Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons^™

Mentor Perspectives On Effective Mentoring For Beginning Elementary School Teachers, Betsy Holley Gross

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The attrition of beginning teachers is an ongoing problem for public schools as it impacts campus moral, results in economic losses, and maintains the number of newly-hired teachers. Although induction programs for beginning teachers have been found effective in reducing novice teacher attrition, funding for many induction programs have been eliminated due to budget constraints, leaving local school systems with limited support of the mentors and no consistency as to expectations or outcomes. Compounding this problem is that little research has examined what is most successful and supportive for mentors to be able to function most effectively. Guided by Knowles' …

2016 Foundation Financial Statements, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Foundation Financial Statements

SWOSU Foundation Financial Statements produced by the SWOSU Foundation and Alumni Association.

The Effect Of Simulation Training On Nursing Students' Content Exam Scores, Lori Ann Podlinski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Simulation training has been implemented at a small nursing school in the eastern United States to improve the currently low content exam scores in nursing courses. With the guidance of Kolb's experiential learning theory, differences in 8 course content exam scores were investigated for students who received simulation training in the content area before the exam and students who received simulation training after the exam, using a quasi-experimental, comparative design. Archival exam scores from 424 content exams, 212 completed by students who received simulation training before the exam and 212 completed by students who received simulation training after the exam, …

Adult Learners' And Millennials' Preferred Methods Of Instruction In The College Classroom, January Marie Baker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Today's college students are diverse and include students who differ in chronological age and developmental learning levels. This recent shift in student demographics, including millennials and adult learners, has created a need for instructors to understand and address their students' learning preferences. Traditionally, student feedback has been collected from course evaluation forms after each term ended, thus preventing instructors from incorporating student feedback into their teaching. Accordingly, this narrative qualitative case study was conducted to explore what instructional methods students in a community college developmental reading course preferred to meet their learning preferences and classroom needs. Willingham's interpretation of informational …

Junior High Latino Parents' Perceived Roles In Home And School Partnerships, Mytzy Vania Rodriguez-Kufner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A rural K-12 district in the Midwest evidenced a rise in the Latino population from 2002 to 2013, yet parental participation amongst Latino parents at the junior high was low. Low parental involvement has been linked to lowered self-efficacy, which impacts student learning. Although there is a plethora of research on the positive aspects of parental involvement, there is little research on Latino parent involvement in small rural communities. Within this instrumental case study, Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's model of parent involvement was used to explore Latino parents' perceptions of their roles and responsibilities of communication strategies within the junior high …

Making A Difference: Evidence Based Palliative Care Education For Neonatal Nurses, Sherry Elaine Pye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The death of a neonate is a life-changing and tragic experience for the individuals involved in the final moments of the infant's life. As the frontline provider in this clinical scenario, the bedside nurse supports the patient and family through their individual journey of loss. If the nurse does not possess the palliative care educational background and communication skills to support this unique care delivery process, the journey of death can evolve into a particularly negative experience for the parents and the nurse. This specific delivery of care concern was identified and gleaned from a parental bereavement exit interview after …

Instructors' Perceptions Of Connectivist Characteristics In Adult Undergraduate Courses, John Bannister

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The enrollment of college students in the United States who are classified as adult learners will continue to grow, bringing new challenges to degree programs. Multiple studies have provided insight into how best to teach these learners. However, to maximize learning, institutions must now consider strategies that merge adult learning principles with the integration of technology and students' personal and professional networks. Connectivism, based largely on the work of Siemens, and andragogy, based on Knowles, provided the conceptual framework that guided this basic qualitative interpretive study that examined how instructors experience and interpret the characteristics of connectivism (autonomy, openness, diversity, …

Engagement Behaviors' Impact On Course Success And Persistence Rates Of Community College Students, Van F. Whaley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As enrollment in U.S. community colleges increased, both the percentage of students successfully completing courses and the percentage of students persisting to their second year decreased. This study focused on the problem of low student course success and persistence rates at a community college. The purpose of the study was to determine whether students who demonstrated engagement behavior by visiting a Center for Academic Success (CAS) either passed more courses, persisted more often, or both, than students who did not visit a CAS. Tinto's engagement theory was the theoretical framework as it postulated that students who interacted with school support …

