This dissertation served to answer the over-arching research question: How do stakeholders describe effective leadership? In addition, two sub-questions were answered: 1) what dimensions do teachers use to describe effective principal leadership, and 2) why do teachers identify those dimensions as relevant? This study was conducted in a Northern…

The government and society are increasingly questioning the value of libraries and higher education institutions (HEIs). While there is no one agreed upon standard of value or a way to measure it, both Library and Information Science (LIS) and Education research have suggested that library and educational resources and services should demonstrate…

The purpose of this research study was to determine if trial and error learning was an effective, practical, and efficient learning method for Technology, Engineering, and Design Education students at the post-secondary level. A mixed methods explanatory research design was used to measure the viability of the learning source. The study sample was…

A critical step in addressing a call for schools to use curricula such as problem-based learning (PBL) is developing an understanding of how school leaders can support its implementation. The purpose of this study was to examine ways school leaders at a comprehensive, public high school provided supports to teachers as they implemented this…

Adjunct faculty comprise a large percentage of part-time faculty for many colleges and universities today. Adjunct faculty are hired because they are experts in their content areas; however, this does not guarantee that they are skilled in effective classroom management. These instructors can become bewildered and frustrated because they lack the…

The public school system in the United States is facing severe criticism. There exists today, a constant stream of negative messages through media coverage, news articles and charter school marketing campaigns claiming the failing of the public school system specifically in the content area of mathematics. Current research exposes alarming…

The purpose of this study was to examine transfer high schools within the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) and the instructional cultures developed by their principals. Transfer high schools reengage students who were previously truant and at risk of discontinuing their education. Four NYCDOE transfer high schools were studied…

The purpose of this study was to examine the equivalence or non-inferiority for comparisons of telephone focus group venue to face-to-face focus group venue, Internet video-based focus group venue to face-to-face focus group venue, and Internet video-based focus group venue to telephone focus group venue. Research questions examined the…

This qualitative study uses narrative inquiry methodologies informed by Indigenous research methods to examine the changes in students' perspectives of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender, religion, politics, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, physical and cultural diversity, as they are exposed to the "other" in their…

The 1960s and '70s marked the most historic transformational period of Black college student enrollments and sociopolitical presence at predominantly White institutions in the United States. Research on Black student solidarity and social movements typically refers back to this era, with very little attention given to the ways that today's Black…

The dynamic act of knowledge transfer, or the connection of a student's prior knowledge to features of a new problem, could be considered one of the primary goals of education. Yet studies highlight more instances of failure than success. This dissertation focuses on how knowledge transfer takes place during individual problem solving, in…

The study identified the association between student interaction patterns and academic performance in online graduate courses delivered by the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies at Iowa State University. In addition, the study investigated which online course tools were perceived by students to be most useful in learning. The study…

The field of teacher education has long sought to examine the impact of coursework on teacher practice and student learning. Despite the promise of many forms of educational pedagogy and curricula utilized in teacher education programs, many novice teachers continue to feel unprepared and insecure about their teaching. Pre-service teacher…

This study investigated the experience of engaging the disengaged learner. Specifically, it sought to more fully understand what conditions, curriculum, and programmatic components in the words of students themselves had a hand in drawing students into the learning endeavor. Chapter One introduced the problem. With the current educational tone in…

Today's most common method of teaching biology--driven by calls for standardization and high-stakes testing--relies on a standards-based, de-contextualized approach to education. This results in "one size fits all" curriculums that ignore local contexts relevant to students' lives, discourage student engagement and ultimately work against a deep…