Educational Methods Commons^™

Mindfulness Practices In The School Setting: Research, Strategies, And Student Voices, Katie Lewis

Michigan Reading Journal

This article explores the role of mindfulness practices in elementary school settings, drawing from current research, practical classroom strategies, and student reflections from a school-based mindfulness yoga pilot. While children enter school with an innate capacity for presence, the structure and demands of formal education can unintentionally diminish their natural ability to regulate attention and emotion. Grounded in research connecting mindfulness to improvements in executive functioning, including working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention, this article argues that intentionally teaching mindfulness can strengthen both behavioral and academic outcomes.

A review of empirical studies highlights correlations between mindfulness-based interventions …

The Correlation Between Age, Perceived Success, And Prospective Time Judgements In Adolescence, Anna Parker

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

The expressions “a watched pot never boils” or “time flies when you’re having fun” are common expressions in day-to-day life, but the phenomenon of time perception is application in aspects all throughout life, including school years. The purpose of this study is to determine what effect, if any, the variables of age and success have on a younger population’s perception of time by examining the correlation between time judgements, feelings of success, and age. My hypotheses include that an increase in age and higher success scores will lead to greater accuracy, and that an increase in age and higher success …

Online Classes Versus On-Campus Classes: How Do You Maximize Both? Welcome To Hyflex!, Joie Hain, Anita Whiting, Carin Lightner-Laws

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Behavior Skills Training To Teach A Clinician To Implement A Structured Work System, Megan E. Bowling

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Many children with autism spectrum disorder present with deficits in completing daily living tasks, which may be due to the sequencing of information required to complete these skills. Structured work systems present a support for children to visually organize and sequence events, though they are most used in the classroom setting. The study tested the effectiveness of behavior skills training to teach a behavior support clinician to implement a structured work system via least-to-most prompting. Data was collected on the clinician’s percent of accurate implementation, which was then analyzed across three daily living behaviors in a multiple probe design. Results …

We Need To Do Better: Exploring Educators’ Perspectives Of Transformative Trauma-Informed Social-Emotional Learning, Heather Stay

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This qualitative, descriptive case study examined educators’ understandings, enactment, and professional learning related to transformative, trauma-informed social-emotional learning (SEL) practices in a center-based emotional support school setting. Data were collected through semi-structured educator interviews and classroom observations to capture a holistic view of pedagogical practices. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Dis/Crit, Transformative Learning Theory, and Foucault’s Theory of Power, the findings illuminate how educators leverage trauma-informed SEL strategies to support students affected by trauma as they navigate structural and systemic constraints within a normative educational system. Results highlight both effective cultural-sustaining and trauma-responsive practices already in place, as well …

Through A Pedagogy Of Play: Kindergarten Teachers' Professional Identity, Self-Efficacy, And Well-Being, Jennifer L. Berube

Educational Studies Dissertations

Abstract

This convergent parallel mixed methods study examined how kindergarten teachers who implement a play-based pedagogy describe its influence on their professional identity, self-efficacy, and well-being. Kindergarten represents a critical educational juncture where tensions between developmental practice and academic acceleration are most pronounced, yet existing research has not adequately examined how pedagogical approaches affect the teachers who implement them. While extensive research documents the benefits of play-based learning for children’s development, the experiences of the teachers who facilitate that learning remain largely unexamined. This study addressed that gap through three integrated frameworks: Self-Determination Theory, Seligman’s model of well-being encompassing positive …

From Anxiety To Resilience: A Case Study Of Female-Identifying Middle School Students At A Math Summer Camp, Elizabeth Teixeira

Educational Studies Dissertations

Mathematics anxiety, defined as a fear that hampers engagement in mathematical tasks (Richardson & Suinn, 1972), affects nearly 50% of students (Johnston-Wilder et al., 2014) and has a disproportionate impact on female students (Devine et al., 2018; Stoet et al., 2016). Math anxiety is often treated in the research literature as a relatively stable trait. This perspective may not fully capture how anxiety manifests in specific moments of mathematical engagement or account for the role of environmental conditions that can both precipitate and mitigate anxious responses. In response to these gaps, this study investigates how mathematics anxiety manifests in …

Sing Without Even Light - How The Arts Inform And Enhance Learning, Creativity, Imagination, And Wellbeing In Elementary Classrooms In Kajiado, Kenya: Discovering Creative Confidence, Lindsay L. Stewart

Educational Studies Dissertations

Creativity and imagination can be felt, described, seen, and measured. In this study, this is achieved through a reflective process and awareness of creative practice and its potential. The process can aid and increase understanding of self, cognitive and creative process, social-emotional interactions, agency, and action, and reveals an individual’s developmental level of creative confidence.

