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We Travel Together: Examining The Drivers And Functions Of Animal Movement In Biotic Seed Dispersal, Binod Borah

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Plants and frugivorous animals exist in mutually beneficial relations, as these animals feed on fruits, ingest the seeds, and carry them away from the parent trees. Such dispersion of seeds over space helps them colonize new habitats, escape high mortality rates near their parent trees, and avoid competition with conspecifics. Therefore, seed dispersing animal movement can be critical for the persistence of plant populations. Yet what drives such seed disperser movement is often less understood and how it affects seed dispersal is little explored. In my dissertation, I investigate multiple drivers of seed disperser movement, link movement to potential seed …

Exploring The Process Of Mindful Breathing With Stressed Mothers, Caleb D. Farley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mindfulness exists in many parenting and family interventions and are intended to decrease stress, improve familial relationships, and indirectly improve child wellness, and these mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) are relatively effective at doing so. However, critical issues remain related to designing effective and useful interventions for school-based and other community practitioners. Specifically, research has not demonstrated clear relationships between parent mindfulness practice increasing generalized mindfulness behaviors (i.e., awareness and acceptance), experiencing subsequent parental stress reduction, and reporting decreased behavior problems in children. The current study examined these relationships between practicing mindfulness and experiencing changes in parents’ mindfulness process, wellbeing, and perceptions …

The Relation Between Racial Attitudes And Facets Of Impulsivity, Diana M. Perez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Racism is an ongoing issue in U.S. society. The present study examined the relation between racial attitudes and two types of impulsivity (i.e., behavioral inhibition and delay discounting). Prior research has not touched upon the relationship between impulsivity and racial bias; nonetheless, the factors that influence the ability to interfere with automatic thinking and bad decision making may be a way to address racial bias. One hundred eighty-seven White adult participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online survey taking website. The value participants place on future rewards (i.e., delay discounting) and the ability to stop their behavior …

Student Perceptions Of Male And Female Instructors In A Post-Secondary Welding Course, S. Kjersti R. Decker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Agricultural mechanics and welding have traditionally been perceived to be careers reserved for males, yet more females have entered professions using welding such as agricultural education. This research was developed because of the lack of gender research in welding. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perceptions of learning from a male instructor versus a female instructor in a post-secondary welding course. We examined associations and differences between students’ preference of a male and a female welding instructor as well as individual self-efficacy and perceptions towards using welding technology. The population for this study was undergraduate students and …

Connections Between Mathematics And Computational Thinking: Kindergarten Students' Demonstration Of Mathematics Knowledge In A Computational Thinking Assessment, Lise E. Welch Bond

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research shows that computational thinking can be used with kindergarten mathematics instruction, however we still do not know much about how specific math knowledge is related to computational thinking and if (and if so, how) children's mathematical knowledge is related to students' performance on computational thinking assessments. This student fills this knowledge gap by examining the following research questions: (1) How are kindergarten students' mathematical knowledge (MK) and computational thinking (CT)MK and CT operationalized during a CT assessment? In what ways, if any, do MK and CT co-occur, and (2) How do students' mathematical knowledge and co-occurring mathematical knowledge and …

Teachers’ Learning Of Fraction Division With Area Models, Michael Leitch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research shows that fractions concepts play an essential role in the learning of later mathematics. However, fractions are notoriously difficult to learn and difficult to teach. Division with fractions is a frequent subject in mathematics education research because division is the most conceptually difficult of the four basic arithmetic operations and rational numbers are the most conceptually difficult numbers in K-12 mathematics curricula.

In the U.S., teachers are generally proficient with mathematical procedures, but often have difficulty explaining the concepts underlying the procedures. Research indicates a positive association between student learning and teachers’ depth of conceptual understanding of mathematics. Thus, …

Board Certified Behavior Analysts In Public Schools: Challenges And Opportunities, Danielle Lyons

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) can play an important role in schools. The purpose of this study was to survey BCBAs who self-identify as working in public schools in effort to learn more about their experiences working in this setting. This paper is meant to spark further discussion and research on how BCBAs can be more effective in schools through training and supervision, collaborating with school administrators on systems-level concerns, resolving ethical concerns, and clarifying roles and responsibilities in public schools.

