Education Commons^™

Pillars Of Youth Drug Abuse Prevention: Parents, Police, And Project Dare (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), Jonathon Stuever

Theses and Dissertations

In 1983 Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officials teamed with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) health curriculum specialist, Dr. Ruth Rich, to redesign an anti-tobacco curriculum, Project Self-Management and Resistance Training (SMART), into Project Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE). In the first four years of Project DARE, local, state, and, federal government branches endorsed the program as an efficient tool in the local and national fight against youth drug abuse. Early program evaluations, conducted by the Evaluation and Training Institute (ETI), demonstrated DARE’s ability to change attitudes of students, school faculty, and parents concerning social tolerance of underage drug …

Success In College Algebra: Examining Student Experiences In Corequisite College Algebra Courses, Sandra Leiterman

Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive case study explores undergraduate student experiences and perceptions in corequisite college algebra courses at an Arkansas university. Corequisite models enroll students in credit-bearing college algebra paired with required supplemental academic support. Current research has largely focused on pass rates or DFW rates. However there are limited studies exploring student experiences within this emerging model. Within this descriptive case study, several forms of data were collected. Students were surveyed on math anxiety and mindset at the start and end of the semester. Semi-structured interviews with two students and three instructors provided personal accounts of their challenges, beliefs, and attitudes …

Experiences Of Teaching English Teacher Education Online In The Time Of Covid-19, Xinzhi Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research (Johnson, Veletsianos, & Seaman, 2020) has highlighted that the abrupt shift from traditional in-person to online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic caught many educators off guard, distinguishing it from the well-planned approach to online education before the pandemic. The disparities between well-planned pre-COVID online education and the impromptu shift to online teaching during COVID give rise to diverse challenges for educators in designing and delivering courses in the online setting. This interpretive study aimed to delve into the lived experiences of English teacher educators as they navigated the design and delivery of online English language arts methods courses …

School Crisis Response: Perceptions Of Experienced Responders, Travis E. Pinter

Theses and Dissertations

The needs of a school community following the death of a student or staff member are not something every educator and/or school administrator may be prepared to address. Multi-disciplinary crisis response teams, particularly those operating at the district level, are equipped to respond to such situations rapidly and effectively. School psychologists, due to their categorization as “scientist practitioners” in the educational environment and their training in both therapeutic intervention models and tiered service delivery, are especially qualified to coordinate training for, manage, and serve on K-12 crisis response teams. Unfortunately, the definitive manualized program on school crisis response, PREPaRE (Brock …

A Descriptive Phenomenological Study Of College Student Belonging Experiences With Peers In The First Semester, John Knapp

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated how first-year college students described belonging experiences with college peers in the first semester, specifically conceptualizing these relationships as bidirectional, where college students both receive and provide support to one another in a mutual way. A descriptive phenomenological research design was employed to identify invariant structures of this phenomenon utilizing data collected from semi-structured interviews with 10 first-time, full-time undergraduate college students in their first semester enrolled at a private, religiously affiliated, four-year university in the midwestern United States. This study found that the invariant structures of belonging in college peer relationships in the first semester were …

Developing Understanding Of Fraction And Decimal Magnitude: A Teaching Experiment, Elizabeth Cutter-Lin

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING OF FRACTION AND DECIMAL MAGNITUDE: A TEACHING EXPERIMENT

by

Elizabeth Cutter-Lin

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2023Under the Supervision of Professor DeAnn Huinker

This study investigated how three fifth-grade students’ understanding of fraction and decimal magnitude evolved over the course of a five-week teaching experiment. Students participated in teaching and learning sessions focused on developing concepts of fraction and decimal magnitude. The following questions guided this study: (1) How do fifth grade students reason about the magnitude of fractions and decimals? (2) What are the shifts in mathematical thinking that occur with students’ evolving understanding as they progress …

Assessing The Impact Of Employee Wellness Programs On Healthcare Employee’S Weight, Reja F. Basyyoni

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Over 32% of employees in healthcare are clinically overweight with a BMI over 30. This level of obesity is more significant in healthcare than in other professions. (Aldana, 2021). The growing prevalence of diseases among employees in healthcare settings has increased the concern about their health, well-being, and productivity. (Aldana, 2021). Notably, the reduction of obesity rates holds the potential to avert 40 million instances of chronic diseases, encompassing hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular ailments. (Milken Institute Study, 2022) Therefore, maintaining a healthy body weight or shedding excess pounds is crucial to reduce the risk of developing these. As a …

Accessiblehomepro As An Educational Intervention: Preparing Occupational Therapy Students To Perform Home Safety Assessments, Laryn O'Donnell

