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The problem that was addressed through this study was that inconsistency in using a literacy development initiative resulted in no improvement of low literacy scores in April of 2022, as a total of 80.85% of high school students in one learning zone within a Georgia school district scored below literacy proficiency on the Georgia Milestones Assessment System. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine high school teachers' perceptions of the use of Achieve3000 as a literacy intervention using the conceptual framework of disciplinary literacy. This study's two research questions focused on high school teachers' perceptions of using Achieve3000 as a literacy intervention and their perceptions of support that high school teachers need to use Achieve3000 more effectively. A basic qualitative design approach was used to help the researcher garner and contextualize teachers' experiences using the intervention. A sample of 10 core content teachers across eight South Learning Zone high school campuses were interviewed. A self-designed interview protocol was used to engage teachers in a one-on-one semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed from qualitative interviews using open coding and thematic analysis to identify the common themes: little relevance to instruction, low student engagement, lack of understanding, loss of autonomy, lack of effective training, lack of accessible and ongoing support, and lastly lack of understanding of the usefulness and relevance of Achieve3000. In addressing the decline in literacy proficiency scores, the observed Georgia school district and similar districts may work to promote social change by mitigating the continued decline in literacy and improving the implementation of effective interventions while improving students' success both in and out of the classroom. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Despite the growing demand for online educational resources, there is a notable scarcity of educational materials available in the Korean language. To meet this need, this research developed and evaluated a set of educational materials, including videos and web blogs, focused on fundamental audiology concepts. Evaluation of the material involved a pre-intervention and post-intervention survey with 30 Korean-speaking participants without prior audiology knowledge to measure changes in familiarity, understanding, and self-efficacy. The results showed a significant improvement in all three measured categories indicating the effectiveness of the materials. The greatest improvement was observed in the understanding of audiology concepts. The reach of these materials has been limited, suggesting the need for strategies to enhance their visibility and accessibility. The study concludes that there is a need for further development of audiology education materials in Korean language which may significantly impact knowledge and self-efficacy in managing hearing health. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In response to persistent inequities in the education of English learner-classified (EL-classified) students, scholars have increasingly called for the preparation of educators who are able to disrupt dominant hierarchies of language and knowledge in schools. One concept that has been developed to describe what it takes to disrupt these hierarchies is "ideological clarity" (Bartolome & Balderrama, 2001), which refers to a process of critical and consistent reflection on ideologies underlying practice. Though scholars assert that ideological clarity will act as a catalyst for more equitable practice, this scholarship rarely makes explicit the policy contexts in which educators work. This is a glaring oversight, given that, in some cases, these policies have proven to act as a constraint on educators' ability to engage in the kind of equitable instructional practices that scholars of ideological clarity praise. At the same time, educational language policy can also be an important lever for remediating inequities for linguistically marginalized students. In this dissertation, I explore the intersection of the processes of ideological clarity and policy sensemaking in the context of English language development (ELD) policy, a core component of contemporary policies intended for EL-classified students. In this relational and exploratory qualitative study (Ravitch & Carl, 2016), I illuminate the strategies that equity-focused educators engaged in to navigate the complexities of ELD policy. I identified four policy navigating strategies that reflected a spectrum of advocacy for EL-classified students: building allies, buffering, building student and family agency, and reimagining. Additionally, I found that educators were more willing to experiment with their agency in the context of ELD policy when they treated their own professional vision as an important object of their reflection when they were engaged in ideological clarity. In outlining the implications of these findings, I emphasize that while educators can resist harmful implementations of ELD policy, engaging in these strategies can carry varying personal and professional risk for educators. Thus, I also call for teacher educators, policymakers, and researchers to advocate for systemic changes that would make these strategies less necessary, or at least less risky, for educators who are pursuing educational language equity for EL-classified students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to unprecedented shifts in American education. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, children across the United States were primarily educated in brick-and-mortar school buildings, with only 0.6% of the over 50 million students in the country attending fully virtual schools (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). By March 2020, K-12 school buildings across all 50 states began to close their doors, eventually pivoting from traditional, in-person learning to some form of distance education. While all students were affected by school building closures, of particular concern was the experience of students with disabilities, whose right to a free, appropriate, public education in the least restrictive environment is governed by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004). Using a multi-layered case study design, this dissertation examined how one state, district, and school implemented special education policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dissertation drew on multiple data sources, including state and district policy documents, interviews with leaders and teachers, and school committee meeting transcripts. Using policy as discourse (Bacchi, 2000) and sensemaking theory (Coburn, 2004; Spillane et al., 2002) as theoretical frames, I make three key arguments. First, I argue that legal and regulatory, structural, and local forces acted on the special education policy context during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, I argue that these forces were mediated by three factors: "congruence" with existing policy messages, perceived "legitimacy" of new directives, and the "coherence" of policy enactment. These arguments build toward my third, overarching argument--that educators and caregivers in City district made sense of special education policy during the COVID-19 pandemic by engaging in a process of "equilibration." This dissertation concludes with the implications for research, policy, and practice related to future times of educational emergency. