Learning transfer has been studied for over a century, though studies are primarily through the lens of the researcher or an expert. The purpose of this project was to better understand the student perspective in transfer by examining how they approached transfer tasks and how these approaches related to classroom instruction. The Actor-Oriented…

Educational leaders today are well versed in the complex and often overwhelming nature of their respective roles. The difficulty of educational leadership increases exponentially when implementing innovative practices like competency-based learning that challenge every aspect of the traditional structure and function of schools, thereby requiring…

This study aimed to investigate the following questions: Does the use of thinking maps and semantic mapping during explicit vocabulary instruction affect content specific science vocabulary knowledge and comprehension in fourth grade students? and What are student perceptions of using thinking maps and semantic maps to learn new vocabulary? To…

Concept maps are a popular learning activity that have successfully demonstrated student learning outcomes. Research suggests that concept mapping has a positive effect on recognition, recall, and transfer. Likewise, researchers in cognitive psychology have shown the value of referencing oneself with a concept. Known as the self-reference effect,…

This dissertation reviews current policies regarding Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) evaluation and addresses "accountability era" influences which often minimize factors related to equity and promote a limited view of teacher and school "effectiveness." Integrated concept mapping is proposed as an alternative method of…

This study introduces a novel approach for conducting Systematic Literature Reviews(SLRs) by incorporating a unique mixed-methods design into the well-established SLR process. The proposed approach, identified as Mixed-Methods Based Systematic Literature Review (MMB-SLR), not only provides researchers with a broader perspective on their research…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate high school students' performance in analyzing complex arguments with the support of an off-the-shelf argument mapping software, Rationale™, which provides diagramming tools with guided prompts. This study attempts to: (1) evaluate the quality of student's argument maps in terms of structural…

According to Duncan (1971), counselor educators who do not prioritize counseling practice may experience challenges in their teaching. For Duncan (1971), maintaining counseling practice "helps to keep the counselor educator alive to real-life counseling situations" (p. 157) and is beneficial to draw from in their teaching practices.…

Reading skills are critical for English as a Second Language (ESL) students in higher education to achieve academic success. However, effective ways to promote student success in ESL reading courses are under-researched. Identifying factors that may enhance the quality and outcomes of learning ESL reading is essential. One such factor identified…

College educators and administrators have long valued critical thinking as a desired outcome of undergraduate education for its academic, professional, and personal benefits. While researchers have found a number of instructional strategies that promote critical thinking in college, less is known about how these skills transfer to authentic…

Current search engines and information retrieval systems have made extraordinary progress towards interpreting and answering well-defined, direct questions. However, they are often unsatisfactory for assisting users with less well-defined information needs that often occur within an academic context. Examining students' search goals and search…

Collaborative learning designs, such as problem-based learning (PBL), have the potential to help students build valuable team-based professional skills needed for life after schooling within higher-educational settings (Desimone, 2009; Savery, 2006); however, motivating students to work together to successfully achieve outcomes often proves…

The aim of this research is to determine what differences may exist in students' structural knowledge while using a variety of concept mapping assessments. A concept map can be used as an assessment which connects concepts in a knowledge domain. A single assessment may not be powerful enough to establish how students' new knowledge relates to…

Synthesis is one of the most cognitively demanding practices novice writers must undertake, and research demonstrates that first-year students' synthesis writing practices result in more knowledge "telling" rather than knowledge creation and transforming. Pedagogies used to teach synthesis often focus on developing text-building…

Meeting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce demands require students to have positive attitudes and persist through the STEM pipeline. There is limited research on reliable and valid instruments that measures non-cognitive skills towards all STEM fields. Tools that have been developed have mostly used traditional…