Low student achievement and decreasing student engagement have provoked a call for pedagogical change in the UAE. In an attempt to address these challenges an intervention was introduced that consisted of an alternate pedagogical approach in the form of standards-focused project-based learning which is an active-learning approach where students drive their own learning through the completion of a project(s) that promotes inquiry, standards alignment, and collaborative research. This action research study sought to analyse the effectiveness of this alternate approach by answering two research questions using by collecting and analysing both quantitative and qualitative data. The first research question was: what kind of change can be brought about by engaging students in a student-focused and active learning environment by the design and implementation of a standards-focused project-based learning model? The second research question was: what is the difference in exam scores between students in a lecture-based class and students in an active-learning class that utilizes a standards-focused project-based learning curriculum? In response to these research questions, statistical significance was found in the difference between the mean examination scores of the Foundation course experimental section and the Foundation course control section. No significance was found when comparing the mean examination scores of the First year education experimental section with the first year education control section. Four primary themes were identified through thematic content analysis of the feedback shared by the participants during the focus groups. The four themes were (a) connection between teaching style and performance, (b) students’ preparedness for exam, (c) positive influence of peer pressure and (d) students driven by an external locus of control.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason S. Brody / Kansas City has the opportunity to expand its recycling programs and infrastructure through a participatory design process conducted at the Kansas City Design Center (KCDC). Because participatory design techniques can allow researchers to include members of the community in the planning process, project outcomes can generally be more successful. In the example of the recycling and composting project led by students at the KCDC, an advisory committee made of professionals and members of the community represented many stakeholder interests. Because of the wide array of feedback from the community, the process of design for the studio was not linear, but rather, it transformed over a period of research, design, further research, and redesign. The students first approached local recycling issues within the scope of a document written for grant funding. However as students responded to feedback from the advisory committee, the final proposals were altered to better address truer community needs. Other aspects for how to communicate and respond to critical feedback was also realized. This report aims to discover how participatory design aided this project and made its outcomes and delivery more agreeable to the larger population.

Much effort has been expended to increase the awareness and understanding of play therapy among consumers and practitioners (Landreth, 1991) since its introduction by Virginia Axline during the 1940s. As with any form of counseling, Leblanc and Ritchie (1999) have noted there are factors considered key to successful play therapy treatment outcomes. Play therapy research shows a positive relationship between parent's involvement in play therapy and successful outcomes (LeBlanc & Ritchie, 1999; Bratton, Ray, Rhine, & Jones, 2005) but little research exists to document specific practice patterns and perceptions of play therapists in relation to achieving caregiver engagement. The purpose of this study was to identify the practice patterns of play therapists, their perceptions of the factors that influence caregiver engagement, their perceptions of the relationship between caregiver engagement and the therapeutic outcome for the child client, and their perceptions of the barriers to achieving caregiver engagement in play therapy. The Caregiver Engagement Inventory (CEI), a 36-item, structured and semi-structured questionnaire developed for this research, was electronically sent to 4854 members of the Association for Play Therapy (APT), resulting in 539 responses, 431 of which were deemed appropriate for inclusion. Of the 423 participants who responded, 292 (69%) strongly agreed and 107 (25%) agreed that caregiver engagement is related to a child’s therapeutic outcome in play therapy. Fifty-three percent (n=228) of respondents strongly agreed that they are prepared to facilitate caregiver engagement in play therapy, and 35% (n=151) agreed. These results suggested that, while 94% of play therapists who responded believe caregiver engagement is a large factor in successful play therapy outcomes, only 88% of the participants feel prepared to accomplish the task with caregivers of their child clients. The results indicated a relationship between training and play therapists’ practice patterns related to caregiver engagement, but participants reported minimal exposure to training specific to working with caregivers in both their graduate programs and workshops. Findings indicated that play therapists value caregivers’ roles in play therapy; however, barriers exist to caregiver engagement. Implications for play therapists, educators of mental health professionals, and future research are discussed. Keywords: play therapy, caregiver, engagement

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Thesis advisor: Lauri Johnson / This exploratory case study examined family-school-community engagement in a small New England school district and town that is home to a federally recognized Indigenous Tribe that has inhabited the area for 12,000 years and whose children represent the largest group of racially minoritized students in the public schools. Using Indigenous protocols and methodologies that included relational accountability, individual semi-structured conversations, talking circles, and participant observation, this study explored the ways that Indigenous families and community members as well as district educators conceptualized and practiced family-school-community engagement and whether or not their conceptualizations and practices were aligned and culturally sustaining/revitalizing. Family-school-community engagement has been touted in research literature as a remedy to the problem of low achievement that prevails in many schools serving minoritized students, including Indigenous students. However, a more pertinent reason to study this topic is due to “ongoing legacies of colonization, ethnocide, and linguicide” committed against Indigenous families and their children by colonial governments and their educational institutions (Brayboy, 2005; Grande, 2015; McCarty & Lee, 2014, p. 103). This study was thus conducted and data were analyzed using a decolonizing lens and culturally responsive leadership (Johnson, 2014), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2014), and culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy (McCarty & Lee, 2014) as theoretical frameworks. Findings revealed distinctions in the priorities and engagement practices of educators versus Tribal members. While educators conceptualized and reported to practice an open-door model of engagement in which families have a plethora of opportunities to get involved in the schools, Indigenous parents and community leaders engaged as ardent advocates for the equitable treatment of their children and for the expansion of language and culture-based programming for tribal students in educational spaces within and outside of the public-school system. Also, Educators and Tribal members alike acknowledged that district staff lack cultural awareness and sensitivity and needed to be better educated. These findings and others offer important implications for local Indigenous communities and school districts serving Indigenous families. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Given the prevailing ethical crisis and subsequent collapse of a number of modern organizations, the lapse in leader ethics as a determining factor of the proliferation of corrupt practices has come to dominate leadership discourse. Ethical leadership has been linked not only to avoiding organizational destruction but to fostering healthy, productive organisations. In line with this, the current study aimed to assess the role of employee perceptions of ethical leadership in promoting employee engagement, via the mediating mechanism of employee perceptions of psychological safety.. Having distributed an email survey to administrative employees of a technological goods producer, Kalshoven et al.’s (2011) Ethical leadership at Work scale, Carmeli and Gittel’s (2009) psychological safety scale and the 17-item version of Utrecht’s employee engagement scale (Schauefeli & Bakker, 2003) were completed by 139 participants. Using structural equation modelling, the findings supported the linkage between ethical leadership and employee engagement and confirmed the role of psychological safety in mediating this relationship.

