Digital Commons Network^™

High-Stakes Education: Dual Language Immersion In Portland, Oregon, Andrew Maclean

University Honors Theses

This paper provides evidence and background information to support the claim that Dual Language Immersion (DLI) is the optimal k-12 education program to reduce the achievement gap between English Language Learners and native speakers of English, while also providing extraordinary benefit for Foreign Language Learners in the United States. This paper draws on Second Language Acquisition theory and recent education policy to show that the language situation in the United States would benefit greatly from the continued and amplified support of Dual Language Immersion programs over other programs like monolingual English immersion, transitional bilingual immersion, and developmental bilingual immersion. The …

The Band Chervona: Russian Musical Traditions In The Portland Diaspora, Zoe Landi Fontana

University Honors Theses

This paper explores how the band Chervona reflects Russian musical traditions in its development and creative output.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet June 2021, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The June 2021 Monthly packet includes the May agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 3, 2021.

2021 Commencement Program, Rukaiyah Adams, Brett Bigham, Frank A. Franklin, Avel Gordly, Kali Thorne Ladd, Jill Murfin, George Yoshio Nakata, Mario Milosevic, William Parnell

Commencement Archives 2020-29

The Spring 2021 Commencement ceremonies for each College and School at Portland State University were held as separate virtual events with speakers for each. These ceremonies honored graduates who received their degrees in Fall 2020-Spring 2021.

Naomi: Learning For Future Possibilities, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

We've published 5 blog posts that present different personas of working learners. These personas are drawn from our interviews with frontline worker learners across the country who are participating in employer-supported learning opportunities. The personas characterize aspects of a set of real people - capturing and blending them in order to create one story that illustrates a broader representation of a participant in an employer-supported educational program or course.

21st Century Learning Ecosystem For Working Learners, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek,, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

• What are the experiences of working learners in employer sponsored learning?
• What motivates frontline service workers to participate in employer sponsored learning opportunities, many of which are offered online?
• What factors support working learners’ continued participation and their success?

“This Is Just What We Do”: Phd Students On Becoming Scholars In A Community Of Practice, Linds Roberts

Communications in Information Literacy

Increasingly librarians are interested in how the Community of Practice (CoP) framework can provide a more complete picture of how information literacy practices are influenced by situated and social learning. Doctoral students are socialized into the practices of the academy and gradually take on the identity and work of a scholar in their field. As an illustration of the CoP framework among doctoral students, the author shares data from a qualitative study with a small group of early-career education PhD students who are developing their information literacy skills within their disciplinary and social contexts, using the CoP as a source …

On "Developing Information Literate Abilities": Uncovering Whiteness At The Center Of The Acrl Framework For Information Literacy, Anders Tobiason

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

What does it mean to be information literate? Who is the model information literate individual? Taking its cue from Critical Discourse Analysis and Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, this presentation questions the foundational image of the information literate individual lying at the heart of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. Using critical race theory and an understanding of how whiteness functions as a presumed neutral background in our society, we begin to understand the whiteness of this individual. In this presentation, I briefly outline how whiteness functions and then move on to show how whiteness functions within the Framework more specifically. …

Session 1: Panel 2: Presenter 2 (Paper) -- The Irish Language And Nationalism In The 20th Century, Charlotte Cody

Young Historians Conference

Under centuries of British colonial rule, mass emigration, and discriminatory laws, the Irish language took a secondary position to English. As Irish nationalist ideology gained momentum in the early 20th century, Irish became useful and popular as a powerful symbol of resilience and a discrete national identity. However, the significance of Irish to nationalism had a mixed impact on its perception across the island due to the violence and sectarianism that accompanied the struggle for independence. This paper explores the influence that this divisive history had and continues to exert on the perception of and legislation supporting the Irish language, …

Feedback Timing: Relationship To Student Success In Online Education, Emaleia J. Anton, Nicholas A. Smith

Student Research Symposium

It’s important that researchers identify factors that support student success in online education because utilization of remote learning has increased over the years. Feedback timing is a vital factor contributing to student success in online educational environments. The purpose of this research is to experimentally examine effects of feedback timing on online student success, which this study operationalizes as student perception of self-efficacy. Conducting a between-subjects experimental design, 100 undergraduate students will participate in an online synchronous crash course and will be randomly assigned to different conditions of the independent variable where they will receive either prompt or delayed feedback …

