Digital Commons Network^™

The Organizational Experience Of Next Gen Learning Through Portrait Of A Graduate, Kathleen J. Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative single-case study investigates the organizational journey of navigating the complexities of systemic transformation. In 2021, Silver Peak School District (SPSD; a pseudonym), a rural educational organization in the western United States, implemented a graduate competency framework known as Portrait of a Graduate. This study analyzed the experiences of teachers, instructional coaches, and principals with the explicit Portrait policies, practices, and resource flows of five learning structures—graduate competencies (in SPSD, this is analogous to Portrait), deeper learning, agency, performance assessment, and teaching culture—in a district in the messy middle of Portrait adoption. By focusing on a district situated in …

Beyond The Best Fit: Fitting Sir-Style Models To Data While Prioritizing Biological Meaning, Meredith L. Greer

CODEE Journal

Many students find comfort in mathematics because math classes have been a place where they can find the “right answer” to exercises. Modeling courses typically emphasize more nuance, teaching students to try modeling approaches, compare back with real-world mechanisms and data, and then refine their models, in an ongoing cycle. One topic, however, can cause students to quickly revert into “right answer” mode: fitting a model to data. Phrases such as best fit and minimize the distance suggest there is one optimal solution that can be determined by an algorithm, and these algorithms typically have no relationship to the biology …

A Case Study Of Principal Preparation In A Social Justice-Informed Principal Preparation Program, Katie Golieb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how a social justice-informed principal preparation program fostered the development of socially just school leaders and how graduates perceived their capacity for resilience as educational leaders in the contemporary PK–12 context. The Mountain Range Principal Preparation Program (MRP3), a university–district partnership designed to prepare educational leaders to be transformative leaders equipped to improve student achievement and address challenges in low-performing schools, served as the site of inquiry. The study explored how principals made meaning of their preparation experiences and how those experiences shaped their enactment of equity-focused leadership and their ability to sustain such work. …

Higher Education Institutions In U.S. Blockchain Innovation Governance Documents, Clarissa Terracciano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain technologies have attracted growing attention as an evolution of digital recordkeeping, prompting interest in higher education governance, credentialing, and data management. Yet, no systematic analysis exists on how U.S. government blockchain documents define institutional roles and governance authority within higher education institutions. As the national blockchain innovation system expands through governance infrastructure, the inclusion of higher education institutions as governing actors is imperative for coherent and equitable deployment. This qualitative study examines what roles the U.S. government blockchain documents assign to higher education institutions within the national blockchain innovation system.

Using innovation systems theory, particularly the triple-helix model of …

Exploring Engineering Technology: A Multi-Year, Multidisciplinary Project-Based Engineering Technology Workshop, Benito Mendoza, Angran Xiao, Muhammad Ummy

Publications and Research

Many students enter engineering technology programs with a limited understanding of disciplinary differences, curricular expectations, and career pathways, contributing to early dissatisfaction and attrition. To address this challenge, we developed Exploring Engineering Technology, a multidisciplinary, project-based workshop that introduces students to Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering Technology through a shared robotic systems project. This paper presents a multi-year design-based educational research (DBER) study documenting the iterative refinement and sustained implementation of the workshop across three consecutive summers (2023–2025) at a large urban public college. Using a consistent post-workshop survey administered across cohorts and aggregate student progression indicators, we examine …

Voice And Choice: Exploring The Role Of Student Agency In High School Math Course Placement, Anne Patia Carpenter Sterry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how students make sense of the mathematics placement process within a high-rigor independent school. In contexts where placement decisions shape access to advanced coursework, students’ interpretations of these decisions may influence both their academic trajectories and their developing mathematical identities. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to understand the experiences of students who enrolled in mathematics courses that differed from placement recommendations, focusing on their motivations for self-selection, their interpretations of feedback from adults and peers, and how these experiences shaped their mathematical identities.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 high school …

