Education Commons^™

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 …

Teacher Mathematics Language: Its Use In The Early Childhood Classroom And Relationship With Young Children's Learning, Emma Whitman

Dissertations

Early mathematics instruction has been linked to children's later outcomes in both literacy and mathematics. One important component of this instruction, teachers' mathematics language in the early childhood classroom, has been connected to children's mathematical gains. However, this work is lacking in both scope and depth. The objective of this study was to provide a review of the use of math language by early childhood teachers and address the issues neglected in the current literature. The study looks at: the type of content that teachers' mathematics language emphasizes, the mediating effects of settings on the mathematics language that is used, …

Pedagogical Content Knowledge In Early Mathematics: What Teachers Know And How It Associates With Teaching And Learning, Yinna Zhang

Dissertations

The study was designed to examine the profile of early childhood teachers' content-specific knowledge, also referred to as pedagogical content knowledge, in early mathematics (PCK-EM) and investigate how PCK-EM relates to the quality of their mathematics teaching quality and students' mathematical learning outcomes. A total of 182 teachers working with high need students from Pre-K through Grade 3 in an urban public school system participated in the study and analyzed a video of mathematics teaching through an online survey. The results painted a bleak picture regarding the profile of early childhood teachers' PCK-EM: as a whole, teachers' survey responses lacked …

Latino Students In Suburban High Schools: An Examination Of School Malleable Predictors Of High School Graduation, Kira Jean Hicks

Dissertations

Despite recent gains, Latino students drop out of high schools in the United States at a higher rate than their peers and at a significant cost. As more Latino students move to the suburbs, it is important for suburban high schools to meet their needs and solidify their path to graduation. Practices that appear to be promising in keeping students on track to graduate have been developed and studied in urban education settings and need to be validated with other populations and settings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the indicators that are predictive of on time graduation …

Speculation: The Future(S) Of A Global Education Market, Kaine Osburn

Dissertations

This dissertation establishes a structural understanding of what is necessary to imagine in material terms the future of how education will be financed and how education knowledge will be circulated on a global scale. Making explicit a governmentality perspective for examining neoliberal constructions of education policy and practice first, this dissertation applies that perspective to understanding the trajectory of World Bank policies on financing and governing education over the last twenty years. While the first three chapters draw on existing conceptual and policy work, the chapters combine aspects of them in new ways which reveal a clear understanding of an …

Shifting Narratives In Doctoral Admissions: Faculty Of Color Understandings Of Diversity, Equity, And Justice In A Neoliberal Context, Dian Drew Squire

Dissertations

Little is known about how faculty make decisions in the doctoral admissions process or how they conceptualize diversity, equity, and justice in those same processes. As the United States continues to diversify, understanding how students are selected into graduate programs and how faculty understand diversity, equity, and justice is increasingly important to supporting diverse leadership bodies and shaping an inclusive campus cultural context. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and critical discourse analysis to explore how faculty of color understand diversity, equity, and justice norms, values, and behaviors in the doctoral admissions process in Higher Education and Student …

Exploring The Impact Of Mindfulness On Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Approach, Poonam Desai

Dissertations

As social emotional learning gains greater focus, identifying effective interventions for high-risk students, such as students with Emotional/ Behavioral Disorder (EBD), becomes a priority. Mindfulness, as an intervention, offers a unique set of skills to increase emotional awareness and regulation, while also teaching key social emotional skills (Singh et al, 2007). Mindfulness, or the nonjudgmental observation of one's thoughts, feelings, and emotions, has roots in Buddhist philosophy, but is used secularly in the fields of psychology, medicine, and education (Baer, 2003). In this mixed methods study, the researcher aims to examine the experiences of adolescents who have EBD at an …

Incomplete Reporting: Addressing The Problem Of Outcome-Reporting Bias In Educational Research, Brian Patrick Trainor

Dissertations

Outcome-reporting bias is a problem that pervades many research disciplines including education. Outcome-reporting bias involves any time the outcomes presented in a published journal article do not accurately reflect all of the outcomes that were collected throughout the course of a study. In other words, when outcome-reporting bias is present, the information which is disseminated to the academic research community is incomplete and can lead to serious problems over time. Some of these problems include school districts implementing interventions based on incomplete or inaccurate data, as well as the problem that naturally arises for those implementing meta-analysis or systematic review …

