Digital Commons Network^™

Examining The Relationship Between Spelling Achievement And Academic Achievement In Community College Students, Tambra Lee Riggs-Gutiérrez

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The relationship between spelling achievement and academic achievement in community college students was investigated in this quantitative study. The research questions focused on whether a brief (under 15 minutes) spelling screening assessment may or may not predict student academic achievement of course grade points earned in an entry-level English class or cumulative grade point average. Demographic and descriptive data were also analyzed. A linear regression analysis design was used in this study. Participants for the study were 55 students from two geographically distant campuses of one community college in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United …

The Impact Of Historical Narratives On Students' Nos Understanding And Science Motivation, Peng Dai

Dissertations

Scholars over the past few years have drawn attention to the enormous potential role historical stories can play in promoting student understanding of issues associated with the nature of science (NOS). Such stories, often referred to as “historical narratives,” are thought to do so by providing a rich historical context within which students are acquainted with how scientists in the past reasoned about scientific phenomena. Klassen (2009) developed a theoretical framework that identifies ten essential elements that must be present to qualify as a historical narrative. Only a few studies have empirically assessed the merits of Klassen’s framework, and in …

Annual Report Of The Nominating Committee For The Academic Year 2022-2023, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

University Nominating Committee report including committee memberships, produced by the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

2023-August-01-Kilaru Appointed To Faculty Fellow Role, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Aruna Kilaru as Faculty Fellow for Interdisciplinary Innovation in the Biosciences.

Dr. Kilaru will continue to serve as Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. However, in her expanded role that begins on August 15, she will begin work to develop a thriving institute or center for innovation that will positively support bioscience-focused growth and opportunity for ETSU students and the region.

In addition to leading and managing a working group that will be charged with creating an institute or center for synthetic biology, she will lead and manage interdisciplinary research …

Innovating The Communication Pedagogy: An Application Of Flipped Classroom Technique In Communication Education, Gamze Yilmaz

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

As students try to make sense of their college experience and the value of attaining a degree post-pandemic, educators are grappling with finding new methods to re-engage students in the classroom using a range of modalities. This case study explored student reactions to flipped classroom learning experiences, and possible relationship between the flipped classroom technique and academic performance in communication education. As a student-centric pedagogical method, the flipped classroom can offer a promising remedy for student disengagement, and the findings of this study provide supporting evidence for this conclusion. Students characterized flipped classroom as a very favorable learning experience as …

Perceived Teacher Confirmation And The Online Classroom: Capturing Student Descriptions Of Experiences With Faculty Online, Ashley Jones-Bodie, Lindsey Anderson, Jennifer Hall

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This study explored and examined students’ perceptions of teacher confirmation, those behaviors that teachers engage in that make students feel confirmed as valuable, significant individuals, as experienced in online courses. With over 450 students’ written descriptions of experiences in online classes across three different universities, this study provides an important initial examination of teaching practices in the online context. While prior research has situated study of students’ perceptions of teacher confirmation in the traditional in-person course experience, the current project extends understanding of teacher confirmation into the online setting. The study provides detailed descriptions, in students’ own words, of specific …

Secondary Teachers' Perceptions On Their Competency And Self-Efficacy Levels Associated With An Integrated Professional Development Approach To Teaching United States History, Darwin Anthony Galloway

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The study assessed a multifaceted professional development approach and its impact on teacher competency and self-efficacy. The professional development approach considered in this study reflected an integration of Content Immersion Mini-institutes, Public History Field Experiences, and Collaborative Pedagogical workshops offered to middle school and high school United States history teachers. The major focus of the study was scaled exit surveys and free response questions completed by teachers in six school districts in northeastern Tennessee, who were part of a Teaching American History Grant program sponsored by Tennessee’s First Frontier Consortium. These extant exit surveys were used to determine the relationship …

Elucidating College Students’ Stressors: Photovoice As A Pedagogical Tool And Qualitative Methodology, Deanne Priddis, Heather L. Hundley

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Traditional research examining student stress relies on surveys using pre-determined categories. This study diverts from that approach by adopting a Communication in Conflict class assignment over seven classes (N = 115) using photovoice to determine if results fluctuate by using a different methodology. Additionally, we sought to understand if the sources of stress vary by gender and semester. The data revealed seven categories as the main stressors of student conflict: 1) time management, 2) mental health, 3) finding oneself, 4) future uncertainty, 5) other, 6) financial, and 7) past mistakes. Regardless of participants’ sex/gender or semester in which the data …

