Education Commons^™

A Depiction Of Women In Tennessee With Low Literacy Skills And Their Access To Higher Education And Employment, Rebecca Puig

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This phase one study was conducted using qualitative research methods in order to describe to policymakers and local literacy program experts more completely the current challenges and needs some adult women in Tennessee with low-literacy skills face when pursing higher education or a professional career. In turn, such information can assist them in better identifying appropriate resources and interventions to serve these women.

Data were collected through a cross-case analysis of two individual case studies and five interviews with three adult learners and two literacy program experts. Artifacts (e.g., flyers) were also collected, but provided no substantial contribution to the …

Pragmatic Competence In Efl Context: Suggestions In University Office Hour Discourse, Hatime Ciftci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Office hour interactions at universities are one type of communicative activity in which international instructors and their Turkish EFL students are involved as a form of academic or institutional discourse (Drew & Heritage, 1992). In such real world communication, both parties employ several linguistic strategies and attend to various interactional goals to address the academic concerns at hand (Chiang, 2011; Chiang & Mi, 2008; Limberg, 2007; 2010; Reindhart, 2010; Skyrme, 2010). Embracing a discourse analytic approach, this study investigated the primary functions and topics of office hour interactions; discourse organization of office hour interactions with regard to the features of …

Novice Teachers' Stories Of Solving Problems Of Practice, Yvonne Franco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

National attention given to heightening the quality of educators, calls attention to the practices used by programs to prepare teachers (CAEP, 2013). The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) requires evidence novice teachers “apply the professional… skills and dispositions preparation experiences were designed to achieve” (p.13). Grounded in reflection, teacher inquiry serves as a pedagogical practice to prepare teachers to systematically learn from their problems of practice (Shulman, 1986; Yendol-Hoppey & Franco, 2014). Despite evidence teacher inquiry leads preservice teachers (PSTs) to focus on student learning with the goal of improving practice (Capobianco, 2007; Dawson, 2006; Taylor & …

Gatekeepers For Gifted Social Studies: Case Studies Of Middle School Teachers, Teresa Michelle Bergstrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a multiple case study of the ways middle grades social studies teachers, as curricular-instructional gatekeepers, may make decisions to provide their gifted students with purposeful differentiated instruction. More specifically, this study explores what teachers believe they should do to instruct gifted students, in what ways teachers prepare and adapt curriculum and instruction for gifted students, and how instruction for gifted learners can take place in a middle school social studies classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and supportive visual evidence, six middle grades (6-8) social studies teachers disclosed in what ways they differentiate their middle grades social studies …

#Networkedglobe: Making The Connection Between Social Media And Intercultural Technical Communication, Laura Anne Ewing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Preparing students of technical communication in the twenty-first century means training them to rhetorically utilize a wide variety of online tools. Technical communicators are now required to employ social media applications on a daily basis to communicate with clients, consumers, colleagues, and other organizations. These online modes have also opened the door to global communication wider and continue to present opportunities and challenges to technical communicators worldwide. Using Japan as a model, this dissertation sought to demonstrate a rhetorical exigency for teaching intercultural social media communication strategies to future technical communicators in the United States. The goal of this dissertation …

A Case Study Of Four Female Electrician Technicians In A Male-Dominated Occupation, Maniphone S. Dickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons the four female participants decided to pursue electrician technician training, their perspectives of the apprenticeship program, their perceptions of successful employment in a male-dominated occupation, and differences in treatment based on their gender. The exploratory questions that guided the study were: what led the females to make the decision for applying to the electrician technician apprenticeship; what was the nature of the education and training experiences of the participants in the electrician technician apprenticeship program, what were the participants’ perceptions of being successful in advancement within the workforce as a …

Modeling Alphabet Skills As Instructive Feedback Within A Phonological Awareness Curriculum, Arnold Olszewski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the use of instructive feedback for modeling early literacy skills. Instructive feedback is defined as the presentation of additional information during the positive feedback phase of learner trials. Thus, it is a way of modeling additional information when students respond to a trial correctly. Previous studies have demonstrated that instructive feedback can facilitate students’ observational learning of skills, such as sight words, numerals, and vocabulary. Instructive feedback has yet to be investigated when modeling early literacy skills.

