<p> Existing research on peer-to-peer mentoring has focused mainly on cross-age peer mentoring with several years&rsquo; difference between mentor and mentees (Karcher, 2005, 2007; Lawon, 2014; Willis, Bland, Manka, &amp; Craft, 2012) and the impact of peer mentoring on the mentee. I aimed to examine the relationship of participating in a high school based peer-to-peer mentoring program and the impact on the high school upperclassmen mentors in this study. School is a social organization where peers can develop school connectedness and expand their prosocial skills and through their social networks increase social capital. The impact of peer mentoring programs on high school peer mentors is an area that has not been sufficiently investigated. The current exploratory case study used data from surveys, interviews, and field notes to understand the experiences of mentors and the impact of peer mentoring in a high school mentoring program on these mentors in terms of their school connectedness, social capital, and prosocial skill development. Researchers have identified increases in mentees who are involved in peer mentoring programs (Karcher, 2005, 2007). Further research is needed to investigate the impact of these social connections on high school peer mentors. In this study, data was collected from the Hemingway Survey, mentor interviews, and field notes. Findings of this study support the conclusion that the peer mentors&rsquo; prosocial skills of school involvement, school connection, and social capital increased as a result of participating in a peer-to-peer mentoring program. Additionally, mentors did not report identifiable differences between matches that were same gender or different genders. Results from this study demonstrate the impact of increases in the development of prosocial skills and social capital in peer mentors.</p>

<p> Although research is limited on the effectiveness of co-teaching as a service delivery model for students with disabilities, through observation, many educators have reported positive outcomes with co-teaching (Beninghof, 2011). This case study was designed to examine the implementation of co-teaching in an elementary magnet school in a Midwestern school district driven by science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) and with a strong emphasis on personalized learning. General education teachers, special education teachers, and administrators were interviewed three times during the initial implementation school year. In addition, journaling was documented by three of the participants, and co-teaching fidelity checks were completed by the school district&rsquo;s Executive Director of Special Services. After information was gathered and analyzed, it was discovered both students with and without disabilities benefit from co-teaching as a service delivery model. It was also noted there are similarities between the benefits and challenges in a traditional co-taught classroom and a co-taught class in a STEAM elementary school with an emphasis on personalized learning. The benefits of co-teaching far outweigh the detriments. It was further discovered the success of co-teaching is attributed to the pairing of co-teaching partnerships. Finally, the participants shared the need for special education administrators to play a more active role in professional development and the sustainability of co-teaching.</p><p>

<p> Student retention has been studied more than any higher education subject (Vlanden &amp; Barlow, 2014). Attempts to better understand the retention process through predictive modeling have become more common (Bingham &amp; Solverson, 2016). However, modeling efforts have failed to properly account for elements of social integration and sense of belonging, both of which serve as key tenants in Astin&rsquo;s (1975, 1999) theory of student involvement and Tinto&rsquo;s (1982, 1993) model of college dropout and theory of student departure (Bingham &amp; Solverson, 2016). In this study, social integration was evaluated in isolation using <i>z</i>-tests. Several forms of social integration were found to have a statistically significant difference in the proportion of retained participants versus non-participants including campus fitness programs, fraternity or sorority programs, recreation facilities, and student activities. Participants in intramural sports and on-campus living were not found to have statistically significant results. Additionally, binary logistic regression was used to analyze how social integration variables interplayed with demographic, student attribute, and academic performance inputs. The model produced through the analysis successfully met previous goodness-of-fit standards established in prior research (Bingham &amp; Solverson, 2016; Jia &amp; Maloney, 2014). Findings of this research are especially relevant to higher education administrators. A key method to the promotion of persistence and student retention is the ability to predict attrition (Harvey &amp; Luckman, 2014). By including social integration data, higher education leaders could seize upon the opportunity to more accurately identify those students who are less likely to persist than their peers (Bingham &amp; Solverson, 2016). </p><p>

