Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the global pandemic of 2020, there has been an increased focus on disaster and crisis preparedness. Emergency response personnel, health professionals, and their support staff may not be adequately prepared for a disaster or crisis relief. Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology…

Field experiences are regarded as the most effective way to prepare future teachers to be ready for the complexity and challenges found in the teaching profession (Phillion et al., 2005). Ill-prepared teachers may fail to gain fully from field experiences if they are not well prepared or do not value the activity as an out of class task (Hixon…

Radiography education programs are designed to prepare students to perform radiographic examinations and acquire diagnostic medical images of real patients in the clinical setting. Radiographic Science (RS) education, like all healthcare education, is uniquely different from education in other professional fields. Students must not only acquire…

There has been recent interest in how the body can be used as a resource for learning challenging concepts in science and mathematics. This dissertation contributes to this conversation in the literature by focusing on a learning environment that engages students in using their bodies as a resource for learning a particularly challenging science…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: Oculus Rift immersive virtual reality includes a headset and a computer and immerses the user into a three-dimensional experience. Immersive virtual reality learning experiences with classroom discussions are emergent, novel instructional methods. This standard exploratory study investigated an…

In the last decade, the educational field, in general, has experienced increasing interest in applying augmented reality (AR) for educational purposes. Studies have shown that when AR is effectively applied in education, it can increase students' learning interest and concentration (Zhang et al., 2014), reduce cognitive overload (Bower et al.,…

Effectively mastering organic chemistry means having the ability to recognize structural patterns, identify properties or behaviors as a result of patterns, manipulate and transform representations, and predict future outcomes. Often students rely on rote memorization of seemingly disconnected information instead of developing a sound…

Teacher evaluation has evolved since the early settlement days (Jewell, 2016) into the current system that is designed to hold teachers accountable for student learning as well as to support professional growth of the teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2013; Darling-Hammond, Wise, & Pease, 1983; Marzano & Toth, 2013). Texas's teacher evaluation…

Nursing education is facing challenging demands today with the NextGen NCLEX scheduled for release in Spring 2023, updated American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials, and distance learning due to COVID-19. This dissertation examines the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on nursing students as education was disrupted just prior…

The purpose of this mixed methods multiple case study was to gain insight into the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers participating in a curriculum enhanced via mixed reality simulation experiences. There were two cases within the present study, one was bound by pre-service teacher candidate participants enrolled as students within one…

Teacher education programs historically offer little opportunity to develop skills necessary for communicating effectively with parents. Mixed reality simulations, such as TLE-TeachLivE, can ameliorate this lack of instruction. This study examines the communication skills demonstrated by preservice educators during a mixed reality conference…

Achieving an in-depth understanding of unfamiliar science concepts has been found to be difficult when learners can not index science language to relevant sensorimotor experiences. Ongoing research in embodied cognition highlights the importance of relevant sensorimotor experiences in understanding and learning new information. Aiming to foster…

One of the critical roles of instructional leaders is to help teachers with technology integration. Instructional leaders should be familiar with emerging technology and understand how they can help teachers integrate new technology appropriately into their classrooms. One tool that has become increasingly popular to support student learning is…

Simulation has been recognized as a teaching, learning, evaluation, and research strategy based on learning theories, that has come to play a significant role in healthcare education (Beal et al., 2017; La Cerra et al., 2019). Health-related academic programs in higher education have traditionally used simulation to fill gaps in learning and…

The increase in distance learning offerings and the deficit in providing an equivalent engagement mechanism for haptic subjects for online learners is stimulating educators to seek new pedagogical methods to meet the needs of the curriculum. A quantitative quasi-experimental study deploying a two nonequivalent groups design was conducted to…