Structure-Based Discovery Of Malate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors With Efficacy Against C. Parvum Oocysts, Ankita Bharatbhai Kheni

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Cryptosporidium parvum, the etiological agent of Cryptosporidiosis (diarrheal illness) represents a significant global health burden, particularly affecting immunodeficient and pediatric populations. Since the parasite has a highly reduced mitochondrion and relies on glycolysis, enzymes such as C. parvum malate dehydrogenase (CpMDH), which are believed to be indispensable for parasite viability due to their pivotal roles in NAD⁺ regeneration and redox balance, remain largely unexplored as therapeutic targets. The present study employed a multifaceted experimental and computational strategy to evaluate the inhibitory activity of two lead-like and drug-like small molecules, referred to as compound 1.8 and compound 1.5, against the cofactor …

Students In Motion: How Educators Enact Movement In Elementary Mathematics, Katherine E. Nash

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to examine how elementary mathematics teachers report using physical activity in their instructional practice. The purpose of the study was to develop, provide evidence of validity, and implement a questionnaire to document the types of movement teachers use and when these practices occur in relation to mathematics instruction. In Phase 1, qualitative interviews were conducted with eight elementary mathematics teachers to identify common movement types and inform instrument development. The eight movement types that were identified are non-academic fine-motor, non-academic gross-motor, non-academic music-elicited, non-academic environmental, academic fine-motor, academic gross-motor, academic music-elicited, and …

Evolution Lower Limb Functional Asymmetry In Women's 400 M Hurdles From 1978-2022, Janusz Iskra, Wojciech Paśko, Paweł Gwiazdoń, Magdalena Chanas, Krzysztof Przednowek

Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity

Background: Functional asymmetry of the lower limbs in the technique of clearing 10 hurdles in the 400 m hurdles event was the subject of the study. Materials and methods: This study investigates the patterns of hurdle clearance, distinguishing between left and right lead legs by 196 female hurdlers competing in major championship events (including Olympic Games, World Championships, European Championships) from 1978 to 2022. The hurdlers were categorized into three groups based on competition periods: Group A (1978–2000), Group B (2001–2011), and Group C (2012–2022). The share of the left lead leg (assumed by most authors to be the lead …

Effects Of A Complexity-Based Approach For Treatment Of Be Verbs In Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Single-Case Design, Megan Shawnee Rowe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine whether a complexity-based treatment approach improves the production of BE verb structures in a child with developmental language disorder (DLD). One school-age child with morphosyntactic deficits participated in a single-case AB experimental design. Treatment targeted a complex structure (auxiliary BE questions), and performance was measured using experimental probes, a narrative language sample, and the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI). Results indicate a functional relationship between treatment and increased accuracy of the treated structure, with a medium effect size (τ = .695, p = .019). In addition, the participant demonstrated generalization to …

Chicago Southland Regional Model Pathways, Education Systems Center

Practitioner Toolkits and Resources

These models from Prairie State College and South Suburban College are aligned to the State of Illinois College and Career Pathway Endorsement framework and include dual credit coursework pre-approved by the colleges for inclusion by regional high schools.

Measures Of Linguistic Complexity And Vocabulary Diversity As Indicators Of Oral Language Production Growth Of 4th Grade Spanish-Speaking Els, Carla T. Zayas-Santiago

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As fourth-grade students transition from learning to read to reading to learn, their ability to use language for academic purposes becomes increasingly important, particularly for Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs). However, students often have limited opportunities to produce extended oral language during instruction. Students’ oral language production reflects both structural aspects of language use, captured through measures of linguistic complexity, and lexical aspects of language use, captured through measures of vocabulary diversity. Although prior studies have examined transcript-derived measures of oral language production, limited research has examined how these measures predict English proficiency, capture growth over time, and respond to different …

Understanding Dysgraphia: Teaching Students With Dysgraphia, Elizabeth Klein Ms.

