Education Commons^™

Student Connection: How Graduate Assistants Of Rowan University Connect To The Campus Community, Janelle R. M. Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how graduate assistants at Rowan University, Glassboro campus connect to the campus community using socialization theory. Data collection consisted of interviews of 10 randomly selected first and second year graduate students during the 2006-07 academic school year. The interviews were conducted at Rowan University during the spring 2007 semester. On average the interviews took about 25 minutes to conduct. Participants were interviewed to see how the graduate assistants felt about graduate school and their programs of study. Interviews were transcribed into a word document and then analyzed for common themes.

The study …

Do Parents' Literacy Beliefs And Home Literacy Experiences Relate To Children's Literacy Skills?, Rebecca C. Norman

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship among parents' literacy beliefs, home literacy experiences, and children's literacy skills. Forty-three children, who attended a university preschool, and their parents participated in the study. Parents' literacy beliefs and the home literacy experience, namely shared book reading, were examined through a self-report questionnaire. One important section of this questionnaire provided information about parents' beliefs concerning literacy acquisition; specifically, whether they believed in a top-down or bottom-up approach. The children were tested individually for emergent literacy skills, including concepts of print, alphabetic knowledge, rhyming skills, oral language skills, word recognition, and invented spelling. The results were …

A Corpus-Based Approach To Determining Standard American English, Delys Ann Waite Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

Many teachers, test designers, textbook writers, and instructional designers turn to books written by usage experts to determine what is correct standard written American English. Unfortunately, though, experts often disagree about what is correct and what is incorrect, and this disagreement can create problems with validity when people create and assess instruction about usage. One way to discover the rules of standard English usage is to describe what writers actually do in printed, edited English. Researchers can access large collections of standard English through digital text archives, which can be searched electronically. The text archives for this study were taken …

When West Meets East: Communicative Language Teaching In China, Rong Li

Theses and Dissertations

With radical social change and educational reform taking place in China since 1976, the English teaching system there has been changing accordingly. The Chinese Traditional Method (CTM) is giving way to the Western Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. This research is a study of both Chinese and expatriate English teachers who are involved in classrooms and affected by reforms. The goal of this research study is to identify the extent to which Chinese and expatriate English teachers use CLT in China, to discover the possible factors that prevent them from using CLT and to explore an English teaching method that …

The Role Of Inspiration In Scientific Scholarship And Discovery: Views Of Theistic Scientists, Kari Ann O'Grady

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study examined the ways those who identify themselves as theistic scientists and scholars experience inspiration, as defined as divine guidance or influence, in their scientific scholarship and discovery. It also explored participants' beliefs about how scientists and scholars can seek and prepare to receive inspiration in their work. Open-ended surveys of 450 participants from the behavioral and natural sciences and from a variety of religious backgrounds were analyzed for content themes in the areas of experiences with inspiration, preparing to receive inspiration, and further thoughts on inspiration in science. The themes extracted indicated that these scientists and …

Women's Perceptions Of Parents, Peers, Romantic Partner And God As Predictive Of Symptoms Severity Among Women In Treatment For Eating Disorders At An Inpatient Facility, Samuel B. Tobler

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined whether perceptions of parents, peers, romantic partners and God were predictive of eating disorder symptom severity among women in treatment for eating disorders. The sample included 417 women (ages 12 to 56 years) at an inpatient treatment facility for eating disorders. Participants completed a battery of assessment measures at intake and discharge. Change scores were also computed on all measures. Measures included indices of eating disorder symptomology, parental relationships, peer relationships, romantic partner relationships, and religious well-being. Multiple regression analysis showed perceptions of peers and romantic partner to be significant predictors in all analyses; however perceptions …

Existing Practice And Proposed Changes In Cognitive Assessment Of Utah Students Identified As Deaf And Hard Hearing, Leah Voorhies

Theses and Dissertations

This study presented the past, current, and proposed practice of intelligence testing with a unique population, students identified as deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH). As a basis for describing the cognitive ability of Utah's D/HH students and to improve practice guidelines, 61 D/HH students served by Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) were administered the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) standard battery and the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV). Based on these data, composite score distributions were described and compared with national standardization samples. Participants' WISC-IV PRI …

Description Of The Trio/Upward Bound Students' Construction Of Vocations Using George Kelly's Rep Test Method, Maraia Sokia Weingarten

Theses and Dissertations

The Information Age is revolutionizing the way we communicate, acquire knowledge, and perform work. Society is shifting from occupations rooted in industrial production to those associated with knowledge and information, requiring the development of new skills for changing occupations and updating old educational methods. Educators need to be aware of economic and social changes and have a vision for how to design career education to respond to those changes. Individuals must also be prepared to learn on their own as careers evolve and change. The training necessary to adapt to the changing career culture needs to be made available to …