Nurse Practitioner Residency Programs: An Educational Journey, Gregory Paul Rys

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Primary care is in a state of crisis due to the lack of clinicians and increasing numbers of insured patients. Encouraging more students to go directly through school for their doctor of nursing practice degree and nurse practitioner (NP) certifications is one proposal to alleviate this crisis. However, this approach would deliver graduates with minimal leadership and clinical experiences directly into practice. One resolution to mitigate this concern would be an NP residency program. Evaluating the knowledge and attitudes of stakeholders prior to the implementation of a NP residency program is an important first step to this implementation plan. The …

Professional Development Needs Of Faculty Members In An International University In Thailand, Loïse M. Jeannin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In an international university in Thailand, with students coming from 92 different

countries, faculty members reported a need for professional development (PD). The purpose of this study was to understand faculty members' needs and preferences in the undergraduate department to help the administration offer appropriate PD programs. In accordance with the situated cognition theory, professional learning was approached as a social process embedded in workplace interactions. Research questions pertained to teachers' perceptions about their learning needs, program preferences, and the relationship between PD and student learning outcomes. In this descriptive case study, data were collected from fulltime faculty members via …

Grit, Student Engagement, And Academic Performance At A Historically Black Community College, Sharonica Marie Nelson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obtaining a college degree benefits individuals and society, yet only 20% of students are graduating from community colleges. At many institutions, graduation rates have decreased over the last 5 years, including one historically Black community college in the southern United States. To explore possible causes of low graduation rates at this unique and understudied type of college, this correlational study examined the relationships among student engagement, academic performance, and grit-persistence and passion toward long-term goals. Tinto's theory of student persistence served as the theoretical framework for this study. The convenience sample included 116 college students who already had a first-year …

Professional Development To Enhance Instructional Leadership And Practice Of Central Office Administrators, Cheryl A. R. Mccue

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Professional Development to Enhance Instructional Leadership and Practice of

Central Office Administrators

by

Cheryl A. R. McCue

M. Ed., Lehigh University, 1990

BS, Kutztown University, 1987

Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

Walden University

June 2016

Decades of research and practice suggest that educational administrators need to experience opportunities for professional development and continuous learning. This project study addressed the problem regarding the lack of a formal or systemic plan for professional development of central office administrators in a large suburban school district in northeastern United States. Supported by Lave …

Understanding The Relationships Among Students' Goal Orientations, Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, And Accelerated Academic Success In The Redesign Of Developmental Mathematics, Kelly Ann Hogan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The low success rates of increasing numbers of underprepared students taking developmental mathematics classes 'often minority and economically disadvantaged' are challenging community colleges across the United States. These students, who must start in the lowest levels of precollege mathematics courses, are unlikely to pass the first course and earn a credential. Using a mastery goal orientation theoretical framework, a quantitative, survey research design was used to ascertain any correlations between students' goal orientations, self-efficacy, test anxiety, and success in a new model of learning. Survey data were used to answer 3 research questions: (a) the relationship between success and students' …

Nurses' Experiences Transitioning From Staff Nurse To Management In A Community Hospital, Jennifer Sylvia Buffenbarger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This project study addressed the problem of frequent turnover of nurse managers at a Northeastern community hospital. The lack of retention of nurse managers has led to attenuated support for the nursing staff who continued to hold the front line in patient care. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore nurse managers' experiences with turnover in order to identify strategies for enhancing retention. Work empowerment and servant leadership theories served as the frameworks for the study. Research questions focused on nurse managers' perceptions of empowerment and servant leadership characteristics that were important in decisions to assume …

Barriers Faced By Canadian Aboriginal Adults As They Return To Postsecondary School, Robert Lawrence Campbell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Aboriginal people in Canada are less likely to complete postsecondary education than are non-Aboriginal people. This lack of education leads to increased rates of unemployment and poverty and the need for additional government supports. The purpose of this project study was to identify and examine barriers faced by Canadian Aboriginal adult students as they return to school for postsecondary education. The conceptual framework for this qualitative study was based on the work of Ertmer, which suggests barriers can be placed into broad categories of extrinsic and intrinsic barriers. A case study design was used with a purposeful sample from a …

Faculty Knowledge And Use Of Best Practices In Online Professional Continuing Education, Gladys Montane

