Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Coaching Secondary Teachers To Engage Students By Incorporating Storytelling Into Content-Area Instruction, Jane Dearani Calnan

All Theses And Dissertations

Currently, school leaders are being called to action to find ways of improving the literacy achievement of today’s youth in response to the escalating number of students exiting high school unprepared for postsecondary educational programs and the workforce. Literacy coaching, as an embedded professional development model is one effective approach that can provide essential leadership and support for school and district-wide literacy reform. This qualitative single case study considers secondary literacy coaching in situ (in the natural setting) as a professional development model and the extent to which it supports the integration of literacy practices within disciplinary subjects. This study …

The Effects Of Technology On Student Motivation And Engagement In Classroom-Based Learning, James Francis

All Theses And Dissertations

Technology has seen a recent widespread integration into daily life, where access to vast amounts of information is now available with ease. Today’s generation of students has grown up with technology all around them in an ever-increasing manner. To create an effective 21st century classroom that meets the needs of the students, a modern teacher must factor a student’s motivation to learn and the effects technology has on inclusionary education.

A technology implementation was devised to address this rising need. Research was completed at an urban charter school on a population of 348 at the time of technology intervention through …

Mining Helpdesk Databases For Professional Development Topic Discovery, Joel T. Lowsky

All Theses And Dissertations

This single-site, instrumental case study created and tested a methodological road map by which academic institutions can use text data mining techniques to derive technology skillset weaknesses and professional development topics from the site’s technical support helpdesk database. The methods employed were described in detail and applied to the helpdesk database of an independent, co-educational boarding high school in the northeastern United States. Standard text data mining procedures, including the formation of a wordlist (frequently occurring terms), and the creation and application of clustering (automated data grouping) and classification (automated data labeling) models generated meaningful and revealing themes from the …

The Forgotten Population: Honors Math Students At A Vocational High School, Jarrod Richards

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods individual case study was to investigate why honors math students at a regional vocational high school felt that their mathematical ability decreased over their enrollment at the site under study from the levels they experienced in middle school. This study specifically focused on long term retention of material and motivational forces that can influence the perceptions of honors students’ ability in mathematics. The participants for this study were 23 students who had been in honors math for all four years at this school. A records review was conducted for the 23 participants, which yielded …

Elementary Students’ And Teachers’ Perceptions Of Flipped Mathematics Lessons, Susan Grace Edwards Mosher

All Theses And Dissertations

Flipped learning is a pedagogical model that allows more time for students to engage in active learning in the classroom because direct instruction is moved to video and watched outside of class time. Although many studies have shown the effectiveness of this strategy, previous perceptional studies have primarily focused on flipped learning through the lens of high school students and adult learners. This study was designed to explore elementary students’ and teachers’ perceptions of flipped learning in mathematics. A descriptive qualitative case study was conducted in a suburban elementary school in North Carolina. Three fifth grade teachers and fifteen of …

Teaching The First: A Phenomenological Study Of Southeastern Community College Instructors Communicating With First-Generation College Students, Tanyanika Mattos

All Theses And Dissertations

This phenomenological research study explored eight Southeastern community college instructors communicating with first-generation college students, specifically the lived experiences of community college instructors as they taught developmental education. The participated included a lawyer, health care executive, and engineer, psychologist, bookkeeper, health sciences professional, and education specialist and computer information systems professional. Pre-interviews, interviews and an electronic survey were utilized to obtain the data on the phenomenon. This phenomenological data analysis process offered a structured analysis process that is reflective and grounded in vibrant descriptions. During the interview, all forms were used to document responses of interviewees. The interviews were interpreted …

Teacher/Student Interpersonal Engagement And Customer Service Principles: A Phenomenological Study, Juanita Takeno

All Theses And Dissertations

The importance of understanding the effects of teacher and student engagement in online learning is especially pertinent to the online teacher and the online student as well as the college as a whole. This qualitative phenomenological study involved discovering if interpersonal online engagement between teacher and student involved those principles used in business customer service. The focus of this phenomenological study is on the lived experience of online students relative to interpersonal engagement – it is about the students’ stories. Accordingly, the questions asked what the participants felt when their teachers were engaged and if the engagement was augmented with …

Cross-Cultural Leadership: Best Practices In Multinational Graduate Education, Carol Anne Kerr

All Theses And Dissertations

The international security environment depends in part on professional military leaders with the knowledge, skills and attributes to execute a broad range of leadership communication, collaboration and negotiations with counterparts in complex international and intercultural settings. If higher education is the path to cognition, metacognition, motivation and behavior, then it may be an effective instrument for developing leadership readiness for a range of international/inter-cultural tasks. This study explores US military leaders’ perceptions about graduate-level, senior professional military education alongside foreign military officers at the U.S. Army War College as an influence on readiness for decision-making, cultural adaptation, and task performance …

