Students attending schools in poor and historically marginalized communities lack access to curricula that combines both relevant science content and investigative practices--components the National Research Council (2012) has identified as necessary for effective learning. This lack of curricular access is also problematic in that it: (1)…

Using a primarily experimental design, this study investigated whether discussion boards in online community college philosophy classes can be designed in the Blackboard course management system to lead to higher order thinking. Discussions were designed using one of two teaching techniques: the activation of prior knowledge or the use of peer…

Proficient reading comprehension provides an academic advantage for 21st century learners. However, students at the upper elementary level face increasingly challenging texts that require use of metacomprehension skills. Yet, there is a lack of formal instruction that assists students in practicing these metacomprehension skills in classrooms.…

Since the publication of the "College Scorecard" by The U.S. Department of Education in 2015, comparisons between college attendance costs and institutional outcomes (i.e., graduation rates, post-graduation earnings) have come into sharp focus. This increased scrutiny requires institutions of higher learning to be more transparent about…

The field of Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) has expressed interest in pursuing a research agenda that expands the current heritage language (HL) strand of research to investigate how this heterogeneous population re-learns their family language, and how this experience differs from that of second language (L2) learners. This…

Elaborative interrogation, which prompts students to answer why-questions placed strategically within informational text, has been shown to increase learning comprehension through reading. In this study, elaborative interrogation why-questions requested readers to explain why paraphrased statements taken from a reading were "true."…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of node-link mapping on students' meaningful learning and conceptual change in a 1-semester introductory life-science course. This study used node-link mapping to integrate and apply the National Research Council's (NRC, 2005) three principles of human learning: engaging students' prior…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of prior learning assessment (PLA) in postsecondary degree completion for adult community college students at Mountwest Community and Technical College (MCTC). The study group consisted of 339 MCTC graduates, who applied PLA credits toward degree completion between the academic year 2006 and 2011.…

Today's educators are faced with growing academic accountability demands coupled with the increasing demands for preparing students for a technology-driven workplace. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the extent to which the use of the Classroom Performance System (CPS) impacted social studies performance among a group…

This study of cooperative learning in post-secondary engineering education investigated achievement of engineering students enrolled in two intact sections of a computer-aided drafting (CAD) course. Quasi-experimental and qualitative methods were employed in comparing student achievement resulting from out-of-class cooperative and individualistic…

This dissertation incorporates three studies that examine how the design of inquiry based science instruction, dynamic visualizations, and guidance for experimentation contribute to physics students' understanding of science. I designed a week-long, technology-enhanced inquiry module on car collisions that logs students' interactions with a…

This study examined a Pseudoword Phonics Curriculum to determine if this form of instruction would increase students' decoding skills compared to typical real-word phonics instruction. In typical phonics instruction, children learn to decode familiar words which allow them to draw on their prior knowledge of how to pronounce the word and may…

This study investigated the effectiveness of Adventure Based Counseling upon high school adolescents. The goals of this study were to (a) explore the effectiveness of ABC Counseling in increasing levels of self-esteem and empathy among adolescents; (b) study the efficacy of ABC counseling in reducing perceived racial discrimination, racist…

Educators are being encouraged to implement new instructional designs in an era where new standards, which promote student-centered learning, are being utilized and all students are expected to be successful on standardized tests. Consequently, there is a need for further research on the effectiveness of student-centered instruction. For that…

Instructional designers need to understand the internal processes of learning, identify learners' cognitive difficulties with those processes, and create strategies to help learners overcome those difficulties. Generative learning theory, one conception of human learning about cognitive functioning and process, emphasizes that meaningful learning…