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An Overburdened Term: Dewey’S Concept Of “Experience” As Curriculum Theory, Jayson O. Seaman, Peter J. Nelsen

Kinesiology

This article examines Dewey’s concept of ‘experience’ in light of his analysis of industrial capitalism, his anthropological thinking, and his critique of early 20th century educational ideologies, giving the concept a more expansive meaning than what is typically represented in the educational literature. We also outline the specific curricular logic Dewey established in the early 20th century, which was intended to realize his overriding aim of establishing controls over an increasingly corrosive social, economic and technological order brought about by industrial capitalism, while still promoting individual development. Preliminary links between ‘experience’ and contemporary curriculum models are also examined.

"I Remember When You Taught Me That!" Developmental And Gender Differences In Children's Episodic Memories Of Learning Events During The Early School Years, Rhyannon H. Bemis

Doctoral Dissertations

The study presented in this dissertation was designed to investigate young children's ability to accurately recall episodic (i.e., specific-one-moment-in-time) memories of learning events and whether this ability was related to another metacognitive skill, source monitoring. Further, the study investigated possible gender differences in the ability to recall learning events. Sixty children, ages four to six years, participated in two staged learning events about two novel topics, the Aleutian Islands and the visual system. Following a delay, children were interviewed and asked both general factual knowledge questions and questions about the target material learned in the staged events. Children were asked …

Three Elements Of Self-Regulated Learning: Metacognitive Functioning, Self-Efficacy, And Study Behavior, Catherine E. Overson

Doctoral Dissertations

Individuals' metacognitive insight regarding their own performances -- what people think they know about what they know -- is often flawed. Students' metacognitive functioning was examined in two studies. In Study 1, exam performance estimates compared with actual scores were assessed across three in-class exams. Results demonstrated a systematic tendency for lower performers to overestimate their exam performances. Top performers underestimated their performance. In Study 2, an incentive to be as accurate as possible in exam performance estimations ($50 gift card) did not reduce estimation miscalculations for either bottom or top performers.

In Study 1, higher levels of students' self-efficacy …

Linking Goals To Outcomes: Exploring Students' Achievement Goals, Strategy Use, And Standards Of Success For Learning, Kirsten Nerissa Koritz

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored stability in achievement goals and learning behaviors within a two-part learning project. Based on previous literature exploring stability in achievement goal orientation, it was hypothesized that students' goals and self-efficacy would show evidence of change within and between the two task sessions. This was tested through a series of self-report surveys. Literature on the relationship between achievement goals and reading strategies showed that mastery oriented students used more reading strategies than performance oriented students. This was tested by imposing a performance oriented measure on one half of the participants. Data was analyzed with quantitative methods. Findings from …

Ocular Dominance And Temporal Dynamics In The Venetian Blind Effect, Joshua Jay Dobias

Doctoral Dissertations

The visual system can use small disparities between the stimuli seen by each eye as a binocular cue for depth. Geometric disparities are the most commonly used cue for stereopsis, but disparities in contrast and luminance can also lead to the perception of depth and both can cancel perceived depth from a geometric disparity. Humans are able to perceive changes in depth from contrast disparities at frequencies up to approximately 1.4 Hz, whereas changes in depth from geometric disparities are visible at frequencies above 5 Hz (Dobias, 2008). This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part (experiments 1 …

"The Alien Within": Residual Catholicism And The Emerging National Identity Of Post-Reformation England, Melissa K. Siik (Femino)

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to the current critical discourse in Early Modern English Studies on the conceptions and literary representations of national and racial identity in 16th- and 17th-century England. Central to this discourse is an examination of how the English defined themselves in relation to those they deemed as "others": the foreign and marginalized members of society. My study is unique because I look at individual figures of "otherness"---the Irishman, the Turk, and the Jew---in light of their common characteristic: their shared significance as coded figures of Catholicism. Ultimately, my dissertation unifies disparate conversations about race, religion, and politics in …

An Analysis Of Appreciative Inquiry As Organizational Development For An Alternative School, Michael Young

Doctoral Dissertations

Schools and youth development programs are continually under pressure to reform and improve. Recent scholarship in the organizational development field suggests that a post modern approach to such efforts may yield new and generative results. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an Action Research methodology used for organizational development that is based on a number of post modern assumptions. Because AI has seen a rapid increase in use, including implementations in educational settings, and because of its potential to offer new insights into organizational development, a further understanding of how it works is warranted.

