Digital Commons Network^™

How Does An Advanced Educator Utilize Digital Language Teaching And Learning By Integrating Linguistic, Cultural, And Business Life Perspectives?, Hely Westerholm, Pirjo Takanen-Körperich, Ph.D.

International Journal for Business Education

This paper explores advanced educators’ digital working capabilities in online language teaching, with a particular focus on sharing Finnish language and culture in a foreign context. Cultural and linguistic knowledge play a significant role in enhancing students’ motivation to study foreign languages. In today’s educational environment, digitalisation and globalisation exert an increasing influence on foreign language teaching and learning.

The digital learning environment has brought about a paradigm shift in foreign language didactics. Digital language learning is both challenging and holistic in nature. Continued foreign language learning is simultaneously an individual and a social process, as digital learning cultures impose …

How Grades Changed Before, During And After Covid-19 In A Business College, Douglas R. Moodie, Alison Keefe, Robin Cheramie

International Journal for Business Education

Purpose: This study examines how undergraduate business student grades changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic using a large institutional dataset from a business college in a US university between 2015 and 2024.

Method: The analysis includes over 390,000 student-course observations and incorporates instructional modality, student demographics, course characteristics, and prior academic performance.

Results: Results show a substantial increase in mean course grades during the COVID-19 period, followed by a partial reversion post-pandemic to levels that remain above pre-pandemic trends. These patterns are consistent across modalities, demographics, and departments.

Implications: The findings raise important questions regarding the interpretation of …

A Chorus Of Voices: Student And Teacher Shared Dialogical Experiences And Insights, Jennifer Anne Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

Dialogue is inherently tied to learning, but as a secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom teacher it can be difficult to facilitate classroom dialogue that provides authentic learning opportunities for every student. I wanted to learn more about the student experience, so I implemented an action research study to increase my understanding of how students learn through dialogue. My research question was: How does collaborative languaging, to facilitate student-teacher interaction, lead to improved classroom mediation, authentic learning, dialogue, and development? I conducted transformative action research in my classroom, focusing on students enrolled in my general English 10 classes. In an …

The Effects Of Social Impact Mentoring On Women Seeking Employment, Adriano Santos Carneiro

Theses and Dissertations

Women seeking employment often face barriers such as limited professional networks, reduced access to career guidance, and lack of consistent support during the job-search process. This study examined the effects of a social impact mentoring program that connected women seeking employment with women professionals who served as mentors. Participants included 11 mentees who were seeking employment opportunities and 11 mentors who were employed or recently employed in professional roles. Using a mixed-methods pre-post design, the study collected quantitative survey data and open-ended responses before and after four virtual mentoring sessions. Mentee measures focused on confidence in securing employment and readiness …

Comparable Outcomes, Divergent Learning Pathways: Comparing Metacognitive Reflection And Practice Problems In Organic Chemistry, Jitendra D. Belani

College of Life Sciences Faculty Papers

Organic Chemistry I presents significant challenges for students, requiring both conceptual understanding and effective study strategies. Two commonly used approaches to support learning are structured practice problems and metacognitive reflection activities; however, these strategies are rarely compared directly within the same course context. In this study, students enrolled in a postbaccalaureate Organic Chemistry I course (n = 31) were randomly assigned to one of two low-stakes interventions: weekly practice problem sets or structured reflection surveys focused on study strategies. Student performance was evaluated using three midterm examinations, a cumulative final exam, and overall course grades, along with measures of participation. …

The Primary Care Brief Intervention Competency Assessment Tool (Bi-Cat): Examining Reliability And Validity, Arielle Guillod

Dissertations

Within primary care, the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model integrates behavioral health services into medical settings through brief, population‑based interventions delivered by behavioral health consultants (BHCs). Although effective performance in this role requires competencies distinct from traditional mental health practice, few psychometrically sound tools exist to assess clinical skills in primary care. The Brief Intervention Competency Assessment Tool (BICAT) is commonly used for this purpose but lacks published evidence supporting its reliability and validity. This dissertation examined the psychometric properties of the BICAT across two studies. Study 1 evaluated factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity in a heterogeneous …

