Digital Commons Network^™

Cultivating Readiness For Professional Learning Community Through Learning Teams In A Restructuring High School, Cassandra H. Hyacinthe

Education Doctoral

The traditional organizational structure of large comprehensive high schools: departmental divisions, teacher isolation, fragmented subcultures, student alienation, and competing group interests have undermined student and adult learning and have thwarted attempts at school reform. Professional learning communities (PLCs) are a promising strategy for advancing student achievement and school reform. Schools with strong PLCs foster a collaborative culture, focus on learning, promote shared responsibility, and pursue results-oriented goals and assessments to ensure student academic gains. The study investigated the use of learning teams as a preliminary strategy for PLC and to inform school-wide PLC implementation in a restructuring high school. Wenger’s …

Community College Faculty Job Satisfaction: A Network Approach, Bonnie Smith

All Dissertations

This study addresses the question, 'how do network dynamics and leadership behavior influence community college faculty job satisfaction?' Using ORA's dynamic network analysis (DNA) tools, this study investigates how network interactions relate to faculty job satisfaction, how beliefs about leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships relate to network interactions, and how beliefs about LMX relationships relate to job satisfaction. A faculty network is analyzed as a whole, then clusters are identified and analyzed using standard network measurements and a belief propagation algorithms.
Results indicate that job satisfaction and perceptions of relationship with leaders are co-created within networks. Cluster which have high network …

A Phenomenological Study Of “Organizational Development Targeting Diversity” In A Nonprofit Human Service Organization, Christopher Henry Hinesley

Education Doctoral

This study explores the experiences of non-profit human service staff members engaged in “organizational development targeting diversity” (ODTD) for two years or more. This term was adapted by combining concepts in workforce diversity management (Cox, 1993; Ely & Thomas, 1996) and intra-organizational oppression (Fine, 1996; Hyde, 1998). Drawing upon Crenshaw’s (1989) theory of intersecting oppressions stemming from race, class, and gender stratification, the experiences of staff members in a nonprofit human services organization provided a window into an organization attempting to address its use of power and how to model empowerment for a disempowered clientele. This study was conducted using …

Effects Of Implementing A Formative Assessment Initiative, Thomas A. Stewart

Dissertations

This dissertation supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a “poverty of practice” among teachers, in that few fully understood how to effectively implement formative assessment in the classroom. This qualitative case study examined a series of voluntary workshops offered at one public middle school designed to address this poverty of practice. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews. The researcher used constant comparative analysis to discover patterns in the data for the following four research questions: (1) What role did …

Teachers' Perceptions Toward Required And Self-Directed Professional Learning, Marla Kay Lambert Hutton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the opinions of elementary, middle, and high school teachers concerning teacher required or self-directed professional learning. Additionally, the study investigated differences in teaching experience, professional development in a series compared to in a single meeting, workshop, or conference, rather than ongoing professional learning, and whether the teachers’ perception for professional learning is similar to their administrators’ perception for teachers’ learning.

Research findings indicated there was a relationship between teachers’ preference for professional learning and their years of teaching experience and their level of teaching (elementary, middle, …

Implementation Through Innovation: A Literature-Based Analysis Of The Tuning Project, Krisztián Pálvölgyi

Higher Learning Research Communications

Tuning Educational Structures in Europe is perhaps the most important higher education innovation platform nowadays. The main objective of the Tuning Project is to develop a tangible approach to implement the action lines of the Bologna Process; thus, implementation and innovation are closely linked in Tuning. However, during its development, Tuning has evolved into a complex, multilevel policy implementation toolset with a worldwide significance. The purpose of this article is to present the complex nature of the Tuning Project, the environment and dynamics of its development, and the mechanisms of its operation from a multilevel implementation perspective, through a literature-review-based …

Mentoring Directors As A Strategy To Improve Quality In Early Childhood Programs, Mccormick Center For Early Childhood Leadership

McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership Publications

Mentoring and coaching are well established professional development strategies. These relationship-based strategies are often used in conjunction with traditional instructional practices. Most research in this area, however, has focused on the use of mentoring or coaching with teachers to improve teaching practices. This evaluation study conducted for the Ontario Government was designed to determine the extent to which the Mentoring Pairs for Child Care Project achieved its primary goal of enhancing quality in early learning programs in Ontario, Canada by increasing the administrative knowledge and skills of center directors (supervisors).

