Freshmen beginning their undergraduate education enter college with various backgrounds and expectations. Institutions seek to properly acclimate first-year students into this new transition. One way to help a first-year student transition into college is with a first-year program. First-year programs provide a unique space for students to adjust…

This study aimed to investigate and improve the college readiness of students in an innercity public school. Recent statistics on college completion in a prominent city in the U.S. reveal that only 52% of students from inner-city schools graduate with college degrees within six years. This is quite worrisome, considering that 71% of jobs in that…

The objective of this study was to better understand what aspects of place and curriculum influence experiences for underserved youth in an environmental education program. For instance, how can environmental education managers create program experiences that maintain depth and focus, while honoring the unique ways students connect and find…

Across the United States, systems of education are failing, and this dysfunction is characterized by both academic underachievement and overachievement. This research was an investigation of whether a purpose-driven curriculum contributed to student success in school and in life. This dissertation was intended to inform school systems about…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the visual arts beliefs and practices of eight K-1 teachers in four schools and in two different school districts in a southern state. Using a phenomenological framework (Creswell, 2007; Leedy & Ormrod, 2005), the research revealed the teachers' understandings of beliefs and how…

This research concerns the culture of design education in the context of great change in the social and professional conditions of practice. Findings illuminate interrelationships among pedagogy, professional identity and the design of the instructional setting in programs that teach visual communication and interaction design. Participants'…

Participation and achievement in science by students of color and girls remains inequitable despite decades of initiatives aimed at leveling the playing field. Science in out-of-school-time is a strategy that emphasizes the role of informal education, however, robust descriptions of learning environments which effectively recruit and retain…

Introduction: Children today are under much more stress than a few decades ago due to academic pressure, family financial hardship, competition with peers, and stressed parents. Consequently, stress-related health issues and behavioral problems, such as cardiovascular diseases, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, violent or withdrawal…

A major challenge for Information Technology (IT) programs is that the rapid pace of evolution of computing technology leads to frequent redesign of IT courses. The problem is exacerbated by several factors. Firstly, the changing technology is the subject matter of the discipline and is also frequently used to support instruction; secondly, this…