The COVID-19 Pandemic impacted teachers worldwide in profound ways. Studies have reported findings about how the experience affected teachers in numerous ways including the effects on teacher identity, teacher attrition, teacher burnout, and how teachers successfully managed implementing technology under abrupt conditions during the emergency…

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) which accredits higher education programs globally, has placed the ability for students to recognize professional and ethical responsibilities among their seven stated student outcomes that undergraduate engineering programs must ensure their students achieve to maintain their…

In 2017, the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development examined the relevant evidence regarding social-emotional learning (SEL) across various disciplines. The commission concluded that social and emotional competencies are essential to developmental growth, and overall success in school and life. This qualitative case…

This dissertation engages a multi-step process to identify and articulate the internally defined goals of prominent holistic pedagogies including Montessori, Waldorf, Democratic Free Schooling, homeschooling, and radical/progressive education. It gives voice to adult former students who speak to, and illustrate, the ways in which they were…

There has been an increase in the number of women serving as heads of school in independent schools, though women remain underrepresented as heads of school in large (> 700 students), K-12, co-educational independent day schools. Data in this qualitative study were gathered through interviews with six women who were current or retired heads of…

Suburban school districts are facing new challenges due to demographic shifts. Suburban schools are shifting racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically (Kotok & Frankenberg, 2013; Wepner & Gomez, 2017). With the rise of social unrest in our country, a glaring light has been focused on the inequities in education toward children of color…

The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to higher education institutions, especially for staffing. Internal interim appointments were used to fill gaps in the administrative ranks. Literature emphasizes that interim leaders often serve during periods of uncertainty, crisis, and change. The purpose of this study was to explore the motivation(s)…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how undergraduate music therapy students perceive, describe, and make meaning from their pre-internship clinical experiences. Using a basic qualitative research approach and marrying arts-based methods with reflexive thematic analysis methods, the following research questions guided my…

Background: Practitioners want to create meaningful experiences for youth because they provide positive benefits. Immersion semester high schools are likely to provide meaningful experiences. Purpose: This study sought to identify what types of activities are most meaningful to youth, whether activities are more meaningful in immersion semester…

When deciding whether to trust someone's claims, how do children combine - over multiple interactions - information about that person's general behavioral tendencies (traits) with that person's ongoing (and changing) rate of providing accurate claims? Children aged 4-8 played 11 rounds of a find-the-sticker game. For each round, an informant…

Our study explores the differences in the experiences and attitudes of students assigned to student teams in online courses versus face-to-face courses. The study was administered to 320 students in 14 sections (eight online and six face-to-face) of a graduate-level course. The results demonstrate that student ratings of team trust, team…

Sensory features are included in the diagnostic criteria of autism spectrum disorder, and sensory responsiveness may produce "cascading effects" on later development. However, the relation between early sensory profiles and later skills has yet to be defined. This study aims to characterize sensory subgroups in 116 toddlers at elevated…

A visual arts education promoted through a lens of visual culture fosters the idea that students can influence social change through their artmaking practices (K. Freedman, 2003a). Instructing through this lens is by far harder than teaching simple artmaking techniques. But Alison Aziz, similar to Kerry Freedman, became an art educator because…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to discover how novice teachers describe their self-efficacy as contributing to their sense of classroom readiness after completing their teacher training programs in Texas. This helps to understand the experiences of novice teachers in which data was collected using a questionnaire,…

Faculty teams from 19 member institutions of the Council of Independent Colleges participated in the CIC Seminars in STEM Pedagogy during Summer 2019 (in-person) and Summer 2021 (virtual). Team leaders were to report on their final outcomes by June 15, 2023. Eleven institutions submitted final reports. Six of these institutions also provided…