Education Commons^™

Experiential Learning In Child Life Education, Amanda L. Lockett

All Dissertations

Child life specialists support children and families during healthcare experiences and other stressful life events, making it important for child life students to develop both knowledge and practical skills before entering the profession. This study explored how current child life students and recent graduate experienced hands-on learning activities in their child life education. Through interviews, a survey, and follow-up reflection, participants described how activities like role play, case studies, realistic scenarios, activity play plans, and teaching plans influenced their learning and professional development. Participants shared these experiences helped them learn to apply what they learned in the classroom into real …

"I Feel Really Jazzed Up": Using Lesson Study To Improve Teacher Morale In A Rural High School, Caitlin Blackwell

All Dissertations

Providing teachers with relevant professional development that uses current research is essential for school success; however, many schools struggle to implement professional development that teachers find beneficial. This study examined how providing on-going teacher-led professional development impacted teacher morale through the implementation of Lesson Study, a cyclical framework for professional development. Using improvement science tools, it was hypothesized that participation in Lesson Study would improve teacher morale by utilizing teacher autonomy and efficacy; however, the study found that collaboration was the driver for improving morale while supporting teacher autonomy and efficacy. Data collected in this study indicated that teacher morale …

A Word From The Writing Team (August 2026), Pam Walter, Mfa, Laura Deloretta, Phd

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Cash, Cleats, And Carpools: A Multi-Method Investigation Of Resource Allocation In Families With Youth Athletes, Emily Susan Delisle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The current thesis is an investigation of time and financial resource allocation in families with youth athletes. Study 1 used a survey questionnaire to explore how the number of athletes in a family impacted the way parents allocated time and financial resources to their oldest child’s youth sport participation. Results indicate that an increase in the number of athletes in a family does not decrease parents’ time or financial commitments to their oldest child’s youth sport participation. Study 2 used interviews to explore how nine parents with multiple athletes experienced the intersecting demands of time, finances, and family life while …

The Impact Of Early Exposure To Engineering Concepts In The Form Of Family, School Classes, And Stem Extracurriculars On The Long-Term Sense Of Belonging In Undergraduate Women In Engineering, Hannah Lloyd

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Engineering continues to struggle with the underrepresentation of women, and many women who begin engineering programs report feeling isolated or uncertain about whether they belong. A strong sense of belonging has been linked to greater confidence, persistence, and success in engineering. This study examined how early experiences with engineering before college may influence students' sense of belonging later in their undergraduate engineering programs.

Using survey responses from undergraduate engineering students across the United States, this study explored several types of early exposure to engineering, including family influence, school-based engineering and STEM courses, extracurricular programs such as robotics clubs and engineering …

Investigating Factors That Affect Students' Help-Seeking Strategies In A University-Level Foundational Mathematics Course, Randall I. Haws

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Quantitative literacy, or the ability to understand and use mathematical information, is an important skill developed in college. However, required math courses can be a major obstacle for many students, and those who struggle to complete them are more likely to leave school without earning a degree. Understanding why some students seek help while others do not is key to improving student success.

This study explores how students in a university-level foundational mathematics course (college algebra) seek help and what factors influence their use of available support services. A total of 118 students completed a survey about their help-seeking behaviors, …

Does Acceptance Matter? The Moderating Role Of Acceptance Of Pornography Use In Sexual And Relationship Satisfaction, Alexandra L. Gillespie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

With more or the general population reporting regular pornography use there has been an increase in interest in the consequences of regular use, especially for romantic relationships. Previously completed research has shown that there are likely other explanations for why pornography use is related to both positive and negative outcomes. This study examines how acceptance might change the influence the relationship between frequency of use and relationship and sexual satisfaction for individuals. This relationship may yield greater understanding of why some individuals report benefits and others report negative effects of pornography use. Findings indicated that for men their level of …

Exploring The Experiences Of Teacher Assistants Who Remain In A Rural Michigan Head Start Program, Melissa Thiebaut

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was the approximately 35% attrition rate of teacher assistants (TAs) in a rural Head Start program. Grounded in Bakker’s job resources and job demands theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of TAs who chose to remain working in a rural Head Start program and the factors that influenced their decisions to stay. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews with 12 TAs from one Head Start program. Data analysis involved a deductive data analysis method with two categories, job resources and job demands, being predetermined by the …

Final Master's Portfolio On Writing Transfer, Clarence Snell

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This final portfolio shows how gauging student interest can help to transfer their knowledge from subject to subject, whether it be by using Resident Evil to help with ethics or creative writing to help with grammar. The first essay goes into detail on the ethics of Resident Evil: The Official Strategy Guide, written for the original 1996 game. It elaborates on the guide and the game itself, using framing systems like that of Kant to gain a deeper understanding of the source material. Then, the second essay explains how creative writing can help students learn grammar, showing how both …

At Risk Students: Ensuring A Successful Transition Into High School, Angela Espada

