This dissertation was designed to examine how experiences, education, and professional development informed culturally responsive pedagogy and influenced teacher beliefs in their ability to guide students to success when employing culturally responsive teaching practices. The research school district was located in the piedmont region of North…

This document summarizes a review of research, evaluation, resources, and stakeholder knowledge related to the topic of translation services for schools and districts. Databases used for conducting this review included Google Scholar and ERIC. Literature from peer-reviewed, scholarly journals was reviewed (noted with an asterisk), along with…

Teacher certification is an important topic in the history of teaching in American education. Policymakers have recognized that for students to meet high standards, their teachers must also be of high quality (Goldhaber, Perry & Anthony, 2004; McCaffrey, Lockwood, Koretz, & Hamilton, 2003). The National Board for Professional Teaching…

We argue in this paper that the experience of reading is an intricate and dynamic weaving of connections much like the tentative construction of a spider's web. We also use the metaphor of the web to examine a professional learning experience for Australian secondary school English teachers who over the course of a year, and by working in…

Self-determination skills are a potential predictor of post-school success for individuals with disabilities. This study examined the perspectives of special educators of students in preschool through age 22 in one school district who participated in multiple professional development and coaching sessions on self-determination including the…

This feminist-centered, narrative study focuses on the troubling gender gaps in higher education leadership by exploring the career paths and lived experiences of current women administrators at a large, public land-grant institution. This research identifies specific supports and barriers women face throughout their careers that might enable or…

This study examined a novel learning environment in one kindergarten classroom with 90% Spanish-speaking ELLs. The design combined the interactive whiteboard platform and a student-centered, constructionist pedagogy to structure cooperative tasks, academic language and semiotic formations through the engineering design process within a…

Young children experiencing toxic stress has negative consequences on their development. The purpose of this case study was to explore teachers' perceptions of toxic stress in young children and the classroom practices used to assist students experiencing toxic stress from two rural early childhood centers in an eastern state in the United States.…

Within the first-generation student population, foster care alumni (FCA) comprise an overlooked population. Completion of a baccalaureate degree is more problematic for FCA as compared to low-income, first-generation non-foster peers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how FCA perceive and experience their behavioral achievement…

This qualitative study investigates the teaching practices of university professors in Saudi Arabia and their impact on the students' learning. To this end, the exercise seeks to observe and analyze the perceptions of the teaching methods used by Saudi university professors in relation to engaging students and developing critical thinking skills.…

The tradition of lecturing in higher education is synonymous to teaching (Morrison, 2014). Fortunately, those in higher education today are pushing for viable alternatives such as active learning because several studies have shown the positive impact on student performance, student achievement, and other learning goals (Auerbach & Andrews,…

The transition from middle school to high school can be challenging for some students. Many school districts are implementing practices to ease the transition to high school. The current study examined one school district's practices and procedures for the development and implementation of a ninth-grade center. In this study, I examined the…

The idea that language skills support school readiness, predicting later self-regulation and academic success, is widely accepted. Although vocabulary is often emphasized in the developmental literature, the ability to use language appropriately in the classroom, or "social communication skills," may also be critical. This paper examined…

As diagnostic numbers within autism continue to climb, educators, parents, and other professionals have an ever-increasing demand to provide effective, empirically based programs that foster improvements across a variety of developmental, academic, and social needs. This study incorporated use of a Peer Mediated Instruction and Intervention (PMII)…

This randomized controlled trial examined effects of the MyTeachingPartner-Math/Science intervention on the quality and quantity of teachers' mathematics and science instruction, and children's mathematics and science outcomes in 140 pre-kindergarten classrooms. Teachers participated in the intervention for two years with consecutive cohorts of…