Education Commons^™

Coherence Of Dysfunctions, Ayesha Rumi

Theses - ALL

“Colonization” is by far the most sophisticated word for the attempts made to make a society financially broke and culturally orphaned. My work is a product of thoughts that occur in the midst of cultural and linguistic existential crises left by the white man’s burden . My focus on Pakistani society goes beyond its relevance as the culture I call home; my focus is intended to provide a microscopic view of how culture, traditions, and norms often work in concert to dictate the course of history and the future of nations. In my work I have used western philosophy to …

The Ripple Effect: ‘Training The Trainer’ On The Impact Of Body Image Through A Dance/Movement Therapy Technique, Marina Gearhart

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis describes the capstone project which was a psychoeducation and experiential workshop for fitness trainers. The workshop investigated the impact trainers’ work may have on the body image of their clients through a dance/movement therapy (DMT) technique. The aim was to enhance the trainers’ sensitivity around body image issues of their clients and to create a space for vulnerable movement conversation that may in turn lead to better mental health advocacy for their clients within the scope of ethical practice. The participants of the workshop were six white female identifying trainers ranging from 24 to 35 years of age. …

A Virtual Art Therapy Curriculum For High School Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Informed By Bronfenbrenner’S Ecological Systems Theory, Kendra Soule

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

During the 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a global health threat. In order to maintain public safety many schools had to transition onto a virtual space using online programs and classrooms. Not only did schools move to an online platform, but also mental health therapy moved to telehealth platforms to serve those affected by the pandemic. Art therapy is a form of therapy that uses the tangible art making process, art piece, and therapeutic relationship as aspects of therapy. With the move to the virtual setting, art therapists had to modify their work to fit the new setting. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological …

Drama Therapy For Actor Training Programs, Emily Faith

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This review synthesizes the literature on the mental health trends and developmental stages of student actors in university theatre programs and the mental health issues they may suffer because of their field of training. I then review the potential negative impacts of COVID-19. Special attention is paid to drama therapy techniques to weave into college and university theatre programs to mitigate mental health concerns invoked by training.

A Review Of Integrated Embodied Therapies And Racial Healing In Public Schools, Grace Fosler

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Anti-Black racism lies in the social, political, and economic foundations of the United States of America. Race and racism are manifestations of unhealed generational trauma that negatively impact the minds and bodies of all Americans. Black children are exposed to institutional and interpersonal racism upon entering the public school system, leading many Black students to experience discrimination and segregation, exclusionary discipline, and juvenile entry into the Prison-Industrial Complex. Educators have a unique opportunity to engage in individual and collective racial healing while fostering social change and collective healing in students. An integrated approach of individualized coaching and group embodiment, dance/movement …

Studio Expressive Arts Therapy: Towards A Classroom Method That Incorporates Art And Music, Michael Greenberg

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored the ways in which expressive arts therapy (ExAT) could be incorporated into a small therapeutic high school’s visual arts program. Through the development and implementation of a method, intermodal exchange between visual art and music was integrated into both the school’s art program and its group counseling offerings. Informed by a literature review of studio art therapy (SAT) as related to ExAT, three different interventions were used to fit within the frameworks of the high school’s offerings. The first intervention focused on making music with a few students within art classes while the rest of the class …

Exploring The Usefulness Of Mindfulness Practices Through Zoom Meetings In Reducing Anxiety And/Or Stress Of Adults With Learning And Developmental Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Thatiane Abra

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored which mindfulness meditations or mindfulness practices could be beneficial in the online sessions, the extent to which adults with learning and developmental disabilities could learn the practices remotely, and how stress and anxiety disorders could be reduced through online mindfulness interventions. Furthermore, it was also necessary to address the online sessions as the only mental health treatment possibility during the Coronavirus pandemic for the clients observed and the benefits and limitations of these interventions. Additionally, the importance of structure and routine for this population, the multi-modal structure of the interventions, and how attunement plays an important role …

Exploring Tactile Art-Making With Deafblind Students And Their Families: An Opportunity For Creative Play, Alice Rodgers

