Developing online instructional strategies for increasing student engagement and success is significant locally and nationally due to growth in the online field, advances in technology, and the need for colleges to maximize student success. This study stemmed from the desire of administrators at an upstate New York private college to discover additional ways to design and deliver effective online instruction. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to discover faculty perceptions of and experiences with instructional strategies that they used to foster student engagement in online learning. Kearsley and Shneiderman's engagement theory formed the study's conceptual framework. Ten faculty members, who had taught online for at least 3 years at the study site, completed an open-ended, anonymous online survey, provided documents for analysis, and participated in a semi-structured, one-on-one interview. Data analysis revealed five themes that add insight to the attributes of student engagement theory by discovering instructional strategies that foster interaction for online students: instructor presence, effective communication, course consistency, engaging content, and a humanizing learning environment. Using these findings, a position paper was written, which includes the recommendation that a new professional development initiative, a communities-of-practice e-learning site, be created to share study findings. Dissemination of study findings at conferences may increase online practitioners' knowledge of instructional strategies that engage online learners and improve student satisfaction and success, potentially resulting in positive social change.

Pedagogy has not addressed the literacy shift from reading, writing, and speaking to include cognitive digital literacy skills. Teachers lack the technological pedagogical content knowledge to integrate digital literacy skills into student learning. Using a digital literacy framework with 6 essentials skills, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate teachers' (a) current understanding, knowledge and skills; (b) current integration of digital literacy skills; (c) challenges they face in integration; and (d) supports needed in shifting pedagogical practices to address change. Participants were 13 teachers from high school content areas. Data were gathered through focus groups interviews, observations, and artifacts. Data were coded with MAXQDA software, compared, organized, and refined based on the 4 research questions. Findings revealed high levels of knowledge for the terms digital literacy and photovisual literacy. Integration levels of digital literacy skills varied with more evidence in photovisual and reproduction literacy. Five minor challenge themes (critical thinking; time; information and technology literacy; infrastructure and access; and behavior and attitude) and 4 minor support themes (professional development; planning and preparation time; observation and feedback; and schoolwide focus and routines) emerged. Analysis of findings revealed 4 major themes: critical thinking, integrated professional development, effective use of time, and infrastructure and schoolwide routines. Findings may affect positive social change by engaging teachers in critical reflection through professional development leading to improvements in teacher pedagogical practices related to furthering the digital literacy skills of youth.

Despite innovative policy and pedagogical transformations, postsecondary achievement gaps continue to exist between African American males and other students. Low college credential completion rates by African American males have prevented an East Texas community college from meaningful participation in the President's 2020 postsecondary education attainment goal of increasing U.S. college graduates by 5 million. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate a hypothesized connection between the independent variable, mode of instruction, and the dependent variables, mathematics course completion and college completion by African American males. Guided by Ogbu's cultural-ecological theory of minority school performance, a chi-square test of independence was used to compare 407 African American males who participated in the mode of lecture and 412 who participated in modular instruction. Findings included a significant relationship (p <.05) between mode of instruction and developmental mathematics completion (p = .000) with the lecture mode associated with higher achievement. No significant relationship existed between instructional mode and college credential completion (p = .503). These findings called the effectiveness of modular instruction into question and indicated that, at this research site, the instructional mode in developmental mathematics is insufficient to address the disparity in college completion rates of African American males. These results informed a policy recommendation paper, written to help local college administrators better understand African American male remedial math and college credential completion rates. This study contributes to positive social change by generating data-based local institutional policies that will promote African American male postsecondary achievement.

To promote or not to promote has long been a question in the minds of both administrators and teachers; however, the segregated problem of promotion and non-promotion did not receive much attention until about fifteen years ago. In the past decade and a half much time and careful, thoughtful study have been devoted to this problem by leading educators.

Public concern about teenage pregnancy and the threat of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS make sex education information vital for today's teenagers. A 1986 Harris survey of 1,000 teenagers cited parents as their primary source of sex education information, but 42% said they would be too nervous or afraid to bring up the subject of contraception or birth control with their parents. States like Kentucky have mandated sex education courses for all public schools to provide necessary instruction for teenagers. This study identifies communication barriers which teenagers say prevent communication with their parents about sex and sex-related topics. Questionnaires were administered to 249 high school sex education students. The majority of teenagers (71%) said they could communicate freely with their parents about most topics, but only half (52%) said they could communicate freely with their parents about sex or sex-related topics. Thirty percent of the teenagers said they could not talk comfortably with their mothers about sex as compared to 47% who said they could not talk with their fathers. Results showed gender differences in the ability to talk with fathers about sex. Fifty-eight percent of the females reported closed communication with fathers about sex topics as compared to 33 percent of males. Teenagers cited 13 main reasons why they could not talk with their parents about sex or sex-related topics: embarrassment (20%), poor communication in general (11%), different values about sex and dating (11%), avoidance of conflict (10%), teenager chooses not to discuss it with parents (10%), it's a topic simply not discussed (9%), parents might accuse them of being sexually active (7%), parents think they are too young (5%), they are too busy to talk about it (5%), parents don't want to discuss it (4%), parents are overprotective (4%), teenager is not close to parents (3%), and parents wouldn't understand (2%). Items which teenagers say would make it more comfortable to discuss sex topics with parents include: parents being more understanding, non-accusing, not embarrassed, willing to listen, closer in age, less old fashioned, more informed about today's teens, open minded and less judgmental.

