This qualitative, phenomenological study aimed to explore how teachers perceive the influence of experienced principals who are new to a school, specifically as it relates to how their actions and behaviors impact a school's culture. Kouzes and Posner's Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership were used to create the interview questions and analyze…

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine if and to what extent a difference exists between graduate students enrolled in a distance education master's degree within an Arizona university's nursing and healthcare department who have more career experience in this field versus those with no or less career experience…

The purpose of this case study was to determine if there is an increase in third through eighth grade teacher job satisfaction and self-efficacy following participation in the informal science education STEM Science Teacher Residency (STaR) program held at a science center. Through this study, cohorts of third-eighth grade educators in Arizona's…

The purpose of this action research study was to improve the implementation of a large-scale redesign of teacher preparation programs at Arizona State University. This was a highly complex redesign that impacted over 150 courses across 27 programs, involving more than 200 faculty and 2,500 students annually. As a result, implementing the redesign…

Best-practice guidelines have incorporated ultrasound in diagnostic and procedural medicine. Due to this demand, the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine initiated a comprehensive integration of ultrasound into its first-year anatomy course attended by more than 280 students. Ultrasound workshops were developed to enhance student…

Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of online graduate degree programs. However, there are few informal opportunities for students online to connect with one another and learn about the field outside of their coursework. It is important to understand who these online graduate students are, as well as their…

This paper reports the results of a randomized controlled trial evaluating "We Have Skills," a brief curriculum designed to teach early elementary students academic and social skills as well as improve teacher efficacy in classroom management. Intervention efficacy was tested with 127 teachers, randomly assigned to condition, and 2,817…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive research was to explore how students described their experiences within a semester-long, new-student orientation program as contributing to their year-to-year re-enrollment at a community college in Arizona. Two research questions guided the stud. Exhaustive review of prior research indicated the…

Does school participatory budgeting (SPB) increase students' political efficacy? SPB, which is implemented in thousands of schools around the world, is a democratic process of deliberation and decision-making in which students determine how to spend a portion of the school's budget. We examined the impact of SPB on political efficacy in one middle…

Student enrollments in online college courses have grown steadily over the past decade, and college administrators expect this trend to continue or accelerate. Despite the growing popularity of online education, one major critique in the sciences is that students are not trained in the hands-on skills they may need for the workforce, graduate…

This dissertation explores the integration of Place-Based Scientific Inquiry (PBSI) into science education through participatory design-based professional development for instructors at Sky School, an outdoor education program in southern Arizona. PBSI emphasizes student-centered, inquiry-driven, experiential learning grounded in outdoor contexts.…

In this three-article dissertation, I explore three aspects of the Next Education Workforce initiative (NEW), an education reform effort hailing from Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Through the initiative, NEW seeks to change schools and schooling, breaking down the physical and metaphorical walls of the predominant…

Purpose: The novel coronavirus pandemic is projected to cause an elevation in anxiety levels across the globe. With everything shifting to online mode, the teaching-learning has also gone virtual. This study aims to analyze the impact of novel coronavirus and online education on student's anxiety and self-efficacy, investigate the role of coping…

A growing body of literature indicates that Latinx immigrant families are adversely affected by restrictive immigration policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Little is known about how educators working with Latinx immigrant communities in restrictive immigration climates fare. Using mixed-methods, this study sought to better understand how the…

This study examined the experiences of Adult Basic Education instructors implementing principles of servant leadership in the classroom, the perceptions of these educators as to the process of instilling student self-efficacy through educator use of servant leadership, and their perceptions of the role servant leadership plays in the Adult Basic…