Education Commons^™

The Perceptions Of Organizational Managers Regarding Strengths And Gaps Of Knowledge And Skills Of Generation Z Employees, Tori L. Hersey

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of the qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of organizational managers in the north central Florida area regarding the strengths and gaps in knowledge and skills of Generation Z employees. Generation Z is defined in the study as individuals born between the years 1997-2012. Managers of seven occupations, including a state prison facility, first responder, retail, restaurant, transport refrigeration, and grocery industries were asked open-ended questions and personally interviewed to determine any perceived strengths or gaps in the knowledge and skills of the employees falling into the Generation Z cohort. Strengths reported by the managers concerning …

Increasing Student Creativity And Connection To Nature Through Equitable Nature-Based Experiences During Middle School Distance Learning, Benjamin Olofson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to answer the question: How can middle school teachers increase student creativity and connection to nature through equitable nature-based experiences during distance learning? This paper reviews the history of nature based learning (NBL) and exploratory learning, and examines the positive outcomes of these practices. These benefits include increased engagement and interest in normally uninterested students (Dettweiler et al., 2015; Truong et al., 2016), improved grades (Camassao & Jagannathan, 2018), and reduced disruptive episodes and dropouts among “at risk” students (Ruiz-Gallardo et al., 2013 as cited in Kuo et al., 2019). Although many research studies have shown positive …

Earning And Learning: Undergraduate Student Employment And The Importance Of Relevant Work, Benjamin Green

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Current trends in undergraduate education show that more students than ever are working part-time jobs during college, and their academics are likely suffering as a result, as a greater number of hours worked correlates with a decrease in grade point average. This is especially problematic as it creates a socioeconomic inequity in academic standing, with students with less financial security or support from parents having to sacrifice their performance and their time in order to supplement their income or even to afford tuition. Relevant, meaningful job placement mitigates some of this effect if students can identify connections between their part-time …

Engaging Hmong Learners With Oral Storytelling And Flipgrid, Tang Xiong

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, Minnesota had to make the decision to temporarily close schools. Many school districts resorted to online distance learning in order to protect the community from covid-19 spread. There are so many teachers that have not been prepared to teach from an online model. Moreover, teachers were losing engagement from students. Hmong students face a unique challenge where engagement is highly absent due to the switch of an online learning setting. This capstone explored a curriculum design that supports the cultural tradition of oral storytelling using Flipgrid to enhance engagement in the online classroom …

Creating A Flipped Elementary El Classroom That Is Effective And Engaging For Students, Laura Brueggeman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The Covid-19 pandemic closure of schools has had and will continue to have an impact on education. In order to keep students equally engaged in a virtual learning environment as an in-person learning environment, different blended learning teaching strategies can be explored and implemented. This capstone helps to answer the research question, How does an EL (English Learner) teacher create a flipped elementary EL classroom that is effective and engaging for students?. Research supports that flipped classrooms are supportive of an engaging community of learners where teachers create flipped classroom lessons that are student centered and collaborative.

A Case Study Exploring Student Engagement With Technology As Measured By The Arcs And Samr Models, Kyle Ashley Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

This action research case study describes how varying the levels and format of technology integration into high school social studies classroom lessons impact students’ motivation to learn and how the teacher’s effort to support student motivation through the integration of technology supports student achievement. This research study was grounded in the conceptual framework that motivating and engaging students in the classroom (with the introduction of technology) can be very difficult. This study seeks to determine the relationship between student engagement and motivation as classroom lessons are moved along the different levels of the SAMR model, which stands for substitution, augmentation, …

The Influence Of Formal Mentoring On Teacher Beliefs Of K-12 Classroom Technology Use During A Global Pandemic, Anthony Arbisi

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation explores the influence and transfer of knowledge related to instructional technology that occurs in the formal teacher mentoring relationship of seven mentoring dyads in a suburban Missouri public school district. This multiple case study was performed during the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-2021 school year. The unit of analysis in this study was a mentoring dyad that consisted of an experienced mentor teacher and a novice teacher.

A multiple case study method was utilized. Individual interviews and two focus groups were conducted via the Zoom video conference platform to gather data to inform the research study. Thematic analysis …

Middle School Classroom Teachers' Use Of Technological Tools To Teach Scientific Inquiry, Victoria Gamble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study focused on middle school science teachers' experiences in using technological tools to teach scientific inquiry skills in the middle school science classroom. Technological tools have been increasingly used in middle schools, but knowledge is lacking as to which tools are efficient in teaching scientific inquiry skills. The purpose of this study was to gather information about the technological tools that could be adopted to make the teaching of scientific inquiry skills in middle school science classrooms more meaningful and gainful to students. The conceptual framework applied in the study was the technological, pedagogical, content knowledge (TPACK) model, as …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Blended Learning In High School Classrooms, Kaye-Ann Tomique Yarborough

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Blended learning is the instructional practice that involves both face-to-face and online learning in classroom instruction. The problem at a small rural school district in the South Carolina is, despite strong evidence of the benefits and use of blended learning, many classroom teachers at the high school level still fail to consistently implement the online component of blended learning to maximize these benefits. Therefore, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of blended learning, how they implement it, and challenges they have with implementation. The conceptual framework for this …

Teacher Perspectives On Integrating Technology In Early Childhood Classrooms, Crystal Renee Crozier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The integration of technology in early childhood classrooms can be advantageous when used in meaningful ways. Early childhood teachers are utilizing technology in instruction; however, they are not always doing so effectively. There is a gap in practice regarding the factors that affect the choices of technology activities that early childhood teachers use. A study on what influences the decisions early childhood educators make when choosing the types of technology to integrate in the classroom was necessary to fill the gap in literature and enhance the technology practices of early childhood teachers. Using Bandura’s social cognition theory, the purpose of …

