published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, renowned for its academic rigor, is also committed to forwarding the larger organization’s mission of creating “a better and more peaceful world” through education. This qualitative case study explores the conceptions of peace education held by three IB Diploma English A1 teachers, the factors that shaped those conceptions, and possible obstacles to teaching for peace in an international school. A framework of peace education as distilled from an extensive literature review and Johan Galtung’s definitions of peace provide the study’s theoretical foundation. Using observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, this study examines teachers’ concepts of peace, pedagogical practices, and approaches to peace education within the context of an A1 classroom and an IB World School. The findings conclude that teachers’ conceptions of peace education are shaped by personal factors such as prior experiences and pedagogical content knowledge, and not by official IB documents.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, renowned for its academic rigor, is also committed to forwarding the larger organization’s mission of creating “a better and more peaceful world” through education. This qualitative case study explores the conceptions of peace education held by three IB Diploma English A1 teachers, the factors that shaped those conceptions, and possible obstacles to teaching for peace in an international school. A framework of peace education as distilled from an extensive literature review and Johan Galtung’s definitions of peace provide the study’s theoretical foundation. Using observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, this study examines teachers’ concepts of peace, pedagogical practices, and approaches to peace education within the context of an A1 classroom and an IB World School. The findings conclude that teachers’ conceptions of peace education are shaped by personal factors such as prior experiences and pedagogical content knowledge, and not by official IB documents.

The presence of stress is normative for individuals, and it is how one copes with stress that is important towards a person's well-being. In stressful situations, one's cognitive appraisal of and emotional reactions to a challenge are based on whether it is perceived as a threat to one's beliefs and goals. Mindfulness meditation training (MMT) is a set of coping strategies that has demonstrated beneficial effects for adults in reducing stress, enhancing wellbeing, and promoting cognitive efficiency. This procedure incorporates breathing techniques to regulate physiological responses and teaches the person to appraise moment to moment sensations, feelings and events as transitory, positive or neutral to assist in emotional regulation. In the past decade, research has suggested that MMT is appropriate and effective for children and adolescents, although most studies have been with clinical populations. The present study examined the relative effectiveness of MMT in stress reduction, and in promoting the mindfulness and well-being of adolescents enrolled in an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Twelfth-grade students self-selected to participate in either an eight-week MMT course or to complete surveys as part of a no-treatment control group. Ratings for perceived stress, mindfulness, and well-being were collected from the MMT and the control groups at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at one week prior to admission of high stakes IB exams. A repeated measures 2 X 2 ANOVA was conducted for each of the three scales. Within the repeated measures ANOVA, the interaction between the factor of treatment/no treatment and the within-subjects variable "point in time" (before training, after training, and prior to the exam) was found to be statistically significant. Subsequent post hoc testing showed that the significant interaction effects occurred only at pre-test for the three measures of perceived stress, mindfulness and well-being, indicating that the groups were very different to begin with. These findings were discussed with respect to the current literature on MMT. Future directions for research in this area were also discussed, as were the limitations of the study.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Columbia University, 1966. / Typewritten. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-160).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Columbia University, 1966. / Typewritten. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-160).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-121).

No description available.

The demand for Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees is rising due to increasing costs of educational obtainment resulting in decreased access. Also, universities are not always accessible geographically or academically to many students. Many students are limited in time and financial resources, and have family and job responsibilities, limiting their ability to relocate to a university. The focus of this study was to explore the perceptions of students regarding the need for the CCB, the effectiveness of the CCB, reasons why students would choose the CCB, and the fields of CCB degrees students would choose. Specifically, this study compared the results among student survey respondents based on their primary campus attended, age, gender, race/ethnicity, number of dependents, and employment status as well as their need for the CCB. All full-time and part-time students from a rural community college in Northeast Mississippi were asked to participate in the survey. Approximately 30% of respondents indicated that their only realistic option to obtain a bachelor’s degree would be through their local community college. A majority of respondents perceived the CCB to be effective. And, respondents indicated that the factors that influenced their choice of the CCB were cost, location, work responsibilities, family responsibilities, admiration for current school, and familiarity for current school. The specific degree fields that respondents indicated they would choose if they were to obtain a CCB, from greatest interest to least, were: health professions, business, education, public administration/social work, “other”, liberal arts and sciences, and psychology. When testing the differences in perception of effectiveness of the CCB between demographic groups, the CCB was perceived to be more effective by respondents who were older, had 1 dependent or 5 or more dependents, and who saw the CCB as their only option. When testing the differences in perceptions of reasons to choose the CCB, respondents who were older indicated more reasons for choosing the CCB.

Nursing practice at all levels requires a nurse to use evidence-based nursing to improve the quality of patient care. Registered nurses need information literacy skills to practice evidence-based nursing, therefore, all nursing students need to be information literate upon graduation from nursing programs. There is no empirical research evidence on information literacy skills for students entering nursing programs in four-year colleges. Students seeking to attain a baccalaureate degree through a traditional nursing program, enter with differing demographic and educational factors that may affect their information literacy skills. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine information literacy skills of the entering traditional baccalaureate nursing student and to assess the relationship of demographic and educational factors utilizing a validated assessment tool, the Information Literacy Test (Madison Assessment, 2012). The Information Literacy Test (ILT) was administered to 120 students in a traditional baccalaureate nursing program at a major metropolitan university during the first month of their academic program. The students in this sample were a homogenous aggregate of white, young females. Cronbach’s alpha for the Information Literacy Test was minimally acceptable for reliability of the test. One hundred two of the 120 students in this study were identified as proficient in information literacy by achieving a 65% on the ILT with 18 students not being proficient. The ILT raw scores ranged from 31 to 55. The mean score for the ILT in this sample was 43.64. Two of the 120 students were at the Advanced Proficient level. Out of the four Association of Colleges and Research Libraries Competency Standards tested on the ILT, students had the most difficulty with Competency 2 on accessing needed information efficiently and effectively. iv Demographic and educational factors were examined for prediction of information literacy skills in students entering their junior year in a traditional baccalaureate nursing program using Chi Square and regression analysis. The categorical variables of English as their primary language (p < .001), race (p < .001), and years since completing science prerequisites (p = .036) demonstrated a statistically significant relationship with the ILT using Chi Square analysis. A pre-analysis test indicated that the Test of Essential Academic Skills, which is an entrance test for nursing program admission, was positively correlated with the ILT (p < .001). An ANOVA of the TEAS and the bivariate ILT indicated that the means were significantly different (p < .001) between the Proficient and the Not Proficient students. A single regression analysis was significant in predicting a positive relationship with the ILT (p < .001) using the one continuous variable, the TEAS score, with the ILT raw score. A logistic regression analysis was performed with two categorical variables, English as the primary language and years since completing science prerequisites, and one continuous variable, the TEAS score with the bivariate ILT raw score. All three variables were significant predictors of information literacy in the model. Student who did not have English as their primary language were 9 times as likely to be not be proficient on information literacy (p = .010). If a student who had science courses completed 3 or more years prior to entry in the nursing program, the student was 12 times as likely to not be proficient in information literacy (p = .008). For every 5 point increase in the TEAS, the ILT score increased by 4 points indicating that students with higher TEAS scores tend to be more proficient in information literacy (p = .004).