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There is a nationwide decline in enrollment, retention and degree completion for African American students in predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the United States. Colleges and Universities establish diversity initiatives to address these concerns, yet educational disparities persist. Institutions of higher learning also address ways to enhance the educational development of undergraduate students. One such initiative involves a paradigm shift to extend the curriculum into residential learning communities (RLCs). Therefore, this study addresses the following research question: How do African American undergraduate students in RLCs perceive the role of these communities, particularly the kinds of contacts they afford with faculty, staff, and peers, in shaping their educational development? I used qualitative methods - open-ended semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and a questionnaire - to explore students' experiences in six academically-tied residential learning communities. Thirty-two current and former members participated in individual interviews. Sixteen full-time male and sixteen female students include twenty-two freshmen, four sophomores, four juniors and two seniors. Consistent with Astin's (1985, 1993b, 1996) work, this dissertation suggests that student involvement with faculty, peers and academics is necessary for retention. However, this study argues that a critical race theory (CRT) perspective is needed to make sense of the way peer interactions create racial barriers and lead some students to develop what I charaterize as "racial-cope-ability" skills to deal with racial challenges. High school background plays a role in how students fare in RLCs. High school leadership experiences support positive self-efficacy and help students connect with faculty, peers and activities at the onset of the collegiate experience. A number of RLC components help create positive affective and cognitive developmental experiences: A sense of belonging and a sense of community significantly impact psychosocial wellbeing, success and retention; Built-in support systems, educational advantages for retention and personalized experiences at a large PWI are reasons to recommend RLCs to other students; and Residential learning communities at PWIs can contribute to existing outreach efforts into untapped in-state and out-of-state communities, school systems and outreach efforts on campus. / Ph. D.

The engineering profession requires engineers who have not only deep technical knowledge but also broad professional competencies necessary to address complex challenges that impact individuals and communities. While engineering students often develop necessary technical competencies during their undergraduate education, professional competencies are often lacking in graduates. This lack of professional development can lead to graduates who are not prepared for the engineering profession and lead to fewer people, particularly individuals from groups historically underrepresented in engineering such as women, entering and continuing in these fields. Due to the rigidity of the engineering curriculum, out-of-class experiences, such as living-learning communities (LLCs), have become important sites for this professional development and can help women explore engineering and learn professional competencies. However, little is known about how these programs support students, particularly in regard to professional development. To further our understanding of these programs, a phenomenographic study was conducted to explore the experiences of 20 students who participated in an LLC for women in engineering. This study examined women's views of professional development in engineering and the experiences within the LLC that could support this development. Following an iterative analysis of interviews, two models were developed: the PD² Model captures women's views of the professional competencies relevant in engineering; and the LEEPD Model captures features of beneficial professional development experiences within the LLC. Combined, these models serve as useful resources for creating beneficial experiences to support women's professional development in engineering education contexts. The PD² Model can help educators intentionally identify outcomes of professional experiences, and the LEEPD Model can help in the design of a variety of experiences that are beneficial for students. / Ph. D. / In the engineering profession, engineers must develop both technical and professional skills in order to address complex challenges that impact individuals and communities. While undergraduate engineering programs tend to focus on the development of technical skills, engineering graduates often lack necessary professional skills. This lack of professional development can lead to graduates who are not prepared for the engineering profession and can lead to fewer people, particularly individuals from groups underrepresented in engineering such as women, entering and continuing in engineering. Due to the rigidity of the engineering curriculum, living-learning communities (LLCs), a type of out-of-class experience, have become important sites for this professional development. However, little is known about how these experiences support students, particularly in regards to professional development. To further our understanding of these out-of-class experiences, 20 students who participated in an LLC designed for women in engineering were interviewed. During interviews, students described their views of professional development in engineering and the experiences within the LLC that could support professional development. Interviews were analyzed and two models were developed: the PD² Model captures women’s views of the professional development in engineering and the LEEPD Model captures features of beneficial LLC experiences. Combined, these models can help educators create beneficial experiences to support women’s professional development in engineering education contexts. The PD² Model can help educators identify specific outcomes of professional experiences, and the LEEPD Model can help in the design of professional development experiences.

The implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) has led to systemwide reform within school districts and campuses regarding how campus leaders support the teachers' collaborative work and continued professional learning. Current research emphasizes the importance of campus administrators cultivating an environment where PLCs can flourish and ensuring that PLC teams have the resources to work effectively. However, campus administrators simply putting these supports in place does not make them effective. This study sought to explore campus leader and teacher perceptions of administrator actions that support PLCs for teachers in core-content subjects at two suburban north Texas high schools. An explanatory sequential mixed methods research design was utilized, and three data collections tools were used: an electronic survey, interviews with campus administrators and teachers, and the analysis of campus and PLC artifacts. Survey data indicated that participating teachers had an overall positive perception of the current campus practices which support PLC teams. Teacher interview data revealed that teachers preferred that campus administrators take a neutral role in PLC team meetings, that administrators ensure PLC teams are meeting the established campus PLC expectations, and that administrators observe the team, listen, and ask questions to help the team. Campus administrators viewed their actions within PLC teams to include listening and questioning, having difficult conversations, and helping teams brainstorm or offering ideas when needed. Teachers and administrators also identified supports for PLC teams they felt were missing. Recommended actions for campus administrators and recommendations for further research are also included.

