Digital Commons Network^™

Classroom Climate, Culture, Parenting Skills, And Student Grit, Karen Ochoa

Dissertations

The education system has noted that student motivation and perseverance are lacking, yet the focus on standardized testing over the last decade has increased the rigor and expectations in the classroom. As such, educational researchers are always looking for new and inventive ways to enhance student achievement without increasing the financial burden on the schools. Grit is the non-cognitive skill that a person processes that enable them to work hard, endure, and persevere through challenging times. A person who exhibits grit often succeeds over those who have the cognitive ability but do not have grit. Children in countries with collectivist …

A Qualitative Approach To Understanding The Career Perceptions And Choices Of Stem Undergraduate And Graduate Students, Jennifer M. Ribble

Dissertations

In order to remain competitive in the global economy, there has been a call to increase recruitment and retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers in the United States (National Science Board, 2014, 2016; President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2012). In addition to increasing the number of individuals in these fields, it is also imperative to increase the diversity of the individuals filling STEM positions. Not only is it a moral responsibility to create STEM environments that are more inclusive of those who have been historically marginalized in STEM settings, but it is critical in …

Factors That Influence High School Students' Postsecondary Career Decisions In A Guaranteed-Tuition Based School District, Tracy Y. Miller

Dissertations

This study explored factors that influence the postsecondary career decisions of 427 11th and 12th grade students in a guaranteed tuition-based school district in a Midwestern state. Since 2005, this district has had a “Promise” program where eligible students can get up to 100% of their postsecondary tuition paid to attend a college, university, technical, or skilled trade program, or participate in an apprenticeship. Students have up to 10 years after graduating high school to utilize the funding. In addition, students who decide to enter the military after high school have up to 10 years to utilize the funding after …

Algebraic Reasoning And Conceptual Understanding: A Mixed Methods Comparison Of In-Person And Virtual Classroom Strategies, Erneice J. Jackson

Dissertations

Algebraic reasoning is the beginning school of thought to critical thinking. Employers are looking for this 21st century skill. The purpose of this research was to investigate equity in mathematics education using the NCTM Teaching and Learnings Beliefs Survey. Four area were studied: the number of years in education, the degree earned, the grade level taught in education, and the number of years in an educator’s teaching position. A mixed methods inventory was used. Most results were not rejected in this study. Two statements in the survey warranted a discussion. Recommendations were made for further research.

Development Of The Teaching Twice Exceptional Students Scale, Michelle Ann Godzinski

Dissertations

Twice exceptional (2e) students are a unique population of students, who present with a wide range of strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, it is important for teachers to be trained and feel prepared to work with these students. Teacher self-efficacy has been shown to influence both student and personal outcomes (e.g. student perceptions of school, student academic success, teacher retention, etc). The Teaching Twice Exceptional Students Scale (TTESS) was developed as a way to measure teacher’s self-efficacy in regard to working with 2e students, so that districts may better identify gaps in knowledge or training that teachers may have. …

Negative Memory Bias And The Impact Of Early Childhood Stress, Elizabeth Cecile Shmikler

Dissertations

Childhood Trauma is a pervasive problem in the United States, and research suggests it serves as a strong contributor and. Predictor for a multitude of negative mental and physical health disorders (Vrijsen et al., 2018). Negative memory bias, a neuropsychological precursor to later onset of adult mental health disorders, has been scientifically related to childhood trauma (Pollak et al., 1998). Despite numerous findings supporting the relationship between negative memory bias, childhood trauma, and mental health, little is known regarding the age of onset of negative memory bias (Brainerd & Reyna, 2012; Kujawa et al., 2011). Given the research supporting the …

The Experiences Of Beginning Counselor Education And Supervision Faculty In The Supervision-Of-Supervision Relationship, Bonnie Jean Nicholson

