Education Commons^™

The Effects Of An Overnight Environmental Science Education Program On Students' Attendance Rate Change For Middle School Years, Jennifer Elizabeth Basham

Dissertations and Theses

Programs that engage middle students in participatory, real-world, and hands-on field based instruction can be a powerful asset to the educational experiences for students; motivating and inspiring some to appreciate and value school in a different way. Overnight environmental science programs have a unique opportunity to support students by creating experiences where students can participate in learning in vastly different ways from what they may engage with in the traditional 4-walled classroom, while concurrently developing a relationship with the natural world. Decreasing educational budgets and increased need to substantiate educational programs in terms of their impact on students has added …

Principal Leadership Practices In High Poverty K-5 Model Schools In Oregon, Janice Marie Adams

Dissertations and Theses

Children living in poverty in the United States face some of life's greatest challenges, including achieving academic success in school. Evidence is also emerging of a growing income disparity in America that affects families, communities and local labor markets in ways that can undermine the effectiveness of schools serving disadvantaged populations (Duncan & Murnane, 2011). Evidence exists, however, that high academic performance is within the reach of all children in high poverty schools, and that principal leadership is a contributing factor.

This study examined principal leadership practices in three high poverty K-5 elementary schools in Oregon identified as Model schools …

Effective Technology Implementation In Schools: Differing Perceptions Of Teachers, Administrators, And Technology Staff, Joseph Stephen Morelock

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the connection between perceptions of teacher self-efficacy, professional development, and leadership practices and attitudes as it relates to successful implementation of technology for student learning in K-12 schools. As external pressures exhort schools to transform the learning environment and to include more meaningful applications of technology in the learning experiences for all students, issues which create barriers to a successful implementation of new practices must be examined.

This study examined the responses of teachers, school and district administrators, and technology support personnel in a stratified random sample from 37 school districts in the state of Oregon to …

Going Deep: Reflections On Teaching Deep Ecology In Costa Rica, Heather L. Burns, Jeffrey Briley

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainability education aims to help learners understand their interconnectedness with all life, to become creative problem solvers and active citizens, and to engage personally and intellectually in shaping our common future. Experiential learning and critical pedagogy are central to providing opportunities for learners to engage in transformative sustainability learning. The short-term study abroad course, Theory and Practice of Sustainability in Costa Rica, provides one example of sustainability learning through the lens of deep ecology. This short term study abroad course was designed to create sustainability learning that is transformational, thematic and co-created, focuses on multiple perspectives and questions dominant paradigms, …

School Reform And Coaching: Identifying Structures For Successful Implementation Of A Data Informed Decision-Making Program, Kristan D. Parman

Dissertations and Theses

During the past 50 years, the landscape of education shifted from a rank order model to a system where all students are expected to achieve at a minimum level. This led to reforms in the way schools operate and teachers teach. One change to teaching is the use of data to inform instructional practices and student groupings. The need for teachers to increase their data use and change their instruction has prompted the need for professional development practices to be more effective. Coaching has been shown to be an effective professional development strategy to help teachers transfer new skills into …

Leadership And Decision-Making Skills Of High Poverty Elementary School Principals In An Era Of Reduced Resources, Kevin Eugene Spooner

Dissertations and Theses

Recently, a great deal of interest has been generated around the role of principal and its effectiveness, especially its impact on improving teacher instruction and student learning. Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2003) concluded that one quarter of all "school effects" on achievement can be attributed to principals. While there is general agreement on the principal's importance and affect, do we understand how principals have adapted to changes in schools with reduced resources and increased learning needs of students? How have principals made decisions in an environment where resources have been reduced over time? Given the stories of retired principals from …

The Scholarship Of Student Affairs Professionals: Effective Writing Strategies And Scholarly Identity Formation Explored Through A Coaching Model, Lisa Janie Hatfield