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Belief in psychological misconceptions, especially those regarding brain function and learning (i.e., neuromyths), hinders students' decision-making and learning. This necessitates conceptual change. Using an experimental design, this dissertation examined whether a utility value instructional induction (UVII) facilitated conceptual change. Participants (N = 61) were assessed on their neuromyth endorsements and then randomly assigned to a UVII or control condition, with the UVII condition participants primed to think about experiences with and benefits of acting according to a utility value before reading refutation texts. Finally, participants were again assessed on their neuromyth endorsements. Participants were also assessed on comprehension and motivational beliefs (i.e., expectancies for success, utility value, interest) throughout the study. Paper one reports that the UVII did not affect comprehension or conceptual change. However, type of neuromyth was associated with conceptual change. Also, students' accuracy and confidence judgements reflected poor metacognitive calibration. Paper two reports that, as utility value or interest increased, conceptual change increased. However, motivational beliefs did not moderate the effect of the UVII on conceptual change. Therefore, the UVII did not affect conceptual change. Also, according to prior research, other refutation-based interventions do not eliminate and only sometimes reduce psychological-misconception endorsement. Thus, paper three applies the theory of conceptual change, which has been primarily used for relatively socio-politically neutral topics such as physics, to five pernicious misconceptions pertinent to education. In doing so, these misconceptions are classified according to their form of prior incorrect knowledge to inform the selection of educational practices to refute these misconceptions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Teachers are required to maintain their teaching certificates by participating in professional development activities offered by their school districts. The experiences from professional development opportunities provide teachers with opportunities to grow their practice with meaningful educational experiences for students. The educational experiences for students are guided by the designated curriculum established by school districts. This study explored how elementary mathematics teachers in a public-school setting interpreted the content they received from professional development sessions when writing lesson plans. Specifically, the study focused on how teachers' sensemaking of information from professional development on place-based education pedagogy affected the adaptation of existing math lessons to be taught to students. This study inquired about teachers' sensemaking on adapting existing mathematics lessons using qualitative tools (focus-group discussions and interviews), lesson plans, and classroom observations. Study participants engaged in a process of thinking about incorporating place-based education strategies into mathematics lessons during a professional development series. The researcher gathered evidence from participants as they reflected on their sensemaking on adapting math lessons before, during, and after professional development sessions. The findings from the present study indicate that when teachers make sense of adapting existing mathematics lessons, it could have the potential to generate new ideas for stimulating interest in enhancing existing mathematics lessons. The participants of this study indicated that time is needed to support the likelihood of enhancing lessons through the adaption of new information. With adequate time, teachers could find the appropriate placement for new information without sacrificing exposure to the intended experience with the designated curriculum. In conjunction with the designated curriculum, the participants in the present study felt that new information would need to be grade-level and content appropriate. Another finding indicated that when adapting existing mathematics lessons using new information from professional development, the most effective support is when participants can communicate with individuals who have experience with designing experiences for students in place-based education environments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Scholars Leonard & Woodland (2022) suggest schools and districts face a crucial challenge. Are schools and districts ensuring their personnel are prepared to engage in critical practices to affirm, include, and support all students, families, peers, and communities? Or are schools and districts just haphazardly committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion statements to check a box? Current research lacks a focus on "how" K-12 educators make sense of, learn, and implement, as well as the challenges to implementing equity-centered, culturally responsive, and antiracist practices. Therefore, this exploratory case study sought to address this research gap by focusing on the experiences and perceptions of educators who participated in and graduated from the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) yearlong professional development program, Anti-Racist Educator University (ARE-U). Specifically, this study is interested in examining the processes of sensemaking, learning, implementation, and challenges of implementing concepts learned in ARE-U in their practice, as well as educators' perspectives on the program's effectiveness. This study was informed by four frameworks: sensemaking, critical race theory, intersectionality, and critical sensemaking. This study illuminates the narratives and perspectives of classroom educators who voluntarily decided to participate in a year-long equity-centered and antiracist professional development program to improve their practice. These critical perspectives are omitted in current research, but they provide insight into the effectiveness of current approaches in supporting educator learning. Moreover, through this study and its findings, stakeholders will gain an understanding of educator's experiences in equity-minded and antiracist programs from the perspective of these educators. Specifically, the process by which educators engage in meaning-making, their understanding of concepts in teaching and instruction, and challenges to implementation. ARE-U program organizers can use data from this study to evolve ARE-U to be more effective in supporting learning and implementation. This data can also challenge school and district leaders' resource allocation and decision-making approaches that negatively impact educators. This study also supports the value of programs like ARE-U in educator training regarding sensemaking of equity and antiracism. Despite some educators' inability to make explicit connections between ARE-U's content and its application to their teaching, all educators praised ARE-U as a first step in exploring how educators can address systemic inequities in their classrooms. