Learner-centered instructional strategies in social studies are currently ineffective in meeting the learning needs of the ELL population in an urban school in the northeastern United States. Despite English language learner (ELL) supplemental instruction on Saturdays and evenings and professional development for teachers, strategies being used to…

As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, public school educators encountered several difficulties acquiring and integrating curriculum online. The problem addressed in this study was the negative effect online curriculum implementation had on student achievement as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case…

Language is central to education, being the core medium of instruction. Researchers and practitioners have long used manual methods to analyze instructional language like classroom discourse and instructional texts, with the goal of facilitating student-centered instruction. In this dissertation, I offer three studies demonstrating how natural…

For many students with disabilities, exclusion from the general education classroom is common. Educational agencies are required to follow the policies mandated by IDEA. Educators need to understand how to meet needs of students with disabilities and follow the legal mandates as equitably and effectively as possible. They are required to implement…

The intention of this improvement plan was to provide a snapshot of how other institutions across the country were approaching ePortfolio on their campuses and to discover what technology has the potential to support a student-centered ePortfolio initiative at UD. There is a growing number of technology choices available to support ePortfolio…

In recent years, schools have begun Social Emotional Learning (SEL) instruction. In 1994, the term Social Emotional Learning was coined by CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; originally named the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning). SEL instruction is critical in schools because communities and…

Using a learning management system (LMS) to deliver robust content for K-12 students became an essential part of the discussion of technology's place in K-12 education when teachers were forced to teach online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers used an LMS to deliver content in various ways and as part of different instructional…

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to describe a middle-level science teacher's transition to an inquiry-based, progressivist, student-centered model from a traditional, teacher-centered model as well to document the student-participants' perceptions of the new model. The study population consisted of one-hundred…

The relatively new utilization of learning management system (LMS) facilitated blended learning in secondary public schools has grown in popularity, but there is a void in research at this level. Teachers learned how to use the LMS features and honed their blended learning design skills through their own experiences, and in observation of their…

A growing number of schools are adopting social-emotional learning (SEL) programs to address students' social, emotional, and academic needs. The proliferation of school-based SEL programs has spurred more research to investigate the ways in which educators enact SEL in schools. However, very few studies have considered the role school leaders…

The difficult teaching, scholarship, and service demands on community college faculty may reduce job satisfaction, which disadvantages 'new majority' students. The purpose of this Action Research study was to examine the relationship between sustained educational development and tenure-track careers to improve the experiences of full-time faculty…

This study applies a combination of learning, motivational, organizational, and change theories and the utilization of the Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis framework to understand support for schools implementing a student-centered learning paradigm. The purpose of this project was to identify the resources necessary in the design of a…

Most literature about student-centered teaching focuses on classroom techniques and student assessment. Another important element is the meaning educators ascribe to the transition to a student-centered classroom style. In this study, the researcher proposes to examine faculty members' perceptions related to their use of pedagogical style in the…

Community is a concept with tremendous power in higher education and writing studies. For higher education institutions, community influences the purpose and method of education. Based on John Dewey's work on the social nature of education and other histories of community-based education, higher education practitioners and theorists like Ernest…

This study utilizes Positioning Theory as a lens to analyze interactions between a teacher and her students. Using those interactions, this study seeks to better catalog and understand pervasive storylines in one teacher's secondary mathematics classroom as well as the intertwined positions of teacher and students within those storylines.…