The field of adult learning theory, or how adults learn, has exploded in recent years yielding increased knowledge and awareness of how adults learn. While preachers do have a wide variety of ages in their congregations, most of the people they preach to are adults. This dissertation looks at preaching and adult learning theory and what the…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe how Latino parents of children with disabilities perceived their involvement at home or their volunteering at their child's school in Southern California. This study used Epstein's Theory of Overlapping Spheres of Influence and Epstein's Framework of Six Types of Involvement as the…

When learning new information, should students focus on studying 1 concept at a time or should they alternate studying between different concepts? Recent research shows that students should mix up or interleave the study of different concepts, particularly when the concepts are related or hard to discriminate (Carvalho & Goldstone, 2015). But…

The purpose of this study was to establish historical enrollment trends, student demographics, and home-based pedagogies of nonclassroom-based schools in California in an effort to gain insights into lesser-known homeschooling practices. According to the United States Department of Education, in 2016, homeschooling had progressively increased to…

This case study describes the rationale, development, and functioning of the Elders Learning Community, a nonprofit home and community service program that served older adults in Richmond, California. The program applied a blend of self-directed learning, learner-centered and significant learning approaches, and features of a member-driven…

The shift from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction requires language teachers' roles to change from being lecturers and controllers to facilitators and advisors. This shift requires students to have a high degree of learner autonomy. However, some teachers hesitate to promote learner autonomy. If they remain uncertain about the…

As districts in California have opened for the 2021-22 school year, they have faced the challenging task of keeping students learning safely in person in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which intensified right before schools opened with the spread of the Delta variant of the virus. This brief compiles preliminary information on reopening for…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused schools to shift to virtual or hybrid instruction, thrusting young adolescents into a very different educational environment. Stage-environment fit theory outlines ways in which educational contexts may, or may not, meet the developmental needs of young adolescents. Yet little is known about how virtual environments…

Faculty participation in mentoring undergraduate research can be limited by the time demands involved and the relatively low compensation typically offered at most institutions. The system designed by Chapman University's Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (OURCA) facilitates independent research by undergraduate students who…

This study examined the relationship between the strength of Professional Learning Community dimensions and the level of Self-Direction in Learning as perceived by California State certificated elementary teachers. The Professional Learning Community Assessment-Revised recorded teacher perceptions of the strength of five PLC dimensions.…

The academic achievement rates of urban Latino students are significantly lower than those of non-minority youth. To date, most of the research on this topic has focused on learning and motivational characteristics of underrepresented youth in elementary and middle school and much less on urban high schools. This study investigated variables…

This study describes a strengths-based blended personalized learning model, the implementation of the model over a 4-year period, and the results of an impact study focused on measuring its effectiveness. The model includes many commonly-used features of personalized learning, including (a) competency-based progressions, (b) flexible learning…

Named Charter Leader of the Year in 2010 by the California Charter Schools Association, Diane Tavenner, CEO of Summit Public Schools, is responsible for the generation of multiple transformative schools and a radically different teaching model for Summit. Summit's first charter high school, Summit Prep, launched in 2003, was featured in the film…

"Scholar-Craftsmanship" (SC) is a quadrant methodological framework created to help social science doctoral students construct first-time dissertation research. The framework brackets and predicts how epistemological domains, cultures of inquiries, personality indicators, and research question--types can be correlated in dissertation…

"Research assistant" is a term used to describe student researchers across a variety of contexts and encompasses a wide array of duties, rewards, and costs. As critical qualitative scholars situated in a discipline that rarely offers funded research assistantships to graduate students, we explore how we have engaged in faculty-student…