Education Commons^™

Examining The Delivery Methods Of Current Content And Curriculum For Recruit Police Officers, Daniel Barrancotta

All Theses And Dissertations

This qualitative-interpretive, phenomenological analysis study describes the lived experiences of police officers, their training programs and their educational relationships with academy instructors and field training officers. The focus was not on content material, but rather the delivery methods of the curriculum, in an attempt to provide training programs that improve transference of knowledge for increased learning and job preparedness. This research study showed that a lack of knowledge and understanding of andragogy for police academy instructors and field training officers is creating a limited learning environment for recruit police officers. Without the knowledge and ability to use better forms of …

The Influence Of Dual Enrollment On Rural Student College Persistence., Jeanne Toure Guerrero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), this study addresses the research question of whether dual enrollment (DE) influences first- to third-year college persistence at a four-year institution, controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and rurality. The results revealed that there are statistically significant differences between the independent variables of DE Participation, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, SES, and Rurality and the dependent variable of College Persistence. Controlling for other variables, the following main effects results emerged: Students participating in DE courses were more likely to persist than non-DE students. Female DE students were more likely to persist when compared …

The Effects Of Audio/Visual Stimulation And Virtual Reality To Increase The Rate Of Retention In First Semester Freshmen Graphic Communications Students, Hanna Gibson

All Theses

In March of 2020, the world entered the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving educators to answer the question, "how do we teach in a virtual environment?". This was especially difficult for deeply rooted STEM programs such as Graphic Communications at Clemson University. This research aims to analyze multiple methods of virtual teaching for correlation between enhanced retention rates.

This thesis attempts to solve the problem facing global STEM educators when they are attempting to prepare material for students in a virtual environment. This is achieved by presenting them with how different methodologies impact the retention rate on freshmen level students enrolled in …

Advising Student Veterans In Higher Education, Brett Edward Rankin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student veterans are a growing population in higher education with over 650,000 veterans using education benefits in 2018. Student veterans are enrolling in colleges of all types, and many institutions have support services designed for them specifically. In most cases these support services are limited to veteran centers where officials certify credit hours for financial benefits and do not offer services to help them fully assimilate into higher education. Student veterans bring a wide range of life experiences, culture, and work ethic to college campuses which serves to build and diversify the student body. However, veterans have reported feeling isolated …

Examining The Relationship Between Library Services Use And Fall-To-Fall Retention In Community College Libraries, Eric Deatherage

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community college libraries exist to support institutional outcomes. One such outcome is student retention. This study’s purpose was to fill the gap in the literature at the community college level, proposing that a model including all library service use types would explain variance in student retention beyond that explained by total library financial expenditure. Services included were numbers of physical materials circulated, digital books circulated, e-serials used, reference transactions, library presentations, attendees at presentations, gate counts, and interlibrary loan materials borrowed. Additionally, it was proposed that the relationship between gate counts of physical entry into the library and student retention …

A Phenomenological Study Of Community College Career And Technical Education Graduates' Perceptions Of The Impact Of Online Delivery On Their Employability Skills Preparation, Jarett John Gilbert

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to elevate and explore the voices of Oregon community college graduates of online career and technical education (CTE) programs to better understand how they perceive they were prepared with employability skills. The participants graduated from their program in Spring 2020, after their final term of classes were shifted completely online due to COVID-19. A three-interview protocol was conducted to explore how participants define employability skills, and the extent to which they felt their online learning experience prepared them with strong teamwork, communication, and results-orientation skills, requisite for success in their fields. Five major …

An Inquiry Into Higher Education’S Controversial ‘Countermovement’: Contemplative Pedagogy, Roberta Mary Pughe

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Academic interest in “mindfulness” has grown exponentially since the 1980s. Along with the dissemination of mindfulness came an appropriation of contemplative sacred texts and the somatic psychologies along with a misperception of its concepts and practices as inherently religious. Contemplative pedagogy, which addresses the application of contemplative studies to the classroom and its community, is therefore equally likely to be misunderstood. Despite recent studies claiming the benefits of contemplative pedagogy on students’ mental health, test results, and personal and interpersonal relationships, contemplative pedagogy is still widely underutilized; this suggests such a misunderstanding of the field and could explain the lack …

Planning And Teaching For Student Learning In Mathematics: How Graduate Student Instructors Develop And Implement Instruction, Jennifer S. Crooks-Monastra

