Education Commons^™

Nurturing The Aesthetic: Learning To Care For The Environment In A Waldorf School, Melissa A. Grella

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of the study was to explore the aesthetic foundation of the Waldorf pedagogy in order to understand how art and aesthetic experiences may develop care toward the environment. A form of humanistic education developed by Rudolf Steiner in the early twentieth century, Waldorf education is a learning model envisioned as a framework for moral education. Waldorf education is known for its intentional use of art and aesthetic experience as well as its focus on developmentally appropriate curriculum and teaching methods. As in other forms of holistic education, Waldorf educators focus on the head, heart and hand of every …

Examining Teachers' Acceptance And Use Of Mobile Applications And Ipads In Instruction Through The Technology Acceptance Model: A Mixed Methods Study, Danielle Nicole Navariz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the addition of new technologies and the shift from digital learning to mobile learning, districts are rushing to purchase the latest mobile devices for their campuses. Despite this rush, as indicated by the growing number of pilot programs and 13 million iPads sold to education customers globally (Maestri, 2014), there is little research on the factors teachers consider when selecting mobile applications or the factors that impact their acceptance of the new technology. When implementing new technologies, teachers' acceptance of the technology must be examined to ensure proper use.

This Dissertation explored, through sequential mixed methods, teachersâ?? acceptance of …

The Impact Of Baby Sign Training On Stress Levels Of Daycare Providers, Grisel Julieta Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Proponents of baby sign claim improvements in child-caregiver interactions and reductions in parental stress as benefits of implementing baby sign. Due to research contradicting the claims, and to the rise in daycare attendance, the current study investigated the effects of a baby sign workshop on the stress perception of daycare providers. A pre-test post-test between groups design with 20 participants was conducted using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10) and a workshop-specific descriptive survey as measures. The difference between the post-test stress levels of experimental and control groups approached significance, as did the differences between pre-test and post-test results for the …

Peer Review In A Graduate Writing Class: Case Studies Of First-And Second- Language Students, Petcharat Saenpoch

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research explored peer review strategies of L1 (native speakers of English) and L2 (non-native speakers of English) graduate student writers from different disciplines. The focus was on how they revised their writing and which strategies they used. The study was conducted in a Graduate Writing Workshop class at a public university on the U.S. - Mexican border in the United States of America. Five participants were selected as case studies. The researcher collected data by recording face-to-face peer review sessions, observing the class, interviewing the instructor and students, collecting the students' reflections, and gathering the students' writing drafts. The …

Administrative Leadership, Jon Wergin

Faculty Articles

This paper reviews current thinking on organizational leadership generally and academic leadership in particular. In the past quarter-century, views about the essence of leadership have shifted from a hierarchical view that leadership flows from a leadership position to a much more lateral view that leadership roles are available to everyone. Recent research on leadership in higher education largely mirrors the more general leadership literature: significantly more attention is now being paid to collective, context-dependent, and relational approaches. The higher education leader drawn to these new models is, however, also pulled in the opposite direction, toward an increasingly managerial culture requiring …

Faculty And Student Interactions At The Community College: An Examination Of The Interaction Order, Amber Archuleta-Lucero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Community college students represent 46% of all incoming freshman undergraduate students (American Association of Community Colleges, 2013). Increasingly, research on community colleges is focused on student success and in particular student engagement. One area of student engagement is faculty and student interactions which are an essential part of the collegiate experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine faculty and student interactions at the community college, in particular, the type of interactions, the nature of the interactions as well as how students interpret their interactions with faculty members. With an ever growing emphasis on accountability via student success outcomes …

Under-Represented Students' Engagement In Secondary Science Learning: A Non-Equivalent Control Group Design, Joy J. Vann-Hamilton

Dissertations

Problem.