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Teachers teaching science to students in inner-city Title I schools should be the most influential group interested in education as a profession, yet it is rare for them to attain the desired comprehension of science amongst these students. The problem addressed by this study was the scarce knowledge of effective teaching practices and strategies for elementary students' science comprehension in poverty-ridden communities. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore teachers' perceptions of effective teaching practices and strategies for elementary students' science comprehension in poverty-ridden communities. In addition, this study was grounded using the case study design that answered questions about the phenomenon. Fifteen teachers who currently work in Title I schools were interviewed via Zoom following a set of semi-structured interview questions. Analysis of the interview responses were used to revealed teachers' perspectives about teaching science to poverty-ridden students. The findings of this study revealed that teachers believe that connecting Science Education to real-life situations for poverty-ridden students amplified both connections and comprehension, supporting diverse learners are essential to creating an inclusive and equitable educational environment, and challenges and barriers in science education hinder students' access to quality learning experiences and academic success. Additionally, data generated from this study implicated that science comprehension for students in poverty-ridden community schools remains a problem of concern, funding remains a roadblock to success, and lack of teacher preparation is an issue for teachers in these communities. This research can assist current schools and school settings in their master scheduling and schoolwide planning efforts, budgeting, professional development concerns, and school leadership. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The benefits of high-quality family-school partnerships are numerous in terms of academic, behavioral, and social-emotional student outcomes. Therefore, discovering paths to improving the relationship is essential. Finding ways to strengthen the family-school partnership is particularly critical for families with students in special education. Despite the legal requirement of parents partnering with their child's special education team, many parents report negative experiences when attempting to engage in this partnership. These barriers to effectively engaging and partnering with the school are often experienced at an exacerbated level for parents who identify as predominantly Spanish speaking compared to English-speaking parents. The findings from the literature loosely suggest there may be a relationship between parents' knowledge of special education and the quality of the family-school partnership. The goal of this study was to survey English-speaking and Spanish-speaking parents of children in special education to measure parents' perceived level of understanding and knowledge of special education and their perception of the quality of the family-school partnership. The study compared the 37 parents' knowledge of special education to the quality of family-school partnership and found a statistically significant, positive correlation between parents' knowledge of special education and the quality of the family-school partnership they experience. The study also attempted to explore differences of special education knowledge between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking parents but was unable to do so due a limited sample size of Spanish speakers. Lastly, in an effort to better inform culturally responsive interventions, the survey inquired about parents' experiences and preferences in accessing information related to special education. The results suggested that most parents do not believe resources and information about special education are readily available to them. Equally important, the vast majority of parents identified they would prefer to receive information and resources via parent trainings and workshops or via conversations with their child's special education team. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study aimed to investigate the following questions: Does the use of thinking maps and semantic mapping during explicit vocabulary instruction affect content specific science vocabulary knowledge and comprehension in fourth grade students? and What are student perceptions of using thinking maps and semantic maps to learn new vocabulary? To address these questions, 44 fourth grade students from an elementary school in a northeastern city in the United States of America participated in a mixed-method quasi-experimental study over a six week period. Using a pre-experimental design, two intact groups received explicit instruction on how to use thinking maps and semantic maps to develop vocabulary definitions for a selection of tier two and tier three vocabulary words from the Pearson Interactive fourth grade science curriculum (Buckley et al., 2016) and PSSA released assessment items (Pennsylvania Department of Education, 2021). Pretests and posttests measured vocabulary knowledge (Vocabulary Size Test, Nation & Beglar, 2007) and science comprehension (PSSA, Pennsylvania Department of Education, 2021). Semi structured verbal interviews were conducted at the conclusion of the six week intervention period and were analyzed using emerging codes. Results of the VST and PSSA released items assessment were compared using two separate, one-way ANOVA with repeated measures to identify any variation and difference of means between pretest and posttest scores of the participants (43 students) after intervention. Quantitative results revealed that there were no significant statistical differences in vocabulary knowledge measured by the VST or the PSSA released items assessment. However, qualitative data collected from student interviews supports that students had positive experiences using thinking maps and semantic maps and felt that these tools helped them learn new science vocabulary. