Education Commons^™

Addressing The Need For An Appropriate Adult Learning Environment To Increase Student Retention And Success, Karen L. Morgan-Bowyer

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to transform a learning environment for adult learners who have faced trauma and have had negative educational experiences. The OIP seeks to identify barriers to learning and well-being for this group and develop effective strategies to create a supportive and inclusive environment that promotes learner retention, engagement, and empowerment. Through the lens of transformational and servant leadership, the OIP incorporates actionable steps, including the development of trauma-informed andragogy into daily practices and interactions with adult learners, the provision of training and support for faculty and staff to understand the needs of this group of …

Interventions To Increase Prospective Teacher Candidates' Praxis Ii Content Exam Scores, Takara Hart

All Dissertations

Teacher shortages are a pervasive issue in South Carolina’s public schools. Some prospective teacher candidates have shown obstacles in meeting the minimum required Praxis II Content exam score. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and develop specific Praxis II Content exam interventions to improve scores for six prospective teacher candidates in South Carolina. All participants were trying to meet the licensure exam requirement for various alternative certification programs. Malcolm Knowles’ Andragogy Adult Learning Theory guided the study as a theoretical framework, and Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Constructivism provided the conceptual frame. Descriptive coding and analysis, using Dedoose …

Plus 50 Students And Their Experiences With Technology In Undergraduate Classes, Jamillah L. Boyd, Nykea T. Watts-Edwards

Dissertations

As adult learners over 50 continue to pursue higher education, postsecondary institutions should have resources and services available to support this demographic. Previous research often combines Plus 50 students with all nontraditional students 24 years and older, making it difficult to understand the unique needs and learning experiences of older adult students in the academic environment. The use of technology for curriculum has increased significantly over the years and may present challenges for Plus 50 learners as they are introduced to it and learn to navigate it. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Plus 50 …

Religious Leadership: Agents Of Social Change, Jacqueline Carter

Dissertations

Historically, churches in the United States acquired respect as institutions that cultivated spiritual maturity and advocated for social equality in Black communities. Religious leaders represent the voice of reason for communities facing complex social problems, then and today. How educational attainment influences religious leaders’ social action strategies and decisions to engage or disengage in social activism is under explored. Additionally, it is unclear what strategies religious leaders use for social advocacy in their communities. Using andragogy and social cognitive theory as theoretical frameworks, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the educational experiences of religious leaders to understand …

Overcoming Learning Anxiety In Workplace Learning: A Study Of Best Practices And Training Accommodations That Improve Workplace Learning, Ann-Marie Piscitelli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. and affect 40 million adults, or 18.1% of the population each year. Anxiety plays an essential role in encouraging productive learning outcomes; however, uncontrolled anxiety could result in heightened emotions that create barriers to learning. Employees who have anxiety disorders may experience these barriers to learning when in traditional training programs and may require support or accommodations to boost their unique learning needs for development in the workplace. Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals’ challenge is how best to intervene when an employee exhibits behaviors of learning anxiety to nurture …

Exploring Critical Media Literacy Skills Of Adults On Twitter During The Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic In The United States In The Spring And Summer Of 2020, Renee Thomas Woods

Dissertations

This study explores the self-directed learning behaviors of adult users of the social media vehicle, Twitter, through the lens of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States during the spring and summer of 2020. The objective was to identify Twitter usage patterns to determine adults’ awareness and use of media literacy and critical media literacy skills with social media content they consume. This study, informed by two focus groups and six individual interviews, is based on a qualitative research design using a constructivist approach. The central question is how do adults use critical media literacy on social media when gathering information …

Andragogy For All? A Look At Arkansas Community College Students' Preferences For Andragogical Assumptions, Emilee Sides

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community colleges are tasked with juggling multiple missions. They provide open access to education for adults in their community, work with industry partners to educate the local workforce, and provide relevant programming to the communities they serve. When compared with students at four-year institutions, community college students are older, more ethnically and racially diverse, come from lower socioeconomic statuses, and less academically prepared.

