Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of The Role Of Gender In Understanding Faculty Perceptions Of Student-Athletes At Ncaa Division I Institutions, Jana Thomas Spitzer

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research has indicated that faculty hold negative perceptions toward male student-athletes. Studies have shown that faculty perceptions are most negative when the student-athlete competed at an NCAA Division I institution, in a high-profile sport, and was non-White. What remained unknown was the role of gender in understanding faculty perceptions of student-athletes. The current study considered this gap in the literature and determined if the gender of the student-athlete, the gender of the faculty member, or other characteristics of the faculty member influenced perceptions of male or female student-athletes. The study utilized the Situational Attitudes Scale (SAS) to compare faculty …

Adult Attachment, Emotional Intelligence, And Resilience As Correlates Of Social Engagement, Academic Engagement, And Confidence Of Persistence In College Students, Yacob Tewolde Tekie

Masters Theses

The current study investigated freshmen university students (N = 210) to examine the role of attachment style (anxiety, avoidance), emotional intelligence (repair, attention, clarity) and resilience in predicting student adaptation to college (academic, social, personal and academic engagement). Four multiple regression analyses were conducted for each subscale of adaptation to college. The results indicated that; a) emotional intelligence (attention, clarity) and resilience significantly predicted student academic adjustment; b) emotional inelligence (repair) predicted student social adjustment; c) emotional inteligence (clarity), resilience, and adult attachment (anxiety) significantly predicted student personal adjustment; and d) emotional intelligence (repair, clarity) and resilience, significantly predicted …

Strategies For Developing A Sustainable Learning Society: An Analysis Of Lifelong Learning In Thailand, John A. Henschke Edd

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

Today's world may be characterized as the dawn of the new millennium of the learning society, where knowledge is considered as a country's most valued asset and primary source of power. In the increasingly intense competition among international communities, Thailand has been respected for advancing the concept of transforming communities, cities and regions into learning societies engaged in a sustainable development strategy which promotes the continual learning of individuals - the smallest unit of society. The learning society approach aims to balance economic, social, natural and environment aspects and resources of society; and is transforming the Thai people into knowledge …

Cyberbullying, Bullying, And Victimization Among Adolescents: Rates Of Occurrence, Internet Use And Relationship To Parenting Styles, Michelle Pearl Black

Doctoral Dissertations

Cyberbullying has evolved from the increasing use of technology, specifically electronic communication and social networking. Cyberbullying is defined as a means of bullying in which peers use electronic devices "to taunt, insult, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer" (Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007, p. 565). This could occur through a number of different electronic formats or devices such as email, social networking sites, cell phones, etc. In this study, participants included a total of 77 students attending a Southeastern Tennessee City Middle and High School. This included 23 seventh-grade students, 31 eighth-grade students and 23 ninth grade students. Participants were administered …

More Myself: Exploring Students' Perceptions Of Self-Authorship Development, Benjamin B. Stubbs

Doctoral Dissertations

Increasingly, the challenges of modern adult life include the responsibility for ambiguous tasks, the need to work as a team with diverse others and the expectation to make important decisions in the face of competing interests. Research suggests that individuals able to meet these challenges demonstrate self-authorship, a way of knowing that allows them to exert control over their lives. Existing research provides insight into college students’ self-authorship and the influence of situational, environmental and personal factors on self-authorship development. However, the literature has yet to explore students’ own understanding of their self-authorship development. The purpose of this study was …

Predicting High-Stakes Tests Of Math Achievement Using A Group-Administered Rti Instrument: Validating Skills Measured By The Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness: Math, Jeremy Thomas Coles

Doctoral Dissertations

Three universal screeners and nine progress monitoring probes from the Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness: Math (MIR:M), a silent, group-administered math assessment designed for implementation with an RTI Model, were administered to 223 fifth-grade students. The growth parameters of the overall MIR:M composite and two global composites (math calculation and math reasoning) identified significant variation in student growth, within significant linear and quadratic trajectories. However, there were significant differences in the nature of the growth trajectories that have applied educational implications. In addition, growth parameters across the three composites provided significant predictive potential when using the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Achievement …

Critical Social Justice In Teacher Education: Beginning Teachers' Pedagogy And Practice, Brittany Alexis Aronson

Doctoral Dissertations

Teaching for social justice is an attempt by classroom teachers to promote equity within their classrooms. Researchers have analyzed the impact of pre-service teachers’ readiness to address social justice issues in their classrooms upon exiting their teacher preparation programs. However, despite reports of already practicing K-12 teachers’ attempts to teach for social justice in their classrooms, there is little connection to teacher education programs and/or the impact of teacher practice in the classroom.

