwest Rural Middle School: A Case Study, Sandra Jean Goss

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today there exist a concern for the safety and success of students in the public education system. Families, educators, and community members are concerned with the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of students in an environment where incidents of violence are growing. Events like the school shootings at Jonesboro, Arkansas, and at Columbine High School left our nation concerned with the problems within the school system. Many believe that character education can be an effective solution. The purposes of this study are to describe key elements of one school's character education program, and to determine the impact that this program …

Compared To What? The Effectiveness Of Synthetic Control Methods For Causal Inference In Educational Assessment, Clay Stephen Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic control methods are an innovative matching technique first introduced within the economics and political science literature that have begun to find application in educational research as well. Synthetic controls create an aggregate-level, time-series comparison for a single treated unit of interest for causal inference with observational data. However, the strict statistical assumptions associated with matching methods for causal inference raise concerns for unobserved bias related to some data models and availability. The small but increasing set of existing synthetic controls studies with student achievement measures as the outcome of interest suggest that research is warranted into the effectiveness of …

"There Were High Hopes And High Projections:" Examining The Social Construction Of Target Populations In The Policy Design Of The Arkansas Lottery Legislation, Kristopher D. Copeland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lottery policies have been created by many states to generate additional funds to support public initiatives, such as higher education scholarships. In 2009, Arkansas adopted a lottery to generate higher education scholarships. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the Arkansas state lottery policy design process to better understand how the Social construction of higher education students and other citizens became embedded within the policy. The Social construction of target populations theory (Ingram & Schneider, 1993), guided three research questions regarding how policy actors in Arkansas Socially constructed citizens while designing lottery legislation, how these Social constructions …

The Managerial Activities And Leadership Roles Of Five Achieving The Dream Leader College Presidents, Teresa Marie Mace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant increase in community colleges' (CC) presidential retirements is resulting in a huge loss of critical knowledge and experience. Recognition of this has led to numerous efforts and initiatives to prepare future community college leaders. These efforts have included numerous attempts to identify the competencies, skills, and leadership traits considered essential to performing the president's job. Unfortunately, most of the topics identified in self-reported assessments and personal interviews were not based on actual observations of what successful presidents do.

Unlike studies about community college presidents over the last 30 years, this study utilized Henry Mintzberg's (1968) structured observation methodology …