Education Commons^™

How Will Having A W.I.N Room For Our Emotional And Behavioral Disorder Students To Access When They Are Needing A Break Affects The Number Of Room-Clearing Behaviors In A Week?, Samantha Streed

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Having the power to create the behavior program from the ground up, starting a “What I Need” (W.I.N) room at the elementary school where the researcher works. This is a sensory type of room with different tools and strategies that the students can use to calm their bodies or as we say have a safe and calm body. This room will be run by the researcher along with a paraprofessional that will be in the room all day to help support the students. This paraprofessional will also supervise the W.I.N Room if the researcher needs to leave to handle a …

The Effect Of Visual Arts On At-Risk Students, Nicole E. Seidler

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Creation through visual art is demonstrated by a variety of all ages. Visual art-based learning is known to build focus, reduce stress, provide a sense of accomplishment, and spark an increase in well-being. Many people have been known to benefit from the creation of art. With the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020, educators across the country have noticed an increase of students who are considered at-risk. Many school districts have made it a priority to look at ways of improving these students’ behavior, participation, view on school, or overall well-being. This research study takes place at a rural Wisconsin high …

Investigating The Curricular Practices Of Social Innovation Master’S Programs In The United States, Ty M. Krueger

Culminating Experience Projects

The study of social innovation in higher education has increased as more schools add undergraduate and graduate programs on the broad topic. Discussion on what should be included as part of social innovation education has been occurring for decades, but there is little determination as to what could be considered as standards or even a baseline for curricular practices. This research aims to look at how current graduate programs for social innovation are defining the topic, what courses they include in their curriculum, what teaching methods are used in the delivery of these topics, and how the topics and teaching …

We Have Arabic At This School?: The Impact Of Neoliberalism And Orientalism On Arabic Education In The United States, Ella V. Pastore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research examines Arabic education in the United States at the undergraduate level, highlighting the question: How do forces such as Orientalism, globalization, and neoliberalism affect the way that the Arabic language is taught and recognized in the United States? The Arabic programs of three highly accredited American universities are presented, in relation to their Japanese programs. While Japanese is a language that faces its own Orientalisms and imperial history with the West, Japan is currently not a country that is prioritized through national security interests, with Arabic being designated as a “Critical Language”. Through examination of the advertisement of …

Digital Literacy For Older Adult English Language Learners, Talley Caruso

Master's Projects and Capstones

When essential services transition to digital platforms, individuals with limited digital proficiency, immigrant English Language Learners (ELLs), and older adults aged 65 and above face challenges accessing these resources, leading to potential exclusion.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online interactions and services due to lockdown measures, reducing face-to-face interactions. This sudden transition left individuals without digital skills unable to access healthcare, essential services, and maintain connections with their support networks. Addressing this issue presents an opportunity to promote inclusivity, empowerment, and community engagement through targeted digital literacy training.

Digital literacy encompasses the ability to navigate technology such as …

Addressing Linguistic Isolation Through Community Based Esl And Emergency Preparedness, Lisa Guay

Master's Projects and Capstones

Linguistic isolation acts as a barrier to the well-being and social integration of Limited English Proficient (LEP) adults. Community-based English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, designed with learner-centric curricula, may help LEPs gain access to social and navigational capital in the form of English proficiency, confidence and social integration. Community-based ESL programs provide adult English Language Learners (ELLs) with a path to English proficiency and social integration, but curricula should be geared toward ELLs’ needs. There is a need for ESL curricula focused on emergency and disaster preparedness, curricula which may contribute positively to adult ELLs’ speaking skills and …

Supporting Mental Health In Children By Providing Basic Skills And Knowledge Of Mental Health To Middle-School Teachers, Mariaelena Falcon

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Mental health first aid training in middle school is an effective way to help teachers gain the necessary knowledge and confidence needed to support students with mental health distress and provide early interventions.

Local Problem: Lack of mental health training may result in teachers facing challenges in identifying and addressing mental health issues among their students. Specific problems resulting from this include limited awareness, insufficient skills, and strategies to effectively communicate and engage with students in mental health distress, and stigma surrounding mental health may make teachers uncomfortable discussing mental health.

