Although there have been repeated calls for empirical evaluations focused on "if" and "how" the activities of Indigenous Education Units contribute to Indigenous student success at university, data demonstrating the outcomes of these activities remain scarce. As a first step in addressing this gap, a case study of the…

The future of learning has arrived, and it requires bold educational leadership and a dramatic redefinition of what it means to be a successful student today. "Redefining Student Success" invites you to lead this transformation with audacity. It engages leaders with the concepts and actions needed to reimagine schools, address…

The Appalachian region is a rural swath of mountainous terrain home to a historically distinct culture. The region's population suffers from a multitude of health issues and disparities. Notably, the region also experiences a major healthcare provider shortage despite the fact that states, like West Virginia, produce per capita, a high volume of…

While zinc (Zn[superscript 2+]) is a vital ion for cell function and human health, we are still learning about how Zn[superscript 2+] concentration and localization is regulated and the role that Zn[superscript 2+] fluctuations may play in regulating cell signaling and cell fate. Here, we use fluorescent tools to study the interaction between…

This dissertation develops a cognitive model describing when children learn to group distinct sound segments (allophones) into abstract equivalence classes (phonemes). The allophones an individual acquires are arbitrary and determined by their particular input, yet are intricately involved in language cognition once learned. The proposed…

How do literacy coaches function as policy actors? Using a case study of literacy coaches in a small, rural South Carolina school district, this dissertation explored the ways coaches act as policy actors, the policies coaches create, and how they institutionalize policy. This study focused on literacy coaches as policy actors. The South Carolina…

Despite the importance of teacher educators in influencing the quality of teacher education and by extension, the teacher quality, teacher educator preparation and professional development has received little attention from researchers and its pedagogical knowledge domain is often generalized from that of teachers. This study therefore explored…

The redesign of learning spaces has been a growing trend in education, especially higher education. The redesign of such spaces takes time and involves a variety of stakeholders, sometimes resulting in ill-defined designs. This can be exacerbated when individuals leading such efforts depart and there is not a consensus on the design, sometimes…

Transgender (trans) rights are human rights; however, human resource management (HRM) policies often do not consider implications for non-binary gender equity. Instead, trans employees often face adverse working conditions, including discrimination, harassment, and marginalization--a critical HRM issue. As the workforce diversifies, HRM…

The rapid adoption of deep learning models has resulted in many business services becoming model services, yet most AI systems lack the necessary automation and industrialization capabilities. This leads to heavy reliance on manual operation and maintenance, which not only consumes power but also causes resource wastage and stability issues during…

The outbreak of COVID-19 witnesses a sudden surge of fully online classes globally. Scholarly attention has promptly shifted to explore the personal experiences and perceived challenges of students and teachers. For English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors around the world, many are required to teach online for the first time, yet studies…

The purpose of the case study was to understand the use of technology, particularly AI, for public middle school teachers in Michigan for critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students. The theory that guided this study was the constructivist theory. The constructivist learning theory involves people learning from their experiences…

Project-based (PBL) learning has been found to improve student achievement, engagement, and interpersonal and intrapersonal skills; however, it is not widely implemented in K-12 schools in the United States. Prior research has established several barriers and challenges to implementing PBL in K-12 schools including challenges related to teacher…

Test-taking experience is a consequence of the interaction between students and assessment properties. We define a new notion, rapid-pacing behavior, to reflect two types of test-taking experience -- disengagement and speededness. To identify rapid-pacing behavior, we extend existing methods to develop response-time thresholds for individual items…

Single-case designs substantiate the effectiveness of interventions for people with disabilities and other populations through the repeated measurement of behavior over time. Consequently, employing accurate and reliable systems of measurement is critical to the validity of single-case designs. Much of the data in single-case research are…