Education Commons^™

Change Bell Ringing And Mathematics: A High School Student Excursion Into Graph Theory And Group Theory, Kristi Carlson

Honors Theses

This unit was created as a way to introduce higher level mathematics concepts to advanced high school students. All five of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards are found in this unit. For most of the unit, students work within small groups

Salary Negotiation Strategies Of Female Administrators In Higher Education, Suzette Compton

Dissertations

The salary equity gap continues to exist, with men earning more on average for every dollar a woman makes. Research suggests that women's underdevelopednegotiation skills play a role in the continuation of the salary equity gap. Understanding the negotiation strategies and gendered communications traits women utilize may assist in enhancing their skills and in moving toward gender salary equity.

This study addresses the negotiation strategies and gendered communication traits of female administrators in higher education. Twenty-two women inadministrative positions in institutions of higher education in West Michigan were interviewed to determine the strategies they utilized when negotiating forsalary and other …

Higher Education Attorneys’ Perceptions Regarding Academic Freedom And Challenges To Academic Freedom, Manuel R. Rupe

Dissertations

Higher education attorneys have emerged in recent years as integral participants in the decision and policymaking processes within American higher educationinstitutions. The perceptions of higher education attorneys regarding academic freedom, including professorial, institutional, and student academic freedom, may significantly impact how higher education institutions respond to modern challenges to such freedom. Key challenges to academic freedom as identified in the literature were categorized into four groups for this study (a) judicial or governmental challenges, (b) internal or collegial challenges, (c) institutionalchallenges, and (d) outside or extra-institutional challenges.

An Internet-based survey was sent to higher education attorneys who subscribed to the …

A Study Of How Precursor Key Concepts For Organic Chemistry Success Are Understood By General Chemistry Students, Patrick Gerard Meyer

Dissertations

This study examines college student understanding of key concepts that will support future organic chemistry success as determined by university instructors. During four one-hour individual interviews the sixteen subjects attempted to solve general chemistry problems. A think-aloud protocol was used along with a whiteboard where the students could draw and illustrate their ideas. The protocols for the interviews were adapted from the Covalent Structure and Bonding two-tiered multiple choice diagnostic instrument (Peterson, Treagust, & Garnett, 1989) and augmented by the Geometry and Polarity of Moleculessingle-tiered multiple choice instrument (Furió & Calatayud, 1996). The interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and coded …

Professional Role Complexities And Job Satisfaction Of Collegiate Certified Athletic Trainers, Kirk Brumels

Dissertations

This study examined whether professional role complexities existed for certified athletic trainers (ATCs) employed at the collegiate level, and if so, what impact these role complexities had upon job satisfaction and intent to leave a current position or the profession. The amount and sources of role complexities were examined for collegiate ATCs who were employed in clinical, faculty, or joint appointment positions.

Potential for professional role complexities exist in any situation where multiple role obligations are present in the workplace. Professional role complexities for health care employees often manifest into tension, dissatisfaction, lack of energy or ambition, and decreased attention …

Teacher Quality And Teacher Preparedness In Public Secondary Schools: Evidence From Sass 1999-2000, Xuejin Lu

Dissertations

Resource equalization represents the historical and theoretical basis for American school finance and its ideals continue to dominate discussion and practice. During the last decade and a half, the national aspiration for equitable distribution of school finance resources has started a transformation into a derivative notion of adequacy. This equity policy derivative embraces the idea of sufficiency, which in turn implies a standard. The concept of educational adequacy has grown to mean the achievement of high absolute standards. Equity (equalization) theorists measure resource level on a relative basis; each student relative to all others. Adequacy adherents measure student achievement against …

Performance Evaluation Models For Strategic Decision-Making: Towards A Hybrid Model, Geraldina Villalobos Quezada

Dissertations

Performance management systems serve strategic, administrative, and developmental purposes; therefore, their role in an organization cannot be overestimated. As a function of this strategic role, different evaluation models have been developed and implemented by organizations: BSC, CIPP, TQM, Six Sigma, and AOP.

Following a review of current evaluation theory and practice models that focus on improving strategic decision-making in organizations, four research questions were developed that sought to identify the interrelationships, evaluation components, evaluation indicators, data collected to support the evaluation,evaluation implementation protocols, quantitative and qualitative analyses, outcomes, and critical factors of the BSC and CIPP models.

