Education Commons^™

Engineering Career Academies: A Comparison Of Middle School Student Academic Performance, Jakub D. Prokop

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A quasi-experimental study tested an integrated curriculum design in two career academies with engineering themes at the middle school level. Teachers in the engineering career academies, using the National Standards of Practice, implemented cross curricular units to middle school student cohorts. Participant cohorts ranged in sample sizes (n = 79, 155, 237, and 232) during the four years of analysis. Constructivism was used as a framework for the study and supported by integrated curriculum units. This study examined middle school students’ performance in reading and mathematics on state assessments of students in the engineering career academies to students not enrolled …

Using Critical Race Theory To Examine Race And Racism In Social Work Education, Ebony Nicole Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Race and racism have proven to be a core concept of U.S. society that impacts People of Color through a set of challenges which have created and maintained enduring racial disparities and inequities. The social work profession has a time-honored commitment to working with and advocating historically marginalized populations. Social workers work with individuals, groups, and communities to help assess needs, strengths, support networks, respond to crisis situations, and advocate for social justice. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the experiences of undergraduate social work educators (BSWEs) who teach to encourage the development of students’ knowledge, …

The Experiences Of African American Male Computer Science Majors In Two Year Colleges, Simone Brookins Jenkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the field of computer science grows and the computing science workforce demands more qualified workers, the United States workforce will require underrepresented minorities to help meet these demands. African American males are a demographic that can help meet this need but there are few of them pursuing computer science careers and successfully graduating with computer science degrees. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of African American male two-year college students who are in pursuit of a degree in computer science. My findings indicated that the study participants’ experiences such as positive interactions with faculty …

Building A Collaborative Culture In A Middle School: A Case Study, Andrew Olson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is extensive research indicating the importance of teachers working together in teams and in conjunction with school leadership to improve teaching practice and, ultimately, outcomes for students. However, there is little evidence that collaboration is valued in the American school system. Tension pervades in a system that often prescribes a top-down approach to teacher evaluation, fails to provide sufficient time for teachers to collaborate, and unfairly scapegoats teachers for many challenges both within society and the education system itself. It is not surprising that teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate.

Combine these contextual factors with the …

Adolescent Identity Exploration And Civic Identity Development In A U.S. Government Classroom, Sarah Mead Denney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As technological advances provide minute-by-minute updates of current events and personalized media feeds push the boundaries of political polarization, the task of social studies educators to provide students with the tools to become effective citizens becomes increasingly important. Undergirded by theories of psychosocial identity development, civic identity development, and the promotion of identity exploration in the academic curriculum, this qualitative multiple case study attempts to examine the processes of adolescent identity exploration and civic identity development in relation to the assignments and activities in a twelfth-grade Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Government classroom. Classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and artifact …

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of The Hillsborough County Public Schools (Hcps) Principal Induction Program On Principal Performance, Gloria Waite

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The principal at all instructional levels holds an awesome responsibility of ensuring that students receive the instruction that they need to be successful. They are responsible for both the management of the building and their employees as well as the instruction that students receive. Interactions include working with students, teachers, parents and community members to create a positive school culture that promotes student success.

Expectations for schools are great and are measured by school grade in the state of Florida. School grades are determined by the performance of students on state assessments. The components of the school grade are updated …

Developing A Computer-Managed Mentor Matching System For Graduate Students, Donna J. Knudsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Changes to the higher education landscape resulting from digital-age advancements in technology limit the opportunities for doctoral students and faculty to find one another for research and mentorship pairings as they once did when higher education was a wholly brick and mortar enterprise. Further, doctoral student attrition has remained unmoved at approximately 50% since the 1990s, with studies consistently citing the absence of mentoring (or doctoral students’ dissatisfaction with their mentors) as chief among the factors that contribute to the high rate of attrition. Some predict that the rate of doctoral attrition is as much as 20% higher for programs …

Formulation To Application: Thermomechanical Characterization Of Flexible Polyimides And The Improvement Of Their Properties Via Chain Interaction, Alejandro Rivera Nicholls

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work, Polyimides were synthesized by incorporating an aromatic diamine monomer with a methylene linker, 4,4'-methylenebis(2,6-dimethylaniline) (MBDMA), to make a robust main chain along with aliphatic polyetherdiamine backbone linkers to reduce rigidity. The polymers were designed to exhibit thermal properties in between those of conventional aromatic polyimides and polymers with wholly aliphatic ether diamine links. Through dynamic mechanical analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, it is shown that control of the molar ratios of the aromatic MBDMA and the composition and size of the aliphatic polyetherdiamine can be used to tune the glass transition temperature. The materials were characterized and …

An Autobiographical Narrative Of A Principal's Personal Journey With Autonomy, Delilah Rabeiro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Educational reform and state policies have stripped principals and teachers of autonomy, and this has been attributed as one of the reasons why teachers leave the profession. Adamson (2012) stated, "To implement reform at their school sites, principals need a certain degree of autonomy. This study sought to understand what I experienced of autonomy as I embarked on my journey as a principal of a turnaround school; what I did, or did not do, to extend autonomy to teachers; and what I came understand about autonomy in this turnaround setting.

