Education Commons^™

Academic Library Resources And Services For Online Distance Learners: An Exploratory Study, Roseanne Michele Sasso

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study distance learning library resources and services as provided by member institutions belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) were examined. The goals of this study were (a) to identify the types of distance learning library resources and services being provided, and (b) to gain insight into the experiences and perspectives of Association of Research Libraries’ library personnel in delivering library resources and services to their distance learning library patrons. This exploratory study consisted of two phases, where both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Phase one involved a content analysis of member institution’s distance learning websites …

Post-Concussion Experiences Of Collegiate Student-Athletes, Kaitlin Iris Singer

Doctoral Dissertations

Sports-related concussions are a major public health concern affecting a significant number of collegiate student-athletes. Medical and public health research has addressed every aspect of concussion management processes including concussion education, medical diagnosis, recovery, and returning to sport and classroom. This research has led to several best-practices for concussion management. Since 2010, the NCAA has mandated that its member institutions maintain concussion management policies and procedures. However, the current recommendations, based primarily on medical research, have been found in quantitative studies of the behaviors and practices of athletic trainers, coaches, and student-athletes to be ineffective. To date, no studies have …

Student And Instructor Experiences With Types Of Teaching And Learning In A Computer Course, Emily Carter Gray

Doctoral Dissertations

Research has shown that active classroom engagement increases the learning performance of students in higher education (Cross, 2000; Reese, 2013). This study sought to examine the experiences of students and instructor in a computer applications course in which the pedagogy was changed to encourage additional interaction among students and between students and the instructor. The goal of the study was to generate useful, practical knowledge (Reason & Bradbury, 2001) to help the instructor better understand her pedagogy with the intention of improving both her teaching practice and student learning outcomes, as well as to contribute to related literature in adult …

Viewing Power, Politics, And Loss: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Mass Media’S Representations Of Teacher Unions In The United States And The Consequences Concerning Policy, Melissa Ann Harness

Doctoral Dissertations

From 2011 to 2012, in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker and legislative republicans passed ACT- 10, a law severely limiting public sector/teachers union’s collective bargaining rights. This legislative effort shocked the nation with the bold move toward stricter regulations concerning the public sector, as Wisconsin is historically one of the most progressive states concerning labor within the United States. Teachers unions within the state took ACT-10 as an assault on their very profession. Shortly before the passing of the act, sit-ins and protests abounded within the capital of Madison that caught attention from both the local and national media.

To answer …

Stories Of Success: A Phenomenological Study Of Positive Transformative Learning Experiences Of Low-Socioeconomic Status Community College Mathematics Students, John Thomas Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

All too often education research focuses on academic disparities with under-served student populations. Frequently, both remedial and introductory college-level mathematics courses are cited as gatekeepers or insurmountable barriers for adult low-socioeconomic status (LSES) students. There has been a call from within the mathematics education community for less gap-gazing at disparities and more studies of success within marginalized groups. Many previously unsuccessful, under-prepared, under-served, and under-supported students persist and eventually succeed. In addition, there is a lack of research through the lens of the community college as a unique educational context, distinct from both K-12 and the four year colleges and …

Family Experiences With Standardized Assessments Leading To Participation In The Opt Out Movement, Christy Lee Evans

Doctoral Dissertations

With the hope of giving voice to individuals who are usually left out of conversations regarding standardized assessments—the families who live with the effects of those tests on their children—this study was designed to answer the following research questions:

1) Who are some of the individuals who are participating in the opt out movement?

2) How are some individuals making the decision to participate in the opt out movement?

a) What knowledge do these individuals who are participating in the opt out movement have regarding the standardized assessments that their children are being given in public schools?

b) How have …

Neighborhood Characteristics Of Food Insecurity Impacting Mental Health In East Tennessee Communities, Rochelle Alyssa Butler

Doctoral Dissertations

This study contributes to a growing body of research in counseling, public health, and psychology that examines how features within neighborhoods affect mental health. The environment in which their clients live directly affects services that counselors provide. Mental health discussions often center at the individual level, but mental health significantly impacts communities a whole. Therefore, the presence of mental health problems in individuals will affect the wider community at varying societal levels. Geographic information Systems, (GIS) will be used to determine which features of built environment associated food insecurity impact mental health and where the correlations between mental health and …

Siwi In An Itinerant Teaching Setting: Contextual Factors Impacting Instruction, Rachel Machelle Saulsburry

Doctoral Dissertations

In the last 40 years, there has been a shift in where deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/hh) students have been educated (Foster & Cue, 2009), with a majority of d/hh students now spending at least part of their school day in the general education classroom instead of residential or day-schools for the deaf. Many of these students receive specialized support from an itinerant teacher. D/hh children have unique language needs due to their access (or lack thereof) to natural language for acquisition purposes. Insufficient access to language, ASL or English, may be due to: delays in identification and/or amplification, auditory input …