Methods: The project will take place at Harper …

Exploring The Role Of Communication In Relational Outcomes In A High School Setting, Paul S. Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An action research study in a high school setting applies the Organization-Public Relationships (O-PR) theoretical frame to a short-term communications initiative designed to elicit measurable engagement in the initiative and increased parent feelings of commitment and trust in their relationship with the school. A survey administered before the initiative yields actionable data on communication needs and preferences, levels of satisfaction, and parent feelings of commitment and trust. Survey data gathered after the communication initiative is used to determine changes in levels of satisfaction, commitment and trust. Among the findings are verified and consistent indications of secondary engagement in the communication …

From Margins To Museums: Tracing The Evolution Of Representation For Contemporary African Artists In The United States, Victoria Mouraux Durand-Ruel

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement on the art community in the United States and the evolution of representation for Contemporary African artists. By analyzing the careers and artistic contributions of Omar Ba, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the study explores the concept of artistic agency according to which African artists have more control over the production and distribution of their works.

The research begins with a comprehensive literature review, investigating the historical contexts that have shaped the art landscape, including the impact of colonization, decolonization, and globalization. The study reveals how these …

Minoritized Medical Students' Integration Of Professional Identities: A Phenomenological Study, Travis Erickson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study fills a gap in the extant literature by exploring how medical students with minoritized identities make meaning about sense of self-definition and emerging professional identities while enrolled in medical school. More specifically, the focus of this study explored how minoritized medical students perceived their sense of self and dimensions of identity were shaped during their medical education, and what perceptions these medical students had about how they manage their professional identity development. Emergent themes included: (a) making connections between self-definition and professional identities, (b) past experience of difference shaping identities, (c) self-definition with complexity, (d) fluidity as …

American Institution Of Public, K-12 Education: An Institutional Field Under A Complexity Paradigm, Jennifer Jean Joyalle

Dissertations and Theses

Institutional fields serve as foundational bedrocks that shape and govern behaviors, norms, and practices within distinct domains of societal and organizational interactions. The emergence of machine learning and the ability to manipulate large datasets offer researchers and decision makers the potential ability to model and visualize the behavior associated with institutional fields.

This proof of concept provides an example of visualizing the changing conditions in the institutional field of public K-12 education in America as a topology. By interweaving three primary strands of theory -- institutional fields, complexity in the guise of complex adaptive systems as a paradigm, and paradigms …

Implementation Of Implicit Bias Training In A Doctor Of Nurse Practitioner Program, Macdana Selecon

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Implicit bias in healthcare delivery refers to the unconscious mental associations healthcare providers make about patients from various social groups. Numerous studies suggest implicit bias contributes to health disparities primarily amongst marginalized groups. Furthermore, patients report a lower quality of communication from healthcare providers with higher implicit racial bias. In 2021, Assembly Bill 1407 (Nurses: Implicit Bias Courses Act) was passed to address the negative impact of bias on patient outcomes and requires California nursing schools to provide implicit bias training for nursing students.

Problem: All graduate nursing programs do not provide implicit bias (IB) training. As a result, …

Avoiding Burnout: Newsletters That Promote Special Education Teachers Well-Being, Kayler Knott

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

With the alarming rate of teachers leaving the educational field, there is a definitive shortage of people entering the field of special education. Educators need access to different tools and resources that will allow them to know about other things that can help limit or reduce the strain of things causing teacher burnout. By sending out these resources to educators and informing them of different tools they can use, we can help alleviate teacher burnout, keep more educators in the fields, and stop losing our young teachers just entering before they have even completed student teaching experiences. Each of these …

Engaging Older Immigrants To Learn English: Advocating For Late-In-Life Learning For Everyone, Susan Marie Filous

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the United States, late-in-life and aging-in-place immigrants require basic English language skills to support their ability to independently access economic, medical, housing, legal, and social services. Older immigrants typically rely on family members, potentiating the risks of neglect and dependency. There is an opportunity to expand their agency in society by increasing their English proficiency.

Foreign language geragogy supports differentiated educational strategies for older learners. There is no upper age limit on the ability to learn a new language, and there are new methods and practices to teach foreign languages to older students. It is insufficient to mainstream older …

Cultivating Well-Being In English As A Second Language: Teaching Stress Reduction Techniques In The Adult Esl Classroom, Sara C. Coronado

Master's Projects and Capstones

Adult immigrant and refugee speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL) including California community college students may suffer trauma and stressors that can lead to negative mental health outcomes during the stages of migration, yet underutilize mental health services owing to cultural stigma, structural barriers, and a lack of English language proficiency. In addition, ESL speakers may also suffer from language anxiety evoked by speaking the less-developed language in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom during interactions with the majority language community. Both forms of anxiety share symptoms including tense muscles, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, …

