Being uncomfortable by choice as a means of personal growth has been touted for hundreds of years among scholars, philosophers, religious leaders, modern pop culture icons, and more. Yet, research pertaining to the benefits of being uncomfortable by choice is sparse. This qualitative, grounded theory study addressed the first step of…

In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the increased and vital attention on Black life mattering, university student protests for ceasefires, increased gun violence, and school shootings, this project seeks to understand an education living in and with the specter of death. Many have begun to focus on this necropolitical landscape's impact…

Improvement science enables researchers to focus on a theory of change in structures and processes in classroom practices. This improvement science intervention was designed to reorient practitioners toward new instructional norms that promote discourse between teacher-students and student-student during instruction. The purpose of this research…

The 100 Families Alliance in Sebastian County, Arkansas experienced a phenomenon that centered around multiple power shifts that helped men and women move from crisis to career. The current study uses a critical social theory lens and a qualitative research design that combines transformative worldview, an embedded single-case study, and critical…

Computational learning theory studies the design and analysis of learning algorithms, and it is integral to the foundation of machine learning. In the modern era, classical computational learning theory is growingly unable to catch up with new practical demands. In particular, problems arise in the following aspects: i). "scalability":…

Rater-mediated activities in educational research occur when an expert judge or rater utilizes an instrument to judge persons or items and generates scale scores. Scale scores are from a subjective judgment and must undergo a quality control measure called rating quality. Rating quality in this study is broadly defined as the extent to which…

The use of student-centered instruction or active learning has been linked to higher rates of student success compared to traditional lecture. However, a mechanistic understanding of why active learning "works" has proven elusive. This dissertation explores active learning in Learning Assistant supported courses and makes the case for…

As the 21st century unfolds, the world has become increasingly fast-paced, interconnected and unpredictable compared to previous generations (McChrystal, et al., 2015). As a result, education researchers and practitioners must be prepared for the challenge of helping students better apply their knowledge to respond to the complex and novel…

To secure the economic well-being of our country in the current global society, we must be concerned with all students, and all means all. This qualitative research study asserts the need to stop focusing on the achievement gap and work to close opportunity gaps through equitable school practices. This narrative inquiry study critically analyzed…

Classical item analysis (CIA) entails summarizing items based on two key attributes: item difficulty and item discrimination, defined as the proportion of examinees answering correctly and the difference in correctness between high and low scorers. Recent insights reveal a direct link between these measures and aspects of signal detection theory…

This study is a phenomenological analysis of the experiences of members of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team when an appreciative approach is taken during the IEP process in a middle school in rural New England. The specific phenomenon studied is individuals' experience when student strengths are discussed explicitly as an IEP is…

This three-study dissertation explored: "How are higher education stakeholders radically (re)imagining liberatory, abolitionist, decolonizing, and queering futures within U.S. higher education and beyond?" With diverse cohorts of Collaborators, I examined this question through a bricolage methodology (Hammersley, 2008), which blended the…

Much has been researched and written about mentoring faculty generally in academic medicine, particularly related to research mentoring. Little is known from research about the mentoring practices for early career faculty in academic medicine that will prepare them to flourish in their teaching throughout their careers. My research addressed this…

In graduate evaluation education, research has shown that theory to practice is overshadowed by a focus on practical methods which results in evaluation education tension and a tenuous understanding of evaluation theory to practice when evaluators complete their graduate studies. Little is understood about evaluation theory to practice from…

This dissertation presents a comprehensive review of the evolution of DIF analysis within educational measurement from the 1980s to the present. The review elucidates the concept of DIF, particularly emphasizing the crucial role of grouping for exhibiting DIF. Then, the dissertation introduces an innovative modification to the newly developed…