This was an autobiographical narrative inquiry (Freeman, 2007; Saleh, Menon, …

“I Can’T Complete This Template”: The Complexities Of Using Asset-Based Discourse In Schools, Anthony P. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I analyzed three important documents to principals in Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) in Florida for the presence of deficit and asset-based discourse. I chose the documents for this study because of their impact on my practice as a Principal in HCPS. The first document is the template for the school improvement plan (SIP) required of all schools in Florida who fall under the Differentiated Accountability (DA) status in Florida. The second document is the HCPS principal evaluation rubric used to evaluate principal practice in the district. The third document is the HCPS Tell teacher perception inventory …

Evaluating Conversation Agent Impact On Student Experience In A Distance Education Course, Grover Walters

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We explore the efficacy of conversation agents operating as an instructional aid in a distance education course. Two aspects of efficacy are considered—conversation agent impact on student perceptions of the experience, and how different design features of the agent affect student perceptions of engagement. Evaluation of the agent is accomplished by collecting data from 24 undergraduate participants separated into random groups. We conduct two rounds of mixedmethod evaluation. Between the two rounds, a modification to the agent occurs based on the outcome of the first evaluation. Findings include limitations related to phrasing and data persistence features of the design that …

Simulation And Experimental Investigation Of Fluid Mixing Enhancement With Orifice Plate, Mohammed Al Busaidi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current experimental and simulation fluid mixing studies aim to increase mixing efficiency and incorporate various measurement methods to quantify mixing. In this thesis, comprehensive simulation and experimental studies were carried out to investigate the effects of an orifice plate on mixing. Mixing efficiency is measured through the correlation of volume fraction to color light reflectivity, as dyes were introduced to the fluids being mixed. Volume fractions close to 0.5 indicate high mixing performance, and the efficiency declines as volume fractions depart from 0.5. It was found that fluids in a small diameter tube do not mix due to the absence …

Detection Of Gender-Related Differential Item Functioning (Dif) In The Mathematics Subtests In Turkey, Zeynep Merve Sapmaz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this study was to investigate differential item functioning by gender in the Fundamental Mathematics (FMS) and Mathematics subtests (MS) of the MSPC-2018 Higher Education Institutions Examination. Each test consists of 40 items and for both subtests random samples of 10.000 students were received from the MSPC separately. To compare non-IRT (Classical Test Theory) and Item Response Theory (IRT) approaches, Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (C-M-H), Logistic Regression (LR), and 2-PL IRT-LR statistics were used.

For the FMS, C-M-H, LR, and 2-PL IRT-LR procedures identified 18, 16, and 10 out of 40 items that had DIF, respectively. Based on the non-IRT …

Teaching Towards Critical Consciousness: Preservice Teachers Narrate Race In English Education, Joanelle Morales

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

English teacher educators argue the need to reshape English Education programs by offering transformative discussion that promote “Critical Race English Education” which centers race and racism and examines the role of language and literacy in disrupting existing power relations (Baker-Bell, Butler, & Johnson, 2017). This study explored four secondary English preservice teachers’ understandings of race in education under a Critical Race Theory lens. Through narrative inquiry, their stories revealed how they constructed and made meaning of their racial identities and how these identities informed their practices and instructional decisions as English teachers. By inviting preservice teachers to confront their experiences …

Measuring And Utilizing High-Dimensional Information Of Optical Fields, Ziyi Zhu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, many areas of optical techniques including imaging, inspection and communication emphasize the utilization of the high-dimensional information encoded in optical fields. There is also a requirement for novel measurement techniques to extract this high-dimensional information with high-speed and accuracy. We firstly introduce a scan-free direct measurement technique that is capable of simultaneously characterizing the amplitude and phase of a coherent scalar optical field. Our direct measurement approach is constituted of a weak polarization perturbation which is followed by the recording of a polarization-resolving imaging process. The weak perturbation rotates the linear polarization on the spatial frequency domain of the …

Digital Corpus Use In Learning L2 Prepositional Collocations: A Pilot Study, Matthew A. Siegel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because of their prevalence in both spoken and written English, collocations—words that go together—are important for the English language learner. Collocations that contain prepositions have been shown to pose particular difficulty (Hong, Rahim, Hua, & Salehuddin, 2011). Collocational errors are common, even among advanced learners (Laufer & Waldman, 2011). The purpose of this pilot study was three-fold: (1) to determine whether the use of a digital corpus by English language learners is effective in learning prepositional collocations, (2) to determine if proficiency level exerts any influence on effectiveness of using a digital corpus to learn prepositional collocations, and (3) to …