It is the purpose of this study to present the results of an investigation of the high school and college records of the 600 students who have been on probation at the Western Kentucky State Teachers College during the school years 1932-32, 1932-33 and 1933-34; and, if possible, to set up some standards by which these students may be given the advice and guidance that will best serve them in their preparation for life.

During the 1979-80 school year, two Algebra I classes were involved in a study to test the effects of two methods for reviewing homework problems on students' achievements and attitudes. One review procedure was to solve and explain each problem during the class period that followed the class period in which the homework assignment had been made. The other procedure involved solving and explaining only the problems that students requested to have reviewed. While one procedure was being used with one class, the other procedure was being used with the comparison class. One treatment procedure was used with a class until a unit of work was completed. After a unit was completed a teacher-made, achievement test was administered to the students in both classes. The raw scores were normalized with a mean of fifty and a standard deviation of ten. At the beginning of the next unit the review procedures were alternated between the two classes. The two classes covered fourteen units during the experimental period. At the conclusion of the study, each student had fourteen normalized achievement scores on record. The scores were the basis for testing the following: the effect of the review procedures on achievement within each class and the effect of the review procedures on achievement between classes. A survey to obtain the attitudes of students toward the two procedures was conducted at the conclusion of the experimental period. There was no significant difference in achievement between treatments for either class. There was no significant difference in achievement between classes when using different review procedures. Students preferred to review only homework problems they requested. The following conclusions were based upon the findings of this study. Homework appears necessary for the attainment of desirable proficiency in Algebra I classes. The method of reviewing homework should be a combination of reviewing all of the homework assigned and reviewing only the problems that are requested by students. The difficulty of the topics and the interest of the students should be the bases for the teacher's decision regarding which review method should be used for any specific homework assignment.

The purposes of this study were to compare the mean achievement of students in a Quantitative Physical Science class in which the members were allowed to select their own partners with students in a Quantitative Physical Science class in which partners were assigned on the basis of high-low test scores and to compare mean achievement of students in a Quantitative Physical Science class that used audio-visual material with the mean achievement of students in a Quantitative Physical Science class that used no audio-visual material. The population consisted of sixty-eight ninth grade boys and girls enrolled in Quantitative Physical Science classes in Daviess County High School during the 1975-1976 school year. The participants were the researcher's three Quantitative Physical Science classes. They were intact groups, but the treatments were randomly placed. All three groups were tested to determine intelligence levels, science achievement, and initial level of interest. The control group was assigned partners and used no audio-visual materials. The selected diad group selected partners and used no audio-visual materials. The audiovisual group used audio-visual materials and were assigned partners. The three groups were taught the same material for the same amount of time. The Read General Science Test was administered as the pretest to determine initial level of achievement. The Read General Science Test also served as the posttest. The Kuder-Interest Test was administered to determine interest level. The Otis-Lennon was used to test for intelligence levels. After controlling for the covariates, interest, intelligence, and initial level of achievement, no significant difference between the means on the Read where partners were assigned compared to a class where partners were selected was found. After controlling the covariates, interest, intelligence and initial level of achievement for the audiovisual material group several conflicts arose as suggested by the empirical data. When the audio-visual group's pretest and posttest means were compared, there was no significant difference. When the posttest mean of the audiovisual group was compared to posttest mean of the control it was found that there was a significant difference and that perhaps audio-visual materials had a negative effect. Also, when mean gain of audio-visual group was compared to mean gain of control, it was found that control made the greater gain. In conclusion, the researcher concludes that method of partner selection has no effect upon mean achievement and that the effect of audio-visual material effect upon mean achievement is inconclusive.

The purpose of this study is to locate some of the existing problems of safety in the shop and remedy them by furnishing some means that the teacher may use in presenting a safety program in the school shop. Too many shop teachers have not realized the importance of safety, therefore, they have not organized their program on a safe basis.

Great sums of money are expended annually for the upkeep and equipment of laboratories that are used only for teaching, and yet there is little in the way of experimental data to indicate whether the expenditure of time or money is justified.