Education Commons^™

Traversing Stem: Creating Pathways For Social Justice In The United States, Remy Dou

South Florida Education Research Conference

The system that once motivated Americans to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers now presents obstacles to racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the poor. This paper highlights both the advantages and hindrances inherent in STEM professions while advocating for improved access to these pathways.

Using The Hpst Framework To Improve Reading Comprehension With Students With Intellectual Disabilities In A University Setting, Jose M. Pombo, Amanda Giust

South Florida Education Research Conference

The HPST Framework, a guide developed for document analysis (Pombo,2015), was implemented in a post secondary transition program at Florida International University. The purpose of this study was to explore the necessary adaptions for the implementation with students with ID at the university level as well as their reading comprehension outcomes.

Leonard Covello: A Study Of Progressive Leadership And Community Empowerment, Lorenzo Krakowsky, Patrick Shannon

Occasional Paper Series

Describes Leonard Covello's progressive work at and around Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, NY.

University Rankings: Evidence And A Conceptual Framework, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jacob Fowles, H. George Frederickson

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated …

Pre-Millennial, Veteran Teacher Perceptions Of Implementing A Digital 1:1 Initiative Into Elementary Classrooms In Three Private, Independent Schools In The Southern United States: A Transcendental Phenomenology, Pamela Mckee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In an effort to improve educational experiences and provide differentiated instruction, both public and private schools alike are requiring the inclusion of 21st century digital technology in K-12 classrooms, and more specifically, 1:1 initiatives that provide a device for each student. Transitioning to a 1:1 classroom initiative presents unique challenges to pre-millennial, veteran teachers. There is limited research examining the experiences and perceptions of this unique group of teachers, especially those involved in private education. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the perceptions of pre-millennial, veteran teachers in three private, independent schools as they integrated digital, …

Peer Tutoring Of Junior Nursing Students: Student Experiences And Perceptions Of Self-Efficacy And Benefit, Mary Clarke

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand the experiences of peer tutoring in junior-level nursing students, as well as the perceptions of increased self-efficacy and overall benefit to student learning. The proposed study included 10 nursing students enrolled in the residential Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at a large private university in the Southeast United States. The theoretical framework guiding this study included both developmental constructivism (Piaget, 1953) and social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1994), as they work in a reciprocal relationship within a conceptual framework. Knowledge is constructed, and as students learn concepts from experiences, they …

Eighth Grade Perspectives: The Relationship Between Students’ Attitudes Towards Math And Students’ Attitudes Toward Music, Glen Lowe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Being successful in math is considered to be important for future employability, and music may be an important venue for students to improve their math skills. Rather than being unrelated, strong musical education programs have been linked to higher performance in math and academics in general. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine whether a statistically significant relationship exists between students’ attitudes toward math and their attitudes toward music with regard to gender. A convenience sample of 107 eighth grade students from a metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia school district participated in two surveys: Tapia’s Attitude Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) …

A Phenomenological Study: The Role Of Spiritual Support In The Persistence Of Online Doctoral Students, Clara Tickal

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to investigate the role of spiritual support in the persistence of online students who have completed their doctorate in education. The definition of internal spiritual support used in this study was “support perceived in the context of an individual’s relationship with God” (Maton, 1989, p. 319). Internal support included the prayers, personal Bible study, and other forms of spiritual interaction between the doctoral student and God. For the purpose of this study, external spiritual support was defined as the spiritual aspect of social support. External support included the spiritual support provided by …

Gender-Related Attitudinal Differences Towards Science Fairs Of Students In Christian Private Schools In South Carolina, Glenda Westbury

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Science fairs afford students at all grade levels the opportunity to practice thinking as a scientist does, a valuable 21st century skill (Jacobs, 2010) and may influence students to pursue STEM-related careers. Even though science fairs have been occurring since the 1920s, literature related to science competitions, especially science fairs, is limited (Dionne et al., 2012; Terzian, 2009). The purpose of this quantitative study was to use a causal comparative research design to determine if there is a difference in overall attitudes towards science fairs, enjoyment of science fairs, and usefulness of science fairs of female and male students at …

