Education Commons^™

Teachers' Perceptions And Professional Uses Of Artificial Intelligence In Education, Lexie Coartney

Masters Theses

This study explores Illinois teachers’ perceptions and professional uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. A mixed methods approach was implemented, including a survey completed by 137 Illinois teachers and four interviews. The research questions examined teachers' perceptions of AI, their professional use of AI, and their approach to students’ use of AI. Findings concluded that participants generally hold positive perceptions of AI, especially its time-saving abilities and being supportive, while also holding concerns including reliability, accuracy, and ethical issues. Results showed that 77% (n = 106) of teachers use AI tools mostly for lesson planning, creating assessments, differentiation, …

The Role Of International Student Office Directors In Facilitating The Transitional Adjustment Of International Students In U.S Higher Education, Agnes Afi Yigah

Masters Theses

This qualitative study explored how International Student Office Directors facilitate the transitional adjustment of international students in U.S. higher education institutions. Guided by Schlossberg’s Transition Theory (1981) and Schlossberg’s Mattering and Marginality Theory (1989), this study examined the challenges international students face, the support strategies implemented by International Student Office Directors, and the institutional factors influencing student adjustment and well-being. International students experience challenges related to housing and logistical adjustment, financial and immigration-related stressors, academic system adjustment and self-advocacy, and social integration and emotional adjustment. Proactive and holistic support approaches, including pre-arrival communication, orientation programs, academic support, emotional support, and …

Exploring Phonics Intervention For Elementary Students, Hallee Thomas

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Acceptability Of The Five In 20 Classroom Observation Tool: A School Administrator Sample, Ciara Krowas

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to expand the research on the social validity of a standardized classroom observation tool (the Five in 20 Classroom Observation Tool; FCOT), that assessed the use of five critical features in effective classroom management strategies. Forty-two school administrators (who had experience providing classroom observations and feedback) were recruited. Participants viewed a 20-minute video of a second-grade teacher’s classroom instruction while simultaneously completing the FCOT. Then, participants completed the modified Behavior Intervention Rating Scale (M-BIRS), which was adapted to measure participants’ acceptability of the FCOT. Most administrators (74%) found the FCOT to be an acceptable …

Learning To Play Drums: Rote Learning Versus Note Approach, Jacob R. Brumback

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative historical study is to determine whether rote-learned drummers perform better than formally trained drummers. The issue is that some drummers may excel by watching and developing aural skills exclusively, while others perform well by only reading sheet music. The goal is to decide if drummers with strong aural skills or those who rely on note-reading performed better. The rationale explained how the applicability of rudiments, complex timing, creative fills, and improvisational soloing skills influences the performances of both rote-learned and note-approach drummers. Data collection methods for this research included oral history traditions and analyzing secondary …

Home Visitors Perceived Barriers To Practicing Self-Care In Personal And Professional Settings, Lexie Yancey

Masters Theses

Home visiting has the potential to support families in increasing their parenting skills, reducing incidents of child maltreatment, increasing school readiness, and improving financial sustainability (HRSA, 2023; Peacock et al., 2013). Retention of home visitors in programming is crucial to retaining families in home visiting (Damashek et al., 2020; Fifolt et al., 2017; Holm-Hansen et al., 2017; Ramakrishnan et al., 2022). While many home visitors struggle with burnout, research has found that self-care strategies are effective for social work students and are even used widely by home visitors (Begic et al., 2019; Siebert, 2008). This nested mixed-methods study examines answers …

Growing A Church Worship Band, Charmaine Landrum

Masters Theses

Many churches either leave the music to the professionals, or let untrained musicians blunder their way through the service, distracting their congregations. Little research has been done pertaining to the development of average or inexperienced musicians for Sunday Services. Considering the shift in worship music and technology, there is a need to train the next generation of worship team members. There is a lack in research pertaining to the best methods for training untrained musicians who want to volunteer but may not be ready for the platform. One particular church, Revolution Church in Canton, Georgia, is solving their dilemma by …

Autism Spectrum Disorder In The Music Classroom: An Undergraduate Curriculum, Hannah Warren

Masters Theses

The purpose of this applied research curriculum project is to prepare preservice music teachers to teach music to students with autism. It is vital to provide preservice music teachers with experience and knowledge about teaching music to students on the autism spectrum to better serve this population in schools. The setting of this study was college undergraduate music programs. The sample included 30 in-service K-12 music teachers. Qualitative questionnaires and quantitative surveys were collected via Google Forms. Quantitative data was analyzed for means of central tendency including mean, median, and mode. Quantitative data was displayed using Pearson product-moment correlation graph …

