Digital Commons Network^™

Framing Schools As A Second Home For Children, Christian Duncan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone explores how a structured professional development program can create greater unity and mutual understanding among educators by framing the school as a “second home” comparable to a parent household. The project developed from observations of division, dissatisfaction, and strained relationships among educators and considers how these dynamics can influence school culture and the stability students experience. Key influences included research on child development, home and school stability, teacher well-being, professional relationships, and effective professional development. Research from Darling-Hammond and Cook-Harvey (2018) emphasized the importance of emotional and physical safety, supportive adult relationships, and belonging for student development, while …

Effective And Appropriate Reading Interventions For Upper Elementary Students, Casey Orr

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

With more students falling behind in their reading skill development, and staying behind as they continue into older grades, this project was created to answer the question; what reading interventions are most appropriate and effective for upper elementary students? Recently, reading instruction has shifted to follow the body of research known as the science of reading. Much of the literature surrounding this topic centers around students in kindergarten through second grade, leaving teachers and reading specialists of upper elementary students without the same information or support for their students. This project reviews the existing literature on the history of reading …

Rooted In Wonder: Cultivating A Connection To The Environment Through Nature-Based Learning In Central Mexico, Mikaela Tennis

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Children are spending less time outdoors and feeling increasingly disconnected from the natural world. This reduced exposure and lack of interaction limits opportunities to form early connections with nature, which have lasting benefits into adulthood. Nature-based learning approaches have been proven to increase a sense of nature connectedness, which in turn strengthens one’s environmental attitudes and behaviors while supporting mental health and well-being. To address limited access to nature-based learning experiences in Central Mexico, this capstone draws from research on nature connectedness, nature-based learning, and nature center design to answer the question, How can a nature-based learning center be designed …

Encouraging Pollinator Friendly Behaviors Among Urban Residents, Addison Motta

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Pollinator decline is a significant issue which threatens biodiversity, global food systems, and the stability of ecosystems. There are numerous resources available that address pollinator friendly behaviors, but many assume that the audience has access to private land in a suburban or rural area. The recommendations in these resources may be inaccessible to apartment dwellers, renters, and other urban residents with limited control over outdoor spaces. This capstone explores the guiding question: how can an interactive pollinator education kit increase awareness and encourage pollinator-friendly behaviors among urban residents. A review of literature related to pollinator ecology, urban ecosystems, environmental education, …

Upporting Residential Camp Counselors: “Wellness Workshops” To Mitigate Staff Stress, Aimee Doyle

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated that residential camping holds tremendous value in the life of a young person. A child’s participation in the “Radical Utopian Experience” provided by a typical summer camp has been shown to increase independence, confidence, perseverance, responsibility, empathy, compassion, and an affinity for nature, often with life-long effects. Yet, while camps focus heavily on the growth and development of campers, the needs of counseling staff are sometimes overlooked. Young counselors themselves are still developing emotionally and socially, while they often shoulder significant responsibilities throughout the summer. This capstone project focused on the wellness needs of residential camp counselors …

Budget Fy 2026 - 2027, Swosu Administration

SWOSU Fiscal Year Budgets

No abstract provided.

Examining The Relationship Between Trauma-Informed Safety Drill Practices And School-Level Chronic Absenteeism In Maine Secondary Schools, Tina Nightingale

Dissertations

School safety practices can influence students' perceptions of safety, emotional well-being, and engagement in the educational environment; however, limited research has examined whether trauma-informed safety drill practices are associated with measurable educational outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, correlational study was to examine the relationship between trauma-informed safety drill practices and school-level chronic absenteeism in Maine middle and high schools. Guided by trauma-informed care, adolescent neurodevelopment, and Protection Motivation Theory, the study investigated whether higher levels of trauma-informed implementation of safety drills, as measured by the Trauma-Informed Safety Drill Practices Index (TISDPI), were associated with lower rates of chronic …

Implementing Student Choice Through Social-Emotional Learning To Support Independence And Motivation In Elementary Education, Allison Sloan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Most people feel more motivated and invested in the work they are doing when they have a voice in the matter. This remains true for elementary students with their school work. This capstone paper analyzes and compares research articles to answer the guiding question: How can classroom strategies grounded in SEL and student choice promote independence while supporting diverse learning needs? The guiding question and project were created due to a noticeable lack of choice being represented and provided in elementary classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between student choice, social-emotional learning, and student independence …

Finding The Confidence To Speak: Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety In Secondary English Students, Nickolas Johnson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Public speaking is an essential academic, professional, and civic skill, yet many secondary students experience anxiety when asked to speak in front of peers and when assigned a presentation. This capstone project explored the question: How can secondary English language arts teachers develop methods to decrease anxiety around students who struggle with public speaking? The end result of this project is a Google Site resource guide that is designed for secondary English language arts teachers. The site provides background information on public speaking anxiety in the classroom, a bank of low-stakes speaking activities that can be used independently or in …