A gap exists in student and teacher voice regarding their creative awareness and confidence. This study reveals how 29 children ages 8-15 and 14 teachers from Kajiado, Kenya, describe creativity and imagination, supporting both learning and wellbeing.

The study applies an Arts-Based Research approach, primarily …

Understanding How Teachers Define And Employ Civics Education In Non-Elective Social Studies Classrooms, Joseph Kyle

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study explored the perceptions of civics and civic education held by secondary school teachers of non-elective social studies classes in four schools within the same school district. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined how veteran teachers understood and defined civics, the ways in which they employed civics education in their teaching methodology and daily lessons, and the challenges or obstacles they perceived, if any, incorporating lessons reflecting a progressive experimentalist methodology. The study was undertaken in response to popular and governmental rhetoric reflecting a lack of civil discourse and alleging a lack of civics in public education, as …

Exploring The Impacts Of Contextualized Learning In An Engineering-Specific Corequisite Precalculus Course On Student Achievement, Motivation, And Belongingness, Amy Mathis-Leonard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the design and implementation of a contextualized engineering-specific corequisite Precalculus I course and its impacts on student achievement, motivation, and sense of belonging. This study was conducted in response to decreasing national rates of mathematical readiness, the elimination of stand-alone developmental mathematics courses across multiple states and systems, and the demand for research related to effective corequisite models in mathematics coursework. The intervention created an experimental section of corequisite Precalculus I in which all the students were engineering majors who did not demonstrate readiness for a college-level precalculus course. Unit lessons incorporated engineering-specific topics and career-oriented discussions. …

Púchica! Central American Students Navigating A Community College In The Southwest, Reina Ferrufino

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This qualitative study centers the lived experiences of U.S. Central American students at a large community college in the Southwestern United States. Guided by Latinx Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and Garcia’s (2023) Servingness framework, the study examines how institutional structures—including classrooms, student support services, and co-curricular spaces—shape students’ experiences of belonging, access, and recognition. Grounded in LatCrit, particularly its attention to racist nativism, the study situates students’ experiences within broader racialized and migration-related contexts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight Central American students and recent alumni. Findings reveal patterns of misrecognition, generalized understandings of Latinidad, and navigational challenges …

Cultural Competency Beyond The Classroom: Employing Visual Culture Art Education In Museums, Kaylee Long

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In an increasingly diverse and media-dominated world, critical thinking and cultural competency have become crucial skills. Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE), a pedagogy employed in the formal education setting, serves as an effective practice to foster these skills. Although not explicitly employed, elements of VCAE are found in museums. As VCAE has shown success in the classroom environment, museums can supplement their current practices through the conscious use of this pedagogy. Through a multi-site case study of five art museums in the Mid-Atlantic region, this project aimed to find ways that VCAE practices could be adapted into the museum setting.

Reining It In: From Reflexive To Intentional Instructor Self-Disclosure, Rona Miles, Alla Chavarga, Chelsea Blaney

Essays in Education

Instructor self-disclosure is often promoted as a means of humanizing the classroom environment and improving learning outcomes. Though disclosure has the potential to be highly beneficial, it also carries a risk to students and learning that is often overlooked. This paper presents a point of departure perspective that instructor self-disclosure should be approached with far greater caution than most educators consider. We argue that disclosures should occur only when they are justified with a clear pedagogical purpose. Casual or spontaneous disclosures, by contrast, carry sufficient potential for unintended harm such that their risks outweigh presumed benefits to classroom rapport and …

An Equity-Based And Culturally Responsive Bill Of Rights For Early Childhood Students Of Color With Exceptionalities, Evette Simmons-Reed, Michelle Frazier Trotman Scott, Gloria Tardash, Mildred Boveda, Donna Y. Ford

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) disabled children, exposing critical gaps in access, services and support. systemic inconsistencies in implementation, training, and funding, remain barriers limit opportunities for CLD students to benefit, despite the aims of the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA). To address these inequities, this manuscript proposes an expanded and updated Culturally Responsive Equity-Based Bill of Rights for EI and ECSE. Building upon Ford and colleagues' (2018) work, this revised document extends protections to children aged zero to five, emphasizing …

Guest Editor's Introduction: Methodological Innovations For Advancing Early Childhood Educational And Psychological Research, Anthony Mangino Ph.D.

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

The goal of this special issue is to provide you, the inquisitive reader and developmental scientist, with some of the methodological tools to aid in augmenting your analytic capacity.

