The phenomenological research study explores the lived experience of Black first-generation college students navigating the financial aid process to understand how they experience the process of using financial aid to pay for college through degree attainment. Higher education is aligned with social and occupational mobility. Financial aid has its…

This research investigates significant moments in college students' drawn life stories in mathematics with the aim of examining implications for STEM engagement and potential reasons for gender-related differences in participation in mathematics intensive STEM fields. My research employs drawn life stories in mathematics specifically focused on…

This dissertation is intended to aid school systems in creating leadership education programs for high school and college aged students. A visualization education curriculum is potentially developed by using the research and commentaries of many pedologists, teachers, counselors, athletes, business individuals, and psychologists. Ideas include a…

This study aimed to contribute to the literature by examining the impacts of using GeoGebra on students' perceptions and achievement in learning geometric transformations. This study contributes to mathematics education and learning environments supported by GeoGebra. This study reviewed the literature on social constructivist learning theory and…

Improving reading comprehension for middle school students with disabilities and others who struggle with reading, referred to here as striving readers, is challenging. Formal reading instruction typically shifts from skills acquisition to application in middle and high school, providing inadequate support in the skills for comprehension (Chall,…

Spatial intelligence is an essential skill commonly used within various fields of science. Students with low spatial abilities frequently struggle to identify, retrieve, and apply key complex abstract information presented as multiple representations to actual three-dimensional natural materials and phenomena. Spatial ability may be considered a…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is a national focus. Engineering education, as part of STEM education, needs to adapt to meet the needs of the nation in a rapidly changing world. Using computer-based visualization tools and corresponding 3D printed physical objects may help nontraditional students succeed in…

This study was inspired by a history of student difficulties in calculus, and innovation in response to those difficulties. The goals of the study were fourfold. First, to design a mathlet for students to explore local linearity. Second, to redesign the curriculum of first semester calculus around the use of technology, an emphasis on…

Instructional designers need to understand the internal processes of learning, identify learners' cognitive difficulties with those processes, and create strategies to help learners overcome those difficulties. Generative learning theory, one conception of human learning about cognitive functioning and process, emphasizes that meaningful learning…