Education Commons^™

Job Satisfaction Of Adjunct Faculty Who Teach Standardized Online Courses, Claudia A. Ruiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the job satisfaction of 205 adjunct faculty teaching standardized online courses at a private university in the United States. The extent of the relationship between demographic, motivator, and hygiene factors associated with adjunct faculty job satisfaction were identified. Results from this study indicate that adjunct faculty value work recognition, technical and instructional technology support, and take pride in their teaching. Important faculty satisfaction predictors based on analyses of hierarchical regression models were motivator factors recognition, achievement, and work itself, and hygiene factors policy and administration and salary.

Perspective From Two Professions: Two Professionals Making Meaning Of The Clinical Educator Role, Tara Payor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how professional educators make sense of their role in helping novice practitioners make meaning from authentic clinical practice. Simultaneously studying a clinical educator from teacher and graduate medical education, and subsequently setting their stories side by side, speaks to the interest both professions have in learning from the other. Both clinical educators were Board certified in their respective area of practice. In-depth phenomenological interviewing was used as the study’s methodology, and the professional formation construct served as the study’s conceptual framework. Data corroborate findings in the literature that there is a …

Relationships Between The Algebraic Performance Of Students In Subject-Specific And Integrated Course Pathways, Derrick Saddler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the algebraic performance gains of high school students who enroll in an integrated mathematics course pathway (i.e., Integrated Mathematics I-II-III) to the algebraic performance gains of high school students who enroll in a subject-specific course pathway (i.e., Algebra I-Geometry-Algebra II). Several studies have been performed in which researchers examined relationships between mathematics outcomes and the course-taking patterns of high school students enrolled in subject-specific course pathways. However, there is little extant research in which researchers have investigated effects of content organization on students' learning and achievement. Therefore, this study addresses calls for …

The Effects Of Blog-Supported Collaborative Writing On Writing Performance, Writing Anxiety And Perceptions Of Efl College Students In Taiwan, Hui-Ju Wu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Compared with first language (L1) writing, writing in a second or foreign language (L2) is considered to be more challenging and difficult. The challenges and difficulties may result from both the cognitive and the affective aspects of writing. To mitigate the difficulties of L2 writing and help students master L2 writing, teachers could consider using the pedagogical strategies which can help enhance students' cognition in writing or students' writing performance, and also can help reduce students' fear of L2 writing. One of the pedagogical strategies is online collaborative writing supported by CMC. Collaborative learning helps enhance students' cognitive outcomes, such …

Effect Of Interactive Digital Homework With An Ibook On Sixth Grade Students' Mathematics Achievement And Attitudes When Learning Fractions, Decimals, And Percents, Jennifer Zakrzewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, technology has become a prominent feature in our lives. Technology has not only been integrated into our lives, but into the classroom as well. Teachers have been provided with a tremendous amount of technology related tools to educate their students. However, many of these technologically enhanced tools have little to no research supporting their claims to enhance learning.

This study focuses on one aspect of technology, the iBook, to complete homework relating to fractions, decimals, and percents in a sixth grade classroom. An iBook is a digital textbook that allows the user to interact with the …

Examining Experiences Of Early Intervention Providers Serving Culturally Diverse Families: A Multiple Case Study Analysis, Wendy Lea Bradshaw

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The cultural and linguistic diversity of the United States is growing rapidly and early intervention service providers are very likely to work with families whose cultures differ from their own. Service providers must consider the multiple cultural factors of families which contribute to family dynamics and the potential for miscommunication is high when the cultural frameworks of early intervention providers differ from those of the families they serve. Culturally responsive practices have been put forth in the theoretical literature as a way to increase successful communication and service provision but there is limited research investigating the beliefs, experiences, and practices …

Precalculus Students' Achievement When Learning Functions: Influences Of Opportunity To Learn And Technology From A University Of Chicago School Mathematics Project Study, Laura A. Hauser

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concept of function is one of the essential topics in the teaching and learning of secondary mathematics because of the central and unifying role it plays within secondary and college level mathematics. Organizations, such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, suggest students should be able to make connections across multiple representations of mathematical functions by the time they complete high school. Despite the prominent role functions play in secondary mathematics curriculum, students continue to struggle with the complex notion of functions and especially have difficulty using the different representations that are inherent to functions (algebraic, graphical and …

A Conceptual Analysis Of Perspective Taking In Support Of Socioscientific Reasoning, Sami Kahn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scientific literacy is concerned with the informed citizens' ability to negotiate scientifically-related societal issues. The suite of skills necessary to negotiate these complex issues is referred to as Socioscientific Reasoning (SSR). SSR requires, among other things, perspective-taking abilities in order to consider the multi-faceted nature of these open-ended, debatable socioscientific issues (SSI). Developing interventions and instruments to foster and measure perspective taking in support of SSR is therefore critical to the promotion of functional scientific literacy through both research and practice. Although widely studied in many disciplines, perspective taking is a particularly tangled construct that has been used to describe …