How Math Avoidance Influences Degree Completion For Bible College Students: A Case Study Of A Small, Private Institution In Upstate New York, Bonnie Novak

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to describe math perception and avoidance for ministerial undergraduate students at a small, private Bible college in upstate New York. In the research, math avoidance was generally defined as the participants’ perception of math, their delay in completing a credit-bearing math course until their senior year or not at all, and their own learning or degree completion as a result. The theories guiding this study were Tinto’s Retention Theory/Model of Institutional Departure, Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, and Estep’s Theory of Christian Formation. The central question was: How does math avoidance influence persistence …

Vagabond: Returning To Autoethnography As A Doctoral Nomad, Karyn Mcelroy

Dissertations

Vagabond: Returning to Autoethnography as a Doctoral Nomad is a journey into what is described as a purposeful and rhizomatic inquiry of spaces and places in knowing. It prompts questioning within the author such as, “What has this doctoral journey come to mean, and where do I go now as I step outside the roots which have planted in me this need to wander? How do I navigate this struggle?” The work is a coming-to-terms piece. It is a hopeful wandering and documented artifact capturing an organic process of unlearning, relearning, and examining locations of being, while recognizing the emergent …

A Case Study Of The Impact Of Peer-To-Peer Mentoring On Mentors In A Rural High School Setting, Darlene M. Geddes

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Existing research on peer-to-peer mentoring has focused mainly on cross-age peer mentoring with several years’ difference between mentor and mentees (Karcher, 2005, 2007; Lawon, 2014; Willis, Bland, Manka, & Craft, 2012) and the impact of peer mentoring on the mentee. The researcher aimed to examine the relationship of participating in a high school based peer-to-peer mentoring program and the impact on the high school upperclassmen mentors in this study. School is a social organization where peers can develop school connectedness and expand their prosocial skills and through their social networks increase social capital. The impact of peer mentoring programs on …

Creating Cultural Empathy And Challenging Attitudes Through Indigenous Narrative Project, Toni Wain, Moira Sim, Colleen Hayward, Juli Coffin, Donna Mak, Cobie Rudd

Donna Mak

The gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is too large to ignore. This has been attributed to social and economic disadvantage, access to health care and lack of cultural appropriateness of health services and providers. Creating culturally secure healthcare requires that we explore new ways for health professionals to relate to Aboriginal people. This article describes the development, implementation and early results from the Creating cultural empathy and challenging attitudes though Indigenous narrative project. The purpose of the project is to collect and trial narrative resources to engage students in stories of Indigenous people’s perceptions and experience …

Diversity Training Workshop Series: How To Learn And Interact Within A Diverse Community, Katherine Mabel Bernal

Capstone Collection

This capstone focuses on a diversity initiative designed for higher education institutions in the United States and it targets students of all levels and degrees. The theme selected for this capstone is: “Diversity Training Workshop Series: How to Learn and Interact within a Diverse Community” and it will be a co-curricular program that follows the interests promoted by Affirmative Action. Due to the wide range of intersectionalities and the abstract definition of Diversity, in this paper, diversity is defined solely as the “composition of the student body”.

The trainings outline the needs for students to recognize and acknowledge non-visible identity …

A National Bilingual Education Policy For The Economic And Academic Empowerment Of Youth In St. Lucia, West Indies, Gabriella Bellegarde

Capstone Collection

This campaign portfolio argues the case for a national bilingual education policy on the island of St. Lucia, where youth speak both St Lucian Creole and St. Lucian standard English. The portfolio consists of a policy paper and brief, an advocacy plan, a communications plan, monitoring and evaluation plan. The Bilingual Education Taskforce (BET), made up of teachers, parents and principals, is an advocacy organization that discovered the need for a bilingual education intervention when they observed, assessed and analyzed the written work of struggling readers at their school, the Anse la Raye Infant School on the west coast of …

Diversifying The Curriculum: An Analysis Of Diversity Course Policies At The University Of California San Diego, Maria Lourdes Amparo