Education Theses and Dissertations

This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice concentrated on the persistent problem of freshman course failure at a large, diverse, Title I high school serving a military-connected community in Central Texas. Although intervention programs existed, an increasing number of ninth-grade students were consistently failing one or more courses during their first year of high school, which revealed several gaps in the campus’s system of support. The Improvement Science framework and two Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles were used to examine the factors contributing to freshman course failure and to assess the interventions implemented to improve academic success as students transitioned into high school. …

University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga Faculty Handbook, 2026 August 1, University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga. Office Of Academic Affairs, University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga. Faculty Senate

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Faculty Handbooks

Governance, policies, guidelines, services, and resources managed by and for the faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Flow And Professional Identity Through Lived Experiences Of Doctoral Students In An Online Immersive Instructional Framework, Leticia De Leon

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of doctoral students engaged in an immersive instructional framework within an online course on Adult Learning Strategies. The purpose was to examine how immersive design elements (De Leon, 2020) and flow theory as defined through Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) and Shin’s (2006) helped participant engagement via enjoyment, telepresence, focused attention, and time distortion. Participants completed five narrative journals across two immersive modules designed with multimodal, authentic, interactive, and autonomous elements. Data analysis followed Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological reduction, including bracketing, horizontalizing, thematic clustering, and a synthesized essence of experience. Results revealed that students experienced flow …

Praise That Empowers: Training Preschool Teachers To Linguistically Adapt Behavior-Specific Praise For Hispanic Students, Claudia Abril Ochoa

Dissertations

Children’s engagement in early ages is critical for promoting behavioral, academic, and social-emotional outcomes. However, engagement in classroom activities may be difficult for young children who have not mastered the primary language used in early childhood education settings (i.e., English). Research regarding engagement in English Language Learners (ELLs) in preschool settings, as well as cultural and/or linguistic adaptations of classroom interventions to serve this population is limited. Behavior-specific praise (BSP) has been an effective strategy to improve behavior in preschool classrooms. The current study used a multiple-baseline design across three Head-Start teachers to test the efficacy of in situ training …

Parental Engagement For Students With Disabilities In Online Learning, Misty A. Benson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Parental engagement for online students with disabilities is critical for their learning success (Tundle et al., 2016). When parents are actively engaged in online learning, their children experience positive learner outcomes (Smith et. al., 2016). Research indicates that students with disabilities are rapidly transitioning to fully online learning, with parents playing an active role as their learning instructors.The implication for parents who choose to enroll their children with disabilities in online learning is greater parental engagement in their child's learning.

Differences In Music Course Offerings In Secondary Schools Within Three School Districts In Colorado, Deirdre Flanagan Slaman

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore variants in current music course offerings and instructional time for music for public school students in grades six through 12 across three school districts in Colorado. Students’ opportunity to access specific music courses and the amount of instructional time they receive varies across public middle and high schools. By studying three school districts with similar demographics in Colorado, the researcher sought to answer the following questions:

Q1 How much variety in music course offering is usual across schools in a single district?

Q2 How much difference in instructional time is usual across …

The Well-Being Of California School Board Members, Lamiya A. Hoque

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the well-being of California school board members. Using an adapted Workplace PERMA-Profiler, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 144 school board members to investigate the study's research questions. Pearson correlation analyses and hierarchical multiple regression were used to examine the relationships between overall well-being and the Workplace PERMA-Profiler domains. Differences in overall well-being and PERMA domain scores across age groups and years of service were examined using one-way analyses of variance with Tukey HSD post hoc comparisons. Results indicated that each PERMA domain was positively associated with overall well-being, whereas loneliness …

Evalutating Self-Instructional Training Materials To Teach Caregiver Implementation Of A Reading Program, Ky'aria Moses

Dissertations

Approximately 69% of fourth grade students and 70% of eighth grade students performed below the proficient level on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment, highlighting ongoing gaps in early literacy skills (NAEP, 2024). Caregiver implementation of instructional reading strategies can positively impact children’s literacy development; however, training is often required to ensure fidelity. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (TYC), is an evidence-based Direct Instruction reading program designed for caregiver implementation, yet its written self-instructional Practice Guide may be insufficient for developing fluent instructional delivery. Research suggests that programmed instructional formats incorporating active …

Expert Faculty Consensus-Based Development Of The Mindful Streamlining Self-Assessment Tool To Address Content Overload, Caroline A. R. Lindsay, Suzanne Galal, Deepti Vyas, Vista Khosraviani, Leslie Bayers

Academic Affairs Faculty and Staff Articles

Objective

Methods

Uab Libraries News, 08/09 2026, Uab Libraries

UAB Libraries News

No abstract provided.

Webinar 3 Designated Eld Through Ebp, Slide Deck 8.19.26, Center On English Language Proficiency

Webinars

No abstract provided.

Market Rate Survey & Narrow Cost Analysis: 2026 Worksheet, Nh Department Of Health And Human Services

New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium

Child care providers in New Hampshire can use this worksheet to gather the information they will need to complete the 2026 Market Rate Survey and Narrow Cost Analysis. Not all questions may be relevant to each program. All questions should be answered with information current as of September 15, 2026.

