The college open door policy initiated in the 1960s made access to higher education available for more students in the United States. People who were once excluded from enrolling in college now have an opportunity to earn a college degree. Some first-time students, significantly underprepared in writing, have been required to enroll in…

Higher education research has focused more attention recently on student involvement in extracurricular activities. Student involvement in extracurricular activities has been linked to decreased levels of stress, degree attainment, increased college satisfaction, retention, and positive academic performance. Due to the limited research on the…

Energy managers are tasked with identifying energy savings opportunities and promoting energy independence. Energy-efficient (EE) and renewable-energy (RE) technology demonstrations enable energy managers to evaluate new energy technologies and adopt those that appear most effective. This study examined whether energy technology demonstrations…

The aim of this research is to identify the problems faced by the pre-service science teachers in the process of school practice, and to determine possible solutions. School practice is very important in establishing theory-practice relationships for the candidate teachers. A qualitative design was employed for this research study. The…

Online learning has become a significant component of the long-term strategy for leading universities into the future. The rapid growth of online learning forces the need for academic accountability. The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine factors affecting student perceptions of online course quality using benchmarks in…

This study seeks to understand student attitudes towards English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses. Such courses were conceived, in part, under the belief that they would be inherently more motivating as they, ideally, correspond directly to students' interests and needs. Rather than accepting this notion at face value, this paper posits that a…

Program evaluation can play a critical role in supporting high quality implementation of social programs to help them achieve their goal of social impact. Evaluation scholars have developed a wide range of strategies to help build programs' internal evaluation capacity in an effort to support meaningful use of evaluation. However, the evaluation…

Colleges and universities across the nation are seeking a president with unique qualities to transform their institution. Notwithstanding, surprisingly, few studies have examined how African American presidents confront race while also successfully ascending into the presidency. The purpose of this study was to explore and interpret the…

Understanding how university medical school faculty and staff perceive the institution's mission statement, in conjunction with their person-environment fit, can provide administration with useful insight into: employee's match to the institution's mission statement, employee level of organizational commitment, and reasons for retention. This…

This qualitative, collective case study documented the development of the self-efficacy beliefs of special education preservice candidates during one semester of a course-embedded field experience in a small, private, faith-based university in the Midwest. Interviews of candidates regarding critical incidents in field experiences as documented by…

Time is an area of measurement that is difficult for children. This interview study addresses the question: What are children's solution approaches to position the hands of an analog clock? To explore this, we investigated problem solving when using a clock manipulative with mechanically linked hands. We compare overall success rates among…

High-tech tools can be integrated to serve a number of purposes in the mathematics classroom, with different purposes being appropriate for different learning goals. We focus specifically on the various purposes for interactive simulations (sims). This study followed three experienced middle-school mathematics teachers integrating PhET sims into…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and to tell the stories of low socioeconomic status (SES) men in college who persisted beyond the halfway point of college at a Midwestern metropolitan university. Prior research suggested men from low socioeconomic status backgrounds matriculated and persisted in college at the lowest…

Purpose: This qualitative case study explored the best practices of differentiation of Tier 1 instruction within a multi-tiered system of support for English Language Learners who were predominately Spanish speaking. Theoretical Framework: The zone of proximal development theory, cognitive theory, and the affective filter hypothesis guided this…

Head Start (HS) is a nationally known program for young children and continues to serve the most vulnerable children and families. HS teachers are required to have a minimum degree status and a certain number of Professional Development (PD) hours. However, teachers continue to struggle with preparedness and effectiveness. The problem is that HS…