Digital Commons Network^™

A Quasi-Experimental Study Of Teaching Intercultural Sensitivity On Foreign Language Learning Motivation, Chunling Niu

Dissertations

Through an experimental intervention of a four-week cultural project based on the intergroup contact theory, this study sought to (a) explore the possible pedagogical effects on participants’ levels of Intercultural Sensitivity; and (b) investigate the complex interactions between learners’ Intercultural Sensitivity, Foreign Language Motivation, and their Language and Cultural Backgrounds. Sixty-eight Chinese learning students from a southcentral American university initially participated in the study, whereas only 43 participants completed the required activities and were pretested and posttested on Intercultural Sensitivity and Foreign Language Motivation. The 21 experimental group participants were instructed to complete four cultural assignments during February 2014, namely, …

Perceptions Of Incivility In Nursing Education: A Survey Of Associate And Baccalaureate Program Nursing Students, Kim Elaine Young Vickous

Dissertations

This study explored differences of nursing students’ perceptions of student and faculty incivility, measured using the Incivility in Nursing Education survey, across semesters and between Associate and Baccalaureate of Science nursing students. A sample of 262 Associate and Baccalaureate of Science nursing program students enrolled in second, third, and fourth semesters from a state university located in the mid-south participated in the study. Descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variance, and Independent t-tests were conducted to examine the research questions. These questions explored what student and faculty behaviors were perceived as uncivil and most frequently occurring (disruptive and threatening) uncivil behavior in …

The Great Divide: The Perceptions And Dynamics Of The Faculty And Staff Professional Relationship, Meredith L. Skaggs

Dissertations

The college community is built with several necessary components. When considering the faces of a college campus one visualizes the administration, faculty, staff, and students. Through these roles, each serves a function impacting the mission of the institution. Utilizing qualitative methods of interviews, observations, and document analysis this study examined the dynamics and interactions of two roles on a community college campus. The research sought to understand the perceptions of faculty and staff regarding one another and the ultimate impact on the community college campus culture. The data revealed a gap not only exists in the available literature on the …

Assessment Of Cultural Awareness In Communication Sciences And Disorders Students, Kimberly Green

Dissertations

As defined by Clinton (1996), cultural awareness is achieved when an individual becomes aware of the fact that culture can contribute to attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Cultural awareness (CA) is dependent upon an individual’s awareness of one’s own culture to the same degree as the awareness of outside cultures. It can be viewed as a prerequisite to a more complex understanding of this somewhat ambiguous concept. The topic of this quantitative study involves an examination of the level of cultural awareness among students in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) programs in the state of Kentucky. This dissertation threads literature and …

Habituation To Auditory Stimuli By Captive African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana), Sarah Elizabeth Goodyear

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Elephants are cognitive species that exhibit many types of learning. Associative, social, and insight learning have been investigated with elephants, but one of the simplest forms, habituation, has not. As an individual learns that a stimulus is neither harmful nor beneficial, it will decrease its response to the stimulus through the process of habituation. Elephants possess a well-developed sensory system and may habituate to stimuli that could be used for enrichment and/or management. The aim of this study was to examine the habituation process of elephants in response to repeated presentations of two auditory stimuli –buzzing by a disturbed beehive …

The Influence Of Social Interactions With American Students On Intercultural Sensitivity Of International Students In Higher Education Institutions, Shahbaz Munawar

Dissertations

International student enrollment in the United States has seen a steady growth in the last decade. A problem exists that although higher education institutions are able to meet the academic needs of international students, they are not properly equipped to address the cultural challenges these international student populations face. This study focused on the importance of universities introducing initiatives that consider international students’ lives and cultural learning when at U.S. campuses. The purpose of the study was to measure the intercultural sensitivity of international students based on social factors such as social interaction with Americans and their living choice. Data …

Acceptance Of Change: Exploring The Relationship Among Psychometric Constructs And Employee Resistance, Brian Dunican

Dissertations

Change is inevitable and can influence numerous events inside and outside an organization. The contrasting attitudes of acceptance and resistance to change are an increasingly interesting topic in today’s global, ever-changing, and competitive environment. Discovering the behavioral origins of employees’ reactions to change is an integral part of understanding the way in which individual mindset may play a role in coping with organizational change and resistance. This body of knowledge may give organizations insight for creating a competitive advantage over their counterparts. Conceivably, it can be argued that some researchers view change as a process of gradual adaptation that is …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 91, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Chhs May 2015 E-Newsletter,, Dr. John Bonaguro, Dean, Vashon S. Wells, Editor, Wku College Of Health & Human Services

College of Health & Human Services Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Forewarning On Suggestibility: Does It Depend On Working Memory Capacity?, William Barrett Corley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Suggestibility occurs when inaccurate information is incorporated into currently existing memories. The present study examined the effect of forewarning on suggestibility, including the influence of working memory capacity (WMC). The main hypotheses are that forewarnings will reduce suggestibility compared to the control group and that high-WMC will yield lower suggestibility compared to medium- and low-WMC. The final hypothesis is that WMC and forewarning will interact such that low-WMC individuals will benefit more than high-WMC individuals from the forewarning. A sample of 123 college students was recruited. Participants watched a clip of the TV-show 24. WMC was then assessed followed by …