Type Vs. Turnout: Correlations Between Types Of Higher Education Institutions And Student Voter Turnout, Janea Mccoy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Voter turnout in the youth demographic has been the subject of increased attention and research in the past several years, with many questions left unanswered. The 18-25 age demographic can play a crucial and impactful role in elections. However, many young adults do not vote. Higher education has often been viewed as a catalyst for civic engagement amongst this age demographic, with correlations between enrollment in higher education and increased rates of voter turnout being evident. Given there is much variation between different kinds of institutions, however, this raises the question: what types of institutions and their respective characteristics correlate …

Strategic Morphology Interventions For Vocabulary Knowledge In Reading Comprehension, Danielle Marie Sharpe

Masters Theses

Many adolescent students have been shown to fall behind gradually as they reach

secondary grade levels. This has been researched as the effect of socioeconomic factors,

lack of immersive vocabulary backgrounds, and gaps in elementary years. Extensive

research has shown the benefits of morphology instruction in secondary students in

bridging vocabulary gaps, yet many schools have yet to provide them with the support to

comprehend difficult texts across content areas. This project explores the possible benefits

of offering adolescents the extra support and resources that can leverage reading

comprehension across content areas within secondary education. Through the use of

implementing …

Enhancing Inclusion: Neurodiversity In The Workplace, Micah Cox

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Neurodiverse individuals have long been viewed negatively, particularly in the workplace. Many recruiters or hiring managers have never considered the benefits that hiring a neurodiverse candidate could bring to their organization, rather looking at the additional costs of accommodation. The results of analyzing several case studies show that companies who incorporate neurodiverse candidates into their labor pool have seen increased productivity, creativity, process innovation, and cost reductions. This paper reviews several case studies combined with data obtained from interviews with a neurodiverse individual and a direct support care professional to develop a list of methods to be used in the …

Ethnographic Research Of The Impact Of Catalyst Strategies On The Engagement And Relationships Within The Classroom For 6th Graders Versus 2nd Graders In General Education, Casey Poland, Rene Beaird, Amber Keller, Sara Kubicek

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This 2023 study focused on the effectiveness of the Catalyst Approach to classroom management in a second-grade versus sixth-grade classrooms in the same district. The Catalyst Approach is a comprehensive classroom implementation model that includes strategies for getting attention, engaging students, setting up for success, and supporting success. Whole group strategies are emphasized in this approach to aid in building a productive classroom environment (Burns & Brinkman, 2018). Our focus with this study was threefold: to see how the Catalyst Approach affected classroom management, how the Catalyst Approach affected relationships within the classroom environment, and how the Catalyst Approach compared …

An Analysis Of How Teaching Through Invention And Consolidation Phases Affects High School Students’ Understanding Of Algebraic Concepts And Beliefs About Mathematics, Cally Simanski

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This quantitative study used a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design to investigate how students’ understanding of algebraic concepts compared when they were taught using invention and consolidation phases or traditional direct instruction. It also explored how students’ beliefs and attitudes toward mathematics were affected by learning through invention and consolidation phases through a survey with a Likert scale. The study took place during the 2022-2023 academic year in the Intermediate Algebra II course at a mid-size public high school in Minnesota. The researcher had two sections of the course and taught one through direct instruction and the other through invention …

Decodable Readers Versus Leveled Text, Taylor Leitch

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

A student’s ability to read fluently is an extremely vital skill, necessary to allow them to succeed both in an academic setting and in everyday life. To guide those developing readers in increasing their independent reading fluency, abilities educators must have the correct instructional methods and tools that are developmentally appropriate to provide meaningful instruction. This quantitative action research project explores the use of decodable readers versus leveled text for students who are still developing the phonemic skills and recognition needed to read fluently. A decodable reader allows a student to explicitly practice one phonemic skill to mastery before adding …

Implementation Of Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports (Pbis) And Its Impact On Middle School Students’ Academic Success And Problem Behaviors, Brittanie Watson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) has been implemented across the United States in the effort to help diminish problem behaviors and increase academic success. Schools across the country are reporting an increase in numbers and intensity of problem behaviors. In addition, academic success after the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased in some school districts across the United States. Therefore, districts are looking for an intervention to help increase academics and decrease problem behaviors. With school districts already implementing PBIS, research studies and analyses are needed to ensure that the outcomes expected of PBIS are occurring. In addition, with the little …

Recognizing Teacher Burnout: Utilizing Teacher Retention Strategies To Help Work Life Balance Of Educators, Meghann Downer