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate mathematics teaching from the perspective of a graduate student serving as a first-time precalculus instructor of record. A multiple case study was designed to follow three mathematics graduate student instructors (MGSIs) through one semester of teaching to understand their goals for student learning, efforts to achieve these goals, influences on planning, and to identify challenges they encountered. For each MGSI, data collection included four interviews, three observations of teaching, weekly journal entries, and written assignments from a pedagogy course. A focus group, field notes from the pedagogy course, audio from mentor …

#Blackfemaleteachersmatter: The Experiences Of Three African American Female Teachers Who Left The Classroom During Their Induction Years, Ashlye Victoria Wilkerson

Theses and Dissertations

This study captured the lived experiences of three African American, female classroom teachers who left the profession within three years of beginning their careers. The main goal that led this research was to center the perspectives of African American women in the conversation about teacher retention, turnover, and attrition percentages that plague the field of education. The primary questions that guided this study were: (1) “What can be learned from the life stories of former African American female teachers who left the teaching profession from South Carolina public classrooms during their induction years?”, (2) “What do their life stories reveal …

Online Course Communication And International Student Academic Performance, Christie L. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Online course communication activities can be used to support the social and cognitive needs of students in online courses, but when those students are international students from across the globe studying in the United States where there are language and cultural differences, online learning can be a challenge. The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate international students’ online course communication behaviors and their academic performance in order to inform quality online course development and delivery. In this qualitative case study, semistructured interviews with 11 undergraduate international students were conducted, online course communication behaviors were observed, and five faculty …

Preparing Emerging Adults For The 21st Century: Diapraxis As A Bridge To Dialogue In The First-Year Seminar, Katina Fontes

Educational Studies Dissertations

What is success in college? And what are the implications of that success (or failure) in the life of students after college and for society more broadly? This ethnographic study explores first-year college programming and the potential benefits of diapraxis-inspired instructional methods as a bridge to authentic dialogue for 18- and 19-year-old (emerging adult) students and the foundation for more productive civic engagement in the post-college adult lives of students. Opportunities for dialogue are lacking in many college classrooms, especially during the first year, and, given the current lack of civil communication between adults on a national and global scale, …

Bridging The Educational Technology Gap: Issues Of Equity And Access In New York City Teacher Preparation, Christina Basias

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation employs the use of primary research, oral history, and narrative and auto-ethnography of my own experiences as a hybrid educator across both systems, and the extant gaps in educational technology, or ed tech, implementation across two of the largest urban public education institutions in the country: the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) and the City University of New York (CUNY).

This research unveils the complex web of barriers that hindered the ability for teachers to learn and adopt technologies and the gaps within and between the NYCDOE and CUNY’s teacher preparation priorities regarding ed tech prior …

A Student Conduct Administrator’S Journey To Wellness, Corie Amanda Marie Mccallum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation research chronicles my experiences with emotions and learning as a student conduct administrator throughout the arduous process of investigating, becoming, and transforming by engaging sociocultural theory. Grounded in Authentic Inquiry (Tobin, 2006), this research centers my lived-experience and nuances the role of emotions in student affairs and especially student conduct practices. Throughout this dissertation I address themes surrounding reflexivity (Bourdieu, 1992), emotions (Turner, 2002) (Collins, 2004), and self-care. Each chapter is interpretive and impressionistic and represents my thinking as a researcher and conduct administrator. Throughout the chapters I narrate salient events and experiences in my student conduct practice …

Correlational Study Exploring The Relationship Between The Teaching Of Ethics In Business Schools And The Ethical Behavior Of College Students In Those Schools, Jeffrey P. Horwitz

Ed.D. Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to discover how colleges and universities impact the moral development of their undergraduate school of business students through the method by which they teach ethics in their curricula. To address the stated problem of understanding the impact of ethics and its effect on the moral development of students, the research question that drove this study involved discovering if there was a relationship between the ethical decisions undergraduate college business students make (like deciding whether to cheat on exams and/or assignments) and the way ethics content was delivered. In answering the research question, …

A Study Of Critical Thinking Dispositions Of Undergraduates In Foreign Language Discipline At One Private College In Mainland China, Yuanyuan Zheng

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Critical thinking (CT) has been one of the most important goals of higher education since the 1990s. However, foreign language majors in China have been criticized for the lack of CT and considered inferior to other majors. Despite studies conducted to disprove this belief, less research has explored the CT of undergraduates at private universities. This study investigated the status of undergraduates’ CT dispositions at a private college in China, particularly among foreign language majors representing various demographic or academic groupings and with different learning experiences. An online survey was distributed to 5,000 undergraduates at a private college; 1,642 completed …

