Education Commons^™

Students Vs. Suspects: A Qualitative Examination Of Stereotype Threat And The Impact On Behavior Of Black Males, Ryan J. Williamson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This qualitative study focused on the impact of stereotype threat on the behavior of black males in the educational system. Black males currently involved in the juvenile justice system were interviewed about their lived experiences in the educational system. The literature surrounding stereotype threat focuses on academic achievement and performance. It provides spaces in the potential of stereotype threat impacting behavior.

Stereotype threat argues that individuals will confirm a self-characteristic which supports a negative stereotype associated with a specific group within society (Spencer et al., 2016). In theory, people will underperform based on a preconceived notion of failure. If a …

Grading And Equity: Inflation/Deflation Based On Race, Gender, Socio-Economic And Disability Statuses When Homework And Employability Scores Are Included, Robert Thomas Griffin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding if traditional high school grading practices provide equitable outcomes for students particularly when homework and employability points based on participation, behavior, and attendance are included in the grading structures. With a strong movement of schools starting to use standards-based grading practices one of the purposes of this study is to learn how traditional grading practices potentially contribute to our equity concerns in society. Furthermore, this study illustrates how standardized grading practices, focusing strictly on student achievement may or may not provide more equitable grading outcomes for students of differing race, …

Where Was I?: Engagement Strategies For Students With Attention Deficit Disorders, Brenna L. Herrmann

Honors Program Theses

Throughout my time in the elementary classroom I have been flooded with instances where my cooperating teacher or I, myself, have struggled with students who are inattentive or disruptive during class. This not only makes it difficult for that specific student to learn, but also has the possibility of preventing others from learning. My most memorable experience of teaching students like this has been with a brilliant student who was clinically diagnosed and medicated for the hyperactive subset of attention deficit disorders, more well-known as ADHD. The following thesis is the research and creation of strategies to help teach students …

Education Inequity: A Comparative Analysis Of Johannesburg And Chicago City Schools, Melissa Marie Johnson

Honors Program Theses

Variances in the quality of education between schools in the same metropolitan areas have been noted around the world, and researchers have speculated on several causes. In order to study the specific impacts of funding gaps, lower numbers and qualifications of teachers, and lack of resources for students learning English, the cities of Johannesburg and Chicago were compared and contrasted. Both cities contained areas with very high quality schools and isolated neighborhoods where schools generally had fewer resources and lower test scores. This research shows that the problems in both cities mirror one another to an extent. Schools systems in …

A Book Club For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Elizabeth Ann Kosmicki

Honors Program Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social communication and interaction, as well as repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities. Individuals with ASD are also known to struggle with reading comprehension. Difficulties in social communication and interaction may lead to depression, while poor literacy skills may result in unemployment and poverty. Because book clubs target social communication and interaction, as well as reading comprehension, they may be beneficial for individuals with ASD. Indeed, some evidence already exists to support this belief. Through literature review of book clubs in general, currently existing book clubs and information on …

Inclusion: Learning Without Barriers, Amy Lois Bucciferro

Honors Program Theses

This study analyzes the literature that has been written about inclusive education and the effect on students in the classroom and compares the information in the literature to three interviews with mothers who have had experiences with inclusive classrooms. Inclusive education is defined as the concept that students with disabilities, regardless of the nature and extent of their disability, should be educated with age-appropriate peers in regular classrooms (with needed supplementary aids and services) in the neighborhood school (Gartner, 2002). The main focus in this study is to examine how the parents view the learning of their child and how …

How Inclusion Is Defined And Implemented In Elementary Classrooms, Bailey Jo Wright

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the various interpretations of inclusion and how we can implement it to a greater and more successful degree in elementary schools. Individuals with disabilities are discriminated against in many education systems, where additionally the law is not being upheld. This thesis provides an accessible, coherent framework for practicing teachers and future educators to gain a better understanding of the definitions of inclusion, the barriers they may encounter, and the best practices to guide them towards inclusive success.

They, Those, And Other Pronouns Used To Describe Them: A Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experiences Of The African American Girls In The Girls To Women Group, Amber Nicole Boyd

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

African American girls are more likely to experience social barriers in a society that values White over Black, men over women, and wealth over poverty. They are more likely to encounter race, class, and gender discrimination in classrooms, curriculum, and pedagogy putting them at grave risk of school failure. Notwithstanding the deficit research approach, African American girls are invisible in both social theory and educational research. Their virtual absence from existing research is the catalyst for this autoethnographic study of the lived experiences of African American girls in the Girls to Women group at an urban high school. In this …

Swpbis, Behavior Patterns, And The Discipline Gap, Sean Christopher Austin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The goal of this study was to examine to what extent the discipline gap is present in a school implementing school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) and to examine whether students of different ethnicities are reported disproportionately for different types of behavior. Eight years of reported problem behavior (RPB) data from one elementary school were collected and analyzed both descriptively and statistically. In order to reflect the population proportionately, the presence of the discipline gap was examined using the average number of RPBs per student per year by ethnicity. Results indicate that there was no statistically significant difference between …