Supporting Teachers To Adopt Art-Based Pedagogy In Grade 10 Science Teaching: An Action Research, Rabina Maharjan Ms, Binod Prasad Pant Dr.

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Science classrooms in Nepal are far from real-life connections and are dominated by conventional teaching methodologies which makes classrooms appear monotonous and boring. As a result, interest in science is decreasing day-by-day. In this scenario, the integration of art into science can be a ray of hope as humans, by nature, love art. In this research, I (first author) supported and empowered a group of five science teachers from different community schools in Kathmandu metropolitan city to implement art-based pedagogy in their classrooms. Though initially the teachers were reluctant to adopt art-based pedagogy, with a series of sessions, they designed …

Factors That Contribute To Unemployment In The School-To-Work Transition, Brittany Verrette

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

This paper explores the problem of unemployment for Black or African American high school graduates as well as Latinx graduates. As college increasingly becomes a risk of return on investment, more young adults intend to enter the workforce immediately after high school graduation; however, many Black and Latinx graduates experience difficulty in transitioning from school to work. Using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, this paper explores the contributing factors that make gainful employment difficult for high school graduates of color.

Keywords: unemployment, school-to-work transition, high school graduates, career education, K-12, workforce development

Workplace English For Non-Profits: Using Visual And Specific Purposes Pedagogy, Emma K. Brown

2026 Symposium

Between April and June 2025, I designed and taught an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) workshop series for Refugee and Immigrant Connections Spokane (RICS) in Spokane, Washington. The purpose of this workshop series was to provide RICS’s employees, who were advanced English learners, instruction and practice with the nuances of professional communication, especially email communication, and vocabulary unique to their career in a non-profit organization. The workshop was entirely voluntary, provided online over Zoom after their workday had ended, and met once a week for one hour. I designed this workshop series using the pedagogy of ESP: conducting a thorough …

Preparing A Qualified Workforce To Support The Disability Community Through The Lend Interprofessional Learning Experience, Megan K. Roberts, Beth W. Degrace, Mark J. Fisher, Sandra H. Arnold

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Leadership and workforce preparation are vital roles of the nation’s academic institutions to advance health care services for the members of our communities. Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and other Related Disabilities (LEND) programs aim to prepare leaders in health care services and advocacy to improve systems and the quality of care and supports for the disability community, specifically children with developmental disabilities. LEND programs enhance standard health care pre-service training by providing interdisciplinary learning experiences for student trainees from a minimum of ten disciplines in 300 hours of learning activities over one academic year. An innovative feature of LEND programs …

They Don’T Care About Us Here! The Intersectionality Of Implicit Bias, Stereotype Threat, And The Need For Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Louis D. Blair

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how teachers engage in critical self-reflection of implicit bias and how that process influences their pedagogical awareness and classroom practices. Grounded in the Implicit Bias Theory, Adult Learning Theory, Transformative Learning Theory, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, the study utilized the Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT), reflective journaling, and engagement with the book Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, to explore shifts in three participants’ beliefs and instructional approaches. Data sources included pre- and post-survey responses, IAT reflections, and ongoing journal entries, and semi-structured post-study interviews which were analyzed thematically. Findings …

Education, Evaluation, And Impact Of A Delegation Learning Session In The Care Pair Model, Tiffany M. Whitney

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: College of Nursing

The persistent nurse shortage is forcing the health sector to think about the way care is provided, and teams collaborate. One model, the Care Pair Model (CPM), pairs registered nurses (RNs) with nursing assistants (NAs) to distribute responsibility and provide patient care in a timely manner and with the best quality. Even though the model encourages working together effectively, many nurses still find it difficult to delegate to uncertainty, lack of confidence, or communication barriers. Improving these abilities is essential for fostering trust, ensuring a smooth workflow, and providing for patient and provider needs.

This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) …

Historical Markers: Making History Relevant, Dr. Abigail Dutcher

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

Pre-service teachers often view the Civil War as a distant, regionally isolated event with little relevance to their own lives, particularly in northern states. This perception presents a challenge in social studies methods courses, where engagement with complex historical issues is essential. This paper explores how local historical markers can reposition the Civil War as a lived and local history rather than a remote national narrative. Drawing on instructional practice in a Methods of Teaching Social Studies course aligned with InTASC and Indiana REPA standards, the article examines the integration of a Frederick Douglass-related historical marker in Indiana to foster …

Exploring Grounded Theory In Educational Research: Literature Review, Reflexivity, And Conceptual Development In Doctoral Research, Huidan Niu