An Evaluation Of Compatibility, Effectiveness, Utility, And Implementation Of Plagiarism-Detection Software Operating In The Honor Code Environment At Brigham Young University, George Louis Joeckel

Theses and Dissertations

Turnitin plagiarism-detection software was operating as a pilot program conducted by the Center for Teaching and Learning in Winter 2007 on the Brigham Young University (BYU) campus. A sample of 6 instructors and 79 student users participated in this evaluation. The evaluation findings show that Turnitin is compatible with the academic honesty environment created by BYU's Honor Code. Turnitin has been effective at detecting intentional and inadvertent plagiarism at BYU. It has also addressed the problem of multiple submissions of the same material. Recommendations are made for promoting Turnitin at the campus and department level. Training tools are proposed for …

Dreamwork With Children: Perceptions And Practice Of School-Based Mental Health Professionals, Rosalia Rodriguez Huermann

Theses and Dissertations

Forty nine public school mental health practitioners (i.e., school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers) completed a survey about working with dreams when counseling students. Most practitioners in this sample reported having at least one student bring up dreams during counseling and spent some time in counseling working with students' dreams. Practitioners addressed dreams more frequently in situations where the student was having troubling dreams or nightmares, and/or was dealing with death and grief. They also acknowledged working with dreams with students who were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, were emotionally disturbed, suffered from recurrent dreams, were depressed, …

An Evaluation Of A Student Response System Used At Brigham Young University, Coral Marie Hanson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is two fold: (a) to evaluate the technology (hardware and software) of the student response system (SRS) used at Brigham Young University (BYU) and (b) to evaluate which instructional methods being used with the SRS students' feel are most helpful. In the past, the student response systems supported by BYU have not fully met the needs of professors and problems with the systems have limited professors' uses of the SRS. Ten professors were randomly selected to participate in the evaluation using a stratified random sampling technique. The data collection methods consisted of classroom observations, interviews …

A 17-Year Longitudinal Study Of Spiritual Development And Psychological Correlates In A Sample Of College Students, Jeremy Daniel Bartz

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, 1987 and 2001 data were collected on a religiously devout group of college students in an effort to better understand the process of religious development and the relationship between religiosity and mental health. This study analyzes that data by examining the stability of two different religious development styles that were identified in 1984, the stability of religious motivations over the course of adulthood, and the relationship between devoutness and psychopathology. This study found that (a) the religious developmental styles did not remain consistent from 1984 to 2001, (b) the participants' religious motivations remained stable over the course of …

A Study Of The Attitudes Of Selected African American Students Toward Leadership & Black Greek Letter Organizations, Elora L. Crump

Theses and Dissertations

The participants in this study consisted of 76 African-American students at Rowan University in the spring 2005 semester. The purpose of the study was to replicate the research of Kimbrough (1995) exploring the attitudes of two groups of selected African American students regarding the impact of Black Greek organizations on the development of personal leadership. Subjects completed a survey indicating their level of leadership skills and activities, attitudes of Black Greek organizations and their leadership, along with demographic information. Members of Black Greek organizations (BGOs) and-non-members were compared to determine if there were attitudinal differences. The information collected from the …

Development Of The Characteristics Of Science Questionnaire (Csq): Assessing Student Knowledge Of The Utah State Secondary Science Core Intended Learning Outcome 6 On The Nature Of Science, Bradford N. Talbert

Theses and Dissertations

Teaching students about the nature of science is an important and necessary part of secondary science curricula. The Utah State Office of Education has provided specific guidelines called intended learning outcomes (ILOs) to teachers in the state. The ILOs are based on the national standards presented in the Project 2061 publications of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990 and 1993. The ILOs are not tied to any one scientific discipline such as biology or chemistry, but are intended as global statements describing what scientists do and how scientific knowledge is gained. ILO 6 prescribes that students …

Differential Item Functioning Analysis Of The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Jared Andrew Lees

Theses and Dissertations

Differential item functioning (DIF) is present when examinees who have the same level of a trait have a different probability of correctly answering a test item intended to measure that trait (Shepard & Averill, 1981). The following study is a DIF analysis of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), a preference profiling instrument developed by Herrmann International to help individuals identify their dominant preferences and then classify their level of dominance into four preference quadrants. Examinees who completed the American English version of the instrument were classified as the reference group and examinees of the International English version were classified …

Student-Athletes And Involvement Theory, Thomas F. J. Iacovone

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to better understand the level of involvement student athletes have at Rowan University. The researcher surveyed 99 student athletes at Rowan University during the 2006-2007 academic year. The subjects were administered a survey to measure their level of involvement, as well as their attitudes toward involvement at Rowan University. Surveys were statistically analyzed to determine frequency, percentages, means, standard deviations, and significant correlations between selected demographics and specific involvement activities.

