Elementary educators searching for strategies to improve student achievement may benefit from examining the relationship between parents and classroom teachers. The literature indicates that parent involvement may be linked to student achievement, attendance, student motivation, and student self-esteem. Likewise, parents who have a positive…

Epistemologies were measured across two separate lecture sections of introductory algebra-based physics at UC Davis. Remarkable differences in epistemologies, as measured by the MPEX II survey were noted with one section's students (section A) showing significantly better gains in almost all epistemological categories than the other (section…

Online learning is an important and rapidly growing area, and asynchronous discussions are a vital component of online courses. This doctoral study examined the influence of discussion moderator messages, specifically messages with direct instruction content, had on those discussions. This study obtained data from content analysis of course…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and analyze how the graduate course: "Writing, Reading and Teaching Poetry" influenced American and international students' writing, thinking, response to poetry, teaching beliefs and English learning through their participating in the class activities. In this study, I examine…

Engineering education for the pre-college years is a developing academic discipline that emanates from the need to understand and improve the ways that engineers are formally educated. To date, there are no curricula available that incorporate engineering at a preschool level. The focus of this study is on the development of an early engineering…

The Internet has provided more organizations the opportunity to adopt telecommuting as a means to recruit and retain employees, boost productivity, and trim facility costs. This study expands on the work of a previous study by Hoang, Nickerson, Beckman, and Eng, in 2008 which found that private organizations, due to perceptions of organizational…

This study was conducted at the early stages of integrating LEED into the design process in which a clearer understanding of what sustainable and ecological design was about became evident through the duration of designing and building of two academic buildings on a university campus. In this case study, due to utilizing a grounded theory…

This case study used a revision of Tinto's theory of student departure and self-efficacy as frameworks, to explore the experiences of seven students of color who transferred to a small, private, and predominately White residential institution in the rural Midwest. All of the participants in this study faced challenges socially integrating…

Assessments of knowledge and perceptions about influenza were developed for high school students, and used to determine how knowledge, perceptions, and demographic variables relate to students taking precautions and their odds of getting sick. Assessments were piloted with 205 students and validated using the Rasch model. Data were then collected…

Purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to examine single-gender groupings for sixth grade mathematics classes as a strategy to improve student achievement. The method of research was quantitative, with MAP mathematics test data being used to determine if any relationship exists between the strategy and student achievement. Findings.…

The purpose of using a qualitative instrumental case study design for this research was to explore a school district and to gain an understanding about the academic obstacles that a school district may have regarding funding a gifted elementary school curriculum under NCLB mandates. The study elicited reliable and valid data from teachers and…

This dissertation was a qualitative study of the perceptions and pressure of male primary elementary teachers and how these may affect their behavior and career choices. The researcher sought, through interviews of all stakeholders, to better understand the world of a male primary elementary teacher and how they are impacted by the thoughts and…

Distance education, especially that of online coursework, is growing at a phenomenal rate. Despite its growth, there is a lack of experimental and quasi-experimental research that has been conducted to investigate what factors influence students' experiences and academic success in online learning environments. Previous research has focused…

Reading underachievement among adolescent students, particularly in urban areas, has been well documented in the literature. This reality points to two problems: Schools possess neither the capacity needed to prepare students for higher education and the workforce, nor the ability to help students view literacy as a tool for critical thinking,…

This quantitative study examined whether Program M, an intervention targeting young women in a low-income community in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, promoted changes in gender equitable attitudes and self-efficacy in interpersonal relationships among program participants. Further, it investigated whether the program influenced these young…