Authentic Material Use In English Language Development Classrooms, Kenneth Fields

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

With attention on the topic of globalization at an all time high, more and more focus has been shifted towards student-centric, evidence-based approaches for second language education. In order to address the perceived need of more culturally-centered content, this project attempts to answer the question: What are the benefits of using authentic materials over grammar-based texts and how can authentic materials be implemented into low-proficiency ELD classrooms? Authentic materials, or materials created by native language speakers not for the purposes of L2 education, have been gaining more popularity among educational researchers as second language acquisition theories have begun to favor …

Adjustment Challenges In The International Student Population At A Rural Mid-Size Midwestern University, Sara El Bizri Hussein

All NMU Master's Theses

This qualitative descriptive study explored the adjustment experiences of non-athlete international students attending a rural, mid-size Midwestern university and identified the challenges and supports that shaped their transition.

Guided by Berry’s acculturation framework and informed by theories of student integration and coping, data were collected through an initial survey and semi-structured interviews. Seven participants were interviewed. Interview transcripts were analyzed using open and focused coding procedures to identify recurring patterns and themes.

Analysis revealed that international student adjustment is multidimensional and influenced by social, academic, emotional, cultural, environmental, and structural factors. Three major themes emerged from the data: (1) Social …

Highly Confident But Slightly Uncertain: A Long Overdue Reinvention Of The School Scientific Method, Teaching - Volume 4, Stephen Demeo

Publications and Research

In Volume 4, the last book of the series, I continue the argument for greater parity between conceptual knowledge—the "what" of science—and methodological knowledge—the "how" of science—but in the context of teacher instruction. To this end, two literature reviews are presented: One on how students build confidence, specifically regarding the reliability or consistency of measurement or results, and the other on scientific uncertainty. Research studies focusing on student misconceptions are summarized and organized from the elementary to the college level. These literature reviews describe invaluable ways for teachers to improve their instruction, while providing examples of experiments that can be …

Development Of The Comparative Wellness Index (Cwi): A Cross-National Assessment Of Resident Physician Wellness In India And The United States, Jeevan Nammi

Expo Student Presentations

2026 Summer Expo Oral Presentation

• Education

Toward Intentional Praxis: A Design Thinking Multi-Case Study Of Cognitive-Constructive Toolkit Implementation In An Elementary Professional Learning Community, Azam Nathaniel

Dissertations

Among several learning theories that were dynamic and constantly evolving with time, cognitive and constructive theories were predominant in the field of education. However, these theories often included overlapping and contrasting concepts, contributing to confusion in terminology among teachers and limited explicit use in instructional practice. Within the context of K-12 education, teachers demonstrated conceptual awareness of cognitive and constructive learning theories; however, the theories were not a part of day-to-day conversations and were minimally identified in practice. Instead, the theories were implicitly applied as teachers balanced competing professional responsibilities, including daily routines, syllabus requirements, district standards, new initiatives, differentiated …

Black Brilliance By Design: Culturally Affirming Strategies For High School And Postsecondary Success, Kirsten E. Thornton

Education Dissertations

College and career readiness and access programming aims to prepare students for postsecondary enrollment and success. The intentional implementation of college and career readiness programming was introduced to address the achievement gap in educational outcomes, including but not limited to: graduation rates, college enrollment, college retention, and viable career opportunities. However, Black students who graduate high school and are not adequately academically and socially prepared for postsecondary education compared to their white and non-white counterparts. Current college and career readiness frameworks lack a culturally-relevant lens necessary to effectively address the unique needs of the Black communities in achieving college readiness. …

Career Pathways Program Annual Report For Ay 2025/26, Wie Yusuf

Career Pathways

Career Pathways launched in August 2017 as the university-wide initiative to provide career and professional development to graduate students. It encompasses both the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) and the Preparing Future Professionals (PFP) Certificates. The Preparing Future Faculty Certificate was established in 2007, while the Preparing Future Professionals Certificate was launched in 2017, concurrently with the introduction of Career Pathways. The Career Pathways program prepares graduate students for a successful transition into thriving careers. With the PFP Certificate, the emphasis has been on addressing the existing gap in career and professional development for master’s and doctoral students with career plans …

Designing System Coherence For Content- Based English Language Development, Jeimee Estrada-Miller, Aline Matias, Raquel Gonzalez, Magaly Lavadenz, Elvira G. Armas