There were five purposes in this study as follows: 1.to develop the Taiwan Creative Education Indicators.(TCEI). 2.to develop the Taiwan Creative Education Indicators Index.(TCEII). 3.to develop the Taiwan Creative Education Implementation Questionnaire. (TCEIQ). 4.to evaluate the practice of creative education in elementary and secondary schools in Taiwan. 5.to bring up some suggestions for elementary and secondary schools in Taiwan. According to Taiwan¡¦s ¡§White paper on Creative Education¡¨(2002), creative educational medium range development program, and documents which concerned about implementing of creative education, this study developed the Taiwan creative education indicators through expert interview, in-field interview, and communicating with the propellants of creative education policy .In order to evaluate the practice of creative education, this study used the survey research method.(surveyed 356 schools and 615 members that actually implemented the Taiwan creative education policy.) This study also constructed AIPO Model to evaluate the practice of creative education, ¡§A¡¨ means the awareness of the teachers and members who actually implemented the creative education policy that established by Bureau of Education. ¡§I¡¨ means the educational input, ¡§P¡¨ means the educational process, ¡¨O¡¨ means the educational output. The educational input (I) includes governmental bounty, human resources, environmental resources. The educational process (P) includes the establishment of the creative communities, the use of creative ideas in academic subjects, the evaluation of creative projects, the evaluation of the use of governmental bounty. The educational output (O) includes creative activities, creative competitions and awards , the development of creative subject matters, students¡¦ creative performances. On the other hand, based on the whole awareness of the creative education, and five action programs as follows: ¡§Professional development for creative teachers¡¨, ¡§Nurturing trips for creative learners¡¨, ¡§Comprehensive management for creative schools¡¨ , ¡§Online learning via a creative intelligence bank¡¨, ¡§Ongoing consolidation of creativity cultivation¡¨ , this study brought up 95 creative education reference indicators. It also developed two evaluation tools- ¡§Taiwan Creative Education Indicators Index.(TCEII)¡¨, and ¡§Taiwan Creative Education Implementation Questionnaire.(TCEIQ)¡¨. The study found the practicing of creative education has great efforts in educational input, educational process and educational output. The average awareness scores of the propellants is 3.76 (1 means helpless, 5 means very helpful). In conclusion, boosting creative education is helpful, and we also know that awareness of teachers, practicing of creative education could enhance creativity of children, problem solving and basic academic ability. For teachers, it can enhance the ability of creativity and transferring courses and professional education knowledge. For school, it can improve participation of community, administrators, teachers and student. In the end, researcher brought up some suggestions for the implementation of creative education, the research targets, the research tools, and the research methods in the further study.

<p> This sequential mixed methods study examined alumni's perceptions of an integral education, an alternative educational model that is centered on students' multidimensional development. The study involved graduates from the East-West Psychology (EWP) program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and explored how they connected their unique educational experience to personal and professional development. The purpose was to determine how graduates of the EWP program value the integral education they received from CIIS, and what, if any, specific experiences, courses, and readings contributed to the said development. Forty-seven alumni, from both the master's and doctoral programs in EWP, completed an online survey sent via email, which consisted of 40 items rated on a Likert Scale and three open-ended questions. From the survey participant pool, 10 agreed to dive more deeply into their experience and gave their time for a one-on-one, semi-structured interview.</p><p> The findings revealed insight into alumni's understanding of integral education, and that their understanding is mostly in alignment with the ideals of the Institute; namely, honoring multiple perspectives, the multidimensionality of being, and multiple ways of knowing. Additionally, the results of the study also point to the areas where the EWP program is doing well in terms of what students expect and what they actually get, and also to the areas that could use improvement if the department was to offer an education that better reflects the ideals of the Institute, as espoused by the program description and advertisement. The most significant findings are the revelations of the need for (a) more professional development for students completing a degree in EWP, (b) more practical application opportunities, for example, internships, teaching assistantships, scholarships, fellowships, and connection of studies to social and global issues, (c) more community/mentor support for students' personal psycho-spiritual unfolding, and (d) more training regarding the language and expression needed to communicate the value of an integral education effectively with scholars/employers outside of CIIS. The study also engendered an articulation of both the takeaways and growing edges of such a non-traditional approach to higher education. </p>