Dissertations

This narrative study attempted to explore the experience of beginning counselor educators in providing supervision to doctoral supervisors-in-training. The need for a greater understanding of the supervision-of-supervision process is well recognized within the profession of counseling (e.g., Barker & Hunsley, 2013; Borders & Giordano, 2016). Four counselor educators in the beginning years of employment at a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2015) accredited counselor education and supervision doctoral program provided narratives of their own experiences providing supervision-of-supervision. Nine themes and 18 subthemes emerged from the data analysis; the following nine themes were confirmed by the participants …

“I Don’T Believe The World Is Tilted”: Emotion, Struggle, And Relationship In Making Meaning With Texts, Alison Faye Oddie

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how the social and cultural practices of classroom literacy instruction afforded students opportunities to make meaning with texts. Research was conducted from a sociocultural perspective that focused on students as participants in social learning, in a context of interactive relations. This study was responsive to contemporary developments of the sociocultural tradition, recognizing the importance of emotion and other subjective means for constructing understanding. Two classes of a turnaround school, 18 Second-Grade students and 20 Third-Grade students, were observed as they participated in Interactive Read Aloud and Guided Reading over a period of …

Predicting Nurse Faculty Intent To Stay: A Quantitative Study Of Contributing Factors And Their Influence, Erica Frost

Dissertations

The United States faces a shortage of nursing faculty members, impacting the nation’s ability to meet the demand for more nurses in the workforce. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that predicted nurse faculty members’ intent to stay in academe. Dozens of factors were identified in the literature and grouped using Herzberg’s (1966) motivation-hygiene theory of job satisfaction. An online questionnaire was administered to 402 full-time prelicensure baccalaureate nursing faculty in the United States. The survey measured personal, job, and organizational factors including demographics, emotional intelligence, resilience, educational preparation, self-efficacy, mentoring and orientation, interpersonal relationships, and satisfaction …

The Impact Of Rater Effects On Decision Consistency And Decision Accuracy Under The Many-Facet Rasch Measurement Framework, Haussohou Daniel Edi

Dissertations

The rise of performance-based assessments in high-stakes licensure examinations has brought many challenges in the field of measurement. Although examiners are commonly trained to apply a standardized rating of examinees, the introduction of human subjectivity to the measurement process poses a threat to the reliability and validity of scores from these assessments (Wind & Guo, 2021). Considering the high-stakes decisions based on performance-based assessments when they are used for licensure, it is essential to provide evidence of the consequences that rater effects have on decision consistency and decision accuracy, within and across rating designs. The purpose of this dissertation study …

Self-Regulation In The Learning Experiences Of School Choice Students, Melody Lynn Schmidt

Dissertations

This study explores self-regulation in the learning experiences of school choice students who have attended a traditional public school and a charter public school. Research shows self-regulation is a form of non-cognitive executive functioning characterized by many observable traits children employ in their learning environments. Self-regulation development in the learning investments students make relates to school mobility, social identity, and connectedness while navigating their learning amid school changes (Golden, 2017; Langenkamp, 2016). School mobility may impact students by lowering self-regulation and increasing school dropout through compromised social identity and connectedness (Jdaitawi, 2015; Rumberger & Larson, 1998). Understanding the distinction between …

Complex Adaptive Systems Leadership In A Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, And Ambiguous (Vuca) Environment: A Case Study Of A First-Year Female Superintendent Of Color, Karika Ann Parker

Dissertations

Superintendents in the K-12 education system in the United States are called upon to ameliorate problems and issues derived from many internal and external forces since its inception. Current literature reveals that, superintendents face complex challenges to improve district level educational outcomes for students within environments that are more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) and do require a shift from dominant traditional (hierarchal and control) leadership approaches. The aim of this qualitative case study of interviews is to represent the single voice of a first-year female superintendent of color’s (Asian, Indian descent) perspective, perceptions, thoughts, and experiences. The interviews …

Braving The Sea Change: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study Of How Counselors-In-Training Experience Their Interpersonal And Intrapersonal Relationships, Christopher Jess Ward

