Education Commons^™

Examining The Shared Perceptions Surrounding The Most Important Elements To Include In The Design Of A Classroom-Based Therapeutic Visual Arts Program Serving Students With Autism, Laurie E. Hoppock

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Visual art is an enriching part of educational curriculum and an individual's development (Malley & Silverstein, 2014), but public school curriculum is increasingly focusing on standardization, core subject curriculum, testing, and accountability measures leaving creative fields behind as merely an additive part of education or a resource (Hourigan, 2014). Arts education within a system focusing on these areas creates a one-size-fits-all curriculum (Wexler, 2014) for students rather than accounting for individual student learning needs. A differentiated system is needed to respond to varying learning styles and stages of development. With the rising number of students being diagnosed with autism (Zablotsky, …

An Educational Intervention To Increase Fruit And Vegetable Consumption In Parents Of Obese And Overweight Children, Zenesha R. Barkley

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The incidence and prevalence of overweight and obese children in the United States is a serious health concern since the complications of childhood obesity can have serious and long-term effects: cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, neurological disease, and pulmonary disease. Parental modeling and nutritional education focusing on the obese/overweight child’s parents has been shown as an effective strategy for improving nutritional outcomes of the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables in children from five to ten years of age. Outcomes of this study and targeted nutritional modeling included increasing vegetable and fruit consumption of the parent by at …

The Political Ecology Of A School Board Decision To Hire A Nontraditional Superintendent, Linda S. Sparks

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This retrospective study used the language of political ecology to describe the dynamics of a school board decision to hire a nontraditional superintendent. Those dynamics were described as contextual variables that existed within the community as well as mediating variables that were negotiated among the key players who were part of the selection process. This study confirmed that the school board did not make the decision in isolation from the community power structure.

The methodology of this descriptive case study was qualitative, using a basic interpretive design informed by symbolic interactionism. Data were collected primarily through interviews with key players …

Teaching Disadvantaged Children Through Literature, Melinda Meek Ranney

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper concentrated on the teaching of economically disadvantaged children and the importance of reading aloud to these children. The traditional language program was found to be ineffective for disadvantaged first-grade children. A modified language plan was implemented in a classroom of disadvantaged first-grade students. This plan consisted of two units and involved the reading aloud of literature and language-related activities. Results indicated these students learned more effectively from units of study centered around literature.