"I Want To Be The Sun": Tableau As An Embodied Representation Of Main Ideas In Science Information Texts, Margaret Branscombe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study I investigated the process drama convention of tableau to mediate for the representation of main ideas in science information texts. My pedagogical goal was to focus on the body as a tool for engaging with information texts and my rationale for this goal was the belief that the body is neglected in classroom learning. The task of creating caused the students to be active and to think of their own and other bodies as signifiers of meaning.

The methodology was based on a formative experiment that allowed for changes and modifications to be made in response to …

Facilitating Motivation In A Virtual World Within A Second Language Acquisition Classroom, Andrew Warren Gump

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Stories Of Care In The Virtual Classroom: An Autoethnographic Narrative Inquiry, Brooke Boback Eisenbach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since their inception in 2006, K-12 virtual classrooms have spread across the nation, reaching millions of students every day. Despite the technological changes in today's society, adolescents who lack key personal characteristics may struggle to successfully complete online coursework. A caring teacher-student relationship may assist today's virtual learners in ways that enhance motivation, learning, and online education success. Although a veteran teacher of nine years, in this autoethnographic narrative inquiry, I shared my experience as a novice, English I virtual teacher as I strived to enact relational with my virtual education students.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy As A Treatment For Adhd In Early Childhood: A Multiple Baseline Single-Case Design, Kendall Jeffries Deloatche

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of PCIT as an alternative to medication in managing symptoms and behavior problems of preschool-aged children with ADHD. Using a multiple baseline single-case design, the study measured the impact of PCIT on four preschool-aged children's problem behaviors and ADHD symptoms, parenting practices, and mothers' attitudes towards therapy. Outcome measures included the Child Behavior Checklist, Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, Behavior Assessment System for Children, ADHD Symptom Observation form, Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System, Parenting Practices Interview, and Therapy Attitude Inventory. Results from visual analyses, a visual permutation test, and hierarchical linear …

What You Know Counts: Why We Should Elicit Prior Probabilities From Experts To Improve Quantitative Analysis With Qualitative Knowledge In Special Education Science, Tyler Aaron Hicks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Qualitative knowledge is about types of things, and their excellences. There are many ways we humans produce qualitative knowledge about the world, and much of it is derived from non-quantitative sources (e.g., narratives, clinical experiences, intuitions). The purpose of my dissertation was to investigate the possibility of using Bayesian inferences to improve quantitative analysis in special education research with qualitative knowledge.

It is impossible, however, to fully disentangle philosophy of inquiry, methodology, and methods. My evaluation of Bayesian estimators, thus, addresses each of these areas. Chapter Two offers a philosophical argument to substantiate the thesis that Bayesian inference is usually …

Parental Deportation And Cape Verdean Youth Experiences: A Case Study, Leila Rosa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The consistent academic underperformance of students from diverse backgrounds is a national concern and the subject of study by numerous researchers. Some scholars suggest this underperformance indicates teacher lack of preparation to address the needs of a highly diverse student population (Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Ford, 2008; Darling-Hamond, 2004). Central to the overall efforts for improving achievement outcomes should be a focus on the educational experiences of the segment of population that is underperforming, namely students of color, from diverse cultural and linguistic background. Policies of immigration are particularly relevant for the students who are immigrants to the United States …

Development Of The Self-Advocacy Measure For Youth: Initial Validation Study With Caregivers Of Elementary Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Carolyn D. Adams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-advocacy for persons with disabilities involves demonstrating knowledge of oneself and knowledge of rights afforded to individuals with disabilities through one's communication with others and leadership skills. These self-advocacy skills are significantly associated with positive outcomes after high school for students with a range of disabilities. However, knowledge of elementary students' self-advocacy skills is limited. One reason for this lack of evidence is that a psychometrically sound instrument designed to measure the cumulative skills within the self-advocacy construct did not exist. The purpose of the current study was to create a measure of self-advocacy skills that can be used with …

Stress And Coping In High School Students In Accelerated Academic Curricula: Developmental Trends And Relationships With Student Success, Brittany V. Hearon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High school students in accelerated academic curricula including Advanced Placement (AP) courses and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs are faced with unique challenges associated with their rigorous academic demands, in addition to normative adolescent stressors. Because of the increasing popularity of AP and IB among high-achieving youth and benefits realized by students who successfully manage such curricula, there remains a need to better understand the experiences of stress and coping among this population. The current study used longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons to (a) investigate the degree to which students in accelerated curricula experience environmental stressors and employ coping strategies to manage …

Comparison Of Powerlifting Performance In Trained Males Using Traditional And Flexible Dailyundulating Periodization, Ryan James Colquhoun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Daily undulating periodization is a growing trend in the exercise science literature. Flexible daily undulating periodization allows for athletes to have some autonomy within a periodized training cycle and is a relatively new and unstudied concept. The comparison of a flexible and traditional daily undulating periodization program using trained males has not been examined in the literature. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of Flexible and Traditional Daily Undulating Periodization models on powerlifting performance in trained males.

