Social media has been used as an instructional tool for authentic learning in order to enable adaptability through experimentation and action rather than passive listening and regurgitation. The problem addressed in this study is that it is not known how English composition students’ perceptions of authentic learning are impacted by the use of online social media as instructional tools. Authentic learning is characterized by multiple elements, including collaboration, reflection, and communication. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the perceptions of undergraduate 1st year freshmen composition students using social media as instructional tools, across 9 elements of authentic learning. Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Siemens’ theory of connectivism guided this research study:. Research questions were used to examine the relationship that exist across undergraduate freshman composition students' perceptions using social media (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) as instructional tools of the 9 elements of authentic learning. A previously validated survey instrument aligned to Herrington and Oliver’s authentic learning framework was used to collect data from 50 students and then analyzed using a Pearson product correlation. Data showed multiple statistical significances and revealed that students perceived that social media provided them opportunities to collaborate, reflect, and articulate authentically when it was used as an instructional tool. The results from this study may contribute to social change by providing insight into whether or not universities should support faculty who want to use social media as an authentic learning strategy with college students.

One of the most overlooked and complex problems that universities and colleges face nation-wide is how to reduce and eliminate research misconduct. Because of the confidential nature of allegations of research misconduct and the high rate of underreporting, administrators at scholarly institutions struggle with understanding the cause of such behavior. Without a clear picture of the prevalence of misconduct or the barriers to reporting, leaders at institutions of higher learning find themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with these problems. This uncertainty coupled with a growing regulatory emphasis from federal funding agencies, results in a reactionary approach while questionable practices go unchecked. In the early 2000s, federal funding agencies began requiring colleges and universities to provide training in the responsible conduct of research prior to receiving funding. The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training covers research misconduct (falsification of data, fabricating data, and plagiarism) as well as other topics related to research misbehaviors (mentoring, peer review, data management, authorship, etc). This emphasis on training, while well intended, has not had a significant impact on faculty and student knowledge about misconduct. Authentic Leadership Theory is based on Aristotle’s concept of authenticity and has gained attention over the last decade. It is comprised of four main components: Balanced processing, internalized moral perspective, relational transparency, and self-awareness. These types of leaders focus on moral standards and values and that is what guides his or her leadership. This study evaluates the impact authentic leaders have on shaping the ethical attitudes of faculty when they are placed in direct departmental supervisory positions. A survey of faculty from 15 Mississippi colleges and universities was conducted. Results indicate that the self-awareness and relational transparency constructs of authentic leadership influence faculty attitudes towards objective research integrity issues, but the direction of influence conflicts with each of the constructs. Additional variables failed to reach a level of significance suggesting that other variables, not historically associated with organizational leadership and research integrity, are influencing faculty’s ethical perceptions. Additional attention is focused on barriers to effective leadership caused by the compliance focused culture of institutions of higher learning.

Children's literature is crucial in shaping the way young children see and think about themselves in the eyes of society. Although diversity is increasing, a need remains for books that feature Black children as well as accurate portrayals of their lifestyles. According to the Cooperation Children's Book Center (2020), only 400 books out of 3,299 are about Black Americans, while a little over half of that number are actually written by Black authors. Why should children of color have to suffice with reading books that have no connection to their real-world life? Black children should have access to and enjoy quality, award winning books that accurately represent their everyday lifestyles and not merely retell stories from the past. To address these concerns, this thesis examined 16 of the Coretta Scott King (CSK) Award and Honor picturebooks, awarded in 2013-2020, to explore the contents in terms of themes to support young Black American children on their journey of finding meaning and joy in reading. Within the analysis, a total of 16 picturebooks showed that 8 featured Black Americans in struggling contexts highlighting historical events, while 8 focused on the everyday lives and culture of Black Americans. Delving deeper, two trends, artistic expression and self-confidence, were identified. Within the eight books Within the books focusing on everyday Black culture, four themes were agreed upon: 1) Navigating real societal problems within the Black community, 2) Realizing empowerment within ourselves, 3) Valuing relationships with others, and 4) Finding value in everyday activities.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the underlying factors involved in introducing authentic literature to the EFL classroom. The purpose has been to establish which factors should be considered in order to facilitate both the discrepancies between more literate pupils and less literate pupils, and the differing experiences and backgrounds of the class as a whole. The research focuses on the introduction of literature within whole group reading sessions, and considers factors such as equal reading levels versus below reading levels, protagonist gender, book titles and the amount of English read outside of the classroom.The dissertation discusses the reliability of readability programs, vocabulary required in order to comprehend second language literature, pupils’ ever increasing contact with English outside of school and pupils’ reactions to texts deemed either equal or below their own literacy level. In a classroom investigation, pupils were presented with texts taken from books judged to be either equal to or below their suggested age group, and asked to comment on their reading experiences. Results showed that texts from both sectors were received favourably, and that factors such as genre, protagonist gender and the book’s title were more decisive factors to a book’s popularity. Indeed, pupils noticed little or no difference in books written for a younger audience. Furthermore, an interview with an English teacher at a compulsory school confirmed that a book’s suggested age range had little or no importance when choosing texts for the classroom, and suggests that vocabulary focus in class can combat any discrepancy in pupil literacy levels.