Dissertations

This interpretive phenomenological analysis asked counselors-in-training (CITs) to reflect on their connections with important others and with themselves, noting any changes which took place within said relationships over the course of counselor training. Seven CITs provided rich narratives around relational shifts and personal/professional development, bringing to the surface superordinate themes of (a) Insecurity and Confusion, (b) Growing Pains, and (c) Overcoming and Resilience. Superordinate themes were further divided into the following sub-themes: Insecurity and Confusion: Professional/Personal Identity Integration, Mental Health and Responsibility, Reassurance; Growing Pains: Relationship Imbalanced and Disequilibrium, Loneliness; Overcoming and Resilience: Ruptures and Repairs, Outright Benefits, Self-Prioritization. These …

Development Of Geoscience Interest And Identity Of Female First-Generation Undergraduate Geoscience Students, Dina London

Dissertations

The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand how female first-generation undergraduate geoscience students developed their situational geoscience interests into individual interests that, in turn, supported their geoscience identity and decision to become a geoscience major. The experiences of six female first-generation undergraduate geoscience students were used to explore how geoscience interests and geoscience identities developed over time. I analyzed three artifacts representing participants’ geoscience identity, geoscience interest development timeline, and transcribed interviews to explore emerging themes relating to interest and identity development. Participants described events relating to their situational geoscience interests, individual geoscience interests, and the formation …

Exploring Formative Versus Summative Assessment Models On Creative Mindset Development, Dylan Patrick James Kriescher

Dissertations

The purpose of the current research was to explore how the repeated presentation of process-oriented feedback from multiple task attempts can help develop students’ growth mindset. A standard model of assessment practices often involves a one-time summative assessment at the end of a learning period. An alternative model involves the use of formative assessments as intermittent process-oriented feedback throughout a learning period. The use of formative assessment feedback may demonstrate growth to students, while this opportunity is not offered by the summative assessment model. Using elements of formative assessment and guided by Dweck’s (2006) conceptualization of growth mindset, this study …

Animal-Assisted Interventions In Supervision: A Collective Case Study, Connie Elizabeth Couch

Dissertations

Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) have been discussed in recent conceptual literature as having potential for positive implications when applied in supervision (Chandler, 2017; Jackson, 2020; Owenby, 2017; Stewart et al., 2015). However, there was limited empirical foundation or guidance for the integration of two distinct specializations (AAIs and supervision). The purpose of this qualitative collective case study (Stake, 2006) was to explore and understand the experiences of supervisors who have been implementing AAIs within the context of supervision. Specifically, this study addressed the following overarching research question and two sub-questions were addressed: Q1 Why are supervisors integrating AAIs into supervision? Q1a …

Preclinical Behavioral Assessments Of Mitraginyne, The Main Psychoactive Alkaloid In Kratom, Rachel Burroughs

Dissertations

Mitragyna speciosa (kratom) is a medicinal plant indigenous to Southeast Asia and Africa with a long history of use for a variety of ailments, including diarrhea, pain relief, cough suppression, and amelioration of opiate withdrawal symptoms. Despite its status as an herbal remedy, kratom is banned in some countries due to a myriad of negative health risks. Preclinical psychopharmacology studies of mitragynine (MG), the main alkaloid of kratom, indicate it has opioid-like effects at higher doses and psychostimulant-like effects at lower doses. The current study utilized three rodent behavioral paradigms to evaluate the putative psychostimulant effects of MG. The specific …

Intersectional Identities Of Race And Religion Of African American Muslims And Their Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services, Cheruba A. Dhanaraj

Dissertations

African American Muslims have overlapping and interconnected identities of race and religion that can be conceptualized by the intersectionality framework to understand the complexities of barriers they face when seeking mental health services. African American Muslims have a higher risk of mental health issues due to systemic racism, racial discrimination, racial trauma, and Islamophobic discrimination. Yet, there is a lack of scholarly research or studies that focus explicitly on African American Muslims' specific mental health needs, barriers, and attitudes related to seeking mental health treatment.