The purpose of the study was to examine and evaluate the extent to which the supportive conditions (collaboration, teacher efficacy, shared leadership, and trust) were present in the district's current professional learning communities (PLCs) model, and whether teachers perceived the supportive conditions to be related to improving their instructional practices. This mixed-methods study used Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and focus group interviews to concurrently triangulate data to answer the research questions. The sample from this study was identified from 600 middle school teachers. Survey participants included 139 teachers and each of the four focus group interviews contained 6 teachers for a total of 24 teachers. Of the four supporting conditions analyzed, trust generated the highest mean (M = 3.41). Results from this study indicate that the supportive conditions for PLCs have a strong correlation (0.10) with the studied district's current PLC model and each specific supporting condition elicits a targeted aspect of professional learning that has a significant impact on teacher instructional practices. Recommendations for future studies include the expansion of this study to include elementary and high school participants and to extend this study to a larger scope of interested districts seeking to improve their PLC structures for improved teacher instructional practices. Expanding this research could build upon the current body of literature as it relates to PLCs, professional learning, and student achievement.

Metacognition has been used predominantly as a strategy to improve student thinking and learning and to help students gain an awareness and control over their own thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996; Perfect & Schwartz, 2002; Robson, 2006). Recently, however, metacognition has been recognized as necessary in teacher learning to help teachers gain awareness and control over their thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996). Teacher metacognition is a critical antecedent to student metacognition because, teachers are not in a position to model higher psychological and metacognitive levels if they have not experienced these levels first as a prerequisite to encouraging them in students (p. xxi). Schraw and Moshman (1995) stated that having a better understanding of the constructive nature of knowledge and how it happens allows individuals an opportunity to regulate their cognition and learning. <p>The purpose of this study was to explore teacher metacognition within the context of successful learning communities. A phenomenological research method was used. Data were collected from three participants in three separate learning communities using a pre-interview, two semi-structured interviews, several telephone conversations, and a variety of informal contacts. The fist semi-structured interview was designed to access the participants experiences as members of their successful learning communities. The second semi-structured interview, termed the metacognitive interview, was designed to access the thinking behind their thinking.<p>It was found that the term metacognition required definitional reframing. This reframing resulted in the creation of an emerging model of Progressive Metacognition, indicating that metacognition was found to be progressive, and was catalyzed through reflection and dialogue. The interview process itself was also found to be an intervention in itself to catalyze metacognition. Each participant in this study was found to have a metacognitive characterization, which I referred to as their metacognitive fingerprint. This fingerprint represented both the participants individual characterizations as well as their strategies in influencing the processes of their learning communities. <p>Successes in planning, observation, and reflection provided members with evidence that enabled them to feel capable and competent, thus fueled their drive to continue to invest in the learning communities. Scholarship epistemology was found to have an integral part in the development of metacognition through the successful learning community. By providing participants with important tasks and challenging work within an environment of trust, space, dialogue, reflection, and accountability, deep thinking and learning took place. This study provided needed detail related to Evers and Lakomskis (2000) theory of socially distributed cognition, indicating that when knowledge travels through the social system, rather than simply assisting in distributing the knowledge, each participant had an effect on the knowledge. <p> Among the implications of this study on theory are its contributions to social learning theory and the action research spiral, indicating the effects of collaboration and success on motivation. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate the direct effects of time, reflection, and discussion on metacognition, as well as the need to conduct a longitudinal study in this area to determine these elements long term impacts. Among the implications for practice are a greater understanding of the elements at work in catalyzing metacognition, including the effects of success, as well as the environments and social dynamics required to encourage deep thinking and learning.

