Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> The purpose of this study was to compare the athletic participation rate of males and females within the high school of study. Freshmen and senior students were surveyed to gather data on the reasons students chose to participate or not participate in athletics. Focus groups were conducted at a local university to further explore why students participated in athletics and why some of these students discontinued their participation in athletics. Focus groups also explored challenges facing athletes and student perceptions of female participation in athletics. Athletic participation data from the high school of study were also taken into consideration. </p><p> This study also touched on the history of females as they journeyed throughout history from the Theory of Separate Spheres to Title IX. The impact of Title IX on female athletics is also touched upon. Special attention was paid to the struggle female athletes have as they compete in athletics, why athletics are good for all participants, and health risks specific to females. Based on all of the data gathered, recommendations were made to the high school of study, to parents of female athletes, and for future studies to increase female athletic participation. Results of this study will assist administrators as they look for ways to increase female athletic participation within the high school of study.</p>

The issue of boarding education at secondary level has been one of controversy in Nigeria at least throughout the period since Independence. From 1960 onwards the various authorities charged with the provision of secondary schooling have had to relate the educational legacies of colonialism, including the English boarding school model, to the needs and demands of a newly emerging and economically diversifying country. This thesis is therefore concerned inter alia to identify the influences, characteristics and problems of secondary boarding schools in Nigeria, and especially in the Eastern States of that country. It attempts first to identify significant formative influences through an historical/ documentary study, and then to ascertain empirically contemporary attitudes and perceptions of the various parties to the provision and operation of such schools today. In so doing, aspects such as organisation, administration, management, discipline, values, routine, facilities and infrastructure are described and discussed. The thesis has twelve chapters, organised in three parts: Part A comprises six chapters dealing with the identification of the problem and contributing factors. Chapters One and 2 Two outline the environmental and educational context. Chapter Three illustrates the history and nature of the problem, whilst Chapter Four provides an explanation of the research context. Chapter Five reviews some previous research on boarding and Chapter Six is a consideration of the nature and development of the most influential model, the English Public School. Part B, the development and nature of boarding in the study area deals mainly with aspects of the history and character of boarding schools in Nigeria and especially in the Eastern States. So Chapter Seven is concerned with the long period up to and including the Nigerian civil war, which ended in 1970. Chapter Eight reviews the post-war situation which is given a more detailed focus by Chapter Nine, an account of a preliminary field survey carried out by the writer in 1981. Part C of the thesis is concerned with the current attitudes of the various parties as ascertained by the writer's main empirical exercise, that is to say staff, students and parents. Chapter Ten describes the empirical methods selected and used, and is followed by Chapter Eleven which is a detailed account of the findings. Chapter Twelve 1S a discussion of the results obtained. The thesis concludes with a summary, and recommendations for improving provision in this sector, e~ecially in respect of the quality of facilities and staffing. 3 The Study confirmed what was generally assumed and suspected: that boarding school arrangements in the Eastern States of Nigeria continue to be in very high demand more than 25 years after Independence. The main conclusion was that parents, school authorities, members of the public and students, in general prefer bo~rding to day schools at this level despite the severe problems of plant and staff quality that are very evident. The thesis concludes with a number of alternative strategies, recommendations and comments aimed at improving the condition and provision in this sector of schooling. It is clearly not just a matter of improving physical facilities, there is urgent need for a clarification of the objectives of such provision in modern Nigeria as well as for suitable staff development programmes that will assist their realisation.

<p> The Alabama Vocal Association (AVA) is the choral division of the Alabama Music Educators Association (AMEA), the state chapter of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). This mixed methods study examined non-participation in AVA All-State Choral Festival and AVA State Choral Performance Assessment (SCPA) among Alabama public high schools (N = 355). Quantitative data were event choral program participation lists for 2012 &ndash; 2013 provided by the state AVA office and demographic statistics found on the Alabama State Department of Education website including ethnicity (percentage of White students), FRL (percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch), and school size (total enrollment) for all Alabama public high schools. Qualitative data were transcripts and field notes (N = 56 pages) from interviews (N = 26), a focus session at the 2014 AVA Fall Workshop with AVA members (N = 35), and follow-up personal communications (N = 39) with choral teachers representing all AVA districts (N = 7). An Analysis of Variance revealed two significant indicators for AVA participation: (a) FRL, F(1,353) = 169.5, p &lt; .001 (non-participating schools M = 63.74 FRL; participating schools M = 49.05 FRL) and (b) school size, F(1,353) = 48.39, p &lt; .001 (non-participating schools M = 414.99 students; participating schools M = 983.03 students). Ethnicity, F(1, 352) = .458, p = .499, was not found to be a significant indicator of AVA participation. Qualitative findings suggested administrative support, financial limitations, teaching classes other than choral music, and lack of communication between AVA and some choral teachers accounted for non-participation in AVA events.</p>