Perceptions Of Resilience-Informed Education In Postsecondary Instructors, Chelsea L. Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have noted the detrimental impact adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have on individuals’ developmental trajectories and, as a result, the utilization of trauma-informed practices has been of increasing interest within the field of education. Most research on trauma-informed pedagogy is derived from samples of children in grades K-12, whereas research on trauma-informed teaching practices within higher education is comparatively scarce. The specific aims of the current investigation are two-fold. The first aim is to explore the effect of postsecondary instructors’ disciplinary specialization (i.e., person-thing orientation) on their receptivity to compassionate teaching practices. The second aim is to implement …

These Hips Don’T Lie: Examining The Engagement Of Latina/O Students Participating In High-Impact Practice Service-Learning Projects At A Hispanic Serving Institution, Felix Zuniga

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

While college access has been improved for Latina/o students, there is still the challenge of graduating Latina/o students with equitable academic outcomes (Bates et al., 2018). Hispanic-Serving Institutions are the sites that enroll the majority (67%) of Latina/o students in college; two out of three Latina/o students attend these broad-access, open-enrollment, minority-serving institutions known as HSIs (Excelencia, 2021). Universities across the United States are aware of the changing demographics of higher education but are slow to change policies and practices to become “student-ready” (McNair et al., 2016). Critical research on how Latina/o students experience higher education practices for student retention, …

Threshold Concepts In Web Development: The Impact Of Education And Experience On The Perceptions Of Practitioners, Michael Lee Mick

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

The Threshold Concepts (TCs) framework posits characteristics of critical concepts that enable a learner to see things in a new and unforgettable way that allows the incorporation of cognitive approaches and skills needed by professionals in the discipline. All previous research has been qualitatively oriented toward discovery of candidate TCs, without, so far, quantitative studies of the candidate TCs recognition within the professional ranks. An underrepresented group in previous research is that of Web development professionals.

This proposal describes initial quantitative research utilizing the TCs framework in the Web development area to measure the perception of candidate TCs by professionals …

Use Of Standardized Test Results By Faculty And Students For Advanced Practice Nurse Certification Success, Dinorah Martinez-Anderson

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of standardized testing as a recognized educational strategy to measure pre-professional readiness in Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) graduate programs has increased. Research supports such use for predicting licensure success for undergraduate education, however when related to the use in graduate nursing education, it is limited. Teaching and learning practices of APN faculty and students have not been comprehensively explored. This study examined the use of standardized testing results by faculty and students in APN graduate education that contributes to student national certification success. The Reconceptualization of Vygotsky’s Theory of Zone of Proximal Development (RVZPD) underpins the study. An …

A Student Led Assessment Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In The Environmental Science And Management Department At Portland State University, Aneesha Gharpurey

University Honors Theses

In the summer of 2020, the world watched as Black communities and allies responded to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. An intensification of social and racial justice awareness provoked many entities like higher education institutions (HEI) to evaluate how they support marginalized people and update their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plans. In an attempt to maintain excellence, many HEIs implement DEI plans through top-down methods where high-level administrators target recruitment and retention, campus climate, community engagement, and curriculum. These plans rarely incorporate students as co-collaborators and administer DEI changes that have little effect on students' self-belonging, …

Still Just White-Framed: Continued Coloniality, Hispanic Serving Institutions, And Latin@/X Students, Ilda Guzman

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Abstract

Throughout the Pacific Northwest there are a total of 12 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) with an average Latin@/x undergraduate full-time enrollment rate of 33.7 percent. In order to be designated as HSIs, institutions of higher education must have an enrollment rate of 25 percent or more students who identify as Latin@/x. HSIs became recognized in the late 1980s when a small number of higher education institutions enrolled a large number of Latin@/x students, yet did not have the resources to successfully educate the students (Excelencia, 2019). Since then, HSIs have consistently and continuously risen in Latin@/x enrollments. To date, …

Equity By Design And Delivery Model In Online Learning: Educator And Student Perceptions And Behaviors As Leading Indicators Of Systemic Change, Miebeth Bustillo-Booth

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The purpose of this study is to explore educator and student perceptions of and behaviors in the Equity by Design and Delivery (EDD) model and its online courses as leading indicators of systemic change. The EDD model is a pilot intervention to eliminate opportunity to learn gaps at the program level in a mid-sized northwestern college in the United States. It shifts instructional behavior from individual efforts to collective approaches to limit quality variances in online courses, theorized to be a major contributor of missed opportunities to learn at high levels, by developing and delivering reliable quality courses based on …

Exploring Language, Culture And Identity: Perspectives From Non-Native Arabic University Teachers In The Us, Brahim Oulbeid