This interpretive case study, grounded in a social …

"If We Want An Education, We Want An Education It's Our Choice": How Four Youth At Risk Of Dropping Out Of High School Experienced Social Capital, Joanne Mcfarland Malloy

Doctoral Dissertations

Youth who are at risk of dropping out of high school are often challenged by significant emotional and behavioral support needs, and are typically disengaged from the educational process and the social networks that can help them succeed in their homes, in school, and in their communities. This research project investigated the experiences of four youth, two females and two males, who were at significant risk of dropping out of high school as they were engaged in a supportive intervention designed to build skills in self-determination, school-to-adult life transition planning, and leveraging social resources. Using social capital as a sensitizing …

Raping The Raced Body: Trauma In Asian North American Women's Literature, Amy Lillian Manning

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the representation of racial and sexual traumas in short fiction and novels by Asian American women writing post-WWII to the present. The central focus of this project is on Asian American literary representations of the lingering effects of physical, racial, and sexual traumas to Asian American women, specifically the nuances of narrating traumatic experiences. Each chapter explores various literary representations of post-traumatic psychological states of unrest, instability, and incoherence. Most importantly, this study examines the frequently simultaneous narrations of sexual trauma and racial awareness, of how personal narratives of trauma against the physical body become entangled with …

Wage Employment, Traditional Subsistence, And Aspirations Among Inupiat And Yup'ik In The Mixed Economy Of Northwest Alaska, Catherine Turcotte-Seabury

Doctoral Dissertations

This project identifies, investigates, and analyzes factors contributing to the maintenance of a mixed economy in villages and regional centers largely inhabited by Inupiat and Yup'ik in three regions of Northwest Alaska. By examining employment and subsistence patterns, desires for relocation, and employment and subsistence aspirations, this research will contribute to the understanding of work (both traditional and modern), culture, and population shift within indigenous, Arctic populations.

The Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) is used in conjunction with aggregate demographic data from the Arctic Observation Network Social Indicators Project (AON-SIP) and interviews of residents in the Northwest …

The Effect Of Culture And Self-Construal On Memory Development: Mother-Child Conversations In Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey And The United States, Basak Sahin

Doctoral Dissertations

Eighty-seven mothers and their four-year-old children from Eastern Turkey (N = 32 mother-child pairs), Western Turkey (N =30 mother child pairs) and the United States (N = 25 mother-child pairs) participated in a study of mother-child memory talk, self-construal and parenting goals. Mother-child pairs were audio-recorded while drawing pictures and talking about shared past and anticipated future events. Mothers completed Balanced Integration-Differentiation questionnaires and were scored as high or low on individuation and relatedness orientations. They completed child rearing goals questionnaires that were scored for conformity, self-maximization and power factors. Memory and future talk differed across culture and self-construal groups. …

Proof And Reasoning In An Inquiry-Oriented Class: The Impact Of Classroom Discourse, Susan D. Generazzo

Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past decade, mathematics educators and researchers have become increasingly aware of the impact of social interactions on students' learning (NCTM, 2000; Bowers & Nickerson, 2001; Forman, 2003). Current research indicates that the classroom environment, including the activities and discussions that take place, can have a significant effect on the ways students make sense of mathematical concepts (Yackel, 2001). Understanding mathematics involves knowing how to make sense of key concepts through the processes of reasoning and justification. Educators and researchers agree on the importance of providing students with opportunities in class to explore, conjecture, and prove in order to …

The Deconstruction Of Ambition: Campus Climate, Stereotype Threat, And The Motivational Goals Of African American Students At A Selective Small Liberal Arts College, Roland S. Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

African American students face many challenges when they attend highly selective, predominantly White institutions. Lack of support for or belief in their academic success on the part of White faculty and peers may contribute to a climate in which it becomes increasingly difficult for African American students to be motivated and believe in their ability to excel academically. Studies suggest that an unsupportive racial climate on campus perpetuates "stereotype threat"---the conception that task performance can be affected by a fear of being evaluated on the basis of, or inadvertently perpetuating a stereotype about one's racial group, and a decade of …

Independently Innovative: Teachers And Change In Successful Schools, Mary Halpin Carter

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores teachers' perceptions of school change and leadership. The study is guided by the question: In an innovative independent school, how do teachers perceive deliberate change efforts and relate to the leaders who lead them. Other issues considered are the role of school culture, professional development and institutional goals in an effective change process. This research is distinctive in that it examines school change from the teachers' perspective and was conducted in a school that had previously demonstrated positive growth. The result is a qualitative, case study of one exemplary, independent school.