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The impact of a deafblind diagnosis on an individual’s mental health and the well-being of the family involved can be profound. However, current research and available literature for the mental health treatment and therapy practices of deafblind persons and their families is limited (Kyzar et al., 2016; “WFDB Global Report 2018,” n.d.). This thesis used the Leeds Family Psychology and Therapy Service principles (Leeds FPTS) and the Expressive Therapies Continuum with established deafblind teaching strategies to facilitate an original arts-based community project entitled: “Things We Like.” This project provided an opportunity for deafblind students (ages three to 22) and their …

Peachtown 2019: Practice And Pedagogy In A Progressive Learning Setting, Dean Kloss

Dissertations - ALL

While progressive education has been practiced in formal learning settings for over a century, there is a relatively limited amount of contemporary scholarship on such schools. Acknowledging the nebulous nature of this genre, my study was undertaken to identify the philosophies and practices of a contemporary progressive school. From the conceptualizations found in Kohn 2008’s work on the characteristics of progressive educational settings, this project used field observations and interviews to examine the daily work done at a small, independent progressive school in Upstate New York. Taking Pondiscio (2019)’s suggestion that scholars pay more attention to what actually goes on …

Examining Adolescence Science And Mathematics Teachers’ Views Of The Characteristics Of Effective Professional Development: A Q-Methodological Study, Dominick Fantacone

Dissertations - ALL

The design and implementation of secondary teacher professional development (PD) has been a focus of researchers for decades. Often viewed as the way to increase the quality of teaching and to improve student achievement, billions of dollars are invested in PD within the United Stated every year. As such, researchers continue to seek new avenues to understand and to improve the benefits of PD.An area of inquiry that has drawn specific interest amongst some investigators are the characteristics of effective PD. Numerous studies purport the need for these characteristics to be included in the design of PD. Yet, teachers’ perspectives …

Strategies For The Improvement Of Healthcare Through Simulation, Roger Lankheet

Dissertations

Title:Strategies for the improvement of healthcare through simulation

Background: Medical errors continue to plague the healthcare industry. The annual rates of morbidity are approximately 2.69 million (AHRQ, 2019), while mortality rates exceed 400,000 per annum (Makary & Daniel, 2016). There may be no panacea to combat these egregious rates. However, simulation of patient care events may better prepare healthcare professionals to prevent medical errors as it has been proven to be an effective learning strategy (Kirkham, 2018), enhancing skills while gaining experiential knowledge, without risk to actual patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a …

Negotiating The Experience: Liminality, Intersubjectivity, And Writing On The Path To A Doctoral Degree, Jon Brammer

Educational Studies Dissertations

Doctoral students usually exhibit a proven track record of academic success as demonstrated by the completion of both undergraduate and graduate degrees. However, despite that success, attrition rates across doctoral program are high. The challenges inherent in completing a doctoral program are well-documented, but the over-arching concepts that account for those challenges are often subject to compartmentalization and reductionism.

This interdisciplinary qualitative study explored the experiences of current doctoral students and recent graduates through interviews with twenty-seven participants across a variety of academic disciplines. Using a set of scripted questions, each participant was asked to characterize their motivations for doctoral …

An Exploration Of Math Trauma Through Ability Grouping And Teacher Language In Elementary Schools, Sarah E. Owen

Honors Projects

This literature review approaches the question of ability grouping and other forms of teacher communication in elementary school math curriculum through the lens of equity and student outcomes. Types of grouping practices in elementary schools are discussed, along with the positives and negatives of each general form of grouping, with special consideration paid to the topic of math trauma and the ways that ability grouping contributes to it. This review concludes that teachers have a profound effect on students and that students have a profound effect on one another, leading to a discussion on the moral and ethical responsibility that …

Exploring The Nature Of The Co-Emergence Of Students’ Representational Fluency And Functional Thinking, Nigar Altindis

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract In this dissertation, I explore ways to support secondary school students’ meaningful understanding of quadratic functions. Specifically, I investigate how students co-developed representational fluency (RF) and functional thinking (FT), when they gained meaningful understanding of quadratic functions. I also characterize students’ co-emergence of RF and FT on each representation (e.g., a graph, a symbolic equation, and a table) and across multiple representations. To accomplish these goals, I employed a design research methodology: a teaching experiment with eight Turkish-American secondary school students in an after-school context at a Turkish Community Center. I constructed the design principles and design elements for …

A Qualitative Study Exploring State School Leaders' Work With Teachers In Argentina, Eliana Belén Camargo