Beyond Static Measures: The Predictive Validity And Classification Accuracy Of A Dynamic Assessment Of Decoding For Early Elementary, Bridgett Bakula

Theses and Dissertations

Early and accurate identification of children at risk for reading difficulty is essential to prevent long-term academic failure, yet traditional static assessments often struggle to distinguish between a true reading disorder and a lack of prior instruction. This is particularly evident in the early grades, where floor effects and cultural/linguistic biases limit the classification accuracy of traditional screeners. This study investigated the predictive validity and structural utility of the modifiability index of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding, administered in kindergarten. Unlike static measures that evaluate "already actualized" knowledge, DA measures a student's learning potential and modifiability, or the capacity …

Promises Fulfilled: 114-Year-Old Alelia Murphy’S Life Of Faith And Resilience, Jacqueline B. Koonce

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Alelia Murphy was the oldest living person in the United States, turning 114 in July 2019 until her death in November 2019. She and her family credit her longevity to her faith in God. This premise is explored through her words as she stated she had not seen everyone she needed to see and compared that statement to Simeon from the Bible who did not die until he saw the Messiah. Alelia Murphy also had not seen everything. She was seeing the relative success of her much admired, former President Barack Obama, and she had just met me, her great …

Our Children Are Sacred: Faith, Disability Justice, And Educational Hope, Charles E. Becknell Jr., Pricella Morris, Monique Matute-Chavarria, Deirdre A. Williams

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

This manuscript examines how Black families interpret dis/ability through faith, caregiving, and communal life using Sacred Narrative Inquiry (SNI), a collaborative approach that treats family stories as sources of sacred and cultural knowledge. Grounded in disability theology and informed by Black liberation theology and Womanist epistemology, the study explores how families understand dis/ability as sacred and embodied, shaped by struggle, endurance, and hope. Through shared storytelling and collective interpretation, the analysis identifies recurring patterns of early moral formation, embodied knowledge that precedes institutional recognition, faith as a sustaining practice under constraint, and moments of recognition that affirm dignity and interrupt …

Teaching As Testimony: Examining The Relationship Between High School Teachers’ Faith Identity And Pedagogy, Candace M. Kyles

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Teaching has long been understood within Christian theology as a vocational practice shaped by faith, moral formation, and lived discipleship. Yet within U.S. public schooling, the Separation of Church and State restricts explicit engagement with religion, often rendering educators’ faith identities invisible within school buildings and classrooms. This covertness does not eliminate the formative influence of faith; rather, it obscures how teachers’ faith identities inform their ethical reasoning, teaching practices, and pedagogical choices. When faith remains unexamined, it may operate implicitly, shaping classroom interactions without the benefit of critical reflection or institutional support.

Despite the prominence of culturally responsive pedagogy …

What Works For Dyslexia Training? A Comparative Study Of Three Professional Development Approaches For Elementary General Education Teachers, Kayla Steltenkamp

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Teachers are the foundational component of the educational system, yet many enter the classroom without adequate knowledge of dyslexia -- a specific learning disability affecting up to 17.5% of the student population. Despite growing legislative mandates requiring teacher training on dyslexia, recent research confirms that misconceptions and knowledge gaps persist among both preservice and inservice teachers, and the question of which professional development models most effectively address those gaps remains largely unanswered. This study compared three two-hour professional development approaches -- simulation only, lecture only, and a mixed-method combining both -- using a quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test design with 58 elementary general …

Application Of Assistive Technologies And Rendering Assistive Services To Students With Special Needs By Federal University Libraries: A Survey, Emmanuel Chidiadi Onwubiko

