Analysis is typically the first of the higher functions listed in taxonomies of higher order thinking. Academics consider these upper categories extremely worthwhile, but they are hard to teach and we are apt to ignore them. Today higher education is being criticized for “dumbing down” curriculum or lowering standards. To rectify this, many policies at the state or national level are requiring higher education institutions to change. In K‐12 education, Race to the Top and Common Core requirements are placing new demands on K‐12 teacher preparation, which include evaluation of the analysis skills of pre‐service teachers. But professors do not always view their disciplines as the proper place for teaching analytical skills. Others become frustrated when trying to teach analysis. But if we do not teach these skills, our teacher candidates will be poorly prepared for successful teaching, a problem which will cascade throughout our society, rendering our citizens less educated. In this paper, we describe our efforts to teach analysis in two courses from widely differing subject areas, literacy and mathematics education. We are now requiring pre‐service teachers to analyze simulated or actual samples of student work. We have developed a sequenced process of analysis education that we designate with the acronym CODE. It includes Compilation of information, Organization of data, Determination of patterns, and Explanation of understanding. We believe this technique can be generalized to many courses in where students’ ability to analyze poses a problem.

With the increase in the use of online professional development resources, especially for rural educators, this study evaluated the effects of online training modules on in-service teachers' ability to collect and use instructional progress monitoring data to make instructional decisions for students with significant disability (i.e., moderate to severe intellectual disability, autism). In this randomized control study, 29 teachers across three states participated in online data collection or data collection plus data-based decision making training. In addition, the generalization of teachers' ability to use data-based decisions with their own student outcome data were measured. Results indicated that while the modules did support teachers' acquisition of new information, they were not sufficient to carry over to applied use on their own students' data. Further discussion on the use of module-based professional development will be presented as well as how teachers in rural areas can access this information.

Even though the United States (U.S.) spends, on average, more money per student than most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, it continues to lag behind its international peers in mathematics achievement. This study, which responded to the call for educational reforms that improve the mathematics achievement of U.S. students, aimed to examine the issue of student help-seeking behaviors and teacher instructional practices as they interact to affect student mathematics achievement. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) defines student help-seeking behaviors as the ways in which students have a propensity to depend on the knowledge and intellect of others, including both their peers and teachers, when attempting to solve problems. Because mathematics is perhaps the most difficult school subject, student help-seeking behaviors should be a critical component of mathematics learning and teaching. Unfortunately, the research literature is barren concerning this important educational issue. This study attempted to produce the first wave of empirical evidence and open up an avenue for future research in this less-charted academic field, with the ultimate goal being to use students’ help-seeking behaviors to improve their mathematics achievement. Using the U.S. sample of 15-year-old students from PISA 2012 (the most recent PISA assessment in which the main area of focus was mathematical literacy), this study intended to determine whether students’ help-seeking behaviors play a significant role in their mathematics achievement, whether this relationship varies from school to school, and whether teacher instructional practices contribute to the school-level variation. Due to the multilevel structure of the data, with students being nested within schools, a two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) was employed in the analysis of the data. Multiple measures of mathematics achievement were used as the dependent variables for separate analyses. Student help-seeking behavior was used as the key student-level independent variable, while three teacher instructional practices were used as the key school-level independent variables. In addition, several student and school background characteristics were used as control variables. The findings from this study indicate that student help-seeking behavior has a statistically significant effect on all measures of student mathematics achievement, even after controlling for various student background characteristics. On the other hand, the study did not find statistically significant evidence that the effects of student help-seeking behavior on any measure of student mathematics achievement vary from school to school. Overall, the issue of student help-seeking behaviors should be considered a worthy topic to pursue in future educational research. From a practical standpoint, since students’ mathematics achievement is positively associated with their help-seeking behaviors, efforts should be made to educate mathematics teachers on how to encourage their students to be more proactive in seeking help in the learning of mathematics.

