<p> It is imperative to find out the challenges that international students face. According to the Institute of International Education 2016 Annual Report (IIE, 2016), the enrollment trend of international students increased by 7%, from about 200,000 to more than one million international students across colleges and universities in the United States. There are 1,043,839 international students studying in the U.S. and the top fifteen countries of origin of these international students are: China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Canada, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Iran, United Kingdom, Turkey, Nigeria, and Germany. However, as the international students&rsquo; enrollment increases, there has also been an increase in the rate of drop out of international students (Redden, 2014). Redden found out that the rate of drop out of international students was attributed to some challenges, with financial challenges being on the top of the list. This study&rsquo;s purpose was to find out the challenges that international students face while studying in one small university in the Midwestern part of the U.S. It also focused on the roles the host universities could play in helping them through these challenges. Questions asked of international students were informed by the most common themes in the prior literature, including social, academic and financial areas. The themes that emerged from the data were analyzed using qualitative coding. According to the responses of the participants in this research, the challenges that international students in this Midwestern university face range across financial struggles, socialization, home sickness, weather, language and accent issues, and food. The most common challenge among the participants was financial struggles, which about 80% of the interview participants affirmed. Socially, each of the participants used different survival strategies related to language and to homesickness, which included, watching movies, imitating native speakers, calling and visiting family and friends, making friends with other international students. Academically, participants advised other international students to not be afraid to jump in and participate, or to ask for assistance. The participants feel the roles of the host school in addressing these challenges should include provision of scholarships, integrating international students more into the different activities in the school, and also suggested English language programs. Analysis showed that better communication and mentoring among more experienced and new international students, faculty and international staff could also be of benefit. Keywords: international students, challenges faced by international students, host university, study abroad, international student support services. </p><p>

Information integration theory (IIT) is a cognitive psychology theory that is primarily concerned with understanding rater judgments and deriving quantitative values from rater expertise. Since standard setting is a process by which subject matter experts are asked to make expert judgment about test content, it is an ideal context for the application of information integration theory. Information integration theory (IIT) was proposed by Norman H. Anderson, a cognitive psychologist. It is a cognitive theory that is primarily concerned with how an individual integrates information from two or more stimuli to derive a quantitative value. The theory focuses on evaluating the unobservable psychological processes involved in making complex judgments. IIT is developed around four interlocking psychological concepts: stimulus integration, stimulus valuation, cognitive algebra, and functional measurement (Anderson, 1981). The current study evaluates how IIT performs in an actual operational standard workshop across three different exams: HP storage solutions, Excelsior College nursing exam and the Trends for International Math and Science (TIMSS) exam. Each exam has cut scores set using both the modified Angoff method and the IIT method. Cut scores are evaluated based on Kane's (2001) framework for evaluating the validity of a cut score by evaluating procedural, internal and external sources of validity evidence. The procedural validity for both methods was relatively comparable. Both methods took approximately about the same amount of time to complete. Raters for both methods felt comfortable with the rating systems and expressed confidence in their ratings. Internal validity evidence was evaluated through the calculation of reliability coefficients. The inter-rater reliabilities for both methods were similar. However, the IIT method provided data to calculate intra-rater reliability as well. Finally, external validity evidence was collected on the TIMSS exam by comparing cut score classifications based on the Angoff and IIT methods to other performance criteria such as teacher expectations of the student. In each case, the IIT method was either equal or outperformed the Angoff method. Overall, the current study emphasizes the potential benefits IIT could produce by incorporating the theory into standard setting practice. It provided industry standard procedural, internal and external validity data as well provided additional information to evaluate raters. The study concludes that IIT should be investigated in future research as a potential improvement to current standard setting methods.

<p> This action research exploratory study sought to learn how to better develop my practice by using grounded theory. It explored the apparent cognitive transformational experience of nine participants over a period of four weeks after the implementation of an intervention called Mindfulness into Action. The informal intervention was used with the Kichwa community in the Amazon rainforest and three additional formal interventions were conducted in the United States, Ecuador, and Norway over six years, in each case supported by higher education institutions. Using grounded theory methodology, the researcher found that participants were in the initial &ldquo;reactive&rdquo; state in Phase 1, experiencing conflict, resistance, stress, and victim identity. These characteristics were unknown to participants who were just reacting to everyday life experiences. In Phase 2, participants became aware of their behaviors, but could not stop non-beneficial behaviors. In Phase 3, they could observe their unknown behaviors and then change their sabotaging behaviors. Other salient characteristics from Phase 3 were happiness, being at peace with themselves, tolerance, and effectiveness. </p><p> There is a tendency to believe that change does not come easily, especially for adults, because our mental models rule our lives (subconsciously). However, participants were all adults from distinct walks of life who observed their unknown assumptions and reported change in their lives and in perceptions of their world. Furthermore, this intervention helped participants manage <i> dissonance</i> in their lives and produce changes specific and relevant to each individual, i.e., adults in the Kichwa community changed their assumptions and got rid of the mining company without violence. Moreover, the students who conducted research in the Amazon rainforest changed their research approach from top-down (doing research on people) to human development co-creation (doing research with people). Lastly, students in the academic institutions changed their way of interacting with their environment and others, and most importantly observed and changed behaviors that were sabotaging their efforts to succeed in life. They overcame their assumption of &ldquo;knowing&rdquo; and became more open to others&rsquo; perspectives. Each change was specific to the individual, resulting in the betterment of their lives.</p>