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The world as of today, is being said to be witnessing what one may tagged a technological revolution as never before and is transforming for the better, the future of global education in which case, every learner is considered. These newly created technological tools and plans did place librarians as information managers and digital literacy drivers in better position to come up with environments that are inclusive for all learners to achieve their desired goals. The study therefore is a survey on the application of assistive technologies and rendering assistive services to students with special needs by federal universities libraries …

When Even A Struggling Missionary Becomes The Hero, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

Guiding a struggling missionary back toward wellbeing—through one-on-one counseling and similar interventions—is demanding work that requires significant time and effort. I can only imagine how much of a mission president's already limited time is consumed by this kind of support, making it that much harder to fulfill the broader responsibility of leading an entire mission.

Yet this kind of one-on-one intervention has a drawback that is easy to overlook: it tends to keep the missionary receiving support permanently cast in the role of "the one being helped." As a result, the strength that already lies within that missionary often goes …

Fred Luthans, Unl Business Management, Positive Organizational Behavior, Mark Griep, Fred Luthans

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Fred Luthans was awarded the ORCA in 2008. He was born in Clinton, Iowa in 1939. He earned three degrees from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, located only a few miles from Clinton. His bachelor's was in mathematics in 1961, a Master’s of Business Administration in ‘62, PhD in Management and Psychology in 1965. After serving two years as a captain in the Army at West Point, where he taught psychology and leadership, he joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an Associate Professor of Management. He's had a remarkable career, but I'll only mention three major distinctions. His …

Language Learner To Author: Ai-Assisted Children's Book And Theme Song Creation For Community Outreach, Hea Young Chun

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will use AI tools to create original children's storybooks, complete with accompanying theme songs, and subsequently present their finished works to students at local schools.

What I Brought With Me: Bilingualism, Resistance, And Identity In U.S. Doctoral Education, Xiao Hu

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

In U.S. higher education, the bilingualism of international doctoral students is often reduced to a measure of English deficiency rather than recognized as a linguistic and cultural resource. Drawing on Anzaldúa's borderlands theory, this autoethnographic study examines the lived experiences of a female Chinese international doctoral student negotiating bilingual identity in U.S. academia. Using personal journals, written correspondence, field notes, and memories of significant encounters as data, this inquiry explores three dimensions of experience: the ways bilingual identity is misread or appropriated in academic spaces; the relationships that offered recognition and belonging; and the cultural and pedagogical knowledge that bilingualism …

Multidimensional And Burgeoning Leadership: Literacy And Multilingualism, Emily Howell, Hazel Vega, Lindsey W. Rowe, Katie M. Crook, C.C. Bates, Kavita Mittapalli, Amlan Banerjee

Publications

This design-based research study worked with 25 teachers with specialized early literacy training. Researchers investigated the impact of professional development advancing their multilingual learner (ML), literacy, and leadership capacity, addressing gaps in the research merging the fields of literacy, multilingual instruction, and leadership. Spanning two years of both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis including teacher, student, and district surveys, teacher logs, research logs, and teacher interviews, the researchers capture the iterative nature of the needs of teacher professional development to serve MLs. The researchers describe the needs of teachers for professional development, the micro modifications made to adapt …

General Education Primary Teachers’ Perspectives Of Inclusive Practices To Engage Students With Special Educational Needs, Zhen Rolle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed through this study was that general education primary teachers (GEPTs) struggled to engage students with special educational needs (SEN) in Bahamian primary inclusive classrooms (BPICs). The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate GEPTs’ perspectives on their successes, challenges, and additional training needed to engage students with SEN in BPICs. This study was guided by universal design for learning, pioneered by Rose and Meyer, which supported an inclusive academic environment that accommodated students with SEN. For this basic qualitative design, data were collected from semistructured interviews with 10 GEPTs. Through thematic analysis, the following five themes …

Assessing Digital Collaborative Skills Among Pre-Service Elementary Teachers: Initial Instrument Evidence And Demographic Differences, Candra Utama, Aynin Mashfufah, Esti Untari, Sofia Haratee

