Browsing by Subject "case study"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Accessibility-based Evaluation of Transit Projects
    (2016-08-01) Palmateer, Chelsey; Owen, Andrew; Levinson, David M; Ermagun, Alireza
    This study uses the accessibility-based evaluation method to unpack the interaction effect of transit oriented development and a new transit hub, using the San Francisco Transbay Transit Center Development Plan project. We reveal both the transit oriented development and transit changes positively affect accessibility to jobs and accessibility to workers. However, the magnitude of effects for the transit changes alone are minimal in comparison to the effects of the anticipated transit oriented development changes. This indicates that in areas where there already is transit service, the development of land near the transit service can have a greater impact on accessibility levels than the improvement of connections between transit services. We also unravel the increase in accessibility at the project-level and determine that the increase is greater than the sum of the contributions of the individual portions of the project. This demonstrates that transit changes and transit oriented development have a superadditive effect, although it is negligible in our case.
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    Authority in Digital Space: Exploring the Case of the Green Pea Galaxy
    (2020-07) Kays, Trent
    The Green Pea Galaxy was discovered by a group of Zooniverse discussion forum users in 2007. This dissertation investigates the rhetorical moves and motives of the discussion forum users who discovered the galaxy and how those nonexpert users constructed authority and expertise within the discussion forum to develop criteria for assessing their own discovery outside traditionally trained experts.
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    Beyond the cliff: Parent perspectives on achieving positive employment outcomes for their autistic young adult.
    (2023-06) Silveira, Cassandra
    The unemployment rate for autistic young adults after high school graduation is higher than for all other populations with disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires transition planning as part of an individualized education plan (IEP) starting no later than age 16. There is evidence, however, that autistic individuals experience difficulty with the transition to adulthood and have numerous needs unmet by current educational and social service providers (Hagner et al., 2014). Research has suggested that the role of parents is of vital importance in creating pathways for their autistic child to successfully achieve adult outcomes, including competitive integrated employment (CIE). CIE is one of the desired outcomes of IEP/transition planning. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore how parents of autistic children helped them navigate post-school transition and obtain CIE. Two theories are thought to play a role in this process. Wigfield and Eccles’ (2000) expectancy value theory was extended to parent expectations as contributors to CIE for their autistic children. In parallel, Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory (2001) offers a conceptual framework to understand how positive parent expectations play a role in their child’s achievement of goals and produces an iterative cycle of higher expectations and achievements. The study identified four closely related themes - the role, expectations, and advocacy of parents, inadequacy of comprehensive transition planning, access to knowledge and limited resources, and dogged determination - that described how parents in this study were able to help their children navigate a path to CIE. Findings have implications for different stakeholders, including other parents who are just beginning the transition process with their autistic child, school staff that support them, as well as social service providers. I also describe considerations for future research and a specific role for human resource development researchers and practitioners.
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    Design-Based Online Teacher Professional Development to Introduce Integration of STEM in Pakistan
    (2017-02) Anwar, Tasneem
    In today’s global society where innovations spread rapidly, the escalating focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has quickly intensified in the United States, East Asia and much of Western Europe. Our ever-changing, increasingly global society faces many multidisciplinary problems, and many of the solutions require the integration of multiple science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts. Thus, there is a critical need to explore the integration of STEM subjects in international education contexts. This dissertation study examined the exploration of integration of STEM in the unique context of Pakistan. This study used three-phase design-based methodological framework derived from McKenney and Reeves (2012) to explore the development of a STEM focused online teacher professional development (oTPD-STEM) and to identify the design features that facilitate teacher learning. The oTPD-STEM program was designed to facilitate eight Pakistani elementary school teachers’ exploration of the new idea of STEM integration through both practical and theoretical considerations. This design-based study employed inductive analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) to analyze multiple data sources of interviews, STEM perception responses, reflective learning team conversations, pre-post surveys and artifacts produced in oTPD-STEM. Findings of this study are presented as: (1) design-based decisions for oTPD-STEM, and (2) evolution in understanding of STEM by sharing participant teachers’ STEM model for Pakistani context. This study advocates for the potential of school-wide oTPD for interdisciplinary collaboration through support for learner-centered practices.