Theses and Dissertations

The growing aging population of the United States urges occupational therapy practitioners to address the population's home safety needs. However, current occupational therapists need more resources and education to conduct comprehensive home safety evaluations. This study employed a pretest-posttest mixed methods design using occupational therapy students (n=17) to investigate the potential of AccessibleHomePRO as an educational intervention to enhance OT student knowledge of home safety assessments, perceived knowledge, which is known as the belief in your level of knowledge, and self-efficacy, which refers to the confidence in completing a task. AccessibleHomePRO (AHP) is a novel multifaceted assessment that leverages artificial …

Content And Context: Objective Formation In Fyc Activity Systems, Peter Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

Context is key. We as First Year Composition (FYC) teachers focus on context when teaching the rhetorical situation as a reading and writing tool. Contexts influence the systems we teach within as well as how and why we teach, and determine students’ experiences and perspectives as writers. A required course, FYC acts as a contextual nexus: we help students bridge high school writing to college writing; we assign more generalized essays and research papers to prepare students for more discipline-specific genres in advanced writing courses; and we have activities that (un)intentionally develop “soft skills” in preparation for upper level courses …

The Journey Towards Educational Equity, Jocelyn Ann Sulsberger

Theses and Dissertations

This single case, qualitative study takes a critical lens in examining the creation of educational equity for students labeled with a dis/ability. Research has shown a detrimental effect of inequities among historically marginalized students for over 50 years, both from an academic lens as well as societal impact. For this research, one site, identified as utilizing Integrated Comprehensive Systems (ICS) for Equity as their approach, was studied. ICS for Equity is an approach to providing services to students within the school setting regardless of the presence (or absence) of a label, allowing for academic success in heterogeneous learning environments, versus …

An Analysis Of Secondary Mathematics Teacher Learning In The Midwest Master Teacher Partnership, Jenny Lynn Sagrillo

Theses and Dissertations

This case study investigates the professional learning and changes in teaching practices and leadership of four experienced, mid-career secondary mathematics teachers as a result of participation in the Midwest Master Teacher Partnership, a professional development partnership between a research university and a large, urban school district. The design of the professional development was based primarily on teacher action research; it placed the teacher at the center of the learning experiences, and included considerations of teachers’ existing knowledge, contexts, community, and assessment.The primary research question is, “How have teachers’ practices changed through their participation in a practice-based professional development project?” To …

Exploring Levels Of Autism Symptom Support After Eligibility Determinations, Zachary Bella

Theses and Dissertations

The identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) occurs in educational and health settings. Many children with autism will only receive a classification of autism in the educational setting (Esler et al., 2022, Pettygrove et al., 2013, Wiggins et al., 2020). There is significant overlap between the early intervention offered to children with autism in health settings and what is provided through Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) (National Autism Center, 2009; Morset et al., 2010). However, there is an increasing trend of children with autism being classified with significant developmental delay (SDD) instead of autism initially in schools and the impact of …

From Antiracism To Abolition: The Role Of University Culture Centers In Black Students' Academic Identities And Language, Kristin Demint Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on focus group, interview, and participant-observer data collected as part of this IRB-approved [19.177] qualitative research project, this dissertation provides insights about how Black American students develop academic identities through coursework and extracurricular involvement in a Black culture center on the campus of a historically white institution (HWI). I apply the lens of “abolitionist education” (Love) to explore the languaging that students and faculty in the Black culture center do to create community and racial uplift in a type of institution where racial identity historically has been marginalized and obscured—and where, the collected data indicate, such occlusion continues despite …

Mobilizing Resources: Towards A Transnational Orientation In The Composition Classroom, Gitte Frandsen

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present two studies on transnational, multilingual undergraduate students which focus on students’ rich, complex communication patterns across contexts. First, I examine the linguistic, literate, rhetorical, and cultural resources they deploy to make meaning across non-academic contexts as they take care of everyday tasks, navigate different linguistic and cultural landscapes, build relationships, and broker meaning for others. Next, I explore how the students mobilize their multiple resources and strategies to learn, write, and co-construct meaning with others in academic contexts. I discuss how these strategies are often constrained by English Only discourses and policies in the classroom …

Early Childhood Coursework In The Preparation Of Teacher Candidates For Linguistically And Culturally Diverse Students, Jesus Castellon

Theses and Dissertations

The continual growth of linguistically and culturally diverse students in schools proposes a challenge for teachers to address their academic and linguistic needs. Therefore, it is important to note the preparation of new teachers to address these needs. The purpose of this study is to explore what teacher candidates understand about teaching in linguistically diverse settings. This study reviewed the coursework understanding of three teacher candidates as they progressed through a teacher education program. Coursework was analyzed and coded using the framework of knowledge, skills, and dispositions (KSD’s) to investigate what teacher candidates understood. Commonalties and differences between teacher candidates’ …