A modified version of an evidence-based early literacy intervention, PAth to Literacy, was used. Studies examining the efficacy of …

An Investigation Of The Perceived Development Of The Life-Long Learning Skills Of Division I Student-Athletes, Andrew T. Goodrich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this investigation was to examine the perceived development of life-long learning skills of Division I student-athletes and their non-athlete general student peers. Using grade point averages and graduation rates, athletics administrators are constantly evaluating the academic performance and growth of student-athletes by comparing their results with those of non-athlete general students. Though these traditional metrics are useful in many ways, there is little research on the self-reported development of life-long learning skills.

Due to a changing global economy, employers are less concerned with the knowledge students possess at graduation and are more interested in a student’s …

Technology Literacy Skills Needed In Further Education And/Or Work: A Delphi Study Of High School Graduates’ Perspectives, Christina Louise Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology and the importance of computers in education have been recognized since the educational reform movement of the 1980’s. Change that acknowledged a need for high school students to: understand the computer as an information, computation, and communication device; use computers for personal and work-related purposes; and understand the world of computers, electronics, and related technologies (A Nation at Risk, 1983, p. 26). The study, A Nation at Risk recognized our nation’s lack of computer technology skills and since, the standards in education have changed to design curriculum and integrate technology to better prepare high school students with necessary ready …

Perspective From Two Professions: Two Professionals Making Meaning Of The Clinical Educator Role, Tara Payor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how professional educators make sense of their role in helping novice practitioners make meaning from authentic clinical practice. Simultaneously studying a clinical educator from teacher and graduate medical education, and subsequently setting their stories side by side, speaks to the interest both professions have in learning from the other. Both clinical educators were Board certified in their respective area of practice. In-depth phenomenological interviewing was used as the study’s methodology, and the professional formation construct served as the study’s conceptual framework. Data corroborate findings in the literature that there is a …

"I Want To Be The Sun": Tableau As An Embodied Representation Of Main Ideas In Science Information Texts, Margaret Branscombe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study I investigated the process drama convention of tableau to mediate for the representation of main ideas in science information texts. My pedagogical goal was to focus on the body as a tool for engaging with information texts and my rationale for this goal was the belief that the body is neglected in classroom learning. The task of creating caused the students to be active and to think of their own and other bodies as signifiers of meaning.

The methodology was based on a formative experiment that allowed for changes and modifications to be made in response to …

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy As A Treatment For Adhd In Early Childhood: A Multiple Baseline Single-Case Design, Kendall Jeffries Deloatche

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of PCIT as an alternative to medication in managing symptoms and behavior problems of preschool-aged children with ADHD. Using a multiple baseline single-case design, the study measured the impact of PCIT on four preschool-aged children's problem behaviors and ADHD symptoms, parenting practices, and mothers' attitudes towards therapy. Outcome measures included the Child Behavior Checklist, Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, Behavior Assessment System for Children, ADHD Symptom Observation form, Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System, Parenting Practices Interview, and Therapy Attitude Inventory. Results from visual analyses, a visual permutation test, and hierarchical linear …

A Case Study Of Teachers' In Professional Learning Communities In A Campus Preschool, Victoria Jacqueline Damjanovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-case study was to describe and explain teacher learning within school contexts by exploring the nature of teachers' experiences in learning communities. This study explored the ways in which teachers participated in professional development sessions using the project approach as a framework for facilitating and engaging in professional learning communities by answering: What is the nature of teachers' experiences in inquiry-based professional learning communities? In what ways and under what conditions does documentation play a role in teacher learning? For data collection I used semi-structured interviews, audio recordings of professional development sessions, teacher documentation, teacher daily …

Learning Preferences Of Commercial Fishermen, Robert W. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study surveyed 435 commercial fishermen across eight coastal regions of the United States where commercial fishing takes place. The regions of the study included: Northeast Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Southern Pacific, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. Participants were asked to complete the Commercial Fishing Worker Survey (CFWS), which is a survey instrument consisting of an approved, adapted version of the Index of Learning Styles instrument (ILS) combined with a demographic section which included questions designed to obtain data regarding the four variables of the study: age, education level, captain's license status, and method of fishing. …