Student attrition prior to the completion of a credential is an issue that has increasingly demanded the attention of stakeholders in higher education, particularly in the community college sector, in which less than half of all students complete a credential after six years. The costs of student attrition are high and widespread, ranging from the financial costs for institutions and federal and state governments to the personal and monetary costs paid by those students whose personal and professional goals are not achieved. With the ever-increasing focus on accountability for institutions of higher education and the growing movement toward performance-based funding, institutions are seeking to find ways to support all students on the path to completion of a credential. Building upon Braxton’s theory of powerful institutional levers that serve to promote student completion, Rendon's validation theory, and Schossberg's theory of marginality versus mattering, this two-part companion dissertation seeks to progress conversation beyond levers of retention as programmatic approaches to increasing student success. Through interviews with community college students serving as peer mentors in a student ambassador program and community college faculty identified by peers and supervisors as high performing in the area of student retention, the researchers seek to identify common characteristics, behaviors, backgrounds, conditions, and values possessed by effective human levers of retention. In doing so, the researchers hope to identify common characteristics among successful human levers of retention in the form of peer mentors and faculty members. This dissertation was created in collaboration with Kyle Barron, whose dissertation “It’s Not the Programs; It’s the People: Building Human Levers of Retention in Community Colleges” serves as a companion to this dissertation.

.......................................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract The number of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) attending postsecondary education has steadily increased in recent years. A need has been identified for campus administrators to better understand the needs of students with ASD (Becker & Palladino, 2016; Oswald, Winder-Patel, Ruder, Xing, Stahmer, & Solomon, 2017). In order to gain insight about students with ASD, research providing a foundation of understanding the unique characteristics and needs of this growing population must take place. By recognizing the need for further education and training, campus administrators may have opportunities to develop professional development trainings that could provide insight into understanding a growing population of students and their needs (Zeedyk, Tipton, & Blacher, 2016). The purpose of this study was to explore the knowledge of self-determination within college students with ASD. Quantitative methodology was selected in order to provide an exploratory approach to provide a foundation of understanding of self-determination skills for students with ASD. This study included 53 students with ASD registered with the Disability Services Offices (DSO) attending university as well as 41 students registered with the campus DSO without a diagnosis of ASD. A modified version of the American Institute of Research (AIR) was used to measure self-determination skills with the two participant groups. Three major findings were identified from this study. Students with ASD scored much lower than students without ASD on the open-ended response portion of the survey. However, students with ASD scored higher than students without ASD in identifying resources on campus. Finally, students with ASD identified mentors as primary resources of support on campus. The findings from this study confirms more data are needed in order for campus administrators to better understand the needs of a growing population of students. Future research could include topics of professional development for campus faculty and staff, strategic instruction on self-determination skills for students with ASD, and the impact of self-determined leadership in higher education. Key words: autism spectrum disorders, self-determination, postsecondary education

This study investigated the effect of the integrated learning environment fostered by Living-Learning Communities on students’ self-efficacy towards their social and academic transition to college at a large regional institution in the Southeast. Grounded in a theoretical framework guided by Schlossberg's Model for Analyzing Human Adaptation to Transition and Bandura's Triadic Reciprocal Determinism, a two-part structural equation model analysis was conducted with SkyFactor survey data from 427 first-year students. The first analysis, which compared outcomes for LLC participants with non-participants, demonstrated a small statistically significant positive effect for LLC-participants perception of their housing environment. Regardless of LLC participation, the general housing environment had a positive direct effect on students' perception of their social and academic transition to college. Furthermore, the perception of social transition had a greater effect on students’ academic transition as a mediating factor, when compared to the direct effect of the general housing environment. The second analysis, which only used data from LLC-participants, investigated the relationship between the LLC environment and perceived transition outcomes. The results showed the LLC environment did not have a statistically significant direct effect on students’ perception of their academic transition. However, the support fostered by LLCs had a relatively large and significant effect on social transition and an indirect positive effect on academic transition. Implications for program structure, student outcomes, methods to cultivate meaningful relationships for shared leadership, and future research are discussed.

Healthcare professions educational programs have a responsibility to develop professionally engaged lifelong learners. Knowledge of the factors important to the development of these desirable characteristics may inform educational leaders’ decisions about program and curriculum design. This study aimed to investigate the relation between level of education and an orientation towards lifelong learning and future professional engagement. In addition, the influence of learners’ type of motivation for continued learning, and learning goal orientation on this relation was also assessed. A cross-sectional survey of learners from a single healthcare profession, physical therapy was conducted to investigate these relations. Physical therapist learners from across the United States at all levels of formal professional and post-professional education were included invited to participate in the anonymous online survey. Path analysis was used to analyze the relations between the included factors. A total of 251 usable responses were included in the analysis. Results suggest that physical therapist learners increase their orientation toward lifelong learning and future professional engagement as they advance through the physical therapy education continuum. Furthermore, having greater autonomous and less controlled motivation increases this relation. Mastery goal orientation also had a positive direct effect on lifelong learning and professional engagement but this effect was independent of learners’ current level of education. Implications for educational leaders in the physical therapy profession are discussed along with recommendations for future research.