25 resistance-trained males (23±6 years; 79±22 kg) completed a 9-week resistance-training program and were randomly assigned to one of …

A Case Study Of Teachers' In Professional Learning Communities In A Campus Preschool, Victoria Jacqueline Damjanovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-case study was to describe and explain teacher learning within school contexts by exploring the nature of teachers' experiences in learning communities. This study explored the ways in which teachers participated in professional development sessions using the project approach as a framework for facilitating and engaging in professional learning communities by answering: What is the nature of teachers' experiences in inquiry-based professional learning communities? In what ways and under what conditions does documentation play a role in teacher learning? For data collection I used semi-structured interviews, audio recordings of professional development sessions, teacher documentation, teacher daily …

Relationships Between Perceived Parenting Behaviors And Academic Achievement Among High School Students In International Baccalaureate (Ib) Programs: A Comparison Of Asian American And White Students, Wenjun Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parenting style as a predictor of students' academic achievement is gaining increased interest by parents, educators, and psychologists. Current literature suggests that a combination of three parenting dimensions (i.e., responsiveness, supervision, and autonomy granting) is relevant to characterizing one's parenting style into four types (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful), and each dimension of parenting behavior has a different effect on students' academic performance. Based on the different cultural backgrounds and the methods parents use to educate their children at home, some literature suggests that the school performance of some Asian American students could benefit from different parenting behaviors as …

Learning Preferences Of Commercial Fishermen, Robert W. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study surveyed 435 commercial fishermen across eight coastal regions of the United States where commercial fishing takes place. The regions of the study included: Northeast Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Southern Pacific, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. Participants were asked to complete the Commercial Fishing Worker Survey (CFWS), which is a survey instrument consisting of an approved, adapted version of the Index of Learning Styles instrument (ILS) combined with a demographic section which included questions designed to obtain data regarding the four variables of the study: age, education level, captain's license status, and method of fishing. …

An Analysis Of The Reported And Unreported Baccalaureate Degree Recipients In Ipeds At A Large Public Research Institution, Mary Elizabeth Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the challenges facing higher education today is to graduate undergraduate students in a timely manner. Graduation rates are reported to students, parents, and the general public as well as academic and political leaders. The rates are derived using different methodologies. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects data annually by law from every institution offering federal financial aid in the United States. The "IPEDS reported" students are considered students who start in the fall semester, full-time, first-time in college, and graduate from the original institution (no transfers). The adult, part-time, returning, and transfer students, or "IPEDS unreported" …

The Relationship Of Pre-Enrollment Timespans To Persistence And Time-To-Degree Of Transfer Students At A Four-Year, Metropolitan University, Michelle Denise Bombaugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study investigated the relationship to the pre-enrollment factors of admissions-to-enrollment and orientation-to-enrollment timespans to transfer student success as measured by persistence and the length of time taken to earn a baccalaureate degree. This quantitative study analyzed secondary data (N = 357) from a large, four-year, public research institution in the southeast United States. A logistic regression analysis was used to explore the relationships between the pre-enrollment timespans and persistence. The relationship between the admissions-to-enrollment timespan and persistence was not statistically significant. The orientation-to-enrollment timespan was found to have a statistically significant relationship to persistence (p < .05). This indicated that students who had increased orientation-to-enrollment timespans were more likely to persist. To further explore this relationship, a multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to control for possible extraneous demographic, pre-enrollment, and enrollment variables. The relationship of orientation-to-enrollment timespan and persistence continued to be statistically significant. An ordered logistic technique was used to explore the relationship between the admissions- and orientation-to-enrollment timespans and time-to-degree completion. Neither timespan was found to have a significant relationship with time elapsed to complete the degree. Implications for admissions and orientation timespans were discussed in relation to transfer student transitions.