Theses - ALL

Principals’ influence on teachers’ practices is the second factor, after classroom instruction, that most impact student learning and success. In Argentina state schools serve 70% of the students, therefore, state school leaders play a key role in the K-12 education of the country. The present study explored the experiences of six Argentinian state school administrators (principals and assistant principals) about their role in working with teachers. This qualitative study examined the following question: How do Argentinian state school administrators experience their role in working with and leading teachers? A qualitative, phenomenological research approach and two of the most prominent educational …

"You Always Have That One:" A Critical Analysis Of The Conceptualizations Of Educators Around Classroom Community And Challenging Behavior, Sara Scribner

Dissertations - ALL

There is an established importance of classroom community, particularly for inclusive education (Kunc, 1992; Osterman, 2000; Sapon-Shevin, 2010). There is also a breadth of research around students who are most vulnerable to exclusion and othering in public schools and in classroom settings. Demographic factors such as race, socioeconomic status, native language, and disability status influence and impact who is seen as exhibiting challenging behavior and how specific behavior is responded to. (Connor et al., 2016; Shapiro, 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2018) Schools are microcosms of the larger society and during the time in which this research took place, there …

Jones Ties Single-Season Saves Record, Eagles Take Series On Senior Day, Georgia Southern University

Athletics: News & Publications

• Jones Ties Single-Season Saves Record, Eagles Take Series on Senior Day

Sharon Perkins Named Head Softball Coach At Georgia Southern, Georgia Southern University

Athletics: News & Publications

• Sharon Perkins Named Head Softball Coach at Georgia Southern

Creating An Engaging Environment For Adult Esl Learners In E-Learning Settings: Reducing Affective Filters And Cognitive Overload, Qian Liu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Countless online ESL programs targeting adult learners have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially since the unemployment crisis made people start thinking about self-improvement. This emergence of online education is a life-changing chance not only for the ESL education industry and teachers, but also for countless learners. This field project includes appropriate background, a review of relevant literature, and ultimately presents a free, online self-training session for novice online ESL teachers who teach adults.

Research that informed the creation of this project indicated that online second language education programs that use technological tools can lead to positive learning outcomes. Adult …

Whiteness 101: Racial Identity Work For White Educators To Advance Antiracist Pedagogy, Meghan W. Slan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Whiteness, White privilege, and racial inequality are pervasive in K-12 schools and universities. Recognizing that race is a human invented classification construct that has had and continues to have a direct causal effect on the historical and present inequality of the United States, White educators must reckon with their own racial identities as White people in a White supremacist society. White educators are complicit in reproducing White supremacist societal structures through K-12 schooling and in universities, thus bearing responsibility to disrupt, dismantle and rebuild a more just and equitable education system. This field project incorporates my experiences as facilitator of …

Elementary Content Teacher Perceptions Regarding Their Ell Instructional Practices, C. Wesley Owens, Steve P. Wells

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the instructional practices of elementary English language learner (ELL) teachers and how those practices are perceived by the teachers to be aligned with improved ELL academic performance. The study is grounded in Ladson-Billings’ theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, which holds that student academic achievement and cultural identity should be affirmed. The research questions focused on exploring instructional practices used by teachers to support ELL learning and the teachers’ perceptions of how their practices are aligned with improved ELL academic performance. The qualitative descriptive study was limited to three elementary schools …

Education Federalism And School Choice, Ann Pleinies

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Federalism is questioned in many public policy areas where the government imposes extensive regulations over state and local governments. In the field of education federalism specifically, the government has increasingly pushed boundaries both vertically with state and local governments over grant money and horizontally with the different branches of government. This paper will start by discussing the push and pull of education federalism when it comes to federal programs and the executive branch and their initiatives. This paper will also address school choice. School choice is a movement that is growing in momentum as educational needs are not being met …

Trial By Fire: Impact Of Rapid Expansion Of Telemedicine In A Large Community Health System, Scott Stratton-Smith, Cole Nardi, Benjamin Snyder

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Background: Our community-based health system transitioned to a largely telehealth-based approach under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited implementation of telehealth had begun in 2018, but provider and patient reluctance and inadequate reimbursement prevented widespread adoption at the time. The pandemic accelerated our system’s telehealth efforts.

