This dissertation, "Old Constraints, New Possibilities: Genre Theory, Student Reflections, and ePortfolios in the First Year Writing Classroom," explores the findings of an IRB-approved study on the reflective practices employed in FYW multimodal ePortfolios. The University of Alabama (UA) FYW conducted an ePortfolio Initiative in 2019…

In response to the federal Race to the Top grant initiative that aimed to increase teacher accountability, the state of Tennessee created the Tennessee Student Growth Portfolio Model (TSGPM) to evaluate its non-tested teachers. This optional alternate evaluation model for non-tested teachers was developed and piloted by fine arts educators in the…

Understanding how the disposition of a student interacts with or influences a behavior plays a central role in cognitive theories. Middle school years have been accounted for as being difficult, awkward, and sometimes downright stressful. The overall purpose of this action research was to examine the impact of a growth mindset innovation using a…

Many educators in the field are looking for ways to grade their students. Many of our youth can learn new concepts and attain academic growth but have difficulties in the traditional lecture-based classroom. Digital portfolio incorporation in our secondary classrooms may be a solution to engaging learners through various interactions using online…

The underlying assumption of this study is that writing as a process has profound implications for success and fulfillment both in and beyond the classroom. A second assumption is that electronic portfolios provide students a space to write, revise, reflect, share, and explore themselves as writers. Students who engage with and embrace the writing…

In recent years, there has been a large increase in college programs for crime scene investigations. In order for college graduates to be competitive when applying for these highly sought-after jobs, graduates must be able to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have acquired during their college coursework in lieu of on-the-job experience.…

This study seeks to illuminate and describe the experience of students engaging in mathematical portfolios. In particular, this study reveals key insights into how students demonstrate their mathematical identity and metacognition. Portfolio assessment has been described as an intentional collection of evidence that captures student…

Graphic design students no longer need to attend institutions of higher education (IHE) to gain entry-level skills for a variety of design related areas with the rise of new learning platforms like YouTube, edX, etc. A recent series of studies found that 70% of respondents (working designers) reported learning their craft online. This study…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of international students during the COVID-19 pandemic at a Historically Black University in the Southeast region of the United States. Mixed methods approach was used in this study to examine students' perceptions giving us the chance to expand our understanding of online learning in…

This study sought to find if the implementation of the strategy of goal setting and reflective portfolios would improve reading comprehension among long-term English learners (LTELs), which in turn would impact their FastBridge aReading scores. LTELs have difficulty reclassifying, resulting in negative outcomes regarding graduation rates and…

The integrated mission of knowledge discovery, curation, application, and dissemination across nearly every field of inquiry is a uniquely American innovation. However, only a fraction of higher education institutions in the United States conduct the vast majority of academic research in this country. In fact, research expenditures in today's…

Preschool programs, as they have rapidly become more academically oriented, are squarely centered in a debate about developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood. Nature-based preschools are increasingly embraced by parents as a healthy choice compared to more academically focused programs. The Whitaker Preparatory School, a pseudonym,…

Although pronunciation instruction (PI) has started to gain prominence in second language teacher professional development (PD) research (e.g. Nguyen & Newton, 2021), relatively less attention has been given to PD programs in an online format. Adopting a Sociocultural Theoretical (SCT) perspective, this dissertation explored the role of an…

This practitioner inquiry dissertation is situated within the context of U.S. education policy that persists in defining literacy as print-based and privileges standardized literacy assessments as the singular measure of what students "know". Decades of literacy research have shown that such orientations to education policy and resulting…

This case study examined co-curricular portfolios and transcripts at two institutions to investigate the use of co-curricular portfolios, how they are developed, how institutions utilize them, and how they shape student learning. This research contributed to the literature by documenting evidence of student learning, describing how students and…