Education Commons^™

Research On Communicative Practices In An Alternative Classroom, Maria Alice Bonilha

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies communications in an alternative classroom in the United States. Using an ethnographic approach and drawing from conversation analysis, the study describes the school’s model of education and analyzes students’ classroom initiations, particularly those in which students responded to the teacher’s question with a question.

Exploring Shifting Moments Of Remediation: An Analysis Of Policies Of Developmental Education Policies In The City University Of New York, Charles Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For decades the City University of New York has served as a model for public higher education in the United States. Since 1969, CUNY has attempted to construct policies that support the postsecondary ambitions of New York’s underrepresented students. The era of Open Admissions that ushered in the 1970s remains one of the greatest social experiments in the history of higher education, permitting access to the university to all local high school graduates. Through fiscal erosion and shifts in legislative policy, the open admissions period devolved into a period of stagnation and low standards over the next thirty years. By …

Alternative Futures: The Creative Reconsideration Of Fashion Objects, Kathryn Roberts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is the beginning of what I intend to be a larger, evolving work that seeks to marry the theoretical with the practical when considering fashion objects that have “served their purpose”. The object at the project’s focal point: a worn out pair of blue jeans. My particular focus on jeans is based on the fact that they, alongside the t-shirt, are one of the most ubiquitous and commonly owned pieces of clothing for people all over the world. This wardrobe staple transcends age, race, and class, as it occupies an iconic status that has made them invulnerable to …

A Democratic Conundrum: A Study Of Online Student Performance At Community Colleges, Lavita Mcmath Turner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Online education at community colleges has the potential to further democratize education by expanding access through the availability of anytime/anywhere courses for people who might be unable to attend college otherwise. However, the literature reveals the existence of performance gaps between online and face-to-face courses at community colleges, ones that can have negative consequences on the upward mobility of its diverse student population. This study investigates such a trend at one urban university. The study shows complexities in the relationship between online learning at community colleges through a mixed methods study of online performance at a community college. The findings …

“I Am Going To College…Now What?!”: Becoming A College Student, Renata Strashnaya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

College enrollment rates are increasing across the nation at both 2-year and 4-year institutions (NCES, 2015). Nearly two-thirds of undergraduate students are under the age of 25 and enrollment numbers are increasing for every racial and ethnic group (NCES, 2012). The first year of college is often a critical time for growth and development for students who are transitioning from high school to college. As such, there is a call to restructure the first year of college by finding new ways to support student success (Tinto, 1993, 2002). This call is, however, in response to limited knowledge of the transition …

Nursing Students At The Helm: A Study Of The Effect Of A Health Literacy Module (Helm) On The Health Literacy Knowledge, Skills And Attitudes Of Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Joy G. Borrero

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Effective communication is a foundation of high-quality, patient-centered health care. Understanding health literacy is an essential attribute that health care professionals need to possess in order to promote effective partnerships with patients and their significant others. Nurses, especially, need to be involved in addressing the epidemic problem of low health literacy in the United States because they are responsible for the majority of patient, caregiver and community health education and communication. Nurses play a key role in providing health care information to individuals, families and groups in a variety of settings and therefore should be educated about the essentials …

Pipeline To Failure: Social Inequality And The False Promises Of American Public Schooling, Adia Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My experience as a New York City public school student was absolutely electrifying, though filled with many trials. While my mother would have preferred to put me in private school, having access to some of the world’s greatest institutions and resources offered unique opportunities and exposures. The performing arts provided me with an outlet to express myself and build skills and confidence. In particular, dance education kept me occupied and disciplined in a large city full of danger. Every so often, I witnessed hostile, or even violent exchanges between students, or students and staff. While some of my schoolmates became …

New Dyes For Cancer Theranostics, Waqar Rizvi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Porphyrinoids are robust heterocyclic dyes studied extensively for applications in medicine and as photonic materials because of their tunable photophysical properties, diverse means of modifying the periphery, and the ability to chelate most transition metals. Commercial applications include phthalocyanine dyes in optical discs, porphyrins in photodynamic therapy, and as oxygen sensors. Most applications of these dyes require exocyclic moieties to improve solubility, target disease, modulate photophysical properties, or direct self-organization into architectures with desired photonic properties. The synthesis of the porphyrinoid depends on the desired application, but the de novo synthesis often involves several steps, is time consuming, and results …