Capstone Collection

As U.S. higher education institutions and the larger society become increasingly global and racially and ethnically diverse, educational institutions are faced with the challenge of adapting their policies and academic curriculum to reflect and meet the demands of a changing environment. As part of a comprehensive plan to address campus climate issues at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), the UC San Diego Academic Senate revised the undergraduate graduation requirement in 2011 to include one course that focuses on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In addition to having a diverse student population, UC San Diego is ranked …

The Arts Community Without Community: Imagining Aesthetic Curriculum For Active Citizenship, Seungho Moon

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article is about teaching art-based inquiry and equity pedagogy. The author introduces an aesthetic-inspired afterschool curriculum in the urban context in the United States and theorizes the meaning of active citizenship and community. Conceptually framed by “community without community,” this article explicates the ways in which the ARtS children (Aesthetic, Reflexive thoughts, & Sharing) investigated the meanings of community through dance, poetry, and clay art. The author imagines and theorizes community that goes beyond emphasizing solidarity and a collective “we”-ness in the pursuit of social transformation. Rather, the author argues that “community without community” could be an important framework …

Outcomes Of Speech And Language Pilot Program For International Students, Kelly Fussman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Universities in the United States host a substantial number of international students every academic year. As of the 2015-2016 academic year, Western Kentucky University, located in south-central Kentucky, alone hosts over 1,400 international students. These students often face a number of challenges upon arrival in the United States, especially when it comes to language and cultural differences. A considerable body of research indicates that international students’ educational performance and outcomes are significantly impacted by their cultural identities, psychological and sociocultural experiences, and attitudes in relation to English-speaking societies. Many international students attribute academic and social difficulties to a lack of …

Can Philanthropy Be Taught?, Lindsey Mcdougle, Danielle Mcdonald, Huafeng Li, Whitney Mcintyre Miller, Chengxin Xu

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, colleges and universities have begun investing significant resources into an innovative pedagogy known as experiential philanthropy. The pedagogy is considered to be a form of service-learning. It is defined as a learning approach that provides students with opportunities to study social problems and nonprofit organizations and then make decisions about investing funds in them. Experiential philanthropy is intended to integrate academic learning with community engagement by teaching students not only about the practice of philanthropy but also how to evaluate philanthropic responses to social issues. Despite this intent, there has been scant evidence demonstrating that this type …

Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Special Education: Teacher And Outcome Proficiency Self-Rating Form Ensuring Assessment Competency, Tyler Edward Herman

Graduate Education Student Scholarship

This Master’s project investigated current research literature for prevailing prereferral and referral processes of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students to special education evaluation. To that end, this Master’s project sought to strengthen the validity of the referral process for CLD students by creating a self-rating form to guide teachers in accurately differentiating CLD students who are in need of receiving special education services from those who do not need such services. The self-rating form is founded on three competencies of multicultural teacher efficacy and requires teachers to reflect on classroom-level, team collaboration, prereferral, and referral practices. Limitations and suggestions …

Academic Performance, Retention Rates, And Persistence Rates Of First-Year, First-Generation, Latino College Students, Jaime Duran

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was to examine the relationships between the efficacy of a Summer Bridge Academy (SBA) and the impact on students by measuring the Grade Point Averages (GPAs), retention rates, and persistence rates of first-generation, first-year, Latino college students who participated in a SBA at Central Valley Community College against like students who did not participate in same program. The independent variable was participation in a 6 week long SBA, which took place during the summer of 2011. The dependent variables were GPAs, retention rates, and persistence rates, and the control and intervening variables, students …

A Correlational Study Of Teacher Demographics And Racial Color-Blindness, Dudley Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Two primary camps of thought guide K-12 education: Color-blind ideology and Multiculturalism (Rattan & Ambady, 2013). Color-blindness implies color does not matter (Neville, Lilly, Duran, Lee, & Browne, 2000). Shifting student demographics in K-12 education and unchanging demographics of a predominately White, female teaching force create a need for better understanding the dynamics affecting teachers and their interaction with the students they teach. This correlational study utilized multiple regression analyses to answer the following research question: How accurately can racial color-blindness be predicted from the linear combination of age, years-of-experience, and political philosophy for K-12 teachers located in an urbanized …

