Young students' genre knowledge and learning have been of interest to literacy researchers for some time. How students learn and recognize genres, how they deploy them, how they learn the circumstances under which to deploy particular genres are key concerns for literacy educators and researchers. While the field of Composition Studies has long…

This qualitative research study, applying aspects of van Manen's framework for hermeneutic phenomenological research, was conducted to investigate the narratives of relationally aggressive girls of color. The study focused on nine adolescent girls of color who were ages 14-17 years old and exhibited aggressive/bullying behaviors representing the…

The "college readiness" movement of the past decade coupled with the widespread adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has generated pressure on content area teachers to develop disciplinary thinking skills while also providing more opportunities for student writing. The purpose of this three-article dissertation is to understand…

The city and school system in this research project is identified with a pseudonym as City X. This doctoral project, "Online publishing and authentic audience to improve student writing", is designed as one element of a district wide initiative to improve student writing literacy in the City X Public School district. In City X, as in…

This narrative inquiry collective case study investigated the experiences of six sixth grade American Indian males of the Lumbee tribe who struggle with reading. Bounded within an asynchronous closed wiki site, students from three sixth grade classes participated in online threaded discussions and created, posted, and viewed multimedia projects…

Elements essential to effective teaching are closely aligned with the domains of a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Park & Oliver, 2008). Often, alternatively trained teachers enter the teaching profession lacking exposure to pedagogical events that allow these educators opportunities to reflect on their practice and construction…

There are a large number of students entering college underprepared for college-level mathematics (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2011). While this problem is not new, it has become the focus of national attention because of the impact it has on college completion and workforce development. There is much written in the…

Critical thinking continues to be an educational concern even though many school systems, educators, and academic articles have stressed its importance. To teach critical thinking, teachers need to learn what it is and how it is taught. It is unknown to what extent critical thinking skills are taught and assessed in classrooms. The purpose of this…

Social studies has often had a reputation amongst students for being uninteresting due to the teaching strategies and content that educators have utilized. However, in a field as diverse and relevant as social studies, there are opportunities to garner the attention of students and empower them with information to improve and enhance our democracy…

This study investigated the strategic uses of music in the U.S. history classroom of six expert secondary U.S. history teachers identified by their administrators as expert teachers based on the merit of national certification, exemplary student and/or administration evaluations, high achieving teacher awards, or a combination of these criteria.…

The primary objective of this dissertation was to help illuminate why most students who enroll in developmental English at community colleges never make it to a college-level course. The extant literature suggests that students' learning experiences in a course largely account for success or failure, yet few studies have uncovered how students…

The role of interest in educational settings has been seen as a significant factor in nurturing an appreciation for learning and influencing the extent to which that learning occurs. Interest can be divided into two sub-categories, individual interest and situational interest. Individual interest is personal rather than global, slow to develop,…

The Individual with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) 2007, a federal special education law, states that students with disabilities requiring special education services can use accommodations or adaptations of the curriculum to access the general education curriculum. A shortened assignment, as an accommodation, can help learning disabled…

Teacher education programs across the United States must prepare teachers who have the content area knowledge, pedagogical expertise, and cultural competence needed to teach an increasingly diverse student population. One consistent suggestion for programs committed to preparing culturally responsive teachers is to incorporate investigations of…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not the use of net-book technology in the classroom altered the writing process for elementary students. The impetus for this study stemmed from the fact that more research needs to be conducted utilizing observations and interviews to examine the relationship between one-to-one technology use…