Who Is Accessing Ipse Programs? Examining The Demographics Of Students Enrolled In Inclusive Post-Secondary Education, Madison Heider

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This initial survey study was designed to examine the demographics of students attending inclusive post-secondary (IPSE) programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). IPSE programs are designed to deliver a similar, if not identical, collegiate experience to students with IDD as their peers without disabilities. Previous research has investigated IPSE programs and their impact, but there is limited information regarding student makeup. The researchers looked to identify the diversity of students beyond their disability categories; research questions surrounded student diversity, barriers to accessing IPSE programs, and what, if anything, programs do to increase diversity within their programs. The …

Recreational Fishing Participation In Utah: Comparing Active And Non-Active Angler Constraint Perceptions With The Use Of License Purchase Data, Will Rempel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As a leisure activity, recreational fishing provides numerous social, physical, and psychological benefits to its participants. It can also provide socioeconomic opportunities to specific communities, and as an outdoor activity can create support for natural fisheries resources and public lands. License and equipment taxes are also important funding mechanisms for state wildlife managers. Though fishing participation as a percentage of the population has overall decreased in the last century, there is a recent increase in fishing participation. However, participation dynamics result in a shifting cycle of entries, departures, and re-entries to the sport. In an effort to maintain participation and …

Differing Mastery Criteria Effects On Maintenance Of 1-Step Instruction Following In Children With Disabilities, Kyle Wagner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The majority of Early Intervention clinics throughout the United States are currently using a practice that is not considered evidence based. When teaching skills to children with developmental disabilities, clinicians assign an accuracy standard for those skills. The most common accuracy standard, called a “mastery criterion,” is 80% across three teaching sessions. There is little to no evidence to support using this specific mastery criterion. The purpose of this study was to add more research regarding this topic, and how it affects how the skills taught maintain over time when teaching has ceased for a specific skill. Two children were …

Young Children's Nutrition, Growth, And Cognitive Development In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Kristin N. Murphy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The first few years of life are viewed as a critical period for development. Children who do not grow and develop well in these early years can experience life-long negative implications. Many children under the age of five in Ecuador suffer from high rates of malnutrition, stunting (low height-for-age), and delayed cognitive development. This dissertation aims to better understand why children from Ecuador, specifically from the Amazon region, are experiencing such high rates of delayed development. Fifty children and their mothers living in the Amazon region of Ecuador participated in this research study.

First, interviews were conducted by an Ecuadorian …

Prefrontal Activation During Inhibition Of A Balance Recovery Step, Ezinne Abugu

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The ability to quickly step is an important strategy to avoid a fall. However, real-world settings often constrain a stepping path. Such constraints necessitate response inhibition to prevent an inappropriate step and select a new course of action to ultimately recover balance. The present study investigated neural mechanisms that underlie this ability to stop a highly automatic balance recovery step. In the field of cognitive neuroscience, response inhibition has typically been researched using focal hand reaction tasks performed by seated participants. This approach combined with neuroimaging has revealed a neural stopping network, which includes the right Inferior Frontal Gyrus (right …

Immigrants’ Attitude Toward Immigration, Aflatun Kaeser

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study analyzed the relationship between immigration attitudes and demographic and socioeconomic factors. It examined the difference in attitudes toward immigration in the immigrant population using General Social Survey 2021 data. The analysis with an ordered probit model reveals significant relationships between immigration attitude with several socioeconomic and demographic factors and how that differ between natives and immigrants. As age increases, support for limiting immigration increases, but this is not true for immigrants. With the increase of years of education, support for limiting immigration decreases; however, in the immigrant population, support for limiting immigration increases as the education level increases. …