The Bronx Was Brewing: A Digital Resource Of A Lost Industry, Michelle Zimmer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Bronx: a bucolic oasis laden with history, a suburb within city-limits, an urban warzone, and thanks to the recent renaissance, a phoenix of progress rising from the proverbial ashes of the fires that burned through the borough in the 1970’s. But many people are unaware that the Bronx also brewed.
Uncovering the brewing industry of the Bronx tells not only the story of the lost industry, but it also communicates the narrative of the development of the Bronx. The brewers were German immigrants who developed a thriving industry by introducing lager beer to the United States by taking advantage …

Teachers Have Emotions Too: An Intra | Interpersonal Approach To Exploring Emotions In Teacher Preparation Courses, Shequana Wright

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The essential focus of this dissertation is the exploration of emotions in response to stressors that may emerge as preservice teachers interact in teaching and learning spaces. My experiences as a teacher and teacher-educator | researcher have influenced an interest in presenting autoethnographical studies. In each autoethnography, I explicate my personal journey in exploring emotional responses with preservice teachers during teacher preparation courses.

I describe this work as an autoethnography for two reasons. First, to avoid the false claim that my research is an objective approach to investigating emotions. Second, to illuminate the intra- and interpersonal dialectic that is embedded …

“I Feed You. I Clothe You. I Send You To School”: Barriers To Involvement Of Low-Income Minority, And Immigrant Parents For The Academic Achievement Of Their Children, Myrtle Dickson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Parental involvement has long been held as a critical variable in the academic outcomes of students. While research in this area consistently cites the positive impact of parental involvement across all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, much still remain to be discovered regarding the parental involvement as well as the cultural parental practices that are unique to low income African American, Hispanic, and immigrant parents and families. Furthermore, this population of parents faces barriers to involvement that provide challenges not only for families but also for schools. Administrators and teachers in the k-12 settings must still consider the forms of capital …

Education And Civil Conflict: The Negative Effects Of Intolerant Curricula In Kosovo, Pakistan, And Sudan, Nicholas A. Jaspers

Dissertations and Theses

Education has long been used as a tool for national identity formation and social cohesion. However, in diverse communities across the globe, the question must be asked: are educational institutions creating citizens with a narrow view of “us vs. them” or an identity built on multiculturalism and acceptance? Through past research, it is obvious that education has either acted as an instigator or mitigator of civil conflict, though to what extent is still largely unknown. In this thesis, I argue that both the extent and quality of education in a country can instigate or, at least, exacerbate the outbreak of …

Musicalization: Early Childhood Music Access, Discourse, And Praxis In Nyc Charter Schools, 2014-2015, Andrew Aprile

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past two decades, charter schools have become a hallmark of education reform in the United States. Concurrent with this movement is the increasing prominence of high stakes testing. While much research has sought to compare the effectiveness of charter schools and traditional public schools in terms of standardized assessments, scant attention has been paid to the role of arts and music in charter schools, and little has been done to distinguish the distinct strands of the charter school movement. Given what we know about the importance of music education and the growth of charter schools, it was the …

Is It All Relative? Relative Pitch And L2 Lexical Tone Perception/Tone Language Comprehension By Adult Tone And Non-Tone Language Speakers, Sloane C. Von Wertz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Languages generally use musical pitch variation of the voice as part of their sound systems (Maddieson, 2011)—pitch variations that can be somewhat reminiscent of music. Music ability and/or training may influence language processing (e.g., Bidelman et al, 2011; Delogue et al, 2010). In particular, studies have concluded that there may be a relationship between absolute pitch and tone language acquisition (e.g., Lee, Lee, and Shi, 2011; Tillmann et al., 2011; Pfordresher and Brown, 2009). Other research has shown that fundamental frequency (F0) and F0 slope are crucial elements upon which native tone language speakers rely in tone perception (Guion and …

Education Is Transformation: The Impact Of Attitudes, Robert Decaul

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What truly informs success? Is it one’s education, career type, and socioeconomic status? I believe that more than ever before these three criteria appear to define our understanding of what success is. However, the development and transformation of education in the United States, which is marred by racism, has historically disadvantaged segments of our population especially in cities with a predominantly black population. New Orleans being a perfect example. Hurricane Katrina put the spotlight on education in New Orleans as the storm’s devastation of the city exposed the myriad of problems education was facing. This thesis is an exploration of …

