Within the broad, interdisciplinary field of adult education, affective aspects of experience and the roles they play in learning have, thus far, not been properly theorized or researched. This dissertation first explores how John Heron's whole person theory (WPT) conceptualizes feeling as an expansive affective capacity at the root of all human…

Technological advancements continue to present a variety of learning opportunities for students. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study is to seek an understanding about students' experiences with a virtual reality (VR) activity in an Advanced Placement English course. Analyzing the observations and interactions…

Creativity and collaboration are key components of a mathematician's work, and thus in the preparation of future mathematicians, undergraduate mathematics courses should aim to develop students who can effectively work collaboratively and creatively with one another. Despite this need, research on mathematical creativity has primarily investigated…

Middle school is about the growth, potential, and change of adolescents. Students at the middle school age level, generally ages 10 to 14, struggle with the dynamics of making the transitions from recess and active learning in elementary school to multiple teachers, bigger workloads and campuses, and larger student populations (Alexander et al.,…

The current study examined the impact of experiencing either a guided play or direct instruction learning environment on causal learning, curiosity, and divergent thinking. Forty-three children (age 4- to 6-years) participated in an online experiment in which they completed a causal learning task in either guided play or direct instruction…

The purpose of this study was to understand special education (SPED) teachers' creativity as they integrated new technologies to teach autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) learners during the coronavirus (COVID-19) shutdowns of schools in the U.S. The theoretical orientation was the componential theory of creativity (CTC), which identifies components…

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…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine how Hispanic/Latinx ESL students describe their engagement and overcome learning challenges in higher education flipped classrooms. After completing a questionnaire, 12 participants from a community college and university in southern California described their experiences in a…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of utilizing the principles of Project-based learning (PJBL) in nontraditional settings in engineering education. There is ample literature related to the usage of PJBL techniques in engineering education but there are also challenges with incorporating PJBL within the curriculum. It is the…

Motivating students to learn and engaging them in the learning process is a constant struggle among teachers. The lack of motivation and engagement in reading lessons is one-reason elementary students are struggling to reach proficiency in reading. This systematic review used current literature to investigate the best practices seen in elementary…

The purpose of this dissertation research is to examine the interrelationships between transformational leadership, organizational learning, and the five dimensions of organizational innovativeness within Head Start programs. A survey containing 29 questions adapted from validated and reliable scales was administered using a sample of 64.…

Play is an important dimension of learning for all students. When students are allowed to play, amazing things happen. Students start to tell stories, explore new concepts, and learn in authentic ways. Some of these experiences are constructed with peers, while others are created individually. Discoveries are made by connecting one student's ideas…

This study investigated the understudied area of virtual reality (VR) creation among elementary-aged youth, exploring their engagement in VR creation and the ways in which educators can facilitate this creative process. Using an embedded case study, the researcher examined how the youth visualize writing using the VR creation tool, CoSpaces. To…

Although a great deal of research has been conducted examining the relationship of domain knowledge or creative potential and creative achievement, there is still a lack of research on more comprehensive understanding on how much each of potential factors is related to individual's creative achievement. The current studies aimed to investigate…

This autoethnography illustrates benefits of doctoral education consistent with the holistic paradigm underlying today's society and development of a practice-research-practice cycle useful to science teacher educators. Emergent hypotheses indicate ways to increase a doctoral student's well-being, intellectual risk taking, production of creative…