Education Commons^™

Investigating How Students Communicate Tree-Thinking, Carrie Jo Boyce

Dissertations

Learning is often an active endeavor that requires students work at building conceptual understandings of complex topics. Personal experiences, ideas, and communication all play large roles in developing knowledge of and understanding complex topics. Sometimes these experiences can promote formation of scientifically inaccurate or incomplete ideas. Representations are tools used to help individuals understand complex topics. In biology, one way that educators help people understand evolutionary histories of organisms is by using representations called phylogenetic trees. In order to understand phylogenetics trees, individuals need to understand the conventions associated with phylogenies.

My dissertation, supported by the Tree-Thinking Representational Competence and …

What Concerns Are Secondary Mathematics Teachers Experiencing With The Implementation Of The Common Core State Standards For Mathematics And Is There A Relationship Between The Concerns And Professional Development Received?, Suzanne Therez Jennings

Dissertations

Using the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) as the theoretical framework, this mixed-methods study utilized three research methods, quantitative, profile interpretation, and qualitative to answer the research questions to investigate the concerns teachers were experiencing during the first year of implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and to determine if professional development affected those concerns. The Stage of Concern questionnaire which included two open-ended questions was employed to survey 88 secondary Mississippi mathematics teachers. MANOVA was used to investigate any differences in the means of the relative levels of intensity present within the subgroups which are inconclusive. …

Overcoming The Loss Of Nonverbal Cues Encountered By The Adventitiously Blind: Reconstructing Relationships And Identity, Vernon Floyd Humphrey

Dissertations

In this study, couples shared their experiences adjusting to one of the members loss of sight. Through interviews, their narratives expressed their values, actions, inactions, successes, failures, needs, obstacles, and feelings. Participants explained their standpoint/perspective about vision loss, when it happened, how it affected them, how they reacted and responded, through hindsight how they thought they should have responded, and how they reconstructed a shared interpersonal relationship. Narratives about situations and events after the loss of sight revealed descriptions of their relationships and interactions with each other and other people in their circle. Through constant comparative analysis the individual narratives …

Identifying Characteristics That Influence First-Time, Full-Time Freshmen Persistence And Exploring Effective And Strategic Retention Initiatives For An At-Risk Student Population, Erin Lambert Dornan

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to understand background and behavioral characteristics that influenced student persistence of first-time, full-time, freshmen at a four-year public institution, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM). This study provided an outline for institutions of higher learning to create a profile assessment on their campus and identify students that were more likely to need additional support in order to be successful. Research has shown that understanding students’ needs can increase student retention on campus (Gerdes & Mallinckrodt, 1994; Briceño-Perriott & Mianzo, 2006; O’Keefe, 2013). Coll and Stewart (2008), explained that research in this field was more …

Determining The Academic Achievement Of English Language Learners (Ells) By Using Additional Measures Of Growth, Adriana Maria Marin

Dissertations

Accountability measures employed in the country to determine the academic achievement of all the student population rely solely on the results obtained on the standardized tests. Such measures have often placed English language learners’ (ELLs) at risk of academic failure despite the fact that research on second language acquisition (SLA) has stated the complexity involved in the learning/acquisition process of a target language. Scholars have also discussed the influence accountability measures and the issues with the validity of the tests implemented to assess ELLs may have on such results. Therefore, in an effort to obtain a more comprehensive idea of …

Mississippi High School Assistant Principals' Perceptions Of Their Readiness To Pursue The Principalship And Factors That Might Influence Readiness, Bennett Teague Burchfield

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if certain factors, as well as the influence of these factors, affect the perceptions of assistant principals’ readiness to pursue the principalship. Mississippi high school assistant principals (n=107) responded to an online questionnaire that gathered personal and professional demographic data and also collected a readiness rating as well as an influence of factors ratings both based on a 5-point Likert scale.

A multiple linear regression was used to predict the readiness of assistant principals to pursue the principalship based on personal and professional factors as well the influence of those …

Factors Associated With Electronic Portfolio Adoption Among Pre-Service Teachers, Lin Zhong, Taralynn Hartsell

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This qualitative study investigates factors that affect pre-service teachers’ electronic portfolio adoption process. Data is collected through in-depth interviews and document analysis. Factors affecting pre-service teachers’ adoption of electronic portfolio include school requirements, social pressures, time constraints, previous experiences, family consciousness, and personality. Findings suggest that successful electronic portfolio implementation rely on consideration of both external and internal aspects such as time, motivation, interaction, and technological skills.