Exploring A Possible New Mechanism Of The Predictive Coding Theory Of Consciousness With A Binocular Rivalry Experiment, Sai Kiersarsky, Madison Cho-Richmond

Student Research Symposium

Predictive Coding is a theory of brain function in which consciousness is a predictive model generated by higher brain regions that constantly updates its predictions about the cause of upwards flowing data – often sensory perception data. Binocular Rivalry is a phenomenon where, when each eye is presented with a completely different image, consciousness alternates between the images rather than attempting to fuse both images into one.

Here we present the same image to both eyes, but with each image partially blurred in differing areas to test if consciousness weaves together the clear areas to synthesize a single crisp image. …

Clinical Swallowing Evaluations Via Telehealth: A Scoping Review & Ideas For Implementation, Stephanie J. Merrill

Student Research Symposium

Previous research has been conducted on telehealth clinical swallowing evaluations in a number of populations (Burns et al., 2017; Morell et al., 2017; Sharma et al., 2011; Ward et al., 2012), however, to our knowledge, no research has examined this topic for people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (pALS). Given the impact of the novel coronavirus disease 2019, the need for virtual access to healthcare, particularly for people with chronic medical conditions, has become paramount. The goal of this project is to review the literature examining techniques used for virtual clinical assessment of swallowing and to outline approaches that could be …

Stuttering Accommodations In Professional Environments: The Intersectionality Between Multiculturalism, Multilingualism, Stigma, Disability Identity And Rights, Sulema Rodriguez, Megann Mcgill

Student Research Symposium

Stuttering is a fluency disorder that disrupts the forward flow of speech (Guitar, 2014). People who stutter (PWS) have been falsely represented in the media and negatively perceived by the general public (Boyle, 2011; Williams, 2015). This public stigma, including cultural and linguistic differences, contributes to the development of self-stigma (Dean & Medina, 2020; Gerlach et al., 2018; Plexico et al., 2019). Stuttering public stigma also leads to decreased earnings and opportunities in the workplace and higher education discrimination (Gerlach et al., 2018; Klein & Hood, 2014). Consequently, there has yet to exist a research study that considers the intersectionality …

Exploring The Correlational Relationship Of Interpersonal Discrimination And Leader-Member Exchange, Bryan Wesley T. Hamilton

Student Research Symposium

Stigmatized individuals use several compensatory strategies to offset the negative impact of interpersonal discrimination in the job application process, including increased positivity, providing individuating information, or identity disclosures. Using interviews and surveys, we aim to expand this literature by examining how these processes unfold after stigmatized individuals have gained employment and are interacting with coworkers. These compensatory strategies can have varying impacts on targets’ workplace relationships, job satisfaction, overall performance, and psychological and physical health outcomes. Leaders and other powerful organizational members can mitigate these negative outcomes and improve employee well being through leader member exchange and perceived supervisor support. …

Teaching Children Emotional Intelligence: A Closer Look At The Barbie Vlogs, Jillian C. Britton

Student Research Symposium

In 2015, toy company Mattel began a YouTube vlog starring a 3D animated Barbie that featured many vlogs seemingly geared at increasing children’s emotional intelligence. One concern about this promising resource is that previous research suggests that cultural relevance has a notable role in the receptivity of children's media content, and Barbie may not be the most versatile role model for children of all demographics. Using a quasi-experimental matched-groups design, this proposed research aims to evaluate the impacts of the Barbie vlogs on children’s levels of emotional intelligence, and determine whether the children's ethnicity (Black or White, within the scope …

Does Reading Violent Books Increase Aggression? Perceptions Of An Overlooked Medium, Cassandra H. Muniz

Student Research Symposium

In the ongoing media violence debate, video games, movies, and television are regular targets of scrutiny. Yet, largely absent from the discussion is a popular, age-old medium: the book. Do people think that reading violent subject matter can increase aggression? How do first- and third-person perceptions differ? Using an online survey, the author collected quantitative data on adults’ (N = 160) perceptions of how much violent books affect aggression in themselves, the average adult, and the average child. The author hypothesized that participants would perceive the medium to have stronger effects on other adults' aggression than on their own. …