Tier 2 Literacy Interventions In Low-Income Schools: Implications For Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty, Morgan Koch

Dissertations

This study examined the development of a mastery-based Tier 2 reading and writing curriculum prototype designed to improve the coherence and consistency of literacy intervention in high-poverty educational settings. Using the Design Thinking process, stakeholder feedback from educators, administrators, instructional staff, and parents informed the development of the prototype through the Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test phases. The curriculum was evaluated by 15 education professionals through a mock implementation, usability survey, and focus group discussion. Findings suggested that participants perceived the prototype as practical, well organized, and supportive of more efficient and consistent Tier 2 literacy instruction, while also …

Transforming Business Ethics Teaching Through Experiential And Writing Practices, Begimai Abdraeva

GHEA21 Publications

This paper explores how writing-based teaching practices can improve the teaching of Business Ethics. The study is based on the author’s own teaching experience over four semesters at the American University of Central Asia. Using an action research approach, the paper describes how the Institute for Writing and Thinking’s (IWT) pedagogical strategies such as Freewriting, Loop Writing, Dialectical Notebooks, and Process Writing were added to lectures, films, and case studies. The results show that these methods made classes more interactive, encouraged students to reflect on ethical dilemmas, and helped them connect theory with personal and professional experience. Student evaluations and …

Editorial Review Board Vol. 65 Issue 2

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

No abstract provided.

Discussion Of Text Revisited: Encouraging Chatting In The Classroom, Melissa Jessup, Ruth E. Jefferson Dr.

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Discussion of text in language and literacy instruction has historically been studied with small samples of learners. The study described in this article investigated the relationship between instructional practices associated with discussion of text (chatting about it) and the reading achievement of several subgroups. A large sample of readers (N = 148,800) from the National Assessment of Educational Progress was the subject of the study. Several subgroups, including students with disabilities and students eligible for the National School Lunch Program (students experiencing poverty), were statistically disaggregated; subgroup data and results of analyses are discussed. Suggestions for classroom application are included.

Empowering Future Educators: How Service-Learning Shapes Teacher Candidate Self-Efficacy And Understanding Of Book Access, Nancy F. Hulan, Morgan S. Major

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Literacy rates are historically low in areas where access to books is limited. Thus, students with limited exposure to books prior to school pose a unique challenge to teachers, who often feel unprepared to teach students from underserved populations. To help remedy this, teacher candidates need preparation that builds their abilities to provide both access to books and quality literacy instruction for students who live in poverty. The study described in this article investigated the impact of literacy-related community engagement on teacher candidates’ self-efficacy, their understanding of book access, and their perceptions of teachers’ roles in providing book access. Participants …

Deferred Understandings: A Critical Content Analysis Of Representations Of War In Picturebooks, Heeyoung Kim, Jongsun Wee

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article reports on a study that examined eight picturebooks published since 2021 that portray contemporary wars, exploring picturebooks’ potential role in shaping children’s understandings of armed conflict. It investigated how these texts present historical context and construct representations of war. The authors’ analysis focuses on three key elements: the causes of war, depictions of wartime scenes, and the resolutions of war. The findings indicate that the picturebooks portray war realistically through textual and visual narratives, illustrating how war disrupts the child protagonist’s everyday life. However, the books rarely address the underlying causes of war. This study suggests that teachers …

The Power Of Wordless Picture Books: Helping Students Develop Inferential Thinking Skills, Amy Davis

All Faculty Scholarship

When children are born into the world, they have no sense of written language, they process their world through the visuals around them (Pegado, 2022). When parents may expose their children to a variety of experiences like reading board picture books, taking trips to the grocery store, and watching television, these experiences shape young children’s background knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to describe wordless picture books (WPB) and how teachers can incorporate them into their instruction to develop students’ visual literacy, background knowledge and critical thinking skills. There are two text examples, “Good Dog, Carl” by Alexandra Day …

Making Sense Of The Iep: Teacher Perspectives In Implementation In Suburban Schools, Siranda J. Patchel

All NMU Master's Theses

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a legal requirement and instructional framework to support students with disabilities. However, inconsistency among IEP classroom implementation is a challenge. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of IEPs for students with disabilities as reported by general and special educators in suburban settings, in addition to examining educators’ perceptions of their preparedness and comprehension of IEP-related responsibilities.

The qualitative research design incorporated a survey and follow-up interview response analysis of educators who worked in suburban schools. The responses were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach that consisted of open coding and …

The Stories We Tell About Wolves, Olivia Lubig

All NMU Master's Theses

This study investigated the connections between wolf stories, wolf history, and educational theories: critical literacy, schema theory, reader response theory/transactional theory, and the use of intertextual approaches in the classroom. In this study, I used a mix of transactional theory as the theoretical framework, self-study methodology, and living educational theory research methods to study myself as an educator, methods of teaching in a classroom, and children’s literature. My first finding, detailed in Chapter One, was discovering the connection between wolf stories and wolf history. I argue that the relationship between wolves and humans is represented in literature, and the representation …