Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Educational sciences, Educational sciences'

The purpose of this study was to determine the presence (or absence) of barriers that hindered the ability of veteran student populations in completing degrees in the applied sciences field. Furthermore, in this study, the researcher sought to identify and to understand any detected barriers. The researcher examined the academic performances of veterans and non-veterans in the environmental science program at a Missouri community college. This study focused on collecting supplemental sources and gathering additional research on veterans pursuing applied science degrees. The researcher analyzed quantitative metrics and qualitative data, as well as compared personal responses from students to determine the leading perceived barriers and, conversely, the strategies most commonly employed to assist veterans in completion of the degree program. Additionally, the researcher compared academic performances of veteran and non-veteran students across multiple categories. The data indicated veteran students performed as well as non-veteran students, overall. However, some factors, such as educational background and military occupational specialties, had a favorable effect on veteran student retention and achievement rates. Based on the data presented, the researcher recommended a future longitudinal study investigating veteran resource center services and the academic performances of the veteran students who utilized them. Findings from such a study would provide valuable information regarding the effectiveness of the veteran resource centers and their ability to help veteran students transition to higher education.

In order for a student to be successful in dental hygiene education, the student must gain the required knowledge and skills necessary to perform as a hygienist and possess the ability to utilize critical thinking to apply these attributes while in the program and on the National Board of Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE) (Alzahrani, Thompson, & Bauman, 2007; Fried, Maxey, Battani, Gurenlian, Byrd, & Brunick, 2017). Dental hygiene students who attend a medical university have the option to take required pre-requisite courses at a community college or a four-year university. All dental hygiene students transfer from another institution and all have the potential to exhibit transfer shock, which may contribute to a drop in GPA following the transfer to another institution. Transfer shock typically occurs for students who transfer from a community college to a university (Hills 1965; Ivins, Copenhaver, & Koclanes, 2016). This study investigates the impact of transfer shock on students who transfer into a dental hygiene program from a two-year community college as opposed to a four-year university. This study examined whether the type of institution, two-year community college versus a four-year university, attended prior to dental hygiene school is a predictor of success in a dental hygiene program in terms of ending program GPA and NBDHE first-attempt pass rates. After data analysis, results suggested that transfer shock did occur with both community college and four-year university students,. However, the four-year university group experienced less transfer shock than those who attended a community college during the first semester. Neither group increased their GPAs from the first to second semesters in the program. When comparing the entering GPAs with the end of program GPAs, both groups showed a significant drop. However, the community college group’s decrease in GPA was greater. Only five students in the total population (two from the four-year university group and three from the community college group) failed the NBDHE on the first attempt. Students who were unsuccessful in passing the NBDHE had final program GPAs that ranged from 2.2 to 2.45.

The objective of this examination was to determine if there were significant differences in reported levels of motivation across five teaching tasks, as well as time allocated to each teaching task, among online and onsite university-level social science faculty. One hundred thirty-six social science faculty members were allocated into two groups that reported teaching in either online or onsite settings. Each participant completed the WTMST measuring various types of motivation across various types of teaching tasks. A measure of estimated time spent on each of the five teaching tasks was also obtained. The two groups showed several similarities in amount of motivation across teaching tasks and types of motivation with greater motivation for teaching, class preparation and evaluation of students than administrative and complementary tasks and greater motivation for teaching than class preparation. Both groups showed greater identified regulation than intrinsic motivation and greater intrinsic motivation and identified and external regulation than introjected regulation and amotivation. However, the onsite group reported greater motivation for teaching and class preparation than evaluation of students that was not shown for the online group and the onsite group reporting greater external regulation than intrinsic motivation and greater introjected regulation than amotivation that was not shown for the online group. The onsite group reported more time teaching than evaluation of students while the opposite finding was shown for the online group. The onsite group reported more time on class preparation than the other tasks except teaching while the online group reported less time, or no difference in time, spent on class preparation compared to other tasks. Reported time estimates and motivation scores were shown to be positively correlated across teaching tasks. The patterns of motivation scores across teaching tasks and types of motivation are described relative to self-determination theory. Differences within groups in motivation scores, and reported allocation of time, across teaching tasks, and corresponding positive correlation between motivation scores and reported time estimates suggests a relationship between the distribution of required duties of faculty and their motivational experiences. The findings are discussed relative to potential future qualitative and quantitative research of college faculty motivation and time allocated to various tasks, and relative to benefits to college level faculty, administrators and faculty services, and to students, toward facilitating quality of the academic experience.

This study explored the current state of secondary social studies in Western New York (WNY) through the lens of social studies orientations, specifically the traditional, disciplinary, and progressive strands (Fallace, 2010), and their alignment with the K-12 Social Studies Framework , approved by NYS’s Department of Education in 2014, with new NYS Regents assessments to begin in 2019. It was, therefore, important to collect baseline data on secondary social studies teachers’ social studies purpose, practices, and knowledge of NYS reforms.

A mixed-method study began in the spring of 2017, which collected data from the WNY S4 survey and two focus groups. Survey participants totaled n = 136, representing six counties in WNY; focus group members totaled n = 9. The WNY S4 replicated survey items from a nationwide instrument, Survey on the Status of Social Studies–S4 (Fitchett & VanFossen, 2013) and analyzed data with descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher developed a semi-structured interview guide to collect focus group data, which were analyzed by the long-table approach (Krueger & Casey, 2009).

