Educational Leadership Commons^™

Editorial: Education Leadership And The Covid-19 Crisis, Margaret Grogan, Michelle D. Young, Mónica Byrne-Jiménez

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"This research topic presents important developments in the field of education as the COVID-19 crisis ripples across the world. Not only have educators everywhere had to take extraordinary measures to deal with the health and safety threats they have encountered on a daily basis since the onset of this pandemic, but they have also had to learn new technologies, and respond to multiple demands as the landscape of teaching and learning shifted under their feet. The 20 articles in this collection, which capture early responses to the pandemic, highlight the complex, disruptive nature of this ongoing global challenge. While many …

Perceptions On Charter Schools In West Virginia, Donna R. Dixon

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In 2018 and 2019, the public school teachers in West Virginia walked out of their classrooms to protest charter schools opening in the Mountain State. During a special legislative session in the summer of 2019, the state's first charter school law was passed, paving the way to open West Virginia's first charter school. This research provides data on whether the COVID-19 global pandemic changed how individuals in West Virginia view charter schools. A concurrent nested mixed-method approach was used for this research. A twenty-one-question survey, Perceptions on Charter Schools in West Virginia, was developed using both Likert scale and …

Making Decisions About Asynchronous And Synchronous Engagement Strategies: Access And Inclusion, Jessica Lantz, Eric M. Stauffer, Jamie Calcagno-Roach, Andrea H. Adams, Kristen S. Shuyler, Aaron Noland, Juhong Christie Liu

Libraries

This chapter conceptualizes an inclusive framework for decision-making in the selection of synchronous or asynchronous technologies to enhance engagement in online learning. Technologies are discussed in light of their utilization and value for course and curriculum design and development in online environments, with the considerations of providing sustained support, and optimizing technology and teaching efficacy. The content presented in the chapter will benefit those who develop and support synchronous and asynchronous learning environments to address challenges when transferring courses to online or hybrid modes.

Student Perspectives On The Presence And Usefulness Of Navigational Course Elements In Distance Education Courses, Christopher Joseph Sochor

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Quality Matters Standards for Course Design (2018) rubric is a course development rubric for online courses in higher education. General Standard 1 provides a list of specific review standards that are integral in the development of courses, including course expectations, course structure, learning guidance, communication expectations, technology skill requirements, criteria for student assessment, and overall course organization. Student feedback is necessary in order to determine whether students view elements of the course overview and introduction as present in their courses, and whether those elements are useful for the successful completion of their online course. This research utilized a mixed-methods …

Engagement In Online Math Courses: An Exploration Into Success Rates Of Professors Who Use Engagement Tools In Online Learning, Shauna Rogan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

As more college courses transition to hybrid and fully online models due to Covid-19, the classroom environment for higher education has changed and will continue to do so (Bonk, 2020). As online learning continues to grow, a challenge of not connecting with the instructor can be a concern. Success in the online classroom is possible for students who may feel they are alone in online learning (Holbeck & Hartman, 2018). With the right combination of engagement tools, student interaction with the curriculum, class, and professor result in a meaningful learning experience (Holbeck & Hartman, 2018). The history of online education, …

Remote Learning During Covid-19 On Internal Medicine Residents' Education: Barriers And Enhancements Through Lived Experiences, Stephanie Rivera-Velazquez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered instructional changes within higher education. Accommodations for continued instruction included a transition to remote learning. However, little research exists regarding the experiences of medical residents during this transition in their education while combating the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study, phenomenological in nature, aimed to explore the lived experiences of internal medicine medical residents at one medical college in Central Florida regarding the transition from face-to-face instruction to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eleven participating medical residents underwent semi-structured interviews via Zoom. Garrison's Community of Inquiry conceptual model and Hall and Hord's Concerns-Based Adoption Model …

The Power Of Connections: An Online Doctoral Program's Use Of Strategic Onboarding To Enhance The Doctoral Experience, Jeri Heileman

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

A positive doctoral experience is rooted in an understanding of the expectations and reality of doctoral–level work. Students need specific knowledge, skills, and mindsets to complete coursework, critically analyze research, and write and defend a research dissertation. Despite a mutual commitment to academic achievement and graduation by faculty and students, attrition in doctoral programs remains high. This rate is even higher for those in online programs. Additionally, there are many challenges doctoral students experience outside of the core curriculum. The challenges facing students vary depending on the phase of the doctoral journey and the individual development of each student.