This ethnographic qualitative study addresses the research gap by highlighting the understandings and experiences of four intern teachers simultaneously enrolled in a teacher education program while participating …

Peace Under Pressure: Portraits Of Christian Leadership In College Basketball Coaches, Charles Henry Wilson Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

NCAA Division I college basketball coaching is a high-stakes, high-reward profession. This study is based on three premises: (a) there is increasing pressure on college basketball coaches to win immediately and win consistently; (b) coaches are expected to maintain their integrity; (c) the pressure to win immediately and win consistently can influence some coaches to compromise their integrity. Given that context, the purpose of this study was to investigate and illuminate the lived experience of Christian head men’s and women’s basketball coaches at public, NCAA Division I institutions. This study was guided by two guiding research questions: (a) What is …

Participant Career And Research Outcomes Of The Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award, Samuel Held

Doctoral Dissertations

In 1991, ORAU created the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award program providing seed money for research of early career faculty at ORAU member universities. The Powe Awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities. Eligible applicants are full-time assistant professors at ORAU member institutions within two years of their initial tenure track appointments. Awardees receive a one-year grant worth a total of $10,000. Four hundred sixty Powe Awards were made from 1991 to 2011.

This descriptive study presents a secondary data analysis of 258 survey responses received in …

Measuring Academic Leadership Effectiveness Of Hospitality And Tourism Academic Administrators: A Transformation Leadership Framework, James Edward Talbert Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to extend the existing knowledge of academic administrator leadership behaviors that are necessary for effective academic leadership in hospitality and tourism higher education, as viewed through the transformational leadership framework. This study also investigated hospitality and tourism administrators’ previous industry experience, management experience, and management experience in the industry. This dissertation research was guided by three primary objectives. First, this study aimed to develop a model that measures hospitality and tourism academic leadership effectiveness. Second, this dissertation intended to explore the relationship among different leadership styles & leadership effectiveness. Third, this dissertation aspired to …

Site Supervisor Self-Disclosure: A Shared Experience, Jeffrey R. Sweeney

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined supervisor and supervisee perceptions of the purpose for using supervisor self-disclosure as an intervention in the counseling supervision process while also looking at supervisor and supervisee perceptions of the effects these disclosures have on the supervisee. The participants in this study were school counseling site supervisors and their supervisees enrolled in internship in school counseling at a CACREP accredited land-grant university in the southeastern United States. This study employed a collective case study design using multiple cases as sources for investigating the perspectives of both members of the supervisory dyad regarding the shared experience of a supervisor …

Communicating With Hispanic Parents Of Young, School-Age Children, Sarah Grace Williams

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Global Perspectives On Peer Sex Education For College Students, Chandra R. Story, June Gorski

International Education

According to the World Health Organization, sexually transmitted diseases and infections continue to be a public health problem across the globe, with most infected persons being between the ages of 15 and 49. A large percentage of those affected by AIDS are 15-24 year olds, an age group which includes college students. Peer sex education is being espoused by non-governmental organizations and administrators as a viable solution to this problem. Peer education strategies and approaches to evaluation differ across programs. Some programs report increased efficacy for educators and trainees while other programs report increases in knowledge and changes in attitudes. …

Perceptions Of The Teacher-Student Relationship: A Study Of Upper Elementary Teachers And Their Students, Ping Liu

International Education

This study examines the perceptions of a group of fourth through sixth grade teachers and their students concerning their relationship; the participants included 39 teachers and 111 students at an elementary school in the People’s Republic of China. Both groups responded to a survey with the same number of items and content but from two different perspectives. The second part of the survey included teacher-student responses to one open-ended question. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected for analysis and discussion. Statistically significant differences were found between the means of the teacher and student groups in classroom goal structures (F=9.55, p=.000) …

Nothing But Being There Matters: Expectancy-Value Motivation Between U.S. And Chinese Middle School Students, Haichun Sun, Haiyong Ding, Ang Chen

International Education

Current literature theorizes that culture-induced expectancy beliefs and values in learning may engage learners of varied cultures in differentiated motivational processes. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which U.S. and Chinese middle school students differed in expectancy-value motivation in physical education. Middle school students from the U.S. (n = 813, 14 schools) and China (n = 806, 8 schools) provided data on expectancy-value motivation in physical education. A MANOVA with country as the independent factor and grade level as covariate revealed that the U.S. students held higher expectancy beliefs (p =.001, η2=.62), while the Chinese …

The People Who Do ‘This’ In Common: Book Clubs As ‘Everyday Activists’, Julie E. Tyler