Like other community colleges across the country, one of the primary goals of Arkansas community colleges is to help their students succeed. Unfortunately, the state has historically performed poorly in regard to educational outcomes. To get the …

Understanding Teacher Experience With Instructional Coaching To Inform Program Improvement Reflecting The Principles Of Adult Learning Theory: A Mixed Method Case Study, Shay Reitz

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Instructional Coaching (IC) is a strand of Professional Development (PD) during which an instructional coach provides individualized support and feedback to teachers, focused on instruction, generally within the context of the teacher’s classroom (Kraft et al., 2018). This fully integrated mixed method case study examined teacher experience with IC in order to understand which operational and emotional components of IC had the greatest perceived impact, in order to inform program improvement. Adult learning theory served as the conceptual framework for this study; the process of teaching adults is known as andragogy (Knowles, 1980). Andragogy indicates that teaching adults in a …

Self-Directed Learning Practices In Esl: How Beginning Adult Latinx English Language Learners Can Increase Learning Outcomes, Jessica Parisi

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project investigates the self-directed learning (SDL) practices that could increase learner outcomes in English language acquisition for beginning adult English language learners (ELLs), and presents on a website designed for the learner, the practices and local resources to engage them. Non-credit English as a second language (ESL) courses in community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area have high enrollment and low levels of advancement, especially beginning levels. Latinx adult ELLs face unique challenges that contribute to their low rates of advancement, including linguistic isolation, and work and home duties that often prevent learners from attending classes the …

Teaching Perspectives Of Faculty Members At Arab Universities: Andragogy And Islamic Humanism, Layla Goushey

Dissertations

Cultural differences exist between Western perspectives on humanistic teaching methods and methods developed during the past 100 years in the Arab region based on English and French colonialist systems. Political structures and economic challenges in the region uphold the rigid societal and security structures that limit faculty governance and academic freedom, which impacts teaching and learning perspectives. This study utilized basic qualitative design methods based in constructivist grounded theory. Questionnaires, surveys, and email interviews that invited open-ended, explanatory, and descriptive answers were central to this work. Taking an observer’s approach to this study, I analyzed survey responses of Arab university …

The Experiential Journey Of Teacher-Scholars: “If You’Re Not A Teacher, You Just Don’T Get It”, Ashleigh L. Pelafigue

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Center of Graduate Schools (2015) published a report detailing applications, enrollment, and trends in graduate schools across the nation showing that approximately one third of all first-time graduate school applicants in master’s degree programs utilizing the GRE assessment identify their career path in either business or teacher education. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of classroom teachers who concurrently pursued graduate studies to earn a master’s degree in education and to understand how adult learning provided opportunities for personal growth and the attainment of professional goals. Individual interviews and two focus groups were conducted …

The Effect Of An Adult Esl Project-Based Literacy Training On Teacher Practice, Rachel Lynn Gerner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This case study evaluates the effectiveness of a project-based learning professional development training conducted at a literacy center for nine ESL teachers who are working in a workforce literacy environment. The researcher investigated principles of andragogy in the training and examined whether participants implemented the content of the training in their teaching environments via observation, self-reported answers on a questionnaire, individual interviews, and a focus group. There was no direct follow-up after six weeks of the training. The findings of the study indicate that none of the teachers implemented project-based learning in their teaching environment directly following the professional development …

Evaluation Of A Climate Change Training Program For Local Government Employees, Clara Kashar

Theses and Dissertations

A local government in South Florida launched a training program to improve employee engagement on climate change using best practices in adult learning and climate communication to bridge the gap between climate science and action in government operations. The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine whether that climate change development and training program for local government employees met its stated goals and objectives. This evaluation blended a component of Stufflebeam’s Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model with Kirpatrick’s Four Levels model. To conduct the evaluation, the researcher used a mixed methods approach for analyzing both quantitative and qualitative …

Veteran Teacher Engagement In Site-Based Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Study, Biaze L. Houston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined how teachers self-report their levels of engagement, which factors they believe contribute most to their engagement, and which assumptions of andragogy most heavily influence teacher engagement in site-based professional development. This study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design to study veteran teachers' perceptions of engagement in site-based professional development using the assumptions of andragogy as the theoretical lens. The study began with both a quantitative and qualitative phase that was conducted simultaneously. The quantitative data was collected to assess teachers' reported engagement and factors influencing engagement in an ideal state. Descriptive statistics were used to …

Shadow Work In Support Of The Adult Developmental Journey, Robin Gregory Mclaughlin

Educational Studies Dissertations

In his book, In over our heads: the mental demands of modern life, Kegan (1994) has suggested that the average level of adults’ thinking is more complex today than at previous times in history. This is due, in part, to our increased lifespans, which have enabled complex thinking to evolve and emerge. However, Kegan has also suggested that the demands of the social environment are expanding much faster than the average complexity of adult thinking and learning. In Kegan’s terms, we are “in over our heads.” Using a semi-clinical, semi-structured, qualitative interview with twenty adult learners, this study investigated the …