Education Commons^™

The Radical Relationality Of Complex Partnerships: Community-Member Experiences In Critical Community-Based Learning, Amie Riley

Dissertations and Theses

Through a radical relationality within the social-ecological systems that sustain us, critical community-based learning (CBL) in higher education offers a praxis for engaging the demanding pedagogical and community challenges we face. When CBL is implemented as both a critical and sustainability pedagogy, as a strategy for social change, the relationships created by CBL partnerships have the potential to generate transformational outcomes for all partnership agents. Using a critical complexity theoretical framework, a bricolage of complexity science and critical theory, this critical qualitative study sought to understand the systemic patterns and behaviors of a community-based learning partnership by elevating community-member voices. …

Elucidating The Interdependence Of Motor-Cognitive Development And Performance, Thomas Cade Abrams

Theses and Dissertations

As the development of complex coordination and control (i.e., motor development) involves the integration of neuromotor, psychological, social, and cognitive processes (i.e., executive functions), a better understanding of how these processes are embedded and manifest across stages of development throughout the lifespan is needed. The long-term processes associated with the acquisition and development of motor competence (MC), specifically, effortful practice and performance of various locomotor and object control skills, provide direct mechanisms for contributing to executive function (EF) development via different learning-related (e.g., synaptogenesis, hippocampal neurogenesis) as well as exercise-related (e.g., exercise-mediated neurogenesis, angiogenesis) mechanisms. However, traditional MC assessments use …

Experiences Of Urban School Counselors: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Jennifer A. Meador

Dissertations

Urban School Counselors (USC) are continuously making decisions, prioritizing responsibilities, and acting in ways that best serve the needs of students, while up against complex factors and challenges (Dye, 2014). Though research has explored critical factors and provided conceptual understanding of the school counselor role, few studies have offered specific ways USCs actually implement and navigate their role in its full context (Dye, 2014; Lee, 2005; Mitcham et al., 2009). Thus, this study differed from other empirical literature in that it aimed to understand USCs holistic experiences, rather than focusing solely on one aspect of their role (e.g., leadership activities). …

The Development Of A Principal's Conceptual Framework Within An Early College High School, Edmond Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Educational leadership literature and research are dominated by linear, evidence-based methodologies to describe and guide decisions made by the school principal. These methodologies and conclusions do not examine the conceptualizations made by the principal to form the professional knowledge that makes up the framework that the principal might use to define problems, understand the problem in context and create a response. How principals form these conceptualizations by using experiences, multiple perspectives, and theories might explain how principals understand the school to address needs that are specific to the nature of the campus.

An early college high school is the setting …

A Comparison Of College Student-Athletes With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) And Nonathletes With Adhd: Academic Adjustment, Severity Of Mental Health Concerns, And Complexity Of Life Concerns, Sonja Lund

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

College student-athletes traditionally experience more stressors than their nonathletic peers due to their dual roles. ADHD causes impairments in executive functioning which can cause additional stress for the college student. The combination of ADHD and student-athlete status may impact academic adjustment, mental health severity, and complexity of college life concerns. Presently, no study has explored how student-athletes with ADHD may compare with nonathletes with ADHD in terms of these elements. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in literature and by analyzing archival data collected from university students across the United States. This study utilized an ex-post …

Big History And Sustainability, Duncan Blake Ross

Master of Arts in Humanities | Master's Theses 1936 - 2022

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical examination of Big History at Dominican and offer some retrospective suggestions for any possible future first year experience programs.

I reflect on Big History texts, critical papers and books as well as my own experiences and interviews with others. My research and reflections suggest that big history pedagogy failed to convey sufficient meaning and purpose to students. The actual value of the big history pedagogy was compromised by confusing and unnecessary elements of the main text. I conclude that big history pedagogy should culminate in sustainability studies. It is there …

A New Approach: Closing The Writing Gap By Using Reliable Assessment To Guide And Evaluate Cross-Curricular Argumentative Writing, Jody Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

Educational standards emphasize cross-curricular literacy and complex skills at the secondary level. These standards align to the heightened priority of argumentative writing across disciplines. With increasingly complex and shifting writing expectations, assessment practices need to be implemented to mirror these expectations. Two primary components to effective assessment are the ability to inform teaching and improve student learning. This study is designed to test the reliability of a process-oriented rubric as a tool to evaluate argumentative writing in the cross-curricular context, and as a tool to guide classroom practices based on student readiness.