Mandated Reporting: An Examination Of Training And Practice Of School Psychologists, Katie Nicole Bradshaw Sears

Dissertations

This study sought to explore the training opportunities, knowledge, confidence in intervening, reporting behaviors, and types of supervision received and given in the areas of child maltreatment and mandated reporting by practicing school psychologists. Little is known about school psychologists' knowledge of child maltreatment and specific mandates about reporting suspicions of abuse or how to appropriately respond to disclosures of abuse (Arbolino et al., 2008). Given school psychologists' unique role in schools working directly with children, it is not uncommon for school psychologists to either suspect maltreatment is occurring or to hear a disclosure of maltreatment directly from a student. …

Embedding Self-Determination And Futures Planning Within A Schoolwide Framework, Hank Bohanon, Jose Castillo, Morgan Afton

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the infusion of self-determination approaches (e.g., futures planning) within a schoolwide context. Unfortunately, some students are not explicitly instructed by school staff to address their plans for the future. This may be a result of school professionals’ feelings of inadequacy to address skill sets outside of their specialization (e.g., content area, special education). By connecting self-determination practices with schoolwide initiatives (e.g., schoolwide positive behavior support, Common Core State Standards), educators in particular may be more willing to address these skills in their settings. This article provides an example of these types of …

Hallways And High Schools: Changes In Adult Behavior To Decrease Disruption From Students In Non-Classroom Settings, Hank Bohanon

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Decreasing classroom disruptions that result from hallway related behavior in high school settings can be very challenging for high school staff. This article describes a case example of preventing problem behavior related to hallway settings in a high school with over 1,200 students. The interventions are described and the results of the plan are included.

Teaching, Learning, And Leading: Preparing Teachers As Educational Policy Actors, Amy J. Heineke, Ann Marie Ryan, Charles Tocci

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Within the current federal, state, and local contexts of educational reform, teachers must be recognized as central actors in policy work, but rarely do we explicitly consider preparing teachers to become policy actors. Understanding these implications for teacher education, we investigate teacher candidates’ learning of the complexity and dynamism of educational policy through a field-based teacher preparation program. Situated across four unique school contexts in the diverse neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois, we qualitatively study the cases of eight teacher candidates as they explore policy in practice. We found that candidates developed enduring understandings about policy as complex, situated, and multilayered, …

The Project Approach Meta-Project: Inquiry-Based Learning In Undergraduate Early Childhood Teacher Education, Adam S. Kennedy, Erin Horne, Kelcie Dolan, Cindy Herrera, Naomi Malutan, Kathleen Noetzel

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article describes a case study involving the planning, phases, and outcomes of an exploration of the Project Approach led by four teacher candidates as part of an undergraduate early childhood teacher preparation program. Four undergraduate junior-level teacher candidates investigated the phases of the Project Approach during their junior year; this work took place during a 26-week learning module comprised of a seminar and part-time student teaching placement in a preschool setting. The candidates aligned the stages of their investigation with the phases of the Project Approach, which provided a framework complementary to that of action research, within which the …

Visualizing Social Influences On Filipino American And Southeast Asian American College Choice, Kristen L. Surla, Oiyan Poon

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study identifies and explores social influences on the college choice process of Filipino American and Southeast Asian American high school seniors in an urban Midwestern setting. In an effort to contribute more depth to the knowledge regarding college choice among Filipino Americans and Southeast Asian Americans, this study engaged seven high school seniors in a photo elicitation study, allowing the students to tell their own stories of their pathways to college. Photos and follow-up interviews indicated that the students explicitly acknowledged kinship and peer networks as playing the most influential roles in the college choice process. Gender differences were …

A Multiyear Investigation Of Combating Bullying In Middle School: Stakeholder Perspectives, David L. Shriberg, Mallory Burns, Poonam Desai, Stephanie Grunewald, Rachel Pitt

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Working collaboratively to address bullying among middle school students is an ongoing challenge. This study used participatory action research to collaborate with key stakeholders within a middle school to identify needs and implement more effective practices. Extensive qualitative and quantitative data are presented, along with process recommendations for bringing different stakeholders together for a sustained change effort.