Parent-Focused Interventions, Family Need, And Family Adjustment For Parents Of Children With Autism, Sara Alexandria Carse

Theses and Dissertations

Children with autism often have disability-specific deficits such as delays in communication and social interaction, restricted interests, rigid thinking patterns, repetitive behaviors, atypical responses to sensory experiences, and challenging behaviors (Balbouni et al., 2016; Bishop et al., 2012; Chistol et al., 2017; Anixt et al., 2018). As a result, parents of children with autism face unique challenges compared to parents of neurotypical children and report high levels of stress, especially towards their child’s challenging behaviors (Stadnick et al., 2017). Parent stress has been shown to cause dysfunction in family adjustment (Keen et al., 2010). Families may seek child-focused or parent-focused …

Toward A Cultural Rhetorics Praxis Of Care For Digital Storytelling Projects About Reproductive Justice, Danielle Marie Koepke

Theses and Dissertations

Recent events have drawn national attention to the fight for reproductive rights. However, Black women, Indigenous women, Women of Color, and LGBTQ+ people have long been fighting for reproductive justice, which connects reproductive rights to issues like immigration rights, fair wages, housing, quality education, and safe neighborhoods. There has also been a shift towards reproductive justice scholarship in rhetoric and writing studies. This dissertation focuses on the efforts and experiences of the Promotores de Salud, Latinx health promoters working for reproductive justice in Wisconsin. By constellating rhetorics of reproductive justice, cultural rhetorics, and queer and feminist scholarship, this dissertation builds …

Subjective Excess: Aesthetics, Character, And Non-Normative Perspectives In Serial Television After 2000, Jessica Sellin-Blanc

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to fill gaps in contemporary television scholarship with regards to aesthetics and character subjectivity. By analyzing eight series that have all aired after 2000, there is a marked trend in series that use an excessive visual and aural style to not only differentiate themselves from other programming, but also to explore non-normative perspectives. Now more willing to explore previously taboo topics such as mental health, addiction, illness, and trauma, the shows featured in this dissertation show how a seemingly excessive televisual aesthetic works with television’s seriality to create narrative complexity and generate character development. Chapters are arranged …

Dancing Bees, Singing Whales. The Impact Of Idiosyncratic Information On Children’S Attitudes Toward And Moral Reasoning About Animals, Vittoria Sipone

Theses and Dissertations

Research in conservation psychology suggests that the tendency to engage in conservation behaviors develops from the interplay of both knowledge of and affinity toward nature (Schmitz & Rocha, 2018; Berenguer, 2007). The present study explores this connection between knowledge and attitudes by investigating the impact of information on individuals' attitudes and care toward animals. This study focuses on knowledge in the form of idiosyncratic information, due to considerations of potential cognitive strengths as well as the pervasiveness of “fun facts” in everyday life. Idiosyncratic information about natural items is not likely to be found in science textbooks at grade-school level, …

Breaking Glass: A Pedagogical Approach To Understanding Voice In Media, Casey James O'Ceallaigh

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to examine the remediation of voices in media, specifically focusing on the reproduction of voices across different genres and the pedagogical approaches used to teach writing and media literacy. Much of the extant media is created with practices that historically have excluded minority groups, such as people with disabilities and people who speak other languages in addition to English in the US. This project develops a theory of interstices, which are both physical and metaphorical spaces in genres that can become sites of intervention through the composition process. These interstices are burdened by their many complex relationships …

Evaluating Classifiers During Dataset Shift, Corey Fritsch

Theses and Dissertations

Deployment of a classifier into a machine learning application likely begins with training different types of algorithms on a subset of the available historical data and then evaluating them on datasets that are drawn from identical distributions. The goal of this evaluation process is to select the classifier that is believed to be most robust in maintaining good future performance, and then deploy that classifier to end-users who use it to make predictions on new data. Often times, predictive models are deployed in conditions that differ from those used in training, meaning that dataset shift occurred. In these situations, there …

Educational Environments And Children's Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviors, Nathan R. Tokarek

Theses and Dissertations

Children and adolescents spend the majority of their day engaged in sedentary behaviors (SB), while also not meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations. The failure to develop and maintain health enhancing behaviors from a young age may impact an individual throughout their life. With children and adolescents spending a large proportion of their waking hours in a school setting, the educational environment presents an opportunity in which children and adolescents’ PA and SB can be positively influenced. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to explore how children and adolescent’s school time PA and SB are associated with the educational setting, …

Student Perception Of Teacher Response To Student Emotion: Associations With Academic Functioning, Cassandra Marie Matejka

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTSTUDENT PERCEPTION OF TEACHER RESPONSE TO STUDENT EMOTION: ASSOCATIONS WITH ACADEMIC FUNCTIONING

by Cassandra M. Matejka The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2022 Under the Supervision of Professor Dr. Kyongboon Kwon