A multiple case …

The Effects Of Acute Exercise Of Plasma Volume Expansion In Men – Variations Of The Intensity/Duration Relationship, Christopher Matthew Gregory

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the exercise variables of intensity and duration in relation to PV expansion during an acute bout of exercise, when the total amount of work performed was kept constant. Six male subjects completed a maximal graded exercise test and three two-day experimental trials. During the experimental trials, each subject performed one of three exercise protocols on a cycle ergometer: 50% VO_2peak (60 minutes), 65% VO_2peak (45 minutes), and 80% VO_2peak (30 minutes). Measurements of hematocrit, hemoglobin, and serum albumin and total protein concentrations were obtained before exercise (BASE), immediately post-exercise …

Automotive Service Technology Intersectional Skills Proficiency Assessment, David L. Macquarrie

Dissertations

This dissertation focused on the creation and validation of a criterion referenced credentialing assessment of automotive service technicians' intersectional skills (ASTIS) proficiency. These intersectional skills are prerequisite and common to multiple job level tasks that an automotive service technician (AST) performs on the job. An assessment of the ASTIS was created to aid automotive technician employers in the evaluation of hiring prospective technician employees and is not duplicated by current certifications (e.g. ASE) as they do not uniquely assess these skills.

This dissertation focused on the ASTIS skills and the information an employer can obtain pertaining to a prospective employee's …

Fahrenheit 451: A Teacher's Guide, Jaclyn Shurmack

Honors Theses

This website is a resource for teachers to reference in order to help them understand and teach various aspects of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. First, Fahrenheit 451'is a great book to teach in the classroom. It presents many ideas that will cause students to think about the world around them. Some of these ideas include thinking on one's own and also questioning information that is presented to students. One aspect of Ray Brabury's Fahrenheit 451 looks at the idea of censorship in the world- In this futuristic tale, boob are burned rather than read and the censorship of various …

Teaching Pronunciation In High School Spanish Classes: A Focus On Vowels, Ellen Waisanen

Honors Theses

With the growing use of Spanish in the United States, it is increasingly valuable to have a knowledge of the language. Accurate pronunciation is an integral component of effectively speaking Spanish and attaining native-like mastery of the language, yet it is neglected by many high school teachers. For this reason, I chose to use my honors thesis project to emphasize accurate pronunciation and create a resource for teaching it more thoroughly. With this collection of notes and exercises, I hope to provide a foundation for high school Spanish teachers to highlight pronunciation in their classes. More specifically, I have focused …

The Effect Of Glycemic Indices And Timing Of Meal On Exercise To Fatigue, Amy Morrison Gyorkos

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe the influence of pre-carbohydrate feedings prior to exercise to fatigue. Five individuals performed a peak bike test and four experimental trials, separated by 7 days. Upon arrival, subjects ingested 1g of carbohydrates (CHO) for every kilogram of body weight (BW) of a high glycemic index meal (HGI) or a low glycemic index meal (LGI) prior to exercise to fatigue. Subjects waited 30- or 60-minutes following each test meal, totaling four experimental trials. The exercise regiment was consistent following each meal; 90 minutes cycling at 70% peak oxygen consumption (VO_{2peak …}

Effect Of The Cycle-Run Transition On Running Economy In Triathletes, James J. Swanson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of prior cycling on running economy (RE) during the running portion of a simulated Olympic distance triathlon. Six triathletes and one duathlete participated in four consecutive laboratory trials: (1) maximal treadmill tests, (2) independent 40km cycling trial (IC), (3) independent 10km treadmill running (IR) and (4) 40km cycling (TC) followed by a 10km treadmill run (TR). Pulmonary data were collected every minute using an automated breath-by-breath system and compared between the first and last ten minutes of each trial. The data showed a significant increase was seen in RE from …

Safer Schools: Promoting Safe Play On School Playground Equipment, Kimberly Elaine Seckinger

Masters Theses

Each year, over 200,000 people receive emergency room care for injuries sustained on recreational equipment, and a vast majority of these injuries involve children under the age of 15 who have been hurt on school playground equipment. To date, a single empirical study has been conducted applying behavioral technology to decrease children's risky behavior on playground equipment (Heck, Collins, & Peterson, 2001 ), and showed reductions in risk-taking behavior when programmed consequences were in place. The purposes of the current investigation were to replicate and extend previous research though a component analysis of an injury prevention package designed to decrease …

The Effects Of The Michigan Transition Outcomes Project, Jane E. Finn

Dissertations

This study investigated whether the Transition Outcomes Project used in Michigan resulted in improved compliance with the transition components required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 (IDEA 1997) and interviewed staff who have implemented this model to identify their perceptions ofhow it affected the transition planning process for students with disabilities. The study used qualitative and quantitative measures. The quantitative measures studied the effectiveness of the model, while the qualitative measures investigated the perceptions of the school personnel who implemented the model in their district.