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A recent mandate by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists requires that U.S. radiologic technologists complete continuous qualification requirements (CQR). This study examined faculty skills and practices at an American university that developed online CQR courses in response to this mandate. It was specifically designed to assess the knowledge and skills of this university's faculty with regard to best practices in an online learning environment, so as to provide the basis for meeting faculty needs in distance education. Dewey's work on constructivism served as the framework guiding this study. A qualitative, intrinsic case study was employed to collect data using …

Videotaped Role-Play Simulation In Teaching Transcultural Self-Efficacy To Interprofessional Healthcare Students, Holldrid Aner Odreman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Increased demand for culturally sensitive healthcare services suggests that interprofessional beginning healthcare students need to gain the necessary cultural competency skills to be successful in delivering positive health outcomes for diverse patients. Bandura's theory of observational learning, Mezirow's theory of transformative learning, and Purnell's and Paulanka's model of cultural competence informed the framework for this research. The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to determine the relationship between mode of instruction (observing role models in videotaped role-play simulation) and increased transcultural self-efficacy in cultural competence instruction. A convenience sample of 196 students enrolled in an interprofessional education (IPE) course …

Adult Learning-Focused Professional Development For Dental Hygiene Clinical Instructors, Meghan Ann Mcguinness

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At a dental hygiene program within a community college in New York State, clinical instructors are hired based on their expertise as practitioners. Most clinical instructors lack a background in adult learning theory and practice, which is an issue because their students are adult learners whose average age is 26. The instructors' lack of knowledge in this area challenges their effectiveness. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore dental hygiene instructors' views about what kind of professional development offerings related to adult learning might help improve their teaching effectiveness. The conceptual framework for this project study was …

Self-Efficacy And Select Characteristics In Nurses Who Respond To A Pediatric Emergency, Nancy Mcneill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Self-Efficacy and Select Characteristics in Nurses Who Respond to a Pediatric Emergency

by

Nancy McNeill

MA, New York University, 1996

BS, New York University, 1987

Doctoral Project Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

Walden University

June 2016

Nurses at a suburban northeastern U.S. community hospital reported that they felt unprepared to effectively respond to a pediatric emergency. Empirical data were not available to identify if this local problem was due to a lack of the nurses' self-confidence or if other factors were involved. The purpose of this study was to determine …

The Effectiveness Of Adult And Pediatric Code Blue Simulation-Based Team Trainings, Pamela Joy Corey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The adult and pediatric healthcare providers at a New England medical center attended simulation training for responding to cardiac arrests that incorporated the current American Heart Association (AHA) evidence-based standards. The purpose of this concurrent mixed method program evaluation was to compare the adult code blue and pediatric team training programs to the AHA's standards and identify if the staff learned the necessary skills to care for patients in cardiac arrest. The conceptual models used for the study were Crisis Resource Management and the transfer of learning model. The study sample was 660 adult and 269 pediatric healthcare providers who …

Teacher Education In Central Equatoria, South Sudan, Catherine Hahs Brinkley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Without education, many South Sudanese will continue living in poverty. There are numerous factors that limit their educational opportunities including tribal warfare, colonialism, missionary malpractice, civil wars, a high illiteracy rate, low government funding, and threats of war. These factors have left a substantial deficiency in available training for teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the pedagogical needs of the teachers of South Sudan. Within a conceptual framework of participatory action research, this qualitative study examined educators' view of the effectiveness of the teacher education that they had received, the pedagogical needs of teachers, and the ideal …

A Modified Program Evaluation Of Training For Employer Compliance With Health Insurance Requirements, Joanneandi Davenport

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A training program was established in the Midwestern United States to help employers understand compliance requirements of the health insurance industry. The purpose of this study was to conduct a modified program evaluation of the effectiveness of Pay or Play, a portion of a larger Benefit Compliance Program. The reason for the evaluation was the high percentage of remediation needed for administrators of employee health insurance following Pay or Play seminar sessions, which posed the question of program effectiveness in education of participants. This study is important because administrators of employee health insurance are responsible for understanding compliance regulations and …

Case Study: Moral And Ethical Decisions Some Students Make Pursuing Their Doctoral Degrees From Accredited For-Profit Universities, Anne Pinchera

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study is to identify issues some doctoral students face in obtaining their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from accredited for-profit colleges and universities. The three participants attended for-profit universities in the past five years and failed to obtain their doctoral degrees. Data collection is through an initial demographics survey, qualification survey, vignettes, and the interview itself. Data analysis from the Coding Manual for Qualitative Research by Johnny Saldana is used to analyze the data collected from problems doctoral students encounter in pursuit of their doctoral degree (Saldana, 2013). The theoretical foundations for this project come …

