This study explored the support for play in public school kindergarten classrooms in a single urban school district in the Northwest region of the United States. Through a three-phased data collection approach that included an online survey, in-person interviews, and classroom observations, the researcher gathered information to describe how…

The results of our previous research on the pedagogical use of Speaking Robots (SRs) revealed positive effects on motivating students to practice their oral skills in a stress-free environment. However, our findings indicated that the SR was sometimes unable to understand students' foreign accented speech. In this paper, we report the results of a…

Climate change science is complex and controversial in nature, yet seen by educators and policy makers as an important topic to be taught within secondary science education. This is becoming increasingly evident with the inclusion of climate change into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Earth and Space Sciences as well as Life…

The goal of this study was to identify unique profiles of readers in a sample of 8-16 year olds with higher functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) and examine the profiles in relation to ASD symptom severity. Eighty-one students were assessed utilizing a comprehensive reading battery that included basic word reading, language, and…

Over the past few decades, organizations, researchers, and professional developers have noted the potential for using classroom discussions to improve student learning in mathematics classrooms. Yet, for teachers, managing the often-competing demands that arise while attempting to plan for and enact these discussions can be challenging. To better…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), which replaced the federal government's education policy called the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002), takes full effect in the 2017-2018 school year with renewed focus on accountability systems established by each state. States must have for their middle schools rigorous accountability systems in…

The purpose of this three study dissertation is to investigate why students are enrolled in introductory physics courses experience difficulties in being successful; one possible source of their difficulties is related to their epistemology. In order to investigate students' epistemologies about mathematics and physics, students were observed…

This correlational-predictive study investigated the relationship between teacher perceptions of technology use and observed classroom technology integration level using the "Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey" (TUPS) and the "Technology Integration Matrix-Observation" (TIM-O) instruments, developed by the Florida Center…

This was a phenomenological study of the lived experiences of women who serve as college presidents. Three women, who serve as current college presidents, participated in this study. The first was a president at a two-year community college in the upper Midwest for twelve years and served as president in another Midwestern community college for…

Many important real-world decision-making problems involve group interactions among individuals with purely informational interactions. Such situations arise for example in jury deliberations, expert committees, medical diagnoses, etc. We model the purely informational interactions of group members, where they receive private information and act…

The purpose of the study was to ascertain which human, material, and experiential resources supporting emergent literacy of children were present in the microsystems of some low-income families with children under the age of four. This mixed methods study used naturalistic inquiry as the primary strategic approach. Methods included home visits and…

The goal of this study was to identify unique profiles of readers in a sample of 8-16-year olds with higher functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) and examine the profiles in relation to ASD symptom severity. Eighty-one students were assessed utilizing a comprehensive reading battery that included basic word reading, language, and…

The purpose of this case study was to explore a principal's experiences and how they aligned to Hallinger and Murphy's (1985) effective instructional leadership practices in an era of accountability. This study of effective principal leadership is timely and relevant due to the recent implementation of national and state mandates for principals to…

This study investigates the success of a method used to encourage active engagement strategies among community and research faculty in a College of Medicine, and examines the effects of these strategies on medical student engagement and exam scores. Ten faculty used suggestions from the Active Engagement Strategies Website (AESW), which explained…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] This manuscript discusses how learning theories have been applied to shape multiple aspects of the design of curricular activities combining interactive computer simulations and University of Washington style tutorials (so-called simulation-tutorials).…