Results: In February 2020, video technology was rarely utilized, with the organization averaging fewer than 10 video visits per month. In April 2020, our providers used it for over 30% of all visits in our system, accounting for over 30,000 visits. Before COVID-19, fewer than 20 of our providers had performed a direct-to-patient …

Where Are We With Education About Mental Health And Illness: A Survey Research, Symphony Williams

Symposium of Student Scholars

The purpose of my research is to investigate public awareness of mental health and illness. This study is paramount because of the mental health crisis our world faces today. I conducted a survey research in which I used Google Forms and asked a series of questions about the participants’ education, experiences, and opinions on mental health and illness. The total participants were 67. The analysis of survey responses resulted in several findings. First, 34.3% of the 67 participants had a diagnosed mental illness, and 72% of those participants suffer from some form of depression while 77.8% suffer from anxiety. These …

Still A Forgotten War? Investigation Of College Students' Understanding Of The Korean War., Symphony Williams

Symposium of Student Scholars

The purpose of my research is to investigate how much and what knowledge college students have on the Korean War. This study is important because the Korean War is often referred to as a “forgotten war” but is a significant event in American history, as well as an ongoing issue in today’s world. Investigation into what college students know and believe about the Korean War, as well as, where and when they learned this information, is critical in evaluating and reforming how the Korean War is taught in US schools. I designed a survey using Google Forms, and gathered results …

Working In Coalition, And Wall-To-Wall: The New Progressive Normal, Gary Rhoades

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

As the U.S. starts to come out of the pandemic, public declamations about and private deliberations within colleges and universities are framed in part by negotiating getting back to some form of “normal.” At the center of and delimiting these labor/management negotiations is an all-too-familiar master narrative articulated by management invoking a “new normal,” a time of conditions and challenges borne of, transmitted by, and/or accelerated and amplified due to Covid-19. Yet, I suggest that yet another iteration of disaster/disastrous academic capitalism is neither called for nor does it offer a compelling future for higher education. In addition, there is …

The Gig Academy: Naming The Problem And Identifying Solutions, Daniel T. Scott, Adrianna J. Kezar

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Over the past few decades, workers (staff, faculty, postdocs, graduate students) in higher education face working conditions and employer relationships that are increasingly similar and exploitative. Higher education has seen the implementation, spread, and refinement of technologies of labor exploitation that have proliferated in the broader economy often termed the gig economy. In this article, we posit and articulate the features of the Gig Academy – a unique iteration of the gig economy. We first describe the shifts in employment structures that make up the Gig Academy. We then describe how this transformation of the academy has eroded community, shared …

Online Learning, Covid-19, And The Future Of The Academy: Implications For Faculty Governance And Collective Bargaining, Anthony Picciano

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

The purpose of this article is to speculate on the future of higher education as online technology, including adaptive learning (also referred to as personalized learning) infused by artificial intelligence software, develops and matures. This is a risky undertaking since predicting the future, and in this case the evolution of technology, is difficult. While many try to predict what will happen and sometimes get it right, predicting when something will happen is far more challenging. Online and blended learning have already advanced within education, but the most significant changes are yet to come. Evolving technologies have the potential to change …

Post-Pandemic Collective Bargaining In Higher Education: An Irresistible Force Meeting And Immovable Object?, James Ottavio Castagnera

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Rider and the AAUP were last at the table for a full-fledged renegotiation of their contract during the summer of 2017.The bargaining was concessionary, as my university --- like so many small-to-medium sized private colleges --- struggled with a looming deficit. Last year, no doubt, the union and its members looked forward to a return to the table with high hopes of recuperating some of those 2017 concessions. But, as Humphrey Bogart once famously observed, fate took a hand.

Contemplating Library Instruction: Integrating Contemplative Practices In A Mid-Sized Academic Library, Brooke Duffy, Lisa Rose-Wiles, Martha M. Loesch

Library Publications

In recent years there has been growing interest in the integration of contemplative practices into higher education, but little has been published regarding contemplative practices or contemplative pedagogies in academic libraries. Nor have explicit links been made to critical librarianship (critlib), particularly regarding the stress associated with the profession and the “resilience narrative” of “doing more with less”. In this paper, we review the literature and describe our experiences introducing a variety of contemplative elements into our library instruction program, most recently in the virtual environment. Building on the three levels of “intervention” modeled by Barbezat and Bush (2014) to …