Awake And Alive: An Investigation Into Content For A Music Course Incorporating The Sciences, Harrison Boraas

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to identify the content for an interdisciplinary course about music and the brain that educates collegiate students about the benefits of lifelong music engagement. Despite increasing awareness of musical relevance to the human brain, many institutions of higher learning continue to teach music as its isolated area of study without connecting it to other fields that could benefit from incorporating it or vice versa. The sample size consisted of four to seven experts that were either community experts or Liberty University faculty in the fields of science, medicine, or music within …

An Assessment Of Basic Needs Insecurities In Grand Valley State University Residence Halls, Matthew Bristol

Masters Theses

Basic needs insecurity scholarship in higher education consistently highlights the need to provide more and better support to students. Little research has been done to address basic needs insecurity in residence halls, and this study is the first to use the #RealCollege survey to evaluate basic needs insecurity among residential students. I use the results of the survey tell the story of what it is like for Grand Valley State University students to face basic needs insecurity while living on campus, to assess what resources participants use to secure their basic needs and offer recommendations for improved support offerings to …

Highlighting The Benefits Of Community-Based Public Art Practices: Narrating A Year Of Living And Working Amongst The Creative Communities Of Providence, Rhode Island., Keara Mchaffie

Masters Theses

This thesis investigation explores the benefits of publicly

accessible arts programming and considers the significance of art

education experiences outside the traditional classroom setting.

The social and emotional benefits of these spaces are specifically

considered as a means to build confidence, and foster meaningful,

supportive connections beyond traditional academic measures.

Embracing a qualitative, mini-case study approach, the study

details hands-on experiences collaborating with different

organizations across Providence, Rhode Island during a year-long

graduate program. The data highlights how access to public

programs in community-based settings, such as libraries, play a

pivotal role in strengthening creative ideologies and community

relations.

Mfa Confidential, Julius Cavira, Julius Cavira

Masters Theses

What happens when the studio meets the classroom? This thrilling deep-dive uncovers the untold story of artists-turned-educators, balancing creation with instruction in the high-stakes world of higher education. Packed with real voices and raw insight, it reveals how teaching isn't just a job—it's the next evolution of artistic practice.

This study offers key insights for graduate-level visual artists considering careers in higher education as art educators. It examines the dual roles of artist and faculty by outlining the foundations of an art practice and exploring the varied experiences within academic environments. Drawing on a wide range of testimonies, articles, and …

To Reflect & To Be Reflective: Student Experiences Of Critique In Art & Design Higher Education, Jade Seobin Yun

Masters Theses

This thesis investigated the critique process in art and design higher education, focusing specifically on student experiences at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Through a combination of autoethnographic reflection and a campus-wide student survey, the study explored how critique was perceived, practiced, and internalized by students across disciplines. Central to this inquiry was the emotional and pedagogical complexity of critique, which was often treated as an assumed skill rather than a learned process. Drawing from personal narrative, pedagogical literature, and qualitative data, the research proposed a framework of Trust (Barrett, 2019), Courage (Brown, 2022), and Responsiveness (hooks, 1994) …

Rooted In Learning: Eco-Art Pedagogy And Place-Based Learning, Emily Van Heusen

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the integration of eco-art pedagogy and place-based learning (PBL) in secondary art education, investigating how these approaches help develop artistic practices and deepen environmental awareness among high school students. The study focuses on the implementation of a 4-week curriculum at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, Rhode Island. This research examines how art making and place-specific learning contribute to local environmental investment, personal connection and environmental engagement. Using a mixed-method approach grounded in arts-based research (ABR) and teacher-research methodology, this study analyzes teen-created artworks, sketchbook and journal reflections, and researcher personal reflections and field notes. The research …

Daily Creative Practice: A Path To Well-Being For Self + Society, Ellie Cashman

Masters Theses

Daily creative practice is a proven way to promote health and happiness, and to counteract what many are currently calling a global crisis in mental health.

There has perhaps never been a better time to be creative. Our collective healing and future human flourishing depend on it.

The author’s life and teaching experiences are explored, in the context of human history, (social) psychology and the challenges of contemporary culture.

