Education Commons^™

Asking Appalachia: Appalachian English In The Writing Classroom, Rachel Nicole Hampton

Online Theses and Dissertations

This thesis combines primary and secondary research in order to make an argument about the need for better educational practices for Appalachian students. A problem is first established that, because of how Appalachian people and their culture are represented in the media, negative stereotypes are spread about those from the region who are easily identified by their use of Appalachian English. Standard English is widely taught and students are encouraged to suppress their accent and dialect in order to mediate this. However, these practices allow no room for these students to use and embrace their own language. This thesis investigates …

Effectiveness Of A Corequisite Delivery Model For Developmental Mathematics, Katherine E. Fair

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study is to determine the effectiveness of a corequisite delivery model for developmental math students at a 4-year public institution. Nationally, close to fifty percent of incoming college students are placed in non-credit bearing remedial courses (Complete College America, 2012). Students must pass the remedial course before they can take the gateway college-level course. Data show that the traditional delivery of a non-credit-bearing remedial course before taking a credit-bearing course appears to help only a small percentage of students (Complete College America, 2012). The low pass rate of remedial courses supports the current trend …

Beliefs And Motivations Of Foreign Language Learners, Noriko Okura

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the Eastern Kentucky University students’ current characteristics, purposes, and expectations for learning Japanese and/or Spanish language. A survey was conducted to collect data on EKU students’ demographics, as well as motivations and foreign language learning beliefs. Two hundred thirty eight students completed the questionnaire that includes a modified version of Horwitz’s (1988) “Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory” (BALLI). Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and frequencies were utilized to analyze the BALLI items. Results indicated that EKU students’ demographics are diverse. Students in Japanese and Spanish language classes differed primarily in their language beliefs related to their …

Dual Credit In Southeast Kentucky: Accelerating Appalachian Success Or A Mode To Regress, Roger A. Bowling

Online Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative study about high school student participation in dual credit programming in the rural Appalachian setting of Southeastern Kentucky. The research region is comprised of resource extraction based communities and the coal markets have plummeted. Void the once robust coal industry, Southeast Kentucky will have to reconstruct a new economy. Today’s students in this region can no longer be prepared to enter an established workforce, they must be able to acclimate to and/or forge new jobs. Sustainability requires a refocusing on education. This dissertation provides a qualitative research contribution to the statistical literature available on Kentucky’s …

The Effects Of A Sustained, Job-Embedded Professional Development On Elementary Teachers' Math Teaching Self-Efficacy And The Resulting Effects On Their Students' Achievement, Krista Louise Althauser

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of a district-wide mathematics professional development program on elementary teachers' general and personal efficacy. It also explored connections among teacher efficacy and socioeconomic status with student achievement.

Using a quantitative approach, a job-embedded professional development initiative sustained over a 2-year period with 35 teachers was found to increase teachers' general and personal efficacy in teaching mathematics. The investigation of the professional development work was based on the principles of effective mathematics professional development, efficacy theory, and student achievement. To measure perceptions of teachers' general and personal efficacy, teachers of third graders in 10 Kentucky elementary …