Improving Technology Integration In A Rural High School By Listening To Students' Needs And Experiences, Brandie Nicole Shatto

All Theses And Dissertations

While schools have embraced the mantra of 21st century skills since the early 1990s and access to technology has become nearly ubiquitous, technology use in K-12 classrooms is still largely absent. This has created a situation where teachers are unsure of how to teach with technology and students are unsure how to learn with technology. This transformative mixed methods study sought to give students a voice to articulate their learning needs in relation to technology integration in schools. The study drew on rural high school students’ perceptions of technology use in K-12 classrooms by documenting students’ use of technology at …

Implementing Meaningful And Sustainable Project Based Learning Pedagogy, Jasmeen Philen

All Theses And Dissertations

The traditional model of PK-12 education, with increased emphasis on preparing students for standardized assessments, challenges educators striving to keep students engaged in learning. Project-Based Learning (PBL), a growing teaching methodology, is designed to address the challenge of disengagement by making learning meaningful and more engaging. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to document teachers’ perceptions and understandings of Project Based Learning (PBL) in a K-12 international school in Asia in an effort to address the on-going debates about the effectiveness of its implementation. Conceptually, this case study was framed using significant aspects of the constructivist theory, while …

Relationship Of Block Scheduling To Student Achievement And Learning Activities, Kevin C. Roberts Jr.

All Theses And Dissertations

Increasingly over the last several decades, school districts turn to their schedules as tools to be leveraged to increase student achievement or to better deliver their educational program. Throughout the late 20th Century and early 21st Century, the exploration of the schedule as a tool for learning quickly turned to action as great movement was made to block scheduling from the traditional schedule. As quickly as action was taken to implement block scheduling, questions arose regarding its impact on student achievement. These questions have attempted to be addressed through a significant body of research conducted over the last twenty-five years. …

Teacher Perceptions Of The Impact Of Federal And State Mandates On Their Students And Classrooms In Small, Rural, Isolated Communities, Christine L. Cooper

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain perspectives of grade two through eight teachers on the impact of federal and state mandates, including the results of high-stakes standardized testing. The study focused on teacher perceptions of mandates and the effects on their students in three small, geographically isolated, public schools during the 2015-2016 school year. Nine teachers participated in one-on-one, in-depth interviews. This study focused on four themes of teacher perceptions: (a) pedagogy, relationships, location and alignment, (b) the general process of mandate implementation, (c) concerns about specific mandates, and (d) student understanding and emotional impacts of …

Utilizing Reflective Narratives To Promote Academic Mindsets: Building Relationships, Developing Responsibility, Fostering Resilience, And Providing Relevance For Adolescents, Debra Gardner-Baasch

All Theses And Dissertations

Preparing students for life after high school requires more than a focus on building content knowledge. With the goal of overall well-being for adolescents, education must expand beyond the traditional focus on academic excellence to develop the noncognitive factors that promote academic mindsets and build relationships, develop responsibility, foster resilience, and provide relevance for students. This research study investigates how reflective narratives can be utilized as universal interventions within personalized learning plans to foster the noncognitive factors of academic mindsets. Combining the research of social science about resilience, connectedness, and hopefulness with the research of social neuroscience, this study explores …

Best Practices In Online Pedagogy: A Pearson Correlation Analysis Between Teaching Evaluation Scores And Transactional Distance Scores In Online Graduate Courses, William Angrove

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to discover how four universally recognized best practices in online pedagogy affected teaching evaluation scores in online graduate courses. The four best practices in online pedagogy are: Course Organization and Presentation, Learning Objectives and Assessments, Instructor-Student Interpersonal Interaction, and the Appropriate Use of Video or Multimedia. The researcher modified these best practices from the Jaggars and Xu (2016) Online Course Quality Rubric. The study utilized Dr. Michael G. Moore’s (1973) theory of transactional distance to understand the relationship between teaching evaluation scores and transactional distance. University instructional designers assessed and …

Teacher Preferences On Technology Use Using The Iteach Implementation Model: A Case Study In A Tanzanian Private School, Julia Keegan

All Theses And Dissertations

To advance both transformative school leadership skills and the use of ICT integration in this school, while aiming to enhance positive school change, this study used the iTEaCH (ICT-Technogogy-and-Collegiality) Implementation Model proposed by Choy (2013) to investigate, quantitatively, teacher perceptions of ICT use in a case study school in Tanzania. The iTEaCH Implementation Model provides focus on teachers’ choice of technology use, desire for technology use, pedagogy perceptions, and collegiality to identify gaps that might be used to inform teachers and school leaders of technology provision, professional development, and collegial support needs in the school.

