In an increasingly data-driven society, making decisions with data is a requirement not only for research scientists but also for navigating life more generally (Kjelvik & Schultheis, 2019). An informed citizenry must be prepared to discover patterns, predict outcomes, make decisions with data, and evaluate data-based claims for legitimacy and…

This research study makes a significant contribution to understanding the experiences of Native Hawaiian students in higher education and their college choice process. Research and literature focused on or inclusive of Native Hawaiians in higher education is scarce and limited (Reyes, 2018), so there is very little known about how Native Hawaiian…

Librarians insist that one of the ways they can contribute to the fight against mis-and disinformation is by teaching information literacy. Yet the demands they place on individuals-- whether through lengthy checklists or expectations that individuals interrogate every piece of information encountered--are unrealistic in view of information…

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary effort to combine the fields of education, linguistics, and technology. The practical aims of this study are an attempt to offer insights and avenues for the development and administration of better online presences for institutions of higher learning. While the theoretical purpose aimed to utilize…

In a national climate focused on four-year graduation rates and providing students with an educational background that supports their future vocational success, students are experiencing increased pressure to not only graduate "on time," but to enter college with a clear picture of their intended major and career path. Students also…

This study applies human-centered design principles and involves end users in creating a usable knowledge graph. The aim was to explore the potential advantages of capturing and presenting networked knowledge in a domain for information discovery and decision-making purposes. The case taken for the research is the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program…

This action research project aimed to introduce and examine the impact of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), the Meeting Wise Process, and the Data Wise Process on teaching practices at a Chinese middle school. PLCs, a collaborative model for continuous professional development, have been widely adopted in various educational contexts but…

During university-based programs that prepare K-12 teachers, candidates traditionally participate in course work that discusses educational theory and application related to the future teacher's chosen population (based on age range and subject areas). Traditional methods courses cover the pedagogy related to a single, specific content area, or…

Multidisciplinary teams have become a consistent part of school culture and the decision-making process (Buck et al., 2003), however limited and inconsistent research (Huebner & Gould, 1991) is available regarding the effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams within the school environment. Current literature provides common themes regarding…

In an increasingly complex world, it is imperative that undergraduate science courses prepare students to make confident, informed decisions and predictions. The research presented in this thesis focuses on supporting students to engage in mechanistic reasoning (MR) about phenomena in chemistry and biology (that is, thinking about how and why…

Typical critical patterns for studying children's literature, defined in this study as a written text intended for a reader up to the age of 14, make it difficult to chart generic change across a large corpus of texts. Traditionally, criticism of children's literature focuses on cherry picked archetypes, exemplars, and the standout extraordinary.…

Intended outcomes such as expressing ideas in ways that can be understood, with the tools we know how to use, constrain the dynamics of the actions we use to ensure their success. The success of our actions can be measured by estimating the amount of information they transmit. This provides a window into the dynamics of cognition and how they are…

This research study explored robotics as the catalyst for computational thinking (CT) by sixth-grade students as they are engaged in a science lesson. The interactions, understandings, and applications are discussed, along with the participants' connections and implementations of CT concepts (decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition, and…

This descriptive and interpretive case study investigates how 12 undergraduate college students perceived participation in their high school Senior Capstone Project (SCP) impacted their college academic experience. Learning transfer was explored from the learner's perspective. Data was collected using qualitative methods in three sequential phases…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a curriculum design-based (CDB) professional development model on K-12 teachers' capacity to integrate engineering education in the classroom. This teacher professional development approach differs from other training programs where teachers learn how to use a standard curriculum and…