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

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In today’s inclusive classrooms, the ability to develop skilled, confident writers is a core competency for every educator. However, while reading disabilities …

Transformative Practices: The Multiple Impacts Of The Mat Program At Al-Quds Bard College, Daniel Terris, Derek Furr

GHEA21 Open Educational Resources

This paper summarizes research on the impact of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Al-Quds Bard College, which since 2009 has trained more than 600 Palestinian K-12 teachers working across the West Bank and reaching over 120,000 students, many in disadvantaged communities. Supported in part by the Education Above All foundation, the program combines educational theory, discipline-based knowledge, classroom research, and reflective practice, requiring in-service teachers to experiment with new teaching approaches in their own classrooms. Multiple studies reviewed in the paper show that MAT graduates adopt more student-centered pedagogies—such as backward design, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative …

Parent Cultural Wealth: How Beliefs, Curriculum Familiarity, And Community Awareness Facilitate Home-Based Cs Conversations, Nicol Howard, Leiny Y. Garcia, Jean Ryoo, Julie Flapan, Michelle Choi, Paula Nazario, Wei Wei

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Parents are critical influences on children's computer science (CS) pathways, yet families’ involvement remains understudied. Guided by parental involvement and community cultural wealth frameworks, this work-in-progress examined survey data from 53 parents representing families historically underrepresented in computing within California (71% women; 54% Hispanic/Latin/x/e). Findings revealed that CS school curriculum familiarity and awareness of CS community events significantly predicted parent-child CS conversations, while parent CS confidence and attitudes did not, suggesting that curriculum transparency and community connections can promote equitable involvement. Future work will integrate qualitative interviews to examine how families draw upon their cultural wealth.

The Three Sisters And Soil Health (Lesson 1), Mara Johnson, Madhav P. Nepal, Jiyul Chang

iLEARN Teaching Resources

In this lesson, students will begin a week-long unit on soil health that is connected to the chapter The Three Sisters from the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Students will begin the week by reading the chapter and answering discussion questions, and each subsequent day will build on this introduction with project-based learning activities. This module is designed to bridge traditional Indigenous knowledge with primary scientific inquiry, allowing students to explore soil nutrients, polycultures, and agricultural health in a way they can apply to their own lives and local food sovereignty efforts on the Rosebud Reservation.

Soil Nutrients And Composting (Lesson 3), Mara Johnson, Jiyul Chang, Madhav P. Nepal

iLEARN Teaching Resources

In this lesson, students investigate how nutrient cycling contributes to soil health and agricultural sustainability. Building upon previous lessons on the Three Sisters planting system and soil health analysis, students explore composting as a strategy for restoring nutrients in soils. Students learn the roles of carbon-rich "browns" and nitrogen-rich "greens" in decomposition and construct miniature composting systems using locally available organic materials. Through observation, data collection, and long-term monitoring, students analyze how microorganisms recycle nutrients and convert organic matter into fertile soil amendments. Students connect composting to traditional ecological knowledge, food sovereignty, environmental stewardship, and sustainable agriculture while evaluating how …

Soil Health Analysis (Lesson 2), Mara Johnson, Madhav P. Nepal, Jiyul Chang

iLEARN Teaching Resources

In this lesson, students will build on the previous lesson (reading and analyzing the Three Sisters chapter from Braiding Sweetgrass) by experimenting on soil in their schoolyard. Students will collect soil samples from multiple locations around their school grounds and evaluate soil texture, structure, infiltration, color, organic matter, and pH. Students Through field observations and laboratory analysis, students examine how soil characteristics influence plant growth and ecosystem health. Students connect modern soil science with Indigenous agricultural knowledge, particularly the Three Sisters planting system described in Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. By exploring how healthy soil supports sustainable agriculture, …

Rape Pregnancies And Consequent Ptsd Resulting From The Overturn Of Roe V. Wade, Emma Lindenfelser, Yulia Garaeva, Nenette Nti-Agyemang, Ellen Davis, Anna Kabwa, Alexandra M Calaman

