Encounters with primary sources--historical or contemporary artifacts that bear direct witness to a specific period or event--are central to the pedagogy of many disciplines, especially in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Their use in undergraduate instruction aligns with universities' commitments to experiential and inquiry-based…

Teacher professional development (PD) is widely pursued as a critical component of overall school improvement. However, it is frequently ineffective at changing teaching practice or impacting student outcomes. While online PD has the potential to greatly expand access to high-quality PD, questions remain about the extent to which online PD can be…

The purpose of this study was to explore and attempt to understand the experiences, along with the efforts and perceptions of those efforts, of teachers who implemented flexible seating during the COVID-19 pandemic. A semi-structured interview protocol was used and aligned with the theoretical framework, constructivist learning theory.…

More than a century of research exists on summer learning loss and summer learning programs. However, many schools continue to underutilize the summer as a period of time in which students with academic deficits can catch up to their peers. Few studies have explored the impacts of summer learning experiences on concentrated, school-level…

This study aimed to rectify the problem of inadequate preparation and support of faculty in the Student Success (SLS) course at Brentwood State College (name of institution changed for reasons of confidentiality) (BSC). This problem of practice is significant because the SLS course is intended to contribute significantly to students acquiring…

With the widespread use of technology in education, the nature and role of technology in the process of learning are becoming increasingly difficult to understand. There is a need to shift the focus of education technology from innovating around tools to innovating around designing new digital learning environments. Designing digital learning…

The ability to make informed decisions is a skill considered as one of the 21st century skills and is crucial as part of the critical thinking and problem-solving process in science and engineering. Despite its importance, students (e.g., beginning designers) often struggle with making informed design decisions that are well supported by relevant…

This summary is based on the accompanying "Monitoring and Evaluation for In-Service Teacher Professional Development Programs: A Technical Guidance Note." The guidance note provides details on these highlights and sets out how to navigate some of the challenges that governments and other organizations may face when designing and…

This study addresses the broader issue of designing inclusive and accessible online courses for post-secondary students. One approach that can be used to assist with such efforts is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is the guiding conceptual framework for this study. This conceptual framework emphasizes inclusivity and accessibility as…

Career centers in higher education must create environments that serve the needs of students and alumni. Alumni not only are a served population, but also are beneficial to student career development, and serve dual purposes as clients and volunteers. One program frequently offered by career centers that engages alumni volunteers is an alumni mock…

If we want mathematics education to be valuable to everybody, including those who do not pursue mathematics-related careers, we need to use mathematics as a training ground for certain ways of thinking. This dissertation focuses on one aspect of mathematical thinking, namely theory building. It has three parts -- unpacking what constitutes theory…

In multisite experiments, we can quantify treatment effect variation with the cross-site treatment effect variance. However, there is no standard method for estimating cross-site treatment effect variance in multisite regression discontinuity designs (RDD). This research rectifies this gap in the literature by systematically exploring and…

This Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP) reviews the state of online learning at the University of Delaware (UD). UD lacks the sufficient infrastructure and resources to support online learning, despite its steady growth in online enrollments over the past decade. This growth was punctuated with a spike in online enrollments due to the pivot to…

The mission of high school career and technical education (CTE) programs is to prepare high school graduates for a career. This study provides insight into the educational practices that support students with the skills necessary for workplace success, as not all CTE program graduates are prepared for the workplace with industry-ready skills. The…

Background: Researchers are often interested in testing the effectiveness of an intervention on multiple outcomes, for multiple subgroups, at multiple points in time, or across multiple treatment groups. The resulting multiplicity of statistical hypothesis tests can lead to spurious findings of effects. Multiple testing procedures (MTPs)…