L2 Prosodic Variation: The Effect Of L1 Typology On L2 Question Intonation, Phoebe Cordova

Student Research Symposium

There has been a growing body research work conducted on L2 prosodic acquisition and cross-linguistic prosodic transfer, with studies more recently turning to the examination of suprasegmental prosodic phenomena like intonation. These studies analyzed data from a variety of L1s and have primarily focused on the impact of age of acquisition and proficiency level on the production of L2 intonation. Further, these studies have almost entirely used elicited data as the basis of their investigation. Several models have been put forth to account for L2 speech production, with the L2 Intonation Learning theory (LILt) (Mennen, 2015) being the most recently …

Boredom And Risk-Taking In Mania, Rose M. Jardine, Nicholas A. Smith

Student Research Symposium

The purpose of this proposal is to examine perceived boredom and risk-taking exhibited during manic episodes in atypical bipolar 1 disorder. I propose to recruit at least 100 participants, ages 18-25, from Intensive Outpatient Programs, Community Programs, and Inpatient Programs who will be verified to be in a manic episode and asymptomatic for psychosis by the on-site providers. A pilot study of two videos will be performed. Participants will be randomly assigned to view one of two videos: “calm” or “exciting”. They will respond to the Boredom Proneness Scale questionnaire at both pre- and post-test as well as the revised …

A Comparison Of Formulaic Language In Student, Researcher, And Practitioner Reports In Civil Engineering, Amy Akenson

Student Research Symposium

Most Civil Engineering (CE) students want to work in the industry when they graduate, but often only have experience with academic writing contexts. The Civil Engineering Writing Project (CEWP) was created to assist CE professors in preparing students for professional writing. Using computer-assisted analysis techniques, I examined papers collected through the CEWP to analyze how formulaic language was being used by students and current practitioners, as well as academic researchers. Specifically, I looked for n-grams, which are same-length phrases found at a higher frequency in the text than other phrases, for example, “as a function of” or “in order to …

The Influence Of Surrealist Art On Popular Ads, Sydney G. Thomas Ms.

Student Research Symposium

All ads draw influence from something, most of the time it is from an art movement that will mirror the mental state of the current population. The art influence used for today’s media is surrealist art, due to its chaotic representation of life that mirrors the tumultuous events gen Z and millennials have grown up with. In the surrealist art movement, the general population experienced great anxiety and grappled with the idea of the inner, subconscious self and the represented conscious self. Today, the issue of social media, what is presented compared to what is real, creates an atmosphere where …

Sources Of Individual Differences In Adults’ Ict Skills: A Large-Scale Empirical Test Of A New Guiding Framework, Alexandra Wicht, Stephen Reder, Clemens M. Lechner

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We develop an integrative conceptual framework that seeks to explain individual differences in the ability to use information and communication technologies (ICT skills). Building on practice engagement theory, this framework views the continued usage of digital technologies at work and in everyday life (ICT use) as the key prerequisite for the acquisition of ICT skills. At the same time, the framework highlights that ICT use is itself contingent upon individual and contextual preconditions. We apply this framework to data from two recent German large-scale studies (N = 2,495 and N = 2,786, respectively) that offer objective measures of adults’ ICT …

Equity Journey To Crt, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

By thinking about racism and all social justice work as a systemic issue rather than a set of individual actions, we are led to question the underlying structures that may be undermining working learners' success despite the best efforts of all involved. Adopting the lens of CRT in our work is meant to provoke change and prompt healing. It has caused us to question our role as researchers and our place as educators in the social justice movement. It has challenged us to move out of the safety of academia and to think of our research as social action. The …

The Perspectives Of Head Start Employed Community College Students Who Earned An Associate Degree In Early Childhood Education Programs: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Challenges And Successes, Robyne E. Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. federally funded Head Start programs serve more than one million low-income children and their families each year in education and health programs. Historically there have been few requirements for formal education for Head Start teachers. In response to research linking teacher education and outcomes for children, increased educational requirements were included in the program funding reauthorizations in recent decades. For a variety of reasons, community college early childhood education programs are a logical place for those already employed by Head Start to improve their qualifications. At the same time, these institutions tend to have low graduation rates, and …

So, Why Persona?, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

A colleague asked us a thoughtful and compelling question - why did we create the personas and how do these personas help employers, human resources staff, people working in workforce education, and those in adult education? We wrote this blog post to address those questions.

