Decades of research and practice suggest that educational administrators need to experience opportunities for professional development and continuous learning. This project study addressed the problem regarding the lack of a formal or systemic plan for professional development of central office administrators in a large suburban school district in…

African American grandmothers have long held the roles of religious leaders and educators among family members and the wider community, though the provision of religious education and informal learning from grandparent caregivers have not been well documented in the literature. Based upon the gaps in the literature, we examined the informal…

Emerging from Bandura's Social Learning Theory, this study of in-service elementary school teachers examined the effects of sustained Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) on self-efficacy in science teaching. Based on mixed research methods, and a non-equivalent control group experimental design, the investigation explored changes in…

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present different needs to special education teachers in school today. Without the proper supports and preparation, 75% of special education teachers will leave the field of special education within the first ten years of teaching, with most of the teachers leaving the field within the first three years…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how preschool teachers describe their learning needs, understanding, and practice of social and emotional child assessments in the northeast United States. This research emerged from the problem space of recent literature--theory: Bandura's Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and…

The purpose of this project study was to assist school principals in hiring quality teachers by examining existing hiring processes and research-based criteria on teacher practices that influence student achievement. The superintendent in one school district identified a problem of low student achievement and high teacher turnover. The theoretical…

The purpose of this study was to determine adapted physical educators' perceptions and practices about teaching social skills to students with disabilities. A questionnaire based on Bandura's social learning theory concept of modeling was developed and mailed to an entire frame of 426 adapted physical education teachers in the state of Ohio. Face…

The concept of retention in higher education institutions is certainly a hot topic. Institutions have explored first year seminars, engagement with faculty and creating a culture of connectivity and belongingness among the student population to include extra-curricular activities in creating an engaged student that will persist until graduation.…

A portion of high-school students do not experience success or encounter extenuating circumstances that do not allow them to attend a traditional comprehensive high school to complete their high-school diploma requirements, so they enroll in some kind of alternative education to complete these requirements. These alternative education…

Teachers were once held to a professional dress code. This code has become lax, resulting in teachers dressing in more casual attire. A local middle school in rural Georgia was experiencing complaints about teachers' unprofessional attire from other teachers, administrators, and parents. Teachers play an integral role in modeling cultural and…

This dissertation in practice created a new form of educator development called the Virtual Educator Network (VEN) and examined its impact on educators' attitudes towards inclusion, feelings of support, and incorporation of new strategies to solve problems of practice they find important. The VEN is a form of professional development that pulls…

Despite years of educational reform, many students do not perform on grade level, and all graduates are not prepared to succeed in college. As a result, there has been a renewed interest in personalized learning. This qualitative case study explored the thinking and decision-making processes of teachers who implement personalized learning for…

The impostor phenomenon is a psychological self-belief that one does not deserve the accolades that one has legitimately earned. Impostorism negatively affects individuals' cognitions, behaviors, and expectations, but possibly not in "all" aspects of their lives simultaneously. Presently, we reconceptualize the impostor phenomenon as a…

The use of multiple forms of collaborative instruction to teach integrated algebra makes it difficult for teachers to determine which collaborative form is best suited for the curriculum. An inconsistent approach to integrated algebra instruction at the study school needed to be addressed for the benefit of teacher effectiveness and student…

An achievement gap exists in mathematics between low-income African American male students and their European American counterparts. Although this problem has been approached using different interventions with minimal results, the impact of homogenous grouping is not well understood in spite of its use. As a result, this study was conducted to…