Studies show that students are less successful in their freshman year of high school than in elementary and middle school. The causes of this decline in success range from new schedules, changing of relationships, increased rigor, and less involvement from educators. This applied study will explore the effectiveness of soft skill interventions in…

Design schools represent a unique context for the study of creativity. Design school students are expected to master creativity by developing individualized processes. Student development in the design classroom has traditionally focused on cultivating professional skills and aptitudes. However, design school students may have long-held beliefs…

Spatial skills, the set of cognitive skills that are responsible for our understanding of objects in real and imagined spaces, have been identified as a potential gate-keeper for STEM success. Because of the recent emphasis on improving education to prepare for the increasing demand for workers in STEM fields, there is a rising interest in…

The number of initiatives developed to support student persistence and retention in higher education has expanded a great deal within the last 10 years. Many of these solutions have been created with the intent to directly influence and enhance students' cognitive abilities while disregarding the critical role that non-cognitive factors play in…

Teachers in my school district observed students struggling with their social and emotional skills in the classroom and on the playground; therefore, a group of teachers and administrators began to search for programs to help the school district strengthen student social and emotional skills prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The team…

This study delved into the critical examination of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and its integration into the English/language arts (ELA) curriculum. CRP, rooted in acknowledging and accommodating the diverse literacy levels, languages, and cultural practices of students, holds significant promise in enhancing educational equity and…

The purpose of this study is to understand the professional skill development of student employees in a leadership position through a theoretical lens and applied lens. Research suggests that a deficit of professional skills exist in today's college graduates. In higher education, many colleges and universities use a student employment model to…

Retention is a continuing concern for institutions of higher education, especially rural community colleges. Students are often not prepared for the rigor of college-level coursework, encounter academic and/or life obstacles, or do not possess the soft skills needed to succeed in college life. Research has shown that college-preparation courses…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the social-emotional effects of looping in a multiage program at a Title 1 Elementary School with a high population of multilingual learners. The Elementary School was located in a neighborhood within the southeastern portion of the United States of America. The research questions were "How do…

Athletic training students require strong critical thinking skills in order to make decisions for the health and safety of their athletes. Research has shown that these skills are difficult to develop. Simulation learning is often used in healthcare education as a way to build these critical thinking skills. This action research study sought to…

The focus on equity and inclusion in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s led to the creation of Upward Bound (UB). The core mission of UB is to prepare high school students with the academic and social skills necessary to enroll in post-secondary education and beyond. However, there is a lack of empirical studies on how the growth of students'…

This study examined the research question, does having a woman in student affairs as a mentor correlate to higher socially responsible leadership scores of undergraduate men? Overall, there were no statistically significant differences between leadership construct scores on measures of socially responsible leadership for undergraduate men who…

When teachers develop strong and effective partnerships with families, children experience significant benefits (see for example, Anthony, Williams, Zhang, Landry, & Dunkelberger, 2014; Fan & Chen, 2001; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2007; Weiss, Lopez, & Rosenberg, 2010). However, collaborating with families remains an area in…

This dissertation examined the significance of the Undergraduate Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence (USSTRIDE) community of practice (CoP) mentorship program offered at Florida State University College of Medicine and its profound impact on first-generation, rural, and economically disadvantaged undergraduate student…

The discipline of data science has gained substantial attention recently. This is mainly attributed to the technological advancement that led to an exponential increase in computing power and has made the generation and recording of enormous amounts of data possible on an everyday basis. It has become crucial for industries to wrangle, curate, and…