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Theses/Dissertations

Educational Administration and Supervision

2014

Purdue University

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Education

Factors That Affect The Outcome Of A General Fund Referendum In Indiana, Andrew Charles Sargent Oct 2014

Factors That Affect The Outcome Of A General Fund Referendum In Indiana, Andrew Charles Sargent

Open Access Dissertations

School finance elections in Indiana were a relatively rare occurrence prior to a series of new legislation enacted in 2008 that, through the imposition of property tax caps statewide, resulted in sweeping reforms to education funding. These new laws coupled with a national recession resulted in many school districts not having the necessary financial resources to maintain programming and personnel consistent with their needs. With this in mind, many of these districts turned to the General Fund referendum as a mechanism to raise more revenue for their districts through an increase in local property taxes as decided by the voters …


Factors That Contribute To Principal Trust In The Principalteacher Relationship, Eric Melnyczenko Oct 2014

Factors That Contribute To Principal Trust In The Principalteacher Relationship, Eric Melnyczenko

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study sought to use qualitative research methods to answer the overarching question: Why do principals trust teachers? This study was generated from a lack of research noted by Wahlstrom, Leithwood, Louis, and Anderson (2010). I created open-ended questions to interview each participant regarding his/her lived experience with trusting teachers. ^ The qualitative data were collected from six principals of the Illinois Principals Association, two from each of the following three categories: zero to three years of their career principalship; four to six years of their career principalship; or, seven or more years of their career principalship. …


Exploring Literacy And Technology With Middle School English Teachers: Articulating Understandings Of Knowledge And Teaching Practices, Benjamin A. Boche Oct 2014

Exploring Literacy And Technology With Middle School English Teachers: Articulating Understandings Of Knowledge And Teaching Practices, Benjamin A. Boche

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate five middle school English teachers' understandings of literacy and technology. In particular, how do they define literacy, view literacy and technology learning and teaching, and how do they use (or not use) technology to enact their views of literacy in their classrooms. This narrative inquiry qualitative study consisted of three open-ended interviews, written literacy narratives, and multiple classroom observations with each participant as well as the collection of various teacher documents, such as lesson plans, presentation notes, rubrics, and student handouts. Narrative methods were used in the data analysis. ^ Findings were …


The Composition Of First-Year Engineering Curricula And Its Relationships To Matriculation Models And Institutional Characteristics, Xingyu Chen Oct 2014

The Composition Of First-Year Engineering Curricula And Its Relationships To Matriculation Models And Institutional Characteristics, Xingyu Chen

Open Access Dissertations

The preparation of technically excellent and innovative engineering graduates urges for a reform of the engineering curriculum to meet critical challenges in society (National Academy of Engineering, 2005). An examination of the current engineering curricula is needed to offer a baseline to further discuss if the curriculum reform meets the critical challenges. Meanwhile, concern about engineering retention prioritizes a review of the first-year engineering curricula. The existing literature does not include a nationwide examination of the first-year engineering curricula and introductory engineering courses. This study aspired to fill the gap by providing a detail description of the composition of first-year …


The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration And Student Achievement, Davin E. Harpe Jul 2014

The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration And Student Achievement, Davin E. Harpe

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this concurrent embedded mixed-methods study was to develop an instrument to measure principals' perceptions of teacher collaboration in their schools. The study further examined the relationship between perceptions of teacher collaboration and student achievement as measured by the Indiana "A-F" Accountability Model. Four key components of teacher collaboration were identified through a review of the literature. Those key components of teacher collaboration included 1) Job-Embedded Collaboration Time; 2) Common Goals; 3) Results Orientation; and 4) Working Interdependently. ^ Using a survey, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 359 Indiana elementary and middle school principals. Quantitative data …


The Impact Of User Centered Design On Student Motivation, Craig T. Locker Jul 2014

The Impact Of User Centered Design On Student Motivation, Craig T. Locker

Open Access Theses

There is a current push for STEM education within the U.S.; however current studies show that students' interest to pursue STEM fields is decreasing as they progress through high school. This lose in interest has shown to have a strong tie to students' perceived levels of motivation towards the subject. The question that this studied set out to answer was if user centered design (UCD) would affect students perceived level of motivation. For this study a treatment of UCD was compared to a traditional high school engineering design curriculum, with the goal to identify if UCD would have a positive …