This Dissertation in Practice (DIP) was a group dissertation as required by the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program and created a new form of educator development called the Virtual Educator Network (VEN). This DIP examined the VENs' impact on educators' attitudes towards inclusion, feelings of support, and incorporation of new strategies…

Though the United States maintains a great presence in our global economy, our country is still lagging behind many others in terms of achievement in mathematics. Developing the ability to think creatively and communicate effectively is paramount to ensuring our students are prepared for the competitiveness of the 21st century world. Rich…

Today's students spend an unprecedented amount of time using technology in comparison to any other generation. With increased access to technology, music-making has changed for the 21st-century music student. How are music teachers then keeping up with the needs of today's technology-hungry music students, and how are they leveraging music…

The instructional decisions made by classroom teachers impact the learning acquired by students. The Common Core Mathematics Standards and the history of mathematics education in the United States create a background for how geometry standards are taught in one Midwest middle school. A study of the pacing guides, lesson plans, and naturalistic…

In the United States the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) workforce is in high demand. To meet this demand, students graduating from high school must have the necessary 21st century skills and interest to pursue a STEM career. Unfortunately, student interest in STEM has been shown to decline starting in the upper grades of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and experiences of clarinet lesson teachers toward their private students with special needs, and to outline pedagogical strategies that clarinet teachers can use with special learners. To determine the results, a survey was sent to private clarinet teachers from the United States (N = 80).…

The problem of grade inflation has become epidemic in higher education. The purpose of this research was to determine the experiences, perceptions, and interpretations of adjunct college instructors with the phenomenon of grade inflation. The researcher used a qualitative phenomenological study methodology. Twenty-three respondents participated in…

Mathematics as a discipline has ignored the experiences of African American students, making it difficult for them to develop strong mathematical identities and racial identities in relation to math. Black children and their academic achievements are often framed negatively, and underachievement and failure are often emphasized over their…

This project looked at faculty accounts of emotional experiences in the workplace. Specifically, this project examined how faculty in higher education spoke about emotions and teaching, the ways emotional labor manifested itself in higher education faculty, and the relationship between emotions and the environment. Participants (?n = 90) were…

New graduate nurses often lack the clinical decision-making skills that are essential for developing clinical competency. Critical thinking abilities are essential for nursing excellence and professional competency. However, little is known about nurse educators' techniques and teaching practices for developing students' critical thinking. The…

In this study, I worked with five secondary mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) in their final year of their undergraduate teacher education program at a large, midwestern university. I examined written lesson plans, observed enacted lessons, and interviewed PSTs about planning and teaching. The purpose of this study was to better understand…

What is the work of an elementary teacher attempting to teach mathematics in ways that disrupt pervasive patterns of inequity and promote justice and success for children from historically marginalized groups? What problems or tensions arise at the beginning of the school year in pursuing these goals and seeking to build community in a…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how female African American STEM majors described the instructional approaches and social experiences enabling them to pursue a STEM major. The theoretical foundations guiding the research were authentic teaching and learning and social learning theory. The study questions were:…

This qualitative grounded theory study explored rural elementary teachers' perceptions and enactments of dialogic English Language Arts (ELA) comprehension instruction amidst pandemic-induced remote learning. Nine rural elementary teachers participated in two rounds of semi-structured interviews and shared digital artifacts of their virtual ELA…

STEM is a well-known acronym describing the intersections of science, technology, engineering, and math. Emerging from this paradigm is a relatively new interdisciplinary model entitled STEAM. STEAM endeavors to intersperse "the arts" into the sciences with the expectation of increasing student engagement and skills within the sciences.…