Attracting and retaining highly qualified school leaders is becoming increasingly important in our nation. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that motivate or inhibit practicing teachers from seeking administrative positions. Using exploratory factor analysis, survey responses of 329 students enrolled in Master of School…

Growing awareness of the importance of teacher quality in mathematics and science has stimulated a variety of national reports and funded initiatives for the purpose of improving teaching and learning in K-12 schools. This study examined the work of awardees in one federally-funded program that included a focus on increasing the number, quality,…

The college retention rates for underrepresented minorities (URM) in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) are lower than other groups. One reason may be that the studies often do not view premature departure from a cultural perspective. This exploratory investigation focused on developing an instrument that employed a cultural…

"El Escalafon" is the process for appointing school directors and "el Doble Turno" is the double shift of morning and afternoon session in Mexican schools. These two concepts open the door to examine more general issues in the appointment of school directors and the structure of the school day. Director appointment and school time are rooted in…

This study used an open-ended structured interview to investigate seven parents' of students with disabilities perceptions of charter schools and why they chose this type of school to educate their child. Findings showed a general theme of parents believing that the traditional area public school did not meet their child's needs in terms of size,…

National background of users may influence the process of technology acceptance. The present study explored this issue with the new, integrated technology use model proposed by Sun and Zhang (2006). Data were collected from samples of college students in India, Mauritius, Reunion Island, and United States. Questionnaire methodology and…

This article describes the findings of a longitudinal study examining how teachers' confidence toward using technology have evolved, if at all, since taking an educational technology course during their preservice teacher education experience. Pre- and post-surveys were administered to undergraduate and graduate teacher education students at the…

In this literature review, the effects of computer-mediated instruction on the learning of students with mild and moderate disabilities are synthesized from 1996 onward that extends our previously published synthesis for the period 1987-1995. Empirically based findings are reviewed and discussed in the basic skills areas of reading, writing, and…

This study explored Metacognition and how automated instructional support in the form of problem-solving and self-reflection prompts influenced students' capacity to solve complex problems in a Web-based learning environment. Specifically, we examined the independent and interactive effects of problem-solving prompts and reflection prompts on…

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible factors that may affect academic achievement when instruction is delivered via podcast. Seventeen female Communication Sciences and Disorders students participated in this exploratory study conducted in the fall of 2006. Measurements of participants' individual differences on four variables…

This study examines how social and motivational attributes may influence students' online learning experiences. Based on a review of social theories of learning and research about individual characteristics associated with motivation four constructs were included: social ability, learning goal orientation, perceived task value, and self-efficacy.…

This study investigates the association between home computer experience and cognitive development among preschool children in inner-city Head Start programs. Approximately 200 children enrolled in four Head Start centers in Detroit, Michigan were recruited to participate in this study. Data was collected from parents regarding the children's…

This study of student performance in an online Algebra course looked at the development, implementation, and evaluation of interactive tools for graphing linear equations. The study focused on an interactive tool that was evaluated with virtual school Algebra students for a challenging component of the course. The performance of these students in…

The use of online learning is growing very fast in universities. Consequently, understanding how to promote student contribution in asynchronous online discussions, which is considered an integral part of online learning, has become increasingly crucial. Previous research has examined how factors, such as instructor facilitation techniques may…

A model, based on Social-Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2002), was developed to test the influence of the College of Education (COE) faculty members' self-efficacy in, outcome expectations from, and interest in educational technology on their intentions to use the technology. While outcome expectations affect faculty…