The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study is to identify and describe the perceptions and experiences of lower elementary public-school teachers in the United States teaching with educational technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a demographic survey and semi-structured interviews, teachers shared their experiences regarding…

The purpose of this comparative, quantitative study was to explore the relationship of interim test scores among remote and in-person learners, low-income students, and students with disabilities. In March 2020, a portion of students enrolled in a K-12 school in Northeast Tennessee was moved into remote learning until the end of the school year in…

Before the 2020-21 school year, educators, policymakers, and parents confronted the stark and uncertain trade-offs implied by the health, educational, and economic consequences of offering instruction remotely, in person, or through a hybrid of the two. Most public schools in the U.S. chose remote-only instruction and enrollment fell dramatically…

Since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in 2020, universities worldwide have undergone unanticipated changes in how they operate and deliver the academic programme. Chief among these changes has been a wide-scale adoption of emergency remote teaching (ERT). This phenomenological study draws on critical pedagogy to…

Task complexity and communication modes are two task design and implementation factors that have been found to affect second language (L2) learners' oral performance. While increasing task complexity and developing tasks according to the features of face-to-face and computer-mediated communication modes can optimise L2 production, few studies…

This dissertation consists of three papers. In each paper, I leverage a different quantitative method to study a downstream effect of technology on educational outcomes. In the first paper, I study the impact of an online math learning program on 3rd through 5th grade math achievement in Louisiana. Employing Zearn Math usage metrics and…

Due to the predominance of test-oriented practice, one major challenge faced in Japanese high school classrooms is the lack of learning activities to develop higher order thinking. The purpose of this action research study was to explore an extracurricular blended learning program created to develop the higher order thinking of English language…

Most physical education (PE) research pertaining to COVID-19 has focused on the (negative) implications and difficulties PE teachers face during this pandemic period. In fact, despite informed calls for reform and radical change in PE, little attention has been paid to the (potentially positive) implications for teachers' pedagogical practices…

Agricultural systems are complex and can be used as examples to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. However, inclusion of agriculture in core STEM courses is often limited. Three professional development sessions for K-12 teachers were offered in 2021-2022 (hybrid or remote sessions) and repeated in 2022-2023…

"Bee the CURE" is a Power-of-Place course-based undergraduate research experience (PoP-CUREs; Jaeger et al., 2024) that combines place-based education (Demarest, 2014; Gruenewald, 2014) with CUREs, emphasizing student "scientific" civic engagement where research is relevant to the community where the research is taking place.…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid shift to online learning, revealing significant challenges for elementary students' foundational academic and emotional development. This study explores the impact of remote learning on students with pre-existing--yet unidentified--attention and mood-related challenges, and aims to shed light on the academic…

Instructor performance plays a critical role in fostering student learning. Unlike the postsecondary level, many states in the United States, have substantially regulated class size in the p-12 education system with the aim of enhancing quality learning. Thus, the purpose of this research paper is to examine the correlation between instructor…

This qualitative study was conducted to learn about the lived experiences of Indigenous youth during the transition to emergency remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight students at two schools in the Western part of Robeson County, North Carolina, told their stories. Tribal Critical Race Theory was used in this study as a lens to…

Nearly all parents and guardians of college-bound high school students are involved in the college search process. Most institutions understand this and would say they communicate with those families or provide information for them. However, is that information really reaching families? Is it accessible, comprehensible, and useful to them? Ruffalo…

Across the world, the impact of COVID-19 has necessitated some tough decisions in relation to education. In Cuba, universities have been transforming and adapting their provision in order to be able to develop distance learning in their different programmes, and in order to address social problems. Cuba's starting place for this transformation was…