Due to the increased awareness that emotions have on student outcomes within the classroom setting, gaining insight on the emotional socialization process within the classroom setting may lead to continued improvements within the social-emotional learning curricula in the school environment. The goal of this study was to examine the relation between a teacher’s emotion socialization practices and their student’s academic functioning. Specifically, student perceptions of their teacher’s supportive and unsupportive responses …

Curriculum Adaptations To Teach For Creativity Using A Published Language Arts Curriculum, Barbara T. Prendergast

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine a published language arts curriculum, determine how Anna Craft’s possibility thinking framework could be integrated into the curriculum, and then observe how students responded to the implementation of lessons integrating the elements of possibility thinking. The findings revealed that a teacher can use the possibility thinking elements to encourage creativity while still teaching the objectives of a published curriculum. Creativity development can be encouraged by using a variety of supports that build possibility thinking. The data demonstrated a connection between life experiences and the curriculum through possibility thinking. The …

Impacting Positive Breastfeeding Attitudes Of Prelicensure Nursing Students Using An Evidence-Based Breastfeeding Module, Stephanie D. Uhr

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Robust evidence demonstrates optimal breastfeeding behaviors provide unmatched short- and long-term health outcomes. Therefore, breast milk feeding is more than a feeding decision; it is a significant public health concern. Breast milk is species-specific nutrition for a developing infant. The health impact of providing breastmilk extends to the lactating parent. However, the existing breastfeeding education is often inadequate to support the care of the breastfeeding dyad. The dissertation examines the role breastfeeding plays in prelicensure nursing education and analyzes the use of an evidence-based breastfeeding educational module (EBBM) on breastfeeding attitudes.Method: An integrative review analyzed the current state of …

New Engineers’ Perceptions Of Their Transition To Practice, Todd Southern

Theses and Dissertations

The transition from student to engineering practice is complex, ambiguous, and critical for new engineers. New engineers are typically moving from a highly structured curriculum into a highly unstructured work environment, making it essential to understand new engineers’ perceptions and experiences throughout the transition to practice. This understanding can help improve the development of new engineers and the organizations that will benefit by supporting them. Given the relatively incomplete understanding of new engineers’ transition to practice experiences, the goal of this study was to explore how new engineers perceived their transition to practice throughout their first two years as professional …

Impact Of Teacher Cognition On The Implementation Of Social- Emotional Learning Practices For El Students, Madeline Bliske

Theses and Dissertations

There is a well-established achievement and graduation rate gap between English Learner (EL) students and their monolingual English-speaking peers (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). The current study focuses on teacher cognition and characteristics that may impact the likelihood that they will implement culturally and linguistically sustaining (CLS) social-emotional learning (SEL) practices for EL students within their classroom. Specifically, I descriptively analyze whether personal, professional, or school characteristics are associated with teachers’ perception of EL students SEL competencies or implementation of CLS SEL practices. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), I evaluate whether teacher cognition (i.e., behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, …

An Investigation Of Personal And Professional Secondary Traumatic Stress Predictors In Urban School Personnel, K. Leigh Monahan

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the high rates of exposure to potentially traumatic events in childhood, educators may experience high levels of indirect trauma exposure that can lead to adverse consequences, such as Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). STS is a potential “constellation of symptoms that may run parallel to those of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) including symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, arousal, and emotional numbing” (Molnar et al., 2017, p. 130). However, STS remains understudied in the school personnel population. This quantitative survey study explored to what extent a set of professional (i.e., supervisor support, colleague support, trauma-informed practices professional development, professional role) and …

Transformative Social Emotional Learning: Bridging The Gap Between Teacher Preparation And Student Learning, Jennifer N. Slaughter

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the practices and perceptions of educators implementing a schoolwide SEL curriculum. This study sought to identify aspects that promote and prevent effective SEL programming in schools by answering the following questions: How do educators implement SEL curriculum in a diverse school setting? How do educators’ understandings and beliefs about SEL impact schoolwide program implementation? and What transformative qualities of educators’ knowledge and practices emerge in the examination of their beliefs about SEL? The data for this study was collected through a survey and semi-structured interview with three participants. Three key …

What's Holding Them Back? The Different Voices Of The Adolescent Treble Singer, Genevieve Michels

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent treble singers in choir programs are often overlooked due to their higher numbers compared to non-treble voices. While physically present, treble voiced students at the high school of study, consistently demonstrated lower volume and lighter tone production compared to their non-treble voiced counterparts. This mixed methods research was based on the question: what causes the treble singer to hold back their volume/tone during a choral rehearsal? Literature revealed four areas to consider: singing confidence, voice change, self-confidence, and social influences, which became the basis for a quantitative survey given to sixty-three students across age and grades. Students who "agreed” …