Digital Commons Network^™

Person Factors Affecting Student Persistence In College Reading And Writing Remediation, Loretta J. Morris Barr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has the highest college attrition rate among industrialized nations. Community college students face a much higher risk, particularly those who lack requisite reading/writing skills. Using the theory of planned behavior and self-determination theory, this study explored the relationship between persistence in college for students in traditional or corequisite remediation. Person factors under study were frustration discomfort, academic motivation, and self-reported symptoms of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). After 7 semesters, 72 adult student volunteers from the 2 remediation programs were recruited from 2 community colleges. They completed an online survey, which included a demographics questionnaire, the Frustration …

Strerss On Educators At A Discipline Alternative Education Program, Anthony G. Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Interaction with their students during classroom instruction is often a source of stress among many teachers. The academic setting of Disciplinary Alternative Educational Programs (DAEP) poses a risk factor for teachers to experience stress, given that student disruptive behavior has been associated with higher stress levels among teachers. The problem underlying this study was that most studies on DAEP have focused on the experiences of students, with limited information available about the experiences of teachers in this type of academic setting. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the role of job-related stress and coping on the …

Early Childhood Education Trainers' Knowledge And Use Of Andragogical Principles, Kimberly Thornton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Early childhood education (ECE) teachers often lack the experience and skills to provide children with supports necessary to foster academic and social skill development. Professional development can improve ECE teachers' skills, but ECE trainers often lack understanding of adult learning principles, known as andragogy. Knowles' conceptual framework of andragogy was used to explore the knowledge and use of andragogical principles of 8 ECE trainers selected via criterion-based purposive sampling. The research questions focused on ECE trainers' knowledge and use of andragogical principles. Three cases, each consisting of 2 or 3 live professional development trainings for early childhood educators, were used …

The Effects Of The Dallas Independent School District Code Of Conduct On Lgbtq Young Adults Of Color, Antoinette Mcintosh

All Theses And Dissertations

This study explored the past lived experiences of LGBTQ young adults of color (ages 23-28) who were affected by the DISD Student Code of Conduct while attending high school. This study sought to discover the experiences, behaviors, and expectations that LGBTQ youth of color had in relation to the DISD Code of Conduct. This study used a qualitative phenomenological method with data collected from purposeful sampling of six LGBTQ young adults of color who attended DISD high schools and were suspended and/or expelled due to the zero tolerance nature of the student code of conduct. Inductive reasoning was used as …

A Model For Cultivating Global Engagement Beyond Academic Tourism, Victor D. Carmona, Tizziana Carmona

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

The message to environmental scholars in Pope Francis’ Encyclical “Laudato Si” is clear: contributions from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) must serve to inform both local and international conversations as well as connect learning communities in developed and developing nations. In the hope of fostering international opportunities that challenge U.S. students to link their academic degrees with social justice elements that calibrate them to the historical reality the overwhelming majority of the world experiences, we outline a teacher-scholar model that serves as a tool for the advancement of social and environmental justice issues in developing countries.

2019 Courtright Memorial Library Annual Report, Courtright Memorial Library

Library Publications

Annual report regarding Courtright Memorial Library's accomplishments.

Teachers’ Perceptions And Strategies Implementing The Alabama Reading Initiative To Teach Literacy, Latanya Williams-Collins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A report from a 2015 descriptive study of the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) showed that 85% of the participants who were trained in strategies to address students’ reading difficulties in high school were not implementing them. Teachers’ implementation of ARI was the focus of this study. Pragmatism was the epistemological framework of the study, and Roger’s diffusion of innovation theory was the conceptual framework used to support the study. The purpose and corresponding research questions examined the extent of ARI implementation, reasons for not implementing those strategies, and ideas for future professional development in ARI. Six content-area teachers who taught …

Wounded Warriors And Their Transition To The Community College Classroom, Virgil Nathaniel Adkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many postsecondary institutions face challenges when veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI) enroll in college and become student-veterans. Staff and faculty may need to better understand how to accommodate these student-veterans as they transition from military to student life. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of 3 groups at a Texas community college regarding classroom accommodations for student-veterans with PTSD or TBI: (a) student-veterans with PTSD or TBI, (b) the faculty, and (c) the disability counselors. Schlossberg's theory assessing an individual's assets and abilities in transition was the conceptual framework for …