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how six non-native (NN) university Arabic teachers make sense of language, culture, and identity. Specifically, it aims to understand how their experiences as Arabic language learners, preservice teachers, and classroom practitioners shape their classroom work, especially as they relate to their conceptions of teaching culture and the negotiation of their personal and professional identities. Four questions guide this study: how NN Arabic teachers perceive culture, what their culture teaching practices are, what identities they enact, and what their contributions to the teaching of Arabic as foreign language (TAFL) field are. To address these issues, the study draws …

Using The Community Of Inquiry Framework To Examine Instructor Strategies For Emergency Remote Online Teaching During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth A. Ebersole

Education Dissertations

The pivot to emergency remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for both students and instructors in the majority of higher education settings. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and self-efficacy theory, this study examined the teaching practices of higher education instructors during emergency remote online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during Spring 2020. Regarding the three CoI presences, both students and instructors reported high teaching presence and high cognitive presence, as well as moderate social presence during emergency remote online learning. Correlations were found between student CoI scores and student satisfaction and perception …

Transfer And Transitions: Exploring First Year Writing At Holy Cross, Elizabeth Casavant

English Honors Theses

This study explores how first year students transition to college writing, especially in a pandemic with an online format, and how students use transfer, if at all. It focuses on the following research questions: How do students transition to college writing, college norms, and online classes in a pandemic, and how can Holy Cross first-year writing courses support students in this transition? The methods used to investigate these questions included the administration of two surveys sent to first-year students in a first-year writing course, as well as 10 interviews with students. After transcribing, collating, and coding the data, the following …

Service-Learning And Case-Based Learning’S Impact On Student’S Clinical Reasoning : A Repeated Measures Design Study, Gordon B. Tsubira

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

Clinical reasoning is crucial for the occupational therapy profession to thrive in an ever-changing healthcare environment but is seldom isolated for explicit instruction and outcome measurement in course curricula. A single-factor repeated measures design study was conducted to compare the impact of didactic case-based learning and experiential service-learning on the development of the clinical reasoning of students at a midwestern public university’s entry-level master of occupational therapy program. The participants were sixteen graduate occupational therapy students who had completed their foundation-level courses.

Participants explored modes of clinical reasoning in occupational therapy for eight weeks (the first half of the semester), …

Female Veteran Students’ Transition Experiences From The Military To Higher Education: A Mixed Methods Study, Carrera Romanini

Doctoral Dissertations

Female veterans are a growing population on campuses across the United States (DiRamio et al., 2015; National Conference of State Legislatures, 2014). Researchers have turned their attention toward the veteran student population, but research specifically on female veteran students is lacking (Borsari et al., 2017; Demers, 2013). This sequential explanatory mixed method study was conducted to examine and compare the transitional experiences of male and female veteran students from the military to college. In this research method, the quantitative and then qualitative data were collected and analyzed, each in distinct stages (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). Participants from this …

Systemic Functional Linguistics In The Community College Composition Class: A Multimodal Approach To Teaching Composition Using The Metalanguage Of Sfl, Jennifer James

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This qualitative research study sought to understand the affordances and limitations of a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to teaching composition at the community college level. The study took place over the course of a semester in two developmental college composition classes using the language of SFL to teach writing through multimodal assignments. The study was developed in response to the increasing diversity in writing skills and educational goals of students in the community college composition class. The increase in diversity is a result of legislation in California that restructures developmental class offerings and affects placement in the transfer-level composition …

Andragogy For All? A Look At Arkansas Community College Students' Preferences For Andragogical Assumptions, Emilee Sides

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community colleges are tasked with juggling multiple missions. They provide open access to education for adults in their community, work with industry partners to educate the local workforce, and provide relevant programming to the communities they serve. When compared with students at four-year institutions, community college students are older, more ethnically and racially diverse, come from lower socioeconomic statuses, and less academically prepared.

Like other community colleges across the country, one of the primary goals of Arkansas community colleges is to help their students succeed. Unfortunately, the state has historically performed poorly in regard to educational outcomes. To get the …

Chronic Absenteeism At One Arkansas High School, Michelle Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chronic absenteeism is a fairly new concept in education. Many schools have only started tracking chronic absenteeism with the start of Every Student Succeeds Act. The following research studied chronic absenteeism at an Arkansas High School, which answered the two research questions in this study. The first research question studied the demographics of the chronically absent student which included grade level, race/ethnicity, Special Education and English Language Learner status, and free or reduced lunch status. The second research question studied the class period of the chronic absence which included the time of day and type of class. High School X …