Education Commons^™

The Perceptions Of College Foreign Language Students Concerning Their High School Foreign Language Preparation, Bryan M. Pickens

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of college students studying a foreign language concerning their high school foreign language study experience. In particular, the study examined students’ beliefs about factors that may have contributed to a successful transition into the study of foreign languages in college. The population consisted of college students from post-secondary schools in West Virginia who took a foreign language class. Students completed a survey designed to obtain grade point average data, language course completion history, type of language studied, in addition to subjective perceptions about effects of academic preparation, motivation, and overall …

"God, Mother And Island Creek": The Story Of Holden Central School And The Emergence Of Nurturing Paternalism, Harley D. Walden

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The story of the community of Holden, West Virginia (Logan County), Island Creek Coal Company, and its model school (Holden Central School) offers a counternarrative to the dominant deficit-oriented narratives concerning Appalachian education. In particular, the progressive nature of Island Creek Coal Company led it to create a model coal camp community and a school that educated their employees’ children. The school operated from 1922 until 1970, when the combined elementary and junior high school closed its doors forever. Island Creek Coal Company both designed, supplied, and oversaw the daily operations of a benevolent community with all the modern amenities …

A Learning Model Of Community Collaboration In West Virginia, Tracy L. Bradley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study tested a grounded theory model, Getting it Together: A Learning Model of Community Collaboration, developed during a six-year study (2004-2010) of a statewide substance abuse prevention program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). The model features the perceptions and experiences of those who were active in community-based collaborative and educational work in West Virginia focused on substance abuse prevention. The study revisited community coalitions from three counties that were part of the original ethnographic research used to develop the community collaboration theory. The grounded theory …

"The Whole Building Is A Classroom": An Oral History Of A School's Role In The Culture Of The Community, Valerie Free Jones

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Edward Lee and Lulu McClain gave the gift of a new high school to the rural Appalachian community of Greenfield, Ohio, in 1915. Inspired in part by John Dewey’s Progressive theories of education, the school became the center of the community, both literally and figuratively, providing the best, most modern education for its students. The school was particularly unique in its focus on the arts, with its spaces carefully crafted and developed; its halls and classrooms filled with over 200 pieces of classic and original art, including murals, sculpture, and other works; and its curriculum inspired by art-based ideas of …

Douglass High School: Students' Perspectives On Attending A Segregated School, Lee Ann Hvizdak Porter

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Douglass High School (DHS), named for the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was a segregated high school built in 1924 located in Huntington, West Virginia. For thirty-seven years the three-story brick building served as a major academic, social, and cultural resource for African American families in Huntington. Many students considered the school to be the heart of the black community, even given the challenges of segregated schools of the era. This study traces the historical development of Douglass as a segregated African American junior/senior high school in Cabell County, West Virginia. The research focuses on the experience of DHS alumni to gain …

A Comparison Of Self-Perceived Test-Taking Motivation On Large Scale High- And Low-Stakes Tests, Randall Joseph King

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The central purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in test-taking motivation between large-scale high-stakes and low-stakes tests. The high-stakes test in this study was any college admission test, and the low-stakes test was the mandatory state assessment in West Virginia. Comparisons deduced the influence of the following independent variables on self-reported test-taking motivation: test stakes (high or low), future plan (college-bound or non-college bound), grade level (9 – 12), and sex (female or male).

The sample in this investigation (n=161) was taken from a West Virginia school district with a high school population of about 3,000 students. …