Finally, the author offers a preview of a curriculum for Daily Creative Practice that will be further developed and implemented in Fall 2025, thanks to a grant from RISD’s Graduate Commons. …

Playing With Ideas: A Museum-Based Inquiry, Claire Meagher

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the ways that alternative arts approaches such as

Teaching for Artistic Behavior, creative inquiry, and play based learning can

be incorporated into a contemporary arts based curriculum in the museum

setting. In addition to this, it looks closely at the significance of the museum

space and community in these learning encounters. The methodology included a

preliminary case study and teacher based research, which were completed with

the School & Teacher programs at the RISD museum. The qualitative data from

this research consisted of observations, teaching experiences, and reflections in

a visual journal. These findings supported the creation …

Rooted In Embodied Making: A Notebook On Process, Vija Lietuvninkas

Masters Theses

This thesis takes the form of a wooden box containing an archive of fragments – scanned notebooks, sketches, photographs, emails, journal entries, and other materials – that trace a year of embodied, process-based inquiry. Rather than presenting a linear argument or a polished final product, the work reflects a nonlinear, exploratory methodology grounded in making, wandering, and self-reflection.

Born within the context of the 2025 Sustainability Design Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative at RISD examining the material culture of wood across design fields, this project documents the artist’s evolving engagement with green wood as both material and metaphor. Through practices such …

Coarse Woody Debris: Growth & Decay, Cody W. Young

Masters Theses

Coarse Woody Debris is the felled wood from trees. When branches break off and trunks fall down to the ground, the wood from the tree begins to decay. Humans need to acknowledge the importance of this regeneration and habitat building process to help protect it. The debris from coarse wood decay provides multiple benefits to the surrounding ecosystem. It is important to leave the woody debris in the context in which it fell so that the cycles of growth and decay can be preserved. My project is a public service announcement about the values of coarse woody debris. Instead of …

Wood In Hand: Open-Ended Wooden Play, Farnaz Dastranj

Masters Theses

This project explores the design of a sustainable, open-ended wooden toy that encourages children’s creativity, collaboration, and physical development. Recognizing the important role of play in learning, the toy aims to connect children to natural materials while supporting skills like eye-hand coordination, flexible thinking, and visual-spatial processing. Free-form linear elements constructed from wood, a renewable, durable, and biodegradable material, the toy invites children to assemble and create various structures using dowels, pegs, and fabric. By offering different connection possibilities and free-form pieces, it fosters imagination, problem-solving, and group play. This project also addresses sustainability by focusing on material longevity, reusability, …

Playful Parenting, Shloka Kartikeyan

Masters Theses

“What is the next big milestone for my child, and how can I be ready for it?”

That is the question in every parents' mind as they watch their child grow. The developmental milestones being the source of guidance and cause of worry for parents.

We are in an overwhelming era of options - the global toy market was valued at around $114.4 billion in 2024 as reported by Global News Wire* - that’s the size of options in toys alone for parents to choose from. With all these products geared towards encouraging child development, parents are often left to …

Bodies Collapsing Together... Together As Dust., Catherine J. Wang

Masters Theses

I welcome you to a pedagogy of collapsing bodies: the teaching and learning practice between surviving occupants of Institutions.

From the villainizing of trans- bodies in K-14 public schools to the bodily removal of Palestinian discourse from universities, the 2025 presidential takeover of the Department of Education unearths systemic urgencies over the fragility, complicity, and agency of academic institutions—survivors of wars, recessions, shootings, climate disasters—that have always been collapsing. As long as educational campuses stage political and industrial performances, Institutional marriage to capitalism collapses the future of the university. Our architectural pedagogy shoulders this weight of confrontation: design education as …

Field Journal: The Excluded Middle, Carrie E. Kouts

Masters Theses

What does it look like to engage with organisms and landscapes at the periphery of anthropocentric value structures? How does one break the internalized myth that the “built” environment is excluded from the natural world? When does a hyper-mobile and hyper-commodified society confront the exponential crisis of animal death? Within this series of journal entries, field notes, collection observations, weird prose, and sensory musings, one will find questions on the nature of being human and the complex narratives of care we encounter in a world shared with more-than-humans. Each handwritten vignette and photograph from daily life weaves a non-linear and …

Little Disciples: Providing At Home Christian Educational Resources To Parents For Their Children’S Spiritual Growth, Samantha Hatfield

Masters Theses

It has always been difficult to keep young people attending church after they reach the freedom of adulthood, but their absence continued to grow with each generation. It is hard to prove whether their decline in attendance is due to lack of spiritual formation in younger years or just the changing of the times is hard to prove, but it can be inferred that more training and honest conversations in earlier years would positively affect this statistic as well as the spiritual wellbeing of future generations. Since the most formative years of children based on brain development are between ages …

T E C H R E V O L U T I O N - Navigating The Digital Classroom: Challenges And Opportunities Of Online Learning, Wes Poole

Masters Theses

Research indicators confirm that that online learning is complex, with both challenges and opportunities to be found. There are several benefits to online learning, including flexibility, accessibility, personalized learning, and collaboration, but there are also many challenges associated with it. While equity and assessment are still major challenges, technology barriers are still present, engagement is limited, and communication is limited.