A significant segment of the U.S. population, under-represented students, is under-engaged or disengaged in secondary science education. International and national assessments and various research studies illuminate the problem and/or the disparity between students’ aspirations in science and the means they have to achieve them. To improve engagement and address inequities among these students, more contemporary and/or inclusive pedagogy is recommended. More specifically, multicultural science education has been suggested as a potential strategy for increased equity so that all learners have access to and are readily engaged in quality science education. While multicultural science education emphasizes the integration of students’ …

Statement, Winter 2015, Office Of Alumni Relations. Morehead State University

Morehead State Alumni Association Publications

Statement Magazine of Morehead State University from Winter of 2015.

Sel In Higher Education, Colleen S. Conley

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

An Adapted Shared Storybook Reading Program Implemented In Inclusive Preschool Classrooms: An Investigation Of Its Use And Effectiveness, Andrea Golloher

Faculty Publications

The Pathways to Literacy reading program (Lee, Mims, & Browder, 2011) has been demonstrated to be effective at increasing both engagement and comprehension during shared storybook reading for students with exceptional needs. To date, research on Pathways to Literacy has been limited to students in early elementary school rather than preschool, which is when shared reading is usually emphasized as part of the general education curriculum. In these investigations, the reading program has been administered in one-on-one instructional settings, often in special education classrooms. No existing research has examined the ability of participating students to generalize newly learned skills to …

Investigating The Linguistic Identity Development Of Dual Language Learners, Elizabeth Silbernagel

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this research study was to analyze ways in which dual language learners were impacted by their environment (school, home, and community) and explore how these environments impacted their cultural and linguistic identity. Specifically, the goal was to find ways in which educators could better support these students in the classroom to help them achieve academic success, as well as make students feel that their culture is acknowledged and appreciated in the classroom environment. Both of these goals point toward the need to consider the “role identity plays in children’s demonstration and construction of knowledge” (Owocki & Goodman, …

Effects Of Headings On Processing Of Audio Texts, Hung-Tao Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Text-to-speech devices often do a poor job of translating signals such as headings from visual into audio mode. Previous research studies have attempted to address this problem but these studies have mainly used heading detection tasks. The current study seeks to investigate 1) whether listeners find the presence of audio headings useful in natural learning tasks, and 2) the type of heading rendering that is most useful in natural learning tasks. The three learning tasks in this study include note-taking, cued recall, and knowledge transfer. Results from this study reveal that listeners find audio headings useful in the note-taking task. …

Interpersonal Rejection Sensitivity Predicts Burnout: A Prospective Study, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

We examined whether interpersonal rejection sensitivity (IRS)—the hallmark of atypical depression – prospectively predicted burnout, controlling for baseline symptoms, history of depressive disorders, antidepressant intake, gender, age, and length of employment (mean between-assessment duration: 21 months; n = 578; 74% female). IRS was related to a 119% increased risk of burnout at follow-up. Three of four burned out participants reported to be affected by IRS, or 2.5 times the rate observed in participants with no (or subthreshold) burnout symptoms. Our study highlights a dispositional factor in burnout’s etiology also known to be a key component of atypical depression’s etiology. The …

Burnout Does Not Help Predict Depression In French Schoolteachers, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

Objectives: Burnout has been viewed as a phase in the development of depression. However, supportive research is scarce. We examined whether burnout predicted depression among French school teachers.

Methods: We conducted a 2-wave, 21-month study involving 627 teachers (73% female) working in French primary and secondary schools. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and depression with the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 grades depressive symptom severity and provides a provisional diagnosis of major depression. Depression was treated both as a continuous and categorical variable using linear and logistic regression analyses. We controlled …

Demographics And Education In The Twenty-First Century, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Biliteracy From The Start: Biliteracy Squared In Action, Allison Briceño

Faculty Publications

A review of Kathy Escamilla, Susan Hopewell, Sandra Butvilofsky, Wendy Sparrow, Lucinda Soltero-González, Olivia Ruiz-Figueroa, and Manuel Escamilla. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in Action. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing. 224 pp.