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, access to safe legal abortions was limited and often restricted along racial, economic, and geographic lines. Nearly fifty years later, women’s health policy evolved again following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade. This court ruling decimated federal protections of abortion. This paper presents the research that the 2022 Dobbs judicial decision may contribute to and exacerbate rape-related PTSD on 1 out of 20 American who are unable to access a safe abortion after a rape-related pregnancy. Pregnant women living in conservative states that have outlawed …

Interview With Orca Winner Xiao Cheng Zeng; Unl Chemistry; Computational/Theoretical; Nebraska Ice & Gold Nanocages, Mark Griep, Xiao Cheng Zeng

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Xiao Cheng Zeng became a chemistry professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993, quickly rose through the ranks, and was in the department for 29 years. In 2022, he left to become head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong. Xiao was born in Beijing and earned a bachelor’s in physics at the University of Beijing in 1984. Next, he traveled 6800 miles east to Ohio State University in Columbus where he earned his doctorate in condensed matter physics. He followed that up with two postdoctoral experiences, first at the University …

Statistical Methods In Research, Horahenage Dixon Vimalajeewa

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio documents the design, delivery, assessment, student-learning evidence, and reflective evaluation of STAT 801A-700: Statistical Methods in Research, an online asynchronous service course designed to introduce students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to foundational statistical reasoning and applied data analysis. The course is a non-calculus-based introduction to statistical methods used to answer research questions, with emphasis on collecting, organizing, describing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. The course also emphasizes applications relevant to biology, agriculture, and other research-oriented fields. This is an online distance course aimed to develop students’ understanding of basic probability and statistical concepts, recognize the importance …

Course Portfolio: Elements Of Physics Phys 151, Evan A. Rich

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio documents the instructional design, teaching methods, and ongoing assessment efforts for PHYS 151: Elements of Physics, an algebra-based introductory physics course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The course serves a broad undergraduate population, including architecture, construction management, and life science majors. The portfolio describes the teaching framework that integrates pre-lecture video preparation, active in-class engagement through iClicker questions, and collaborative weekly recitation sections, all unified around a structured six-step problem-solving approach. A central concern of the course is building students’ self-efficacy in physics, particularly among those with math anxiety or limited preparation. Two assessments are reported: a …

The Effectiveness Of Teaching With Multiple Representations In Acquiring Scientific Concepts And Developing Visual Thinking Skills In Science, Abdullah K. Ambusaidi Prof., Raya A. Al-Yazeedi

International Journal for Research in Education

This research aimed to identify the effectiveness of teaching science using multiple representations in acquiring scientific concepts and developing visual thinking skills among fourth-grade students. The research adopted an experimental approach with a quasi-experimental design, based on a two-group design (experimental and control). The research sample consisted of 121 students, distributed into 61 students in the experimental group and 60 students in the control group. To achieve the research objectives, two instruments were used: a test for acquiring scientific concepts and a test for developing visual thinking skills. The validity and reliability of both instruments were verified using appropriate statistical …

Resource Utilisation And Quality Of Education In Secondary Schools In Lagos State, Nigeria, Jacob A. Adeyanju

International Journal for Research in Education

The need for the education sector to deliver on its goals has always been a major expectation of all stakeholders in the system. For this expectation to be met, the major resources in the school system must be combined in a reasonable proportion. On this premise, this study investigated the relationship between resource utilisation and quality of education in Lagos State. The study was conducted using descriptive survey research design with a population of 664 public secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. These schools had a total population of 23,793 teachers. A self-developed instrument titled “Education Resource Utilisation and Quality …

The Evolution Of Collaborative Dialogue And Instructional Change Among Secondary Mathematics Teachers Engaged In Peer Observation, Shazia Akbar