Peer Taught Sex Education's Influence On Adolescent Sexual Decisions And Hookups, Sarah Kathleen Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Teen Prevention Education Program (PEP) utilizes different methods, mainly peer teaching via skits and small groups, to help influence adolescents to make informed sexual decisions. The purpose of this study is to find how Teen PEP can have an effect on an adolescent's decision on whether to or not hookup. This study utilized interviews with participants of the program asking them about their views on hooking up and how they view how Teen PEP aided in their decision-making whether to or not hook up. While transcribing the interviews and looking for keywords related to the research questions, the analysis …

Discipline Policy And Preschool Special Education Students' Social Skills, Amanda Lee Tamagni

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Preschool special education students lack of personal-social skills is affecting their kindergarten readiness and placing them at risk for exposure to school discipline in a large school district in the Southeastern United States. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the quality of school discipline policies and personal-social skills of preschool special education students within the focus district. Ecological systems theory provided the framework for the study. Data collection included archived personal-social skills scores, as measured by the Battelle Developmental Inventory 2 (BDI 2), of 354 preschool special education students. Four trained educators rated the …

Information Sources That Influence The Financial Literacy Of Puerto Rican College Students, Enid Alvarez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers agree that Puerto Ricans lack basic financial knowledge that would allow them to participate in the financial system actively. However, the literature did not provide any data about the knowledge transmission practices that Puerto Ricans use to gather and transmit financial knowledge. As a result, there was a limited understanding of the social learning processes used by Puerto Rican college students to make financial decisions. Using consumer socialization and family financial socialization models as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to identify the information sources that Puerto Ricans use to gather financial knowledge. A …

Early Care And Education Testimonios At The Borderlands, Jennifer Torres Siders

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Latinas represent a large proportion of the United States early care and education workforce, and thus have the potential to wield significant influence over the growth and development of millions of American children. However, the voices of Latina early childhood professionals often are missing in both research and mass media. Instead, social, political, and academic frames cast Latinas as foreign regardless of nationality, uneducated notwithstanding expertise, and passive despite action and influence. This testimonio analysis draws on Chicana feminist epistemology to re-center the perspectives of Latina child care providers and reveal more authentic insights on how they understand and perform …

Athletic Training Student And Student Aide Clinical Task Allowance In The Secondary School Setting, Zachary K. Winkelmann, Robert A. Huggins, Lindsey E. Eberman

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Athletic training student aides (SA) are minors in high school that participate in an athletic training experience under the supervision of secondary school athletic trainers (SSAT). The NATA published an official statement on the proper supervision of SAs related to task allowance. As SSATs may also supervise athletic training students (ATSs), it is important to understand the differences in both. Therefore, the objective was to explore the training, task allowance, and perspectives of SAs and ATSs by SSATs during clinical experiences. Methods: We used a cross-sectional, web-based survey for this study. SSATs (n=3,567) from the ATLAS database were recruited …

Engagement And Stem Degree Completion: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Time-To-Completion And Engagement And Pre-College Variables, Karina (Harstad) Clennon

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This quantitative analysis explored measures influencing time to STEM-degree-completion in a correlational, non-experimental analysis of archival data (N = 745). FGCS represent a significant portion of individuals pursuing a post-secondary degree in the United States however, FGCS are less likely to persist to graduation as compared to their continuing-generation peers. FGCS are entering colleges and universities declaring STEM majors yet, are changing their major and or leaving college without a four-year degree (Chen, 2013). FGCS, who identify as female, face additional barriers, whether perceived or actual, in the pursuit of earning a STEM degree. FGCS choose to pursue STEM majors, …

Effects Of A Student Success Course On Retention Of First-Year Community College Students, Deatrice Allen Willis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low retention rates among 1st year students plague many community colleges in the United States, including the study site used for this research. Preparing 1st year community college students both academically and socially are key aspects of combating this issue and enhancing student success and persistence. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the influence of the First-Year Experience (FYE) course in improving student retention and promoting student success. Rodger’s student development theory and Tinto’s theory on retention guided this study. A causal-comparative design was used to examine the difference in retention rates and GPA between students enrolled …

Gender And Work: An Analysis Of Mid-Level Women Administrators In Student Affairs, Eboni Turnbow