The purpose of this study is to observe …

Examining Changes In College Counseling Clients’ Symptomology And Severity Over An Eight Year Span, Caroline Lee Bertolet

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The current college counseling literature has conflicting findings regarding the extent to which the severity of mental health symptoms has increased for college students. Some researchers claim that over time student’s mental health symptoms have become more complex rather than more severe. This study examined archival data to analyze both the severity and complexity of symptoms in an eight year time span. The study also examined how disruptiveness and treatment demand have changed over the eight year period. The data were analyzed using multiple regression. The results of the study supported perspectives found in the current literature indicating little increase …

Education In The Age Of Complexity: Building Systems Literacy, Caitlin S. Steele

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In the 21st century, transdisciplinary approaches to research and problem solving rooted in complexity theory and complex systems methodologies offer hope for understanding and solving previously intractable problems. However, in the face of daunting modern challenges like a broken health care system, growing social and economic inequity, and climate change, the knowledge and skills required to understand and ultimately solve problems across interdependent complex systems are distinctly lacking in our collective practice.

The underlying premise of this study is that if modern society is to deal effectively with interconnected challenges across ecological, social, political, and economic systems, our education system …

Insights From Complexity: A Study Of The Implementation Of A District-Wide Literacy Initiative Through The Lens Of Complex Systems Theory, Mary Kathryn Hudson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complexity Theory provides unique insights into the implementation and operations of a district literacy initiative. The successful and unsuccessful structures of the literacy initiative are examined through a complexity lens in order to gain insight into the relationships between elements of a complex system and its processes operating within a “top-down” educational directive and the resulting “bottom-up” resistance. This qualitative study uses a phenomenological approach to advance complex systems theory. This allows a multi-dimensional exploration of the fundamental attributes of the district initiative, its processes and the relationships within those processes. The literacy initiative in a large urban school district …

A Computational Model Of Memetic Evolution: Optimizing Collective Intelligence, Noah Welsh

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to create an adaptive agent based simulation modeling the processes of creative collaboration. This model aided in the development of a new evolutionary based framework through which education scholars, academics, and professionals in all disciplines and industries can work to optimize their collective ability to find creative solutions to complex problems. The basic premise follows that the process of idea exchange, parallels the role sexual reproduction in biological evolution and is essential to society's collective ability to solve complex problems. The study outlined a set of assumptions used to develop a new theory of …

Complexity Of Affective Disposition And Reflective Transphenomenality: An Exploratory Study Of Middle School Mathematics Teacher And Student Self-Positioning And Positioning-By-Others Toward Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching, And Learning, Ruby Lorilee Lynch-Arroyo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the mixed methods study was to examine the phenomenon of transphenomenal simultaneity between teacher and student disposition that contributed to the phenomenological conflict of teacher self-positioning and positioning-by-others toward mathematics, mathematics teaching and learning. The intent was to provide a view of self-reported and observed middle school teacher and student experiences in mathematics, based on the analysis of affective dispositional characteristics within the context of its complexity.

There is evidence that documents a relationship between teacher and student disposition, but to what extent and encompassing what characteristics and factors has not been sufficiently substantiated. Beyers (2011) identified …

Complex Organizations: A Cultural Analysis Of A Christian College, Daniel Bennett

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the emergent dynamics that shape the organizational culture of a faith-based college incorporating a comprehensive network approach. The study adapted Martin's (2002) Three Perspective Theory of Culture utilizing the Dynamic Network Analysis methodology. To understand the cultural manifestations of the organization, several networks of beliefs and agent interactions were examined.
The results demonstrated that religious values are deeply embedded in the institution and there is a rich diversity of beliefs within the institution and its subcultures. The role of resources was examined, and financial resources emerged as a crucial element that stresses …

A Dynamic Network Analysis Of Vision In Complex Organizations, Jon Christiansen

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to model the role of vision in a complex organization and the roles that agents, tasks, knowledge, roles, resources and beliefs play. For this purpose, an investigation into the current structure of this model is conducted. Additionally, this study sought to develop a better understanding of how agent's individual vision and beliefs about the organizational vision can be influenced over time. This purpose sought to identify the evolution of vision, therefore, required a method that simulates how these entities change over time. Dynamic Network Analysis was utilized to capture an understanding of the existing …

Ethical Leadership In Higher Education: Evolution Of Institutional Ethics Logic, William Hanson

All Dissertations

In higher education, we face a decade in which institutional integrity and legitimacy is under fire. In the words of Charles Dickens, this is certainly 'the worst of times' both economically and ethically for our nation, as well as for our colleges and universities. While members of higher education call for student academic ethics reform, ethical infractions by institutional leaders and faculty permeate professional literature and news--student loan scandals, charges of plagiarism, and falsified research, are but a few. This study begins with the premise that perhaps our efforts toward reform should focus on a better holistic understanding of system …