Education Commons^™

Identifying Characteristics Of Expert Elementary School Technology Integration Teachers - A Cognitive Task Analysis, Mark Campoli

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

In all domains, certain individuals consistently perform better than their peers. In ill-structured domains such as education, the identification of experts can be difficult. This is especially true when considering technology integration experts (TIEs). In order to be a TIE, one must be an expert in content knowledge, pedagogy, and instructional technology. Systematically identifying and studying TIEs could provide characteristics consistent with expert performance.

Typically, it takes 1,000 hours, or ten years, of practice to acquire expertise. In domains such as education, the acquisition of expertise can happen sooner. Acquiring expertise can be further hastened by deliberate practice. Not all …

Teachers' Attitudes And Their Effect On Placement Recommendations For Students With Cognitive Disabilities, Kathleen M. Everett

Doctor of Education in Special Education Dissertations

The implementation of Public Law 94-142 in 1974 guaranteed that students with disabilities had the right to be educated alongside their peers in the least restrictive environment. However, decades later, administrators, teachers, and parents continue to struggle to resolve the issue on how to include students with disabilities in general education classrooms, as well as how to recognize why students with cognitive disabilities were embodied more in self-contained classrooms than in comprehensive environments. In this study, I aimed to understand how special education teachers’ attitudes about inclusion, LRE, and students with cognitive disabilities influence placement recommendations. Through the qualitative thematic …

Administrators Using Technology To Increase Family Engagement, Ashley P. Beasley

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate and evaluate what happens when Title 1 administrators implement emerging technologies to facilitate school-home communications. This study explored the affordances and constraints to using technology tools to promote family engagement, determined which characteristics of the tools allowed parents to feel the most informed, measured how many parents attended school events, and evaluated parents’ perceptions of invitations to involvement when administration used technology tools to communicate. Epstein’s Parental Involvement Framework (2002), Epstein’s Overlapping Spheres of Influence (1995), and the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler Model (1997) served as the theoretical framework. This mixed methods study …

Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, And Turnover Intention Of Online Teachers In The K-12 Setting, Ingle M. Larkin

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure and explore factors influencing K-12 online teacher job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions K-12 online education. Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954), Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Satisfaction (1959, 1968), Meyer and Allen’s measure of Organizational Commitment (1997), and Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior (1975), this mixed-methods study was conducted in public, private, charter, for-profit, and not-for-profit K-12 online schools in a single Southeastern state. The researcher used a sequential explanatory design by collecting and analyzing quantitative data and then qualitative data in two consecutive phases. Using …

“¡Ya Entiendo! Now I Understand!” Parents' Perceptions Of The Diagnosis Process And Early Intervention Services, Jenna Hudson

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

This qualitative research study examined parents’ perceptions on the diagnosis process that identified their children as deaf or hard of hearing and the early-intervention services provided after the diagnosis. It explored how culture influenced the parental perception of information given to them and the ways in which their backgrounds swayed their individual reactions. As a convenience sample, the researcher conducted interviews with six families in the participants’ homes for ease and comfort. After each interview, an observation was conducted to collect data on the family’s interactions during leisure time, focusing on how the parents and their child communicated with one …

Teaching While Lesbian And Other Identities: Sexual Diversity, Race, And Institutionalized Practices Through An Autoethnographic Lens, Sondra S. Briggs

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership Dissertations

The implicit acceptance among educators and in institutions of learning that discussions around LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues are off limits perpetuates the marginalization of these identities and those who inhabit them. In K-12 schools and college classrooms the prevailing silence sends disturbing messages about the treatment of adults and children when their sexual orientation fails to fit neatly into prescribed binary classifications. As one who has been silent as well as silenced, I understand this dichotomy from a unique perspective. Moreover, my lived membership within diverse cultural and racial groups that have been routinely marginalized through institutionalized practices …

How General And Special Educators’ Conceptualizations Of Critical Thinking Influence Their Pedagogy For Students With Disabilities In Secondary English Inclusive Classrooms, Jeffrey R. Wheeler

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the intersection of critical thinking, teachers’ thought processes and values, and students with disabilities. More specifically, the researcher sought to reach a stronger understanding of how general and special educators’ decisions to explicitly and/or implicitly embed critical thinking into English course content for students with and without disabilities at the secondary level are influenced by teachers’ conceptualizations of critical thinking. The study utilized case study methods with four participants who teach in co-teaching pairs (i.e., a general and special educator who comprise the co-teaching partnership in 9^th Lit, and a general …

Writing On The Margins: Student Experiences In A Learning Support English Course, Tabatha W. Martin

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This study evaluates the effectiveness of one learning support English program at preparing its students for first-year composition.

If You Don’T Want To Talk About Food, Don’T Sit Next To Me, Judith L. Polk

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

If You Don’t Want to Talk About Food, Don’t Sit Next to Me has as its main characters the same qualities taken from the new philosophy of Le Cordon Bleu: “Aspire, Discover, Flourish, Delight, and Thrive,” and the memories made while a full-time student.

Critical Literacy In The Primary Grades, Whitney Talbert Spooner

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study using ethnographic methods was to gain insights into how teachers of primary-aged students successfully enact critical literacy in their classrooms. Using a critical pedagogical theoretical framework, I addressed the following research questions: In what ways are teachers of primary grades modeling and fostering critical literacy within their classrooms? What challenges have primary-grades teachers faced when employing critical literacy practices? What suggestions would teachers offer to those who wish to move toward a more critical stance with their teaching? I interviewed nine K-3 teachers who had experience with critical literacy and supplemented interview data by …