Education Commons^™

Faculty Perceptions And Teaching Practices For Transformative Change: Culturally Responsive Teaching In Pharmacy Education, Nicole Rockich Winston

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Cultural diversity training in pharmacy education has evolved from standalone lectures to longitudinal courses, service-learning initiatives, rotation experiences, and global health opportunities. This mixed methods study explored the perceptions, attitudes, and pedagogies of pharmacy educators who have incorporated culture diversity into their classrooms and clinic sites. First, 91 online surveys incorporating items from the Teaching Multicultural Attitudes Survey and the Multicultural Competency Teaching Scale were distributed to a random sample of pharmacy faculty who interface with cultural diversity. In total, 36 completed surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and stepwise linear regressions. Following the survey, seven pharmacy faculty …

The Perceptions And Effects Of Schools' Names On Black Professional Educators And Their Students, Gregg Suzanne Ferguson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

It is obvious that there is a variety of perspectives that the educational environment needs to sensitively reflect to serve a diverse society equitably. In Southern communities, in particular, distortions of heritage are conflated with local governance that control public money, public memory, public value, public health, and public landscape, including the public school environment and marginalizes further historically marginalized groups. This qualitative study was grounded in critical race and cultural geography theories that examined dominant paradigms in the educational environment which shape identity. This dissertation explored the effect(s) of race and racism in the educational environment from the perspective …

A Systemic Functional Analysis Of Toefl Sample Writings, Yuki Nakamura

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to investigate the tendency of the structural and lexico-grammatical features between high score writings and low score writings by comparing some sample writings of TOEFL practice text books from the perspectives of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Especially, this study focuses on analyzing clause complex, grammatical metaphor, lexical density, and causality of the sample writings of TOEFL practice books. The analysis shows the tendency to get higher scores with appropriate and effective writing structure of the writing section of TOFL iBT. Actually, most practice textbooks briefly provide only the templates that enable the test takers to …

0832: Victor Billie Bodo Collection, 2007-2014, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Mr. Victor Billie Bodo (1928-2014) was a native of West Virginia and a graduate of Marshall University. He served as an adjunct professor in the Psychology Department and Political Science Department at Marshall University. Mr. Bodo was directly involved with The Atlantis Program, a cooperative enterprise between the U.S. Department of Education and the European Commission, from 2007 through 2009.

The bulk of the collection contains material related to the Atlantis Program. A grant-funded program, the Atlantis Program was "…designed to better prepare psychology majors for the competencies required by the modern global job market and to promote and enhance …

Describing The Spoken Discourse Practices Of Second And Third Grade Classroom Teachers In Appalachia, Natasha Janel Scott

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In order to meet the academic demands of the school system, school-aged children must be able to understand the language (discourse) of their teachers and the curricular expectations for verbal expression. Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), working within the schools, need to identify and include in their therapy planning the learning supports that will contribute to students’ classroom success. One useful data-set for this planning is knowledge of the types and levels of discourse used and expected by the classroom teacher. The purpose of this study was to examine the spoken discourse practices of second and third grade teachers in Appalachia. By …

How Should Colleges Ask About Students’ Sexual Orientation?, Tammy R. Johnson

Admissions Faculty Research

In recent years, there has been increasing interest among admission officers regarding the identification of LGBT students on campus. Reliable statistics about LGBT populations on campuses across the country are all but non-existent, and many progressive institutions are aiming to remedy that problem. It is a growing concern: How can schools provide outreach and support (and increase retention rates) for LGBT students if this at-risk population continues to be invisible? Likewise, LGBT campus groups are almost uniformly in favor of collecting reliable data that will document the presence of LGBT students on campus, which would help these groups advocate more …

English As A Second Language (Esl) Students' Perception Of Effective Instructors In The Leap Program At Marshall University, Tam Thi Thanh Vo