Underserved students attending under-resourced schools experience limited opportunities to engage in advanced science. An exploration into the influence a supplemental science program has on underserved students’ acquisition of science knowledge and skills to increase their pursuit of science was conducted to help explain science identity formation in students. The proliferation of supplemental science programs have emerged as a result of limited exposure and resources in science for underserved students, thus prompting further investigation into the influence supplemental science programs have on underserved students interest and motivation in science, attainment of science knowledge and skills, and confidence in science to promote science identities in students. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, this study examined science identity formation in high school students participating in a university supplemental environmental health science program. The study explored high school students’ perceptions of their lived experiences in science supplemental activities, research, and field experiences and the influences these experiences have in relation to their science identity development. The university supplemental science program was an eight-week summer program in which students interacted with a diverse group of peers from various high schools, through engaging in environmental health science rotations, field experiences, and research with faculty advisors and graduate student mentors. Data collection included existing program evaluation data including, weekly journals and exit interviews, as well as follow-up interviews conducted several months after the program concluded. The study findings from a three step coding process of the follow-up interview transcripts provided six emerging themes as follows: (1) promoting interest and motivation to pursue new areas of science, (2) mechanisms in the acquisition of science knowledge and skills in scientific practice, (3) confidence in science knowledge and abilities, (4) understanding and applying science in the world, (5) emerging relationships with peers and mentors in science, and (6) aspirations to be a science person in the scientific community. This research study informs other supplemental science programs, has implications for improved science curricula and instruction in K12 schools, as well as explains how exposure to science experiences can help students gain identities in science.

When deciding on topics for academic research papers, many students face difficulties that vary from choosing themes whose scope is too extensive to be satisfactorily analyzed in the given task, to selecting topics that are too limited, to not being able to make a decision on a topic at all. Such struggles seem to manifest themselves in both native and non-native speakers of English. Despite extensive research on the writing process and its strategies, be it for academic writing or other genres, and even research focused on writers’ difficulties, previous research has found little about the troubles students must overcome when deciding on a research topic, and how to overcome them. This study employed a qualitative case study design with two graduate students in a master’s program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, who were enrolled in two sections of a course on research, to investigate these students’ writing processes as they defined a topic for their literature review research paper. Through an in-depth analysis of samples of their writing in combination with their verbal reports, collected during individual semi-structured interviews, this case study examined how two graduate students successfully calibrated their topics, which strategies they employed to that end, and how their instructors’ actions helped them in the process. Consequently, the findings shed light on instructional practices, and their implications for teachers’ training programs.

This senior thesis is an examination of the major complexities and considerations encountered in developing an e-learning program. In light of the changing landscape of higher education resulting from technological advancement, combined with changing pedagogies and financial pressures, traditional institutions are under heightened scrutiny and most in need of innovation. Online learning as been proposed as a solution to many of these issues, but creating a successful program is no small feat. Furthermore, experimental research on specific course designs and delivery often fails upon real-world implementation. Looking through the lens of Design-Base-Implementation Research (DBIR), an emerging research model that seeks to rectify this inefficiency, this thesis will first affirm the crucial need for active leadership throughout the development and implementation process. Analysis will then turn to the most pertinent elements administrators must address, including the motivations and catalysts for innovation, funding, faculty engagement, IT support, course design and project evaluation; in keeping with DBIR methodology, each of these considerations will take different forms and require alternative courses of action based on the unique institutional attributes and circumstances. Finally, the exploration will culminate in reasserting the urgency for innovation in higher education, and concluding that a uniform “solution” will not only be pragmatically impossible but also detrimental to both institutional legacy and student education: a quality and sustainable program necessitates due diligence in acknowledging and working with the distinct characteristics of each institution.