<p> The purpose of this study was 1) to examine the significance of a patient&rsquo;s active or passive role in terms of his/her health management; 2) to determine if a relationship exists between one&rsquo;s active and passive scores and his/her self-directed learning readiness, and 3) to identify if his/her view of one&rsquo;s self as a patient (when diagnosed with a chronic disease) impacted his/her own personal health management. Utilizing the quantitative analysis of The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale and the Vanderbilt Pain Management Inventory, 81 individuals&rsquo; descriptive statistics were analyzed. Self-directed learning was found to positively influence an individual&rsquo;s ability to be an active patient. The moderated demographic characteristics of age, ethnicity, education level, and gender did not have a direct relationship between selfdirected learning readiness and active/passive coping groups.</p>

<p> In the fire service industry, training has primarily been offered in the face-to-face format due to lack of leadership support and inability to keep fire fighters in service during required training. The purpose of this quantitative, <i>ex post facto</i> study was to compare the effectiveness of the blended and face-to-face delivery methods for fire fighter training by examining student performance on written certification exams within two fire fighter training programs. The specific problem addressed was the uncertainty of the Texas A&amp;M Engineering Extension Service leadership concerning which of its fire fighter training programs was more effective, the blended or face-to-face program. Archival data from a series of five test scores for 1,100 fire fighter recruits completing training through blended and face-to-face delivery were collected. Comparative analysis using a one-way MANOVA for hypotheses 1, 2, and 5 indicated a significant difference favoring the face-to-face modality (<i>p</i> &lt; .001), and a significant difference favoring the blended modality for hypotheses 3 and 4 (<i> p</i> &lt; .001). Findings are considered mixed. Examination of MANOVA group means indicated an average difference of 2.72 points between scores in the two delivery methods. Recommendations for future research include (a) replication of the study to include collection and analysis of demographic data, (b) a survey of students to assess satisfaction and knowledge transfer following completion of training, and (c) a survey of employers to assess perceptions of knowledge acquisition and transfer for new hires completing the training programs.</p><p>

<p> Across much of the Western world there is a growing movement working to plant the seeds of a holistic worldview that is based on a recognition of the interdependent relationship between self, Earth, and community. One way to nurture this emergence on a local level is through community-based workshops that offer theories and practices in support of such a perspective. The purpose of this study is to create a curriculum that could be used to shape this type of workshop. The design of the curriculum content is meant to offer interior and exterior tools and experiences that catalyze both individual and group development. The primary method utilized in the research was a curriculum advisory board to assist with content development. The ultimate goals of such a workshop are two-fold: (a) to deepen participants&rsquo; relationships to self, Earth, and community; and (b) to create and inspire local community groups that can support social justice, environmental stewardship grounded in an ethic of care, and regenerative (sustainable) community development during this time of great planetary need. The findings of the research span the fields of adult development, relational education, community organizing and activism, regenerative leadership, nature connection, and sustainable community development. Tools and practices include but are not limited to meditation, dialogue, shadow work, worldview inquiries, journaling, group development, and community action plans.</p>

<p> The U.S. physician population lacks diversity, and this lack of diversity is reflected in the medical student population. Medical schools have implemented various types of programs to increase the diversity of their student population, and by extension, the physician population. A public Northeastern medical school implemented a postbaccalaureate premedical (PBPM) program for military enlisted service members with a goal to increase diversity among its medical school cohorts. A quantitative causal-comparative ex post facto study compared diversity variables of the PBPM military enlisted students with the public medical school student group, as well as the national student group.Chi-square analysis found significant differences between the military enlisted students and the two other comparison groups in four of five diversity measures. The military students were statistically different in age, marital status, number of dependents, and socioeconomic background. The groups did not differ significantly in terms of their racial/ethnic demographics. The study validated Tinto&rsquo;s framework of student persistence with a military population.</p><p>