There is no doubt that self-directed learning, also referred to as online learning, provides innovative pedagogical approaches and also connects learners all over the world through self-directed learning. As a result, it is imperative that existing challenges be addressed, effective …

Experiences Of Qpoc College Students: The Complexities Of Navigating Multiple Minoritized Identities, Attainea S. Toulon

Masters Theses

Queer People of Color (QPOC) experience unique challenges within higher education as they navigate the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). This qualitative narrative study explored the lived experiences of three QPOC college students at a mid-sized public university in the Midwest. Through semi-structured interviews, participants shared how their intersecting identities shaped their sense of belonging, access to support systems, and overall university experiences. Findings revealed that while participants found affirmation through cultural organizations, staff mentors, and chosen family, they also encountered racialized exclusion within LGBTQ+ spaces and heteronormative expectations within racialized spaces.The narratives illustrated …

The Lumpkin College Of Business And Technology Living-Learning Community: An Examination Of The Llc's Development And Assessment During The First Year Of The Program, Elian G. Mackey

Masters Theses

Living-learning communities (LLCs) are well-known as a means of fostering student engagement tied closely to academics and sense of belonging among peers outside of the classroom. However, the success of an LLC depends not only on its design and implementation but also on the strength of its assessment practices. This paper examines the efficiency of the current assessment practices of the Lumpkin College of Business and Technology LLC, Eastern Illinois University’s newest LLC in the 2024-2025 Academic Year, at this point in its development. With the community is still early in its development, assessment efforts faced challenges. Through a review …

Domestic Student Engagement With International Peers: Local Insights, Global Connections, Alissa Sutton

Masters Theses

As competition to recruit international students grows, institutions must prioritize fostering a sense of belonging that supports their retention and success. Central to this is the quality of interactions between international and domestic students, which shape both groups’ social and academic experiences. This study examines the barriers and facilitators influencing domestic students’ engagement with international peers and the role of institutional support in promoting meaningful cross-cultural connections. Findings reveal that domestic students recognize the importance of engaging with international peers but they often encounter challenges such as lack of awareness, uncertainty about how to connect, and limited institutional opportunities. Support …

The Influence Of Family-School Communication On Junior High School Students’ Academic Success, Stephen Junior Amoah

Masters Theses

This study examines the influence of family-school communication on students' academic success in the context of Ghana, with a particular focus on Junior High School (JHS) students. While existing research emphasizes the importance of family involvement in educational outcomes, limited studies explore how family-school communication directly affects academic success in Ghana. By using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines quantitative and qualitative data collection. The quantitative component includes an online survey distributed to JHS graduates, assessing the frequency, impact, methods, and barriers of communication between families and schools, as well as their perceived effect on academic performance. The survey includes …

I Can’T, I’M On-Call: The Psychological Effects Of On-Call Duty On Graduate Assistants In Residence Life, Dyjerlynn T. Peter

Masters Theses

Graduate Assistants (GAs) face various demands such as conducting research, completing coursework, holding assistantships, and other personal responsibilities. GAs working in housing and residence life (HRL) departments face unique challenges, especially those who serve as crisis responders for students who live on-campus. This study examines the mental health challenges faced by graduate assistants in housing and residence life who live on-campus and serve in on-call roles at higher education institutions. It explores the effects of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout, offering key findings, trends, and recommendations while sharing personal stories of GAs balancing on-call duties with graduate studies.

Time To Reassess: Campus Programming In The First Six Weeks And Its Impact On Belonging For First-Time Students, Joe Smith

Masters Theses

Research has shown that a student’s first six weeks of college have a strong impact on the rest of their college experience. Because of this, institutions concentrate programming efforts in the first six weeks of the academic year to increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for their first-time students. However, little research has been done on this topic in recent years. This quantitative study sought to examine first-time student event attendance in the first six weeks of the academic year and its impact on sense of belonging, which has been shown to be an important factor of the college experience. …