<p>Reading is essential for personal growth and social and economic success. Smith (2002) proposed that reading was the most important subject in American early schools, and explained that reading continues to be the most significant subject in schools throughout the United States. Educators need to consider ways to strengthen our educational system beginning with teacher preparation. Researchers have outlined the close interconnectivity between teacher preparation and reading preparation; however, relatively few researchers have asked questions about the involvement of reading preparation courses, reading-related demographics, and past reading experiences in relation to reading habits and knowledge, specifically of children?s literature. This quantitative study analyzed 12 specific demographic and reading-related variables in the prediction of preservice teachers? knowledge and current reading habits of children?s literature in a teacher preparation program at a public, four-year, Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in South Texas. The correlational study employed bivariate and multivariate analyses on data collected from 168 undergraduate students enrolled in at least one reading course during the fall 2014 semester. Results of correlational analysis indicated that there were statistically significant associations for current reading habits of children?s literature on the basis of READ 3310?Principles and Practices of Early Reading Instruction, READ 3320?Principles and Practices of Reading Instruction, and READ 4380?Children?s and Adolescents? Literature, and daily contact with children outside of school. There were statistically significant associations for knowledge of children?s literature based on READ 3320, READ 4380, and past reading experiences. Results of the regression analysis indicated daily contact with children outside of school, READ 4380, READ 3310, and READ 3320 were significantly correlated with current reading habits. READ 4380, READ 3320, and past reading experiences were the variables used in the prediction of knowledge of children?s literature. The results of the study have implications for teacher preparation programs, literacy scholars, in-service educators, preservice educators, and parents. Some recommendations for future research include: complete a comparison study with in-service teachers, replicate the study to include a larger number of participants, update the Children?s Literature Title Recognition Test to reflect in-class and out of class fiction and non-fiction titles, and add a qualitative aspect.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 13, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-279). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Curriculum studies)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

<p> Community colleges are the largest segment of higher education institutions in the United States providing access to historically underserved populations and growing numbers of first generation college students. Increasing college degree attainment is a national priority with new expectations of accountability. Despite decades of educational research, community colleges have startling low completion rates. Within the framework of Tinto&rsquo;s theory of retention, a predictive analytics model could provide community colleges the opportunity to drive custom intervention and support services to students. The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of Biglan&rsquo;s taxonomy for categorizing courses for potential use in a data analytics model to identify students at risk of failure to complete. The quantitative census study used archival data from 1,759 students. Log-linear analysis was used to test the key research question as to whether there is a predictive relationship between type of course failed, as cross-categorized by the dimensions in Biglan&rsquo;s taxonomy, in the first term and failure to complete a degree or certificate within 6 years. The analysis showed that a more parsimonious model, based on the interaction term for the life/nonlife and pure/applied Biglan categories, appeared related to completion, although no standardized residual was significant. A larger and more diverse sample may be necessary to determine the true effectiveness of Biglan&rsquo;s taxonomy as a classification schema in a predictive analytics model of degree completion. Based on these results, first term course failure appears to be a logical point for programmatic support that could lead to higher levels of associate degree completion opening doors of employment opportunity through education, thus supporting social change.</p>

<p> Personalized learning for students has been an emerging trend which seeks to support teaching and learning in the 21st century (Netoch, 2017). This study identified beliefs of secondary educators on the different aspects of personalized learning for students. Areas covered in this study included teacher professional development on the personalized learning process, amount or quality of teacher support for the implementation of personalized learning, the impact of technology on personalized learning with classroom instruction, and any obstacles to the personalized learning process. Findings from this study were compared to identify connections between responses as they related to the research questions. Many teachers surveyed indicated they felt instructional technology was needed but not necessary for all aspects of personalized learning. Most secondary teachers indicated some form of personalized learning was prevalent in their school. The majority of teachers indicated their students seldom or never utilized assistance on problem-solving help from automated tutoring services. In another related area, less than 50% of teachers reported students seldom or never used personalized learning systems feedback from automated systems regarding their own learning strengths and weaknesses. A majority of teacher respondents valued professional development offered to them through the school, as well as the support they received. A majority also somewhat or strongly agreed the professional development aided them in implementing technology for personalized learning in the classroom. Finally, one of the major obstacles reported by teachers was the excessive time needed to develop content for technology-based instruction.</p><p>