The Relationship Between Online Classroom Incivility And Sense Of Community Of Online Undergraduate Students, John Spohn

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Incivility is not just bullying and physically threatening students. Uncivil behaviors include more mild forms of classroom disruption, including plagiarizing, posting terse responses, and continually asking for extensions for assignments. A student’s motivation for learning can be hampered, when subjected to incivility causing classroom disruptions. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between student incivility in the online learning environment, as scored by the Incivility in Online Learning Environments instrument, and the student’s sense of community, as measured by the Community Classroom scale. This quantitative study seeks to extend Tuckman’s model (1965) of the Theory of Group …

Academic Vocabulary Instruction And Adult English Language Learners In The Arabian Gulf: A Phenomenological Study Of Instructor Perspectives, Indrani Ibrahim

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe 11 ESL instructors’ experiences and perceptions of why some adult learners in their college level ESL programs in the Gulf States of the Middle East have challenges to academic reading comprehension success. The theories that guided this study were epistemological and axiological ones whereby participants’ descriptions of perceptions regarding academic vocabulary instruction, instructional self-efficacy, and experiences were explored. Adult learning theory of Malcolm Knowles’ coupled with the social cognitive theory espoused by Albert Bandura are the frameworks that underscore the adult learner context and their social learning and instructional environments within …

Post-Secondary Academic Self-Limitation Of Rural High School Students In Northeast Georgia, Jeffrey Lambert

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the phenomenon of academic post-secondary self-limitation of rural high school students in northeast Georgia. The theory guiding this study was based upon self-determination theory, as described by Deci and Ryan (2008). Most high school students must make a decision as to whether or not they continue their education into the post-secondary years. This transcendental phenomenological study examined post-secondary academic self-limitation of high school students in rural, northeast Georgia. This type of phenomenology suggests that the whole of human experience is descriptive and leads to absolute knowledge (Moustakas, 1994). This approach was …

Humanizing Mathematics Through Ethnomodelling, Milton Rosa, Daniel Clark Orey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Ethnomathematical techniques and modelling tools allow us to examine systems taken from the real world and offer us insight into forms of mathematics performed in holistic contexts [3]. A pedagogical approach that connects a diversity of cultural forms of mathematics can be implemented by the use of ethnomodelling, a process of translation and elaboration of problems and questions taken from non-academic systems. Here, we offer examples of studies conducted in Brazil and in the United States that explore this pedagogical approach. Our goal is to broaden the discussion of possibilities for ethnomathematics and associated ethnomodelling perspectives that respect the …

The New Orleans Reformed Public School System: National Model?, Raynard Sanders

Occasional Paper Series

The author describes what happened to the New Orleans Public Schools after Hurricane Katrina.

Introduction: Diving Into The Wreckage: Our Schools, Education Reform, And The Future Society, William Ayers

Occasional Paper Series

"In this special issue of the Bank Street Occasional Papers, we will dive into the wreckage, engage the fight, and hope to reclaim the ground of education in and for democracy." --Author.

Preface: Challenging The Politics Of The Teacher Accountability Movement, Gail M. Boldt

Occasional Paper Series

Explains that this issue is intended as a resource for anyone concerned with re-framing and taking back the educational conversation, moving toward meaningful school reform that is based in a commitment to creating conditions under which teachers can develop the kinds of complex and sophisticated professional knowledges and practices that support authentic student learning.

(Im)Possible Identity: Autoethnographic (Re)Presentations, Seungho Moon, Chris Strople

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper, we examine experience, identity, and their intersections. Working from an autoethnographic positionality, we investigate the insufficiencies of language and the limitations of any given researcher with an intent to address multiple realities and their respective interpretations of meaning. Autoethnographic narratives with the use of visual, written, and multimedia representations further acknowledge the dilemmas of qualitative researchers when they cannot fully describe subjectivities in research. What is deemed to be valid research is often indicative of a theoretical framework that aggressively seeks to invalidate other perspectives and ways of knowing. Thus, we create research spaces by employing counter-narratives …