Learning From Consistently High Performing And Improving Schools For English Language Learners In Boston Public Schools, Rosann Tung, Virginia Diez, Laurie Gagnon, Miren Uriarte, Pamela Stazesky, Eileen De Los Reyes, Antonieta Bolomey

Gastón Institute Publications

Against a backdrop of increasing BPS ELL enrollment, district ELL leadership transitions, state and federal policies affecting ELL education, and with the knowledge that many teachers and administrators within the Boston Public Schools are expert practitioners with ELL students, we addressed the following research questions:

• In which BPS schools were ELL students performing at a consistently high level or showing steady improvement during SY2006-SY2009?
• What were some of the practices that these schools’ staffs credited with their success with ELL students during SY2006-SY2009?
• Which of the practices identified by school staff were shared among the selected schools?

Through case study …

The First Year: A Cultural Shift Towards Improving Student Progress, Becky Jobe

Higher Learning Research Communications

Student attrition has been a primary focus among higher education institutions for nearly 50 years, yet overall retention and graduation rates continue to be of significant concern. Despite increased attention, ongoing struggles of colleges and universities to effectively address potential barriers to student progress are well-documented. Part of the challenge lies in garnering widespread organizational commitment that establishes student progress as an institutional priority. Along with leadership commitment, broad institutional involvement and adherence to a systematic approach to testing new, innovative solutions are necessary to better position the institution to make clear, evidence-based decisions that improve the student experience. The …

Anomalies In The System: Is A New Educational Paradigm Upon Us?, Ed Cunliff, John Barthell

Administrative Issues Journal

In this article, we describe the palpable changes of a paradigm shift in higher education. Although this shift has been described and/or predicted elsewhere, we affirm the transition from over 30 years of collective teaching and administrative experience at a predominantly undergraduate institution (PUI) with historical roots as a state normal school. In many respects, the anomalies that Thomas Kuhn predicted in such a transition are all the more evident given our institution’s history. These anomalies include (but are not limited to) 1) the state of knowledge “ownership” (as mediated by the internet), 2) student-centered (vs. faculty-centered) educational practices, 3) …

Complexity, Knowledge And Structure: A Systemic Understanding Of Organizational Learning, Justin D. Walton

Administrative Issues Journal

Organizations are among the most socially complex institutions within modern culture. As corporations face the challenges of technological change and globalization, it becomes essential that they find new ways and forms of fostering knowledge sharing and creativity. Challenging the age-old belief that employees should “dominated and directed,” complexity theory challenges the classic machine metaphor of organizational structure with a view that conceptualizes them as nonlinear systems that fluctuate between conditions of stability and chaos. This model offers new and exciting opportunities for exploring the dynamics of organizational learning. Toward this end, this paper examines the systemic features of organizations with …

Childhood Loss And Ad/Hd: Program Implications For Education Administrators, Helen Wilson Harris, Marlene Zipperlen

Administrative Issues Journal

Evidence-based practice and evidence-informed practice are not just buzzwords in education. It is essential that administrators encourage both the development and the application of new knowledge in the field. This study of 1755 elementary age children in Central Texas indicates a positive association between the experience of childhood loss and grief and a diagnosis of AD/HD. Implications of this information for administrators in education are explored, including the training of counselors and classroom teachers in grief interventions and accommodations for grief related attention problems in children.

Trends In Expenses And Revenues At Not-For-Profit And For-Profit Postsecondary Institutions: The Nondistribution Constraint And The Future Of The Trust Market, Bonnie Fox-Garrity, Roger Fiedler, Mark Garrison

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In the United States, every child has the right to an education and is required by law to attend school. The government provides an enormous number of public schools throughout the country, free of charge, in order to ensure education for all, yet there are families who choose to homeschool their children instead. Hill (2010) explains that “homeschooling is not a new phenomenon. In colonial days families, including wealthy ones, educated their children at home, combining the efforts of parents, tutors, and older children” (p.1). He goes on to mention how colonial rural one-room schoolhouses provided a place for the …

Waiting For ‘Superman’: A Review And Commentary, Tony Durr

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

With the advent of the global economy and high-speed Internet, online collaboration is fast becoming the norm in education and industry [1]. Information technology (IT) creates many new inter-relationships among businesses, expands the scope of industries in which a company must compete to achieve competitive advantage. Information systems and technology allow companies to coordinate their activities in distant geographic locations [2]. IT is providing the infrastructure necessary to support the development of new collaboration forms among industry and education. Virtual research and development (R&D) teams represent one such relational form, one that could revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Leadership Styles Of Middle School Principals And Instructional Leaders, Jessica Devine, Gary Alger

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Grade inflation has been a “hot topic” in the higher education literature for some time now, due primarily to conflicting interpretations of grade-change data. While definitions of grade inflation vary, most seem to indicate that inflation has occurred if a higher grade is awarded without a co-occurring increase in student achievement, and is the outcome of decreased rigor in the assessment of student learning (see Boretz 2004; Young and ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education 2003). Thus, the controversy is in regard to whether or not reported changes in GPA and grade distributions reflect instructor leniency.