Thesis advisor: Stephanie Berzin / In industrial organizational psychology, there is a well-established link between worker job satisfaction and worker engagement in their job. Similarly, research has found an association between a parent’s satisfaction with their child’s education services and a parent’s level of involvement in their child’s education. Levels of family involvement in their child’s education as early as preschool have been correlated with positive academic and behavioral outcomes throughout childhood. This line of research posits that families who are satisfied with their child’s education services are more likely to be involved in their child’s education and, consequentially, their children are more likely to have positive academic and behavioral outcomes. According to the theories proposed by industrial organization psychology and education research, this dissertation explores the potential links between satisfaction and involvement in Head Start services among U.S. born and immigrant families. To begin to understand the potential connection between satisfaction with services, engagement in services and the unique experiences of the immigrant communities in Head Start, this collection of three studies seeks to employ a mix of primary quantitative data and secondary quantitative data to examine satisfaction with and involvement in services among U.S. born and immigrant families in Head Start. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social work.

Thesis advisor: Larry Ludlow / While there was a wealth of research in the 1970s and 1980s that suggests students’ on-campus college housing environment impacts student experiences and outcomes, interest has waned over the last several decades. Since then, the landscape of higher education has changed; a national focus on accountability and the rise in student-paid tuition costs has shaped higher education as a marketable good. These changes warrant a need to revisit the impact of on-campus housing environments as postsecondary institutions, often with limited financial and land resources, strategize ways to successfully meet incoming millennials’ housing needs while striving for recruitment, retention, and then students’ success during college. The present study took an exploratory approach to this understudied topic. This mixed-method study explored how residence hall location (i.e., living on the main campus or a satellite campus) and room type (i.e., living in a single, double, triple, forced triple, or quad room) impacted first-year college experiences and outcomes for traditional students. Findings show that housing conditions had an impact, particularly for those assigned less desired housing conditions (i.e., living on the satellite campus or in a forced triple room). Students in forced triple rooms did not frequently study in their room, felt crowded, had significantly lower GPAs than students who lived in double rooms, and engaged in fewer discussions with diverse others than those in triple rooms. In addition, while survey data found no differences in satisfaction by location, focus group participants who lived on the satellite campus expressed frustration with the university shuttle bus and felt removed from university-affiliated and other social activities and events. Focus group discussions suggest that entering college with clear expectations of housing conditions can prepare students to navigate housing challenges and ease the transition to college. Institutions should consider offering resources and support to students prior to matriculating and then once at college. Furthermore, institutions should be mindful of the social implications of geographically separating the first-year student cohort. Findings have practical implications for institution administrators and policy makers. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Despite the importance of roofs, improved roof selection has not been explored in significant depth. Therefore this research explores the possibilities that roofs offer to improve the value and sustainability of buildings. It is concerned with the roof as a system, explicitly connected with the building and their impacts on wider society. This research, develops and tests techniques to better understand what constitutes value and sustainability for a building project’s context through action research. The sustainability and value themes output through the use of such techniques are then considered as a basis for the selection of roof attributes through Keeney’s value focused thinking approach. Once the roof performance attributes have been established, designers and clients then require quantitative data to decide which roof type represents the highest value / most sustainable option. Thus the research also collates and maps peer reviewed quantitative performance data on the performance of roofing systems in relation to climate type as well as providing information from leading modelling packages for different roof options. An approach for selecting the most appropriate data is then developed. This allows the practitioner to be able to access reliable peer reviewed information and utilise leading modelling techniques to quickly gain information regarding the performance of various roof systems for use in the project context. An approach is developed to bring this information together with the important sustainability considerations for the project to inform sustainable roof selection. This combines the different types of roof performance with the relevant decision attributes early in the design process, to provide insight into which roof option represents the best overall economic, environmental and social value and therefore the most sustainable roof option. The primary contribution to knowledge presented in this thesis is the development of a pragmatic realist approach to sustainable roof selection.

This research study explores the gamification of SandBoxModel's Project Team Builder, a project management simulation software. Scope, time and cost are the three constraints of project management with quality being the fourth dimension. The software provides a simulated environment where the students are responsible for handling the aforementioned constraints with the objective of executing a complete project. The software is used to teach project management concepts to students who take the CNIT 480 - Managing Information Technology Projects course at Purdue University. The perception survey was used to analyze whether gamification had a significant effect on student understanding of project execution concepts. The triple constraint survey was used to analyze students' level of comprehension regarding the triple constraints after using the simulation software. Gamification was not a success in enhancing project execution concepts since no significant differences were found in student perceptions on comparing the data of the three semesters. However, simulation independent of gamification was successful in improving students' understanding of triple constraint. <br>