Wayne State University Dissertations

Research has examined the experiences of women faculty in higher education. However, the experiences of non-faculty mid-level women administrators within higher education continues to be understudied. Women are often the majority in non-faculty positions, yet men dominate senior level positions. Instead, women are frequently clustered in entry and mid-level administrative roles within student affairs divisions or departments, often with limited access to career ladders. Drawing on the theoretical framework of gendered work organizations, this study explores the experiences of women working in non-academic departments, and analyzes how these experiences impact their career advancement at four-year public universities. More specifically, I …

Exploring The Lived Experience Of Female Presidents In Higher Education: A Journey Of Ascension To The Rural Community College Presidency, Patsy Jackson

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to investigate the lived experience of females who ascended to rural community college presidencies. This study explores their perceptions of barriers and facilitators that influenced their success in capturing a rural community college presidency. Lastly, this study aims to examine their leadership approach and their intended leadership legacy. An imminent leadership crisis exists for community colleges and has created an uncertain future for these open access institutions. The number of qualified applicants to fill the presidential pipeline is declining and sitting presidents are retiring at alarming rates, threatening the sustainable of community …

The Efficacy Of Residential Learning Communities On First Generation, First-Year College Students' Success At A Rural Regional University, April Dannielle Barnes

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of residential learning communities on the success of first-generation first-year students. Using the theoretical framework of Tinto’s Conceptual Schema this study looked at the social and academic integration factors of living in a residential learning community through fall-to-fall retention rates and EKU GPA. A large institutional database was used to identify the first-generation first-year students in the study as well as their demographic differences. When controlling for gender, race, Pell Grant eligibility, high school GPA, and composite ACT scores, results showed participation in residential learning communities did not make a significant difference in the fall-to-fall …

Associations Between School Safety And Behavioral Health Issues: A Multivariable Study Of A Large School Sample In Kentucky, Patricia M. Clark

Online Theses and Dissertations

The perception of feeling safe in school impacts academic achievement of students. As the number of school shootings has grown, implementing effective school safety plans has become a significant job duty of educators. There is some conflict in the exact constructs that fit within the school safety definition and often behavioral health issues are not addressed as part of the school safety planning process. Research shows that when students don’t feel safe their behavioral health issues increase (Fletcher, A., Bonell, C., Sorhaindo, A., & Strange, V., 2009). The multivariable regression study identified the association of substance use, mental health issues, …

An Examination Of Clery Crime Statistics At Four Year Public Institutions Of Higher Education Served By Or Without Dedicated University Police Departments, Bryan Makinen

Online Theses and Dissertations

This paper was written to examine the impact of dedicated university police departments relative to reporting Clery statistics, fundamental information that prospective students and their parents can use in selecting an institution of higher education. The prospect of gaining knowledge and bettering one’s life occurs best when taking place in a safe and transparent environment. While college and university campuses are not immune to crime, similar to society as a whole, they are statistically safer places by which learning can occur.

The college years are instrumental in shaping the lives and mindset of America’s youth by exposing them to a …

Charter Schools And Special Education Enrollment Rates, Mary Ann Lind

Dissertations

There is a growing concern that public charter schools, as publicly funded entities, which are mandated to ensure FAPE and IDEA, are lagging significantly behind public non-charter schools, when it comes to special education student enrollment. This potentially creates an unbalanced special education student ratio between public non-charter schools and public charters. This dissertation examines the enrollment rates of special education students between public charters and public non-charter schools in a large, metropolitan American school district, over a five-year period. This body of work examines causality and the effect of enrollment data along with the potential implications.

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume, 2019

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

What Works: Learning Outcomes Due To Design Variations In Community College Student Success Courses, Deryl K. Hatch-Tocaimaza, Crystal E. Garcia, Naomi Mardock-Uman, Sarah L. Rodriguez, Dallin George Young

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Background/Context: Based on well-established evidence that certain student success skills and college knowledge are closely associated with academic achievement, persistence, and completion, community colleges increasingly implement various types of first-year student success courses and programs. However, by looking only at the distal impact of program participation, the question of whether these programs actually influence those mediating skills of college success has scarcely been investigated in the higher education literature, let alone which program features may be determining factors. Purpose/Objective: This study examined the scope and design of community college student success courses to address which program features relate to learning …

Building Will And Capacity For Improvement In A Rural Research-Practice Partnership, Kristen Campbell Wilcox, Sarah J. Zuckerman