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This research consists of an eye-tracking study examining the efficacy of eye gaze indexing (EGIX) in manipulating viewer eye gaze and enhancing second language (L2) fingerspelling comprehension in American Sign Language (ASL) through a controlled laboratory experiment. The study consisted of two groups and two conditions, EGIX+/EGIX- to test the effect of EGIX on participant eye gaze (EG) behaviors and fingerspelling comprehension using eye-tracking software and a comprehension quiz. The results indicate that participant EG was the same regardless of whether the signer used EGIX. The results also indicated that participant comprehension scores were the same regardless of whether the model used EGIX. Several statistical analyses of comprehension and EG metrics found that as hand fixation duration, mouth fixation duration, number of hand fixations, and number of mouth revisits increased, comprehension performance decreased. On the other hand, the Area of Interest metrics did not affect performance or only revealed weak trends. The decreases in comprehension may highlight that the students who struggled with comprehension looked more and longer at the mouth and hand as coping strategies to try to glean additional information from mouth grammar or that they were struggling to identify each letter handshape, rather than a causal relationship with EGIX. Word length effect on comprehension was statistically significant, though varied by word length. Importantly, constraints from name origin may have played a role in the distribution of the comprehension decrease since words of Greek origins cause greater statistically significant reductions in performance. The qualitative results show that students have a keen awareness of where they look while viewing signed videos. Noticing and perceived helpfulness did not show statistically significant impacts on performance universally. However, some students who reported noticing and reported the EGIX+ as helpful increased their score by 10% or higher on the mean comprehension of EGIX+ words. The pedagogical takeaway is that the benefits of using EGIX to help novice to intermediate signers with fingerspelling comprehension are inconclusive. EGIX+ may provide substantial benefits for some individuals, but the effects are not generalizable. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The ability to relate physical concepts and phenomena to multiple mathematical representations--and to move fluidly between these representations--is a critical outcome expected of physics instruction. In upper-division quantum mechanics, students must work with multiple symbolic notations, including some that they have not previously encountered. Thus, developing the ability to generate and translate expressions in these notations is of great importance, and the extent to which students can relate these expressions to physical quantities and phenomena is crucial to understand. To investigate student understanding of the expressions used in these notations and the ways they relate, clinical think-aloud interviews were conducted and an online survey was administered, all to students enrolled in upper-division quantum mechanics courses. The interviews were conducted at a single institution with a "spins-first" instructional approach, while the surveys were administered at ten institutions, including both "spins-first" and "wave functions-first" courses. The interviews and surveys focused on expressions for probabilities and their constituent terms. Analysis of student interviews used the symbolic forms framework to determine the ways that participants interpret and reason about these expressions. Survey responses were analyzed using network analysis techniques to determine the ways that students conceptualized these expressions and both whether and how they related analogous expressions between notations. Survey responses were also used to compare students' understanding of these expressions and their relations between the two curricula studied. Multiple symbolic forms--internalized connections between symbolic templates and their conceptual interpretations--were identified in both Dirac and wave function notation, suggesting that students develop an understanding of expressions for probability both in terms of their constituent pieces and as larger composite expressions. Network analysis techniques determined the relative strength of conceptual connections between expressions in different notations and were also used to understand the relative weight of different conceptualizations of expressions that share multiple possible interpretations. Comparative analysis between instructional approaches showed similarity in their conceptions of common expressions within quantum mechanics but also highlighted differences, such as a general preference for and better understanding of expressions in the notation taught first in their respective courses. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The abrupt closure of schools globally in mid-2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education for 1.5 billion learners, compelling an emergency shift to online teaching (UNESCO, n.d.). While personalized learning initiatives had been gaining traction, the pandemic challenged their continuity, transforming them into crisis management strategies. As schools in Pennsylvania resumed face-to-face instruction in 2021 post-vaccination efforts, questions arose regarding the pandemic's lasting impact on personalized learning models. This dissertation study investigates the impact of remote learning, due to the COVID-19 pandemic on pre-existing personalized learning initiatives in Pennsylvania high schools, focusing on instructional shifts, teacher adaptation, and curriculum changes. The study delves into the unexplored territory of how teachers in Pennsylvania, engaged in personalized learning initiatives before the pandemic, navigated the transition to remote teaching and the subsequent return to in-person instruction. Through an in-depth case study approach, incorporating teacher interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, this research explores the nuanced experiences and perceptions of teachers in personalized learning environments. The theoretical framework combines sensemaking and attribution theory with personalized learning principles to analyze teachers' understanding and adaptation processes (Bozkurt et al., 2020; Zhao & Watterson, 2021; Pane et al., 2017).The findings reveal two pivotal themes shaping the personalized learning landscape: administrative influence and the impact of student voice and choice. Administrative support emerged as a linchpin for the success of personalized learning initiatives. The passion and commitment of administrators, coupled with clear communication and purpose framing, significantly influenced teachers' acceptance and implementation of personalized learning practices. The study demonstrates how administrators' effective framing of personalized learning, emphasizing individualized learning paces, technology integration, and improved outcomes, fostered a shared vision among teachers, facilitating sensemaking amidst the chaos of the pandemic. This dissertation study contributes to the educational discourse by shedding light on the adaptive strategies employed by educators during crisis-driven shifts in instructional paradigms. By understanding the role of administrative support and teacher sensemaking, this study provides valuable insights into sustaining and enhancing personalized learning initiatives in the face of unforeseen challenges. Furthermore, the research underscores the need for continued support structures and consistent messaging to empower educators in embracing innovative teaching methods, ensuring the resilience of personalized learning environments in the future educational landscape. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation examines the meaning-making of children (ages 2-5) as they read and play with picture books related to social justice themes, such as identity and diversity, in a preschool and childcare center. The study goal is to investigate the analysis of children's meaning-making of picture books to understand the social world around them from the children's perspectives. In addition, I uncover children's use of interpretation tools across events to elaborate on critical thinking and social issues. Theoretically, my study sits within the larger field of research on children's imagination and picture book readings at the intersection of play theories, social justice theories, and sociocultural theories of literacy. I use those theories to help me locate a school that supports play and picture book reading with imagination skills. I found a university-based preschool (ages 2-5 years) in Madison, Wisconsin, explicitly following a play-based curriculum and anti-biased education approach. This school has been the research site for five months. I have been gathering data to theorize and document how socially and ethnically, and culturally diverse young children make meaning of social justice-related picture books to understand the social world around them from the children's perspectives. Recent incidents of racism in the last three years during the COVID-19 Pandemic speak to the importance of the social justice topic to American society. Schools need to nurture "social imagination, "and teaching with learning for democracy needs to be a transformative experience. Teaching with picture books can be the catalyst for making individual connections to democracy for children. Social imagination can help students imagine a socially just world through picture books. This case study's findings indicate that young children (ages 2-5 years) make meaning of children's picture books related to social justice themes such as identity and diversity. While they make meaning, they use their play activities, imagination skills, and funds of knowledge when the diverse texts come with teacher and peer scaffolding in early childhood classrooms. These findings support the importance of teacher scaffolding and the need to provide time and space for free play activities. Furthermore, it is also significant to provide picture books related to social justice themes with student-initiated and teacher-supported play activities around the picture book readings so that young children can enhance their imagination skills. These findings open up the possibilities of creating socially just classroom environments and refine ideas about the power of play within the enormous scope of children's imagination and meaning-making of picture books. Moreover, we understand the importance of forming the foundation of a theory of literacy, social justice, play, and imagination that encompasses creating a socially just world around young children in early childhood education classrooms. Recommendations from the study come for early childhood educators, curriculum designers of formal or informal learning environments, policymakers, and researchers who seek to better understand the relationship between literacy, play, imagination, and social Justice in contemporary classroom environments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore how English as a Second Language (ESL) and Language Arts teachers describe how they use morphology structure instructional strategies to support ESL students' vocabulary development in the United States. This research study's theoretical foundation focused on the seven-step process pre-teaching vocabulary strategy created by Dr. Margarita Calderon. The research study consisted of one overarching research question with three subsequent questions. This study used a qualifying questionnaire, interviews, and focus groups where all participants signed the informed consent before participating in the qualifying process. The researcher selected 10 participants based on their responses to the qualifying questionnaire that meet the minimal requirements to participate in the study. Thematic analysis was conducted after the data collection from the interview and focus group to develop codes and identify themes. As a result, the following themes were developed in response to the research question and research sub questions: (1) vocabulary development strategies and morphology awareness/word comprehension; (2) vocabulary development strategies and teacher resources; (3) assessment tools and strategies that lead to morphology awareness and comprehension; and (4) vocabulary development strategies and phonemic awareness settings. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is aimed at articulating and empirically characterizing an expansive orientation to field-based socio-ecological systems learning that elevates participatory and ethically-engaged approaches to teaching and learning. Grounded in relational ways of knowing, this dissertation works to expand and transform normative educational paradigms towards the realization of more just and healthful ways of being through recognizing the agency and dignity of youth, places, and more-than-human beings. Elevating the role of wonder as central to scientific sensemaking, ethical deliberation, and the creation of new forms life and learning, this dissertation contributes to scholarship, practices, and the construction of life-worlds critically engaged with the increasingly pressing challenges and possibilities of the 21st century. Situated within a space of problem and possibilities, this dissertation addressed the need to shift nature-culture relations through analysis of design and interactions situated in the Learning in Places project. Across five chapters I situate and develop three related papers which characterize and empirically ground a framework for "ethical wondering with people, places, and more-than-humans." The first chapter situates this work in transdisciplinary approaches to science education and begins to construct a framework for how we have taken up the role of wondering in our context of work. The three following chapters represent the primary papers in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I analyze materials designed in the Learning in Places project to explicate key dimensions and commitments of our work and build out an empirically-grounded conceptual framework for ethical wondering with people, places, and more-than-humans. In Chapter 3 I conduct a deep case study analysis of knowledge and interaction to examine how dimensions of ethical wondering with people, places, and more-than-humans were manifest and mediated within wondering walk data gathered from the pilot year of Learning in Places implementation. Complimenting this deep qualitative focus, Chapter 4 shares findings from a broad statistical analysis of over 98 hours of wondering walk data collected in our first full year of school-based storyline implementation to identify significant correlations and comparisons between descriptors of interest. By way of synthesis and conclusion, Chapter 5 closes out this dissertation through offering up principles of design to guide work in similar spaces alongside reflections salient strengths, limitations, and pathways for future work. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Campus administrators and practitioners must make sense of state policy and system-level initiatives for successful implementation. This qualitative study examined campus administrators' and student health and well-being practitioners' sensemaking of the University System of Georgia's (USG) Mental Health Initiative (MHI) through interviews with select administrators and practitioners who held one of seven staff roles charged with implementing the MHI at GSU. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants to better understand the primary research question: How do campus administrators and practitioners who deliver and make decisions about student mental health make sense of the USG MHI? The results of this study provide much-needed insights regarding campus-level sensemaking of system initiatives--specifically by student support practitioners and administrators--which are often overlooked or addressed through policy-implementation assessment studies rather than qualitative interviews about understanding and sensemaking. Emergent themes were related to identity and life context, role hierarchy and relationships, motivational alignment, and the influence of change and urgency on buy-in. The findings also confirmed the seven properties of Weick's (1995) sensemaking theoretical framework. Analysis of these themes revealed a sensemaking approach the author refers to as "conceptual reconciliation," a process through which an individual navigates the gaps between policy prescriptions and their own sensemaking in adhering to, adapting, and evading the policy with their decisions. This study also provided insights into the USG's and GSU's implementation of the MHI in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as insights into student well-being programs and services. These findings comprise recommendations on how state systems of higher education and individual institutions may address challenges of system initiatives through a flexible approach allowing for tailored interpretation and implementation at different institutions and for different roles. Additionally, the results offer new perspectives to those (e.g., higher education services third-party vendors and state-elected officials) who work with and alongside system and institutional leaders in education and student support. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Calls for increased involvement in science outreach have come from scientists (Alberts, 2018; Friedman, 2008), from professional organizations (Jayaratne et al., 2003; Lee, 2018; Toolin, 2004) and from funding agencies (Broadening Participation, 2008; Catsambis, 1995) to increase students' interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM careers. One model of science outreach is the scientist in the classroom model, where a STEM professional visits a school classroom either in-person (Peker et al., 2012; Pratt and Yezierski, 2018) or virtually (Barry et al., 2022; McCombs et al., 2007). The St. Jude Virtual Journal Club is a scientist in the classroom program where participating classes receive three virtual visits from three different scientists. Scientist participants are trained in effective science communication prior to their virtual visits. To better support teachers in the program, the current project asked teachers to design their own research into the St. Jude Virtual Journal Club program through participatory action research (PAR). PAR was chosen to ensure that teachers had an active voice throughout the research process. The four participating teacher co-researchers chose to evaluate two research questions: (1) Does participation in the St. Jude Virtual Journal Club increase students' interest in STEM or STEM careers?, and (2) Are students able to understand the content and to think through applications of the St. Jude Virtual Journal Club talks? Through student surveys and reflections, we found that, while our population of students held less stereotypical views of scientists prior to the outreach program, student reflections focused more on the actions and motivations of scientists after the program. We also found that our students were able to understand most of the content of the talks and were able to make some connections between the talks and the subject content but not to the same extent for all the speakers and classes. This study offers a novel approach to integrate teachers into science outreach research using PAR methodology. Use of PAR methodology is a powerful way to give teachers voice and to ensure relevancy of science outreach to their classrooms. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Instructional coaches have the potential to improve teaching practices that directly impact the quality of teaching that students receive. Thus, they are a valuable resource to schools that use them wisely. Unexamined, the work of an instructional coach may not add to program quality and therefore drain resources of budget and time. Research from literacy coaching and math coaching elucidates the challenges and hindrances obstructing coaches' effectiveness. While my school has been using instructional coaches in math and science since 2018, interviews with coaches, teachers, and administrators in our school show the realities of the challenges in our context and demonstrate that we lack a shared understanding of the role of instructional coaches. To address this problem, two interventions, creating a job description and disseminating it along with information about the history and purpose of the role, were implemented with the goal of creating clarity that would support the development of a shared understanding. Data collected before, during, and after the interventions show improved clarity and aligned understandings about the role of instructional coaches. Continued monitoring of the engagement of the faculty with the instructional coach will determine if the shared understanding leads to improved collaboration and the prudent use of resources. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The typical collegiate introductory statistics course poses significant challenges for students. Many do not fully comprehend key course skills, and it is common for students to exit the class with a neutral or negative attitude toward statistics. To measure the impact of using relevant contextual examples as an instructional strategy during a probability unit, in-class activities were designed to align with areas of interest for participants as identified by a student interest inventory. It was hypothesized that the use of relevant context would create a significant difference in the comprehension or attitude of students enrolled in an introductory statistics course at an urban midwestern university. Following a quantitative analysis of comprehension and attitude, interviews and focus groups were conducted with students from both the treatment and control groups to better understand the factors that influence student comprehension and attitude. Quantitative results reveal no significant differences in either comprehension or attitude as a result of the relevant context. Qualitative findings suggest other factors such as the instructor, class structure, and previous experiences play a larger role in shaping student comprehension and attitude. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The typical collegiate introductory statistics course poses significant challenges for students. Many do not fully comprehend key course skills, and it is common for students to exit the class with a neutral or negative attitude toward statistics. To measure the impact of using relevant contextual examples as an instructional strategy during a probability unit, in-class activities were designed to align with areas of interest for participants as identified by a student interest inventory. It was hypothesized that the use of relevant context would create a significant difference in the comprehension or attitude of students enrolled in an introductory statistics course at an urban midwestern university. Following a quantitative analysis of comprehension and attitude, interviews and focus groups were conducted with students from both the treatment and control groups to better understand the factors that influence student comprehension and attitude. Quantitative results reveal no significant differences in either comprehension or attitude as a result of the relevant context. Qualitative findings suggest other factors such as the instructor, class structure, and previous experiences play a larger role in shaping student comprehension and attitude. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The typical collegiate introductory statistics course poses significant challenges for students. Many do not fully comprehend key course skills, and it is common for students to exit the class with a neutral or negative attitude toward statistics. To measure the impact of using relevant contextual examples as an instructional strategy during a probability unit, in-class activities were designed to align with areas of interest for participants as identified by a student interest inventory. It was hypothesized that the use of relevant context would create a significant difference in the comprehension or attitude of students enrolled in an introductory statistics course at an urban midwestern university. Following a quantitative analysis of comprehension and attitude, interviews and focus groups were conducted with students from both the treatment and control groups to better understand the factors that influence student comprehension and attitude. Quantitative results reveal no significant differences in either comprehension or attitude as a result of the relevant context. Qualitative findings suggest other factors such as the instructor, class structure, and previous experiences play a larger role in shaping student comprehension and attitude. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

New forms of visualizations are transforming how people interact with data. This dissertation explored how undergraduates learn with infographics. The following questions guided this research: (i) What do we know about the factors influencing the processing of data visualizations? (ii) How do task-level and learner-level characteristics impact the visual processing and comprehension of infographics? (iii) Can machine learning be used to reliably predict the visual processing and comprehension of infographics using task-level and learner-level characteristics? Systematic review of the literature has shown that data visualization comprehension includes perceptive and conceptual processes, which are influenced by learning task and its complexity, strategies used to convey data, individual learner differences in previous experiences, cognitive and attentional characteristics. A study was conducted with 51 undergraduates in an eye-tracking laboratory at a major southeastern university. The learning task included using infographics with verbal and visual data representations to find answers to questions of three levels of complexity. Learners' working memory, visual search and inhibitory control abilities were evaluated as measures of individual differences in cognition. The results suggest that learners become more engaged and produce slightly more accurate results when they learn using verbal infographics. Complex tasks that require learners to make inferences by connecting newly acquired knowledge with prior knowledge always produce the least accurate results. Regardless of the data representation format, learners' visuospatial working memory and goal-oriented visual search ability significantly influence comprehension. On the contrary, low verbal working memory and inhibitory control hinder the processing of verbal infographics. Further, a random forest algorithm predicted infographics comprehension with 88.04% accuracy with learner-level and task-level characteristics contributing to the predictive performance of the model. Learners' visual processing was explored using gaze-based saliency maps. Machine learning generated less than 50% accuracy using saliency map predictions. Yet, statistical tests revealed that both task-level and learner-level characteristics are significantly associated with saliency maps. This study implies that machine learning and the proposed saliency maps may contribute to the development of adaptive infographics based on learner-level and task-level characteristics. This study contributes insights to existing knowledge on data visualization comprehension and proposes new approaches to enhance learning with information visualizations. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