Consequences Of Non-Modeled And Modeled Between Case Variation In The Level-1 Error Structure In Multilevel Models For Single-Case Data: A Monte Carlo Study, Eun Kyeng Baek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Multilevel modeling (MLM) approach has a great flexibility in that can handle various methodological issues that may arise with single-case studies, such as the need to model possible dependency in the errors, linear or nonlinear trends, and count outcomes (e.g.,Van den Noortgate & Onghena, 2003a). By using the MLM framework, researchers can not only model dependency in the errors but also model a variety of level-1error structures.

The effect of misspecification in the level-1 error structure has been well studied for MLM analyses. Generally, it was found that the estimates of the fixed effects were unbiased but the estimates …

Development Of The Professional School Social Work Survey: A Valid And Reliable Tool For Assessment And Planning, Catherine E. Randall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School social workers are currently in a unique position to support and lead schools through the change process initiated by districts' adoption of a Response to Intervention model. This dissertation describes an exploratory study to develop and pilot-test a self-administered survey for use by school social workers for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of school social work practice. The survey was developed using DeVellis' 8-step process for survey design. The survey consisted of four subscales theorized to measure school social worker effectiveness as determined by a review of current literature in the field: Response to Intervention, Evidence-Based Practice, School …

Reading In The Digital Era: Using Video Self-Modeling To Improve Reading Fluency In At-Risk Students, Monica Anestin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reading fluency bridges the concepts of word recognition and reading comprehension, both of which are vital skills needed to become a successful reader. This study evaluated the impact of video self-modeling (VSM) on oral reading fluency in four upper elementary students at-risk for failing in reading. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the outcomes of the VSM intervention. The results indicate that VSM may have a positive impact on reading fluency of students at-risk for reading failure; the use of VSM was positively associated with increases in reading fluency in three of the four participants. The participant …

Altering Tian: Spirituality In Early Confucianism, Jacob Thomas Atkinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to analyze the three earliest Confucian thinkers and the foundational texts associated with them. In studying these texts this paper attempts to discover how these early Confucian thinkers conceived of Tian. This paper claims the early Confucian thinkers did not make as radical of a departure from the Ancient Chinese religiosity as many modern scholars have suggested. It has often been asserted that the tradition presented by these Confucian thinkers was entirely humanistic, altogether separate from the Ancient Chinese religiosityThis paper contests such claims,instead insisting that the early Confucian spirituality still viewed Tian as God and that …

An Evaluation Of An Electronic Student Response System In Improving Class-Wide Behavior, Ashley Horne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A student response system is a technology that allows an entire classroom of students to respond to questions and receive immediate feedback from teachers during instruction. However, little research has examined the use of student response systems to support student behavior in elementary schools. This study focused on using an electronic student response system to improve class-wide behavior in two general elementary school classrooms. An ABAB and ABA reversal designs embedded within a multiple baseline design across classrooms was employed to evaluate the outcome of the intervention. Although limited, the results indicated that the classroom teachers implemented the electronic student …

Facilitating A Transdisciplinary Approach In Teacher Education Through Multimodal Literacy And Cognitive Neuroscience, Margaret Billings Krause

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of research and theoretical papers based on the affordances of multimodal literacies for marginalized learners and for pre-service teachers’ developing conceptualizations of literacy. Through a transdisciplinary lens, the author considers complex issues presented in traditional, print-based learning environments that potentially marginalize learners in their developing abilities to become successful participants in the multiple literacies in the real world.

Three studies focus on pre-service teachers and their developing understanding of effective literacy-related classroom practices. Chapter Three explores potential affordances of a multimodal learning environment for pre-service teachers with self-identified reading difficulties. The phenomenological study highlights differing …

Help! I Have To Teach Math: The Nature Of A Preservice Teacher's Experiences Enacting Mathematics Instruction In A Final Internship, Lori Rakes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to better understand the nature of the experiences of a preservice teacher, self-identified as having mathematics anxiety as she planned and implemented instruction during her internship by answering: What is the nature of the experiences of a preservice teacher, self-identified as having mathematics anxiety, as she planned for mathematics instruction during her final internship? What is the nature of the experiences of a preservice teacher, self-identified as having mathematics anxiety, as she implemented mathematics instruction during her final internship? Using an interpretivist approach to a case study inquiry, I used semi-structured interviews, observations, …

Student-Teacher Interaction Through Online Reflective Journals In A High School Science Classroom: What Have We Learned?, Megan Elizabeth Ehlers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Three challenges in current secondary school science classrooms are (a) meaningful integration of technology, (b) integration of reading and writing in content courses, and (c) differentiation of instruction to meet individual student needs in courses. This is an exploratory study of an urban, high school marine science course in which a teacher added communication with her students via asynchronous online journals. This intervention was intended to enable the teacher to understand how students were constructing knowledge and their understanding of marine science topics. Data included journal postings from all students and the teacher throughout the semester, as well as the …