Using a slightly modified version …

Technology-Based Family Education In Asl/English Bilingual Schools For The Deaf, Myriah L. Dixon

All Theses And Dissertations

More research on how ASL/English bilingual schools for the deaf educate hearing families to apply bilingual education methodology at home is warranted. Given the rising use of technology in schools, its role within these family education programs was the primary focus. Thirty-two participants from 22 different schools completed an online, researcher-developed survey. Follow-up, online interviews were conducted with 7 participants, and artifacts were collected from 10 schools. Qualitative and quantitative descriptions express the study’s results based on technology used as an informational and influential tool, counseling and coping tool, diversity tool, and program evaluation tool. Schools are using multiple forms …

The Mathematical Disposition Of Middle School Students: An Examination Of Students’ Self-Concept Of Ability In Mathematics, Katrina Leigh Hall

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to answer the following research questions via the lens of social-constructivism: How do middle school students describe their self-concept of ability in math? What teacher/classroom interventions are recognized by students as having an impact on their self-concept of ability? This study specifically addressed the utilization of student voice and the need to recognize self-concept of ability as a separate academic domain in research. The purposeful sampling for this case study consisted of 10 eighth-grade middle school students who participated in both an online survey and a semi-structured interview. The major themes …

Two-Year College Faculty Perspectives On Developmental Student Persistence: A Case Study, Mary Colleen Patterson

All Theses And Dissertations

This study sought to understand the perspectives of two-year college composition faculty concerning the persistence of students in their developmental composition courses. Research has shown that developmental students are a population at risk for leaving college before completing their degree programs and that students are more likely to persist to reach their goals when they’ve built meaningful connections with faculty. Many factors affect faculty ability to connect with developmental students such as faculty history, teaching preparation, and work load.

This study answered four research questions: 1) how do faculty describe and perceive their experience in encouraging developmental students to persist? …

Middle School Teachers’ Perspectives On Promoting Effective Technology Integration, Yona Andrew Rose

All Theses And Dissertations

Technology integration reforms in education have increased in number and expectation throughout schools across the United States. Some instructors have experienced barriers with skill sets, attitudes, professional development opportunities, and collaboration time which have impacted their ability to model good practices. Pictures of qualified, confident teachers integrating technology into their classrooms with regularity and fidelity are unclear. Existing literature was reviewed regarding methods of increasing teacher comfort and knowledge related to technology integration so that the 21st Century Skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication can be addressed in public schools. This research study explored what middle school teachers …

The Case For Explicit, Skills-Based Resilience Building Instruction, Michael B. Maschi

All Theses And Dissertations

The study of resilience in young children has captured the attention of many researchers over the last twenty years. A number of research questions about resilience have focused on the definition and use of the term, conditions under which resilience is likely to develop in children, the characteristics/traits associated with resilience, and how to best teach resilience. While there have been considerable advances in the ways that we think about and teach resilience, there is still much debate about how and when to teach resilience (Ashdown & Bernard, 2012). In addition, the procedures and methods used to provide scholarly explanations …

Evaluating College Biology Laboratory Accommodations For Students With Blindness And Visual Impairments, Barbara Rae Heard

All Theses And Dissertations

Studies show that active participation in science laboratory activities promotes student learning. However, students with blindness and visual impairments (BVI) often confront obstacles to active participation in the required activities of the college biology laboratory. Legislation requires institutions of higher education to provide accommodations for students with disabilities, yet the institutions must also maintain the academic integrity of their courses and programs. While college biology instructors provide specific accommodations, such as tactile models and audible devices, to enable active participation by students with BVI, they do so without research-supported guidelines for best practices. This mixed methods study sought to evaluate …

An Evaluation Of College Students’ Use Of Social Media In Nutrition Education For Lifestyle Behavior Changes, Cassandra Crawford-Ciglar

All Theses And Dissertations

Behavior change is a process. College students routinely have poor eating habits during a time of life that can negatively impact health outcomes for the adult years. While knowledge of nutrition is essential to promote health and wellness, other components are required to change behavior. Specifically, nutrition education must be paired with behavior change skills or goal setting strategies in order for a change to occur. In a college classroom setting, many examples of such strategies already exist. Literature supports evidence that interventions combining social media and behavior change techniques incorporating online social networks may be effective. The purpose of …

Expanding Interprofessional Learning Opportunities: How Dental Hygiene Administrators And Faculty Perceive Interprofessional Education, Cristina Casa

All Theses And Dissertations

The health care system has undergone transformation, implementing an interprofessional approach to patient care. Professionals have formed collaborative practice groups that effectively respond to the intricacies of today’s medical industry. Dental hygienists are underemployed in these teams. This has a direct effect on dental hygiene academia because education is the basis for practice. Interprofessional education (IPE) has been proposed as the strategy to adequately address this issue; however, many dental hygiene programs do not focus on shared teaching and learning.

