Education Commons^™

Attitudes Toward Adult Education Among Adult Learners Without A High School Diploma Or Ged, Andrea Rose Bennett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes toward adult education among adult learners without a high school diploma or the General Educational Development (GED). In this study, adult learners without a high school diploma or GED completed the Attitudes Toward Adult Education Scale (AACES) and selected respondents volunteered to participate in a face-to-face interview in conjunction with the mixed methods section of the study. For this study, I used a 5-point Likert scale to measure the responses on the 22-item AACES survey.

Three hundred and fifty respondents participated in the study. Descriptive statistics and a three-way ANOVA revealed …

Influence Of Language Arts Instructional Practices On Early Adolescents’ Motivation To Read: Measuring Student And Teacher Perceptions, Sarah E. Pennington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Early adolescence is a critical time for examining academic motivation, specifically motivation to read (Hervey, 2013). In order to support self-determined motivation to read, students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness must be met within the classroom context (Miller & Faircloth, 2014). Since classroom instructional practices are a key component of adolescents’ daily experiences in the classroom, research which investigates the influence of these practices on students’ self-determined motivation to read is needed. In addition, the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the degree to which classroom instructional practices meet students’ needs as well as the influence of classroom instructional …

Subtext Of Decisions: Literacy Practices In The Context Of Coding, Julia Hagge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I present findings from a qualitative case study of five early adolescents engaged in an online programming community. As a researcher, I was interested in how early adolescents designed digital media as they learned how to code within an online programming community known as Scratch. My research was guided by two questions: (1) What are the literacy practices and processes embedded in the design and collaboration of products created within an online programming community? (2) In what ways do participants make decisions in the design of their projects created in Scratch? The data collected for …

“It’S Not Pixie Dust”: An Exploratory Qualitative Case Study Of A School-Based Multimodal Tablet Initiative, Erin Elizabeth Margarella

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents findings from a qualitative case study of three English teachers representing varying levels of comfort with technology and years of teaching experience at St. Patrick Catholic High School. This research was motivated by two questions: (1) What are three literacy educators’ perceptions of a multimodal tablet initiative at a Catholic High School? (2) How is information regarding the use of iPad technology for literacy disseminated to three High School English teachers within a Catholic School system? Data was collected over a twelve-week period during the first academic year of implementation of a school-based multimodal tablet (iPad) initiative. …

Reflections On Global Competence By Four Design Educators, Philip A. Bulone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry investigated four design educators’ perspectives and beliefs of global competence teaching and learning, and aimed to inform effective global competence curricula planning and instruction across disciplines. The literature uncovered multiple reasons to warrant design educator reflections: (a) similarities among global competence and design thinking characteristics, (b) design education accreditation emphasis on globally oriented standards, and (c) design thinking as a resource to improve practices across disciplines. Accordingly, the inquiry employed a qualitative design and a multiple case-study approach. Data collection methods included: (a) interviews, (b) image artifacts, and (c) researcher reflective memos. A comparative analysis used systematic coding …

Global Leadership Competencies In Selected Adult Education Graduate Programs From The United States And Western Europe, Arthur Ray Mccrory

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers in the field of global leadership have reported a growing need for leaders able to perform from a global perspective, and the lack of qualified leadership candidates to fulfill these responsibilities. Adult education graduate programs represent a unique pool of aspirants to help fill this gap. In 2008, the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE) published Standards for Graduate Programs in Adult Education. Two of these standards addressed the incorporation of globalization and leadership studies into the planning, administration, and evaluation of adult education graduate programs. This study sought to explore the connection between the phenomenon of …

Developing Early Numeracy And Early Literacy Skills In Preschool Children Through A Shared Parent/Child Book Reading Intervention: A Multiple-Baseline Single Case Design Study, Christina Lauren Lindahl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the effectiveness of a shared storybook reading intervention in increasing children’s early numeracy and early literacy skills through a multiple baseline single case design. Four parent-child dyads were included in the study, and children’s early numeracy and early literacy skills were measured using the eNumeracy Early Math Assessments and the Preschool Early Literacy Indicators, respectively. The study also measured mathematical dialogue to determine if an increase in children’s early numeracy skills is due to the intervention and not other confounding variables. Finally, the study measured intervention integrity, and parent ratings of social validity. Results of the …