Diffraction refers to a kind of optical phenomena which occurs when light approaches an element (object or aperture) whose features are in the range of the illuminating wavelength (small apertures, sharp edges). It can be explained by means of the undulatory nature of light or also geometrically by using simple ray optics. Diffraction phenomena…

This dissertation examines the pedagogical decision making processes of eight social studies teachers in West Virginia who taught about race and racism during the 2021-2022 school year. Teaching about racism and issues of race has become highly politicized, but social studies educators remain uniquely poised to have meaningful discussions about…

This research investigated West Virginia teachers' perceptions of online, on-demand professional development. The researcher used a mixed-methods, nonexperimental study that utilized a 16-item survey and a six-item follow-up survey to examine teacher perceptions. A convenience sample was used and was comprised of participants of the West Virginia…

Although social workers are increasingly likely to encounter suicidal clients in their practice, many are under-prepared to address the issue of suicide, and significant deficiencies in suicide education exist in social work graduate programs. This study examined the acceptability and effectiveness of a brief yet comprehensive online module…

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the role of health locus of control (HLOC; internal, chance, powerful others) in antibiotic resistance perceptions and antibiotic use behaviors among college students. Participants: Participants were 366 students recruited from the introductory psychology pool at a university in the…

This study examines the determinants of online academic dishonesty using the theory of planned behavior. We surveyed 1087 college students in Central Philippines and utilized a partial least squares-structural equation modeling analysis to evaluate a proposed model. Results demonstrate that 10 of the 11 hypothesized relationships are statistically…

Analogous to the political use of language itself in determining, even producing, student learning outcomes, the use of politically charged discourse circumscribes (the boundaries of) student learning opportunities. This 'positive' (i.e. productive) understanding of discourse does not only prohibit discussion about race and racism but helps…

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been widely used in nursing laboratory courses to effectively making up for the shortcomings of traditional teaching. However, challenges such as cell phone addiction, negative emotions, and reduced communication between teachers and students still exist during the application process, which makes it difficult…

Analysis of weekly peer-reviewed writing exercises in undergraduate introductory biology courses revealed that student improvement in ability to judge essays correlated with improvement in their own writing (n = 121 students). This correlation occurred across the spectrum of academic ability. The essays were scored by peers, self, and the…

Introductory psychology students need supports to read and think in a discipline-specific way when learning psychology theories. We tested the effectiveness of using a task-model steps chart to help students understand, evaluate, and use theories presented in their introductory psychology textbook and lecture videos. We randomly assigned 52…

Single-subjects design has the advantage of providing detailed, individualized analyses of intervention. However, creating a tutorial for single-subject design (SSD) is challenging, and an effective version for online delivery is currently unavailable. Here, we developed an experiential SSD tutorial designed for online delivery and evaluated its…

As introductory physics courses increasingly focus on student engagement, the use of Learning Assistants (LAs) has increased. LAs and other instructors need to have sufficient PCK to effectively guide student learning. Our goal was to research LAs observed PCK in the classroom and to develop a set of questions to assess LAs' PCK. Our research…

This study aims to examine the dynamic decision-making of faculty who teach instructional design courses when they design authentic learning experiences in digital learning environments, with a special focus on how they engage in environmental analysis, dynamic decision-making, promotion of knowledge acquisition, as well as the challenges they…

The COVID-19 pandemic produced a unique opportunity to examine undergraduate students' notetaking practices for online courses. In this large survey study (n = 584), we examined how students' notetaking changed from before to during emergency online instruction and how students used their notes during this time. Our findings suggest that students…

Course content in higher education is increasingly provided via video lectures. Video quality varies widely, from textbook publishers that provide professional quality videos to individual instructors recording videos on their laptops. In this study, we randomly assigned students to one of two videos, one high quality and one lower quality, to…