Center on English Language Proficiency Implementation Briefs

Advancing Comprehensive English Language Development: Designing System Coherence for Content-Based English Language Development is the second in a four-part implementation series focused on advancing high-quality English language development (ELD) systems. Drawing on research on educational change, organizational coherence, and instructional improvement, the brief recognizes that while effective classroom practices are essential, their impact depends on the organizational conditions that support consistent implementation. This brief examines the "how" of implementation by emphasizing system coherence—the intentional alignment of policies, leadership, organizational structures, and resources around a shared vision for language and content learning. It introduces seven foundational practices that support the coherent …

Confidenceai: A Wearable And Predictive Ai Ecosystem, Denzil Paul, Xuejun Kong, Raymond Wang, Flora Fleith Lopes, Zhengjia Yang, Brain Chu, Weijian Wang, Leo Chen

Paul English Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute Publications

This group project presents ConfidenceAI, a conceptual wearable and predictive artificial intelligence ecosystem designed to help teenagers build confidence and manage stress in high-pressure situations such as classroom participation and public speaking. The system combines wrist-based biosensing with a personalized machine-learning model that uses physiological signals, including heart rate and heart rate variability, electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and movement, to learn an individual's baseline patterns and anticipate heightened stress responses. Rather than relying on universal thresholds, ConfidenceAI is designed to personalize the timing, method, and delivery of interventions based on each user's physiological patterns and prior responses. The proposed ecosystem …

Da Mosang Tarsier Series: Developing Digital Bullying Prevention Materials For Filipino Parents Of Grade School Students, Rudy M. Danganan Jr., Ann Christine V. Braga, Maria Kristina S. Alfonso, Romelito Manuel D.S. Clorina, Ma. Regina Hechanova

Children and Families

Bullying remains a significant public health and educational concern worldwide and is particularly prevalent in Philippine public schools, with Grade 7 students identified as a vulnerable group. Although the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 (Republic Act No. 10627) mandates school-based policies and procedures, persistent implementation gaps underscore the need to strengthen home–school partnerships and equip parents with practical, culturally grounded response strategies. This paper describes the development of the Da Mosang Tarsier Series, a set of digital psychoeducational comic strips designed for Filipino parents of Grade 7 students. Guided by a user-centered design (UCD) framework, the project began with a Generative …

Aadej Comm 12 2 2026

AADEJ - The Communicator

The Communicator is the official publication of the American Association of Dental Editors & Journalists (AADEJ), promoting awareness of the association’s activities and offering valuable insights for dental editors and journalists to enhance their publications. It is published quarterly, distributed digitally via email to members, and posted on the Association’s website at aadej.org, with archives on ADA Commons. Regular contributions from the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Director, President, and Associate Editor cover various topics.

July 2026 Feature Article 2 — Burning Mouth Syndrome In Dental Settings: Clinical Clues, Diagnostic Approaches, And Management With Topical Doxepin And Alpha-Lipoic Acid, Elizabeth R. Hatfield, Dds, Elizabeth A. Van Tubergen, Dds, Phd, Felipe Nör Dds, Ms, Phd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This clinical case report explores Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS), a chronic pain condition predominantly affecting post-menopausal women. Describing BMS as a diagnosis of exclusion with often idiopathic origins, the authors present a case study of a 54-year-old female patient. They review the challenges of traditional management and detail a novel, effective treatment using a combination of topical doxepin oral rinse and oral alpha-lipoic acid. The article provides dentists with practical strategies for recognition and diagnostic procedures, emphasizing their role as the first line of care for improving the quality of life for BMS sufferers.

Automated Scoring Of Prosody In Oral Reading Fluency: Integrating Acoustic And Sentence/Chunk-Level Silence Features With Machine Learning, Kuo Wang

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Prosody, the ability to read with appropriate variation in pitch, duration, pausing, and stress, is an important (and challenging to measure) dimension of oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension. ORF prosody is currently measured through human raters and rubric-based scoring systems (e.g., the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) or the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MDFS scales). The rating process is labor and resource-intensive and introduces rater bias. Recent work has shown acoustic features to predict prosody ratings; however, their models had low generalization performance on cross-domain data (unseen passages and student samples).

