The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of community college administrators in Mississippi regarding the early college high schools located on their campuses. While the ECHS model has become prominent in several states, Mississippi's efforts to implement the model have yet to be fully examined. Six administrators from…

With billions of dollars spent on professional development, there remains a very real disconnect between what teachers are given and what they receive especially in terms of the follow-up of an extended PD program. Several theories attempt to explain the differences that exist within the teacher population, but few professional development…

Professional development is imperative for gifted and talented teachers' improvement in classrooms. However, many professional development courses are not meaningful for teachers and are not presented effectively. Using effective researched strategies, leaders can create better professional development courses. Professional development leaders…

Teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) are a valuable tool that increase teacher collaboration to enhance student learning. These adult learning environments are dynamic in that they are places where adults are able to work within a community of practice (CoP) to address work-related challenges and lend support in semi-structured…

Instructional coaching is a widely accepted form of job-embedded professional development in schools across the United States. The problem is that many new instructional coaches have limited experience facilitating professional growth or working with adult learners. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions coaches…

Today's technologies are rapidly impacting how children learn, play, communicate, and interact with others. Popular media and common wisdom often portray children's technology use as detrimental to their growth and wellbeing. However, in recent years, a wealth of research in Child-Computer Interaction (CCI), education, and health informatics…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how hybrid team members perceive the influence of trust development, conflict management, leadership, and group dynamics at a midsized information technology-centered organization in a Southwestern city in the United States. The problem statement is: It is not known how hybrid team members…

There is a plethora of research showing the effectiveness of active learning in a variety of academic disciplines; however, very few higher education faculty implement these techniques effectively into their classrooms. Departmental teaching culture influences the use of active learning as faculty's teaching behaviors often reflect the shared…

Research on disciplinary variation in graduate student writing (GSW) has typically focused on theses and dissertations. Less attention has been paid to coursework assignments (e.g., essays, recounts, exercises, etc.), which are the pre-cursors to final capstone projects. Coursework papers are prioritized by both students and professors because…

Adult education programs serve students with low literacy and numeracy skills. They provide instructional services below the postsecondary level for students who have limited English proficiency and students who are working towards obtaining their high school equivalency. Once adult education students complete their programs, they may choose to…

This qualitative research study explored how principal efficacy influences the implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). At the time of this study, the majority of literature focused on efficacy in MTSS focused on the teacher and minimal literature focused on the principal efficacy. Research has explored in-depth the principal as…

The purpose of this study was to investigate causes and find solutions to divergent teacher motivations and the consequences of that divergence.Divergent teacher identities and motivations are hindering independent schools from fully realizing their promise because teachers are not being as developed as comprehensively as they could. This study…

The purpose of this capstone project was to study the student-athlete experience, including post-sport life. Participants were invited to engage in the research study so long as they met the following requirements: must be between ages 21-31, male or female, played a NCAA Division I sport for all four years of college and no longer have athletic…

This mixed methods study used an exploratory sequential design to explore how K-12 public school teachers learned to use technology outside of formal professional development opportunities. Two constructivist adult learning perspectives, social cognitive theory and informal learning, provided a framework to understand how individuals create and…

In this multicase study (Stake, 2005), I studied a semester-long online implementation of the "Mathematics Discourse in Secondary Classrooms" (Herbel-Eisenmann, Cirillo, et al., 2017) (MDISC) teaching professional development (T-PD)--slightly modified for the university context--which I offered to three mathematics-teaching graduate…