Early childhood educators play a significant role in attending to the whole child by nurturing, caring, educating, and molding the young minds in their care. To be effective educators, early childhood educators must be well-rounded with the knowledge to attend to the children with utmost care and consideration. Early childhood teachers must be…

Inquiry and disciplinary literacy are approaches in history and social science education that center students as active inquirers who investigate in multiple sources and come to their own conclusions regarding relevant questions and complex issues. These approaches have been gaining momentum in research and practice internationally, but have not…

Student teachers (N = 22) in a New York State Graduate School of Education pre-service teacher preparation program reported feeling ineffective in using classroom management (CM) skills and strategies. Using an Improvement Science approach and Bandura's work on self-efficacy, this mixed methods research project examined whether providing…

Physical inactivity has been one of the most critical threats to public health with obesity being one of the conditions associated with a physically inactive lifestyle (WHO, 2010). Scholars have indicated that obesity is one of the intractable consequences associated with a sedentary lifestyle increasing health risk factors, i.e., cardiovascular…

Interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is more important than ever since the Pandemic ravaged our nation's medical resources and personnel. This exploratory study, intended to establish and characterize potential identifiers and markers of student interest development in an inquiry-driven learning…

School readiness is often defined as being at an expected developmental level across domains such as social and emotional, language and literacy, math, and science (Office of Head Start, 2015; Washington State Department of Early Learning, 2012; Teaching Strategies, 2001). Suppose children start without the foundation and identity in early science…

Graduate student professional development initiatives aim to prepare future faculty for college-level teaching. One such program is the Certificate in College Teaching (CCT). CCT programs provide graduate students with foundational knowledge and authentic teaching experiences to prepare them to design and deliver instruction at the college level.…

The problem of this study is the increase of challenging behaviors among elementary school students and the limited use of a SEL universal screener as a proactive measure to identify the students who exhibit a heightened level of concern that requires a tier 2 or tier 3 level of intervention. This quantitative study examined the impact of Second…

This study examines why the passing rates of African Americans on the CBEST are the lowest in California at 60%. Madkins (2011) identified licensure testing as a significant reason why African Americans cannot enter the teaching progression. According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2016), California has an ongoing credentialed teacher shortage. An…

This phenomenological study examines the experience of middle school youth at a small public school in New Hampshire as they engaged in youth participatory action research (YPAR) designed to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within their predominantly White suburban community. This study centered the 22 participants' perspectives…

This dissertation uses practitioner inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, 2009), narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 1990; Rolling & Bey, 2016; Schaafsma & Vinz, 2011; Toliver, 2020a), composite character counter storytelling (Baker-Bell, 2020), and critical discourse analysis (Bloome et al., 2008; Bloome & Power-Carter,…

This project was designed to develop a Bible curriculum that trains parents to be primary disciple-makers of their children at Covenant Preparatory School in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Chapter 1 explains the purpose, goals, context, and rationale for the project. Chapter 2 provides a biblical and theological basis why parents are to be the…

Underrepresented students (URS) in graduate occupational therapy (OT) programs often struggle with a sense of not belonging due to a lack of representation in their cohort and curriculum. This has been evident among students who are from racial/ethnic backgrounds, first-generation college students (FGCS), and have had low-income experiences.…

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IBPYP) curriculum for students ages 3-12 is implemented using inquiry-based learning. There is a lack of understanding about primary international teachers' perspectives about their implementation of inquiry-based learning in this setting. The purpose and research question of this basic…

The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to understand the teachers' experiences of working with students who have faced trauma or traumatic events. The number of children facing trauma exposures to violence, crime, and abuse in the classroom has increased. The insufficient knowledge among educators about the effect of trauma on students lays the…