Dental Hygiene Faculty Use Of Educational Technologies For Instruction, Natalie Michelle Delacruz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Faculty hesitancy to implement educational technologies for instruction is problematic in dental hygiene education. Little or no scholarly research has been conducted on faculty use of educational technologies for instructional practices in the dental hygiene field. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this inquiry was to explore the perceptions of dental hygiene faculty regarding their attitudes toward use, usefulness, and ease of use of educational technologies for instruction. The research questions focused on dental hygiene faculty attitudes toward use of educational technologies for instruction, the usefulness of educational technologies for instruction, and the ease of use of …

A Multicase Study Of Alaskan High School Teachers’ Adoption Of Digital Elements Of Gamification, Paul Marks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recent studies have indicated that gamification, the process of using game-like elements in nongame situations, increases student engagement and comprehension. The problem was that little is known about the extent to which digital elements of gamification are being used to help engage students in high school classes in Alaska. The purpose of this multicase study was to examine the extent to which their teachers were using gamification. The research questions that guided this study addressed the extent to which the teachers used gamification, how the teachers perceived the usefulness of gamification, and how they perceived the ease of use of …

Secondary Educator Experiences Managing Digital Resources, Cameron Sharbel Mckinley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Secondary teachers use digital resources for teaching, yet little is known about how they find, evaluate, organize, and share these resources. This basic qualitative study was conducted to fill the gap and examine the experiences and practices of secondary educators in curating digital resources. Findings on how teachers manage digital information, strategies used, and necessary supports may aid in creating targeted professional development (PD) for teaching in face to face and blended environments. A conceptual framework based on Mishra's and Kohler’s technological pedagogical content knowledge theory and Siemens’ connectivism guided the research and informed the data analysis. The experiences of …

The Use Of Technology In Bilingual Elementary Settings To Involve Hispanic Families, José Antonio Moya Roda

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Research has shown that parental involvement serves as a protective factor for students whose families lack financial and educational resources. Hispanic parents often find barriers at school that prevent them from participating in school-based activities such as communication problems, lack of time to go to the school at prescribed times, and cultural norms about classroom visits. With social networking services (SNS) like SeeSaw, which are similar to traditional social media like Facebook, now available to schools, Hispanic parents have the opportunity of observing the students in their educational context through videos and photos posted on these SNSs. These opportunities are …

The Barriers Students Of Color Experience During The Online College Application, Tichaedza Stephen Chikuni

Online Theses and Dissertations

Recruitment of Students of Color (African American and Latino) is a growing obligation of colleges and universities around the United States (Bauman et al., 2019). Personally, the culmination of my passion for diversity recruitment and my experiences with information technology has led me to study why Students of Color encounter barriers during their online college application process. A vicious cycle of seeing Students of Color students not being able to access key resources during their college application process has frequently left me heartbroken. There are an abundance of excuses and I want to be a part of the solution.

Community College Instructional Support Of Nontraditional Students Using Technology, Charlotte Ann Graham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nontraditional students often enroll at institutions of higher learning without the technology skills needed to complete coursework and achieve academic success. The problem at a small community college in the Southern United States is that instructors are providing limited support for nontraditional students using technology, which may leave students ill-prepared to complete coursework. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine instructional support of nontraditional students using technology to complete coursework and to make recommendations to improve instructional support of students. Knowles’s adult learning theory, Daloz’s mentoring theory, and Siemens’s connectivist theory provided the framework for the study. Research …

Nursing Faculty Experiences With Mobile Technology Use In The Classroom, Sue Ellen Clark

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research to date on faculty use of technology in the classroom has largely focused on student perceptions of technology, technology use in higher education, and benefits of technology use in teaching and learning. A critical factor in integrating technology relates to nursing faculty members’ mobile technology (MT) experience. The aim of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of nursing faculty when integrating MT in the face-to-face classroom. More precisely, this study was designed to explore the reasons for inconsistencies among faculty in the integration of MT in the face-to-face classroom in baccalaureate nursing education programs. Experiences of …

Teacher Perceptions Of Curriculum-Driven Technology After Working With Instructional Technology Coaches In Middle Schools In One Southeastern School District, Julie Pepperman

Ed.D. Dissertations

The use of curriculum-driven technology in K-12 public schools was mandated by federal law. School and district leaders were required to provide curriculum-driven technology professional development and support to teachers. The use of the curriculum-driven technology coach was an option some schools chose to meet the curriculum-driven technology professional development requirements and needs of their teachers. The purpose of this research was to explore one school district’s middle school teachers’ perceptions of the importance of curriculum-driven technology and their perceived self-efficacy in using curriculum-driven technology in instructional practice after collaborating with a curriculum-driven technology coach. This qualitative study was conducted …

Challenges Teachers Encounter When Integrating Technology In A Culturally, Linguistically, And Diverse High School, Eliana Rodriguez Molina

Theses and Dissertations

Teachers often encounter challenges when integrating technology into a classroom that has a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student population. These challenges have existed as teachers are not adequately trained to integrate technology when working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Additionally, challenges arise when students do not have technological skills.

This qualitative study examined how high school teachers with a high CLD student population integrated technology into daily instructions and the challenges they encounter when implementing it. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the researcher collected data through eight individual teacher interviews via Zoom.

During the data analysis, five general …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of African American Women In Undergraduate Stem Degree Programs, Vernon H. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide a better understanding of the lived experiences of African American women in STEM undergraduate degree programs at a 4-year degree granting institution in the southernmost part of central Virginia. The central problem is that there is disparity between the number of African American women with STEM degrees and that of other races in the STEM job market. The existing literature has gaps in the research of African American women’s perception of undergraduate STEM programs. Further, the researcher posits there is a lack of consideration for diversity that is detrimental to the United States; …