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

Digital collaboration skills are an important competence for prospective elementary school teachers as 21^st-century learning demands the ability to use technology to work on a team, to communicate and share responsibilities, and to reflect on the learning process. This study aims to analyze evidence of the instrument initial validity, reliability, collaborative skill profile, and score differences based on the demographic characteristics of pre-service elementary teachers after participating in digital-based collaborative learning. The research uses a post-implementation evaluative quantitative approach sourced from a digital collaborative learning research design in the fourth-semester of elementary school teacher education study program at …

Signal And Substance: Why Methodological Sophistication Fails To Guarantee Inference, Aamir Rashid, Rizwana Rasheed

Publications and Research

Despite increasing analytical sophistication, empirical research in organization studies continues to suffer from fragile inference, uneven theoretical accumulation, and contested credibility. This paper seeks to explain why these problems persist by shifting attention from authors’ methodological choices to the evaluative dynamics of peer review. Adopting a conceptual and theory-analytic approach, the paper theorizes peer review as an inferential gatekeeping system. Drawing on research design, theory evaluation, and philosophy-of-science literatures, this study develops an analytical framework to examine how evaluative routines shape what constitutes empirical rigor during the review process. The analysis identifies five recurring reviewer blind spots: inferential scope inflation, …

Strengthening Your Ai Fluency: Building Community Resilience In An Era Of Climate Change, Suzanne Loui

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Through guided use of two AI platforms, Notebook LM and Gemini, the student will generate, analyze and evaluate ideas for implementing Pre-Disaster Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience in a location of your choice.

Empowering Tomorrow’S Eco-Leaders: The Role Of Student-Led Recycling And Energy Conservation Initiatives In Fostering Environmental Sustainability In Educational Institutions, Angel Christian S. Arisga, Constantino G. Medilo Jr.

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Environmental sustainability is now a growing priority in educational institutions as global environmental challenges continue to intensify. This paper studies the role of student-led recycling and energy conservation initiatives in promoting eco-friendly practices and developing environmental accountability among learners. Drawing on existing literature, the study illustrates how active student participation in waste management programs, recycling campaigns, renewable energy implementation, and energy audits contributes to reduced waste generation, lower energy consumption, and decreased greenhouse gas emissions in school settings. Apart from environmental outcomes, these projects foster essential competencies such as leadership, collaboration, problem-solving, and environmental awareness, positioning students as agents of …

Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice In Schools, Giorgio Ostinelli

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This case study examined how a group of Swiss primary school teachers collaborated with a school improvement advisor/researcher (SIA); it is now part of a larger project that uses a design-based methodology. The SIA is a rising entity in the educational landscape and serves as a state-mandated coach who bridges the gap between universities and schools. The SIA embodies the characteristics of both an educational researcher and a school advisor/coach. The SIA experience was created and designed using a frame–object, a valuable tool for collaboratively building professional development experiences with teachers and coaches. Understanding by Design served as the frame–object …

Learning Values-Based Leadership Through Practice, Jenny Guan

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This essay explores how values-based leadership can be developed through leadership practice in real-world contexts. Drawing on a Servant Leadership book project involving global contributors, it adopts the Values Clarity Model™ as a reflective lens and uses a practice-based approach informed by observation, imitation, and reflection to examine how leadership values are enacted in authentic settings. By analyzing the project in relation to what I learned in the Principles of Business Leadership course at business school, this essay reflects on how leadership values are understood, practiced, and internalized in real-world settings.

