M.Ed.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

University students worldwide regularly encounter assessments in their courses and the results obtained are used to make important decisions about their movement from one year of study to the next. This makes students vital stakeholders in the assessment practices of institutions and illustrates how issues related to the topic of assessment and assessment practices are critical to students. Many authors and researchers advocate the idea that the perspectives of students’ themselves are important wherever questions of assessment arise. Furthermore, assessments take on various forms and are understood and therefore utilised in a particular manner depending on their context. This study thus aimed to describe assessments used at a specific South African university from the students’ perspective. Seventeen third year level Psychology students participated by completing a demographic questionnaire and taking part in one of four focus groups which were transcribed. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis. The research yielded results pertaining to many different aspects of assessment. Participants perceived the purposes of assessment in the same manner as described in the literature, namely to measure knowledge, ability to cope and institutional standards. They viewed each form of assessment (multiple choice tests, open-ended test and examinations, essay assignments and group work) as having a specific purpose and different advantages and disadvantages and indicated that they prepared for each type of assessment using different strategies, depending on the form. Participants understood assessments in terms of the types of task that each required them to complete but were more concerned about the conditions under which they were expected to complete them. The time constraint element in particular was viewed as detracting from performance rather than as part of the assessment task. Other individual and contextual factors were perceived as important but were often not accounted for or able to be accounted for in assessments. Participants appeared motivated to succeed by achieving high marks rather than by achieving the intended course outcomes and assessment purposes and time management was identified as an important aspect of coping. In general, the participants seemed to perceive assessment and the various forms thereof in a similar manner and in line with literature.

Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold / Master's education is the largest segment of graduate education in the United States yet there is a paucity of research about how master's students experience their programs. Empirical research on student engagement - defined as the time and effort students devote to activities that are linked to educational outcomes and what institutions do to promote student participation in these activities - is discussed in the literature as a mostly undergraduate phenomenon (Kuh, 2001; 2003; Kuh et al., 2007a). This quantitative study extended engagement research to master's students using an instrument called the Master's Survey of Student Engagement (MSSE), which was adapted from the Law School Survey of Student Engagement. The MSSE was administered to 1,539 students enrolled in a master's program in arts and sciences, business, or education at a mid-sized research University in the Northeast. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the internal structure of the MSSE. Following the factor analysis, five multiple regression analyses were conducted; each multiple regression analysis examined the relationship between a particular engagement dimension (as the dependent variable) and the student characteristics of academic discipline, gender, age, enrollment status, children status, marital status, and international status (as the independent variables). While the findings suggest at least five dimensions of engagement for master's students, three of these dimensions are more strongly associated with student characteristics, including academic discipline. The findings also showed that master's students in business and education are more likely to experience a supportive campus environment than are students in arts and sciences. The findings also suggested that arts and sciences students have a more rigorous intellectual experience and engage more with faculty than do students in education or business. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / It is widely accepted that school leadership has both a direct and indirect impact on student achievement. Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) Unified Leadership Framework summarized a decade of work by numerous researchers identifying the five most effective leadership domains that influence student learning. Using that work as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study analyzed one of the five interdependent leadership domains in an urban elementary school that succeeded in educating traditionally marginalized students and outperformed other schools with similar demographics in the district. This study focused on Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) leadership domain of connecting with external partners. Specifically, it examined whether leadership practices that supported family and community partnerships were present at the school. Family and community partnerships are important because they support two essential, yet frequently overlooked, contexts where student learning and development take place. In addition, this study examined whether school leadership practices promoted these partnerships in a culturally proficient manner. This analysis was informed by the culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) framework, which describes principal behaviors that promote cultural responsiveness in urban settings. Several leadership practices that supported the criteria established by Hitt and Tucker (2016) under the domain of connecting with external partners were evident at the school, including: building productive relationships with families and the community; engaging families in collaborative processes to strengthen student learning; and anchoring the school in the community. However, leadership practices promoting family and community partnerships did not fully support a finding of being a culturally proficient school culture. This finding was primarily based on a “one size fits all” approach to working with students and families, which has been described in the literature as “cultural blindness”. Recommendations to practitioners as a result of this study include expanding informal opportunities for parent input and engagement, conducting an equity audit, and pursuing cultural proficiency professional development. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships which existed between the degree of success in a student teaching practicum and certain mental, emotional and social factors; to determine whether these factors, singly or in combination, can be used to predict success om a student teaching practicum; to discover likely causes for, or factors contributing to, variance in success; and to determine whether present evaluation techniques are reliable measures of the degree of success in a student teaching practicum. / 2031-01-01