Moving Towards Biliteracy: Varying Paths Of Bilingual Writers In Two-Way Immersion Programs, Elizabeth Howard, Sabina Neugebauer

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study investigates the English and Spanish lower-order writing development of 185 bilingual students in two-way immersion (TWI) programs and explores the extent to which home language exposure may explain different writing trajectories in each language. Students were administered English and Spanish basic writing skills assessments once per year over four years, from second through fifth grade. Multi-level modeling revealed that students demonstrated significant growth in lower-order writing ability in both languages, but the rates of acceleration slowed over time. Moreover, increased use of a given language at home was significantly associated with higher writing ability in that language in …

Student Attitudes To An Online, Peer-Instruction, Revision Aid In Science Education, Barry Ryan, Aaron Mac Raighne, Morag Casey, Robert Howard

Articles

Peer instruction has been shown to have a positive effect on students’ engagement and learning. However, many of the techniques designed to incorporate peer instruction into the student experience are very heavy on resources. PeerWise is a free, low-maintenance, web-tool designed to allow peer instruction between students within a large class group. Students can write, answer and discuss Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) based on their work in-class.

In this study, we introduce PeerWise to a wide and varied cohort of science students (N=509) across different disciplines, undergraduate years, levels (certificate to honours degree) and institutes. The attitudes of the students …

Students' Attitudes Towards Socially--But Not Scientifically--Controversial Subjects: Evaluating Ways In Which These Attitudes May Be Shifted, Benjamin Elijah Carter

Dissertations - ALL

Chapter1: Numerous anti-science bills introduced into state legislatures reference the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific subjects, but the subjects they target, most commonly evolution and global climate change, are not topics of contention within the scientific community. This brief work provides a researched rebuttal to the notion that evolution and climate change have strengths and weaknesses of the form implied by anti-science legislation while providing examples of actual scientific disagreement about these subjects. The disagreement is not, of course, about whether or not evolution or climate change are factual occurrences, but rather over ideas such as the finer points of …

Comprehensive Self-Selected Reading And Student Engagement With The Novel: A Program Evaluation, Jennesis Kathleen Jensen

Doctoral Dissertations

Not reading (Krashen, 2009) is a phenomenon widely noted in students assigned to read as a part of school curriculum. A solution to the many criticisms and deficits cited in the literature surrounding the practice of not reading may lie in the CSSR (Comprehensive Self-Selected Reading) program chosen for focus in this study. In this high school student-reading program, incoming students are guided through a process of textual self-selection and evaluation in an enthusiastic, engaging, and motivating manner. During an eight-month study duration, thirty-two 10th grade students actively read a total of 24,419 pages collaboratively, and 763.09 pages on average. …

The Effect Of Simulation With Debriefing For Meaningful Learning In Courses Of Nursing Theory And Practicum On Student Knowledge And Perception Of Instruction, Kathleen L. Shea

Doctoral Dissertations

Nursing students are expected to apply knowledge from lectures and laboratories to the clinical setting. One major challenge of nursing educators is facilitating the transfer of knowledge to the clinical-practice setting. Simulation-based education provides students with an experiential-learning activity within the context of a simulated clinical environment. Following the simulation activity, the instructor facilitates a debriefing session and guides student discussion and reflection related to the experience. Debriefing promotes understanding of nursing concepts (Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010).

The purpose of this research is to compare two debriefing methods: traditional method and Debriefing for Meaningful Learning DML (Dreifuerst, 2012). …

Capturing The Social/Emotional World Of Students, David Naff, Jesse Senechal

MERC Publications

The goal of this report is to explore the possibilities using student social emotional measures withing K-12 schools. This will include (1) a discussion of what constitutes a social emotional measure, (2) an overview of commonly used measures, and (3) a discussion of how these measures may inform school improvement processes and promote the success of students at the classroom, school, school system, and community level.