This mixed methodology study documented the perspectives of dental hygiene administrators and faculty at higher education institutions in the Northeast …

Embracing A Culture Of Evidence: A Phenomenological Study Of Faculty Experience Within A Transitioning Assessment Culture, Jennifer A. Galipeau

All Theses And Dissertations

This phenomenological study sought to give voice to the lived experiences of faculty within a transitioning assessment culture at an institution of higher education accredited by the New England Association of Colleges and Schools (NEASC). Current literature concerning outcomes assessment (OA) in higher education is highly focused on the need for campuses to foster a robust and pervasive culture around assessment, often termed a culture of evidence. The study site provided a unique opportunity to examine this phenomenon as it was at the mid-point of a multi-year initiative focused on transforming institutional assessment culture. During the study, full-time faculty at …

Examination Of An Independent School’S Site-Based Summer Program, Susan W. Keogh

All Theses And Dissertations

This study examined the summer program offered by a pre-kindergarten through grade twelve independent school. Three levels of theory, individual, group, and organizational, were utilized to analyze the experiences of students and instructors. The variety of opportunities and instructional design elements, the intentional alignment to the traditional school year, collegial discussions connecting summer learning and the school year, and evidence of the school’s mission were examined.

Findings revealed a wide-range of educational experiences and the benefits of continuous learning that are evident the following school year. Class designs incorporated instructional elements supported by individual learning theories. Academic standards and expectations …

Faculty Perceptions Of The Purpose And Value Of General Education: A Comparison Between The Liberal Arts And Health Professions, Shireen Rahman

All Theses And Dissertations

This study examined the perceptions of the purpose and value of the general education curriculum in those undergraduate faculty members who teach in the liberal arts and the health professions at the University of New England. Perceptions were evaluated within each college and then compared between each College. A mixed-methods approach was utilized with concurrent implementation of qualitative and quantitative strands. Data were gathered from the Faculty Survey on General Education which was completed by fifty-six (29.3%) of the undergraduate faculty members. In addition, twelve faculty members were randomly selected to participate in open-ended interviews. Descriptive statistics and independent t-tests …

What Professional Development Practices Support The Successful Integration Of Technology Within A Standards-Based Educational (Sbe) System, Richard A. Green

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship between K-12 teachers’ current technology skill level, their self-efficacy as teachers, and their attitude toward changes required to integrate 21st-century technologies into their classrooms. Twenty-five members of the teaching staff from a rural School Department in Maine participated. This study describes the following: (a) What is the relationship between teachers’ current skills/ability using technology and their attitude towards integrating 21st-century technologies in the classroom? (b) What is the relationship between teachers’ current self-efficacy towards using technology, and their capacity towards integrating 21st-century technologies in the classroom? and (c) What …

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Available Public Education Programming And The Influence Of Professional Perceptions, Heather Wilmot

All Theses And Dissertations

A mixed-methods research study was conducted in a small, rural western Maine school department. The intent of this research was to reveal what kind of programming is available to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and how the availability of programming is influenced by the perceptions of educators and leaders in a public school department. In addition, the research addressed how the background and professional development of the employees impacted the availability of programming for students with ASD. Forced survey questions included quality indicators for programming for students with ASD and pre-selected follow-up focus groups questions were used.

Data analysis …

The Role Of Student Voice And Choice In Learner-Centered Competency Reform, Danielle Donnini

All Theses And Dissertations

Progressive reforms, pervasive throughout American education, are once again beginning to reshape the established traditional system to provide our students with an educational experience and learning opportunities that will better prepare them with twenty-first century skills. These reforms, rooted in constructivism and social learning, are characterized by an updated progressive vision of competency education that places students in the center of their education. Giving students authentic voice and choice has potential to engage these most important stakeholders in educational reform. This qualitative case study set in eleven upper elementary classrooms in one school, explores the opportunities for voice and choice …

Students’ Perceptions About High School Preparation For Mathematics In Post-Secondary Programs: A Case Study Of One High School, Wendy Pratt

All Theses And Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how fifteen former high school students from a small, rural high school in central Vermont perceived their preparedness for college level mathematics and identified recommendations for improvement. Student interviews and math assessment data for each participant were analyzed to respond to the research question. The interview protocol consisted of one-on-one semi-structured phone interviews that were recorded for transcription. Thirteen open-ended questions were developed to answer the research question and sub-questions grounded in the research literature and specific concerns identified by the math teachers defined in the case study. The conceptual framework for this research study …