Factors Influencing Instructors’ Attitudes Toward Technology Integration, Molefe Mookana Motshegwe, Tshepo Batane

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Attending professional development (PD) on teaching online is becoming popular for teachers in today’s K-12 online education. Due to the unique characteristics of the online instructional environments, surveys become the most feasible approach to evaluate the effectiveness of PD programs. However, there is no validated, open-access instrument available to satisfy the needs. Purpose of this study is to conduct construct validity, content validity, concurrent validity, and reliability tests on an open-access instrument for K–12 PD for online teaching. With the exception of a few items that have minor issues on content and construct validity, results show …

The Validation Of An Instrument For Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Professional Development Program On Teaching Online, Jui-Long Hung, Dazhi Yang

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Attending professional development (PD) on teaching online is becoming popular for teachers in today’s K-12 online education. Due to the unique characteristics of the online instructional environments, surveys become the most feasible approach to evaluate the effectiveness of PD programs. However, there is no validated, open-access instrument available to satisfy the needs. Purpose of this study is to conduct construct validity, content validity, concurrent validity, and reliability tests on an open-access instrument for K–12 PD for online teaching. With the exception of a few items that have minor issues on content and construct validity, results show …

You’Ve Got Mail: Student Preferences Of Instructor Communication In Online Courses In An Age Of Advancing Technologies, Ching-Wen Chang, Beth Hurst, Annice Mclean

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The purpose of this study was to determine students' current preferred ways to receive course communication from their online instructors. In a time when technology is changing daily, and a time when young people are often the most up-to-date with that new technology, students’ preferences for how they receive online course communication is apt to change often too. In order to determine students’ current preferences, a survey was administered two semesters to both graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in an at least online course at a university in the Midwest. Survey results indicated that 97% of the students …

The Implementation Of Common Core: Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Chesnie R. Keeler

Honors Theses

The Common Core State Standards are alive and thriving in schools across the nation, and teachers are constantly looking for the best possible ways to implement these rigorous standards with student interests in mind. These standards set goals, or benchmarks, for students to reach at any specified grade level throughout their primary and secondary education; school districts, administrators, and teachers have the choice of deciding how students meet these standards. As a pre-service teacher who will enter the teaching profession, I examine how graphic novels can be implemented into the English Language Arts classroom by analyzing Maus, Persepolis, …

The Relationship Between Academic Success And Elementary Students Who Practice Elements Of A “Healthy Lifestyle”, Bridget A. Page

Honors Theses

Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Mississippi is the leading state in obesity, and childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). With schools under pressure to improve academically, coupled with the pressure to show that improvement through high-stakes testing, the amount of time that values the importance of physical activity in school has declined. However, research has shown a decrease in physical activity actually leads to a decrease in reading and math scores and an increase in absenteeism, tardiness, and difficulties in concentration (National Parent Teacher …

The Relationship Between Teachers’ Beliefs Concerning Mathematical Problem-Solving And The Strategies Used For Teaching Third - Through Fifth - Grade Students, Jasmine L. Thomas

Honors Theses

Everyone uses problem-solving on a daily basis: paying bills, managing time, and making decisions. It is important to be able to solve problems effectively, especially in mathematics. In 2007, the Mississippi Department of Education produced a set of mathematical objectives for third - through fifth - grade students. These objectives use the phrase problem-solving, without defining its use in the mathematics classroom. To discover what mathematics teachers were actually executing in the classroom, this study used a valid online survey administrated through Qualtrics. The survey focused on determining third - through fifth - grade teachers’ definition of a problem, their …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of The Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-Splost) On Capital Outlay Expenditures In Georgia School Districts, Robert Bradley Benson

Dissertations

In 1996, legislators approved an amendment to the Georgia Constitution which granted local Boards of Education the authority to seek voter approval for a 1% Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST). Revenues from E-SPLOST were to be used exclusively for capital expenses or to retire debt incurred as a result of capital expenses. This study examined eight years of per pupil expenditure data to determine the impact of the E-SPLOST.

The data indicated that differences in per pupil expenditures for instructional equipment were significant, revealing a reduction post E-SPLOST. Further, expenditures for new construction and improvements to …

Moving College Students To A Better Understanding Of Substrate Specificity Of Enzymes Through Utilizing Multimedia Pre-Training And An Interactive Enzyme Model, Mounir R. Saleh

Dissertations

Scientists’ progress in understanding enzyme specificity uncovered a complex natural phenomenon. However, not all of the currently available biology textbooks seem to be up to date on this progress. Students’ understanding of how enzymes work is a core requirement in biochemistry and biology tertiary education. Nevertheless, current pre-college science education does not provide students with enough biochemical background to enable them to understand complex material such as this. To bridge this gap, a multimedia pre-training presentation was prepared to fuel the learner’s prior knowledge with discrete facts necessary to understand the presented concept. This treatment is also known to manage …