This …

Reconsidering The Call To Teach: K-12 Teacher Responses To Schools’ Addressing A Global Health Disruption, Dejuanna Parker

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

This qualitative study explored K-12 teacher experiences with school responses to the pandemic that prompted instructors to reconsider the call to teach. Two theories provided a lens through which to view the problem. The Theory of Purpose was applied to analyzing instructors’ original decision to teach. Fortigenesis Theory undergirded the exploration of teacher responses to physical and emotional challenges. Three themes emerged as a result of data analysis: Discontent and Disdain for Post-Pandemic Teaching Practices, Emotional Distance Created by Physical Distance, and Administrative Priorities and Teacher Wellbeing.

Wait! Don’T Quit! Stay With Your Doctoral Program During The Global Pandemic: Lessons Learned From Program Completers, Sonya Hurt, Ericka Woods Ways, Barbara Holmes

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

Using the self-determination theory framework developed by Ryan and Deci (2000), this study explored the facilitation strategies doctoral candidates used to stay on task during the global pandemic. Areas of inquiry included academic progression, dissertation research writing processes and addressing impacts on work, academic studies and persistence. The study used a phenomenological approach of qualitative research design. Ten participants were selected using a convenient sampling method. Three themes emerged from the data that included (1) Balancing work and life quality issues, (2) Mastering academic protocols (3) Developing collective efficacy in scholar development. This study revealed that student dependence on the …

Building Community For Completion: Doctoral Students’ Perceptions Of Technology Integration Within Dissertation Committee Collaboration, Scott Fillman, Barbara Holmes, Dejuanna Parker, Kent Willis

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the prevalence of technology-mediated collaboration and mentorship between dissertation committee members and doctoral student scholars. Qualitative research methods were used to explore the role of technology for collaboration and building community within dissertation committees, focusing on dissertation scholars’ perspectives. The study was based on one overarching research question: How do doctoral students describe the integration of technology for collaborating with dissertation committees? Doctoral scholar participants described the importance of technological literacy within dissertation committees, most indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the importance of fluency with technology. Other participants portrayed the importance of technological literacy within …

Virginia Community College System Online Student Success: Best Practices And Sustainable Change, Lucy R. Hudson, Daniel L. Lindstrom, Monal Patel, Rosa Ponton

Doctor of Education Capstones

Online learning has an increasingly greater presence in the higher education landscape. Students are able to earn a degree in fully online programs and take courses in modalities that offer the necessary convenience to balance multiple life priorities. The flexibility that online courses offer is valuable for adult learners with young children, students with disabilities including invisible and non-physical disabilities, or populations who must work to support families while pursuing an education. For these populations, community colleges play an important role in providing access to education as they enroll a greater number of adult students and have a higher percentage …

Who Takes Dual Enrollment Classes? A Research Brief, David Naff

MERC Publications

This research brief from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) explores three questions: 1) What are Dual Enrollment classes? 2) Who takes Dual Enrollment classes? and 3) What strategies promote greater access to Dual Enrollment? An accompanying podcast episode is linked in the research brief.

Examining Teacher Leadership: Phenomenology Of The Perceived Challenges Of Being A Teacher Leader, Noelle H. Green

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Today’s school leaders recognize that one person, mainly the principal, cannot adequately address the needs of all members of the school community. Many principals rely on teacher leaders to lead alongside them to further school improvement, knowing that the traditional way of thinking of school leadership as being the sole role of the principal is no longer effective or efficient. While K-12 teachers typically have a strong background in child development, psychology, and pedagogy, many lack experience in leading and facilitating adults and have little background in adult learning theory.

The purpose of this research is to determine how K-12 …

Designing Effective Online Courses: Exploring The Relationships Amongst Online Teaching Self-Efficacy, Professional Development, Online Teaching Experience, And Reported Implementation Of Effective Higher Education Online Course Design Practices, Elizabeth Mcmahon

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

How best to prepare and support higher education faculty to design and teach effective online courses is a topic of great significance to higher education institutional leaders and faculty developers. This study explored how hours of professional development along with online teaching and learning experiences were related to online teaching self-efficacy and the extent to which participants reported implementation of effective online course design practices. Using a non-experimental quantitative correlational explanatory research study design, data were collected using a questionnaire. Participants included 104 online faculty from a large public higher education system located in the upper Midwest that includes both …

Core Self-Evaluation Theory In Qualitative Research: Extending A Quantitative Theory Into A Qualitative Framework To Study Community College Faculty., Patria Lawton

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

The use of qualitative research in higher education has long been underutilized, specifically when examining community colleges. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the need for more qualitative research focusing on the lives and work of community college faculty and to introduce the reader to Judge et al. (1997) Core Self-Evaluation Theory (CSE). The article describes the rationale and process of utilizing CSE as a viable theoretical framework in qualitative research. The author discusses the way in which CSE was extended from a traditional quantitative measure to a qualitative framework by walking the reader through a study which …