This study sought to fill the gap in knowledge about attitudes toward seeking mental health …

What We Say Matters: Exploring The Importance Of Microaggression Language For Lgbtq+ Science Major Undergraduate Students, Madison L. Fitzgerald-Russell

Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to better understand the climate for LGBTQ+ science major undergraduates in their departments through a transformative queer theory lens and intersectionality. Prior research on campus and STEM department climates have demonstrated inclusion issues continue to persist for LGBTQ+ individuals in higher education. One of these issues is discrimination in the form of microaggressions. Microaggressions against LGBTQ+ individuals have been demonstrated to cause physical, mental, and academic harm. In the literature, there is limited information on how microaggressions impact students in particular STEM fields.

LGBTQ+ science undergraduates from public colleges and universities in …

The Acculturation Process Of International Students In Cacrep Counseling Programs: A Grounded Theory Approach, Hanny Wuysang

Dissertations

International students bring diverse, multicultural perspectives to the U.S. postsecondary education system through their participation in higher education. However, in their adjustment to U.S. higher education, international students in counseling programs face barriers and challenges such as language differences, lack of support, microaggressions and discrimination, culture shock, and different perspectives on mental health treatment as compared to their home cultures. These factors can interfere with their daily personal and academic lives, yet there is often minimal support from their academic programs and host institutions. The growing number of international students in counseling programs increases the importance of understanding their acculturation …

Clinical Nurse Educator Needs: A Mixed Methods Study Of Confidence To Perform Competencies In Clinical Nurse Educators, Sarah Ann Wallace

Dissertations

Clinical nurse educators oversee students in clinical practice settings to teach safe and effective patient care. Current national shortages require schools to utilize novice nurse educators to fill these roles. Clinical nurse educators enter academia with varying backgrounds, experiences, and educational preparations. Novice nurse educators might struggle with role ambiguity with increasing levels of stress during the transition process. Recent national competencies were created to clarify the clinical nurse educator role. This study explored clinical nurse educators’ perceived self-confidence in performing competencies through a mixed methods approach using the Clinical Nurse Educator Skill Acquisition Assessment (CNESAA) and interviews. Seventeen participants …

Developing And Assessing The Psychometric Properties Of A Multidimensional College Mental Health Assessment Inventory: A Mixed-Methods Study, John Sylvester

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a multidimensional College Mental Health Assessment Inventory (CMHAI) specifically for the college student population. In the first phase, a conceptual and theoretical review of general existing scales was performed, followed by conducting exploratory semi-structured interviews with twelve participants. From the interviews, I identified themes/constructs (domains) comprised of 52 items to make up the initial inventory. Participants believed these themes to be worthy of note: (a) admission to college with pre-existing mental conditions; (b) students’ expectation about college versus the actual experience; (c) college as a new environment brings about feelings of loneliness; …

Exploring Teacher Self-Efficacy In Nurse Educators: A Mixed Method Study, Wendi Noelle Liverman

Dissertations

In the face of a rapidly changing healthcare environment and a nursing shortage, schools of nursing are pressed to produce higher numbers of fully prepared nurse graduates. In other disciplines, teacher self-efficacy has been linked to better student outcomes, faculty instructional methods, and student engagement. This construct has not been well studied in nursing education. This mixed methods study investigated how current faculty perceive their teacher self-efficacy as measured by the Self-Efficacy Towards Teaching Inventory-Nursing Education (SETTI-NE) survey and identified contributing factors, followed by interviews gathering qualitative data from nine faculty members of varying SETTI-NE scores as well as varying …

Investigating Nurses’ Career Choice Through The Social Congnitive Career Theory’S Self-Management Model, Tina Howard

Dissertations

The United States is in a healthcare crisis. There is a substantial shortage of nurses (Buerhaus et al., 2017). Making matters worse is the nurse faculty shortage (Daw et al., 2018). As the population ages and uses more resources, there is a need for even more nurses. The aging population includes nursing faculty. The average age of a nurse faculty member is approximately ten years from retirement (Oermann et al., 2015). The exodus of nurses from the profession adds to the problem because the number of students graduating from nursing school already falls short. The crisis can become catastrophic if …