While the Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degree is distinctively characterized by clinical leadership (O’Brien et al., 2012; Pierce & Peyton, 1999); there is a limited amount of literature regarding evidence-based, theory driven, outcome-oriented curricular practices that develop leadership skills in Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy (EL-OTD) students. The occupational therapy (OT) profession would benefit from OT programs taking an empirical approach to implementing leadership development as there is currently a need to understand which approaches produce the most impactful and relevant changes for the profession. This project intends to fill the gap in empirical knowledge through the creation of an authentic leadership curriculum based on learning theories and learning science principles that can be assessed for impact and successful knowledge transfer among EL-OTD students. The proposed initiative involves the infusion of authentic leadership components in a leadership curriculum that will be nested into an EL-OTD curriculum. Specifically, this initiative consists of the inclusion of course learning objectives and course activities focused on the components of authentic leadership theory framework within each course in the OT program’s curriculum. The structured approach to construction and implementation of the leadership curriculum is based on Systems Theory and also relies heavily on Action Learning Theory, Leadership Development Theory, Conger’s Four Approaches to Leadership Development, and Authentic Leadership Theory. The elements of each theory build a conceptual model answering the questions what, when, and how leadership development will occur. The aim of this educational intervention is to increase authentic leadership in students. OT and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) programs are identified stakeholders who may benefit from the program evaluation research findings and evaluation of the students’ leadership skills, as these findings can impact future curriculum development and reporting on programmatic outcomes. The short-term program evaluation objectives include increased EL-OTD students’ self-awareness as leaders, understanding of the meaning of leadership in OT practice, and authentic leadership skills. Evidence supports that leadership development programs are effective at increasing leadership skills. Accordingly, this innovative curriculum draws from elements of multiple theories from various disciplines in order to address the content and methods needed for infusing leadership development within an EL-OTD program. Consequently, the development of and outcomes related to the authentic leadership curriculum have the potential to reach current, applicant, candidate or transitioning OTD programs. / 2022-09-25T00:00:00Z

This study explores the impact of authentic materials on the oral competence of students. In extension, this study is interested in the perspectives and experiences of authentic materials among teachers in French in Swedish secondary school.A solid theoretical framework has been made in the aim at understanding and appreciating the key words of this research, such as oral competence, authenticity, and authentic documents to guarantee a common understanding of these terms which form the basis of this study. In addition, this step allowed to highlight the importance of these criteria in Swedish official educational documents but also to understand how authentic documents help develop students' oral skills.For the purposes of the study a qualitative design was chosen, and data was collected by three semi-structured interviews with three teachers. The results of this study show that two out of three teachers do not particularly consider the criterion of authenticity, and one identified reason was that these teachers simply did not consider this criterion, for lack of time and preferring to use a textbook. However, the teacher who regularly uses authentic materials experiences that it improves the motivation of students and make them more inclined to communicate orally in the target language. Thus, this study points out that few teachers may consider the criterion of authenticity and the use of authentic documents, since out of 3 teachers questioned, only one regularly uses authentic materials. The conclusion is drawn that teachers might be unaware of the many benefits with using authentic materials, which was highlighted during the theoretical research but also in the results of interviews which suggests that the students speak more easily in the target language when the teacher uses authentic materials, preferably in a playful way.

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Workplace authenticity for African Americans has received much attention in recent years, both in various research domains and in popular media. However, empirical research is scarce regarding what drives Blacks' decisions around whether to outwardly express their inner racial identity at work and what impact (in)authenticity has on workplace outcomes. The lack of empirical research is likely due, in part, to the fact that there are few existing measures designed to assess Blacks' workplace authenticity. Thus, the purpose of the current research was to develop and provide initial validation evidence for a situational judgment test (SJT), called the African American Workplace Authenticity Scale (AAWAS), aimed at measuring Blacks' propensity to use various identity negotiation strategies related to authenticity. Those identity negotiation strategies included identity shifting, referred to as code-switching by laypeople, avoidance, and authentic self-expression. The first phase of the research included item generation and refinement of the item pool using a web-based sample of Black working adults (n=207). For this phase, 38 items were created. Each item included one scenario and three response options each; each response option corresponded to one of the three aforementioned identity negotiation strategies, and each identity negotiation strategy is considered its own subscale. Furthermore, each scenario involved a situation wherein a Black individual was presented with pressure to conform to their White counterparts at work. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine which items to retain, which resulted in a three-factor solution and the retention of 13 items. The second phase of the research involved gathering initial validation evidence for the 13-item scale, again using a web-based sample of Black working adults (n=252). For this phase, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and analysis of measurement invariance between genders was completed to determine whether the three-factor solution fit on a new sample and whether the scale can be used to make meaningful comparisons between males and females. Additionally, the relationships between the AAWAS and existing scales related to authenticity and response bias were explored using correlations. The CFA generally supported the three-factor solution, and metric invariance was found between males and females. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity from the correlational analyses is presented. Moreover, the subscales of the AAWAS demonstrated good reliability according to rules of thumb for Cronbach's alpha (Identity Shifting Cronbach's α = 0.79, Avoiding Cronbach's α = 0.85, and Authentic Self-Expression Cronbach's α = 0.85). Overall, the AAWAS demonstrated promising psychometric properties thus far and has the potential to facilitate causal modeling in the area of workplace authenticity for Blacks with further validity evidence. / Doctor of Philosophy / Workplace authenticity for African Americans has received much attention in recent years, both in various research domains and in popular media. However, empirical research is scarce regarding what drives Blacks' decisions around whether to outwardly express their inner racial identity at work and what impact (in)authenticity has on workplace outcomes. The lack of empirical research is likely due, in part, to the fact that there are few existing measures designed to assess Blacks' workplace authenticity. The current research is focused on developing and providing initial validation evidence for a situational judgment test (SJT), called the African American Workplace Authenticity Scale (AAWAS), aimed at measuring Blacks' propensity to use various identity negotiation strategies related to authenticity.