Rethinking School Improvement: The Case For Networked Improvement Communities, Jesse Senechal

MERC Publications

The question of why school improvement efforts have not been as effective as we would hope is a complicated one that could be addressed from a number of perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the underlying problems that prevent current school reform effort from achieving sustained impact, and to describe a promising model of school improvement, called the Networked Improvement Community (NIC). The NIC model – which has just started gaining traction in the world of K-12 school reform – establishes small inquiry groups within organizations to engage in cycles of improvement that involve implementing …

Exploring Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies Of Non-Native English-Speaking Translation Students, Shayesteh Zarrabi

Doctoral Dissertations

International students, a growing population in US universities, need to possess excellent reading skills in order to succeed. American universities also benefit from admitting students who do not require remedial English classes. Reading online has become an integrated part of college education, which requires students to have additional skills. Awareness and usage of online reading strategies, known as metacognitive online reading strategies, are proven tools to enhance reading skills in online environments.

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate the metacognitive online reading strategies employed by highly proficient non-native English-speaking graduate students of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education …

Iwitness And Student Empathy: Perspectives From Usc Shoah Foundation Master Teachers, Brandon Jerome Haas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative interview study explores the perceptions of five USC Shoah Foundation Master Teachers who integrate IWitness in teaching about the Holocaust. The study focused on the perceptions of teachers as their students interact with survivor and witness testimony in IWitness as well as how IWitness provides a framework for moral education in comparison to other primary sources. Data gleaned from this study demonstrates the influence of personalized learning through testimony-based education on the development of empathy in secondary students. As IWitness is a new resource that engages students with Holocaust survivor testimony in innovative ways, this study fills a …

The Role Of The Interruption In Young Adult Epistolary Novels, Betty J. Herzhauser

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the genre of young adult literature, a growing trend is the use of epistolary messages through electronic methods between characters. These messages are set apart from the formal text of the narrative of the novel creating a break in the text features and layout of the page. Epistolary texts require a more sophisticated reading method and level of interpretation because the epistolary style blends multiple voices and points of view into the plot, creating complicated narration. The reader must navigate the narrator’s path in order to extract meaning from the text. In this hermeneutic study, I examined the text …

Facilitating A Transdisciplinary Approach In Teacher Education Through Multimodal Literacy And Cognitive Neuroscience, Margaret Billings Krause

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of research and theoretical papers based on the affordances of multimodal literacies for marginalized learners and for pre-service teachers’ developing conceptualizations of literacy. Through a transdisciplinary lens, the author considers complex issues presented in traditional, print-based learning environments that potentially marginalize learners in their developing abilities to become successful participants in the multiple literacies in the real world.

Three studies focus on pre-service teachers and their developing understanding of effective literacy-related classroom practices. Chapter Three explores potential affordances of a multimodal learning environment for pre-service teachers with self-identified reading difficulties. The phenomenological study highlights differing …

A Mixed Method Study Examining Synchronous-Enhanced Learning In Distance Education, Kimberly M. Wheeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed method study examined how integration of synchronous Web-based desktop conferencing affects undergraduate distance learning students' educational experience. Specifically, it compared students in one distance learning section of an introductory technology course delivered through a synchronous-enhanced mode (employing both synchronous and asynchronous tools) with students in a second section of the same distance learning course provided in the asynchronous only mode to examine variations in cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence through the lens of the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000). Additionally, this study measured perceived learning, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction to determine …

Consequences Of Non-Modeled And Modeled Between Case Variation In The Level-1 Error Structure In Multilevel Models For Single-Case Data: A Monte Carlo Study, Eun Kyeng Baek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Multilevel modeling (MLM) approach has a great flexibility in that can handle various methodological issues that may arise with single-case studies, such as the need to model possible dependency in the errors, linear or nonlinear trends, and count outcomes (e.g.,Van den Noortgate & Onghena, 2003a). By using the MLM framework, researchers can not only model dependency in the errors but also model a variety of level-1error structures.

The effect of misspecification in the level-1 error structure has been well studied for MLM analyses. Generally, it was found that the estimates of the fixed effects were unbiased but the estimates …

Student-Teacher Interaction Through Online Reflective Journals In A High School Science Classroom: What Have We Learned?, Megan Elizabeth Ehlers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Three challenges in current secondary school science classrooms are (a) meaningful integration of technology, (b) integration of reading and writing in content courses, and (c) differentiation of instruction to meet individual student needs in courses. This is an exploratory study of an urban, high school marine science course in which a teacher added communication with her students via asynchronous online journals. This intervention was intended to enable the teacher to understand how students were constructing knowledge and their understanding of marine science topics. Data included journal postings from all students and the teacher throughout the semester, as well as the …