Self-Evaluation Of Educational Leadership Practices During Covid-19, Mike Coquyt

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts, and specifically, superintendents, are under increased pressure to lead. Irregularity and ambiguity are now the mantras of those tasked with leading in our schools. Many current research studies aim to evaluate the possible effects of COVID-19 on the system of education (Azorín, 2020; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2020), and advice on how to lead during a crisis (Harris & Jones, 2020; Leithwood et al., 2020, Netolicky, 2020). There are no standards or benchmarks to follow that could potentially aid school leaders as they navigate, lead, and make important decisions that affect how quality instruction …

Identifying Key Success Indicators In Student Letters For Reinstatement From Suspension, Angela Bowlus, Jamaica Delmar

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Retaining and graduating students continues to be an issue that higher education institutions are longing to solve, especially for the growing non-traditional student body whose list of competing priorities continues to grow. As academic suspension hinders persistence, this article examines a key aspect of the reinstatement from suspension process for students: the letter of appeal. The narrative provided is impacted by how the writer expresses their acknowledgment of what went wrong and what changes will be made to ensure administrators of future success, it too is impacted by the interpretation of the institutional decision maker. By reviewing a sample of …

The Effects Of Blended Learning On Student Achievement Within Various Environments: A Program Evaluation, Christine Nicole Harris

Dissertations

Educational K-12 learning environments have had limited to no change over many decades. Due to recent initiatives to social-emotional programs, school safety measures, and the need to increase academic achievement, there has been a push for school choice options that go beyond the traditional ways of learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of blended learning on student achievement within various environments in Grades 3-8. I used a mixed methodology to compare quantitative extant data from Achieve3000®, State Standardized Assessments, as well as qualitative data through teacher, parent, and student surveys. I collected 229 student extant …

Project-Based Pedagogy: The Client's Perspective, Wayne Aho, Wendy Cagle, Jon Marvel, Michael Smith, Edward Wright

International Journal for Business Education

Project-based experiential business education seeks to provide students with lessons that are meaningful, practical, and enduring. While previous research has sought to understand how students and faculty members react to such educational experiences, it is also important to understand the perceptions of the business clients who engage with programs employing project-based education. The aim of this study was to better understand the experiences of business clients with whom students engaged as part of an undergraduate business capstone course. Two hundred fifty-three previous clients were surveyed with a 22.4% response rate. Responses were subjected to content analysis to cluster replies into …

Signature Pedagogy For Entrepreneurship Education: An Emerging Perspective, Ashley Gess, Eleonora Brivio, Gianluca De Leo

International Journal for Business Education

Entrepreneurial ways of thinking and doing intersect with the knowledge and skills that a global citizen needs to thrive. There is a robust body of scholarship that identifies core entrepreneurial skills however there is a dearth of evidence addressing how to successfully teach entrepreneurship. Using the lens of experiential learning, this qualitative study examines the surface, deep, and implicit structures of professional entrepreneurial culture toward revealing a meaningful, authentic pedagogical approach for entrepreneurship education. In order to achieve this outcome, researchers utilized a semi-structured comparable multiple-case study design to engage 19 incubated entrepreneurs in focus group interviews. A replication strategy …

Cultivating Financial Literacy Through Secondary School Economics Education: Access To Powerful Knowledge, Emanuel Mizzi

International Journal for Business Education

‘Powerful knowledge’ is disciplinary knowledge that when learned, empowers students to make decisions in a way that will influence their lives in a positive way (Young, 2008). In this paper, the researcher employs this construct to explore the financial literacy education arising from studying secondary school economics. It emerges from the author’s research aimed at exploring teaching and learning in secondary school Maltese economics classrooms. The underlying conceptual framework for this study is critical realism. The study design consisted of interviewing and observing 14 economics teachers, together with four focus groups interviews with students. Data were analyzed by employing thematic …

Developing Digital Literacy In Digital Natives: A Quantitative Study Of Digital Literacy And Niswonger Online Students, Elizabeth Pavlovich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This non-experimental, quantitative study was completed to determine if Tennessee high school students who take an online, asynchronous course better their digital literacy through the environment of online learning. The study focused on the pretest and posttest scores of Niswonger Online students during the spring and summer semesters of 2021. It grouped the high school students by location, high school size, grade level, and courses taken to assess differences in digital literacy. Finally, it evaluated overall student growth in digital literacy scores after completion of an online high school course.