The Impact Of Stability Ball Seating On Behavior And Academic Achievement Among Elementary School Students In Grades 1 Through 4., Sheila R. Borders

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was designed to answer three questions: 1) What is the impact of stability ball seating on the behavior of students in grades 1 through 4? 2) What is the impact of stability ball seating on the mathematics scores of students in grades 1 through 4? and 3) What is the impact of stability ball seating on the reading scores of students in grades 1 through 4? Research has shown that stability ball seating is linked to behavior and academic achievement among students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examines the …

Development And Validation Of The Statistics Assessment Of Graduate Students, Dammika Lakmal Walpitage

Doctoral Dissertations

This study developed the Statistics Assessment of Graduate Students (SAGS) instrument, and established its preliminary item characteristics, reliability, and validity evidence. Even though there are limited number of assessments available for measuring different aspects of statistical cognition, these previously available assessments have numerous limitations. The SAGS instrument was developed using Rasch modeling approach to create a new measure of statistical research methodology knowledge of graduate students in education and other behavioral and social sciences. Thirty-five multiple-choice questions were written with stems representing applied research situations and response options distinguishing between appropriate use of various statistical tests or procedures. A focus …

Learning To Teach Online: An Investigation Of The Impacts Of Faculty Development Training On Teaching Effectiveness And Attitudes Toward Online Instruction, Karen Elizabeth Brinkley

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between one approach to training for online faculty and the ways in which the program influenced the participants’ teaching effectiveness and attitudes toward online instruction. Two research questions guided this study: (1) how did participating in an intensive course redesign intervention influence instructors’ teaching effectiveness in the online environment? and (2) how did participating in the training influence instructors’ beliefs or attitudes about online teaching? The theoretical framework guiding this study was the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, developed by Mishra and Koehler (2005). Using a concurrent, mixed-methods design, …

Microaggressions In A Women's College. Understanding Language, Race, Class And Gender In Teaching Spanish: A Testimonio, Thelma Belmonte-Alcantara

Doctoral Dissertations

With a microethnographic approach that foregrounds the particular uses of language and connects them with larger processes of social activity, this study examines moment-to-moment interactions between an instructor and a group of learners who participated in a particular lesson that was part of a language course where Spanish was used, learned and taught as a foreign language at a women’s college. Through the analysis of these interactions, I present my understandings of language, race, class and gender and how these social categories can be interrelated in the form of subtle attacks or microaggressions. In the context of a private small …

Subscore Reliability And Classification Consistency: A Comparison Of Five Methods, Fen Fan

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous studies focused on reporting subscores themselves; however, most proficiency tests are criterion-referenced, reporting classification consistency and accuracy of student placement into performance categories within each subdomain are thus more suitable. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the decision consistency (DC) and decision accuracy (DA) of student placement into performance categories within each of the subdomains measured by the test of interest. A second purpose of this study was to compare the performance of five subscoring methods under some realistic conditions in terms of subscore reliability and classification. To do so, a simulation study was designed …

Investigating The Relationship Between Implicit Theories About Intelligence And Teacher-Student Relationship Quality, Woodbury B. Clift

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of teacher held implicit theories about intelligence on the quality of their relationships with students within the context of a school co-located in a secure juvenile justice setting serving adjudicated adolescent boys. In Massachusetts, adjudicated youth attending schools co-located in juvenile justice residential settings have significant gaps in their formal schooling, are culturally diverse, come from impoverished communities, and have high rates of learning disabilities. Their teachers, on the other hand, are mostly middle class, white, and well educated. As such, an immense social and cultural relational divide inherently exists between the teachers and their …

Multimodal Assessment In Action: What We Really Value In New Media Texts, Kathleen M. Baldwin

Doctoral Dissertations

As the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing illustrates, writing teachers at all educational levels can no longer ignore multimodality and the challenges that come with incorporating multimodal writing—texts composed using a combination of sound, images, video, etc.—into the classroom (NCTE, Framework). A chief struggle most writing teachers face is how to evaluate the multimodal texts their students produce, texts that are inherently diverse. In answer to the calls of scholars such as Yancey, Herrington, and Moran for research exploring multimodal assessment in situated classroom practice, my dissertation examines what K-16 writing teachers are and should be valuing in …

Contemplative Practices And Learning: A Holistic Approach To Education In Bhutan, Yang Gyeltshen

