The purpose of this quantitative correlational-predictive study was to determine the extent to which participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professional development (STEM PD) predicted technology proficiency in K-12 teachers who completed 8-40 hours of STEM PD in the southwestern United States, while controlling for…

Early childhood traumatic experiences place children at-risk for social, emotional, and behavioral impairments that contribute to poor educational outcomes. There is an increasing awareness that children with early traumatic exposure may need supplemental supports for academic success. These supports may be presented in the form of…

This study explored the relationship between the dynamics of teacher digital pedagogy and teacher efficacy in promoting partnerships with families. By investigating how teachers' technological expertise intersects with their ability to engage and collaborate with families, the purpose of this study was to shed light on the impact of digital tools…

This dissertation investigated whether specific music training components of pitch and rhythm had a differential effect on early literacy skills of phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and concept of word awareness. In addition, this study examined associations between musical aptitude and early literacy skills. The central element of this…

This dissertation investigates the dynamics of adult online learners within an urban community college setting, exploring relationships between specific adult learning predictor variables and online course grades. Understanding these relationships is crucial for informing educational policies, designing effective online learning environments, and…

Learning to read is a fundamental skill that is understudied among children who hear more than one language at home. A particular limitation in the extant literature is that the samples are often Spanish-dominant and come from low-income households. This literature has evidence that Spanish skills -- both language-specific (i.e., vocabulary) and…

The problem addressed in this research study was teachers' and school administrators' resistance to integrating mobile technology in the classroom. This study was inspired by Albert Bandura's social learning theory and the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge, (TPACK) as the conceptual framework. The purpose of this quantitative…

This correlational study investigated how secondary educators' engagement in online learning communities relates to their tech-enhanced instructional practices, a relationship that gained importance following the COVID-19 pandemic's acceleration of educational technology adoption. Through the lens of Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation (Keller,…

Although there is a large body of research on effective early reading instructional practices, schools continue to implement instruction and intervention that is not aligned to the science. Over the past 25 years, a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework has emerged as a leading framework for advancing the reading skill development of…

New forms of visualizations are transforming how people interact with data. This dissertation explored how undergraduates learn with infographics. The following questions guided this research: (i) What do we know about the factors influencing the processing of data visualizations? (ii) How do task-level and learner-level characteristics impact the…

While student retention has always been the focus of the asynchronous online classroom improvements, the aspect of Technology Readiness of the instructor has not been explored. The integration of technology into the online instructors' classroom pedagogy fits into the mainstream online education model of Community of Inquiry (CoI), by which…

The purpose of this study was to examine if teachers' participation in the educational technology professional development was a significant predictor in the 8th grade students' mathematics achievement on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This non-experimental study analyzed selected variables from the 2013 NAEP 8th…

Young children's emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual…

This study investigated the relationship between teachers' mindsets (growth mindset and fixed mindset), teachers' digital competence, teachers' age, gender, years of teaching experience, and information and communication technology (ICT) use in teaching in elementary schools, in a city located at the Northwest region of Saudi Arabia. This study…

Vocabulary knowledge and speed of lexical access are early components of linguistic skill that co-develop rapidly in the first two years of life. Evidence suggests that these components are foundational for downstream linguistic and cognitive skills and that early individual differences set the stage for a developmental cascade throughout the…