This dissertation explores the lived experience of nature-based educators in Duluth, Minnesota. Portraiture served as the methodological framework for learning about how teachers in Duluth got into teaching and why they remain on the job. Teacher turnover and attrition is a national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, teachers who…

Experiential learning is not a new concept to education. Experiential learning continues to empower learners to construct knowledge through the exploration of activities based on their physical and social environment, as well as individual's inner world and intuition. In this age of extreme climate change and environmental concerns, one important…

Public schools, and education in general, were founded on the principles of preparing young people to participate in civic life as active and informed citizens. Yet, civic competency scores are consistently low and demonstrate that students are not prepared for the civic engagement required of them when they leave school. The purpose of this…

Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to revolutionize the way we learn and educate, enhancing and supplementing the traditional learning experience by providing new ways to interact with information and people. However, its full potential in education has yet to be fully realized, as work in this space requires resolving cutting-edge technical…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relationship between participation in career-based learning opportunities and students' level of engagement in school. In this study, a survey measured the level of engagement reported by students. Students indicated if they were involved in a career-based learning opportunity and their…

Using Q methodology, this study examined the patterns of how counselor educators prioritized the use of flipped learning tenets when teaching counseling courses. Participants ranked flipped learning tenets resulting in the development of two teaching profiles. One teaching profile prioritized the co-creation of a learning culture centered on…

High school students often complain of boredom and are disengaged from learning. This qualitative action research study sought to make improvements in teachers' understanding of Kolb's experiential learning cycle, in particular, opportunities for student reflection, and how to increase usage of both constructs in high school classrooms to engage…

Implementing culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) or culturally responsive teaching strategies in K-12 classroom settings helps educators mitigate systemic inequities within education systems. The purpose of this curriculum is to transform teacher pedagogy in a school district through a culturally responsive teaching lens. The content of this…

This dissertation examined how recent graduates from an animal science program described the role of experiential learning on their educational success in eastern Tennessee. The goal of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how recent graduates describe the role of experiential learning on their educational success by answering the…

Experiential learning is a child-centered approach to education designed to minimize the role of authority, shift the power dynamic away from the teacher, and place children at the center in curriculum activities. In direct instruction, teachers play a leading role in constructing and delivering lessons to students. Direct instruction occurs when…

Project based learning (PBL), a well-known pedagogical approach, is becoming more widely recognized for creating and sustaining student engagement and motivation in 21st-century learning while improving academic achievement. Teachers support this hands-on, collaborative approach and see it as beneficial for students of all learning modalities, but…

This exploratory phenomenological dissertation research evaluated students', instructors', and administrators', definitions and perceived value of experiential learning pedagogies. The research comprised interviews in late 2018 and early 2019 within a program run by a large public American university on its Singapore campus (pseudonym AmUAsia). At…

The problem for this study was limited clinical site access for paramedic students causing delays in completion and exacerbating critical staffing shortages in healthcare. The purpose of the study was to explore perceptions of paramedic program directors (PD) in Colorado regarding use of simulation-based education (SBE) to supplement…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how third through fifth-grade elementary school teachers within the southeastern United States describe using specific learning style strategies and students' classroom preferences during instruction. Grasha's Teaching Style Theory, Kolb's Learning Styles and Experiential Learning…

Given the expanding field of education within medicine, the purpose of this dissertation is to introduce an augmented reality (AR) medical simulator to the medical education community. This dissertation will describe the simulator development, feasibility, and acceptability to medical students and medical trainees. The following series of studies…