This reflection suggests that values-based leadership is not formed …

Applying The Ottawa Charter To Evaluate Health Literacy Outcomes Of The Little Aussie Bugs Course For Australian Early Childhood Educators, Amelia Ruscoe, Elizabeth J. Cook, Eleanor K. O'Brien, Leesa N. Costello, Gillian Kirk, Ros Sambell, Theresa Rayfield, Amanda Devine, Ruth M. Wallace

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Early childhood offers an important opportunity to lay the foundations for lifelong health literacy. The Little Aussie Bugs (LAB) dialogic book series and online professional development (PD) course were designed to support Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators to embed health literacy concepts, including hygiene, healthy eating, and oral health, into everyday learning routines. This mixed methods study evaluated the course pilot and examined its contribution through the lens of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion—a framework comprising five interrelated action areas: building healthy public policy; creating supportive environments; strengthening community action; developing personal skills; and reorienting health services. …

Coupled-Pendulum Modeling In An Ode Class: An Assignment On Fourier-Initialized Gradient Descent In Machine Learning, Huy Truong, Andrew Bennett

CODEE Journal

As data-driven methods are increasingly used in science and engineering, students benefit from learning to integrate machine learning techniques with traditional mathematical modeling. We present a hands-on extra-credit assignment for an undergraduate ordinary differential equations (ODE) course that enables students to compare classical analytical methods with data-driven approaches on the same physical system. Using a coupled-pendulum system---two pendulums connected by a spring---with real experimental data acquired via video tracking of a real physical setup, students work through three models in a guided Jupyter notebook with all code provided. First, they fit a neural network with Fourier features as a purely …

Ai-Resistant And Ai-Resilient Assessment In Higher Education: A Systematic Review Of Validity-Grounded Strategies, Institutional Frameworks, And Equity Implications, Asrat Genet Amnie

Publications and Research

The emergence of large language models has precipitated a fun damental disruption to higher education assessment. Conventional instruments are susceptible to AI-assisted completion, threatening construct validity across disciplines and institutional contexts. When submitted work reflects AI capability rather than student competency, the inferential chain from performance to qualifica tion is invalidated – a problem of design rather than detection. This systematic review makes two contributions. First, it theorises and grounds the distinction between AI-resistant assessment, which seeks to prevent or impede AI access through containment, and AI-resilient assessment, which assesses genuine human cogni tive performance of intrinsic educational value regardless …

A Differential Equation–Based Epidemiological Model Of Post-Operative Chronic Pain In Scoliosis Patients With Data-Driven Analysis, Paige Zhu, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

CODEE Journal

Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a common and often overlooked complication following surgical correction of idiopathic scoliosis, impacting long-term patient wellbeing despite improvements in surgical outcomes. This project introduces a novel epidemiological framework to model the progression of CPSP using a compartmental structure. By applying a coupled system of nonlinear differential equations, we simulate pain trajectories over time and assess the effectiveness of surgical interventions. The model is implemented for a single-cohort population and extended to a two-cohort design to compare outcomes between Posterior Spinal Fusion (PSIF) and Vertebral Body Tethering (VBT) procedures. Further stratification by patient age enables us …

The Role Of The Student-Teacher Relationship In The Behavioral And Academic Outcomes Of Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Samantha Warren

Graduate Teacher Education

For students with or at risk of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD), achieving success in school is challenged by a continuous cycle of behavioral and academic challenges. This literature review examined the role of student-teacher relationships in influencing both behavioral and academic outcomes for this student population. This review synthesized the findings of 15 peer-reviewed, original research studies that utilized qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches to capture behavioral metrics and participant perspectives. The studies highlighted how distinct relational dynamics served as either a primary catalyst or a significant barrier to student improvement through day-to-day classroom interactions. Targeted praise-to-reprimand ratios and …

Ucf Pegasus Plan - Kindergarten - Time, Continuity, And Change, Enrique M. Perez Hernandez, Taya L. Green, Mia J. Derham, Anna V. Ly, Dyana Soto

Pegasus Plans: Social Studies Unit Plans for Florida Teachers

During this Tiny Time Travelers unit, students will explore and compare life from the past to life in the present consistently making real world connections. They will record their understanding of each lesson through a pre-made unit long journal.