Historic Downtown Streetscape Plan Price City, Utah, Patricia Beckert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The idea of a small-town Main Street has profound meaning within the American culture that has prevailed for the past two centuries. Historically, Main Street serves as the beating heart of a community, a place where economic, social, cultural, and civic activities are centered (Francaviglia, 1996; Main Street America, n.d.). Since the beginning of the 19th century, many factors have led to the decline of Main Streets, and despite a variety of efforts from different stakeholders, that decline has only intensified in recent decades (Isenberg, 2008; Orvell, 2014 Howard, 2015). In 1980, after a three-year project conducted by the National …

Utah State University Commencement, 2023 – Eastern Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2023 Commencement Ceremony for the Eastern campus of Utah State University.

Utah State University Commencement, 2023 – Uintah Basin Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2023 Commencement Ceremony for the Uintah Basin campus of Utah State University.

Elementary Classroom Views Of Nature Are Associated With Lower Child Externalizing Behavior Problems, Amber L. Pearson, Catherine D. Brown, Aaron Reuben, Natalie Nicholls, Karin A. Pfeiffer, Kimberly A. Clevenger

Kinesiology and Health Science Faculty Publications

Exposure to nature views has been associated with diverse mental health and cognitive capacity benefits. Yet, much of this evidence was derived in adult samples and typically only involves residential views of nature. Findings from studies with children suggest that when more greenness is available at home or school, children have higher academic performance and have expedited attention restoration, although most studies utilize coarse or subjective assessments of exposure to nature and largely neglect investigation among young children. Here, we investigated associations between objectively measured visible nature at school and children's behavior problems (attention and externalizing behaviors using the Brief …

Vertical Accountability Among Ministries Of State In An Emerging Economy: A Case Study Of Ghana, Joseph Ofori Acheampong, Michael K. Dzordzormenyoh, Justice Nyigmah Bawole, Albert Ahenkan, Emmanuel Kojo Sakyi

Political Science Student Research

Since 1992, Ghana has implemented several initiatives and reforms such as the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACAP), Right to Information (RTI) Act, Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) with the goal of improving accountability while reducing corruption. These policies provide researchers with a lot of opportunities to examine how effective these programs have been as well as their impact on accountability. Hence, the present study seeks to accomplish three main objectives: 1) to explore the factors that facilitate vertical accountability; 2) to explore the limitations to vertical accountability; and 3) to investigate the …

Utah State University Commencement, 2023 – Tooele Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2023 Commencement Ceremony for the Tooele campus of Utah State University.

Utah State University Commencement, 2023 – Kaysville Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2023 Commencement Ceremony for the Kaysville campus of Utah State University.

Utah State University Commencement, 2023 – Southwest Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

2023 Commencement Ceremony for the Southwest campus of Utah State University.

“It’S Not Always Poor Decisions”: Shifts In Business Student’S Attitudes Toward Poverty After Completing Spent, Jessica M. Parks

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) study examined whether undergraduate business students reported having different attitudes towards poverty after completing SPENT. SPENT is an open-access, digital poverty simulation offered through Urban Ministries of Durham. The author used the Reflexive Thematic Analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to analyze 17 student reflection papers. The students were enrolled in an introductory finance course at a small teaching institution in the Southwest. The student reflection paper prompts were based on the four-phase Experiential Learning Model (Kolb, 1984). The author constructed four themes about …

Promoting Student Reflection Through Reflective Writing Tasks, Elena Taylor

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Reflection is a necessary component of learning. Through reflective assignments and tasks, students are given opportunities to evaluate their learning and analyze strategies they use while acquiring and applying course material. Reflections also help students assess and think deeply about the information presented in class and thus better retain it. Through reflecting on their learning, students are also given the opportunity to formulate goals for future improvement. Reflective tasks can be implemented in any classroom, and writing is a powerful tool to do that. This article describes several writing tasks that …

On Becoming Online Educators: Developing Hybrid Learning-Centered Pedagogy, Rachel Toncelli Edd, Leila Rosa Phd