The present study investigated the automated assessment of …

Investigating And Comparing Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of Workload Manageability And The Relationship With Attrition, Kasey Sanders

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated special education teachers’ (SETs) perceptions of workload manageability and the relationship between these perceptions and intentions to quit. State-wide data from the Kansas State Department of Education showed a significant increase in the number of special education vacancies from a total of 161, or .03% in the 2019-2020 school year to 557, or 11%, in the 2024-2025 school year. Over the past four years, the number of special education teachers with a non-traditional license has increased from 312, or 6%, in the 2021-2022 school year to 427, or 8%, in the 2024-2025 school year (KSDE, 2025). Using …

“We Have The Right To Education”: Exploring Student Experiences, Disability Policy, And The Need For Culturally Refined Awareness Raising On Inclusive Higher Education Within The English-Speaking Caribbean, Kadesha Treco

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the English-speaking Caribbean, research at the intersection of inclusive education policy and higher education (HIED) remains limited. Despite the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) by countries across the region, the establishment of the CARICOM Special Rapporteur on Disabilities, and the creation of several pieces of national disability legislation, there is little evidence regarding the effectiveness of these initiatives at improving access to HIED. Therefore, this dissertation contributes to regional scholarship on inclusive education by examining how access to, and experiences within HIED institutions are shaped for students with disabilities. This …

Beyond Access: Native American Students' Sense Of Belonging At Land-Grant Pwis, Skyler Ames-Patton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Native American students remain one of the most underrepresented populations within higher education and continue to experience unique challenges related to belonging, visibility, and persistence, particularly within predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Although sense of belonging has been widely recognized as a significant factor influencing student success and retention, traditional approaches to belonging often fail to account for distinct cultural, historical, and relational experiences that shape Native students’ educational journeys. This study explores how Native American students describe their interpersonal experiences and sense of belonging at a public, land-grant, PWI in the mid-South region of the United States. Guided by Tribal …

A Quantitative Examination Of The Relationship Between College Gpa And Culturally Inclusive Support Services, Sara Jo Barnett Nsakashalo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Eurocentric formal education model was first introduced to American Indians as a weapon, a tool by which American Indian culture and lifeways could be dismantled thus forcing the entire population into assimilation. The residual trauma of the Indian Boarding School era and other federal Indian policy continue to impact American Indian students, even at the postsecondary level. For decades, research has focused on exploring the role of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) to explain the increased success American Indian students experience at these institutions when compared to other institutions. Though they have demonstrated an exceptional ability to adequately serve …

Religious Higher Education In Prison In The United States: The Importance Of Well-Being, Robin L. Labarbera

Journal of Global Education and Research

A growing body of scholarship suggests that incarcerated individuals who participate in education programs, particularly those grounded in faith, are better positioned for lasting community reintegration and positive long-term outcomes. Using a mixed-methods evaluation design, the author examines two interrelated questions: whether faith-based higher education is associated with enhanced well-being among current participants and whether program graduates carry those well-being gains into post-release life. Drawing on group interviews with 109 incarcerated men and women across six U.S. facilities and surveys from 157 participants in four states, the study found that participation in a prison-based theological education program was associated with …

Barriers And Enablers Of Integrated E-Learning In Southern Africa: Student Experiences, Vicente A. Halle, Luzaan Schlebusch

Journal of Global Education and Research

Integrated e-learning is increasingly essential for enhancing higher education globally, yet its implementation in resource-constrained regions such as Southern Africa remains uneven. This study explores the technological, organizational, and environmental factors influencing the integration of e-learning in higher education institutions, using the Technological, Organizational, and Environmental framework. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed, involving semi-structured interviews with 24 students (12 males and 12 females) from universities in South Africa and Mozambique. Thematic analysis revealed key barriers, including poor connectivity, limited digital literacy, inadequate institutional support, and socio-economic constraints such as power cuts and data costs. Despite these challenges, several enablers …

Bridging The Gap: Addressing Challenges And Enhancing Support For Learners Transitioning From Primary To Secondary School, Redson Nkosi, Precious Nyoni, Philogene Manirahari

Journal of Global Education and Research

This study explored the challenges students face during the transition from primary to secondary school, particularly in their final year of primary and first year of secondary school. Common concerns include bullying, making new friends, increased workload, unfriendly teachers, teasing, new subjects, and adjusting to the secondary school environment. Conducted in Malawi, Mzimba North education district at two secondary schools and one primary school, the research used a qualitative methodology, employing documentary review, interviews, focus group discussions, and observations for data collection. Findings revealed that many of the students’ fears were either confirmed, such as bullying and teacher strictness, proving …

Broadband Diffusion And Digital Preparedness In Tanzania: Harnessing The Role Of Technology In Formal Education, George Matto, John J. Iwata

Journal of Global Education and Research

Broadband, as a high-speed Internet connectivity, is an essential enabler for digital preparedness. However, little is known, in the case of Tanzania, about the nexus between broadband diffusion and digital preparedness, particularly in the facilitation of the teaching and learning process. This study, therefore, aimed at investigating the nexus between broadband diffusion and digital preparedness in Tanzania by focusing on the country’s readiness to leverage the same for formal education. The study employed a systematic review, guided by the PRISMA framework, to obtain the empirical evidence from existing literature. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes, analyze, and interpret qualitative …