In the summer and fall of …

The Puzzle Of Long Swings In Equity Markets: Which Way Forward?, Nicholas J. Mangee

Doctoral Dissertations

The main purpose of this dissertation is to determine which class of models -- bubble or Imperfect Knowledge Economics (IKE) -- provides the better account of short-term stock price fluctuations -- and thus long-swings -- on the basis of empirical evidence. However, it is not clear how to test the bubble models' implication that pure psychological and technical momentum-related factors are the primary driver of stock price movements. Moreover, IKE models' implication that fundamentals are the primary drivers of stock price movements -- but that changes in this relation are non-routine -- is also problematic.

This thesis addresses these difficulties …

Examining The Relationship Between Social Capital And The Built Environment: A Case Study In Measuring Community Sustainability, Shannon H. Rogers

Doctoral Dissertations

The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are frequently described as having three main components, sometimes referred to as the three pillars or the triple bottom line: environmental, economic, and social. Because the origins of sustainability come from a desire to right environmental wrongs much consideration has been given to the environmental issues, especially how they interface with economic ones. Frequently mentioned but rarely examined, the social aspects of sustainability have been considered the weakest and least described pillar. This work explores the utility of social capital, the value of one's networks and connections, as a measure of sustainability. As …

Decoding Minority Student Retention: An Investigation Of Student Experiences And Institutional Characteristics, Stephanie S. Bramlett

Doctoral Dissertations

This study seeks to explain factors that contribute to the retention of black and Hispanic students from their first year through graduation at colleges and universities in the United States. Other studies have investigated the experiences of minority college students (Massey et al. 2006, Steele 1999, and Bowen and Bok 1998) and have focused primarily on student experiences. Using Bourdieu's (1973) conceptualization of capital as the theoretical backdrop, this study is a preliminary investigation of how student experiences and institutional characteristics influence college student graduation.

The study uses data from both the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen and the 2008 …

The Role Of Reuniens And Rhomboid Thalamic Nuclei In Spatial Memory, Jacqueline R. Hembrook

Doctoral Dissertations

Spatial working memory is the ability to encode and temporarily store information for future retrieval to guide behavioral responses. Two areas of the brain that are important for this process are prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus. The hippocampus has strong connections to medial PFC, however there are no direct return projections from medial PFC to hippocampus. The reuniens (Re) and rhomboid (Rh) nuclei of ventral midline thalamus have anatomical connections with PFC and hippocampus. This dissertation sought to provide behavioral evidence for the role of the ventral midline thalamic nuclei in spatial working memory. Four experiments were conducted in rats …

The Implications Of Socioeconomic Status And A Usual Source Of Care For The Health And Health Care Experiences Of Elders With Chronic Illnesses, Michelle L. Stransky

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently developed models of health care provision have promoted the relationship between providers and patient for improving care continuity and coordination. This may be especially important for the growing population of elders, who often have fragmented care because of multiple chronic illnesses. Previous research shows that elders who have a usual source of care (USC) have better health and health care experiences than other elders. However, research has rarely considered whether the benefits of USCs may be affected by the elder's socioeconomic status (SES), their levels of chronic illness, or various provider characteristics.

This dissertation utilizes the 2007 Medicare Current …

An Exploratory Approach To Social Impact Assessment Of Public Policy Decisions: Multiple Stakeholders Perspectives On The Social Impact Of Overfishing In New England Groundfisheries In The 1990s, Fabienne Lord

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis seeks to understand how stakeholders' perspectives and understanding of social impacts influence decision processes. Understanding stakeholders' comprehension of social impacts provides insight as to how they weigh these impacts against others when making decisions. Moreover, the way stakeholders influence, or are influenced by, management decisions provides information on the use and development of methodologies successful in assessing social impacts and communicating the results. Built on this information, the main objective is to explore and develop a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) approach that could capture and integrate multiple stakeholders' perspectives in predicting impacts from ongoing, renewable resource management actions. …

Net Resiliency: A Study Of Risk And Protective Factors In Single And Two-Parent Familes, Chad E. Depasquale