Literacy, Autism, And Inclusion, Bridgett L. Hodges

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Young children with significant developmental disabilities can be taught sophisticated literacy skills and many interventions have been shown effective in the research. However, there is a lack of research that looks at the effect of inclusion on literacy with respect to a single student. This study will investigate the influence of an inclusive, general education classroom on the literacy learning of a student with autism. A participant observer approach will be employed in order to collect the following data: in depth interviews and observations of a single individual over a fifteen hour period, and a qualitative case study design will …

A Comparison Of Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Sexual Minority Students And Issues In Schools With And Without Gay Straight Alliances, Kelli Ranae Otis Brus

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' attitudes toward sexual minority students (including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students) and issues related to this population of students. A sample of 166 high school teachers from schools with and without gay-straight alliances (GSAs) were compared on several measures to determine if teachers from schools with GSAs were significantly more supportive toward sexual minority students and issues than teachers in schools without GSAs .. Participants completed research packets containing the Professional Attitude Index Scale (PAIS) (Sears, 1992), a hypothetical situation of homophobia in a classroom for participants to provide …

Speech Recognition: The Interpretation Of Training And Using Speech Recognition Software From The Perspectives Of Postsecondary Students With Learning Challenges, Delann Soenksen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examined the utilization of speech recognition programs by five college students with learning difficulties. A qualitative approach was implemented over the course of two semesters, Fall 2003 and Spring 2004, to: (a) ascertain students' perspectives on speech recognition, and (b) understand how students used speech recognition programs as a tool to meet the academic demands of postsecondary education. Data collection for this study included interviews, participant observations, field notes, videotape, and course assignments. This study provided qualitative data regarding an assistive technology tool that has traditionally been studied within a quantitative paradigm. Environment, individual characteristics, and life demands …

Opportunity And Access For Children With Disabilities In The Inclusive Preschool Classroom, Jodi Meyer-Mork

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In this qualitative case study, I investigated how one teacher provided opportunity and access to full classroom participation for children with disabilities in the inclusive preschool classroom over two academic years. The site was a state-funded preschool program for children considered at risk for school failure. The principle participants included a preschool teacher with more than 22 years of experience and ten preschoolers identified with mild to moderate disabilities. In this naturalistic inquiry (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003), data were collected through participant observation over two academic years. Primary data sources included descriptive and analytic field notes as well as formal …

Are Learning Disabilities Discovered Or Constructed: The Unintended Consequences And Failures Of Realism As The Philosophical Basis Of Learning Disabilities Theory, Nicole C. Buhl

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

The historical and current conceptualization of learning disabilities was analyzed in terms of its underlying assumptions and guiding paradigms. It was determined that since its beginning, the field of learning disabilities has been dominated by the traditional realist perspective under the mechanistic paradigm. It was argued that such a perspective is inadequate in the field of learning disabilities. A nonrealist perspective as part of a holistic paradigm was suggested as more appropriate for the conceptualization of learning disabilities.

Aggressive And Non-Aggressive Black Female Students: A Comparative Study Of Selected High School Characteristics, Walter Cunningham

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A major problem confronting education today is the at-risk student. In the opinion of some, the American school curriculum is a mirror of American society; and since our society had often oppressed the human potential and development of Black citizens, the school has done the same to many Black children. This writer was specifically concerned about the aggressive behavior of Black female students which places them more at-risk than the average Black student.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of Black female high school students during their 9-12th grade school experience who were involved in aggressive …

The Relationship Between Verbal-Performance Iq And Locus Of Control Among Students With Either A Learning Disability Or A Behavior Disorder, Rick J. Bagnall

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Locus of control is one psychological variable which can explain differences in how students deal with difficulties and how they explain these difficulties to themselves. Studies conducted with students who have emotional and behavioral problems have described them as having an external locus of control when compared to their peers (Kauffman, 1985; Morse, Cutler, & Fink, 1964).

In attempts to find identifying charateristics unique to behaviorally disordered students, research by Dean (1978), using emotionally handicapped children, determined that they had a significantly lower Verbal IQ mean than that obtained on the Performance IQ scale p<.01. The differences between Verbal and Performance IQs were not significant for learning disabled children.

The purpose of this study …

Teacher Beliefs And Attitudes Toward Students At Risk, Marlyce K. Holbach

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This descriptive study identified elementary, middle level, and high school teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward at risk students. The sample was drawn from three public schools that reflect the cultural and geographic diversity of school districts in a Midwestern state. All 84 regular classroom teachers from the selected schools participated in the investigation. Subjects completed a 100-question survey, developed by Phi Delta Kappa International, which assessed their beliefs and attitudes toward specific learning factors and behaviors of students, specific problems students confront outside of school, student abilities, and teaching strategies. Treatment included descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, and oneway analysis of …

Evaluation Of The Specific Learning Disabilities Program At The Floyd Elementary School, Thomas V. Daigle

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

For the school year 1973-1974, thirteen students at Floyd Elementary School were identified as having specific learning disabilities in grades one and two. They became the experimental group for this study. Another sixteen students in another elementary school in the same district at the same grade levels were also identified as having specific learning disabilities. This group did not have the benefit of a specific learning disabilities program in their school. These students comprised the control group for this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the specific learning disabilities program at Floyd in developing …