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    Examining Pre-service Teachers’ Technology Integration Perceptions and Practices
    (2021-07) Chang, Yu-Hui
    In this digital age, teachers are novice learners themselves of educational technologies. Pre-service teachers, in particular, face multiple layers of demands and challenges. Not only do they frequently need to learn how to use digital educational tools, but they also may need to adjust their pedagogies, which are directly connected to their beliefs about teaching and learning (Ertmer & Newby, 2016; Tondeur et al., 2017) and their confidence in the practice of technology integration (Hur et al., 2016). Current research lacks insight into pre-service teachers’ learning progress during their teacher training and its connection to their ongoing development of contemporary teaching practices that support diverse learning experiences (Ottenbreit-Leftwich et al., 2015). The purpose of this dissertation was to gain further insights into the conceptual changes pre-service K-12 teachers’ experience related to technology integration during their teacher preparation that prepares them for future classrooms. The qualitative case study method (Merriam, 2001) was selected in this study to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions and their influences on the “how” and “why” of technology integration practices. This retrospective study examined 69 pre-service teachers’ learning trajectories and their conceptual changes related to technology integration within an educational technology course. Guided by learning sciences approaches (Hoadley & Van Haneghan, 2012), a technology integration model (Roblyer & Hughes, 2018), and the ISTE standards (2016; 2018), a qualitative content analysis was conducted through three steps of analysis to triangulate how pre-service teachers construct their perceptions. First, three major themes, ranging from limited use, conservative use, to constructive use of technology, were identified in the pre-course questionnaire analysis, while two main aspects, separated or integrated use of technology, were uncovered in the post-course questionnaire analysis. Finally, three focal participants were purposefully chosen to illustrate their developmental growth and how they translated their beliefs into instructional design. The results of this study offer suggestions and applications for pre-service teacher educators and teacher preparation in designing new approaches to better address the ongoing challenge of technology integration in K-12 classrooms.
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    An Inquiry into the Work and Progress of Interdisciplinary, University-Based Research Teams
    (2017-08) Tkachenko, Oleksandr
    This dissertation employed a multiple-case research design to explore four interdisciplinary, university-based research teams and the factors that influence their work and progress. Analysis of the collected data, corroborated with the reviewed literature, resulted in the formulation of the mid-range theory on interdisciplinary, university-based research teams. The proposed mid-range theory entails three theses and the model of key factors influencing the work and progress of these teams. To further confirm (or disconfirm) the proposed theses, a number of propositions are presented. The dissertation research concludes with practical recommendations for researchers, HRD professionals, and university administrators.
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    The Integration of Technology in the Teaching of Literacy: A Study of Teacher Learning
    (2016-05) Allen, Kathryn
    Literacy and technology have historically informed and transformed each other. This mutual interaction creates cultural shifts that redefine what it means to be literate, and also impact the ways in which literacy is taught in contemporary classrooms. Literacy teaching and learning has been the focus of much study during the past 50 years (Dressman, 2007), and we have a reliable knowledge base regarding how teachers learn to effectively teach literacy (Dillon, O’Brien, Sato, & Kelly, 2011; Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, & Bransford, 2005; National Research Council, 2001). We also have a growing knowledge base regarding contemporary literacy (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008). However, there is a pressing need for research to examine and portray how teachers learn to teach in contemporary contexts and how teachers’ understandings of literacy develop through practice (Curwood, 2014; Schmidt-Crawford, Tai, Wang, & Jin, 2016). The purpose of this study was to better understand how teachers learned to teach literacy through the use of technology, and how teacher conceptions of literacy developed and were enacted in elementary classrooms. Using embedded case study methodology (Yin, 2014), I examined ways in which elementary teachers learned to integrate technology for literacy instruction. In addition, I explored specific learning processes that teachers used to support the integration of technology for literacy instruction. In this study I also sought to understand how teacher conceptions of literacy developed through the situated practice of everyday teaching and learning. Social cultural and social cognitive understandings formed the theoretical framework undergirding my study, particularly as interpreted through a communities of practice lens (Wenger, 1998). Qualitative methods (Patton, 2002) were employed to collect data at three levels of inquiry: school context level, grade level team, and individual teacher. Analysis indicated that teachers learned to integrate technology for literacy instruction in both formal and informal modes, including through district professional development offerings, learning in community, and learning in and through the act of teaching. Communities of practice frameworks revealed that processes of legitimate peripheral participation, reification, negotiated meaning, identity formation and locality were helpful ways of understanding the critical processes involved in shifting into contemporary literacy practices. In addition, social cognitive processes of modeling, self-efficacy, goal setting, and visioning assisted teachers in enacting new understandings of literacy. Findings generated from data analysis indicated that teacher conceptions of literacy shifted in response to reflection on practice, and often in response to student reactions to technology integration. This study offers practical insight into how teachers learn to teach in contemporary literacy contexts, and presents suggestions for school leaders, teacher educators, teachers, and researchers as society continues to reimagine the meaning of literacy.