There is a long-standing gap in literacy achievement between African American and European American students (e.g., NAEP, 2019, 2022). A large body of research has examined different factors that continue to reinforce performance differences across students. One variable that has been a long-term interest to sociolinguists and applied scientists is children's use of different dialects in the classroom. Many African American students speak African American English (AAE), a rule-governed, but socially stigmatized, dialect of English that differs in phonology, morphosyntax, and pragmatics from General American English (GAE), the dialect of classroom instruction. Empirical research on dialect variation and literacy achievement has demonstrated that linguistic differences between dialects make it more difficult to learn to read (Buhler et al., 2018; Charity et al., 2004; Gatlin & Wanzek, 2015; Washington et al., 2018, "inter alia") and recently, more difficult to comprehend spoken language (Byrd et al., 2022, Edwards et al., 2014; Erskine, 2022a; Johnson, 2005; de Villiers & Johnson, 2007; JM Terry, Hendrick, Evangelou, et al., 2010; JM Terry, Thomas, Jackson, et al., 2022). The prevailing explanation for these results has been the "perceptual analysis hypothesis," a framework that asserts that linguistic differences across dialects creates challenges in mapping variable speech signals to listeners' stored mental representations (Adank et al., 2009; Clopper, 2012; Clopper & Bradlow, 2008; Cristia et al., 2012). However, spoken language comprehension is more than perceptual analysis, requiring the integration of perceptual information with communicative intent and sociocultural information (speaker identity). To this end, it is proposed that the perceptual analysis hypothesis views dialect variation as another form of signal degradation. Simplifying dialect variation to a signal-mapping problem potentially limits our understanding of the contribution of dialect variation to spoken language comprehension. This dissertation proposes that research on spoken language comprehension should integrate frameworks that are more sensitive to the contributions of the sociocultural aspects of dialect variation, such as the role of linguistic and nonlinguistic cues that are associated with speakers of different dialects. This dissertation includes four experiments that use the visual world paradigm to explore the effects of dialect variation on spoken language comprehension among children between the ages of 3;0 to 11;11 years old (years;months) from two linguistic communities, European American speakers of GAE and African American speakers with varying degrees of exposure to AAE and GAE. Chapter 2 (Erskine [2022a]) investigates the effects of dialect variation in auditory-only contexts in two spoken word recognition tasks that vary in linguistic complexity: a) word recognition in simple phrases and b) word recognition in sentences that vary in semantic predictability. Chapter 3 [Erskine (2022b)] examine the effects of visual and auditory speaker identity cues on dialect variation on literal semantic comprehension (i.e., word recognition in semantically facilitating sentences). Lastly, Chapter 4 [Erskine (2022c)] examines the effects of visual and auditory speaker identity cues on children's comprehension of different dialects in a task that evaluates pragmatic inferencing (i.e., scalar implicature). Each of the studies investigate the validity of the perceptual analysis against sociolinguistcally informed hypotheses that account for the integration of linguistic and nonlinguistic speaker identity cues as adequate explanations for relationships that are observed between dialect variation and spoken language comprehension. Collectively, these studies address the question of how dialect variation impacts spoken language comprehension. This dissertation provides evidence that traditional explanations that focus on perceptual costs are limited in their ability to account for correlations typically reported between spoken language comprehension and dialect use. Additionally, it shows that school-age children rapidly integrate linguistic and nonlinguistic socioindexical cues in ways that meaningfully guide their comprehension of different speakers. The implication of these findings and future research directions are also addressed within. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

National reading data indicate that students with intellectual disabilities (ID) fall behind their peers in reading. Reading is important for academic achievement and learning to read can increase independence in several settings including school, work, home, and community or social (Wilson & Hunter, 2010). Students with ID have historically received vocabulary instruction with less emphasis on the other components of reading, including reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of three interventions on reading comprehension with three participants with ID. The participants in this study were high school students between the ages of 15-18 years. The interventions are grounded in the Construction-Integration Model (Kintsch, 1991; van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983), which included three different levels of text representation (i.e., linguistic, text base, and mental representation of text). Given that students with ID have shown variation in skill development, a brief experimental analysis (BEA) was used to identify the most effective intervention for each participant. Then extended analysis was used to further evaluate the effect of the selected interventions by measuring their performance on a researcher-modified Maze. Pre- and post-data was collected on three measures that aligned with each intervention. In the BEA, the participants' reading comprehension scores on the Maze exceeded baseline after receiving the linguistic intervention, anaphor resolution (Dommes et al., 1984). The selected intervention resulted in varying effect sizes on reading comprehension, but the participants demonstrated increased performance on intervention-specific measures. They did not maintain their positive trends in the maintenance phase. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Many students in secondary grade levels struggle with proportional reasoning. Calisici (2018) found that 48 percent of students were unable to solve a multiplication problem involving fractions. Furthermore, many students struggle with complex Chemistry topics due to the difficulty many students have visualizing the microscopic scale. "3D visualization media effectively improved students' critical thinking skills and scientific attitude (Astuti et al, 2020)." In another study done in Turkey, students were asked to draw static and dynamic models of an Oxygen atom. The study concludes, "Therefore, it could be suggested that generating animations as a modeling activity helps learners to improve their mental models of the atom. (Akaygun, 2016). "Thus, this study aims to address these misconceptions using a STEM Integration approach. A paper by Roehrig et al (2021) looked at creating a framework for STEM integration. The paper gave 7 key characteristics for integrating STEM: "(a) focus on real-world problems; (b) centrality of engineering; (c) context integration; (d) content integration; (e) STEM practices; (f) twenty-first century skills; and (g) informing students about STEM careers (Roehrig et al 2021)." This study examines how students understanding of proportions and atomic composition and scale develop throughout a week-long summer camp using Nanotechnology as the driving phenomena. Implications of this integrated STEM approach as well as students conceptual understanding is then examined and discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]