This study evaluated how comic books and graphic novels enhanced the reading comprehension of the students enrolled in the intermediate reading course at Western Pennsylvania Community College. The three research questions are: (1) How can a developmental reading course make use of comics as a learning tool? (2) What impact does reading comics…

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential impact parental expectations have on the academic achievement of children born with low-birth weight to inform educational leaders. Literature on levels of children born with birth weights as low as 1 LB to as high as 9 LBS were evaluated based on: birth weight, academic achievement, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine how perceived gender roles developed throughout childhood and early adulthood impacted the career decisions of women in science-related career fields. An additional purpose was to determine if my experiences as I analyzed the data and the propositions discovered in the study would become a transformative…

Single mothers struggle with balancing life challenges and childcare necessities while attending college. Consequently, students who are single mothers experience psychological distress. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the common, life and resiliency factors shared by single mothers who are students. The study was…

The study examined the relationship between Guided-Imagery (GI) and Self-Efficacy (SE) as means to better understand how GI techniques affect SE levels, particularly in relation to career related performance. The use of GI has been found to elicit a state of relaxation where a deep level of focus is achieved which some would call an altered state…

The advancement of women into academic leadership remains a problem facing public, high-research activity universities. While there are more women who are qualified to assume the position of department chair in research institutions today than there were 30 years ago, women still lag behind their male counterparts in holding these academic…

Citizen science programs are joint efforts between hobbyists and professional scientists designed to collect data to support scientific research. Through these programs, biologists study species population trends while citizen scientists improve their content knowledge and science skills. The purpose of the present mixed method quasi-experimental…

The use of educational technologies as a tool to improve academic achievement continues to increase as more technologies becomes available to students. However, teachers are entering the classroom not fully prepared to integrate technology into their daily classroom teaching because they have not been adequately prepared to do so. Teacher…

When college composition teachers carefully consider the role and function of multimodal composition in their classrooms, they can enhance the teaching of writing and communication, engage and empower students, and better prepare students for the challenges and possibilities of life in our rapidly changing digital age. To meet this teaching…

Over the past decade, educational policy trends have shifted to a focus on examining students' growth from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). One way states can track students' growth is with a vertical scale. Presently, every state that uses a vertical scale bases the scale on a unidimensional IRT model. These models make a…

Since the mid-1970s, teleworking has been recognized as being beneficial to organizations, individuals, and communities. In the 1980s and 1990s, advancements in technology made teleworking an attractive option for many workers, including those with disabilities. Teleworking has gained popularity and has been heralded as a method of accommodation…

Information technology (IT) use for epidemiological purposes in state public health departments has been documented only for a limited number of specific applications, leaving questions about its actual utilization and hindering IT's potential for information sharing. Communications, stages of change, and systems theories all influence the…

The relationships between gender, math attitude, and math achievement have traditionally been studied within individual countries, despite the existence of large international data sets available for analysis. This dissertation investigated the relationships between gender, math attitude, and math achievement based on information from 50…

Adoption of a comprehensive information security governance model and security controls is the best option organizations may have to protect their information assets and comply with regulatory requirements. Understanding acceptance factors of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management Framework (RMF) comprehensive…

Testing an evolutionary framework, this study examined moral self-enhancement in relation to self-deception and self-construal in a cross-cultural context. The participants included 127 U.S. and 107 Chinese college students. The results demonstrated that moral self-enhancement is not a characteristic unique to individualistic ideology but rather a…