Rebel Yale: Yale Graduates And Progressive Ideals At The University Of Mississippi Law School, 1946-1970, Jennifer Paul Anderson

Dissertations

The University of Mississippi School of Law (Ole Miss Law) was the fourth public law school founded in the United States. The school was established to prevent men from leaving the state for legal education due to fears that they were being indoctrinated by eastern schools where ideologies were not consistent with those of Mississippi. One hundred years after her founding, Ole Miss Law entered into a period of turbulence as race and politics clashed on campus. From the time of the Brown decision through the Civil Rights Era, the deans and law professors at the law school were subjected …

Measuring A Cognitive Apprenticeship Model Of Instruction In Statistics Education, Amanda Dawn Leimer

Dissertations

Research has continued to support the need for investigating the role of pedagogical models in relation to students’ statistical anxiety, statistical self-efficacy, and academic performance within statistics education. Although models in the literature such as the Cognitive Apprenticeships Model of Instruction (CA-MOI) have emerged and have shown positive educational outcomes for teaching disciplines that involve the use of complex tasks (Kuo, Hwang, Chen, & Chen, 2012; Poitras & Poitras, 2011; Wegner, 2011), only one study has actually measured the degree to which this model was implemented, using the Maastrict Clinical Teaching Questionnaire (MCTQ) (Stalmeijer et al., 2008). Consequently the problem …

A Mixed Method Study Of The Effectiveness Of Gaining Early Awareness And Readiness For Undergraduate Programs (Gear Up) Federal Incentive Program In Southern Mississippi Public Secondary Schools, David Micah Maxwell

Dissertations

The Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) incentive program has been in place since the late 1990s nationally. This grant, which covers a time span of six years and offers up to eighteen million dollars in federal funds, is designed to increase college readiness and decrease dropout rate among high school students. This study examines the effectiveness of this grant in southern Mississippi for the graduating class of 2014. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the effectiveness of this grant, this study draws some conclusions and recommendations for this incentive program.

Return To Holy Hill: Louisiana College, Academic Freedom, And The Southern Baptist Convention's Conservative Resurgence, 1995-2006, Joseph Learned Odenwald

Dissertations

This study examines a period in the history of Louisiana College in which the college’s sponsoring organization, the Louisiana Baptist Convention, a Southern Baptist affiliate, began to insist that professors at the college teach only in accordance with the official views of the Southern Baptist Convention. The literature is replete with studies on the movement affecting the Southern Baptist seminaries, but little has been written about the impact of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence on the colleges.

As such, this study explores the changes that were made to the academic freedom and governance policies as the trustees sought to …

The Perceptions Of Mississippi Secondary School Counselors And School Administrators Regarding The Role Of School Counselors In Dropout Prevention, Sherrell Chollottie Gilmore

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of high school administrators and professional high school counselors regarding the primary role of professional school counselors in dropout prevention and the most appropriate way to assess professional school counselors’ effectiveness in dropout prevention. The modified Counselor Role Survey instrument was used to survey high school administrators and professional high school counselors. The study used a descriptive causal-comparative quantitative design.

Hypotheses were tested using independent t-tests. The results of the study indicated there was no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of Mississippi high school administrators and professional high …

A Study Of Prekindergarten Impact On Early Literacy Readiness, Lakeisha Shantae Stokes

Dissertations

The awareness of the positive impact of prekindergarten programs on the success of early literacy of students has heightened due to the research performed on the topic (Barnett et al., 2003; Cohen, 1996; Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). The purpose of this study was to evaluate prekindergarten student gains in the development of early literacy skills, depending on their prekindergarten program experience. The study further examined Head Start and public school prekindergarten teachers’ knowledge of early literacy skills.

Results from the prekindergarten teacher survey indicated that public school prekindergarten teachers had higher levels of education than Head Start prekindergarten teachers. The …

The Socio-Cultural Influences Of School Choice, Duke Jon Bradley Iii

Dissertations

This dissertation explored whether the marketable features of three different charter schools in East Atlanta, Georgia influenced parents’ school selections and whether differences in race, income level, and educational attainment created patterns of interest regarding their selections. The accessible population (N=1865) for this study included parents of elementary and middle school aged children enrolled in three East Atlanta schools. A sample of 150 parents of elementary and middle school age charter school students enrolled in the three schools were randomly selected from the accessible population. One hundred percent of the proposed participants (150) agreed to participate as subjects. Data obtained …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Ability To Respond To Active Shooter Incidents, Carole Frances Rider

Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to determine Mississippi high school teachers’ perceptions regarding their preparedness for an active shooter incident. The study included an extensive literature review that included background and policy context, theoretical foundations, pertinent research and professional perspectives and a worldwide timeline of school shootings. The study also included data collection and analysis, results, conclusions, recommendations for policymakers and educational leaders, and recommendations for further research.