Is It My Job? How Emotions And Identity Development Drive White Senior Student Affairs Officers To Claim Responsibility For Creating Equity On Campus, Morgan J. Bradford Diaz

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how emotions and identity development create pathways for White deans of students to understand their responsibility in fostering a campus community that is equitable for all. From the frameworks of emotional intelligence and White identity development, I illustrated the nature of the varying, often emotion-driven, work of deans of students on ever-increasingly diverse college campuses. Within a poststructuralist paradigm and narrative inquiry methodology, ten participants engaged in three scaffolded critical reflection methods confronting areas of privilege and cognitive dissonance. Narratives fostered a culmination of powerful metaphors and lived experiences of White deans …

It’S More Than Nursing: The Experiences Of Psychological Safety Of Pre-Licensure Nursing Students Who Identify As Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color, Melissa Marie Anozie

Dissertations

The healthcare environment mandates its staff are able to communicate freely and openly to provide high quality patient care leading to positive patient outcomes. As the largest healthcare profession and those who are at the bedside most often with patients, registered nurses play a vital role in ensuring these outcomes. As advocates for the most vulnerable, nurses must communicate often but before doing so, they must feel psychologically safe. Psychological safety is how one perceives the benefits, risks, and consequences of asking a question, sharing an opinion, reporting an error, or revealing one’s true self to others. It is a …

An Exploration Of Stressors And Perceptions Of Wellness Among Christian Church Ministry Wives, Laura Ann Kellicut

Dissertations

Ministerial families are in the unique situation of a two-person career, where although the husband is the only one employed by the church, the wife is also expected to perform church specific demands and responsibilities (Frame & Shehan, 1994; Lifeway, 2017). Unique variables and factors of stress among ministry wives have been identified along with how their role affects certain domains of life (Douglas, 1961; Frame & Shehan, 1994; Lee, 2007; Zoba, 1997; Luedtke & Sneed, 2018). Lifeway Research (2017) found that 78% of ministers' spouses experienced some level of burnout with 22% at the highest levels. In the literature, …

Investigating The Prevalence Of Social Anxiety In Lgb College Students, Brianna Barnes-Harrington

Dissertations

This project examined the gap in the literature on LGB college students and social anxiety. The dearth of information around the prevalence and impact of social anxiety on the college population and the LGB population is important because social anxiety is known to be prevalent and chronic, affecting all areas of an individual’s life, but especially impacting the creation of social support networks and therefore access to social supports. Social support is one of the primary protective factors and promoters of resilience among all people, especially in marginalized communities like the LGBTQ community. Knowing that such a prevalent disorder is …

Crafting A Different Kind Of Story: Experiences Of Creative Writers Leading In Higher Education, Meredith L. Dodson

Dissertations

Connections between creativity and leadership often focus on how fostering creativity can help an organization. Despite the value that creativity can bring to organizations, Mueller et al. (2011) found that creative people themselves are not seen as leadership material. Yet many people with creative backgrounds do take on leadership roles, particularly in higher education.

This qualitative study explores the experiences of higher education leaders who have a background in creative writing and how those leaders perceive the interaction of the leadership role with their creative experience. The sample included 12 mid-level leaders in higher education who had an MFA or …

The Impact Of Intervention Programs For Teenagers At Risk Among Middle And High School Students In Southeast Missouri, Bryan Austin

Dissertations

At-risk students have been noted to be exposed to high cases of early school dropout, late graduation, poor academic performance, and engagement in risky behaviors, such as drug and substance abuse. While research has reported poor transition to future careers and adult life among at-risk students, little is known regarding intervention programs used in Missouri schools to motivate at-risk students. The objective of this study was to investigate intervention programs being used to retain and engage at-risk middle and high school teenagers in Missouri and identify effective intervention programs that might help promote their success in school and subsequent transition …