Data from a pretest and posttest of Niswonger Online students …

Promoting Employer Desired Competencies Through A Multiphased "Workgroup" Project, Ashly Smith

International Journal for Business Education

Employers and business leaders have long been advocating for the importance of career readiness skills like critical thinking/problem solving, information literacy, teamwork/collaboration, professionalism/work ethic, and oral/written communication (NACE, 2019; Partnership, 2008). While faculty and students see value in projects that develop these skills, such projects can be some of the most challenging to incorporate effectively into business courses (Chapman et al., 2010; Detmering & Johnson, 2012; Lee et al., 2016; Marks & O’Connor, 2013). This article reports on a multi-phase group project that aims to strengthen a selection of these employer-desired skills while ameliorating student concerns about the research process …

Practice Enterprises In Times Of Distance Learning: The Impact And Consequences Of The Covid-19 Pandemic To The Collaboration Of Practice Enterprises, Theresa Feuchter, Gernot Dreisiebner, Elisabeth Riebenbauer, Ph.D., Michaela Stock

International Journal for Business Education

The aim of this paper is to outline the consequences which arise from the digital transformation of the multidimensional teaching and learning setting of practice enterprises and to discuss how digital collaboration of students can be supported during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an evolutionary moment also in the field of education, one can consider the experiences of COVID-19 as a catalyst for digital transformation and distance learning in education. How digital collaboration can be fostered in times of distance learning is shown by using the example of business simulations such as practice enterprises (PE). While previously this multidimensional teaching and …

Internships As Clinical Rotations In Business: Enhancing Access And Options, Faye W. Gilbert, Jason Harkins, Pankaj Agrrawal, Taylor Ashley

International Journal for Business Education

Internships are high impact practices that offer work experiences and provide advantages for participating undergraduate students and for the talent acquisition efforts of firms. While research consistently documents the benefits of internships as a transformative experience, access and outcomes may vary for students and for underserved populations. Limitations of internships can include lack of access to enough positions as well as inadequate interactions between undergraduate students, firms, and faculty members in business programs. The purpose of this article is to describe an approach to enhancing access to internships on a larger scale with greater variety. Protocols found in clinical rotations …

Stimulating Intrapreneurial Intentions With Digital Business Training In The Vet Sector: The Potential Of Massive Open Online Courses, Christian Friedl

International Journal for Business Education

It has become imperative to stimulate and support employees to behave entrepreneurially within organizations (intrapreneurship). However, little is known about how digital, massive, and scalable business education and training formats such as massive open online course (MOOCs) can contribute to vocational and educational training (VET) in general, and to nurture intrapreneurial behavior and corresponding intentions in specific. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the potential effect of a MOOC on intrapreneurial intentions of learners.
Data were acquired from 412 employees taking a MOOC on intrapreneurship for constructs embedded in the theory of planned behavior, tailored to the …

Education Licensure Candidates During The Time Of Covid-19: University Supervisors’ Reflections About The Forgotten Few, Andrea M. Wilson, Cheryl Burleigh

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Education at K–12 through university levels has faced extraordinary upheaval in the time of COVID-19. As universities and K–12 school systems struggled independently to adapt to rapidly changing demands, teacher and administrator licensure candidates were confronted with unprecedented challenges in both worlds simultaneously. The licensure candidates were the forgotten few, stuck between higher education and K–12 education, while struggling to keep up with the demands of their personal lives and professional futures. With limited guidance from their universities and school systems, licensure candidates turned to their university field placement supervisors for direction. In response, supervisors became adaptive leaders and flexible …

Supporting Students With An Autism Spectrum Disorder In Engineering: K-12 And Beyond, Jennifer L. Kouo, Alexis Hahn, Sarah Morton, Jay Gregorio

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Individuals with disabilities, including individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. With the importance of STEM skills in future employment and other disciplines, effective instructional strategies must be identified to enhance early and sustained access to STEM for students with ASD. However, the literature identifying effective STEM-specific supports and practices for this population of students is sparse and regarding engineering, there are no empirical studies that focus on teaching engineering skills to students with ASD. Therefore, the article aims to provide an overview of the available literature on the perspectives …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 5, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

An Artificial Intelligence Tool For Accessible Science Education, Jacob D. Watters, April Hill Dr., Melissa Weinrich Dr., Cary Supalo, Feng Jiang Dr.

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

One of the most important issues in accessible science education is creating a laboratory workspace accessible to blind students or students with visual impairments (VI). Although these students are often provided access to the science lectures, they are usually denied full participation in hands-on laboratory work. Current solutions to this problem focus on providing special accommodations such as asking sighted lab partners to complete the hands-on work. Although the accessibility of laboratory devices in modern science education has been improved in recent years, students with VI often remain passive learners. In this work, we developed a new artificial intelligence tool, …