Educational Methods Commons^™

Effects Of An International Teaching Experience On Pre-Service Teacher Self-Efficacy, Janet George, Jared Johnston

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This study investigated the effect of faculty mentoring on the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teacher (PST) candidates. Between 2023 and 2024, eight PSTs took part in a two-week international teaching experience. The overall experience was built on Bandura’s sources of self-efficacy (1997). For the study, we used Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy’s Teacher Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale (1998) to measure the PSTs’ sense of self-efficacy before and after the experience. We utilized a convergent mixed-methods research design to gain a comprehensive understanding of the effect of faculty mentoring upon the PSTs’ sense of self-efficacy. The results of our study showed that faculty …

Who Gets To Be Taken Seriously? Three Atypical Scholars Navigate Doctoral Education At The Intersections Of Race, Neurodivergence, And Veteran Identity, Sr. Richard De La Garza

Dissertations

As a first-generation, neurodivergent, Mexican American/Chicano veteran, I entered the University of San Diego's doctoral program having had experiences that most institutional intake processes would label as risk factors. The Findings chapter of this dissertation begins by describing those experiences—not as a confession, but as the foundation for a systematic inquiry into how doctoral legitimacy is produced, withheld, and defended. The description of my life experiences is followed by a discussion of the doctoral journeys of two other study participants who also were atypical doctoral candidates.

The central argument being advanced is this: What higher education calls "fit," "rigor," and …

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 …

Exceptionally Flawed: A Look Towards Addressing Inequalities Of Identification In Gifted Education, Madyson A. Mcray

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Gifted education has been a part of our education system for over a century, and yet there continue to be ways we can work to improve the system to benefit all students. One way education professionals can achieve this is by implementing identification systems that cater to students of all races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities. This study aims to highlight and suggest solutions school districts across the nation, as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia, can implement to make the gifted identification process more inclusive to all students. A comprehensive literature review of national and state data regarding current demographics …

Strength And Conditioning Internships In Collegiate Athletics: A Qualitative Examination Of Structure, Design, And Experiential Learning, Peter Kd Kenn

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Strength and Conditioning (S&C) internships play a critical role in the development of students and graduates looking to enter the S&C profession. However, little research has been conducted to understand the typical structures, responsibilities, and expectations of internship programs or the rationales behind the designs and structures of these programs. Despite the reliance on S&C internships to develop entry-level candidates for the profession, there is a lack of standardization and structure within the U.S. intercollegiate setting. The purpose of this study is to identify how S&C internship supervisors describe the content of their internship programs and to understand the rationale …

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 …

Informal Language As An Instructional Tool: Benefits, Drawbacks, And Teacher Intentions, Halle J. Connors

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the role of informal language, including slang and popular culture references, as an instructional tool in secondary classrooms. Traditional teaching emphasizes academic language; however, research suggests that integrating informal communication can create stronger teacher-student relationships, increase student engagement, and improve learning outcomes. Using a survey of public secondary teachers in Southeast Kansas (n=47), this study investigates teacher perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating informal language and measures their willingness to adapt when presented with evidence of best practices. This study found, through a pretest, educational intervention, and post-test design, that educators show reduced …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.