Exploring Racial Literacy In Middle Level Teacher Preparation: A Case Study, Deborah H. Mcmurtrie

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, approximately 82% of teachers are white and middle-class, yet their students are strikingly diverse and becoming more so. The mismatch between teachers’ and students’ racial backgrounds is important because teachers who have limited experience with students of color may misinterpret their students’ unfamiliar behaviors and make stereotyped assumptions from a deficit perspective. It is well documented that U.S. schools systematically marginalize and fail many children of color. Disparities in funding, access, and achievement in education are intimately tied to race. Everyday practices in schools perpetuate inequities, but the actual processes can be hard to see. If …

Teacher Perception Of Promoting Student Engagement Among Culturally Diverse Students Through The Use Of Culturally Relevant Strategies, Ivey Pearl Addison

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate teacher perceptions of the impact culturally relevant pedagogy has on student engagement. The study explored the beliefs, attitudes and perspectives of four elementary school teachers. Observations and interviews were utilized to gather qualitative data for this study. Teacher lessons were used to achieve triangulation. The findings will provide teachers with a conceptual framework that can be adapted to improve academic achievement.

Telling A Different Narrative: Exploring The Values And Challenges Of Performing Enslaved Community Members’ Stories At U.S. Southern Plantation Museums, Stefanie Kate Benjamin

Theses and Dissertations

Informed by both performance studies and collective memory theory, this study centers around Let Them Be Heard, a theatrical production that breathes life into the narratives of former slaves, performed at three plantation sites in the U.S. South. I seek to understand the lived experience of the performance through the eyes of three key stakeholder groups (plantation museum curators and docents, the director of the Let Them Be Heard production, and the show’s performers), and the impact of the performance on those individuals and on the plantation sites where the performances took place. Ultimately, I am attempting to discern the …

State Of The University, Fall 2015, John Pelissero

Loyola University Chicago Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

Instructional Leadership And Deliberate Practice: A Framework For Improving Student Achievement, Matthew Henry Banach

Dissertations

This study examined whether the theory of deliberate practice could be applied and expanded to the field of education to explain how school leaders successfully work with teachers to improve student achievement in schools with a high percentage of student identified as minority and low income. For the purpose of this study, deliberate practice is defined as practice that is "(a) at an appropriate level, (b) provides informative feedback, (c) provides for opportunities for repetition, and (d) allows for correction of errors" (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Ferrari, 2002, p. 71).

The researcher completed a qualitative case study of two public elementary …

The Role Of Instructional Leadership On Teacher Induction And Professional Longevity: A Case Study, Jeremy E. Burnham

Dissertations

This research study examines the perceived impact of teacher induction programs on public high school novice and beginning career-change teachers. This study seeks to explore the differences in perceptions of public high school novice teachers versus public high school beginning career-change teachers in regards to the efficacy of induction programs.

Through a case study design that utilized qualitative questionnaires, individualized interviews, and document analysis, the researcher uncovered data, which highlighted the importance of addressing the individual needs of public high school novice and beginning career-change teachers in district induction.

The conclusions that follow summarize the utilization of Allan A. Glatthorn's …

Detention Center To Home School: The Path Of Transition, Sarah Hogeveen

Dissertations

This study examined the way a juvenile detention center and local feeder high schools worked in conjunction with each other to educate students that are incarcerated and then transition back to their home school. The goal of this study was to determine the adequacy of the transition/re-entry plan and then develop a template to assist high schools in the transition process. The transition/re-entry process into the home high school can be difficult and often involves several agencies. The evidence has suggested that there is not a solid transition plan available or in place for this process. This evidence allowed for …

A Community-University Partnership: Collaborating To Improve Teacher Preparation For An Urban Indigenous Community, Anna Lees

Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored a community-university partnership for teacher preparation with an urban Indigenous community organization in Chicago, Illinois. In the examined partnership, Indigenous participants collaborated with university faculty to prepare graduate-level students in an initial preparation program. I examined the impact of the partnership on the participating Indigenous community members, emphasizing how their interactions with university faculty and teacher candidates impacted the Indigenous organization and participants. Indigenous participants considered what teachers must understand to serve urban Indigenous children and the community's role in teacher preparation.

