Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Davis, James

Committee Member

Johnson, Alex

Committee Member

Olinzock, Anthony

Committee Member

Wiseman, W. Martin

Date of Degree

12-11-2009

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Community College Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership

Abstract

Faculty facing challenges of teaching students in a post-Katrina environment used learning-centered approaches to restore educational opportunities to its populations of hurricane-displaced students, the growing population of Hispanic students, and the business community. The study sought to determine if the faculty members had made progress toward implementing learning-centered activities and strategies into the classroom after attending seminars and workshops that covered the learning-centered principles. Additionally, the research sought to determine if there were differences among academic disciplines in the implementation of the learning-centered principles in the classroom at the college. The study used quantitative research methods. To collect the quantitative data, the researcher used a learning-centered rubric along with specialized worksheets. The rubric assessed the five learning-centered principles: (a) function of content, (b) role of the instructor, (c) responsibility for learning, (d) purpose and processes of assessment, and (e) balance of power. Participants had the option to assess themselves at four levels of implementation for each of the learning-centered principles. The four levels were (a) the use of learner-centered approaches, (b) higher level of transitioning, (c) lower level of transitioning, and (d) the use of instructor-centered approaches. The results of the study revealed that the majority of the faculty members were at the higher level of transitioning for four of the learning-centered principles. The study indicated that the majority of faculty members were at the lower level of transitioning in implementing the balance of power. The findings also indicated that there were differences in the way faculty members implemented the learning-centered principles across three disciplines.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17067

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