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how collaborative dialogue evolved across four cycles of a formative peer observation system involving one veteran and two first-year secondary mathematics teachers, exploring which aspects of that dialogue teachers attributed to changes in their instructional practice. Using the Math Talk for Equitable Participation (MTEP) framework across one academic year, data were drawn from verbatim transcripts of eight collaborative sessions and video-stimulated recall interviews. Four key findings emerged: evidence shifted from planning documents to video of student thinking, deepening pedagogical reasoning; novice teacher contributions grew from peripheral to central; relational trust fostered critical rather than merely affirming …

Emotion-Focused Teaching And Preschool Children's Social, Emotional, And Self-Regulatory Development, Brielle Emily Petit

Dissertations and Theses

Contributing to the literature on supportive mechanisms for children's development of social, emotional, and self-regulatory competencies, the current study examines the contributions of emotion-focused teaching in preschool classrooms. Emotion-focused teaching is a framework used within preschool classrooms that encompasses three domains of teaching that support children's development of emotion skills—how teachers display their own emotions or emotion-related behaviors and actions (modeling), the ways they respond to children's emotional expressions (responding), and how instruction is used to inform children about emotions and related processes (instructing). More frequent emotion-focused teaching has been shown to be a …

Intersectional Inequalities In College Savings And Educational Outcomes Across Race/Ethnicity, Immigrant Status, And Gender: A Quant-Crit Analysis, Jason Jabbari, Ibrahim Habiba, Mat Despard, Somalis Chy

Journal of Student Financial Aid

As families use savings to further their children’s education, education serves as both a key driver of wealth and an artifact of wealth itself. Despite these cyclical relationships and the ways in which education and wealth are stratified across gender, race/ethnicity, and immigration, there is little intersectional research exploring these relationships. We employ a quantitative critical approach and leverage the first nationally representative longitudinal survey that includes information on high school achievement, college savings, borrowing, college enrollment, and major of study. We first demonstrate how race-gender and immigrant-gender intersectional groups experience disadvantages in college savings and in educational outcomes. We …

The Architecture Of Chemical Understanding: How Representation Selection, Ordering, And Feature Salience Shape Students' Conceptions In Chemistry, Isaiah Nelsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical representations play a central role in how students learn and reason aboutchemistry. While representations are routinely used in chemistry classrooms, students often struggle to extract relevant information, connect representations to underlying chemical principles, and apply this information to problem-solving. This dissertation investigates the role of representations in supporting students’ conceptual understanding and reasoning across general and organic chemistry through three qualitative studies.

The first study in this work explores how variation in chemical representation influences how students understand foundational chemistry principles. This study sought to characterize how second semester general chemistry students approach dipole–dipole interaction tasks with four distinct …

Into The Unknown: Ai Adoption And Job Satisfaction Of Christian Faculty, Hailey A. Manicone, Roger B. Bingham, Ireremena E. Felixotuorimuo, Linnaya M. Graf, Rachel A. Joseph, Erica Danielle Moore, Joshua E. Wilson

Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The purpose of this study was to capture the lived experiences of faculty members at Christian higher education institutions regarding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on faculty job satisfaction. The study addressed two primary research questions: (1) What are the perceptions of Christian higher education faculty regarding expectations related to their use of AI in teaching? (2) How do these perceptions influence their job satisfaction? A transcendental phenomenological approach was used to gather data from six participants from a faith-based institution in the southeastern United States through individual interviews, focus groups, and journal prompts. Analysis followed Moustakas’ (1994) four-step …

Dual Language Immersion In Utah Schools: Examining Experiences And Access To Improve Sustainability, Melissa Catherine Jensen Kimball

Theses and Dissertations

Dual language immersion (DLI) programs can impact students in many ways. Multiple researchers have studied the effects of these programs and have found numerous benefits. However, there is little published information on the actual experiences of individuals in schools with a DLI program, including those who are involved in the program and those who were a part of DLI school communities but not directly involved in the program. A. Hawks, J. Rowley, D. Stovall, and their respective thesis and dissertation committees created a survey to better understand the current perspectives of administrators, parents, teachers, and other school staff on these …