The Qualitative Report

My article explores the application of grounded theory in educational research, focusing on the literature review process, reflexivity, and conceptual development. I address common misconceptions about grounded theory, especially for novice researchers, and advocate for its use as a comprehensive methodology rather than solely as a data analysis tool. Drawing on my doctoral research experience, I argue that grounded theory offers a valuable framework for fostering theoretical sensitivity and independence, making it particularly suitable for educational research. Through detailed examination, I offer novice researchers practical strategies for navigating the methodological complexities of grounded theory and for contributing conceptually robust and …

First-Generation Student Success: An Analysis Of Institutional And Student-Led Support In Select Private Four-Year Liberal Arts Colleges, Jasmine D. Rodriguez

Whittier Scholars Program

Today, about one third of college students are characterized as first-generation (Bloomberg 2024, 3). Despite this rise in first-generation students seeking higher education, academic institutions continue to fall short of supporting this specific group of students. This project investigates the experiences of first-generation students at selected private, four-year, liberal arts colleges in the United States to better understand these students’ experiences as well as discuss the challenges academic institutions face as they aim to support their first-generation student population. Using Whittier College and some comparison schools as a case study, my project will investigate the resources currently offered to first-generation …

Nature As The Foundation: A Shift In Pedagogy, Mary Moroney-Fernandez

The Cicadian

Somewhere in the United States right now, a child is sitting beneath fluorescent lights while the world outside continues without her. This paper argues that her confinement is not accidental, but rather theoretical. Examining the divergent frameworks of Friedrich Fröbel and Jean Piaget, it traces how American public schooling absorbed a vision of learning organized around cognitive individualism while displacing Fröbel's relational vision of child and nature. Drawing on reflection, historical analysis, and research, this paper contends that lasting reform requires confronting the foundational assumptions that built the classroom in the first place.

Identifying Levers For Change In Teaching Communities: Does Teaching Professional Development Build Stronger Communities?, Willow Danielle, Sandhya Krishnan, Mark Baillie

Research and Creative Works Expo

Our project investigates the impact of teaching professional development on teaching communities. We use social network analysis to visualize these changes and understand teaching communities on campus. This equips us to identify levers to create large-scale change in teaching practices.

Building Preschool Teacher Confidence In Understanding Student Accommodations By Implementing The Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support (Mtss) Framework, Heather Briese

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Abstract

The overall goal of this paper is to highlight the crucial role that educators have with student development. Educators' knowledge and the ability to implement High-Leverage Practices (HLPs), Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs), and providing the Mutli-Tiered Systems of Support  (MTSS) are essential for student growth through effective student accommodations. This paper will examine how these practices can be implemented to support students in both academics and socially-emotionally. In order for early childhood educators to be successful in providing student support they need to have a comprehensive understanding of High-Leverage Practices (HLPs), Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs), Mutli-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and …

A Study On Community And Technical College Students' Identification Of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Cynthia J. Carow Schiebe

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether students could identify culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and, to what extent, in a community or technical college classroom where a set of goals and strategies had been established to guide methodology. Previous research on CRP traditionally focused on the educators’ or administrators’ interpretation of what students had learned when CRP was used as a methodology to reduce the opportunity gap. Students in classrooms where CRP was used were able to identify content that was aligned with their needs and wants, bring their own lives into the class without fear, balance their …

The Impact Of The Science Of Reading Initiative On Reading Test Scores Among Rural Elementary Students In Arkansas, Julie A. Ferguson

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This study examines changes in reading achievement among rural elementary students in Arkansas following the statewide implementation of the Science of Reading initiative. Beginning in 2019, Arkansas required educators in kindergarten through sixth grade to receive training in evidence‑based literacy practices emphasizing phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Despite these efforts, rural districts continue to face challenges related to staffing, access to professional development, and instructional resources, raising questions about whether statewide reforms have produced measurable improvements in reading outcomes.

Using a quantitative, longitudinal, quasi‑experimental design, this study analyzes ACT Aspire reading assessment data collected from rural Arkansas schools …

Task-Based Language Teaching For Afghans Resettled In The United States Since 2021: Meeting Integration And Employment Needs, Madison E. Wilhelm

Senior Honors Theses

In the aftermath of the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the United States military evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans, many of whom were resettled in the United States. This population has faced many challenges in their resettlement, including barriers to language learning and difficulty finding skilled employment. There is great diversity within this population, including individuals with limited schooling and those with valuable employment skills.

This integrative literature review explores how Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) can be used as a strategy for Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) with the post-2021 Afghan population in the United States. It …