A Study On The Influence Of Instructional Mentors On Novice Teachers In High-Needs Schools, Dodi Palkovic Davenport

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the first five years of new teachers’ employment, between 30 and 50 percent leave the profession (Smith &Ingersoll, 2004). High levels of teacher attrition are associated with negative effects on student achievement (Strong, 2005). In an effort to retain teachers and improve the quality of the teaching workforce, many states and local school districts require new teachers to enroll in induction and mentoring programs. This study is part of a larger program evaluation of one public school district’s new teacher induction program. The purpose of this investigation was to determine how a novice teacher perceives the influence of a …

Students' Perceptions On Alternative Break Experiences And Selecting An Academic Major In A Four-Year College, Bianny Fernández Collado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that 50-80% of college students are exploratory/undecided or appear as declared and will change their major at least once. Although higher education institutions have developed and implemented several initiatives to assist students with selecting an academic major, students are struggling to reach this milestone. According to Gebhard (2015), real-world and experiential opportunities successfully prepare students to select an academic major. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative exploratory study is to describe in-depth a phenomenon: how a service-based experience, offered through an Alternative Breaks (aB) program may prepare student participants for the selection of an academic major. The study …

Ripping The “Paper Ceiling”: How Social Studies Teachers Conceive And Enact The Integration Of Gender And Women’S Experiences In Their Curriculum, Andrea Watson-Canning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the intentions of teachers who report incorporating gender and women’s experiences into their social studies curriculum and how those intentions are manifested in the classroom. I examine how teachers talk about the purposes of social studies education, their reasons for incorporating gender and women’s experiences into their curriculum, and their descriptions of incorporation (the intended curriculum). Then, I analyze how the intended curriculum is enacted in the classroom.

Using educational connoisseurship and criticism and portraiture, I construct narrative portraits of the phenomena analyzed. Both educational connoisseurship and criticism and portraiture consider the …

Roma Girls Expressing Identity, Aspirations, And Voice Through Participatory Arts-Based Research, Crista Kaye Banks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The methods by which Roma girls are studied and represented, do not account for their individual expressions of identity, aspirations or voice. Experiences and voices of Roma girls have rarely been seen or heard and have been consistently defined and represented by non-Roma individuals throughout history and within academia, which has perpetuated stereotypes. Interpretations of the image and lives of the Romani are permeated with misperceptions, myths, and assumptions based on stereotypical definitions.

This study uses the arts-based method of mixed media collage with Roma girls in London, England, to understand their expressions of identity, aspirations, and voice. This arts-based, …

Using Embodied Practices With Preservice Teachers: Teaching And Reflecting Through The Body To Re-Think Teacher Education, Emily Klein, Monica Taylor, Rachel Forgasz

Journal of Practitioner Research

This action research describes how three teacher educators invited preservice teachers to be in their bodies, or learn through “embodied pedagogy.” We wanted see how this pedagogy helped preservice teachers learn to reflect through their bodies, confront their own bias to cognitive ways of knowing, and ultimately begin to consider the use of embodied instructional strategies. We describe our questions, the activities we designed to help us answer them, and data collected from the first course in a pre-service teacher education program. Finally, we analyze these data and identify themes related to embodied learning and reflection and describe some potential …

Practitioner Experiences In Teacher Education Partnerships: Examining Practice In An Accredited Professional Development School, Jennifer J. Roth, Derek Decker, Donna D. Cooner

Journal of Practitioner Research

In this qualitative study, practitioner researchers used focus group methodology to collect clinical partnership stakeholders’ descriptions of their understanding of rich practitioner practice and the benefits of clinical partnerships as defined by CAEP Standard 2. These descriptions provided the data that was analyzed through a deductive and inductive coding process. It was found that stakeholders described clinical experiences as crucial to teacher candidates’ development of knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions, and identified clinical experiences as the space where theory and practice intersect. Findings also showed that stakeholders identified collaboration, mutually beneficial, sustaining and generative, shared accountability, and positive impact as …

Supervisor Facilitation Of Action Research: Fostering Teacher Inquiry, Rachel Solis, Stephen P. Gordon

Journal of Practitioner Research

This study was conducted at a Central Texas private school that offers a full curriculum exclusively for students with dyslexia. A supervisor facilitated fifty members of the school’s teaching faculty as they engaged in voluntary, long-term action research at the individual and team levels to address authentic problems of practice. The study examined the types of inquiry undertaken by the teachers as well as their perceptions of the supervisory support for, impact of, and ways to improve action research at their school. The authors conclude that the supervisor facilitating action research needs to provide ongoing support to teachers engaged in …