The Relationship Of Pre-Enrollment Timespans To Persistence And Time-To-Degree Of Transfer Students At A Four-Year, Metropolitan University, Michelle Denise Bombaugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study investigated the relationship to the pre-enrollment factors of admissions-to-enrollment and orientation-to-enrollment timespans to transfer student success as measured by persistence and the length of time taken to earn a baccalaureate degree. This quantitative study analyzed secondary data (N = 357) from a large, four-year, public research institution in the southeast United States. A logistic regression analysis was used to explore the relationships between the pre-enrollment timespans and persistence. The relationship between the admissions-to-enrollment timespan and persistence was not statistically significant. The orientation-to-enrollment timespan was found to have a statistically significant relationship to persistence (p < .05). This indicated that students who had increased orientation-to-enrollment timespans were more likely to persist. To further explore this relationship, a multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to control for possible extraneous demographic, pre-enrollment, and enrollment variables. The relationship of orientation-to-enrollment timespan and persistence continued to be statistically significant. An ordered logistic technique was used to explore the relationship between the admissions- and orientation-to-enrollment timespans and time-to-degree completion. Neither timespan was found to have a significant relationship with time elapsed to complete the degree. Implications for admissions and orientation timespans were discussed in relation to transfer student transitions.

Reading In The Digital Era: Using Video Self-Modeling To Improve Reading Fluency In At-Risk Students, Monica Anestin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reading fluency bridges the concepts of word recognition and reading comprehension, both of which are vital skills needed to become a successful reader. This study evaluated the impact of video self-modeling (VSM) on oral reading fluency in four upper elementary students at-risk for failing in reading. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the outcomes of the VSM intervention. The results indicate that VSM may have a positive impact on reading fluency of students at-risk for reading failure; the use of VSM was positively associated with increases in reading fluency in three of the four participants. The participant …

Facilitating A Transdisciplinary Approach In Teacher Education Through Multimodal Literacy And Cognitive Neuroscience, Margaret Billings Krause

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of research and theoretical papers based on the affordances of multimodal literacies for marginalized learners and for pre-service teachers’ developing conceptualizations of literacy. Through a transdisciplinary lens, the author considers complex issues presented in traditional, print-based learning environments that potentially marginalize learners in their developing abilities to become successful participants in the multiple literacies in the real world.

Three studies focus on pre-service teachers and their developing understanding of effective literacy-related classroom practices. Chapter Three explores potential affordances of a multimodal learning environment for pre-service teachers with self-identified reading difficulties. The phenomenological study highlights differing …

Help! I Have To Teach Math: The Nature Of A Preservice Teacher's Experiences Enacting Mathematics Instruction In A Final Internship, Lori Rakes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to better understand the nature of the experiences of a preservice teacher, self-identified as having mathematics anxiety as she planned and implemented instruction during her internship by answering: What is the nature of the experiences of a preservice teacher, self-identified as having mathematics anxiety, as she planned for mathematics instruction during her final internship? What is the nature of the experiences of a preservice teacher, self-identified as having mathematics anxiety, as she implemented mathematics instruction during her final internship? Using an interpretivist approach to a case study inquiry, I used semi-structured interviews, observations, …

Iwitness And Student Empathy: Perspectives From Usc Shoah Foundation Master Teachers, Brandon Jerome Haas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative interview study explores the perceptions of five USC Shoah Foundation Master Teachers who integrate IWitness in teaching about the Holocaust. The study focused on the perceptions of teachers as their students interact with survivor and witness testimony in IWitness as well as how IWitness provides a framework for moral education in comparison to other primary sources. Data gleaned from this study demonstrates the influence of personalized learning through testimony-based education on the development of empathy in secondary students. As IWitness is a new resource that engages students with Holocaust survivor testimony in innovative ways, this study fills a …

Ucsmp Teachers’ Perspectives When Using Graphing Calculators In Advanced Mathematics, Ilyas Karadeniz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, technology plays a fundamental role in education, in general, and in mathematics education in particular. The graphing calculator has been an important technological tool in mathematics classrooms since its invention and introduction in 1985 by Casio. As graphing calculators provided so many uses, their contribution to the teaching and learning process has been investigated by many researchers who have shown the use of such technology can have a significant effect on improving mathematics teaching and learning.

Investigating the impact of graphing calculators on student learning is important. It is also essential to research teachers’ perspectives on how using graphing …