Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching Commons^™

Strategies For Developing Interpersonal Communication Skills For Business Students, Sharon A. Pope

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Strategies for Developing Interpersonal Communication Skills for Business Students

by

Sharon A. Pope

M.B.A., Cleveland State University, 1995

M.S.H.P/A., University of Cincinnati, 1983

B.Ed., University of Toledo, 1981

Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

Walden University

December 2015

Research has shown that interpersonal communication skills (ICS) are important for employment success, particularly if they are learned by students during college. A private university in Ohio identified the need to enhance students' ICS; however, the university's faculty lacked strategies to teach those required skills. The purpose of this qualitative case study …

Community College Instructors' Perceptions And Use Of Feedback, Janeth Martin Walker Franklin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many community college students, especially those who are required to take developmental education courses, do not complete course and degree goals. Research shows that constructive feedback practices used by instructors improve academic achievement while destructive feedback practices diminish student learning. Using a constructivist framework, the purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to understand how faculty who teach developmental education and entry level college courses perceive and use feedback in a large urban community college in the Southwestern United States. Data were collected through 17 in-depth, face-to-face interviews and written feedback examples submitted by the faculty members. Interview transcripts …

Second Chance For School Dropouts In Kenya Through Adult Education, Lombo Lombo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Most Kenyan high school dropouts do not have a school reentry option, and without a high school diploma, they lack access to tertiary or higher education institutions for training and career development. This case study was an investigation of how an adult learning center in Kenya educated high school dropouts and helped them to gain access to vocational training or higher education. The research questions addressed the pedagogy, learning experiences, and curriculum of the Baraka Adult Learning Center (BALC) and also focused on how the BALC met students' aspirations, needs, and goals based on the perceptions of teachers and adult …

Effective Teaching In Higher Education For The 21st Century Adult Learner, Denise Murchison Payton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract

As college populations are becoming increasingly diverse, institutions must find ways to meet the needs of their nontraditional students. Nontraditional adult learners are self-directed, ready to learn, and are internally motivated to engage in problem-centered learning. The purpose of this study was to expand and refine an active learning seminar in a higher education setting to improve the quality of teaching, student engagement, and retention rates. The site of the study was a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in which adult students over 25 constituted 49% of the population. The faculty members at this site predominantly employed traditional …

Assessment Practices At An Associate Degree Nursing Program, Tracey Jane Siegel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nursing programs have traditionally used teacher-developed multiple-choice (MCQ) examinations to prepare students for licensure. Researchers have determined that poorly constructed MCQ tests used as formative and summative evaluations may penalize nursing students and impact progression and retention in nursing programs. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine issues related to the use of teacher-developed MCQ examinations as the only method of student assessment in the theory component of nursing courses. The National League for Nursing Core Competencies for Nurse Educators and the revised Bloom's Taxonomy were used as the conceptual frameworks for this study. The Director of …

Promoting Critical Thinking And Reflection In A Capstone Course For Adult Learners, James-Etta Goodloe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

University instructors can improve how they promote critical thinking in the classroom by fostering reflective writing habits with students. Midwest University requires all undergraduate students to complete 2 capstone courses, which are framed around a critical thinking curriculum. The skills of analyzing and reflecting on experiences are important components of critical thinking. Despite this acknowledged importance of critical thinking, there is currently no structured training for instructors of the capstone course on how to develop critical thinking abilities among adult students. The purpose of this case study was to examine the perceptions of the instructors of the capstone courses and …

Nursing Students' And Novice Clinical Instructors' Experiences With Clinical Instruction And Assessment, Bridgett Alveta Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adjunct faculty members make up a growing proportion of nursing school clinical faculty in the United States due to a nurse educator shortage in higher education. Many of the nurses hired as clinical faculty members have years of experience providing patient care, but they lack experience in clinical instruction and assessment. At a state community college in the southeastern United States, nursing students have expressed dissatisfaction in their course evaluations with inexperienced faculty in clinical programs. The experiences of both nursing students under the guidance of novice clinical instructors and clinical faculty were examined in this case study. The National …

Fourth Year Teachers' Perceptions Of The Student Teaching Practicum In Abu Dhabi, Kabrina Rochelle Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A local college in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates began a Bachelor of Education program in 2008 to train prospective teachers to deliver a bi-literate education in Arabic and English to students in Abu Dhabi schools. Because there had been no examination of preservice teachers' perceptions of their practicum experience, a project study was designed to analyze the perceptions of a group of preservice teachers regarding the final practicum and whether that experience enhanced their ability to deliver educational practices to better serve students. This phenomenological study was guided by experiential learning theory, as preservice teachers learned from their experiences …

Soft Skills Perceived By Students And Employers As Relevant Employability Skills, Ann-Marie Claudia Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Local employers believe the lack of prerequisite soft skills is inhibiting the graduates from a local community college from securing employment. The rationale of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions of students and employers related to the soft skills needed to be successful in future employment. The theoretical framework was based on Mezirow's transformational and Daloz's mentorship theories. Individual face-to-face, semistructured interviews were used to gather data from 12 business and computer students and 7 employers (N=19) who were selected using purposeful random sampling. The typewritten transcripts of participants' responses were imported in MAXQDA 11, then were open …

Effects Of An Online Skills Program On Ela Achievement Among Ged Students, Gwendolyn Amanda Flowers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

K-12 schools are more commonly using online learning to supplement traditional classroom learning. Previous online adult education researchers have found no significant differences between traditional and online learning outcomes. However, little research has been done with regard to online General Educational Development (GED)-level learning for adults. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the effect of the Skills Tutor program compared with traditional learning on GED student achievement in reading/language arts. The Skills Tutor program was used as a means to address the low GED graduation rates at an adult education program through Memphis City Schools. This research …

Perceived Academic Needs Of Military Veterans Within A For-Profit, Yvonne Rose Ross

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of recent U.S. military veterans attending college has increased due to the Veterans Education Assistance Act; however, retention and graduation rates for this population have declined. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the experiences and academic needs of recent military veterans as they transition from the military to academic life at a for-profit, proprietary college. In addition, this study identified differences in the problems faced by male and female veterans and explored whether veterans understood the resources available to them as they enrolled in higher education. Schlossberg's transitional theory was the conceptual framework used in …

The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Employee Commitment Among Perfusionists, Gilbert F. Garcia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Certified clinical perfusionists (CCPs) operate a variety of complex, invasive devices to provide heart-lung support. Job-related stress has been identified as having unfavorable influences on self-efficacy and commitment of employees in many domains, but this relationship has not been examined among CCPs. Guided by self-efficacy theory and organizational commitment model, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between self-efficacy and commitment among CCPs and the extent to which age, gender, workload, experience, or education impacted CCPs' commitment. Data were collected from 264 respondents via 2 established survey instruments: the organizational commitment questionnaire and the work …