Differentiated Homework: Impact On Student Engagement, Gearoid Keane, Manuela Heinz

Journal of Practitioner Research

This paper describes a mixed methods practitioner research study that aimed to enhance student engagement with homework. Based on a comprehensive literature review and data from a pre-study questionnaire, a differentiated homework strategy was designed by the teacher researcher. Students were assigned homework once a week to allow them to balance homework requirements more successfully with out-of-school activities. They were given a choice of three tasks each week, ranging from lower to higher difficulty levels. Task difficulty levels were not stated, nor were tasks ordered by difficulty. Students’ attitudes towards homework improved over the course of the study and completion …

Experiences Of Using Intelligent Virtual Assistants By Visually Impaired Students In Online Higher Education, Michele R. Forbes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today’s world, the attainment of higher education impacts the acquisition of competitive employment and, thus, quality of life. As a group, persons with disabilities continually fall behind others in such academic progress, requiring new efforts to support their earning of advanced credentials. Though highly beneficial for these individuals, obtaining a degree comes with elevated levels of stress. As enrollment of students with disabilities grows in all formats of higher education, those involved must understand the stress endured by these students and how to diminish it. Theories speculate that technology, such as intelligent virtual assistants, may be a viable tool …

Using Flipped Classrooms To Teach Mathematics To Elementary Students In Saudi Arabia, Fawaz Alrouqi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the years 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) revealed that students in Saudi Arabia had a below-average mathematics performance among 4th and 8th-grade students. The modern and innovative techniques and strategies of teaching, such as the flipped classroom method, should replace traditional teaching methods to improve the performance and growth of students. This qualitative multiple case study explores a deeper understanding of the perspectives and the experiences of three elementary mathematics teachers when using a flipped classroom model in Saudi Arabia. This case study shows a promise of using the flipped classroom …

On Her Own: A Qualitative Study On The College-To-Career Transition Of Black Second-Generation Alumnae, Ladessa Y. Mitchell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the college-to-career transition of Black second-generation alumnae in the development phase of emerging adulthood using Schlossberg’s (2011) Transition Model. As the researcher, I collected data from Black second-generation alumnae of predominantly White public universities in Florida to examine how their intersecting identities (i.e., race, gender, and educational status) and use of metaphorical capital (i.e., social, cultural, and human capital) influence their transition. The conceptual framework for this study is based on the 4 S’s of Schlossberg’s Transition Model as well as emerging adulthood, forms of capital, and the intersecting identities of …

Mtss Implementation In High Schools: Expert And Stakeholder Perspectives, Julie Daye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the perspectives of experts and school-level stakeholders on MTSS implementation in high schools. Despite evidence of MTSS implementation effectiveness in elementary and middle school settings, MTSS implementation still lags in high schools. In reviewing the literature on high school MTSS implementation, those who have worked to implement MTSS do not all do so with the same priorities and/or emphases. I collected and examined qualitative data that reflects the perspectives of experts and school-level stakeholders. Specifically, I also reviewed articles or book chapters written by some high school MTSS experts and interviewed them. I interviewed stakeholders working in …

Investigating The Effects Of Motivational Interviewing Compared To Action Planning On Supporting The Emotional And Academic Success Of Ninth Grade Students In Advanced Placement Classes, Kai Zhuang Shum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High school students in accelerated curricula (i.e., Advanced Placement classes or pre-International Baccalaureate program) tend to report higher level of perceived stress compared to general education students due to additional academic demands that stemmed from accelerated courses (Suldo & Shaunessy-Dedrick, 2013). However, this group of students often receives limited if any targeted supports in schools because they tend to perform well academically (Suldo, O'Brennan, Storey, & Shaunessy-Dedrick, 2018). To address this gap in literature, this study investigated the efficacy of a targeted intervention in development to support academic and emotional success among students in accelerated curricula, namely the Motivation, Assessment, …

Are We At A Watershed Moment For The Quantitative Literacy Movement?: Review Of Shifting Context, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy In Higher Education, By Luke Tunstall, Gizem Karaali, And Victor Piercey, Eds., Maura Mast

Numeracy

Luke Tunstall, Gizem Karaali, and Victor Piercey, eds. 2019. Shifting Concepts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education. Math Notes 88. (Mathematics Association of America, MAA Press). Print ISBN 978-0-88385-198-2. Electronic ISBN 978-1-61444-324-7.

The thematic approach of the edited MAA Notes volume Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education is that the “construct” of quantitative literacy is now fairly stable, but the contexts in which quantitative literacy is taught (and practiced) continue to change. Several chapters give the reader much to consider regarding what constitutes the foundation of this stable core and, relatedly, how quantitative …