<p> This study, conducted at California State University (CSU) in Southern California, focused on student engagement factors and academic performance of supplemental instruction (SI) students concurrently enrolled in a gateway mathematics course. The purpose of this quantitative correlational survey study was to investigate engagement factors employed by SI students enrolled in gateway mathematics courses; the researcher explored the relationships of the SI students&rsquo; engagement factors to their gateway mathematics course grades. The participants completed a web-based survey in which they responded to items regarding their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings as experienced in the gateway mathematics course and the SI class sessions. The responses were scored within 4 engagement factor scales including skills engagement, emotional engagement, participation/interaction engagement, and performance engagement. The results of this study provided support for 2 alternative hypotheses: (a) there was a positive relationship between each of the 4 engagement factors and the gateway mathematics course grades of the participants, and (b) there was a positive relationship of the linear combination of the 4 engagement factors to the gateway mathematics course grades of the participants. The findings of this research study supported 3 conclusions: (a) engagement is a multidimensional construct, and the more students are engaged in their studies, the more likely they are to earn higher grades in a gateway mathematics course; (b) academic support and resources are essential for student learning; (c) college success, specifically, positive academic course performance, is a significant indicator of persistence toward college completion. Recommendations based on the findings and conclusions of this study include regular collaboration of efforts among all university stakeholders to provide a variety of student-centered venues for academic support and resources to engage students in developing self-efficacy for academic success in gateway mathematics courses.</p><p>

<p> The focus of this study was to develop greater understanding about the unique experiences of active-duty military soldiers who are taking online courses. The qualitative phenomenological study was comprised of online active military (OAM) students taking undergraduate college level courses offered by the Distance Learning Military Programs at a Californian community college. Six participants volunteered while taking online courses from various locations around the world, including sites that were located in an increased zone of conflict. The study&rsquo;s results provided information that may assist with improving future military students&rsquo; learning experiences while they are facing the conflicts associated with military service. </p><p> The results included themes defined as: online learning experience, personal traits &amp; goals, support systems, conflict of work/ life balance, organizational skills &amp; coping mechanisms. The data collected was documented, analyzed and divided into themes that illustrated the potential conflicts and solutions specifically related to the study&rsquo;s sample. The data collected may assist in providing more qualitative study-based framework for research to improve active military students&rsquo; online learning success. </p><p> Three conclusions resulted from the study. First, the learning experience and successful completion of online community college courses by active military students can be supported by college/professors by maintaining a positive online classroom environment, self-pacing options and flexibility with deadlines. Second, organizational strategies and healthy conflict coping mechanisms are key to the successful completion of online community college courses by active military students. Third, challenges/conflicts related to active military students online community college course learning and completion are inevitable but can be addressed through: active management of conflict and supporting or motivational factors and increased focus on integration between student and military roles, including deployment.</p><p>

<p> With only four years of mandated state-standards in adult basic education (ABE), very little is known about the influence of state-standards implementation on the unique learning needs of its adult students. Two decades of research on standards-based education in the U.S. K12 system has yielded widely debated results regarding the impact of state-standards on student achievement. Against this backdrop, state-standards implementation within the distinct context of Minnesota ABE was examined in this study, specifically the perceived influence of standards implementation on teacher practices and student engagement in cognitive rigor, as well as the teacher, site, and student characteristics reported to have either supported or challenged implementation. The basic qualitative design was utilized to collect and interpret the perceptions and experiences of its sample of 12 Minnesota ABE teachers from distinct instructional contexts with 12 or more hours of standards implementation training. Data triangulation was utilized for data collection, including an interview and two member checks. The inductive analysis procedure in concert with the constant comparative method was used to analyze the interviews and develop themes and deeper connections based on the theory of complex adaptive systems. The results of the study showed that, overall, participants reported modest changes in their teaching practices that they perceived to have increased their students&rsquo; engagement in cognitive rigor. Participants also reported modest changes in student demonstration of learning that indicated increased cognitive rigor. Findings indicated a minimal contrast to the inconclusive nature of the K12 research base in establishing a link between standards implementation and increased student achievement. Furthermore, the findings showed that state leaders should continue to offer robust training and support teacher collaboration. </p><p>

