02/13/2024
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to a.ttend a doctoral dissertation defense by John Hanron “Professional Learning Communities, Teaching Efficacy, and Inclusive Practices in the Science, Technology, and Engineering Classroom”

Candidate: John Hanron
Degree: Doctoral- Leadership in Schooling (STEM)
Defense Date: Monday, Feb. 26, 2024
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Remote via Zoom 
Thesis/Dissertation Title: "Professional Learning Communities, Teaching Efficacy, and Inclusive Practices in the Science, Technology, and Engineering Classroom”

Dissertation Committee

  • Dissertation Chair: James H. Nehring, Ed.D., Professor, Leadership in Schooling, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: Phitsamay S. Uy, Ed.D., Associate Professor, Leadership in Schooling, Graduate Coordinator for Ed.D Programs, & Co-director of Center for Asian American Studies, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: William Goldsworthy, Ed.D., Adjunct Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract
National and local data sets reveal that students with disabilities have yet to gain full access to the opportunities that science, technology, and engineering (STE) education has to offer. Through an improvement science lens, this three-manuscript dissertation attempts to define, diagnose, explain, and address this pervasive problem of practice. Manuscript 1 offers an extensive review of the literature to examine the problem from multiple levels of the educational system and combines local needs assessments to develop a coherent theory of change. Building on existing research that supports the transformative potential of professional learning communities (PLC) in fostering teachers’ sense of efficacy for inclusive practices, Manuscript 2 summarizes a plan-do-study-act cycle that tested a change idea. Nine STE teachers from one public high school in the northeastern United States participated in a universal design for learning (UDL) focused PLC over a two month period. A mixed-methods educational research design was employed to assess the impact of the PLC on teaching efficacy for inclusive practices (TEIP). Findings indicated that the PLC intervention successfully resulted in improvements in TEIP by 9.9% (p<.05), with the greatest gains demonstrated in knowledge of UDL and confidence in inclusive pedagogy. Manuscript 3 outlines several recommendations for scaling up the PLC model across the school and district with the ultimate goal of improving the educational experience of students with disabilities in science, technology, and engineering.