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This study addresses two questions: (1) In what ways and to what extent does a research-practice partnership (RPP) using improvement-science (IS) based processes and tools impact educators’ will and capacity to engage in improvement efforts? and (2) What effect does this RPP have on targeted student outcomes? The RPP highlighted in this research was comprised of university researchers, professional developers, and elementary and junior-senior high school improvement teams including school leaders, teachers, and support staff in the two component schools of a rural district. The study provides evidence that the RPP helped build a district-wide commitment to continuous improvement processes …

Exploring Predictors Of Sense Of Belonging In Trinidad And Tobago, Elizabeth Niehaus, Letitia Williams, Stephanie Zobac, Miles Young, Adam Fullerton

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Over the past two decades, Trinidad and Tobago has promoted explosive expansion of tertiary education. As with many growing postsecondary education systems, this increase in tertiary enrollment has led to the development of student support services (Haddad & Altbach, 2009). The field of student services is growing throughout the Caribbean (Reynolds, 2008), but there is currently little research on the role of student services in fostering students’ sense of belonging specific to the Caribbean cultural context. Using data from over 900 students at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, we examined students’ sense of belonging in the context of T&T. …

Promoting Nurses Management Of Night Shift Sleepiness, Sunday Iken Okundolor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nurses are largely unaware of the problems of night-shift-nurse sleepiness and available strategies to manage night-shift sleepiness. The purpose of this project was to examine nurses' self-perception, awareness of sleepiness, and current strategies to manage this problem in the emergency medicine department of a major academic hospital in the western United States. The validated de-identified Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) was used to measure the prevalence and intensity of night shift nurses' sleepiness prior to the development of an educational program on strategies to manage sleepiness. Of the 164 registered nurses surveyed, 72 (43.9%) reported sleepiness greater than 7 on the …

Training And Supervision Of Paraprofessionals In Special Education: A Qualitative Case Study, Catherine D. Stieg

All Theses And Dissertations

Researchers have identified educator concerns about inadequate paraprofessional training and supervision in PK-12 schools. Studies also show special educators are not adequately prepared to train and supervise the paraprofessionals. Additionally, the voices of special educators and paraprofessionals are narrowly represented in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to document the most effective methods of training and supervision, as perceived by special educators and paraprofessionals in the case study school district. This qualitative case study included two surveys which incorporated the Paraeducator Common Core Guidelines (PCCG) (CEC, 2015) and the concepts of adult learning by Drago-Severson (2015). The …

Survey Of Mennonite Schools Council Educators Final Report, Andromeda Hightower, Peter Wiens, Paul Yoder

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

In the spring of 2019, a survey was given out to the teachers and administrative staff of 25 different Mennonite schools. Paper copies were sent to principals of schools, which were completed during staff meetings without the principal present. Surveys were returned in sealed envelopes. Two schools did not finish, so they completed an online version during the summer. Out of these schools, 24 participated in the survey, with a total of 390 participants represented a wide range of grade levels, content areas, and Mennonite educational context. This report represents the major findings, analysis, and recommendations based on the data …

Early Childhood Teacher Educators Perception Of Their Own Critical Reflection On Race, Ethnicity, And Culture, Nicole Denise Porter

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study examined three tenured early childhood teacher educators from Northern California community colleges on how they valued critical reflection on race, ethnicity, and culture. A narrative inquiry study was conducted to gather information based on in-depth conversational interviews. A timeline identified key experiences, both personal and professional, as well as educational experiences from elementary through high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate if applicable. The data was collected from the conversational interviews and then analyzed using the transformative learning theory by Mezirow (1991) in identifying key themes. The findings yielded three themes (a) exploring race, ethnicity, and culture, (b) understanding …

Student Perceptions Of The Clip Chart Management System, Karin D. Compise

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Six children between the ages of seven and eleven and their parents were interviewed to gather perceptions of the Clip Chart Management System. The Clip Chart system is a behavior system used in many primary classrooms where teachers move students’ clothespins up and down a chart in response to students’ behavior. Some findings from this qualitative case study are: students experienced feelings of shame and embarrassment, students compared their clips to their peers’ clips, and students labeled other students as “bad.” Some parents appreciated the consistency of behavior monitoring, but other parents felt that the system was ineffective and contributed …