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the comments, behavior, and products of young student monks, who are exposed to an integrated curriculum of contemplative practices and secular lessons, about whether and how they bring their social-emotional learning from the contemplative practices to bear when learning secular functional skills and knowledge. At the beginning of my self-study, I hypothesized that an integrated curriculum of secular learning combined with contemplative practices would result in deeper learning, based on the research and literature on the connection between affective and cognitive learning. My findings support and do not negate previous research that an integrated curriculum, integrating contemplative …

Understanding Stem Learning Outcomes Using A Phenomenographic Approach, Cheryl L. Brooks

Doctoral Dissertations

Today’s STEM professionals are called upon to meet the nation’s technical challenges with innovative technologies that push the boundaries of our current understanding and practices. While the total number of STEM graduates may be sufficient for the number of STEM jobs, many lack the specific competencies needed for practice, suggesting that science and engineering graduates may not be adequately prepared for careers in the STEM fields (U.S. Joint Economic Committee, 2012). Using a phenomenographical approach, the researcher interviewed 18 STEM professionals to understand the qualitatively different ways in which they gained the technical and professional competencies needed to be successful …

Acculturation Stress, Psychological And Sociocultural Adjustment, And Development Of American Adolescents: A Qualitative Study Of Newton High School Exchange Students In China, Binbin Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

Theories from the extant acculturation literature functioned to categorize international students’ adaptation experiences and predict their acculturation outcomes. Also, relevant studies focused mainly on students at the tertiary level. For adolescent students seeking self-development toward independence and autonomy, how they negotiated their identity challenges and tensions in a cross-cultural context, and how surrounding others in their socialization impacted on their psychosocial adjustment process and transformative experiences have not been actively explored. This qualitative study approached adolescent students’ acculturation as an integrated development and learning process to explore the effects of developmental and cultural factors on their cross-cultural adaptation, especially examined …

Detecting Candidate Preknowledge Of Items Using A Predictive Checking Method, Xi Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

In on-demand high-stakes testing programs such as GRE and TOEFL, some items are repeatedly used across test administrations to reduce the cost of developing new items constantly. Item exposure provides an opportunity for examinees to have knowledge of particular test items in advance of their administration. It poses a threat to test security and ultimately will result in invalid test scores. Therefore, many testing programs conduct quality control to monitor test compromise at individual and/or group level. A predictive checking method is proposed in this study to detect examinee preknowledge on exposed items. We consider a scenario where a test …

Identifying Examinees Who Possess Distinct And Reliable Subscores When Added Value Is Lacking For The Total Sample, Joseph A. Rios

Doctoral Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that although subdomain information may provide no added value beyond the total score, in some contexts such information is of utility to particular demographic subgroups (Sinharay & Haberman, 2014). However, it is argued that the utility of reporting subscores for an individual should not be based on one’s manifest characteristics (e.g., gender or ethnicity), but rather on individual needs for diagnostic information, which is driven by multidimensionality in subdomain scores. To improve the validity of diagnostic information, this study proposed the use of Mahalanobis Distance and H^T indices to assess whether an individual’s data significantly departs …

The Role Of Training In The Development Of Amerindian Communities In Guyana: A Qualitative Case Study, Laureen Adele Pierre

Doctoral Dissertations

The Role of Training in the Development of Amerindian Communities in Guyana: A Qualitative Case Study SEPTEMBER 2016 LAUREEN ADELE PIERRE, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA M.A., UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst Directed by: Professor Cristine A. Smith Training is widely used in the field of international and community development as a capacity-building strategy, but evaluations of its impact on individuals and communities raise concerns about the effectiveness of training. Scholars and program planners also question the appropriateness of training in non-western contexts as a tool aligned with dominant development approaches. These concerns are pivotal to current development …

Talking The Walk: Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes Into A Critical Service-Learning Program, David Neely

Doctoral Dissertations

Service-learning, particularly critical service-learning, is relational work that endeavors to create and maintain more just relationships among students and community members within and across social identity groups (Mitchell, 2008). It is essential that students in service-learning courses learn how to talk, listen and collaborate with community members in ways that acknowledge and explore how social identities, privilege, and oppression impact people’s life experiences and relationships. However, in our socially-segregated society, in which schools and neighborhoods are as divided by race and income as they were half a century ago (Reardon & Bischoff, 2011; Reardon & Owens, 2014), many college students …

Teaching Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder To Mand Within The Inclusive Classroom, Jennifer L. Mcintire

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent federal legislation mandate that students with autism (ASD) be educated within the general education environment and held to high standards of achievement. Many interventions exist to teach language skills to children with ASD. Most have been developed in clinics or segregated settings, and have not been demonstrated as effective within general education classrooms. This research assessed the effectiveness of an intervention to teach two students with ASD to mand (request) within the general education classroom. Generalization and maintenance of independent manding (requesting) skills will be assessed. Both students learned to mand within the natural environment and demonstrated maintenance and …