The study provides insight on the relationship between student athletes' academic performance and their level of involvement, as well as insight on relationships between …

Diverse Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Congruity And Environment At A University, Effie J. Thacker

Theses and Dissertations

The Culturally Responsive Special Education/English as a Second Language (ESL) program was designed to assist students from diverse backgrounds in being academically successful in a large western private university. Utilizing the Cultural Congruity Scale (CCS) and University Environment Scale (UES), this study analyzed the perceptions of 28 students who are ethnically diverse and enrolled in the Culturally Responsive Special Education/ESL Program. The data will be used to evaluate the program's success in addressing the barriers that have historically kept students who are ethnically diverse from succeeding in higher education. Participating students completed CCS and UES surveys questioning their perceptions regarding …

Testing The Assumption Of Sample Invariance Of Item Difficulty Parameters In The Rasch Rating Scale Model, Joseph A. Curtin

Theses and Dissertations

Rasch is a mathematical model that allows researchers to compare data that measure a unidimensional trait or ability (Bond & Fox, 2007). When data fit the Rasch model, it is mathematically proven that the item difficulty estimates are independent of the sample of respondents. The purpose of this study was to test the robustness of the Rasch model with regards to its ability to maintain invariant item difficulty estimates when real (data that does not perfectly fit the Rasch model), polytomous scored data is used. The data used in this study comes from a university alumni questionnaire that was collected …

Syntactic Attrition In L2 Mandarin Speakers, Shu Pei Wang

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how syntactic skill was maintained or lost by L2 Mandarin Chinese learners over time. In addition, this study endeavored to discover how a learner's L1 affects the attrition process of word order in Mandarin Chinese. To find out how certain Chinese syntactic structures were subject to attrition over time and how syntactic errors could be attributed to L1 transfer, five types of Chinese syntax that either resembled English, were very different from English, or had no counterpart in English were selected. They included subject-verb-object sentences, modifiers before modified, time and other adverbial …

The Perceived Healthy Practices Of School Board Governance: Strategic Planning And Decision Making To Impact Student Achievement, Steven Todd Jordahl

Theses and Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of legislation of 2001 has impacted legal responsibilities school boards have in addressing best practices of governance as it relates to the impact on student achievement. NCLB suggests that school boards develop a governance structure, a decision-making model, and strategic planning exercises to support the achievement of all students. However, many school boards across the country still engage in practices that do not focus attention on achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if student achievement of selected Minnesota School Districts is impacted by the practices of school board governance. The …

Elementary School Administrator Technology Skills And Their Impact On Teacher Technology Integration Competencies, Jason Douglas Hornbacher

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the technology competencies of elementary school administrators and the technology integration competencies of teachers under their leadership. This study examined data from Phases V and VI, which were the last year and the year following the end of the North Dakota Teaching with Technology Initiative (ND TWTi).

The data collection tool was the Professional Competency Continuum (PCC) profile assessment. The data from this survey were preexisting and spanned from 1999 to 2006. ND TWTi provided technology training and support to North Dakota teachers and administrators. The PCC measured the …

Longitudinal Course Of Body Dissatisfaction In Undergraduate Females At Brigham Young University, Joy Wiechmann

Theses and Dissertations

This research project examined the longitudinal course of body dissatisfaction among undergraduate females at Brigham Young University (BYU) using the Body Satisfaction Questionnaire (BSQ).The research also examined what percentage of undergraduate females have BSQ ratings in the clinically significant range and whether body dissatisfaction ratings varied based on the environment in which the student lived. Results indicate that no significant change in body dissatisfaction occurred over time, nor did living environment appear to play a role in BSQ scores. Results also showed that at any given time over 34% of women on BYU campus have BSQ scores in the clinically …

The Relationship Between Family Composition And Social Behavior For Students With Mild Disabilities In Schools, Amanda Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research identifies significant differences in children's problem behavior across various family structures, particularly noting more challenging behaviors in children from single parent families. Utilizing a pre-existing data set of Behavioral Objective Sequence (BOS) scores, this study investigated teacher ratings of social behavioral skills in students with mild disabilities, focusing on differences between groups of students from a variety of family compositions. Results indicated no significant difference in social behavioral skills among children from different family groups, taking into account the student's age. The covariate of age was significant on each of six BOS subscales, suggesting that children develop and …

