Physicists, physics students, and community members engage with each other through a variety of informal physics programs. These programs differ in format, such as after school programs, public lectures, planetariums, summer camps, and other non-formal classroom environments. These programs also differ in the physics topics they cover, activities,…

The Climate Crisis is an urgent and inescapable reality students are thrust into. Learners must be prepared adequately for their futures, not only for their sakes but also because collective and transformative change is required. Transformative sustainability education provides one pathway to this transformation and focuses on radically altering…

University instructors often lack the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate learning and teaching in the online environment. Instructors in higher education institutions (HEIs) have faced common challenges to online teaching, such as a lack of digital literacy, access to software and hardware resources and training, and pedagogical and…

Learning behaviors within the college union has long been critical to the mission of college student union facilities and those who work within them. The rising costs of construction and renovation have created pause as administrators seek data and answers to justify expenses for these facilities. This study aimed to develop an instrument to…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to investigate how community college supervisors in Arizona describe their role in promoting feedback-seeking, reflection, and active experimentation. The theoretical frameworks supporting this study were Bandura's social cognitive theory, Marsick and Watkins informal and incidental learning…

The purpose of this Action Research Study was to examine the lived experiences of interim administrators at a private university in New York and determine how they made sense of unexpected appointments resulting from crisis scenarios including those caused by leadership departures and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Key to the investigation…

Informal Learning Spaces (ILSs) are increasing in popularity in many educational and community settings (Berman, 2020). One such ILS is a makerspace, where people participate in general activities of creating, building, designing, and tinkering (Oxman Ryan, Clapp, Ross, & Tishman, 2016). Makerspaces have been touted as spaces that provide…

This field research project sought to facilitate growth for cohort-based online university students. The facilitator conducted eight extensive weeks of training in communication for public speaking. The study included objectives for cognitive, affective, and skill-based dimensions in relation to communication and public speaking for the…

In 2020, many organizations moved their formal training programs to an online learning context due to COVID-19. Informal learning, which refers to activities that are self-guided and occur independently outside of formal learning contexts has gained significant interest among researchers and practitioners in the past two decades as it has been…

This dissertation aims to address frequent calls for partnerships between informal science learning spaces and formal K-12 science education (e.g. Bevan & Dillon, 2010; Hofstein & Rosenfeld, 1996; NRC, 2009; Stocklmayer et al., 2010) as well as how informal educators and organizations are or are not addressing issues of equity within these…

The current study investigated the correlation between English collocation test scores and three independent variables including vocabulary level, informal language exposure, and motivation. The study also examined which independent variable was the most influential in predicting the collocation tests scores. Data was collected using, Gyllstad's…

Women are the majority population in Texas that participate in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and public housing assistance programs. TANF focuses on mandatory work requirements with a time-limit on assistance and lack of education opportunities. This dissertation documents post-secondary education opportunities for Texas women…

The proliferation of the smartphone has encouraged educators, particularly the tech savvy, to seek personalized learning options in lieu of the absence of individualized professional development (PD) offerings provided by their academic institutions that are not based on short-term whole group instruction. Although smartphone use has attracted the…

This basic qualitative study contributes to what is known about mentoring in higher education: the mentoring experiences of minority women leading in academic and student affairs at Pacific Island community colleges (PICC). This study examined the mentoring experiences of these minority women leaders and related mentorship to their leadership…

Aspiring women leaders in academia encounter numerous barriers to advancement related to sexism and racism that contribute to their underrepresentation (Acker, 2006; Johnson et al., 2008). As a result, they are immensely susceptible to impostor phenomenon that hinders their ability to develop a positive leader identity (Clance & Imes, 1970;…