Single Mothers Of Young Children And Continuing Education, Jackiethsha Lynette Fluellen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of households headed by single mothers living in poverty exceeds that of all other categories of poverty-stricken households, and poverty impacts the children negatively in various ways. When single mothers choose not to continue their education, they lessen their chances of finding higher paying jobs and raising their families out of poverty. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand why some single mothers decided to continue into higher education. The study considered the decisions of 6 single mothers of young children in Montgomery County, Texas, and the obstacles they overcame while completing their education. The …

Student Perceptions Of Factors Affecting Retention In A Rural Associate Degree Nursing Program, Jodi Garcia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High nursing student attrition rates at a community college in a southwestern state were noted as a significant problem by nursing faculty and college administration because of a nursing shortage and subsequent health care issues in the surrounding community. The purpose of this project study was to explore the perceptions of nursing graduates regarding the influences that led to or impeded their success in completion of the associate degree nursing program. Additionally, perspectives of the usefulness of remediation sessions provided for students failing a course were investigated. This qualitative case study, guided by transformative learning theory, included a sample of …

Military Students' Persistence In Earning An Online College Degree, Aysel Renay Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to gain insight into the factors that military students perceive to have an impact on their persistence. The conceptual framework for this study was Knowles' principles of andragogy. The research questions were designed to explore military students' persistence, measures of engagement in academic activities, decisionmaking to assure success, and the strategies considered important to earn a degree at an online college. Demographic surveys, status reports and degree plans, and semistructured telephone interviews were collected from 13 military students. Interview data were transcribed and all data were open coded and thematically analyzed. Military …

Haitian Adult Immigrants As Learners And Parents, Dayana Octavien Philippi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Haitian immigrant parents often face challenges to visibly engage in their children's education in the United States due to social, cultural, and economic factors. This study addressed parent involvement (PI) among Haitian immigrant parents of adolescents in a Florida community. The purpose of this exploratory, multiple-case study was to better understand connections between immigrant Haitian parents' beliefs and learning experiences and their experiences supporting their adolescents' learning. Three research questions were developed to explore Haitian adults' lived experiences and perceptions of themselves as keepers of knowledge and as learners, their experiences and perceived roles as parents, and the resources they …

Relationship Between Internships And Employment Competencies Of Degreed Professionals Who Completed A College Internship, Shawn Barnwell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An estimated 1.5 million underemployed or unemployed college graduates have one or more college degrees, and many have high loan debt. Policy makers, students, and institutions of higher education are all concerned with the question of how prepared students are to enter the workforce upon graduation, yet little is known about whether internships are a strategy to improve career preparedness and gainful employment after graduation. Guided by Dewey and Kolb's experiential learning theory, the purpose of this nonexperimental study was to evaluate the impact of internships on career preparation from the perspective of graduates, specifically to evaluate whether graduates perceive …

Instructor's Employment-Level, Instructor-Efficacy, And Knowledge Of Effective Classroom Strategies For Emotional Disorders, Andrea Karen Haglin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Community college instructors are responsible for creating learning opportunities for all students, including adult students affected by emotional disorders (ED). Concerns in the literature have grown over how invested part-time instructors are in their teaching; however, limited data were available regarding instructor knowledge of ED, instructor-efficacy, and the impact of employment status. The purpose of this study was to address the gap in the literature and analyze relationships between instructor knowledge of ED strategies (as assessed by Teaching Students with Emotional Behavior Disorders scale) and instructors' efficacy beliefs (as assessed by the Ohio State Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale). It also evaluated …

A Quantitative Examination Of The Relationship Between Cultural Competence And Patient Satisfaction Scores, Kelley Ann Lovati

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As the U.S. population continues to diversify, hospitals need to understand and care for patients of diverse backgrounds and provide quality service for positive patient satisfaction scores. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative retrospective survey design was to determine what relationship exists between cultural competence initiatives (CCI) and patient satisfaction scores as reported by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey in U.S. hospitals. The theoretical framework for this study was based upon CCI and patient satisfaction through the lens of service quality. The research questions were created to understand the relationship between CCI and …