<p> While the role of computers in the 21^st century has enabled organizations to become more efficient and effective, technology has also created problems for many of its users. The research literature on the use of workplace email indicated that email is causing several problems, including an interruption of workflow/productivity, email overload, stress, and work-life imbalance. The mobile market in 2015 was exploding and showed a significant growth trend and is expected to continue. In addition, working women are an increasing population in the workforce, and even more women are working virtually. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how an overload of workplace email was perceived by virtual working women to impact their stress levels and ability to maintain a reasonable work-life balance, in order for managers to better support and manage employee workloads. The theoretical framework for this study included Gilbert&rsquo;s (2007) Behavior Engineering model (BEM) and Ashforth, Kreiner, and Fugate&rsquo;s (2000) Boundary Theory. The basic qualitative method was utilized, in addition to nonprobability and purposeful, or convenience sampling. A total of 14 participants participated in the study and met the criteria to include (a) female, (b) age 25&ndash;65, (c) remote or virtual worker, (d) full-time employee, (e) work for a U.S. based organization, and experiencing or experienced overload from email. The research design included a combination of structured and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that virtual working women&rsquo;s job performance was impacted and they experienced: (a) increased and decreased stress from workplace email; however, it was dependent upon the volume, tone and frequency of the emails (b) increased and decreased productivity from workplace email and (c) impacts on work-life balance, given the use of workplace email. Discovering virtual working women&rsquo;s self-perceptions, as it relates to workplace email, stress, and work-life balance, provided valuable insights for managers to develop strategies and performance improvement interventions for dealing with email overload. Recommendations for future research to expand the study include: (a) the &ldquo;millennial&rdquo; population or the non-telecommuter (b) a quantitative study, (c) text overload, (d) gender differences, and (e) mental and physical health effects.</p>

Looked After Children (LAC) are a potentially vulnerable population who are at risk of negative outcomes such as increased rates of exclusion from school linked to challenging behaviour. Although pupil behaviour may have negative implications for teachers, the literature on staff support suggests that group problem-solving approaches may be a useful mechanism of peer support which can consequently have direct and indirect effects for the school staff and pupils, respectively. One such approach is the ‘Circle of Adults’ (CoA) (Wilson & Newton, 2006) and was the focus of evaluation in the current study. Existing literature suggests CoA can enhance teacher capacity to respond to difficult behaviour. It was hypothesised that the CoA process would have positive effects upon teacher self-efficacy and causal attributions. A mixed-method design was employed, which combined a quasi-experimental component, to quantifiably measure any changes which occurred for the school staff, with a qualitative element to determine the participants’ views regarding the process and perceived outcomes. The study compared the participants’ outcomes from the four CoA sessions (n=10) with those attending two Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings (n=5). The findings indicate that participation in the CoA intervention has no statistically significant effect upon school staffs’ causal attributions or perceived self-efficacy. However, there is some evidence to suggest that participation in the CoA leads to statistically significant increases in the perceived success of actions. Additionally, through a series of focus groups, participants reported that they valued the structure and visual representation of the CoA. However, school staff also highlighted functional difficulties in arranging support processes for LAC young people: in ensuring that relevant staff were present at the meetings and challenges associated with supporting LAC who often experience rapidly changing circumstances.

<p> Effective teaching strategies can be defined as utilizing the higher levels of Bloom&rsquo;s taxonomy, which include understanding, application and analysis (Flynn, Mesibov, Vermette &amp; Smith, 2004). Teachers that use effective teaching strategies can significantly impact the future earnings of their students. Students that are recipients of these strategies receive a higher quality of K-12 education, which leads to a higher caliber of colleges and universities chosen. As a result of the higher education institutions attended, students become more competitive when entering an evolving workforce, earning higher salaries. This study explores the effective teaching strategy of storytelling. It identifies best practices of storytelling leaders in education. The literature reveals a link between successful storytelling practices and adult learning theory. There is also a connection between the impact of storytelling and the neuroscience of the brain. The findings are expected to help leaders in education who want to practice storytelling in their leadership practice. As a result of interviewing participants in this study, several themes were discovered that pointed out key factors in best storytelling practices. Some key findings include using stories to encourage critical thinking skills, heighten self-awareness among students, and activate brain triggers that produce an emotional connection around a subject matter. The data collected in study is believed to contribute to the effectiveness of future storytellers who wish to use storytelling as an effective teaching strategy in their leadership practice.</p>

<p> Researchers have associated parent involvement in primary schools with the improvement of grades, attendance, and the decrease of negative social behaviors. Consequently, parent involvement has improved in many primary schools. However, in secondary schools, parent participation continues to be deficient, particularly among Latino and African American communities due to language barriers, low incomes, and lack of social networks. Research is needed on how parent participation affects student achievement in secondary schools with underserved populations. Social capital theory provided the conceptual framework to help determine if parent involvement could create parent-school relationships that would lead to improved student academic and behavioral outcomes in a predominantly minority urban charter high school. The quasi-experimental observational study used program data and pre and post archived student records provided over a 2-year period from a convenience sample of 83 continuously enrolled students. Epstein&rsquo;s framework was used to categorize types of parent involvement, which constituted the independent variables. T tests and chi-squared analyses were used to test the association between the independent variables and dependent variables. The study found a limited association between GPA and ELA grades and certain types of parent participation activities for students overall, but not for English Language Learners. Attendance was not found to be affected significantly and data were lacking on suspensions and expulsions. The results of this study informs administrators who seek to increase parent involvement in order to improve student achievement and decrease the drop-out rate in high schools serving at risk students.</p>