Trust Me, I'M The Principal! A New Conceptual Model Of Trust For Educational Leaders, Bryan W. Blair

Theses and Dissertations

The ultimate aim of this work is to contribute to the knowledge of how trust influences and relates to those practices that best support student development and growth as educated and productive citizens, prepared to share in our democratic society-which is the ultimate purpose of our schools (Dewey & Dewey, 1915). Specifically, this thesis investigates the role of trust in relationships between school principals and teachers. A comparative analysis of available literature was conducted using grounded theory methodologies to inform the development of a proposed conceptual model describing the role of trust in organizational processes within the school, specifically between …

Discovering The Derivative Can Be "Invigorating:" Mark's Journey To Understanding Instantaneous Velocity, Charity Ann Gardner Hyer

Theses and Dissertations

This is a case study using qualitative methods to analyze how a first semester calculus student named Mark makes sense of the derivative and the role of the classroom practice in his understanding. Mark is a bright yet fairly average student who successfully makes sense of the derivative and retains his knowledge and understanding. The study takes place within a collaborative, student-centered, task-based classroom where the students are given opportunity to explore mathematical ideas such as rate of change and accumulation. Mark's sense making of the derivative is analyzed in light of his use of physics, Mark as a visual …

The Effect Of Video Self-Modeling On The Compliance Rates Of High School Students With Developmental Disabilities, Jacob Ammon Aukai Figueira

Theses and Dissertations

People with developmental disabilities must develop the ability to maintain socially acceptable behavior in order to become contributing, accepted members of society at large. Research indicates that compliance, or following directions, is a keystone behavior, which, if learned, may significantly decrease the occurrence of behavior difficulties in students. Many studies of individuals with disabilities have shown a dramatic increase across a wide range of academic and social skills using video self-modeling (VSM), a technique in which students watch edited videos of themselves performing skills correctly or at high rates. Despite the importance of compliance for individuals with disabilities and the …

Teacher Perceptions Of The Social Validity Of The Peaceable Schools Model, Rachelle Marie Pieper

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the social validity of the Peaceable Schools model, which includes positive behavior support and social skills training. Data were collected through subjective evaluation using an open-ended survey given to teachers at two secondary schools. Results show that teachers perceived evidence of social validity in the areas of social significance, comprehensiveness, relevance, treatment integrity, and social acceptability. While weaknesses were also expressed in the areas of social acceptability, feasibility, and practicality, teachers perceived overall improvement in students' social skills and saw more strengths than weaknesses. Outcomes suggest that the Peaceable Schools model has …

Factors Contributing To The Shortage Of Speech-Language Pathologists In Utah Schools, Stephanie Harris

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined factors contributing to Utah's critical shortage of school-based speech-language pathologists. Specifically, this study focused on the following three constructs: (a) stress levels among professionals currently in the field, (b) attrition and the reasons professionals leave their positions, and (c) factors at the university level. Stress among Utah's speech-language pathologists was assessed using the Speech-Language Pathologist Stress Inventory (Fimian, Lieberman, & Fasteneau, 1991). Of the 230 potential participants, 97 completed and returned questionnaires. Results indicated that Utah's school-based speech-language pathologists experience less overall stress than a normative sample of speech-language pathologists throughout the United States; however, Utah's professionals …

Reliability Of Pre-Service Teachers Coding Of Teaching Videos Using Video-Annotation Tools, Brigham R. Dye

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher education programs that aspire to helping pre-service teachers develop expertise must help students engage in deliberate practice along dimensions of teaching expertise. However, field teaching experiences often lack the quantity and quality of feedback that is needed to help students engage in meaningful teaching practice. The limited availability of supervising teachers makes it difficult to personally observe and evaluate each student teacher's field teaching performances. Furthermore, when a supervising teacher debriefs such an observation, the supervising teacher and student may struggle to communicate meaningfully about the teaching performance. This is because the student teacher and supervisor often have very …

Evidence Supporting The Validity Of Inferences Required By The Intended Uses Of The Technology Integration Confidence Scale, Jeremy Michael Browne

Theses and Dissertations

Many teacher preparation programs provide opportunities for their preservice educators to gain the requisite technology integration skills and knowledge. However, they often ignore the dispositions that affect whether a teacher will actually use technology in the classroom. In an effort to address this oversight, the McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University developed the Technology Integration Confidence Scale (TICS). It was hoped the TICS could be used to (a) establish a baseline preservice teacher profile, (b) monitor the effects of curricular adjustments, (c) identify preservice teachers in most need of intervention, and (d) predict in-practice behavior. Although a pilot …