The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of time spent in outdoor play (i.e., on weekday and weekend days) on daily (i.e., average step count) and aerobic step count (i.e., average moderate to vigorous physical activity [MVPA] during the weekdays and weekend days) in fifth grade Costa Rican children. It was hypothesized that: (a)…

This qualitative study examined the nature of 5th-grade students' oral and written discourse in relation to their conceptual learning during six science inquiry-based lessons. Qualitative data were collected using small group observations, transcriptions of small group discourse, students' science notebooks, and student interviews. These data were…

Utilizing a qualitative case study, this dissertation analyzed how one university provided accessibility to international experiential learning opportunities for a primarily disabled student population. The Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS, 2006) in Higher Education consists of a self-assessment guide adapted as a framework to analyze…

Teaching is considered to be a stressful occupation. Many teachers experience ongoing stress from a variety of sources, which eventually leads to burnout, and ultimately is reflected in what has become an alarming rate of attrition. The present study examined the relationship between teachers' experiences of stress, burnout, and salivary cortisol…

This study examines the relationship between prestige and institutional funding profiles. Specifically, it analyses the relationship between increases in institutional prestige and an institution's dependency on traditional revenue sources, defined as tuition, fees, and state appropriations. Research and theory suggest that increases in prestige…

Epidemiological studies have shown that substance abuse among African American women is occurring at an alarming rate that exceeds rates for White women. The heightened use of alcohol and drugs among African American women is a problem that resulted from their racial, historical, and structural position in American society. The literature reveals…

This study examined the convergent validity between a third-party rating scale of executive function (EF) and a task-performance measurement of EF; examined the effects of age, gender, and dual language experience on preschool children's EF skills (inhibition, working memory (WM), and shifting) and on early mathematical skills; and investigated…

This study was conducted to better understand the phenomenology of mid-level administrators employed at Kansas community or technical colleges/schools who experienced the merger process. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to examine individual life experiences. Eight mid-level administrators were interviewed for this study. …

As a nation, we should be committed to providing quality education to all of our students. However, only five percent of over 450 schools in New Mexico with a large ELL population met the AMAOs during the 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 school years (Title III AMAO Results, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009). The AMAOs are: 1) Making Progress in English, 2)…

Teacher self-efficacy has been linked to multiple positive student outcomes and teacher practices (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Grant, 2006; Klassen, et al., 2009; Perrachione, Rosser, & Petersen, 2008). However, few studies, have explored teacher self-efficacy qualitatively (Manuel, 2003; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2007; Tschannen-Moran, Hoy, & Hoy, 1998).…

For the large population of school-age English language learners in California and the United States, the challenge of learning a second language while learning academic content is formidable. Learning to read English skillfully is key to their success. Reading instruction focused on development of oral text-reading fluency has shown strong…

Due to the rapid advances in computing and sensing technologies, enormous amounts of data are being generated everyday in various applications. The integration of data mining and data visualization has been widely used to analyze these massive and complex data sets to discover hidden patterns. For both data mining and visualization to be…

Precepting, coaching, and mentoring are teaching methods used extensively in nursing education in U.S. healthcare facilities. Filipino nurse immigrants have cultural backgrounds that may influence their experience with and perspectives of these learning interventions. Although Filipino nurse immigrants comprise approximately 0.2% of the population…

Past research has uncovered ways to improve communicative competence, including task-based learner-learner interaction (e.g., R. Ellis, 2003) and task planning (e.g., Mochizuki and Ortega, 2008). Teacher-guided planning particularly increases the benefits of learner-learner interaction (Foster and Skehan, 1999). One component of communicative…

The study investigates whether the informal interactive written discourse in instant messaging (IM) is permeating the more formal writing of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) college students, and how students' identities are constructed in terms of English multiliteracies in Taiwan. The study is designed as a qualitative case study. The…