<p> There is an enormous educational disparity among schools in the United States. One reason for this disparity is the teachers employed by well-performing schools and low-performing schools. This study reports the factors and financial tradeoffs that would influence well-qualified teachers to work in low-performing schools. Teacher employment is viewed as a set of discrete choices made over time and based on a finite group of factors. This study uses a multinomial discrete choice experiment to determine how the school-related factors (alternative-specific variables) and teacher-related factors (case-specific variables) influence the willingness of experienced teachers in well-performing schools to transfer to low-performing schools. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) using an optimal, fractional factorial, experimental design (D-efficiency = 96.5 and A-efficiency = 92.9) with an adequate sample (<i>n</i> =111) was employed. The data are analyzed using alternative-specific conditional logistic regression, nested logistic regression, and latent class conditional logistic regression. The latent class conditional logistic regression with 3-classes was deemed the best fit and its results were interpreted. The first class has high job satisfaction and generally stays in their current school. The second class is most likely female and does not value salary, but rather better student behavior and school climate. The third and largest class has similar values with Latent Class 2, but fiscal incentives could impact their decision. This study shows that teachers are willing to work in low-performing schools, but school- and teacher-related factors impact the overall attractiveness to well-qualified teachers.</p>

Constructivist educators are concerned with methods that will help teachers understand young children's thinking in order to facilitate their learning along a developmental continuum in the acquisition of knowledge. This study focuses on the development and testing of the Broderick Notation System. The BNS is a format and system for teachers to map observable interactions of children's play over time in relation to teachers developing inferences about what children know and hypothesize about friendship, leadership, roles, and rules. The intention of this concept mapping system is to help teachers gain a deeper understanding of what children are thinking so they can more accurately assess appropriate entry points for facilitating learning with children. ^ Four preschool teachers were trained to use the BNS in six 2-hour trainings while viewing 2 short (under 10 minutes) videotapes of children at play. They were asked to use the BNS to identify the conceptual thinking underlying children's spontaneous play in the areas of friendship, leadership, roles, and rules. ^ Following the 6-week period each subject was tested individually. The test consisted of viewing two unseen videotapes (under 10 minutes each) that are similar but different from the original training videos. Subject's were allowed to take as long as they liked to complete the process of observing and coding with the BNS, and the video footage as seen on a computer that they could easily pause, forward, and reverse the footage in order to complete the notation to their satisfaction. Following the test each teacher was interviewed to obtain his/her record of the beginning and ending of each coded concept on the computer's time display. Teachers were interviewed to obtain more detailed information about the conceptual meaning they attached to each coded symbol and the behavior each coded symbol relates to. ^ The testing of interrater reliability among teacher subjects is a first step in a research program to be carried out over the next three to four years, in which the BNS will be tested for validity and use among trained educators.* ^ *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation).^

<p> People with intellectual disabilities (ID) struggle with social interactions that are vital to the development of a high quality of life. Although evidence exists to support the use of technology as cognitive aids for youth with ID, little exists on the use of common hand-held devices for social support. The use of such devices has the potential to level the playing field in adult social roles, helping people with ID make and keep relationships. It is unclear how applications like video chatting might be used to support transition-age youth with ID in adult social roles. Using a framework of modeling (i.e., social learning), generalization across settings (i.e., ecological systems), and self-determination, this single-case study was developed to learn the effect of direct instruction of youth with ID on initiation of and responses to others in adult social roles while using common hand-held devices. Three participants, selected from 9 youth participating in a structured social skills class, were taught to initiate interaction and respond to initiations made by others with modeled support in self-selected adult social settings. Visual analysis of graphed data showed generally increased initiations and responses. Percent of nonoverlapping data (PND) and percent of all nonoverlapping data (PAND) found varied effect size from one participant to the next. Quality of interactions had mixed results across participants. The results found these 3 transition-age youth with ID to be quite adept in their use of common hand-held devices, and they all used them successfully to access support. These findings suggest that the use of well known devices may increase the number of people who can provide social support, reduce the cost of devices and live supports, and reduce the of stigma of having a paid staff shadowing the individual.</p>

<p> Emerging research indicates human cognition can derive from interactions within their environment and &ldquo;soon few will believe human thinking is computer-like. Instead, as with all animals, our thoughts are based on bodily experiences&rdquo; (Glenberg, 2015, p. 165). </p><p> This study explored how classroom teachers plan and implement purposeful planned movement (PPM) for embodied cognition. There are different types of movement with some movement activities not necessarily serving the purpose of enhancing cognition for academic content. Purposeful planned movement is movement designed to enhance cognition of academic content (Lyding et al., 2014). Insights from teachers effectively planning and implementing PPM in academic classrooms to teach could explain how to utilize this type of instruction (Lyding, 2012; McGregor et al., 2015). </p><p> Findings emerged from a multiple site and multiple case study of four middle grades social studies and English/Language Arts teachers. A cross-case analysis, synthesis of the findings, and thematic interpretations were conducted to explore why and how teachers use PPM for embodied cognition. Interpretations of the literature connected the teacher&rsquo;s use of movement to forms of embodied cognition. The connections help explain positive empirical results from using movement to increase learning within the literature. The findings bridge gaps in the literature on teachers&rsquo; perspectives, planning, experiences, and examples of implementing PPM for embodied cognition.</p><p>