Education Commons^™

Development And Validity Inquiry Of A Rubric For Interdisciplinary Competencies In Occupational Safety And Health In Capstone Projects Of Carerc Program Graduates, Olumuyiwa Moses Desmennu

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Emerging demands in the field of interdisciplinary studies reveal a need for competent professionals who can apply their skills and experience to solving complex tasks of the workplace. This has placed inevitable demands on training institutions to adequately equip graduates to deliver on their mandate. Competency appraisal is an effective way to ensure proficiency in graduates. Meanwhile, transparent and valid rubrics provide opportunities for both students and trainers to continuously assess and evaluate the transfer of necessary skills.

This study focused on evaluating interdisciplinary competencies in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in the capstone projects of the CARERC program, a …

A Multilevel Nonlinear Approach Of Piecewise Regression For Detecting Turning Points: Developing An Alternative Platform With An Application Of Timss, Jing Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Studies in recent years have explored the methods of identifying the turning points when dealing with the non-linear relationship. Four approaches applied by researchers, the eyeball approach, the establishment approach, the theory-driven approach, and the data-driven approach, are all under the traditional piecewise regression framework when seeking turning points. Thus, the purpose of this study is to introduce a multilevel piecewise regression model to identify the turning point beyond the traditional piecewise regression, as a completely non-linear approach.

Data used for this study is TIMSS 2019 United States sample. TIMSS is a project guided by the International Association for the …

Survey Development And Validation: Student Self Expectations Of The First-Year College Experience Survey (The Se-Fye Scale), Min Xiao

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

First year at a university is often a transitional stage for students where they have opportunities to grow and develop in various areas and get familiar with a collegiate environment. Understanding what first-year students expect to navigate and succeed in their first year at the university is crucial. Their expectations reflect how well they prepared for university, affecting their behaviors and eventually influencing their intentions to continue higher education. One of the primary purposes of this study was to design a survey to measure student self-expectations of the first-year college experience (the SE-FYE scale) by applying a structured survey development …

Exploring The Use Of Rasch Models To Construct Measures Of Firms’ Profitability With Multiple Discretization Ratio-Type Data, Chen Qiu

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Ratio-type data plays an important role in real-world data analysis. Mass ratios have been created for different purposes, depending on time and people’s needs. Then, it is necessary to create a comprehensive score to extract information from those mass ratios when they measure the same concept from different perspectives. Therefore, this study adopts the same logic of psychometrics to systematically conduct scale development on ratio-type data under the Rasch model. However, it is first necessary to discretize the ratio-type data for use in the Rasch model. Therefore, this study also explores the effect of different data discretization methods on scale …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between Teacher Grit, Technology Self-Efficacy, And Technology Integration, Joshua Jeremiah Shiloh Marsh

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The use of educational technology applications has grown tremendously in the last decade. Instructors are now equipped with hardware and software applications previously unavailable, such as mobile and interactive technologies. These tools can have tremendous impact on students’ learning and teacher practices. Teachers can improve their assessment capabilities through technology integration, provide better learning opportunities for students with learning disabilities, and promote deeper learning practices. Due to these benefits, budgets at the federal, state, and local levels of the United States now have specific allocations regarding technology-related purchases. Nevertheless, barriers remain regarding the effective integration of technologies in public schools. …

Catalyzing Change In Higher Education: Social Capital And Network Leadership In The Competency-Based Education Network, Bruce William Haupt Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Collaborative inter-organizational networks can be effective at catalyzing and supporting the generation and diffusion of new models and practices. With shared purpose, structure, and resources, network organizations can facilitate knowledge exchange and the growth of inter-organizational relationships. In this study, I sought to better understand how network organizations influence social capital and the spread of innovative practices. Of particular interest were the roles of national network and sub-national network organizations (sub-networks), and the interactive learning processes of network newcomers. I focused on the diverse array of colleges and universities involved in the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), and their efforts to …

“How Sweet That I Am The One To Whisper These Things”: A Comparative Case Study Of Active Latin Teaching And Learning, Laura Ann Manning

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The motivation for this study came from a need to construct student-centered pedagogical practices to enhance learning and teaching of the Latin language in K-12 schools in the USA. This study aimed to advance a conceptual understanding of how active Latin teaching and learning occurs and to investigate the potential benefits of applying historical pedagogical frameworks for active Latin teaching practiced during the Renaissance, when Latin was both a lingua franca and a dead language. This study employed a mixed-methods comparative case study including interviews and classroom observations and quantitative analyses of student test scores to determine current active teaching …

Assessing The Impact Of Teacher Self-Efficacy On Teacher Led Physical Activity, Donovan Willard-Lee Ross

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Many children are not meeting national physical activity recommendations and are sedentary during the school day. This has led teachers to implement classroom physical activity to increase movement of their students. This dissertation focused on student perceptions of classroom physical activity and teacher self-efficacy to implement it. This dissertation includes three studies focusing on classroom physical activity: (1) student perceptions of classroom physical activity, (2) an examination of the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and implementation of classroom physical activity, and (3) a description of factors related to teacher implementation of classroom physical activity, including methods of implementation and teacher confidence. …

Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble: How A Hands-On Engineering Project Affects High School Girls' Science/Engineering Self-Efficacy, Interest And Career Considerations, Jennifer Corbett Ferguson

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Engineering education as part of the K-12 curriculum can be an effective instructional tool and its benefits include improved science and mathematical achievement as well as an increased interest and understanding of the engineering field, especially for female students. However, there is a serious lack of research-based engineering curriculum being used at the middle and high school levels and lessons most often rely on building or construction competitions. Over the past decade or two, many well-known colleges have implemented a reverse engineering instructional unit known as Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble projects within their introductory engineering courses. These units have been shown to improve …

Can Less Be More? Study Load And Its Effect On Science Achievement Among Chinese Eighth-Grade Students, Xian Wu

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The present study addressed a core research question of “Can less be more?” concerning study load, which has become increasingly worrisome and controversial around the world. This idea reflects the philosophy of pursuing efficiency and effectiveness on learning, namely that a lighter study load may result in more successful academic achievement. The study adopted the IPO (input-process-output) model to address five interrelated research questions: 1) What are the structural characteristics of study load? 2) Is there any individual difference in study load? 3) What are the characteristics of teachers and schools under which students tend to have a heavier study …

Understanding Education Abroad With Advanced Quantitative Methodologies: Student Profiles And Academic Outcomes, Jie Dai

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This three-study dissertation contributes to the research in the field of participation in education abroad, particularly as it relates to student profiles and academic outcomes. Through employing more robust methodologies across the three studies, this dissertation aims not only to understand what are the factors associated with education abroad participation and how these factors interplay with each other, but also to provide a less biased picture of the impact of participation in education abroad on postsecondary educational outcomes. The studies have implications for equitable and inclusive access to education abroad.

The first study begins with the question: who studies abroad? …

Advanced Multilevel Models For Comparing Group Characteristics: The Case Of Sex Differences In Reading Achievement, Rongxiu Wu

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

To help improve and advance research methodology when comparing the group characteristics, two advanced multilevel models were developed and introduced, which would allow a deeper and more refined look at the issue of sex differences in reading achievement.

The first model is a restricted multilevel model for the examination of institutional effects on multiple groups of individuals. The goal of this multivariate multilevel model with individuals nested within institutions was to estimate the institutional effects on multiple groups of individuals. With the employment of 2009 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data, an application was illustrated to examine whether …

A Partial Simulation Study Of Phantom Effects In Multilevel Analysis Of School Effects: The Case Of School Socioeconomic Composition, Hao Zhou

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Socioeconomic status (SES) affects students’ academic achievement at different levels of an educational system. However, misspecified Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) may bias school SES estimation. In this study, a partial simulation study was conducted to examine how misspecified HLM model bias school and student SES estimation.

The result of this study can be summarized by four important points. First, based on partial simulation procedure, phantom effects of school SES and student SES are real. Second, characteristics of phantom effects are generalized. The stronger the correlation between prior science achievement measure and present science achievement measure, the greater the decrease in …

Toward Assessment Leadership: Study Of Assessment Practices Among School And Classroom Leaders, Carrie Elizabeth Eubank Morris

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Traditionally, models of instructional leadership espouse data-informed decision making in response to student assessment outcomes as one of the core school leader behaviors. In recent years, rising expectations from accountability policies and related assessment practices have myriad implications for school districts, specifically in the areas of standards-driven reform, student assessment systems, and professional development models. As a result, demands on schools to collect and use student assessment data to inform curricular and instructional decisions has expanded. While principals are typically held responsible for school improvement efforts, more contemporary models of instructional leadership incorporate teachers as classroom-based leaders of assessment practices …

Construction And Validation Of A Holistic Education School Evaluation Tool Using Montessori Erdkinder Principles, Anthony Philip Setari

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The purpose of this study was to construct a holistic education school evaluation tool using Montessori Erdkinder principles, and begin the validation process of examining the proposed tool. This study addresses a vital need in the holistic education community for a school evaluation tool. The tool construction process included using Erdkinder literature to justify the development of each item through the use of an item matrix, ultimately leading to the development of the 23 item formative Montessori Erdkinder School Evaluation Survey. The validation process included a series of three Rasch Rating Scale Model analyses with data from a sample school. …

Questioning As A Civic Act: An Examination Of How Social Studies Teachers Define, Develop, And Cultivate Questions For Inquiry, Rebecca Glasgow Williams Mueller

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The present qualitative study used socio-cultural theory (Wertsch, 1998), pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987), and reflective practice (Schön, 1983) to examine how social studies teachers define and develop inquiry questions. Existing literature reflects a long tradition of equating inquiry with high quality social studies instruction (e.g., Barton & Levstik, 2004; Bruner, 1977; Griffin, 1942) and arguing that successful inquiry hinges on an engaging question (Barton & Levstik, 2004; Grant, 2003), but relatively little attention has been paid to how teachers characterize and develop questions for use with inquiry (Grant & Gradwell, 2010). The main research question was: How do high …