Although public school teaching by its inherent nature presents numerous classroom challenges, the public high school teacher today is faced in addition with multiple external mandates from several outside stakeholders. Given the established track record of professional learning communities (PLCs) to provide teacher support and development, I created a PLC that would serve as an intervention designed to support teachers in their classroom work and with their multiple mandates as well. This enhanced PLC was informed by interviews with administrators, researched best practices of traditional PLCs, and uniquely, by what teachers told me they needed in an optimal PLC experience. The PLC was facilitated and based on inclusive, holistic social justice principles that provided a framework for and experience of inclusive teaching practice, while specifically addressing ongoing teacher concerns and issues raised by the multiple mandates. The PLC intervention I designed was for participants only, and I studied them along a range of outcomes that were compared to a control group of teachers identified from the same general population, but who did not experience the intervention. I used a multiple methods, predominantly qualitative approach, that included closed and open field questions taken before and after the intervention. I concluded by conducting in-depth end of term interviews with the participants in the intervention, enriched by my own field notes and observations. Findings included participants unanimously reporting this PLC uniquely satisfying, both professionally and personally. Professionally, they reported a significant gain across a range of knowledge, skills, self efficacy, and classroom management; an enhanced understanding of student diversity, and of the complex interactions between their choices of pedagogy and curriculum within the learning experience between and among students and teacher—leading to more effective professional interactions. After closely examining a published holistic teaching and learning model, participants exercised their professional power by creating one organizing tool to help them personalize and connect the apparently disparate mandates, and another organizer that schematically designed their future professional development requirements. Post-PLC, participants felt affirmed, empowered, less stressed, more closely affiliated, and spiritually supported by the PLC. Many continue to meet since the study’s conclusion.

<p>The American public&rsquo;s interests are well-served by a strong, effective postsecondary education system. And yet the industry&rsquo;s predominant learning and service paradigm, one that credentials learning by measuring student&rsquo;s time on task and that treats all learners largely the same from a pacing and a requirements perspective is inconsistent with the realities, circumstances, and expectations of 21st century students. Competency-based education, with its emphasis on the attainment of mastery through the measurement of learning, not time, and its focus on operational efficiency and effectiveness, has the potential to evolve and shape the postsecondary education industry by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability where complication and high cost are the status quo. </p><p> The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory study was to understand and describe the competency-based education practices of American higher education institutions within the context of Christensen&rsquo;s theory of disruptive innovation. The practices and programs of eight institutions that offer accredited, competency-based certificate and degree programs were examined. An exploratory, qualitative review of publically available artifacts that describe the competency-based approaches employed by these eight institutions provided the primary data for this study. Prominent industry reports on competency-based education published from September 2014 through January 2016 were examined and are described. The researcher &rsquo;s professional responsibilities and observations while engaged in the design and delivery of competency-based programming also informed this study. </p><p> Specific characteristics, practices, and two distinct methods for the delivery of competency-based education were identified and are described. Consistent mission, tuition, and student demographic realities were found to exist among the examined institutions and are discussed. Variable findings related to program design practices, the nature of assessment, the role of faculty, and provider-specific outcomes emerged and are also presented. The current state of the practice was found to be consistent with Christensen&rsquo;s theory of disruptive innovation. The practice was further found to be workforce aligned but only minimally deployed within the postsecondary education industry. Characteristics of examined programs were found to be non-distinct. Program evaluation criteria and outcomes were determined to be unclear at this time. </p>

<p> For decades, the cohort model has been utilized to bring graduate degrees to working adults who cannot put their family lives and careers on hold to attend a university in the more traditional way. With the growing access to reliable digital tools, some cohorts have taken advantage of the ability to meet online with live-streaming applications such as Skype, GoToMeeting, and Adobe Connect. The blending of online instruction and face-to-face interaction has given birth to blended learning, a hybrid of synchronous and asynchronous learning. With this evolution of curriculum and instruction delivery, questions arise regarding the quality of graduate programs. Are the students who are investing time and money into these graduate degrees receiving the high-level of quality that they would expect if they were attending the university in a traditional way? How are they interacting with their peers in a scholarly fashion? How are the professors engaging the students in meaningful and scholarly ways? How do students and institutions know what is working for the success of the student and what needs to be improved? This study sought to uncover answers to some of these questions as it researched 16 doctoral students in one blended cohort in central California. With primarily qualitative methods, the study attempted to describe the phenomenon that is the blended doctoral cohort, specifically researching the participants&rsquo; perspective of themselves and the blended cohort model at the beginning of their program and, again, at the end of their program. </p><p>