“Just Get It Done”: How The New York City High School Admissions Process Is Re-Defining The Work & Identities Of Professionals In Screened High School-Programs, Heather Rippeteau

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The implementation of the high school admissions process in the New York City Public schools, has re-defined the work and identities of professionals working the screened high school-programs. This study uses descriptive statistics culled from the Directory of New York City High Schools for 2007 and 2017, and interviews with school personnel from three screened school-programs, to review the impact of the implementation of this process during its first full decade in existence. These data establish the fact that screened school-programs are experiencing the phenomenon of marketization by way of their admissions process. Further, the implementation of this process generates …

Networked: New York City’S Charter Schools And The New Profiteers, Christina Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the extent to which corporate players and interests are represented on New York City charter school boards by collecting and analyzing board member data for all approved charters as of January 2013. The affiliations of individuals sitting on charter school and charter management organization boards are identified. The implications of those affiliations as well as their potential to affect school governance are explored within a modern educational landscape in which policy-making favors market-based approaches and provides new entry points for profiteering. The empirical analysis and conceptual framework for this study are informed by research on interlocking directorates …

Labeling Histories: Mental Disability In American Schooling, Kylah Torre

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect that dominant cultural schemas (norms) had on the educational outcomes and identity formation of students with mental disabilities. Through an examination of histories of psychology and public schooling in the United States, as well as oral history interviews with 7 participants, the research investigates how these cultural schemas have shifted over time and what role students with mental disabilities have played in reproducing or resisting schemas which marked them as deficient. Sewell’s (1992) theory of structure and agency, Disability Studies theory, and theories of labeling and intersectionality are utilized to …

Enhancing And Evaluating Scientific Argumentation In The Inquiry-Oriented College Chemistry Classroom, Annabel D'Souza

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The research presented in chapters 2, 3, and 4 in this dissertation uses a sociocultural and sociohistorical lens, particularly around power, authority of knowledge and identity formation, to investigate the complexity of engaging in, supporting, and evaluating high-quality argumentation within a college biochemistry inquiry-oriented classroom.

Argumentation skills are essential to college and career (National Research Council, 2010) and for a democratic citizenry. It is central to science teaching and learning (Osborne et al., 2004a) and can deepen content knowledge (Jiménez-Aleixandre et al., 2000; Jiménez-Aleixandre & Pereiro-Munhoz, 2002). When students have opportunities to make claims and support it with evidence and …

A Playful Context Enhances Bilingual And Monolingual Preschoolers’ Mastery Motivation And Private Speech, Jeremy Sawyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children’s private speech (audible self-talk) has been studied primarily as a cognitive tool for thinking, planning and self-regulation. This study investigated whether private speech may also function as a tool for motivation. Vygotskian and self-determination theory suggest that children can develop to become agentic and inspired, or conversely disengaged and alienated, based largely on their social conditions of development. Thus, it is important to investigate children’s motivational processes in social and educational contexts that are central to child development. U.S. preschool enrollment is expanding, accompanied by a decline in play-based pedagogy and growth of didactic, teacher-centered approaches. To illuminate the …

Examining School Leadership In New York City Community Schools, Stacey Campo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The community school model is rooted in John Dewey’s (1902) conceptualization of the public school as a hub for the community. The model has recently been identified as part of New York City’s school turnaround strategy and continues to gain prominence nationally, because of this, it is essential to identify the key components of an excelling leadership partnership. This dissertation describes findings and recommendations from interviews with principals and community school directors in ten New York City community schools. These interviews were triangulated with analysis of the New York City school environment survey utilizing both faculty and parent responses. This …

Parental Influence On Second Generation Chinese-American Youth’S Career Choice And Development, Yingli Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A large body of literature supports the claim that the role of parents in shaping Asian-American youth's career development is significant (Leong & Serafica, 1995; Leong & Hardin, 2002; Yuan, 2012; Sandhu, 2017; Qin, 2011). When considering the family impact on Asian-Americans’ vocational choices, researchers should examine the phenomena through culturally specific lens so that variables that are more cultural relevant are captured. This is a pilot study with the goal to provide a preliminary understanding of the ways in which first-generation Chinese immigrant parents influence the choice and development of a career to their second-generation young adult children. In …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

Past Peer Victimization Experiences And Current Psychological Well-Being And Ethnic Identity Among South Asian College Students, Rejitha Nair

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Very little is known about the peer victimization experiences of South Asian immigrant students and the factors involved in these experiences. The present study retrospectively investigated the peer victimization experiences of South Asian immigrant students in high school, the perceived reasons for victimization, and how these experiences relate to their psychological well-being and ethnic identity as college students. Two hundred and twenty college students, who were first or second generation immigrants from South Asia (e.g., India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal) and attended high school in the United States, participated in the study.

