African American males' academic achievement has been a concern for school officials, policy makers, administrators, colleges, and universities. African American males' graduation rates continue to decline at colleges and universities across the United States. The problem addressed by this qualitative study was that African American males who come…

Reflective students who are pro-active in thought processing in the classroom often do not receive the same level of positive appraisal from teachers. Many educators have been conditioned by universal norms to believe that to talk profusely during class time means to engage while to remain frequently quiet tends to denote a lack of engagement. The…

The purpose for this study was to examine student reading data at one high-poverty, low-performing Title I school in the State of Tennessee over 2 consecutive years when reading instruction, teacher expectations, and administration changed. This study examined student growth in third and fourth grade on the county benchmark assessment (Study…

This multiple case study explored the characteristics of clinical experiences that support preservice teachers' understandings of culturally responsive literacy in elementary classrooms. In particular, this study focused on capturing the voices and perspectives of three preservice teachers through semi-structured interviews, observations, and the…

A mixed-methods approach to Social Network Analysis was used to track the network growth of students with an Intellectual Disability in a postsecondary program from students' and parents' perspectives. Although there was an increase in network size and a shift from family-centered networks to more peer-centered networks, there was a decrease in…

A qualitative case study was conducted by examining the perceptions of high school-aged females based on self-efficacy and math identity and how those experiences motivate the pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career choices. As the world lacks efficient female representation in STEM-related careers, and careers…

Background: Professionals who pursue a doctorate after significant post-baccalaureate work experience, a group we refer to as returners, represent an important but understudied group of engineering doctoral students. Returners are well situated to leverage their applied work experiences in their advanced engineering training. Purpose/Hypothesis:…

Undergraduate students are likely to have a range of reasons for attending university and expectations about their education. The current study aimed to determine the most prevalent reasons and expectations among students, and how these differed based on their personal circumstances. First-year undergraduate psychology students completed a…

In this article, we present the anticipation guide as a tool for preparing Extension audiences to learn the main points of Extension materials. Anticipation guides improve learner comprehension by appealing to an individual's natural curiosity and helping the individual focus on key ideas. Anticipation guides can be used with all types of…

We suggest that preschoolers' frequent obliviousness to the risks and opportunities of deception comes from a trusting stance supporting verbal communication. Three studies (N = 125) confirm this hypothesis. Three-year-olds can hide information from others (Study 1) and they can lie (Study 2) in simple settings. Yet when one introduces the…

Though most extant research suggests that educational expectations are adopted early in life and stabilize by adolescence, recent research has begun to challenge this assumption. This study further examines whether and to what degree adolescents' educational expectations adapt in response to two mechanisms: interpersonal influence and…

In this wide-ranging interview, Krista Tippett, a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and the New York Times bestselling author of "Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living" (Penguin Press, 2016) shares her perspective on wisdom, the reemergence of hope, and the need to talk about values.

We report on a study conducted on a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to explore and improve understanding and practice about MOOC learning design and participant motivations and expectations. The "Carpe Diem" MOOC was designed, developed and delivered in 2014. The MOOC participants' experiences were studied through surveys and…

An individual's years in college are a time of trial and transformation. This dissertation examined college students' self-created accounts of their time in college in order to identify students' significant meaning-making activities during those years. Four primary areas of student life were investigated: the rules that students were expected to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address participants' humorous provocations as a part of informal interactions between participants and researcher that can be treated just like the research data. By means of autoethnographic analysis, the author explores the expectations of the researcher and participants that humour research entails and…