By 2023, gamification was entering just about every sector and industry including education, fitness, crowd sourcing, social media, and corporate environments. Gamification often offers promises of motivation, engagement, fun, and even higher performance. At the time of the study, there were few studies that examined gamification in accounting…

Lab activities are a vital part of physics courses, providing students with hands-on experiences of classroom topics. At the same time, building self-efficacy is vital to student learning and retention; however, females traditionally have lower self-efficacy in STEM fields. This research explores the role of gender and the changes in interest in…

One of the factors that emotionally affect the education-learning process is anxiety. Considering students' anxiety in teaching how to read and write, anxiety will positively contribute to effective and productive learning. This study aimed to determine the "Reading Anxiety" of primary school students. A 29-item "Reading Anxiety…

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) is an education term used to define students enrolled in public schools whose language and culture do not match the dominant culture. Assessing CLD students has been an ongoing challenge in school psychology for decades. Significant disproportionality includes CLD populations, special education…

Due to the required amount of time, financial resources, and the potential effects of the evaluation on teacher performance and student learning outcomes, teacher perceptions and experiences with the Georgia TKES need to be examined. This quantitative non-experimental design study aimed to examine the perceptions and experiences of teachers with…

The recent increase in mental health concerns and service utilization for students has been characterized as the "mental health crisis in higher education." At the same time, there are social inequities on who "gets" to be well and under what conditions. This three-paper dissertation analyzes the well-being support networks of…

Educational Robotics is increasingly used in elementary-school classrooms to develop students' algorithmic thinking and programming skills. However, most research appears descriptive and lacks experimental evidence on the effects of teaching interventions using robotics to develop algorithmic thinking. Using the robots Dash and Dot, this study…

While racially minoritized students are gaining access and enrolling in post-secondary institutions at higher rates, institutionalized oppression and exclusionary practices impact students' experience and success. Colleges and universities have an obligation to create environments that are welcoming, just, and fair for all students who choose to…

Evidence suggests females' mathematics skills and abilities are not as well developed as males resulting in females being underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career fields. In addition, self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) plays a role in academic performance, giving those with greater SDLR and…

This dissertation contains three essays that examine the influence of state policies on transfer enrollment at 4-year institutions. The first essay is a systematic review of 16 studies that provide an understanding of the literature on state policies and transfer enrollment at 4-year institutions. In the review I provide an understanding of who…

This quantitative study aimed to determine whether participation in dual enrollment or advanced placement courses helped increase the college readiness self-efficacy of high school graduates. With the results of this study, the researcher believes that participation in dual enrollment and advanced placement courses is associated positively with…

This dissertation is a two-part study comparing U.S. and Chinese teachers' beliefs and noticing patterns. The overarching question for this study is: "How does culture influence what mathematics teachers believe and notice?" This project seeks to investigate this central assumption: there are distinctly "Western" and "East…

This study investigated whether instructional modality in an undergraduate degree program, either traditional on-campus or asynchronous online, and racial/ethnic group could predict students' reports of satisfaction with the institution, retention year-over-year, and graduation within an eight-year award rate. Data from surveys and enrollment…

Mentoring has the potential to benefit preservice, new teachers, and experienced teachers, but it is a complex process with few agreements about what might make it most effective. Furthermore, due to teacher demographics affecting the availability of veteran teachers, mentors are consequently drawn from various career points, and some of them have…

Computer gameplay and social media are the two most common forms of entertainment in the digital age. Many scholars share the assumption that leisure-time digital consumption is associated with CS affinity, but there is a dearth of research evidence for this relationship. Female students generally spend less time on gaming and more time on social…