Overall, the results revealed that …

Arghhh! My Computer Screen Froze: A “Glitch” In K-12 Blended Learning Classrooms, Tricia P.A. Herbert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our life-world occupies spaces drawn to new and emerging technologies that mediate our experiences to self, others, and the world. The presence of old and new technologies, the blackboard to the computer, in classrooms play a prominent role in shaping America’s education system. Schools today evolved from the technologies we design and use as individuals and as a society. Also, private and public K-12 education stakeholders believe blended learning, the meeting of traditional, face-to-face schooling with online learning at or from a school building, will transform schools. However, blended learning as a field lacks inquiry focused on K-12 school settings …

Uncovering What Readers Know: Understanding Readers’ Online And Offline Processes For Identifying Story Elements, Esther Hellmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

School-age children are frequently asked to read and summarize narrative texts. However, despite the frequency that summarizing tasks are assigned, teachers infrequently provide instruction on summarizing narratives. In addition, researchers have failed to empirically investigate a summarizing technique specifically designed for narratives. In Study 1, thirty typically developing fourth grade students read passages at lower and upper levels of difficulty and produced summaries of the passages. The treatment participants received four, thirty-minute intervention sessions on using story grammar to summarize the narratives. Results found that story grammar is an effective method for summarizing narratives, and that text difficulty impacts summarizing …

Escribiendo Para Desahogarme: Release And Resistance In A Middle School Bilingual Writing Workshop, Carla Espana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines a teacher’s language ideologies, their impact on curriculum modifications and bilingual Latinx middle schoolers’ storytelling, to understand how a bilingual pedagogy builds on their cultural and linguistic resources. This qualitative study was conducted in a sixth grade writing workshop class in New York City as the focus teacher taught the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Personal Narrative Unit of Study. The first two findings center on the factors that influence a teacher’s stance on language practices and bilingual pedagogy, and how these contributed to curriculum modifications that included using students’ full linguistic and cultural repertoires, integrating …

Embodying Rhythm Nation: Multimodal Hip Hop Dance As A Site For Adolescent Social-Emotional And Political Development, Lauren M. Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology, specifically values analysis, to learn more about how being involved within Hip hop dance communities positively relates to adolescent development. Adolescence was defined herein as ages 13-23. The study investigated Hip hop dance communities in terms of cultural expertise (i.e. novice, intermediate and advanced/expert) to look specifically at dance narratives (i.e. peak experience narratives and “I dance because” essays) and hip hop dance performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to (1) explore how adolescents use multimodal Hip hop dance discourse for social-emotional development and critical consciousness, and to (2) understand how values …

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of The Search For Education, Elevation, And Knowledge (Seek) Program On Short- And Intermediate-Term Outcomes, Raymond Galinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program is an educational opportunity program within the City University of New York designed to provide economically and academically disadvantaged students, who otherwise would not have such access, the opportunity to attend college and to succeed once enrolled. However, despite being in existence for a half-century, surprisingly little is known about how the SEEK program contributes to student achievement and success. This study was the first to empirically measure the short- and intermediate-term impacts of this program on student outcomes.

Using propensity scores to match SEEK students to similar non-SEEK students to …

Effect Of Implementation Of Simulation On Critical Thinking Skills In Undergraduate Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Joanne M. Knoesel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Human patient simulation (HPS) is a time and cost intensive teaching modality that is used widely in nursing education, and has been implemented with little evidence to support its efficacy (Jeffries & Rizzolo, 2006). Researchers note the lack of reliable tools to measure learning using this teaching modality, and consequentially there is a paucity of research linking critical thinking and simulation (Jeffries, 2007; Kneebone, 2003; Nehring, 2008). Nursing clinical decision making affects patient outcomes. Critical thinking is a key factor in clinical decision making. A review of the relevant literature is equivocal on the use of simulation in undergraduate nursing …