Metacognition has been used predominantly as a strategy to improve student thinking and learning and to help students gain an awareness and control over their own thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996; Perfect & Schwartz, 2002; Robson, 2006). Recently, however, metacognition has been recognized as necessary in teacher learning to help teachers gain awareness and control over their thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996). Teacher metacognition is a critical antecedent to student metacognition because, teachers are not in a position to model higher psychological and metacognitive levels if they have not experienced these levels first as a prerequisite to encouraging them in students (p. xxi). Schraw and Moshman (1995) stated that having a better understanding of the constructive nature of knowledge and how it happens allows individuals an opportunity to regulate their cognition and learning. <p>The purpose of this study was to explore teacher metacognition within the context of successful learning communities. A phenomenological research method was used. Data were collected from three participants in three separate learning communities using a pre-interview, two semi-structured interviews, several telephone conversations, and a variety of informal contacts. The fist semi-structured interview was designed to access the participants experiences as members of their successful learning communities. The second semi-structured interview, termed the metacognitive interview, was designed to access the thinking behind their thinking.<p>It was found that the term metacognition required definitional reframing. This reframing resulted in the creation of an emerging model of Progressive Metacognition, indicating that metacognition was found to be progressive, and was catalyzed through reflection and dialogue. The interview process itself was also found to be an intervention in itself to catalyze metacognition. Each participant in this study was found to have a metacognitive characterization, which I referred to as their metacognitive fingerprint. This fingerprint represented both the participants individual characterizations as well as their strategies in influencing the processes of their learning communities. <p>Successes in planning, observation, and reflection provided members with evidence that enabled them to feel capable and competent, thus fueled their drive to continue to invest in the learning communities. Scholarship epistemology was found to have an integral part in the development of metacognition through the successful learning community. By providing participants with important tasks and challenging work within an environment of trust, space, dialogue, reflection, and accountability, deep thinking and learning took place. This study provided needed detail related to Evers and Lakomskis (2000) theory of socially distributed cognition, indicating that when knowledge travels through the social system, rather than simply assisting in distributing the knowledge, each participant had an effect on the knowledge. <p> Among the implications of this study on theory are its contributions to social learning theory and the action research spiral, indicating the effects of collaboration and success on motivation. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate the direct effects of time, reflection, and discussion on metacognition, as well as the need to conduct a longitudinal study in this area to determine these elements long term impacts. Among the implications for practice are a greater understanding of the elements at work in catalyzing metacognition, including the effects of success, as well as the environments and social dynamics required to encourage deep thinking and learning.

This study examined the relationships between leadership practices of principals and strength of schools as sustainable professional learning communities. Strength of schools as professional learning communities was measured using the Professional Learning Communities Assessment; leadership practices were measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory both Self and Observer protocols. Findings indicated that neither principal's self-perceptions of their leadership practices nor teachers' assessments of their principals' leadership practices were related to strength of schools as professional learning communities. Findings did indicate ten specific leadership behaviors of principals that appear to be more highly related to strength of schools as learning communities. Further analysis which focused on the two strongest learning community schools and the two weakest learning community schools indicated that three specific leadership behaviors within Kouzes and Posner's practices of modeling the way and enabling others to act appear to be the most strongly related to reculturing schools as sustainable professional learning communities. Principals who set a personal example of what they expect of others are most likely to lead schools that function as strong learning communities. Additionally, principals who build consensus around a common set of values are also most likely to lead strong learning communities. Finally, principals who develop cooperative relationship with co-workers are most likely to lead schools that function as strong learning communities.

The study was to determine the impact of a Professional Learning Community on student achievement as measured by the state's criterion referenced reading and mathematics achievement tests. Data for this study were extracted from the school district's student database. Two cohorts of 90 students each were randomly selected from a population of approximately 600 students in 3 schools that participated in a Professional Learning Community (treatment) and 3 schools that did not (control). Professional Learning Communities known as PLCs, can serve as a major theoretical framework to promote the improvement of classroom teachers' instructional practice, teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Reading and mathemtics mean scale scores were extracted at three time points (year 1, year 2, and year 3) across three grades (grade 3, grade 4 and grade 5). Test for equality of variance found that no statistically significant difference existed between the mean scale scores of the two cohorts at the beginning of the study. The findings revealed that both cohorts trend toward increased academic achievement from year to year individually; however, when compared to each other, no statistically significant difference existed. Further research is indicated to examine each PLC for implementation, support and leadership as they relate to the PLC and a focus on instruction and learning.

This qualitative case study examined the effect of PLCs on teacher self-efficacy, and whether the type of PLC structure on each campus affected efficacy. The overarching research question that guided the study was, to what extent does perceived teacher self-efficacy change as a result of the practice of PLCs? Participants were selected using purposive and convenience sampling. Ten teachers and two principals on two different campuses participated in teacher focus groups and one-on-one principal interviews, respectively. The available literature on the topics of professional development, professional learning, teacher collaboration, and teacher self-efficacy yielded the discovery that collaborative practices can be used to improve a school and/or district or used to enhance positive practices that already occur. This study adds to the body of research as it develops the area of teacher efficacy and influence of PLCs. Using the coding software, NVivo, focus group data were coded into themes and further comparisons were made with categories derived and saturated until conclusions were drawn. The data show teacher self-efficacy increases as a result of PLCs when teachers are able to experience positive feedback from teammates, shared leadership, trust and honesty, and a freedom to fail. For those teachers who are not on a campus where PLCs are present, the data suggest they created their own PLCs as the need arose. These teachers experienced all of the same benefits of those teachers on a campus where a formal PLC structure exited; however, their stress level was higher.