The complex and critical role of the school principal necessitates quality and ongoing professional development for these leaders. The purpose of this study was to examine school principal's own perceptions about professional development as designed and implemented for principals in an urban school district in the state of North Carolina. This…

In this program description, we examined the impact of East Carolina University's educator preparation program on beginning special educators' preparedness and confidence to meet professional standards and fulfill their job responsibilities using Q methodology. For this work, undergraduate interns who were enrolled in a rural-focused teacher…

Competency-based education (CBE) has gained popularity over the course of the past several years, and the North Carolina Community College System is now working to develop its first CBE degree path. Though a number of institutions have implemented CBE on the national scale, only minimal research has been conducted regarding faculty and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide an empirical measure of how principals enact prescribed leadership standards into practice. The aim of the study was to ascertain how current school principals perceive the practice of a specific set of leadership standards. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 61 practicing school principals in…

High school counselors are considered key decision influencers for students in the college search stage. The purpose of the study was to identify the perceptions currently held among public school counselors in the state of North Carolina towards postsecondary career and technical education. Q methodology, which provides an opportunity to study…

Purpose: Principals play a pivotal role in teachers' professional growth, which impacts student outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to understand the perceptions principals have about effective elements of professional development (PD) and the role they play in facilitating the growth of teachers, and how this affects student learning.…

Aspiring entrepreneurs give and receive support in growth-fostering interactions with seasoned entrepreneurs, mentors, peers, and others. This dissertation investigates viewpoints held by entrepreneurs about their experiences of effective mentoring support. Little is known about how an entrepreneur learns through interacting with different…

Since the 1980s, scholars have suggested that environmental education (EE) has a "definitional problem" represented by a multiplicity of perspectives that have critically impacted its discourse, practices, and outcomes. This study sought to investigate how North American EE practitioners from backgrounds ranging from formal and…

Medical education reform is underway, but the optimal course for change has yet to be seen. While planning for the redesign of a renal physiology course at the Duke School of Medicine, the authors used a Q-sort survey to assess students' attitudes and learning preferences to inform curricular change. The authors invited first-year medical students…

The purpose of this study was to examine school counselors' perception of how innovative counseling practices are or are not lived in a local school district. The eastern North Carolina school district was selected because MEASURE was being introduced in the district as a new way for program evaluation. The acronym MEASURE stands for Mission,…

A study was made to delineate the tasks which constitute the role expectations of the extension agent, the volunteer 4-H leader, and those of cooperative responsibility in relation to the 4-H program as perceived by the Georgia District agents and the State 4-H staff. A secondary purpose was to determine the degree of consensus among the Georgia…