Clinical education provides the nursing student opportunities to learn the practice of nursing. In the clinical setting, the nursing student applies classroom knowledge to the real patient care situation. The clinical instructor facilitates this important process by assisting students to integrate knowledge into their practice, improve their…

This study is an exploratory study of faculty members' knowledge and perceptions toward of with academically vulnerable college students who are specifically experiencing reading and writing difficulties. Data were gathered from 174 college faculty at six higher education institutions throughout northwestern Pennsylvania via an online electronic…

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a South Central Pennsylvania public school's pre-kindergarten program in preparing young children for the transition to kindergarten. Despite the growing interest in pre-kindergarten education, no researcher had yet seriously examined the efficacy of providing a minimal amount of…

In October 2010, WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) won an i3 "Validation" grant to scale up and validate the Reading Apprenticeship (RA) model in three core secondary content area classes: U.S. history, biology, and English language arts. SLI's proposal stated two goals. Goal 1: To transform academic literacy teaching and…

For the thirty-eighth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

Improving reading comprehension and fluency in students with mild disabilities has long been a challenge for educators. Technology has provided a host of new possibilities for working with students with mild disabilities. This study incorporated a mixed method to investigate the potential of using E-Readers as an instructional tool. Three features…

This explanatory mixed-method study explored the dropout phenomenon from an ecological perspective identifying the school organizational (academics, activities, structure) and social relationship (teachers, peers) factors that most significantly influence students' decisions to leave school prior to graduation at a rural high school in south…

Focusing on a suburban Philadelphia high school's social studies classes, this research study investigated the influence of tracking on student achievement, on teachers' and students' perceptions of self-efficacy, and on teachers' instructional practices in the classroom. In order to address these research questions, the researcher used a…

Using a mixed methodology approach, this study examined the impact of the implementation of the science PSSA on the curriculum and instructional practice of eighth-grade teachers. It was hypothesized that despite the specter of PSSA influence on the academic climate, teachers are not necessarily influenced to change instructional practices, even…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the barriers and facilitators to career advancement among women administrators occupying top-level positions, those occupying entry-level positions and those in non-administrative positions in both rural and urban public school districts in central Pennsylvania. The need to increase the awareness of the…

As the face of education in Philadelphia's public schools changes in response to budget constraints and politics, current "Teach For America" (TFA) corps members' roles have also changed. These changes have resulted in the majority of second-year TFA corps members being relocated from school district to charter-managed schools, many of…

This dissertation uses a mixed-methods design to examine persistence into the second year by students' parental education level. The institution selected for this dissertation is Temple University, a large, urban, public university in the Northeast. Using Tinto's (1993) model of student departure as a conceptual framework, the quantitative…

In American public education today, a school can become successful or unsuccessful based on leadership. In this age of school reform, it is only appropriate to determine common leadership characteristics among successful educational leaders so that appropriate leadership training and development can be part of school improvement. This dissertation…

With an increasing number of patients receiving nursing care in outpatient settings, it is the responsibility of nursing education programs to provide students with adequate training to enable them to develop the skills necessary to provide safe, effective care in diverse environments, including the home. Providing care to patients in their own…

In K-12 environments in the US, classroom tests are a central means by which teachers assess English Language Learner (ELL) content knowledge. Performance on routine classroom assessments is often a contributing criterion for school based decision-making and can affect decisions relating to academic tracking, retention, and access to academic…