Master's Theses and Capstones

The main goal of this study was to discover how family makeup affects net resiliency scores of children. This quantitative study uses Two-Tailed t-tests, and Pearson correlation to uncover any relationships between net resiliency and living in a single or two-parent household. A sample of 91 children ranging from eleven to eighteen years old was utilized for the study's data collection. Their net resiliency scores, risk factors, protective factors, and family makeup were analyzed to discover any potential relationships between them. The analysis of these factors showed children living in single-parent families have: lower net resiliency scores, fewer protective factors, …

How Age And Religiosity Affect Forgiving Others, Andrew Schaefer

Master's Theses and Capstones

Using data from the General Social Survey (1998), Robert Wuthnow's Forgiveness Survey (1999), and ten in-depth interviews of members of an evangelical church (2010--11), I investigate three research questions: (1) How are age and religiosity related to people's attitudes toward forgiving others? (2) Do age and religiosity have the same effect on people's forgiving behaviors? (3) How do respondents' accounts of their own experiences forgiving others help explain and contribute to answers of the first two questions? I found that those with the highest levels of religiosity were most likely to have positive attitudes toward forgiving and to have engaged …

New Media Use And Rural Youth Substance Use, William Meub

Master's Theses and Capstones

Data from the Coos county youth survey is used to examine new media use habits and explore the relationship between new media use and substance use among two cohorts of rural youth (N = 657). Specifically, I present descriptive information on new media usage, examine whether new media use is related to substance use and explore a possible moderation relationship between substance use and negative substance-use-related behavioral outcomes. Older adolescents reported more new media use than younger adolescents but there was no evidence of sex differences in usage. Greater new media use was found to be related to greater substance …

University Of New Hampshire Undergraduate Course Catalog, 2011-2012, University Of New Hampshire

Undergraduate Catalog

No abstract provided.

First And Second Majors In Baccalaureate Programs (Spring Semester Counts) Durham And Manchester Degree Candidates Ten Years, 2002-2011, University Of New Hampshire. Institutional Research And Assessment

UNH Factbooks

University of New Hampshire factbook data from the 2010-2011 academic year

Annual Reports For Hart's Location School Year Ending June 30, 2010 Town Year Ending December 31, 2010., Hart's Location Town Representatives

Hart's Location, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Increased Nitric Oxide And Attenuated Diastolic Blood Pressure Variability In African Americans With Mildly Impaired Renal Function, Keith M. Diaz, Deborah L. Feairheller, Kathleen M. Sturgeon, Praveen Veerabhadrappa, Sheara T. Williamson, Deborah L. Crabbe, Michael D. Brown

Faculty Publications

We investigated the relationship between renal function, blood pressure variability (BPV), and nitric oxide (NO) in a group of African Americans with normal or mildly impaired renal function. 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was performed, NO measured, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) calculated in 38 African Americans. Participants were categorized as having normal (GFR > 90 mL/min per 1.73 m2) or mildly impaired (GFR 60–89 mL/min per 1.73 m2) renal function. Diastolic BPV was significantly lower in the mildly impaired renal function group. Regression analyses revealed a significant positive association between GFR and diastolic BPV for the entire study group. Plasma …

Graduate Degree Completions, 2001-2010, University Of New Hampshire. Institutional Research And Assessment

UNH Factbooks

University of New Hampshire factbook data from the 2010-2011 academic year

Belief Revision In The Context Of Reading Comprehension, Erinn K. Walsh

Master's Theses and Capstones

The goal of the present experiments was to explore the underlying cognitive processes that support individual belief revision. In three experiments the amount of relevant information pertaining to a misconception was systematically manipulated to assess the impact of text refuting a misconception and text explaining the correct information. Experiment I assessed the impact of the refutation. Experiment II assessed the joint impact of the refutation and the explanation. Finally, Experiment III assessed the impact of the explanation. Experiment I demonstrated that providing a refutation section that explicitly negated the misconception was sufficient to eliminate disruption when reading a sentence that …

The Needs Of Rural Homeless Families In Grafton County, New Hampshire: A Qualitative Inquiry, Pamela B. Thyng

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study explored the experiences of homeless families in the rural area of Grafton County in New Hampshire. In the literature review there is evidence that the needs of homeless people in rural areas are unique. Because of the unique needs of this population the service providers face different obstacles than their counterparts in urban areas. The researcher interviewed (N=7) homeless family members living in, or previously living in, a shelter as well as county government officials in the region. Through the use of a semi-structured interview and a grounded theory approach to the analysis of the data several themes …