<p> Ill-structured problem solving requires a variety of skills and strategies that K-12 students often lack due to limited exposure to these problems and a reliance on superficial problem-solving strategies (Greiff et al., 2013; Jonassen, 1997, 2000; Mayer &amp; Wittrock, 2006). This study employed a computer-based problem-solving program called Solve It!, which scaffolds students through a general problem-solving process to identify and support solutions to ill-structured physics problems. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, this study examined the impact of the prompt response and narrative writing tasks on seventh grade students&rsquo; (N = 117) physics content knowledge and problem-solving strategy acquisition while solving ill-structured problems in Solve It!. Students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, which varied in the type of writing tasks students completed. Findings from this study revealed a significant increase in physics knowledge and problem-solving strategies across conditions. Due to the small sample size and several limitations with the study design, condition effects did not emerge. However, students in the narrative writing condition with low physics prior knowledge did benefit from the narrative writing task. Implications for this research include the use of computer-based environments to teach both content and problem-solving strategies simultaneously and the potential to use narrative writing tasks for learning.</p>

<p> Recent legislation such as No Child Left Behind and the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) increasingly pressure teachers and schools to be accountable for instructional time in the form of improved test scores. As a result, students are given an increasing variety of assessments in a given school year in an attempt to measure academic growth over time. These assessments frequently occur in the form of curriculum-based measures (CBM) of oral reading fluency, informal reading inventories (IRIs), computer adaptive tests (CATs) of reading, and annual high stakes assessments of reading ability. While a review of the literature reveals a well-established relationship between CBMs, IRIs, and high stakes assessments, less empirical evidence exists that illustrates the relationship between and technical adequacy of CBMs, IRIs, and CATs of reading ability. Specifically, the current study examined the concurrent and predictive validity of CBMs and IRIs on computer adaptive assessments in students in second through fifth grade. Further, given the increasing diversity of student populations, the current study sought to examine the extent to which one's status as an English Learner or student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) moderates the relationships between oral reading fluency and CATs and IRIs and CATs.</p>

The research reported in this thesis examined the changes that students undertaking the Project 2000 (UKCC, 1986) course in nursing experience. It was carried out in one school of nursing in the Midlands over a period of 3 years and the various stages of empirical enquiry involved a total of 218 questionnaires, 10 interviews and 30 stress studies. A phenomenological methodology was adopted which incorporated a 3 stage mixed method approach. During the initial 2 stages complementary data were collected from two cohorts of students (cohort 1 n=40, cohort 2 n=19) to explore their experiences of the course and identify significant issues. To identify possible changes in their methods of studying the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (Tait & Entwistle, 1996) was used. Insight into other changes that occurred during the course was afforded by supplementing these data with demographic data and qualitative data obtained from interviews. Two main themes arose; Changes in Approaches to Studying and Psychological Distress. In the final stage of this research each theme was considered using quantitative methods. Two instruments were developed and data was obtained from 2 samples of students (n=76, n=30). These were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests and the results compared with those from earlier stages of this research and the literature. Linking the findings of this research to other enquiries also suggests that these students are typical of all Project 2000 students at this time (Yin, 1994; Bassey, 1998). Therefore, this research contends that Project 2000 students are likely; in terms of approaches to studying: (a) to change their approach to studying from a Surface Approach in favour of a Deep Approach as they see the relevance of the theory to the practice of nursing; (b) to exhibit the pattern which is common in higher education that older students tend towards a Deep Approach to studying; in terms of confidence and ability in studying: (c) by the end of the first year of the course to show no difference in confidence or ability in studying which can be attributed to their academic qualifications on entry to the course; in terms of psychological distress: (d) to experience various intensities of distress during the course associated with: • the theory component of the course (due to perceptions of irrelevance of the “health” model taught, particularly during the CFP); • loss of control (concerning the administration of the course and also the adverse group pressure exerted by the Adult Branch students in the CFP); • clinical practice (due to perceptions of not being prepared for the “curative-illness” model during the CFP, a lack of clinical skills, and sometimes due to hostility from placement staff); • assignments (due to lack of co-ordination between the different modules and clinical experiences, and related problems of time-management); • financial pressures (often resulting in additional employment to supplement bursaries); and; in terms of personal development and personal relationships: (e) to become more self-aware, assertive and non-judgemental in professional settings; (f) to have a high chance of personal difficulties with spouses or partners, particularly those students between the ages of 25-34 years.

<p> Each year the importance of a high school education increases; however, there are still populations for which getting a diploma is difficult. One of these populations is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community. For many of these students a high school diploma is still out of reach. Quantitative research to this point shows that these students suffer from bullying/harassment, increased depression, substance abuse issues, and what they refer to as an overall lack of school belonging. The purpose of this study was to add a qualitative voice to the quantitative data. This study was designed to explore and understand LGBT high school graduates&rsquo; experiences throughout grades 9-12 and factors that led to persistence to graduation. This information was put together to create a plan for schools to create environments that were welcoming and supportive of LGBT students. To accomplish these goals, 12 participants from different types of communities across the United States were interviewed about their experiences in high school. They were asked to share their experiences with bullying, depression, substance abuse, and their experiences in high school as well as what they believed help them overcome and make it to graduation and what they wish their schools would have done for them. Of the participants who were interviewed, 75% reported facing bullying or harassment in school, 33% discussed using drugs or alcohol, and 17% talked about depression and attempting suicide. In the end there were three main protective factors found among the participants. Participants had either a person who pushed them towards graduation, something at school that made them feel they belonged, or a sheer desire to leave and get someplace better.</p>

published_or_final_version / abstract / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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