Helping Your Child Manage Anxiety: A Parent Education Workshop, Clarissa Aglaén Gallardo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Anxiety has become one of the most common mental health disorders in young children, and it has been shown to have a significant impact on their development. Anxiety can make a child more susceptible to a number of negative effects, including a weakened immune system, developing “negative” habits such as nail biting, increased proneness to anger or crying, as well as difficulties in learning and retaining information. Conversely, when parents/caregivers can prevent or decrease anxiety in their children, children can better regulate their emotions, have more successful relationships, take more risks, and cope better with challenges. The purpose of this …

Sound And Music Opportunities In Toddler Learning Environments, Sonia Akiko Yoshizawa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this qualitative research was to gain an in-depth understanding of how teachers of toddlers (aged 25-36 months) described sound and music learning opportunities and experiences provided to children in their learning environments. In this research, teachers were asked how their personal and professional experiences with sound and music influenced their planning of toddlers’ sound and music learning opportunities. The design of this study was in-depth interviews of six toddler lead teachers in three childcare sites. Data were gathered through photographs, planning documents, and in-depth interviews using a university IRB-approved video conferencing program. Findings showed that all participants …

Prairie Protector: Student Development Of Systems Thinking Habits In The Context Of Agroecosystems, Erin Ingram, Jennifer Keshwani

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Introduction: The Great Plains ecosystem offers an opportunity for young people to gain knowledge about intricate systems through practical learning. The spread of woody plants into grasslands, known as the “Green Glacier,” poses a risk to biodiversity and animal production. Although effective management strategies exist, some land managers are reluctant to use them. It is critical to cultivate a scientifically literate population that can think systematically and make informed decisions based on STEM principles to address such complex agroecosystem problems.

Methods: In this study, semi-structured focus group discussions with high school students were analyzed to determine whether Prairie …

Cross-Cutting Skills: The Role Of Major, Maureen Snow Andrade, Eugene Seeley, Ron Miller

International Journal for Business Education

Employers want recent college graduates prepared with skills that cut across majors, such as written and oral communication, teamwork, ethical decision-making, critical thinking, and applying knowledge in real-life situations. What is largely unknown is if some fields of study lend themselves to producing these desired skills over others. This is particularly relevant to schools of business, which strive to help students develop professional career skills and often emphasize a range of practical, hands-on, engaged learning activities. This study focused on obtaining the insights of hiring managers about desired skills and areas of study that prepare students with these skills. Survey …

Strategies To Increase Engagement In K-12 Stem Programs Among Bipoc Students Grades 3rd – 8th, Denisha C. Griffey

Dissertations

The WIRE Youth Development Programs, housed within the Lewis Walker Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI foster two enrichment programs geared towards strengthening the gap in academic knowledge through STEM/STEAM activities. Since its inception, WIRE has impacted over 1,000 youth grades 3-8 among the BIPOC population through its programs, most notably the WIRE Math and Science Summer Camp and Saturday Academy. In 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many K-12 education school systems switched to remote learning. As a result of this transition, there was a decrease in access …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Online Genetics Education, Pinar Ozmizrak

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents an interdisciplinary approach to online genetics education.

Chapter I provides an overview of remote education and a brief history of genetics. While the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a turn to emergency online education, exposure to this form of delivery has led to increased intentional online education.

Chapter II focuses on computer and technology use in healthcare by nursing students. This study investigated nursing students’ perspectives using a modified version of the Pretest for Attitudes Toward Computers in Healthcare (PATCH) assessment scale to explore students’ ideas about computers and technology in healthcare delivery. According to the PATCH scale, the …

The Lived Experience Of Counseling Students In Natural Disaster, Amy M. Sirocky-Meck

Dissertations, 2020-current

After natural disaster, survivors may experience moderate to severe signs and symptoms of emotional distress which may subside or worsen as time passes (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2022). Adults pursuing higher education when natural disaster strikes experience an additional array of unique issues which may exacerbate symptoms of emotional distress (Wilkinson et al.,2013). To create and improve curricular and co-curricular structures that meet the needs of their students, educators in many health and mental health disciplines can draw from a variety of quantitative and qualitative studies, particularly those focused on how their disciplines’ students navigate the experience …

Exploring The Experiences Of Underrepresented Students Pursuing Health-Related Graduate Or Professional Programs, Alison Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many years graduate and professional education programs for the health professions have sought to increase the diversity of their student body to include students from a wider variety of backgrounds. Increasing the diversity of healthcare providers is an essential component of addressing inequities in healthcare. However, despite initiatives to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the health professions, these professions remain largely White and female. Previous researchers have sought to identify the reasons that racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in healthcare, and the barriers to persistence and success. Little research exists explaining why men are underrepresented in the …

