The purpose of this dissertation in practice was to explore the experiences of Gulf Coast State College faculty in the wake of Hurricane Michael, in an effort to better understand how both the storm and the institution's response shaped instruction and student success. The intent of this study was to determine if the policies and practices…

This dissertation examines the role of reflective practice in the development of teacher candidates during their final internship in a teacher preparation program at a state college in Southwest Florida. Grounded in Dewey's and Schon's theories on reflective practice as well as Vygotsky's social learning theories, this mixed methods explanatory…

Wing (2010) says computational thinking (CT) is the "new literacy of the 21st century" (p. 3), but yet computational thinking does not have a widely accepted definition making it difficult to know what are its associated skills. Understanding what these skills are is important to be able to teach this new literacy. Various populations…

US colleges and universities have operated on the belief that academics need the freedom to question received wisdom, test new pedagogical methods, and produce knowledge that can be transparently shared for the public good. However, the same institutions are increasingly engaged in competition for resources through externally imposed…

Given the political and social fragmentation and incivility that currently exists in America, this paper examines existing scholarship on diversifying the American literary canon in order to increase cultural literacy and to encourage reflective and critical conversations about modern-day issues of social justice. A brief overview of pedagogical…

Florida's governor and legislature have mounted a multipronged assault on the intellectual autonomy of Florida's public colleges and universities. Florida is not alone, and Governor DeSantis' political success is already a model for other red-state governors to follow. Higher education leaders must find compelling ways to argue that the pursuit of…

State colleges in Florida are subjected to performance-based funding and must meet state-mandated performance measures to receive core funds each year. Efforts to improve student retention and completion rates are made not only by the leadership of the state colleges, but by the faculty members. The purpose of this single, holistic, qualitative…

In 2013, the state of Florida passed Senate Bill 1720, which reformed developmental education and gateway courses across the state of Florida. There was a gap in the research regarding how the institutions planned and implemented the changes necessary to comply with the bill. This basic qualitative study examined the strategies used by leaders to…

The demand for online courses and programs continues to rise as more learners are looking for flexible learning options to meet their needs. Despite declining levels seen in overall enrollment, distance education enrollments are steadily growing (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, 2018). Along with this demand and increase, however, comes a concern of…

In this study the core job characteristics that contribute to the internal motivational factors and job satisfaction of information technology faculty members working at a community or state college in Florida were investigated. Fifty-four information technology faculty members working at a community or state college in Florida completed the Job…

Excessive course attrition is costly to both the student and the institution. While most institutions have systems to quantify and report the numbers, far less attention is typically paid to each student's reason(s) for withdrawal. In this case study, text analytics was used to analyze a large set of open-ended written comments in which students…

A policy analysis of Florida's 10-factor Performance-Based Funding system for state universities. The focus of the article is on the system of performance metrics developed by the state Board of Governors and their impact on institutions and their missions. The paper also discusses problems and issues with the metrics, their ongoing evolution, and…

A case-study was designed to assess the extent of change at a selected Florida community college that transformed into a state college. The purpose of the investigation was to explore how the transformation influenced institutional culture, mission, and identity based on the perceptions of faculty members and administrators. Data collection…

The invention of Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs) in the 1980s was grounded in the theory that institutions enrolling a large concentration of Latino students would adapt their institutional practices to serve these students better. Specifically, critical mass theory suggests once a definable group reaches a certain size within an…

In this fifth brief in "Excelencia" in Education's series on Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) the focus is on the methods and strategies that are producing successful results in a growing sector of colleges and universities we call, "Emerging" Hispanic-Serving Institutions. These Emerging HSIs are institutions that…