Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cheating (Education) Educators Education, Higher'

The definition of plagiarism that is used in university handbooks is a simple one, and policies along with tiers of disciplinary strategies are used by faculty members in higher education to deter students from committing a plagiarism infraction based on this simple definition. However, plagiarism still occurs on college campuses, and this may be a result of gray areas with regard to different aspects of plagiarism that are not contained in the definition. Because of these misunderstandings, students may commit accidental plagiarism or disagree about what constitutes plagiarism. This qualitative study attempted to discover what aspects of plagiarism are confusing for college students. The data collection method involved personal open-ended interviews with 15 college students of different ages, genders, years in college, and areas of study. The 9 different themes that were brought to the surface as a result of the interviews included findings in the reasons that students justify plagiarism, the levels of acceptability among students, the amount of prior education in plagiarism that students have when they enter college, and specific gray areas such as paraphrasing and common knowledge that the participants discussed as confusing. These findings could be used by faculty and administration in institutions of higher education to aid in formatting new policies and learning activities to help students learn about plagiarism from their own perspective and understand the concepts involved in a better way so that less unintentional plagiarism takes place.

Current research shows that students with a growth mindset are more motivated to learn, want to work harder, are less discouraged by difficulty, use more effective strategies for learning, and have higher academic performance in comparison to students without this mindset. Despite these promising findings, a growth mindset is sometimes not reinforced or is even refuted by classroom conditions. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore how community college educators create classroom environments that foster a growth mindset. The conceptual framework for this study was a social constructivist approach where the interviewer and the participants co-constructed the interpretation of how to influence a growth mindset in the community college classroom. Data were collected through 14 in-depth interviews with community college educators who completed a workshop on influencing a growth mindset. Data were analyzed through categorizing, coding, and identifying themes that answered the research question. The findings of this study indicated that the mindset of the student and the teacher play an important role in academic success at the community college and that faculty desire training in tools and strategies to create classroom environments that foster a growth mindset. Recommendations include an in-depth, experiential professional development program based on research where community college educators from a variety of disciplines can collaborate to gain new knowledge and skills. Training community college educators using the most effective ways of fostering a growth mindset to increase students' motivation, effort, and persistence will lead to greater academic success and degree completion.

This inquiry investigated four design educators’ perspectives and beliefs of global competence teaching and learning, and aimed to inform effective global competence curricula planning and instruction across disciplines. The literature uncovered multiple reasons to warrant design educator reflections: (a) similarities among global competence and design thinking characteristics, (b) design education accreditation emphasis on globally oriented standards, and (c) design thinking as a resource to improve practices across disciplines. Accordingly, the inquiry employed a qualitative design and a multiple case-study approach. Data collection methods included: (a) interviews, (b) image artifacts, and (c) researcher reflective memos. A comparative analysis used systematic coding to reveal core theme statements grounded in the data.

The inquiry revealed all four design educators believed: (a) active learning and information gathering activities were effective ways to teach global competence, (b) interaction with others from different backgrounds contributed to global competence development, (c) a formal education experience changed the ways they view the world and empathize with others, (d) the critique was an effective global competence teaching and learning tool, and (e) the role of perception processes fostered ability to recognize qualities of other people and places. All four design educators’ image artifacts represented meanings and interpretations of global competence as human-centered, and expressed physical connection. Ultimately, three overarching discoveries emerged: (a) design educators use mindshifts to develop global competence, (b) design educators are makers of their global competence development, and (c) design educators are mature motivators of global competence development.

The inquiry concluded with a model for design education global competence development grounded in the data and the literature. Implications for action connected to three higher education teaching and learning areas: (a) mindfulness, (b) the maker movement, and (c) mindsets. Overall, the four design educators’ information-rich narratives and practical curricula design applications presented in this inquiry aim to encourage other educators to relate the global dimensions of their own disciplines to current teaching and research practice.

This prospective, exploratory, single case study is about health care simulation as a learning approach for faculty to develop as teams of interprofessional facilitators. The research was aimed at understanding how simulation-based team training, designed around an interprofessional theme, promotes both teamwork and interprofessional facilitator competencies among participants representing 6 health care professions (medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant and pharmacy). The central research question asked how faculty attitudes, knowledge, and skills/behaviors in the areas of teamwork and interprofessional education (IPE) facilitation are characterized after experiencing a faculty development workshop designed as interprofessional simulation based team training (IP-SBTT). Four sub-questions focused inquiry into the workshop’s: use of TeamSTEPPS^®, unique instructional design, impact on the peer-to-peer attitudes of faculty, and impact on faculty’s personal perspectives about simulation-based learning (SBL).