Managing Teacher Attrition: Improving Teacher Self-Efficacy Through The Implementation Of Professional Learning Communities, Stephanie Peagler

All Dissertations

Teacher retention is at a more critical place in education than ever before. School districts are struggling to hire and retain teachers, partially due to COVID-19 and its overwhelming impact. Teacher retention was an issue for South Carolina public schools before and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focused on how the implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) can increase teacher self-efficacy and teacher retention rates within a large high school in South Carolina. An improvement science study with a concurrent mixed methods study with an embedded qualitative study approach was used throughout the research study to …

Coming Home: Challenges Of Reintegration For Returned Migrant Women In Northern Albania, Marsida Tafilica

All Dissertations

Return migration is the movement of people from host countries to their country of origin after spending a period of time abroad. The aim of this doctoral research is two-folded: Firstly, it aims to explore migration and return migration experiences of Albanian women in order to understand the difficulties experienced during and after migration and how they handled obstacles. Secondly, it analyzes how women migrants perceive successful reintegration.

Drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews of 19 Albanian women who returned to the city of Shkodra, the research seeks to answer the following questions: (1) Upon return, what are the perceptions of …

On The Topology Of The Noosphere, Julie A. Yusupova

Journal of Conscious Evolution

As a young child I had a certain set of dreams, the enigma of which remained mysteriously hovering in my memories to this day. In one of these earliest dreams of my life, I am playing hide-and-seek with my friends, but am observing myself from an external third-person perspective, just as all my dreams had regularly been until then. I remember that the next morning, my waking conscious mind had noticed this split between self and observer and judged it unusual, and so in the following night’s dream, I somehow willed my observer self to merge into the body of …

The Relationship Between Discipline-Specific Subject Matter Knowledge And Discipline-Specific Science Teaching Efficacy Of Elementary Teachers, Douglas Ball

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because a teacher's confidence in their ability to teach science is associated with instructional methods and their persistence in the face of challenges, improving science teaching confidence becomes critical for improving science teaching of young children. Science teaching confidence also varies by discipline for elementary teachers: physical science teaching confidence tends to measure lower than life science. This discrepancy leads to elementary teachers engaging in less effective science teaching practices with physical science than life science. A teacher's subject matter knowledge influences their confidence in their ability to teach that subject. Subject matter knowledge impacts science teaching confidence because when …

Utilizing Mitotalens To Investigate Large Repeats In The Arabidopsis Thaliana Mitochondrial Genome, Cambelle Johnson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Mitochondria are a silly place to store the genetic code. In spite of the ever-present threat of oxidative DNA damage, plant mitochondrial genomes are expansive in size and include noncoding repeat sequences, a small number of which are greater than 1kilobase (kb), known hereafter as “large repeats” (LR). This theme of one or more large repeat pairs is shared across most flowering plants, lending to the belief that they somehow contribute to the plant’s fitness. These repeats exhibit high rates of rearrangement and recombination. Studying repeats in vivo could have large scale implications in hybrid crop production enhancement including eliminating …

Composing An Identity Between Worlds : Music’S Role In Exploring The Self, Sarah Homeh

Postgraduate

This exegesis explores identity and cultural issues in contemporary Australia through music composition. It is based on experiences of a second-generation female migrant. This research includes a creative component that fuses Assyrian musical elements with Western genres such as jazz, neo-soul and nu-jazz. This written exegesis employs an autoethnographic and creative practice-based approach to examine the multifaceted intersections of music, ethnicity, and gender.

This exegesis navigates the landscape of hybridity, feminism, representation, and musicalisation, probing the transformative role of music and art in articulating the diasporic experience of women. A methodological fusion of autoethnography and creative practice guides the research, …

Examining The Influence Of The Classroom Environment On Motivation, Belonging, And Academic Confidence In Engineering Education: A Relational Developmental Systems Approach, Robert O'Hara

All Dissertations

This dissertation explores the impact of the classroom environment on undergraduate engineering students by integrating three manuscripts using the process-person-context-time (PPCT) model within Bioecological Systems Theory. Each manuscript focused on students’ sense of belonging, motivation, and academic confidence. The study confirms prior research suggesting a link between students' perceptions of the environment and their sense of belonging, motivation, and academic confidence. The findings highlight the complex nature of student and classroom environment relationships throughout their college experience. Moreover, the results are demonstrated across different engineering majors. Overall, this dissertation highlights the significance of understanding the complex interactions between students and …