The study was conducted to determine if there was a relationship between school planning procedures, participation in practice and drill activity, and administrator preparedness for an active shooter incident and …

Determining Whether A Link Exists Between The Academic Performance Of Mississippi Public School Districts And School Administrators' Use Of Persuasive Communication Techniques And Self-Efficacy In Communication, David Alexander Burris

Dissertations

This study sought to determine whether a link existed between types of persuasive communication methods and the academic performance of school districts and whether administrators’ perceived self-efficacy as communicators was related to the academic performance of school districts. This study could help school officials to analyze their use of persuasive communication methods to determine if they are communicating with the public in a manner that is conducive to achieving the goals related to the academic performance of their district. School officials could also use the results of this study to design or modify an existing public relations plan to communicate …

The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration And Teachers' Level Of Knowledge, Implementation, And Confidence Related To Common Core State Standards For Literacy In History/Social Studies, Science And Technical Subject Areas, Talia Shaunte' Lock

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between elements of teacher collaboration and teachers’ level of knowledge, level of implementation, and level of confidence related to CCSS for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subject Areas in grades 6-12. The study included an extensive literature that included an introduction, pertinent literature and research regarding literacy in the 21^st century, CCSS, cross curriculum, teacher collaboration, the role of leadership, and the theoretical framework. The study also included the methodology, research results, the conclusions, recommendations for policymakers and practitioners, and recommendations for further research.

It was discovered …

Developmental Education At The Community College: An Exploration Of Instructional Best Practices And The Relationship Between Integration, Student Involvement And Rates Of Completion, Beverly Gayle Strickland Lewis

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the developmental education process within the community college system in Mississippi. Tinto’s (1993) Integration Theory and Astin’s (1993) Theory of Student Involvement were employed as a framework to assess and understand the relationship between academic integration, social integration, student involvement, and rates of completion.

This concurrent mixed method study identified best practices related to the successful completion of developmental education courses from the vantage point of the faulty and administration at the community college. A total of ten faculty and administrators from five of the community colleges in Mississippi were given a …

Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Mcleod Bethune, And Septima Clark As Learning Leaders, Chameka Simmons Robinson

Dissertations

African American female educators have a prominent place in the history of adult education. In addition to their work as educators, they often served as activists and leaders that fought for justice and the transformation of individual lives and entire communities. This study examines Anna Julia Cooper, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Septima Clark as learning leaders. As a means of accomplishing this research, the work of the aforementioned educators was aligned with Stephen Preskill & Stephen D. Brookfield’s Nine Learning Tasks of Leadership. The effect of the educators’ learning leadership on their local communities and the implications for modern-day adult …

An Evaluation Of The Attitudes, Beliefs, And Mental Health Literacy Of Young African American College Graduates, Marshae Antoinette Mcneal

Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the attitudes, beliefs, and mental health literacy of young college-educated African Americans as compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Previous research indicates these two populations differ when receiving services for mental illness. The goal of this study was to see if this difference is due to their mental health literacy level, attitudes toward seeking help, as well as their attitudes and beliefs toward mental illness. A quantitative analysis was conducted using elements of the MacArthur Mental Health Module and the Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPHS-SF) to …

Relationships Of Parental Homeschooling Approaches Including Technology Integration, Letitia Annette Walters

Dissertations

This study examined the factors influencing parental selection of homeschooling approaches for their children and the utilization of technology integrated. Factors explored were parental motivators for selecting homeschooling approaches, parental reasons for choosing to homeschooling, technology device usage, and instructional technology integration. The population consisted of parents with at least one year or more of experience in teaching homeschooling and the primary educator being involved in answering the survey. Participants in this study responded to items from a researcher-adapted questionnaire using. The majority of the participants were from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky. A Bachelor's degree was reported as the highest …

Cognitive Function And The Administration Of A Writing Strategy Compendium Incorporating Autobiographical Recall And Art, Jonnie Sue Cleveland

Dissertations

The ability to write is vital in many academic areas (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Roughly 70 percent of U. S. students in a representative sampling during 2010 (grades 8 and 12) scored only at the Basic (fractional grasp of prerequisite information and abilities) level and below (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).

Fifty-four percent of students in the eighth grade and 52 percent of students in the twelfth grade in the United States scored at the Basic level. Another 20 percent of students in the eight grade and 21percent of students in the twelfth grade scored below the Basic level. …