Transforming Data Into Knowledge, Lane Mills, James Mcdowelle, William Rouse Jr.

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Hans Selye, the first major researcher of stress coined the word ‘stress’ in 1936 and defined it as “a non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”. Selye (1974) is of the view that stress is a facet of life which human beings cannot avoid. In fact he confidently declares that “total freedom from stress is death” Selye (1976) stated that stress in moderate levels enhances function. Kaplan and Sadock (2000) in their study on students also found out that moderate stress among students enhances learning ability. Pfeiffer (2001) emphasizes that stress helps students to peak their performance. …

To Start A Hospitality Student Investment Club At Schenectady County Community College, Regina A. Mintzer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Statement of objective

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the needs for investment knowledge at an early age, understand the power of financial independence for a successful future, explore the employment opportunities associated with participation in a campus investment club, and implement an investment club on a college campus targeted to hospitality industry students.

Seeking Further Education: A Rubric For Evaluating Organizational Behavior Phd Programs, Douglas M. Quist

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Statement of Objective

The objective of this study is to first understand the origins and history of organizational behavior. In addition, this study will analyze five organizational behavior programs at the following schools: Harvard, Stanford, Purdue, Cornell, and University of Utah. These schools have highly publicized marketing programs and range in their business school rankings. The rubric will serve many functions but will primarily use as a guide for acquiring a greater understanding of said programs. There is a plethora of information available and this study will organize and simplify such information from five universities. Looking at programs side by …

The Relationship Development And Learning Organization Dimensions., Yuhfen Diana H. Wu, Connie K. Haley Dr.

Faculty and Staff Publications

This research examined the relationship among learning organization dimensions, leadership development, employee development, and their interactions with two demographic variables (gender and ethnicity) in the context of libraries. The researchers conducted a multivariate analysis of the variance to assess the differences by leadership training groups (low training hours vs. high training hours), or by gender; and by workplace training groups (low vs. high), or by ethnicity (white vs. all others) on a linear combination of the seven dimensions of the learning organization. A conclusive summary is provided along with contributive discussion. Implications and contributions to librarians are discussed in addition …

Through The Lens Of A College Success Seminar: Developing Workshops For Eof Students, Yesenia Madas

Theses and Dissertations

The body of research on first-year seminars has grown considerably and there is much evidence to support that college success seminars have increased student persistence and degree attainment (Fidler, 1991; Keenan & Gabovitch, 1995; O'Gara, Karp, & Hughes, 2009; Zeidenberg, Jenkins, & Calcagno, 2007). While most success courses come packaged with content such as study skills, test-taking, and time management, little assessment of the effectiveness of these areas has been conducted. Therefore, this study investigated the specific course components of the College Success Seminar that contribute to student success and used that information to create workshops for students in the …

Open Source Software As Applied In Higher Education: At One Four-Year University, Muneerah Wakeel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my study was to explain the implementation process of open source software (OSS) in a higher education setting, including any challenges that the faculty encountered during professional development, and implementation during instruction. This study was conducted at a four-year university in the southern region of New Jersey. In addition, as a participant observer I investigated my leadership throughout the research process so that I could employ reflective practice in order to determine if my espoused beliefs were aligned with my theory-in-use. I reviewed literature that discussed both OSS and distance education and connected them to the social …

The Montessori Method In America: Montessori Schools In New York And Rhode Island From 1910-1940, Katari Coleman

Dissertations (6 month embargo)

During the very early twentieth century, Dr. Maria Montessori produced a pedagogical approach that permitted the developmental delayed, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and the youngest of children to advance their cognition and adaptive skills to conventional standards. Her renowned "Montessori Method" was unleashed in 1906 in her home country of Italy and found its way to the shore of the United States soon after. This research will compare the implementation of the Montessori Method in two states, Rhode Island and New York. Both states invested time and money into the instructional ideals of Dr. Montessori in response to the advice of educators …

Utilizing Teacher's Perceptions Of Professional Development To Inform District Level Programming, Gina Friedman