Young Children Positioned As Storytellers In The Classroom: An Examination Of Teacher-Child Interactions And The Storytelling Event, Peggy L. Martalock

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT YOUNG CHILDREN POSITIONED AS STORYTELLERS IN THE CLASSROOM: AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHER-CHILD INTERACTIONS AND THE STORYTELLING EVENT SEPTEMBER 2016 PEGGY MARTALOCK, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON M.A. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN LACROSSE Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Claire E. Hamilton Responsive, well-attuned, sensitive, dynamic, and individual interactions between teachers and children in early childhood classrooms support language and literacy development. This study looks at the nature and qualities of teacher – child interactions during Vivian Paley’s storytelling approach when implemented as a curricular activity. This is a microethnographic study conducted from a socio-cultural theoretical framework of two …

"How Many Generations Will Be Spoiled At The Cost Of Such Compromises?" The Resolution Strategies Of High School Principals In Value-Conflict Situations Between School Law And Moral Values In Azad Kashmir, Muhammad N. Khawaja

Doctoral Dissertations

The phenomenon of ethical administration and decision-making in the context of school administration is a recent trend even in the Western scholarship on school administration. Although there have been a many academic endeavors in the last two decades of the 20^th century to explore the ethical dimension of school leadership mainly in the works of Greenfield (1985), Starratt (1991,1994), and Hodgkinson (1996). However, in the first decade of 21^st century, there have been much more concerted efforts to explore and propose theoretical models to explain the ethical dimension of school leadership. There have been a many attempts to …

Shared Focus/Collective Responsibility: The Lived Experience Of Educators As Members Of A Data Team In A Connecticut Public High School, Abbie-Jean M. Lareau

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT SHARED FOCUS/COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF EDUCATORS AS MEMBERS OF A DATA TEAM IN A CONNECTICUT PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL This study explores the experiences of five high school English Teachers in a Connecticut public school acting as an Instructional Data Team as prescribed by the Connecticut Accountability for Learning (CALI) model. Data Teams are teams of educators that participate in collaborative, structured, scheduled meetings, which focus on the effectiveness of teaching as determined by student achievement. Data Teams adhere to continuous improvement cycles, analyze trends, and determine strategies to facilitate analysis that results in action. Data Teams can …

The Gaps Between Values And Practices Of Global Citizenship Education: A Critical Analysis Of Global Citizenship Education In South Korea, Hye Seung Cho

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines how Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is perceived and implemented in South Korea. GCE has received much attention worldwide among educators, policy makers, and organizations, as reflected by the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), the Post-2015 education agenda, and The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consistent with this global trend, the World Education Forum, held in South Korea, also facilitated interest and discussions in GCE in South Korea. Within the context of heightened interest in GCE both in the global society and South Korea as well, my dissertation explores the core features of GCE in South Korea focusing on …

Synergy Between Digital And Traditional Literacy Practices: A Framework For Building A Reading Culture In A Secondary School, Nina Kositsky

Doctoral Dissertations

Integration of digital technologies into the English classroom requires that we rethink pedagogical frameworks within which education occurs. This study examines traditional and digital literacy practices in a high school that committed itself to building a strong reading culture among its students as it digitized its library collection. Through a series of in-depth, phenomenologically based interviews and classroom observations, the researcher focused on identifying factors that foster an interest in literary reading as a personally meaningful literacy experience among 21st century adolescents and explored the following questions: What kind of teaching practices promote this interest? What kind of social environments …

Paths To Leadership Of Ncaa Division I Female Athletic Directors, Haley Blount Taitano

Doctoral Dissertations

The focus of this study was to examine the paths to leadership of NCAA Division I female athletic directors. Over forty years after passing Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, female athletic directors still make up less than 10% of NCAA Division I athletic directors. This stagnant statistic along with a limited amount of existing research on the subject were the main catalysts for this investigation.

This study examined the career paths of eight NCAA Division I female athletic directors, paying particular attention to their personal and professional experiences that led to becoming a Division I athletic director. Critical …

Institutional Expenditures And State Economic Factors Influencing 2012-2014 Public University Graduation Rates, Brian Todd Hester

Doctoral Dissertations

American higher education has seen public postsecondary funding sharply decline over the past couple of decades and has now fallen behind other countries in being the world leader in college degree production. Many U.S. states have begun to place more accountability on their public institutions to prove they are using appropriations as effectively and efficiently as possible. State financial support is increasingly being appropriated on the basis of performance – i.e. student outcomes, primarily measured by student graduation rates. The better an institution can use its financial resources to increase its graduation rates, the more state financial support it will …