One of the goals of education is for students to develop critical thinking skills. In order to build those skills, students must become critical and engaged users of information. Students become engaged and critical users of information when they have opportunities to explore and immerse themselves in information from different viewpoints and…

Epistemic beliefs are individuals' beliefs about the nature of knowledge, how knowledge is constructed, and how knowledge can be justified. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine: (a) middle and high school students' self-reported epistemic beliefs (quantitative) and epistemic beliefs revealed from practice (qualitative) during a…

This cross-case study examines the relationships between game design attributes and collaborative problem solving process in the context of multi-player video games. The following game design attributes: sensory stimuli elements, level of challenge, and presentation of game goals and rules were examined to determine their influence on game…

This dissertation study focused on a feature of emergent interactions in the L2 classroom called unanticipated student utterances (USUs), which is defined as utterances spoken by the student that the teacher has not anticipated as part of the discussion at hand. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate why USUs are significant in the L2…

The purpose of this research was to gain insight into transformational learning experiences of novice teachers and their coaches. Novice teachers are held to the same standards as their more experienced peers, but they lack experience to help them overcome challenges. Coaches are becoming more common in schools today. Their purpose is to support…

This study investigated how college football student-athletes conceptualize the academic and athletic literacies they experience inside and outside the classroom. Participants included sophomore, junior, and senior football student-athletes who all attended a large public university in the Mid-Atlantic area. Three distinct research tools…

Patterns and perceptions of language teachers in a professional development program were examined through various forms of classroom discourse & multimodal products. Research questions include: What kinds of learning patterns emerge with the use of Skype in an online environment? What phases of cognitive engagement are evident in Skype…

Formative assessment is the process of eliciting students' understanding during instruction in order to make sensitive instructional decisions and provide feedback to enhance students' learning. Research indicates that when used properly, formative assessment can lead to significant learning gains and enhance students'…

The purpose of this mixed-design study was to examine the impact of three types of professional development activities aimed at improving conversations in four targeted preschool classrooms. A review of the literature was used to identify the professional development approaches and the importance of improving teacher-child conversations as a…

This study was designed to explore five Korean NNESTs' L2 pragmatic competence and its relationship with their teaching experiences using DCT questionnaires of English request. This study in particular examined (1) five Korean NNESTs pragmatic competencies in English requests, (2) the relationship between their English teaching and learning…

This dissertation examines the negotiation of language ideologies and identity construction amongst university intermediate level Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners in the U.S. Southwest. Combining sociolinguistic and ethnographic methods with discourse analysis, this study seeks to provide deeper insight into the linguistic practices and…