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The ongoing shortage of special education teachers coupled with an increasing attrition rate has prompted many researchers to investigate why teachers are choosing to leave the field. Multiple studies (Lehmann 2008, et al Cheng 2022, et al Bryant 2023) have been conducted to determine the rates of attrition at multiple levels in education. Results of studies (Hughes 2012, et al Robinson 2019, et al Ogakwu 2022) indicate that there has been a statistically significant relationship between job satisfaction and burnout among special education teachers. This project provides a literature review focused on special education teacher burnout and attrition along with …

Standards Based Inclusive Preschool Curriculum, Bridgette Leigh

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to create an inclusive preschool curriculum geared toward all children ages 3-to-5 years-old. The curriculum demonstrated scripted and detailed instructions on how to conduct lessons in the developmental areas of cognitive and social-emotional. Those developmental areas were selected due to the research indicating the highest need areas for young children. In addition, the curriculum addressed: the Minnesota state educational standards for preschool age children, early childhood indicators of progress (ECIPs), and individual education plan (IEP) goals and objectives for young children who have special needs. The curriculum gives example case studies and ways …

Manipulating The Distance Of Inter-Letter And Inter-Word Spacing To Improve Reading Accuracy And Speed In The Dyslexic Student, Jon Roemmich

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Abstract

Recent research studies have shown that increased inter-letter and inter-word spacing has a positive effect on the reading speed and accuracy of students with dyslexia. A few of these studies also included the use of increased font size. Research that has included using fonts designed for dyslexics in addition to increased font size has not produced favorable results in increasing reading accuracy and speed. In relationship to previous research our results have shown that a .5 inter-letter and inter-word spacing has a marginal positive effect on reading accuracy and speed. The use of .3 and .7 inter-letter and inter …

Video Coaching For First-Year Special Education Teachers, Katherine Gadient

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Topic:

Video Coaching for First-Year Special Education Teachers

Abstract:

There is a shortage of special education teachers, especially in rural areas (Hopkins, 2023). School districts have attempted to address this shortage by hiring people on a variance and providing them with a specific timeline to obtain a special education teaching license (Tier Requirements, n.d.). Based on my school district and my experience, many of these teachers are hired without formal training in education and/or experience teaching in a special education setting. They may not have background information regarding due process and may need guidance on special education paperwork as well …

The Impact Of Mindfulness On Perceived Stress And Academic Performance Among English Language Students In Central Asia, Laurie Wolfe

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The current study investigated the effectiveness of mindfulness training in reducing stress and increasing academic performance among Uzbek English language students. The researcher partnered with four English faculty at Tashkent State Pedagogical University (TSPU) to conduct a quasi-experimental study using a convenience sample of sixty 2^nd year students studying English as a foreign language. One group of students (n = 30) received mindfulness training while the acted as an active control group (n = 30) and received study skills training. Both groups received 20-minutes training in their English classes, four days a week, for 4-weeks. All participants …

P-12 Teachers' Perceptions And Knowledge About Students' Mental Health And Their Willingness To Provide Mental Health Supports Within Their Classroom, Tamara Engel

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

P-12 students are experiencing higher rates of mental health needs, which generates a growing concern among teachers, parents, and educational leaders. Students with mental health challenges may struggle socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and academically and become at a risk for lower academic achievement, reduced graduation rates, and increased school suspensions and expulsions. While most of the literature is qualitative and has consistently identified schools as the ideal location to provide targeted mental health supports to students, teachers have reported having insufficient knowledge, skills, and resources to provide these supports to students. This correlational study aimed to move forward the quantitative methodology …

Strategic Morphology Interventions For Vocabulary Knowledge In Reading Comprehension, Danielle Marie Sharpe

Culminating Experience Projects

Many adolescent students have been shown to fall behind gradually as they reach

secondary grade levels. This has been researched as the effect of socioeconomic factors,

lack of immersive vocabulary backgrounds, and gaps in elementary years. Extensive

research has shown the benefits of morphology instruction in secondary students in

bridging vocabulary gaps, yet many schools have yet to provide them with the support to

comprehend difficult texts across content areas. This project explores the possible benefits

of offering adolescents the extra support and resources that can leverage reading

comprehension across content areas within secondary education. Through the use of

implementing …

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In High School Science: Assessing The Implementation In Title 1 Classrooms, Micah Ducre

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is defined as, using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively (Horowitz et al., 2018). Building relationships with students to understand their backgrounds and experiences to implement the best teaching practices such as accessing prior knowledge and making connections is imperative in a culturally diverse school with students with various learning styles, abilities, and interests. Moreover, the state of Georgia requires teachers to implement instructional practices relevant to students’ culture and learning abilities to receive proficient scores on their yearly evaluations. However, the state must provide its …