Education Commons^™

Environmental Education For Sustainability, Lucille Gertz

Educational Studies Dissertations

The climate is in crisis. Many conservation organizations identify in their mission statements the priority of motivating constituents to engage with conservation action. This priority is typically implemented by educators who design and deliver educational activities and materials. This study, designed to develop a professional pathway for environmental educators to develop programs designed to motivate adult audiences toward engagement with conservation action, addressed the question: How can environmental educators more effectively promote conservation behavior change in adult learning audiences? Three guiding research questions were: 1) To what extent are environmental educators familiar with and utilizing theoretical frameworks and research-based tools …

The Application Of Adult Learning And Development Theory In The Undergraduate Classroom, Jennifer Flewelling

Educational Studies Dissertations

Instructors in higher education may have a limited knowledge of ways adults learn and develop. That lack of theoretical understanding may have inhibited the pedagogical practice of faculty in the undergraduate classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore how university instructors described their understanding of adult learning and development in undergraduate settings, and to identify factors that influenced the design and implementation of instructional practice as reported by undergraduate faculty. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design. An online survey collected quantitative and qualitative data from 95 university instructors in Northeastern Massachusetts. Follow-up interviews were …

Fundamental Principles Of Metacognition: A Qualitative Study Of Metacognition, Pedagogy And Transformation, Philip Hulbig

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigated the transformative quality of a metacognitive education. It examined a transformative metacognitive education from both the subjective personal perspective of the student who has gone through the process of transformation and the more objective pedagogical perspective of the professors who work to bring forth such transformational experiences in their students. Through interview and analysis these perspectives were integrated to produce a pedagogical theoretical framework derived from experience and grounded in observations about metacognition across various scientific disciplines. The personal elements of metacognition that promote educational transformation from within the students were contrasted with the pedagogical approaches of …

Student Agency And Collective Bootstrapping In Integrated Career And Technical Education: A Photovoice Project, Panagiota Athinelis

Educational Studies Dissertations

Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides students with a full education in academic areas as well as a career area of interest, allowing students to apply their school-based learning in the real world through work-based learning. At the same time, urban CTE adolescents have historically been marginalized and placed in a deficit model. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the ways in which student agency is co-created in an urban, transdisciplinary CTE high school program, as well as to identify the institutional systems and structures that support or hinder the development of student agency.

Eight students …

Book Groups And The Relational Engagement Of Sixth-Grade Readers, Kathryn Contini

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this mini-ethnographic case study is to determine the factors that impact the relational engagement of middle-school readers in a student-facilitated book group. This is achieved by considering how students relationally engaged with texts, peers, and a teacher while participating in a student-facilitated book group for three months. As the understanding of academic engagement has broadened to include relational engagement, it is necessary to examine how this theoretical construct impacts reading instruction. While educators have long known learning is social, classroom success is most often measured by independent achievement rather than by social engagement. For these reasons, it …

The Perceptions Of Private Special Education School Leaders Regarding Their Role In Promoting Self-Care And Renewal Practices For Themselves And Their Teachers, Theresa Melito-Conners

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of private special education school leaders regarding their role in promoting self-care and renewal. There is limited research on self-care and renewal in schools. Data were gathered through surveys and interviews that addressed three guiding research questions: (a) Do school leaders consider self-care and renewal practices to be important for themselves and their teachers? (b) What are the various ways school leaders report they promote self-care and renewal practices for themselves and their teachers? (c) What do school leaders believe to be the factors and conditions that inhibit and foster their efforts to implement …

What Can A Studio Approach To Teaching Tell Us About The Academic And Social Learning Of Middle School Students? An Exploration Of Student Understanding Of How Making Art Supports Their Academic And Social Learning., Maureen Creegan- Quinquis, Maureen A. Creegan-Quinquis

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study explores the types of social and academic learning typically overlooked in public school education. Art-based approaches to academic learning have been labeled as“fluff.” Education policymakers hold a biased view of the arts. When asked to consider art as a viable epistemology, cognition theorists have dismissed art as irrational. These biased views have contributed to the marginalization of the field of art education. The purpose of this study was to question this bias through an art-based studio approach to research. The goal was to explore how middle school students understand the role of visual arts in their own academic …

Practitioner Research In Schools: Revealing The Efficacy Agency Cycle, Edward Resnick

Educational Studies Dissertations

Years of high stakes testing and managerial directives to improve student test scores created a trend of teachers’ declining sense of efficacy and agency. Researchers have yet to examine the perceptions of teachers following requirements to improve student engagement and school climate in an effort to improve academic performance following the authorization of local and national educational accountability reforms. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers perceive their efficacy and agency in response to the addition of nonacademic measures and the requirement of documented input from teachers and other stakeholders into educational policy planning procedures. Veteran K-12 …

The Development Of The Scale Of Contemplative Practice In Higher Education, Maryann Krikorian

Educational Studies Dissertations

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence (EI) theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for the concept of contemplative practices in an endeavor to support an eclectic understanding of cognition. Contemplative practices may benefit graduate student disposition and inform areas of educator preparation through the use of emotional adeptness in higher education. The purpose of this study was to: (a) develop a self-report measure: Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE); (b) address the issues of …

Teacher Reflection In A School Committed To Student Reflection, Debra Richardson Smith

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of three veteran teachers in an elementary school in which there was an explicit commitment to fostering children's reflection about their own learning.

A Case Study In Museum Change: Power, Authority And Community Connected Exhibitions, Marilyn Cathy Solvay, Ph.D.

Educational Studies Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation is a study of museum change and examines the power of objects along with the authority of traditional exhibitions and the development of community-connected exhibitions. Community-connected exhibitions are explored to provide insight into reshaping the museum organization into a multicultural institution.

Method: A case study of a community-connected exhibition, "Becoming Americans: The Shapiro Story: 1898-1928," was conducted at Strawberry Banke, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an outdoor history museum. Interviews were held with 25+ project participants: museum staff project team members, Shapiro family members, community members at large, and representatives from other community cultural institutions. This qualitative research project …

Cooperative Learning: The Teacher's Perspective, Nancy A. Mickunas

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation is an inquiry into what happens when classroom teachers in public schools study and adopt one or more of the cooperative learning models of David and Roger Johnson, Spencer Kagan, and/or Robert Slavin and shift the emphasis of their classrooms from competitive and individualistic to cooperative structures. Method: A representative sample of eighteen kindergarten through twelfth grade public school teachers from the suburbs of Boston were asked to relate their experiences with training and implementation of these cooperative models. The goal of this research was to explore both the common and unique experiences of these teachers and to …