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study explored the perception of English as Second Language (ESL) learners toward characteristics of effective ESL instructors. Specifically, this study examined the perception of thirty ESL learners in the Learning English for Academic Purposes (LEAP) Program at Marshall University and ten ESL graduate students studying Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Program in Adult and Technical Education (ATE) Department at Marshall University concerning what they perceive to be good qualities and characteristics of ESL instructors. A quantitative research methodology was utilized. In 2010, during the second week of March, the survey was administered to both LEAP students and …

A Descriptive Study Of Multicultural Sensitivity At Two Rural Higher Education Institution Settings Through A Survey Of Those Institutions' Faculty, Sumeeta Patnaik

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The study examined the placement of faculty on the Continuum of Multicultural Sensitivity at two rural higher education institutions located in the Appalachian region, which includes the states of Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. This placement determined whether there were any significant differences among faculty members based on age, race, gender, income level, educational level, length of time at the institution, length of time in higher education and tenure. By measuring these differences along a continuum, the researcher was able to identify areas where faculty needed to improve their multicultural sensitivity and multicultural responsivity. The …

Narrativizing Success : Attitudes Toward African American Vernacular English In The Composition Classroom, Christopher W. Diorio

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

My thesis analyzes academia’s response to African American Vernacular English (AAVE) features in academic writing and how teachers’ responses to AAVE writing create socially constructed personas for students based on their vernacular dialect features. The results show spoken language strongly influences written language, although the range of dialect use varies from single feature usage to use of multiple features, and occurrences of use are highly localized. While instances of AAVE in academic writing are irregular, instructor response to features shows a pattern of strikethroughs and imperative statements used to correct language. As studies demonstrate such approaches to writing have negligible …

West Virginia School Psychologists' Attitudes Toward Gay And Lesbian Students, Lauren B. Winter

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Given the alarming rates of harassment of gay and lesbian students in our nation’s schools, it is important to ascertain the attitudes of school personnel toward homosexuality. Particularly important are the attitudes of school psychologists. The present study examines the attitudes of West Virginia school psychologists toward gay and lesbian students, and how their contact with, knowledge of, and level of religiosity affect these attitudes. Results indicated that respondents’ attitudes toward homosexuality were positively correlated with contact and knowledge and negatively correlated with religiosity. Contact was the strongest predictor of positive attitudes. There were no significant differences between demographic variables, …

Assessment Of Adult Esl Learners’ Preferable Learning Styles : Implications For An Effective Language Learning Environment, Kayoko Yamauchi

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research was conducted to investigate how adult ESL students learn effectively according to their learning preferences and their cultural/educational backgrounds. A total of 117 respondents in this study were categorized in three types: 58 language-based ESL students (L-B ESL students), 48 content-based ESL students (C-B ESL students), and 11 ESL teachers at Marshall University. In 2008, during the fourth week of September, the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) and a demographic questionnaire were administered to both L-B ESL students and C-B ESL students at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia. Descriptive statistics, including correlation analysis, were used to describe and …

Teaching Japanese In An American High School: How Japanese Teachers Make Sense Of Their American Students’ Communication Styles, Teppei Kiyosue

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This qualitative research study explores how Japanese teachers make sense of their American students’ communication styles. I conducted classroom observations in two Japanese classes by two different teachers and interviewed four Japanese teachers at high schools in Cabell County, West Virginia. The results indicate that the American students don’t communicate with others under the pressure of enryo (response to group pressure for conformity) in their Japanese classes. Furthermore, the Japanese teachers usually approve of their American students’ active communication styles without enryo. The results also show that the native Japanese teachers use high-context communication styles frequently in their Japanese classes …

Integration And Athletics: Integrating The Marshall University Basketball Program, 1954-1969, George M. Reger

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In 1954, Marshall College followed the national law that banned segregation in the school systems of the United States. The law included the integration of athletic programs. While only a small part of the process, athletic programs often presented integration on a more visible stage than the integration of classrooms.