<p> This dissertation seeks to investigate the term <i>joyful learning </i> as it applies to the learning process. Using methods of narrative inquiry, the collected stories of students serve as the nucleus around which the understanding of joyful learning is built. This inquiry is grounded in the literature of joy in the learning process, whole child learning theory, deep learning, agency in learning, and educational wounds. In this narrative inquiry, 15 students ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade were asked to tell the story of their experience with learning. A domain analysis was completed on the stories of wounds and celebrations in the interviewees&rsquo; varied learning experiences and the identification of commonalities served as a catalyst for an enhancement of education theory and laid the foundation for future research on the importance of joy in the learning process of human beings. The themes emerging in this narrative inquiry were joy, engagement and disengagement in learning, connected learning, motivators and de-motivators, peer influence, positioning, relationship between the student and the teacher, agency, forced learning, standardized assessment and meaningful assessment, educational wounds, and the significance of education. Evidence of educational wounding surfaced in all 15 stories, illuminating a connection between the wounding and the replacement of student-centered learning practices with compulsory, standardized reforms.</p>

<p> Basic nursing education is no longer sufficient to meet the escalating demands of today&rsquo;s complex healthcare environment. Recognizing the need for the advanced cognitive skills incurred by these demands, increasing numbers of registered nurses (RNs) have been enrolling in online Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs. The problem identified in the RN to BSN degree completion program at a large Midwestern university was the lack of information as to how online teaching and learning strategies were experienced by students. Research has demonstrated that the online community of inquiry (CoI) model facilitates higher order thinking through collaborative learning strategies and the interaction of teaching, social, and cognitive presence. The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to investigate the perceptions of RNs enrolled in the program about a recently completed course utilizing a 34-item CoI survey and semi-structured interviews. The data from 109 completed survey responses were analyzed via descriptive statistics and indicated that student perceptions of social and teaching presence were lower than perceptions of cognitive presence, meaning that the perceived establishment of online relationships and instructor engagement were not as high as were the perceived experiences of higher order thinking. Interviews with 15 purposefully selected students were analyzed for emergent themes and suggested limited online collaboration, which is considered to be fundamental to higher order learning. Based on these findings, a faculty development workshop was designed using the CoI model to encourage collaboration. A potential increase in RN proficiency in higher order thinking fostered by the CoI model will optimize the quality of patient-related decisions, minimize medical errors, and provide the impetus to challenge the status quo in health care.</p>

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate parents' involvement in secondary student education. In addition, the relationship between school leaders use of selective educational leadership theories to enhance parental involvement were explored. The participants consisted of 200 parents of freshmen students at two different high schools in Southern Arizona. The participants completed a survey instrument.Pearson Product Correlations were used to investigate the effects of gender of the student, grades of the student, and educational level of the parent on the parent perception of the school, parental involvement at home, and parental involvement at school. The results were disaggregated by ethnicity.There was significance found with the parents of Hispanic students. These parents were significantly more involved with their sons at the school and the higher educated the parents were, the more significantly they were involved at the school. Data from the open-ended question section of the survey instrument revealed the need for communication between parents and school.The overall findings from this study suggest the importance of building partnerships between parents and school and the manner in which education leaders can employ various educational theories to support the implementation of successful home/school partnerships.

<p>The study set out to determine the effects of Career Technical Education Career Academy participation on student outcome measures in a high minority urban school district. Three research questions explored student participation in career academies and student outcomes in the area of grade point average, credit completion and/or attendance rates. The three research questions investigated in this study were: 1) What are the effects of CTE on student achievement, grade point average, credit completion, and attendance rates? 2) Does the amount of time in the CTE program affect the dependent variables of grade point average, credit completion, and attendance rate? 3) Does the CTE academy affect the dependent variables of grade point average, credit completion, and attendance rates? The quasi-experimental design, which matched Career Technical Education participants and non-participants according to various demographic variables, allowed the researcher to control for variables that usually impact grade point average, credit completion and attendance rates. The matching and labeling of CTE participants and non-participants occurred prior to students' participation in an academy. The results of this study adds to a relatively small body of research which examines the impact of Career Technical Education programs implemented in thousands of high schools across the country. Multiple regression was run and results concluded that participation in Career Technical Education significantly impacts grade point average and credit completion rates. However the amount of time in an academy only affected grade point average and the academy students participated in did not have an impact any of the student outcomes measured in this study. Further studies of similar design which measure student outcomes should be performed to confirm or deny the results of this study. </p>

<p> This mixed-method research examines student achievement, student interaction and social elements to determine which elements support online course completion for students in a state virtual school. The quantitative goals seek to find a possible degree of convergence with the course completion average grade. Qualitative data from 10 high school students, their teachers, and quantitative data from their courses were gathered. Quantitative data from the learning management system (LMS) was reproduced, scrubbed of unwanted data, such as dropped students. Mixed method constant comparison was performed to determine a descriptive analysis of three variables: student achievement, student interaction, and social elements. Using the data gathered from the qualitative interviews, a yes or no was assigned to the students for behavioral, cognitive, and social skills. Using descriptive statistics, the skills were compared to the students' course grades. The results revealed a strong pattern match of data for Research Question 1. This data was indicative of the need for behavioral, cognitive, and social skills to complete an online course. Quantitative and teacher data were grouped by themes: asynchronous, administrative, and assessments; synchronous added for teacher data. A constant comparison of data correspondence was performed between the student course average grade, the access data, LMS theme data, and the course average final grade. The investigation of Research Question 2 indicated that the LMS's reporting module can determine interactions to support online course completion by providing average grade analysis along with access analysis and tool usage analysis.</p>