The increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse students entering school in the United States has created an urgent call to prepare teachers to meet the demands of these students. A teacher education program designed to adequately prepare teachers to instruct culturally and linguistically diverse students is the needed response.…

There is a need to increase the number of baccalaureate prepared registered nurses to safely meet the complex healthcare needs of citizens of the United States. Since there is no research on the characteristics of registered nurse students persisting in baccalaureate education, this quantitative descriptive case study was designed to identify the…

The purpose of this mixed method, Case Study research was to explore the teacher's perceptions, efficacy, and belief systems. The researcher using a primary survey and a collection of secondary extant data endeavored to uncover the teachers' responses for efficacy, beliefs and perceptions of student achievement. The Effective Schools (Edmonds,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of concept mapping strategies with different levels of generativity in terms of knowledge acquisition and knowledge representation. Also, it examined whether or not learners' self-regulated learning (SRL) skills influenced the effectiveness of concept mapping strategies with different…

This dissertation explores the formal theologies and organizational readiness for change with a view towards adopting missional prototypes for theological education across a school's (system's) tradition, curriculum, and structure. The research assessed five theological schools in the United States through an exploratory, action-oriented,…

Parents, advocates, and educators have widely publicized NCLB as the most significant piece of legislation that affects the education of students with disabilities since the passage of the first IDEA legislation in 1975. Prior to NCLB, IDEA 1997 required the inclusion of students with disabilities in state and district assessments; however,…

The influx of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) into the educational arena and the services they need have generated mass controversy between various pedagogical circles. It is estimated that an astounding 10% of the entire school-age population (about four million children) have been diagnosed with this disorder. The…

The purpose of the study was to determine if the constructs of teaching presence and the sense of community function as predictors of perceived student learning in an online course. Each participating online student completed an online survey comprised of an informed consent, an item regarding their perception of learning (Richmond et al., 1987),…

Reading comprehension plays a key role in academic success in today's classrooms. Literature Circles (LCs), a learner-centered collaborative reading activity, brings together the ideas of cooperative learning, independent reading, and reader response theory to enhance students' reading comprehension as well as their motivation toward learning…

The purpose of this study was to determine specific knowledge and skills that students need to be successful in higher education in the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Education has created the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards which K-12 institutions must utilize as a foundation for their respective curricula.…

This study investigated the demographic profiles of middle school students receiving either singular school-based mental health services or bundled school-based mental health services in conjunction with school counseling services. Demographic variables collected for this study characterize students attending six intermediate or middle-schools,…

Many men and women who are talented in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) choose not to pursue undergraduate majors or careers in these fields. To develop talents in STEM, educators must understand the factors that contribute to an individual's retention in STEM domains, as well as the factors that act as barriers to…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the job satisfaction of men and women administrators in higher education in four-year public institutions in Alabama. In addition, the study examined whether there was a relationship between gender and overall job satisfaction, work climate, and job structure. In conducting the study, the researcher…

Although social justice advocacy has increasingly been acknowledged as important in the field of psychology (e.g., Goodman et al., 2004; Toporek et al., 2006a, Vera & Speight, 2003), there is a dearth of empirical research examining social justice advocacy across graduate psychology students. This mixed-methods study examined demographic and…

Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, including more than 65 in-depth interviews with Chinese university students and higher education administrators, this study examines the roots of an emerging community service learning movement in mainland China. The dissertation focuses on a case study of a pioneering Chinese Party State-sponsored…