Reflecting On Resilience: A Large-Scale Qualitative Study Of Adolescents' Experiences Of Resilience During Covid-19, Maegan Ruiz

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Resilience is a dynamic process of positive adaptation when faced with significant adversity. The extensive and protracted disruptions to adolescents' academic and social engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic created unique challenges, which have included concerns about academic/work habits, social connections, physical health, and mental health (Scott et al., 2020). In what ways did adolescents operationalize resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic? And, what can that tell us about how we should conceptualize resilience generally? At the end of the first full school year of the pandemic in April 2021, we asked a diverse group of 2,171 high schoolers an open-ended question: …

Instructional Practices That Foster Argumentative Discourse In Secondary Science Classrooms, Alicia N. Herrera

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To remain competitive in an innovative world, American classrooms are promoting careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by utilizing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Students are engaged in inquiry by applying scientific practices like argumentation. However, science teachers are finding it difficult to respond to, as well as deepen students’ argumentative conversations. Therefore, research must uncover what instructional practices (or combinations) are used to overcome classroom obstacles, along with fostering students’ discourse and sensemaking. A teacher research approach was taken to investigate how the researcher, a secondary science teacher herself, effectively combines three under-researched instructional practices for …

Restorative Justice Implementation: Examining The Effects Of White Fragility And Race On Implementation Of Restorative Justice Practices In Schools, Heather M. Thompson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Current zero-tolerance discipline policies are ineffective and contribute to disproportionality in school discipline. Restorative justice practices (RJP) are an equitable alternative approach to exclusionary practices. RJP has been used in schools prior to adequate research informing implementation, which has led to variability in implementation and outcomes. In particular, teacher willingness to participate in the implementation of RJP has been noted to be variable and limited among research studies. It is necessary to explore teacher attitudes to determine what underlies this lack of participation to inform the next steps for RJP implementation in schools. Specifically, since disparities in discipline are related …

The Relationship Between Career Choice And Indecision Within The Career And Technical Education Pathway Model, Zak A. Konakis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States is shifting the public education model toward one that favors increasing skill complexity to lead students into future careers. It is uncertain, however, if these changes are benefiting students and having the desired impact on the future workforce. Utilizing the Swiss and German dual apprenticeship and work-based learning model, Utah is attempting to bring more practical and hands-on experiential learning opportunities to students across the state. This study intended to understand if these changes are accomplishing the intended result in students in rural eastern Utah.

Furthermore, the study found that students who engage in early experiential learning …

An Exploratory Case Study Of Leadership Practices That Enable International Schools To Become Highly Effective And Learning Progressive Environments, Santha Kumar Sankara Narayanan

Dissertations

Highly effective learning progressive (HELP) environments can prepare students to be future-ready with the needed knowledge and skills to thrive in an ever-changing world. This case study captured the characteristics and measured the effectiveness of an international school working to become a HELP environment using the high-reliability schools (HRS) framework and the leadership practices that enabled them.

This mixed-method study used an explanatory sequential design, beginning with a survey of 122 teachers based on the HRS model (Marzano et al., 2014), where teachers were asked to respond to a series of statements designed to measure the case-study school’s effectiveness and …

We Are Each Other’S Business: Black Entrepreneurship, Trust, And The Mobilization Of Social Capital, Lashawnna R. Harris

Education Doctoral

This interpretive phenomenological study aimed to investigate the interactions between race socialization, trust, and Black entrepreneurs’ social capital mobilization. The 12 study participants conducted business in New York City and the surrounding counties. The primary sources of data collected were semi-structured interviews and researcher journal entries for validity. Four themes emerged from the interpretive analysis conducted: (a) race socialization matters, (b) trust is relationship based, (c) networks are vast but often homogeneous, and (d) competence-based mobilization.

This study found that Black entrepreneurs are influenced by messages about direct and vicarious discriminatory racial encounters. Race socialization messages served as protective instructions …

The Effects Of The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program On Community College Students’ Grade Point Average, Retention, And Graduation Rates, Rhonda Mouton

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to explore whether community college students who received benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) outperformed those who did not receive SNAP benefits in terms of retention, grade point average (GPA), and graduation rate. The deidentified archival data collected from the College Tracker and Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) systems from fall 2018 through spring 2022 included a total of 4,127 sample size of 3,277 continuing students, 312 freshmen, and 538 transfer students who were either SNAP or non-SNAP recipients.

The study's results for each null hypothesis were reported …