In 2014 the White House held a Maker Faire and began a new obsession for American public schools: makerspaces. This capstone begins with an in-depth discussion about the history of American makerspaces and discusses many of the predominant makerspace best practices and the groups that have researched them. The capstone seeks to create a…

There is limited research examining the efficacy of online delivery for experiential, field-based, interdisciplinary coursework in environmental education geared towards undergraduate students, and how connection to nature can be understood through the theory of emerging adulthood. This research employed a convergent mixed methods approach to…

This research study investigated the impact of implementing a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) bus framework on student behavior. Pre and post-implementation data were collected from an elementary school (K-4) in a large suburban school district on Long Island. The school has been implementing PBIS school-wide but not a…

America needs community colleges to be the most adaptive and responsive sector of the higher education system in order to remain competitive in a global marketplace. Employers need community college career technical education (CTE) programs to be responsive to labor force needs and produce competent middle-skilled workers. Policymakers need…

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States, particularly small HBCUs, are no strangers to crises and unforeseen challenges. Through various challenges, including financial instability, low student enrollment, and accreditation challenges and crises--many beyond leadership's control--most HBCUs have been able to…

Biology is a key course in a student's learning path. It provides important information about the living world and creates foundational knowledge that will be used in other science courses as the student progresses through his or her secondary and post-secondary education. However, there is a pattern of low student achievement in this required…

Colleges and universities are increasingly under pressure to prepare students for professional success after graduation, and, at the same time, are facing calls to enhance student civic learning and to contribute to their local communities. High-impact practices have been embraced as pedagogical approaches to address these goals. In particular,…

Scholarship on racial diversity initiatives outline the positive outcomes associated with initiatives, describes the types of initiatives, and the various ways faculty, staff, and university leadership can and do work together for effective outcomes. However, there is a need to understand how racial diversity initiatives are implemented, what…

Developmental academic advisors' perceptions of their effectiveness in student retention are based on experiences with students. The problem addressed in this study was advisors' outcomes are not matching the expectations of administratively targeted retention initiatives mandated outside of their day-to-day practice. The purpose of this…

The purpose of this qualitative single instrumental case study was to describe the perceptions and experiences of creativity by university students at a mid-size public university located in the Mid-Atlantic States of the U.S. The theory guiding this study was Amabile's componential theory of creativity which views creativity as a complex…

Graduate students are faced with some difficulties in determining statistical methods to be used in their assignments and researches and this leads to anxiety in them. In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationships between statistical anxiety and metacognitive awareness levels of graduate students studying in the field of mathematics…

Research on the impacts of mindfulness trainings (MTs) on teachers' psychological health and wellbeing suggests that MTs may be especially well-suited to preparing teachers for the unique demands of the profession (Iancu et al., 2017; Klingbeil & Renshaw, 2018). However, few studies have investigated whether different teachers benefit in…

This dissertation focused on sustainable development (SD), curricular development, and practices in the health professions, specifically in occupational therapy practice. It is divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides background information, the second chapter uses the [C]STAUNCH tool to analyze the degree of sustainable development…

New student success interventions generate costs for colleges (for example, staff time and supplies). However, if they lead more students to remain enrolled, cause students to attempt more credits, and improve longer-term student outcomes, they can also generate tuition revenue and state funding (for public institutions in states that allocate…

Online education in the United States continues to experience significant growth. As research suggests, online instruction is as effective as traditional, face-to-face instruction. As the number of students studying in online doctoral programs continues to grow, research has primarily focused on undergraduate- and master's-level online programs,…