Project based learning (PBL), a well-known pedagogical approach, is becoming more widely recognized for creating and sustaining student engagement and motivation in 21st-century learning while improving academic achievement. Teachers support this hands-on, collaborative approach and see it as beneficial for students of all learning modalities, but…

This dissertation seeks to understand how a work-based learning project develops the skills, attitudes, behaviors, and Jewish sense of self for three Jewish Federation professionals participating in a larger, 18-month professional development initiative focused on experiential Jewish education. Using case study methodology, this research also…

Social emotional learning is commonly referred to as the "fifth curriculum" in addition to math, literacy, social studies, and science. However, educators cannot teach what they do not understand, practice, or model. The problem addressed by this study was some educators in private schools lack training in social emotional learning,…

This case study involves one public school in a suburb of a major metropolitan area, focusing on one classroom of first grade students selected from a pool of volunteer classrooms. The first grade class of students, during their regular mathematics instruction, were given three tasks by their teachers designed to elicit a productive struggle…

Experiential learning (EL) is often perceived as valuable to education and prioritized in higher education curricula. The value of EL from the student perspective has been researched, but few have explored faculty perspectives in business programs. The purpose of this study was to explore faculty perceptions of the meaning of EL, implementation…

Student reflection plays an essential role in service-learning projects to help students prepare for their service, process their experience, and reevaluate their experience to gain new understanding and appreciation. However, instructors encounter various challenges when integrating reflections into service-learning. Given the wide variety of…

Knowledge and information are the foundations for economic activity, thus current legislation is designed to strengthen and improve the nation's public workforce system. Despite the heightened visibility of adult mathematics in surveys of adult skills like PIAAC and the implementation of College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education,…

Student-centered active learning strategies have been found to have a positive impact on student learning outcomes when compared to courses using traditional lecture methods in higher education. The practice of active learning is strongly linked to physical active learning classrooms (ALCs). Comprehensive studies show ALCs outperform traditional…

This mixed-methods descriptive case study examined how a public research university's elementary education teacher preparation program develops social and emotional competence (SEC) in preservice teachers. Using Engestrom's Expansive Learning Theory framework, the study analyzed the tools and mediating artifacts within the program's learning…

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of international-student English language learners (ELLs), situated on a language learning plateau (L2P), who have been exposed to a Growth Mindset Pedagogy with Deliberate Practice. The researcher used a qualitative research design, to document the experiences of five adult English language…

The problem was the lack of SEL and social presence practices in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused student engagement to decline. The purpose was to explore educator perceptions of how SEL social presence practices affect student engagement during the transition from traditional learning. Grounded in social constructivism…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how one interdisciplinary program that used an authentic learning approach may have developed global competence in students. This study explored how teachers planned and implemented a global competence program and how students perceived their acquisition of global competence. I used an…

This qualitative case study explored how grading can be used to support learning by analyzing the implementation of a skills-based grading system in a high school English department. Black and Wiliam's (2018) model for assessment in relation to pedagogy was used as a lens through which to examine the relationship between the grading system and…

In the context of rapidly advancing technologies, the significance of noncognitive skills is increasingly recognized by academia and industry as essential qualities in the era of knowledge economy. However, the study of Chinese students' noncognitive skills development during their college period in China was scarce. This research adopts a case…

This dissertation is about a particular style of research. The philosophy of this style is that in order to scientifically understand deep learning, it is fruitful to investigate what happens when neural networks are trained on simple, mathematically well-defined tasks. Even though the training data is simple, the training algorithm can end up…