I collected data through focus groups with Indigenous participants before and after engagement …

Science Teaching And Learning As Transformation: Making Meaning With My Students, Megan Marie Leider

Dissertations

As a classroom science teacher, I have experienced firsthand the disengagement and disinterest students have with science. Students often struggle to retain information from year to year, feel comfortable in the science classroom, and see the connections between the science taught in the classroom and their lived experiences. It is obvious to me that we could do more for our students. One way in which to assist students with science learning is through the incorporation of Sci-YAR (Science Youth Action Research). Sci-YAR is a curricular framework and instructional strategy that places the student at the center of their learning. It …

The Effects Of The 2008 Financial Recession On Superintendents’ Leadership And Decision Making, Elizabeth Ann Mcnamara

Dissertations

This dissertation explored the possible effects that the 2008 financial recession might have had on superintendents' leadership and decision-making. A great deal of scholarship has addressed the effects of the 2008 financial recession as well as educational leadership, however, few studies have investigated the direct impact of the 2008 financial recession on superintendent's leadership.

The study answers the following research questions:

1. According to superintendents whose tenure included years 2007 to the

present day, what considerations did they bring into their decision making

regarding reductions within their school district?

a. What considerations were made regarding reductions in the

area of …

Shifting Professional Culture In Catholic Schools: A Case Study, Sandria Morten

Dissertations

This action research study explores the implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at three Catholic schools in a large Midwestern Archdiocese and the impact on the schools' professional cultures. The three-article dissertation structure is used to reflect separately on the stages of problem identification, designing the solution, and implementing and evaluating the solution. The purpose of this project is to capture an insider's view of beginning the PLC journey.

Researchers first conducted problem-based consultations with principals and teacher leaders at the three schools in an effort to understand and define common barriers that prevented teacher collaboration and ownership of school …

A Comparison Of Extra-Curricular Codes Of Conduct At Two Suburban Illinois High School Districts (1986-2011), Ted Robbins

Dissertations

This study investigates two Illinois High School districts from the years 1986-2011 and their extra-curricular Codes of Conduct. It begins by reviewing the evolution and background history of extra-curricular Codes of Conduct in Illinois High Schools. The specific development, evolution, implementation, and changes to the Codes of Conduct in two Illinois high school districts are then examined.

The research questions of this study focus on four topics; what was the evolution of the Codes of Conduct at the two Illinois high School districts, who were the advocates and leaders for changes to the consequences of a Code of Conduct violation, …

A Historical Analysis Of The Pioneers And Advocates Of Autism Spectrum Disorder (1980-2013): Examining The Evolution Of The Diagnosis And The Influences That Have Shaped What The Diagnosis Is Today, Cynthia Marie Sikora

Dissertations

During the 1980's, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was categorized as a developmental disorder separate from other developmental disorders, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III (DSM-III). There were various pioneers and advocates who have helped the evolution of the ASD diagnosis from the time period of 1980-2013. Based on this evolution, schools, institutions and society as a whole, needed additional information and professional preparation in order to educate and create awareness regarding the treatment and education of individuals with ASD.

The central research questions are: During the time period from 1980-2013, who were the pioneers and advocates …

Shifting Professional Culture In Catholic Schools: A Case Study, Debra Sullivan

Dissertations

This action research study explores the implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at three Catholic schools in a large Midwestern Archdiocese and the impact on the schools' professional cultures. The three-article dissertation structure is used to reflect separately on the stages of problem identification, designing the solution, and implementing and evaluating the solution. The purpose of this project is to capture an insider's view of beginning the PLC journey.

Researchers first conducted problem-based consultations with principals and teacher leaders at the three schools in an effort to understand and define common barriers that prevented teacher collaboration and ownership of school …