Dissertations and Theses

Student affairs professionals work directly with university students in various programs that provide services to these students. From these experiences, they collect daily valuable insights about how to serve students successfully. Yet, in general, they are not publishing about their work even though dissemination of such knowledge through publication could positively impact programs and services across many institutions. My dissertation explored what happens when mid-level student affairs professionals pursue scholarly writing during a structured program intended to help participants produce manuscripts for publication. In working with five professionals in student services at a large urban institution in the Pacific Northwest …

Peripheral No More: Repositioning Narratives For Empowerment And Change In Sustainability Education, Rell G. Ohlson

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

The field of sustainability education challenges dominant modes of thought, with a particular emphasis on the need for diversity and "multiple perspectives" in order to confront complex issues (Capra, 2005; Sterling, 2001; Wheatley, 2006). If this is the case, why are certain perspectives still missing and what narratives have been given prominence? This comprehensive paper examines the problems of a dominant narrative in sustainability education. In order for sustainability education to be truly transformative and empowering for students, leaders, and their communities, the narrative of sustainability must be repositioned from a dominant, white, middle-class context to one that affirms, values …

Leadership For Sustainability: Theoretical Foundations And Pedagogical Practices That Foster Change, Heather Burns, Heather Diamond-Vaught, Corin Bauman

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainability education has a significant role to play in changing the leadership paradigm and fostering leaders who are capable of working collaboratively to address complex sustainability challenges. Leadership for sustainability denotes a new and expanded understanding of leadership that signifies taking action based on sustainability values, leading from a living processes paradigm, and creating an inclusive, collaborative and reflective leadership process. This paper examines and weaves together literature on leadership, leadership development, and sustainability education to suggest best practices in leadership development. A variety of suggested pedagogical practices that foster the development of leaders include: observation and self-awareness, reflection, the …

School Culture And The Affective Learning Needs Of Latino Long-Term English Learners, Maureen Ray

Dissertations and Theses

The US Department of Education projects that by the year 2030 the total English Learner (EL) population in US schools will exceed 40 percent. Currently, by the time ELs make it to high school, after 6 or more years in English Language Development (ELD) programs, the majority (59 percent), are Long Term English Learners (LTEL). LTEL students represent a variety of ethnicities and language groups, but the focus of this qualitative study is LTEL students who identify as Latino LTEL. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and explain recently graduated Latino LTEL's perceptions of the impact of …

A Grateful Recollecting: A Qualitative Study Of The Long-Term Impact Of Service-Learning On Graduates, Ann Fullerton, Vicki L. Reitenauer, Seanna Kerrigan

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Service-learning practitioners design community engagement activities to affect students in powerful and even transformative ways. This qualitative study explores the long-term impacts (3-16 years after graduation) of participation in a senior-level service-learning course. Through interviews with 20 randomly selected participants, the researchers explored whether and in what ways graduates continued to experience impacts from the course, including those that have become interwoven with other life experiences or have catalyzed altered perspectives and/or actions. Graduates were first asked to identify their most significant learning experiences in college in order to gauge the relative importance, if any, of the service-learning course in …

“Contagious Co-Motion”: Student Voices On Being Change Agents, Vicki L. Reitenauer, Tetiana Korzun, Kimberly Lane, Melinda Joy Roberts

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Designed in response to students’ requests for a capstone where they could form their own individual partnerships in the communities of their choosing, Effective Change Agent offers a structure for community-based learning that allows for high levels of student choice-making and agency. In this article, the authors describe the course; connect it to literature on grassroots change-making, integrative learning, and service-learning; and, through the inclusion of student authors, allow the sharing of insights in the students’ own voices.

To This Day: College Graduates On The Lasting Significance Of Relationality And Experiential Learning, Ann Fullerton, Vicki L. Reitenauer

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the past twenty years, much research has been conducted into the effects of community-based learning and service-learning on students, but studies into the long-term impacts that persist after graduation have been fewer in number. In this article, the authors share perspectives from Portland State University alumni on the lasting significance of their participation in a community-based learning course that has been operating continuously for more than two decades and the key features of significant learning experiences more generally.