The examined case was the shared experiences of 9 faculty who participated in a 2-day, 14-hour workshop conducted in a university based simulation center. The workshop entailed immersion in team-based scenarios involving IPE issues. Learning objectives focused on facilitation skills. Data from multiple sources included video recordings of all activities, media material, observation notes/tool, surveys and a focus group interview. An iterative analysis of the evidence employed the use of HyperRESEARCH, qualitative data analysis software for video and text. Twelve key findings are based on triangulation of the frequency of coded behavioral markers on 12.5 hours of video, quantitative and qualitative data from post-simulation survey data, as well as focus group interview results.

Triangulation via analysis using 3 theoretical constructs lead to the study conclusions which are presented in 3 thematic clusters: (a) IP-SBTT enhances attitudes of mutual trust and team orientation, and the knowledge achievement of shared mental models; (b) the TeamSTEPPS framework is an effective approach to developing teams of IPE facilitators, and the Tension Triangle framework closely aligns with SBL components; and (c) Interprofessional-Meta-Simulation Based Team Learning (IP-M-SBTL) fosters an increased awareness of the emotional vulnerability associated with SBL, and enhanced self-reflection skills, increasing competence in interprofessional facilitation. The IP-M-SBTL model for faculty development is strongly recommended for building teams of interprofessional facilitators.

The present study aimed to describe 21st century literacy skills learning during a master’s program focused on Linked Learning that sought to provide career readiness to students. Two research questions guided this study: (1) How do university professors in a Linked Learning graduate program describe their use of 21st century learning Skills in technology? and (2) How do secondary teachers in a Linked Learning graduate program describe their use of 21st century learning skills in technology in their classrooms? This mixed-methods study analyzed data from faculty members and graduate students, all of whom were part of a master’s program focused on Linked Learning for in-service teachers.

The findings showed how faculty members implemented and modeled strategies that promoted the acquisition and improvement of technological 21st century literacy skills in the areas of information literacy, media literacy, and information, communication, and technology literacy. There is evidence that the program helps graduate students acquire and develop the technology skills their future high school students will need to become fluent global citizens.

Co-teaching has been utilized as a method of academic intervention used in K-12 classrooms over the past fifteen or more years. This method has consistently involved the pairing of a special educator with a general educator through a variety of co-teaching models. Co-teaching is meant to be used in inclusive environments, where students with and without disabilities are taught together. Co-teaching is a commitment from both educators who participate voluntarily, develop a professional relationship with one another, allow time for planning of classroom objectives, and obtain sufficient training. Multiple benefits to carefully implemented co-teaching in the K-12 environment have been documented in research studies. However, few studies contain information about co-teaching in higher education, particularly in the field of education. This research hopes to gain an understanding of how the pairing of a K-12 special educator and special education professor can bridge educational theory and practice to, hopefully, produce pre-service educators that have more competence about the realities of the teaching world. Results under analysis include measuring attitudes about special education inclusion and overall academic growth for pre-service educators after exposure to knowledge from two working professionals in a co-teaching and traditionally taught classroom environment.

Highly successful online educators are believed to have a perceived sense of subjective well-being in connection to the education they give to their students. The research question for this study was: what is the perceived subjective well-being for highly successful online educators? This generic qualitative research study used sampling that was purposive and a thematic probe of the data. The study included eight exceptional individuals who described their feelings of what it meant to be highly successful as online educators. A rich narrative of the experiences of the participants offers original insights that supplements a better understanding of how they associated with and taught learners. This research study acknowledged those experiences that are collective and exceptional among the participants. Conclusions from the analysis included online educators who are highly successful have a positive sense of subjective well-being in their jobs. There were four major themes found: satisfaction, creativity, motivation and appreciation. It is the goal of this research study that highly successful online educators will continue to engage and collaborate with their students and this provides the basis for both exceptional learning and teaching experiences alike.

Keywords: subjective well-being, highly successful educators, satisfaction, creativity, motivation and appreciation.

Little is known about the perspectives of social work educators who work with under-prepared students in baccalaureate social work (BSW) programs. Educators across fields believe that students are increasingly under-prepared to be successful in higher education, and social work programs face greater numbers of under-prepared students seeking BSW degrees. Although an increasing amount of research offers strategies for matriculating, retaining, and teaching under-prepared students, these strategies are often presented without the contextual experiences faced by the educators who work with under-prepared students on a day-to-day basis. The following research seeks to begin to fill that gap. The researcher interviewed 11 participants and used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to uncover the essential experiential elements of working with under-prepared BSW students and to reveal the meaning that social work educators create within these experiences. Analysis resulted in four overlapping themes including understanding under-preparation as social injustice, questioning what it means to be a social work educator, recalling compelling moments, and demonstrating care in and out of the classroom. These results suggest that social work programs and educators can more explicitly recognize how working with under-prepared students mirrors traditional social work practice, and discuss how this mirrored process might affect both educators and students. Based on these results, the meaning of advancing social justice for under-prepared students, the conflicting roles that educators often adopt with under-prepared students, and the influence of external forces on educators’ work all deserve further research.