Doctoral Dissertations

This study of the Books-N-Wine club in Knoxville, Tennessee participates in a growing body of research on reading communities. Since the 1980s, researchers have investigated book clubs as social-intellectual phenomena whose history dates back to eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Intersecting with the development of the public sphere and even fueling concrete social movements, book clubs comprise a “shadow tradition of literature.” Current research suggests that contemporary clubs continue to advance this “shadow tradition” and have the potential to teach and transform their constituencies. Several areas remain unexplored in research on book clubs, including the ways in which particular categories of …

The Effects Of Nclb And Recommendations For Change: A Modified Delphi Study Of Principals' Perceptions, Melissa Henry Blalock

Doctoral Dissertations

This modified Delphi study explored the effects of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 (Public Law 10-110) on the nation’s education system and the challenges it has presented to public school principals nationwide regarding their ability to be agents of change at a local level while maintaining effective leadership. National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) 2009-2011 national and state awards yielded a purposive, homogeneous sample of 448 principals honored as experts in the field of educational leadership and qualified to make recommendations for future reauthorization of NCLB. Through use …

Critical Teacher Inquiry: Collaborative Action Research Using Post-Structuralist And Cross-National Provocations, Robyn Anne Brookshire

Doctoral Dissertations

This study reports on the work of six early childhood teachers and the researcher as they enacted a variation of collaborative action research in a university-based early childhood center. The project included cross-national provocation via a “day in the life” video from an infant-toddler center in Milan, Italy. In addition, the model utilized a post-structural approach known as deconstructive talk (Lenz Taguchi, 2008) to facilitate teachers’ critical reflective inquiry into their own narratives. Teachers viewed the video from Milan, discussed provocations from the video, set foci of inquiry for their own classrooms, video recorded in their own classrooms, and undertook …

Social Justice In Mathematics Education, Renee Lenise Colquitt

Doctoral Dissertations

Today’s mathematics classrooms are filled with students with different races, ethnicities, abilities, and socioeconomic status environments, and other issues that impact their learning. Students of color, in particular, often score lower than their White counterparts on standardized mathematics tests and are underrepresented in advanced placement mathematics classes. The historically marginalized students will soon be the majority. If careful attention is not paid to this shift in demographics, the United States runs the risk of falling farther behind other countries economically and academically. Since mathematics often serves as a gatekeeper for admittance to postsecondary institutions and many well-paying jobs, the discrepancy …

Trends In Children's Literature And The Social Implications, Rebecca A. Johnson

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Three Justifications For Support Of Female Student Affairs Professionals, Anna Filipek Adams

Masters Theses

Female student affairs professionals have experienced much advancement in the field. Yet we still suffer gender discrimination in our career paths, salaries, and work experiences. Unfortunately, this issue is not seen as important by decision makers, due to the acceptance of slow change, the past reluctances to begin this discussion, and the arguments of critics. In order to reinvigorate our growth and advancement in the field, I argue that there is value in supporting female student affairs professionals.

I justify the value of supporting of female student affairs professionals from student affairs, human resources, and cultural studies perspectives. From a …

Ideology And Interdisciplinary Science Graduate Education Reform, Benjamin Harrison Allen

Masters Theses

Over the past few decades, a variety of science education reform publications have emerged from both public and private entities, alongside graduate programs established to provide training for integrating multiple disciplines in research activities. Several documents concerning federal education policy have explored the socioeconomic impacts of reforming graduate education in the sciences and have made recommendations for funding interdisciplinary traineeship programs at U.S. universities. On the other hand, much of the current academic literature concerning interdisciplinary graduate science education considers the subject from functionalist perspectives, aiming to contribute best practices for assessment and curricular programming. In contrast to both of …

Janet K. Poley Biography/Cv - March, 2014, Janet K. Poley

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

No abstract provided.

Faculty Senate - February 3, 2014 Meeting Agenda, Faculty Senate

Minutes, Senate Meetings

No abstract provided.

Developing Language And Writing Skills Of Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students: A Simultaneous Approach, Hannah M. Dostal, Kimberly Wolbers

Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Publications and Other Works

In school, deaf and hard of hearing students (d/hh) are often exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) while also developing literacy skills in English. ASL does not have a written form, but is a fully accessible language to the d/hh through which it is possible to mediate understanding, draw on prior experiences and engage critical thinking and reasoning (Allington & Johnston, 2002, Vygotsky, 1987; Wertch, 1991). This study investigates the impact of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) on the development of signed expressive language (ASL) and written English. Our analysis demonstrates that a focus on ASL did not detract …