Findings showed that the Michigan Transition Outcomes Project is an effective model …

The Practice Of Continuous Improvement In Higher Education, Deborah M. Thalner

Dissertations

Studies on the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) within higher education have primarily focused on the implementation of TQM as an institutional initiative. While TQM has been successful in business and industry and has seen some limited success in higher education, the most recent studies on its usein higher education indicate that it has not been successful institution-wide, and in many cases has been abandoned after two to three years. The problem, therefore, is one of a perceived need for continuous improvement in coupled with mixed results from previous attempts at implementation. This research study focused on higher education's …

Influence Of Social Group And Health/Exercise Program On Obesity Related Outcome Measures Among Obese Adolescents, Debra Braley

Masters Theses

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the influence of a health/exercise program and social group on fat mass, weight, circumference measurements and body image among obese adolescents. Eighteen adolescents, ages 12-15 years were randomly assigned into 3 groups of 6. The parent/youth group (PYG) had 3 female and 3 male Caucasian participants. The peer group (PG) consisted of 2 females and 1 male Caucasians and 3 African-American females. The control group (CG) had 4 females and 1 male Caucasians and 1 African-American female. Body composition, weight, circumference measurements, and self-report questionnaires (Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, MBSRQ) were …

The Learning Styles Of Health And Physical Education Students Using The Capsol Style Of Learning Assessment, Erin D. Palpant

Masters Theses

Students in a classroom all receive the information the same way, however, those students most likely learn and process information quite differently. Therefore the format in which it is received can make a large impact on the effectiveness of the instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of health and physical education students using the CAPSOL Styles of Learning Assessment. One hundred ten undergraduate PE students in the college of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) from Western Michigan University participated in this study during February 2005.

Frequencies and percentages were figured for the students …

Psychosocial Theories Of Development: Socializing Future Educators In Modernity, Jennifer Jill Niedzielski

Masters Theses

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the implicit curriculum of high-profile theories of identity and moral development as commonly found in collegiate-level educational psychology texts. My primary concern is the manner in which Erik Erikson's and Lawrence Kohlberg's theories of development implicitly convey modernistic frames of mind of the autonomous individual at a level that goes unnoticed. The manner in which the implicit curriculum socializes future educators to adopt the autonomous individual frame of mind is problematic for our natural world.

The aims of this paper are significant because they illuminate the notion of the autonomous individual as …

Introduction The Importance Of Mentee-Mentor Relationships: A Qualitative Study That Examines Students Of Color In Academic Settings, Candace Dixon

Masters Theses

Given the importance of mentoring, this study will explore mentor relationships in academic settings (Waldeck, Orrego, Plax, & Kearney, 1997). Participants were both undergraduate and graduate students with and without mentors. The goal of this thesis study was to understand whether students of color with formal mentors become more successful than similar students who do not have mentor relationships. This research also explored how students who lack formal mentors get important information. In addition, this study explored many differences between men and women of color who seek or utilize mentoring relationships. Mentor and mentee characteristics, students of color in formal …

High School Seniors’ Perceptions Of Career And Technical Education And Factors Influencing Their Decision To Attend An Area Career Technical Center, David P. Gaunt

Dissertations

This study explored the profile of CTE students with regard to their academic standing and their socioeconomic background, examined high school seniors'perceptions of career and technical education, and identified the people and other factors that influence students in their decision-making about CTE enrollment. A 29-question survey was administered to 451 seniors from seven public high schools served by the Wexford-Missaukee Area Career Technical Center, operated by an intermediate school district in northern lower Michigan.