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Recent global events pushed in-person learning to online formats. As K-12 teachers struggled with shifting from in-person to online teaching while adapting and adjusting instruction, and higher education prepared to do the same, two faculty members in a TESOL teacher preparation program joined forces to question assumptions about online teaching, reflect on praxis, and revisit pedagogy and practices through a critical autoethnographic study. Building from adult constructivist learning theory and collegial inquiry, the researchers utilized the pandemic as a stage for innovation and an opportunity to study their own ability, as …

A Participatory Exercise In Developing Syllabi With Adult Learners, Laneshia Conner, V. Nikki Jones, Jason P. Johnston

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Transformative participatory approaches in education are positioned to challenge traditional models where instructors bear all responsibility for knowledge creation and learners are passive recipients of knowledge. The promotion of participatory learning and critical pedagogy is essential to helping professionals seeking to understand oppressive structural barriers and employing strategies to dismantle these structures. This article describes a participatory approach undertaken to guide learners through an exercise to co-create syllabus content in a graduate social work course. Learners identified three themes, concerns, fears, and problems, related to the course material. Learners were also …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 7, Issue 1, Spring 2023

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Spring 2023 issue (Volume 7, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The Spring 2023 issue presents research and guidance on topics related to student self-reflection, participatory learning, and returning to the in-person learning following the COVID-19 pandemic. The first article takes a critical approach to understanding pedagogy with adult learners by involving students in the creation of course syllabi as a way to challenge ideologies related the roles of instructor and students. The second article blends research and narrative to explore how the experiences of …

The Utah Statesman, April 17, 2023, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Processes Of Change In Online Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Hoarding, Jennifer Krafft, Julie M. Petersen, Clarissa W. Ong, Michael P. Twohig, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Initial research suggests that acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is efficacious in treating hoarding problems, but processes of change in ACT for hoarding are unclear. Thus, we investigated potential mediators and moderators in a randomized waitlist-controlled trial (n = 73) of web-based ACT for U.S. adults with clinically significant hoarding problems. Hoarding severity was significantly correlated with hoarding-related psychological inflexibility (r = 0.52, p < .01), mindful awareness (r = −0.40, p < .01), and beliefs that people with hoarding disorder are different from others (r = 0.31, p < .01). Effects of ACT were not significantly moderated by age, gender, or baseline hoarding-related psychological inflexibility. Longitudinal mediation analyses did not support mediation by hypothesized processes. However, the effect of condition on hoarding severity at follow-up was significantly mediated by hoarding-related psychological inflexibility at follow-up (ab = −0.41 [95% CI: 0.85, −0.01]), and change in hoarding-related psychological inflexibility (r = 0.73, p < .01) and mindful awareness (r = −0.69, p < .01) was correlated with change in hoarding symptoms over time. Overall, our results suggest that psychological inflexibility, self-stigma, and mindful awareness are indeed related to hoarding symptoms, but we cannot conclude that they underly the effects of ACT for hoarding. Limitations include a predominantly White and female sample.

Effects Of Pornography On Relationships, Naomi Brower

All Current Publications

Pornography is not a new issue in relationships; however, the expansion of the Internet appears to have increased pornography viewing and exacerbated pre-existing tendencies. This fact sheet reviews some of the impacts of pornography on partner relationships and provide steps toward healing a relationship hurt by pornography.

Progress Report On The Effect Of Introducing Biological And Environmental Discipline-Themed Problems In Engineering Mechanics Statics On Students’ Self-Efficacy And Perceived Value Of The Course, Yemisi Oyewola

Student Research Symposium

This study extends the previous research which examined the effect of introducing biological and environmental discipline-themed problems in Engineering Mechanics Statics on students’ Self-Efficacy (SE) and perceived value (PV) of the course. The previous research was carried out using pooled data from 133 participants over 3 semesters. Additional data from 126 participants were collected over the next two semesters making it a total of 262 participants. The result from the previous study showed a statistically significant increase in the perceived value of the students even though their self-efficacy did not significantly change. However, despite an increased sample size, the result …