This applied dissertation was designed to understand and explore common faculty perceptions of why some faculty engage their online healthcare graduate students who are deficient in writing skills to improve and what interventions they used. This study utilized a case study qualitative approach to collect and analyze the data. This study explored…

As a Deaf individual, it is important to ensure the growth of the Deaf community as science-literate members of society. While many predecessors have contributed to the body of research in Deaf pedagogy, there is still much to be done in safeguarding Deaf learners' equitable access to science education. One area of concern is in narrowing the…

Federal and state mandates for public education have a long history of changes that have occurred over the past thirty-four years since the publication of "A Nation at Risk" in 1983. Since then, educators have continued to raise student achievement levels to meet the growing demand to compete in a global society. Research has shown the…

The purpose of this study was to examine how students used the elements of a historical argument to interpret how equality and opportunity affected marginalized groups in a given historical era. To do this, 150 eighth grade students wrote thirteen historical arguments, and submitted a written portfolio of their work at the end of the school year.…

The ability to formatively assess for understanding in the midst of interacting with students is crucial for effective teaching, particularly so for Multilingual Learners (MLs) (Alvarez et al., 2014; Solano-Flores & Solterno-Gonzalez, 2011). However, teacher educators and researchers lack an understanding of how student teachers learn (or fail…

Learning outcomes within the context of assessing general education competencies have gained increasing attention within higher education. Accrediting bodies have increased standards for the assessment of general education competencies, employers continue to indicate graduates from higher education institutions are not prepared for success in the…

The primary goal of this study was to investigate, document, and understand the reasons that educators who use graphic novels in their classrooms choose to use them, rather than traditional text. Secondary goals were to identify the classes they teach, and to identify commonalities and shared best practices. Interviews were scheduled, to provide…

This is a study of how and why secondary and postsecondary educators use professionally produced narrative nonfiction audio podcasts in class activities and assignments. From survey and interview data, I found that educators use the podcasts in following five ways: as prompts for student responses, as exemplars of how to compose texts or engage in…

Though Linda Adler-Kassner and Peggy O'Neill claim that ethical writing assessment models "must be designed and built collaboratively, with careful attention to the values and passions of all involved, through a process that provides access to all," college students have not typically been included in scholarly conversations about…

What happens when students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are taught self-monitoring skills regarding their academic and behavioral performance? This metaanalysis analyzed ten studies to determine the effectiveness of teaching a self-monitoring intervention to students with ADHD. This study highlights the positive benefits of the…

Despite efforts to improve retention and degree completion rates, American higher education suffers from a persistent social-class achievement gap (Stephens, Hamedani, and Destin, 2014). This gap is often explored quantitatively through the examination of academic outcomes of first-generation college students (i.e. students who parents have not…

In tandem with the rise of popular, though problematic conceptions of the "achievement gap," some have similarly surmised that this gap, which points to the disparate academic outcomes between students from minoritized communities and their normative peers, is really a "literacy gap." This ethnographic study, which followed…

This dissertation consists of four micro-case studies of intersectional feminist college students' experiences with writing across digital extracurricular and academic domains. These micro-case studies were selected from a longitudinal study of eight students' experiences. In response to ongoing questions about writing knowledge transfer generally…

This study investigated the challenges of international students at Wilmington University in Delaware. It also discovered the opportunities to establish recruitment strategies domestically and internationally in order to increase enrollment. The experiences of two groups of students (international non-Turkish and Turkish students) were analyzed by…

Chapter One explores whether teacher grading standards affect learning. Lenient standards are controversial because of concerns that students may put less effort into a course. Conversely, harder standards may discourage the lower performing students. Using detailed longitudinal data on all North Carolina public school students and teachers over…