Significant findings indicate that the typical profile of CTE students with respect to socioeconomic status and academic standing would identify a CTE student as performing somewhat …

The Persistence Of Adult Undergraduates On A Traditionally Oriented University Campus, Wendy Samuels

Dissertations

This phenomenological study describes the social and academic experiences of successful non-traditional students on the main campus of a traditionally oriented residential university and how these experiences promote or impede their persistence to graduation. The study determined what role family support, faculty support, institutional policy and services, and the classroom environment have in persistence of adult undergraduates. The methodology employed open ended individual interviews based on an interview outline. Participants in the study were all students within two traditional semesters of graduation, andthe sampling procedures were purposeful, yielding a fairly diverse pool of 15 participants. Trustworthiness of the data was …

Cognitive Orthotics For Students With Cognitive Disabilities, James V. Yanna

Dissertations

This study examined the effectiveness of a hand-held computer to guide an individual with a moderate cognitive impairment as he or she completed a complex daily living task. Performance was compared with that occasioned by a human supervisor. A third condition, assistance first from a human supervisor, and then by the computerized orthotic, was also evaluated. The task selected was a baking task.

Subjects were nine students, ranging in age from 17 to 24 years. All subjects were classified as cognitively impaired according to the Michigan Special Education Rules and Regulations. Assessment information showed most to be performing at a …

Examining The Keyword Mnemonic Strategy As An Effective Academic Intervention For High School Students Labeled Emotional Or Behavioral Disordered, Karen A. Kleinheksel

Dissertations

This investigation explored whether keyword mnemonic strategies were effective for high school aged students labeled emotional or behavioral disordered(E/BD) in recalling the definitions of scientific vocabulary terms. Ten students labeled E/BD from a suburban public high school in a Midwestern state participated in this investigation. A demographic description of the subjects indicated the following information: (a) all students' ethnicities were Caucasian, (b) sixty percent of the subjects were male, (c) the average subject's age was 17 years 1 month, and (d) all students were in the tenth through twelfth grades.

In a multiple baseline across subjects design using a single …

Understanding Photosynthesis And Plant Cellular Respiration As “Nested Systems”: The Characterization Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptions, Mary H. Brown

Dissertations

This dissertation project focused on pre-service elementary teachers' conceptions of the plant processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration as being connected, occurring at multiple ecological levels, and working within "nested systems." Participants enrolled in a biology course designed for elementary education majors provided their views of the processes through a series of tasks with a peer, a semi-structured interview, and clarified both photosynthesisand plant cellular respiration directly following classroom instruction on the two topics. The instructor of the course was interviewed after a preliminary analysis of the participants' responses. Data were analyzed using the qualitative analysis computer program The Ethnograph …

Meaningful Learning: Reconciling The Tensions Between Constructivist And Environmentally Sustainable Pedagogy, Nancy Van Kannel-Ray

Dissertations

Critics of constructivism argue, in many ways correctly, that this approach to education is culturally and environmentally damaging because constructivism may not develop an understanding of the interdependence between the human community and the world in which people live. Advocates for environmentally sustainable pedagogy argue the importance of understanding patterns of thinking that allow communities to live sustainably. The purpose of this study is to resolve the tensions between the two pedagogical frameworks: constructivism and environmental sustainability.

The tensions are resolved in two ways. First, there are forms of constructivism that align in viable ways with the criteria critics argue …

School Counselors' Perceptions About Female Participation In Non-Traditional Secondary Career And Technical Education (Cte) Programs, Rashida Khatoon Malik

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine high school counselors' perceptions of female participation in nontraditional secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. The data for this study was collected from high school counselors in Michigan by sending them a survey containing 25 items. The first section of the survey covered the demographics of the participants. The second section consisted of eight belief statements about counseling femalestudents into nontraditional CTE programs. The third section of the survey had 12 belief statements about female participation in CTE nontraditional programs. The survey responses were based on five-point Likert scales. The belief …

Impact Of Standards On Physical Education Teacher Education: Curriculum, Collaboration, And Learning Outcomes, Xiangren Yi

Dissertations

Standards are sweeping across the physical education teacher education field. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether national standards had influenced a change of curriculum, and whether curriculum changes were related to standards, individual or institutional variables. The analysis will also identify whether there are any individual and institutional characteristics that are significant predictors for determining curriculum. This study's targeted participants are a random sample of 110 program directors working in institutions that have a Physical Education Teacher Education program.

Differences were found to exist in directors' perceptions regarding curriculum. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA analysis demonstrated the impact …