Theses and Dissertations

Teachers' beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes toward professional development initiatives have a powerful impact on the effectiveness of those programs after implementation. Specifically, teachers in first order change schools perceive inhibiting factors (i.e. lack of faculty buy-in, scheduling conflicts, limited time for trainings within the calendar, lack of leadership support, etc.) as a hindrance to the success of program implementation. Concurrently, Cedar Creek teacher's perceptions identify many of the same inhibiting factors to effective professional development that are found on a national level. These perceptions suggest a first order mental model perspective. This mixed methods action research study identified a second …

The Professional Staff And Librarian Learning Community At Rowan University, Katherine Boland

Theses and Dissertations

As powerful forces of change continue to exert pressure on institutions of higher education, scholars are calling for strategies to sustain our most valuable asset, the academic community. One promising response is Milton Cox's work. He created the Miami University model for faculty and professional learning communities, a nationally-recognized strategy for supporting faculty development, addressing institutional needs, and promoting meaningful change. This mixed methods action research project introduced a new version of Cox's technology, a project-based learning community. This project-based version was the basis of my work with the Professional Staff and Librarian Learning Community (PSLLC). The PSLLC engaged in …

Supporting Online Faculty: Developing A Supporting Website Resource, Peter John Anthony, Eric Nordin

Higher Learning Research Communications

Current trends in post-secondary education enrollment indicate that colleges and universities are likely to experience an increase in the number of online students. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the type of resources and support features online faculty need, desire, and expect in a support website. The method used to collect research findings was an online survey. The participants for this study consisted of the online faculty population at an institution of higher learning in the southwestern United States. Participants were invited by email to participate in a 13 question survey which asked participants to rate the importance …

A Study To Examine Teacher Perceptions Of Leadership Characteristics That Middle School Principals Should Have To Be An Effective Instructional Leader., Gary Dail Mccann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate teachers' perceptions of the role middle school principals played as instructional leaders in 2 rural schools in southwest Virginia. The 2 middle school participants in the study included only teachers in schools classified Fully Accredited by the accountability standards of the No Child Left Behind for changing the academic status of their schools from Needs Improvement in 2005 to Fully Accredited for 2006 to 2009 inclusive. This study examined teachers' perceptions of the principal's role as an instructional leader for school improvement in changing the status of the schools from Needs Improvement to Fully …

The Transformation Of Baccalaureate Nursing Curriculum: A Multicultural Approach To Optimize Clinical Competence, Sharon Burke

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study sought to address the need for multicultural awareness in nursing education. The purpose of this action research study was to improve baccalaureate nursing students' cultural competence and multicultural awareness through infusing multicultural awareness education in the JSN curriculum. Education sessions were implemented to increase multicultural awareness to improve nursing practice. This mixed method action research project was conducted during the 2009-2010 academic year. Data collection techniques included surveying nursing faculty, administrators and baccalaureate students in the Jefferson School of Nursing as well as conducting student focus groups. Descriptive statistics and thematic coding were used to analyze …

Ua51 Wku Libraries: An Introspective Review 2011, Connie Foster, Chair

Library Annual Reports, Reports, and Statistics

No abstract provided.

A Case Study Of The Community College Baccalaureate: What Happened In Ten Years?, Bonnie S. Hofland

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A growing number of community colleges are offering bachelor degrees in addition to maintaining their traditional functions. This case study examined one community college that began offering bachelor degrees in 1999. The purpose for conducting the study was to provide a historical “portrait" of Great Basin College, from 1997-98 through 2009-2010, as it developed five baccalaureate programs. Specifically, I explored, through archived data and interviews with 20 administrators and faculty, how offering four-year programs impacted the students, faculty, curriculum, governance, and culture of the community college.

Several conclusions were drawn from the data. The interviewees were adamant Great Basin College …

Transformational Leadership: A Contribution To The Effectiveness Of Congregationally Formed Faith-Based Community Development Corporations, Harry A. Dawkins Iii

Education Doctoral

This study explored transformational leadership theory, which is well documented and the subject of considerable research. Four components known as the four I ’ s make up transformational leadership: (a) charisma or idealized influence, (b) inspirational motivation, (c) intellectual stimulation, and (d) individual consideration. Most transformational leadership research has focused on leadership behavior related to these four components, but little has been done to gain a deeper understanding of the transformational leadership behaviors of senior pastors who oversee congregationally formed faith-based community development corporations (CDCs). This study used quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (narrative interviews) empirical research, carried out with senior …