Major survey findings were: (1) 99% reported an unawareness of their state/district standards; (2) 100% reported developing critical-thinking skills, while 64% reported content knowledge as primary goals; and (3) top-ranked instructional practices were 87% teach political history; 83% teach social history; and 82% examine sources. Analyses of t-tests indicate gender and grade level-band indicators are influential to instructional practices. For example, female and high school teachers seem to engage students more often in non-history content emphases, such as diversity of religious views, economics, and historiography while also de-emphasizing the lecture; hence aligning more with the disciplinary strand and less with the traditional strand.

Focus group results pinpoint a struggle between participants’ intentions versus actual practice which may impact alignment to NYS social studies reforms. Misalignment attributed to teacher’s purpose being overshadowed by their own instructional choices or outside factors, such as assessments, time, and other school district issues. Five out of nine focus group participants associated with the hybrid disciplinary-progressive approach, suggesting that secondary social studies teachers do not situate themselves to a single social studies orientation; and also consistent with past studies (Long, 2017; Vinson, 1998).

Overall, WNY S4 data suggests when purpose and practices are more closely aligned to the disciplinary and progressive approaches, secondary social studies instruction may find greater success with NYS social studies education reforms. In addition, gender and identified grade level-band (middle school and high school) differences provide insights for developing and tailoring professional development for different groups of teachers.

Two recommendations for policy and practice include: (1) refine the social studies orientation model into a continuum, and (2) apply the Social Studies Purpose Compass developed by the researcher to guide instructional alignment with NYS social studies reforms.

Serious games are games, whose primary goal is not entertainment, but instead education (Michael & Chen, 2005). They have the capability of presenting the educational material into a way that is more engaging than traditional classroom instruction. The researcher has decided to develop a serious game called National Pastime. National Pastime is an online role playing game with the main goal of motivating high school students to learn about the Japanese internment camps that were established in the United States during World War II. The game intends to improve the students' motivation with its engaging story and gameplay.

This study examined the effects of a school improvement project involving Distributed leadership (DL), a perspective for studying or developing organization leadership through the interaction of organizational members and activities. This research was part of a larger DL Project taking place in York City School District, PA, which sought to improve school leadership to enhance student achievement as a final end. While recent studies provided significant findings about DL’s contribution to school improvement, the literature begs for more research about the effects of distributed leadership. One of the effects the DL Project wished to accomplish was the development of trust among the DL teams. According to the literature, trust has a direct link to academic achievement and school improvement respectively. Similarly, it was expected that this effect would improve the implementation of the DL Project. This smaller study sought to answer how, if at all, the DL Project implementation changed trust on the teams and in the schools; and how the experience of doing an evidence-based project, within the DL Project, contributed to the changes in trust in the teams over time. The two-month study took place in York City schools and involved the first-year of the DL Project, and as participants, DL team members and members from the staff. An embedded mixed methods approach was used to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data from project archives, surveys and interviews. The analysis suggests that trust changed positively or negatively within the first year of the Distributed Leadership (DL) intervention; The DL Project mainly improved respect and integrity (two dimension of trust) among the teams and in the school; The other two dimensions of trust were highly affected during the first year of the DL Project implementation: Competence and personal regard; Improvements in trust are less evident in the first year; The context can greatly affect trust changes; and the evidence-based project proved to catalyze changes in trust during the first year.

This dissertation was a case study of student perceptions in two history classrooms in a large suburban high school. In each classroom examined for this study the teacher was committed to using social studies inquiry and mobile technology in their instruction. Students were also expected to complete assignments and conduct inquiry with mobile technology. The purpose of this study was to examine the voice and experiences of high school students, and how high school students construct meaning through inquiry and mobile technology in the social studies classroom. 109 students participated in observations, focus groups, personal interviews and submitted completed examples of inquiry with technology. There were four general themes uncovered in the data for this study. The four themes that generated the findings for this study are that students engaged in inquiry using mobile technology (a) embraced the availability of resources and information when planning and conducting inquiries (b) reflected on communication with teachers and peers during the inquiry process (c) expressed that mobile technology provided opportunities to engage in learning and enhance knowledge outside of prescribed assignments (d) and used various creative outlets of mobile technology to communicate outcomes.

Sociological and cultural analysts have noted the reticence of public secondary schooling to recognize and build academic activities around the participatory culture in which adolescents are so readily involved (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton & Robison, 2009). Despite the Common Core State Standards having required students to demonstrate they can maximize technology to perform a range of skills involving targeted specialized research, organized writing, and visually intentional presentation (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA], Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010), very few classrooms have followed through. The avoidance and or failure of these educational technology integrations in secondary subject content classes raised questions. A survey of the literature showcases the many ways in which technologies were not fully matched to the tasks, expectations, or teacher skills. The mystery of epic technological classroom can be resolved if we apply the lens of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1986; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) which speaks about the interactions and alignment tensions among these three areas. When one has applied this TPACK lens we can best understand a range of surveyed literature that speaks to disconnect among technology affordances, teacher pedagogies, and requirements of content knowledge. Among a range of TPACK research emerges a sub-set that advocates for the value of cognitive scaffolding through hard scaffolds and soft scaffolds (Saye & Brush, 2002). Previous research has suggested the hard scaffolds can offer a built pedagogy filled with student project expectations and that soft scaffolds can provide specific practices support that is customized and relevant for participants. This research study engages in design-based research to refine hard and soft scaffolds to support high school social studies students through a multi-phase oral history project. Engaging 2 sections of students at a progressive public high school, the researcher engaged in a two-iteration cycle of design activities between November 2014 and March 2015. A student work digital portfolio was turned in after students used the first iteration scaffolds. After a teacher-provided analysis of student work using the researchers provided rubric, tweaks were made to the scaffolds. A post-interview with participant teachers provided further refinement.