Allotrioemeis: Or, A Preposterous Preponderance Of Pins Produced, Strangely Doesburg

Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference

Debellatus, the 1698 account of a witchcraft trial in Bargarren, Scotland, suggests new interpretations of witchcraft epidemiology. From late 1696 through 1697 a young girl named Christian Shaw experienced fits, visions, trances, and even levitation. More interesting, and decidedly the more tactile, was her tendency to demonstrate her affliction by vomiting various items: pins, straw, warm coals, balls of hair, and pieces of dung. Previous scholarship has dubbed this phenomena Allotriophagy, linking it to compulsive consumption conditions like Pica, seemingly overlooking their presence in contemporary Scottish medical literature. Furthermore, coincident accounts of stagecraft reveal numerous techniques were being practiced to …

Cursing In Medieval England: ‘By God’S Bones’ And Other Obscenities And Expletives, Mary Sweeney

Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference

Abstract: Many scholars who study letters, drama, and literature from late medieval and early modern England focus on political and social content, but recently linguists study this material using linguistics. For example, Melissa Mohr’s work on cursing has opened up new avenues of study. As useful as this is, it only takes up a small slice of English life and the usage of swear words. My research into the letters of elite and gentry men and women such as the Cely and Paston families, reveals how language both establishes social solidarity and disrupts it. I ask why these words were …

After Aidan: Irish Peregrini And English Ethnogenesis From Aldhelm To Boniface, Jonathan R. Hayes

Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference

The last several decades have seen tremendous interest among Anglo-Saxonists in the points of contact and influence between Irish and Anglo-Saxon clergymen in the seventh and eighth centuries. Yet there has not been a comprehensive synthesis to capture this phenomenon. The present study seeks to consolidate and extend knowledge of Irish-English interactions from Aldhelm to the time of Boniface. Particular attention is given to the Irish practice of peregrinatio pro Christo as a nexus of English fascination. The lasting consequences of these contacts are evaluated, and it is proposed that the concept of the “Angli” as an ecclesiastical and transregional …

Racial Bias In Driver Yielding Behavior At Crosswalks, Kimberly Kahn, Peter Koonce, George Stern

PSU Transportation Seminars

This seminar discusses how pedestrian race and gender can influence drivers’ behavior in interactions with pedestrians at crosswalks. Three speakers will present different lenses to look at this topic. Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, a researcher at Portland State University, will discuss research exploring how pedestrian race and gender influence drivers’ behavior in interactions with pedestrians at crosswalks. One dangerous potential point of conflict for pedestrians within the transportation system is interactions with drivers at crosswalks, and racial minorities are disproportionately represented in pedestrian fatalities. Research tested the hypothesis that drivers’ would demonstrate unequitable yielding based on pedestrians’ race and gender in …

Posterior Predictive Critique Of A Psychometric Bayesian Model For Assessing Aphasia, Ashlynn Crisp

Mathematics and Statistics Dissertations, Theses, and Final Project Papers

For persons with aphasia, naming tests are useful for assessing the severity of the disease and observing progress toward recovery. The Philadelphia Naming Test (PNT) is a leading naming test composed of 175 items. The items are common nouns which are one to four syllables in length and with low, medium, and high frequency. Since the target word is known to the administrator, the response from the patient can be classified as correct or an error. If the patient commits an error, the PNT provides procedures for classifying the type of error in the response. Item response theory can be …

Woman Turned Warrior: An Analysis On The Strong Female Character Trope And The Influence It Has On Gender Stereotypes Through The Use Of Back Cover Copy, Alexandria Gonzales

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research paper analyzes the language of young adult fantasy back cover copy and how the language is used within the Strong Female Character trope that is often found in fantasy fiction. The paper also looks at the influence this trope has on perpetuating gender stereotypes. This was done through the use of content analysis—word frequency, gendered word analysis, and thematic coding. Gendered word analysis provides qualitative evidence for the presence of gendered language in back cover descriptions, while word frequency and thematic coding provide additional context. The research found that there is a bias toward portraying women characters with …