Student Transition At A Residential Stem School, Olivia Kaitlin Gatten

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of this qualitative study was to gain insight into which personal factors most affect student adjustment in a state residential STEM school. Factors from Tinto’s Model of Institutional Departure were used as the framework to capture the transition of gifted high school students from traditional high school to The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, a statewide residential STEM school. Tinto’s Model predicts college persistence using pre-existing individual characteristics and institutional experiences. These qualities and experiences were used to form questions about student traits and transition. Questionnaires were administered to Gatton Academy first-year students, …

Career And Technical Education: The Impact Of Leadership On School Improvement And Student Achievement, Eric T. Keeling

Dissertations

The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) College and Career Readiness (CCR) Model elevated CTE in the public education arena forcing a paradigm shift in the administration of CTE across the Commonwealth. Instructional leadership and school improvement are viewed as important components of CCR. The perceptions of teachers concerning school improvement and the leadership behaviors exhibited by principals are essential in the daily operation of CTE schools. The purpose of the current study was to provide a body of knowledge revealing the relationships among Leadership, Instruction, and Student Achievement in the CTE setting. KDE adopted the Standards and Indicators for School …

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley, University College, Western Kentucky University

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Quantitative Assessment Of Moral Identity Be Improved?, David Adrion Baker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

According to results from Aquino and Reed (study 5, 2002) and Hall and Derryberry (2010), high means and very low standard deviations of the average score for each question for both the internalization and symbolization scales of the Moral Identity Scale (MIS) are common. This study attempts to measure the extent to which a person considers morality to be a central part of his or her self-concept. Because participants may feel pressure to respond in a certain way on the MIS, the role of social desirability to respond favorably is very plausible. The current study, therefore, attempts to reduce socially …

Using Critical Incidents: The Development Of A Behaviorally Based Training Program For Supervisor Citizenship Behavior And Feedback Skills, Jody J. Lecheler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It has been argued (Greer, 2013) that supervisors are a critical component in organizational effectiveness. Supervisors are required to hold many roles within the organization (Evans, 1965). Specifically, employees often see supervisors as representatives of the organization, while the organization depends on supervisors to maintain production (Greer, 2013). Many supervisors also fill a variety of other organizational roles such as mentor, trainer, motivator, disciplinarian, evaluator, and leader (Evans, 1965). For these reasons, effective supervisors are crucial to organizational success. The present study developed a behaviorally based training program for supervisors for a poultry processing organization. The training program content included …

Examining Quality Of Hire As A Function Of Person-Organization And Person-Job Fit At "Pharmco", Leah L. Palmer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In response to the millennial job-hopping fad and increasingly low retention rates organizations are facing, it is more important than ever that the best-fit candidate is chosen for the position and the organization. There are two common ways fit is typically defined: person-organization (P-O) fit is the congruence between an employee and the characteristics of a company; person-job (P-J) fit is the match between an employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) and the requirements of the job in the organization (Edwards, 1991; Kristof, 1996). A large pharmaceutical company developed a quality of new hire criterion measure as a function of …

Organizational Use Of Social Networking In Employment Actions, Cameron R. Lile

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined federal court cases related to the use of social media websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn) in various employment practices (e.g., selection, promotion, employee monitoring, layoffs). Court cases were identified using various online databases in an attempt to create an exhaustive list of cases to be used to better understand the role that social media has played in organizational settings and the legal implications of its use. The results of this study show that there were a significant number of cases involving termination and Facebook, and organizations prevailed in court significantly more than the defendant did. The …

A Framework For Clinical Healthcare Process Design: Investigating Applicability To Lean, Samuel Blake Ellsworth

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Healthcare delivery is a process-driven sequence of patient care treatments and services. A prescribed method for process design is required in order for healthcare organizations of the future not just to innovate, but to safely provide highly-reliable patient care. Some healthcare organizations have established the utilization of lean methodologies as a tool for process improvement. Other philosophies and methods such as Six-Sigma have also been introduced into hospitals to guide quality. Many of these efforts have provided theories or perspectives of quality improvement without being firmly connected to a model of application relative to clinical process design, process formulation, or …

Adapting The Standard Sir Disease Model In Order To Track And Predict The Spreading Of The Ebola Virus Using Twitter Data, Armin Smailhodzic

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A method has been developed to track infectious diseases by using data mining of active Twitter accounts and its efficacy was demonstrated during the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014. Using a meme based n-gram semantic usage model to search the Twitter database for indications of illness, flight and death from the spread of Ebola in Africa, principally from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Memes of interest relate disease to location and severity and are coupled to the density of Tweets and re-Tweets. The meme spreads through the community of social users in a fashion similar to nonlinear wave propagation- …

Foreign Language Anxiety Among Japanese International Students In The U.S., Nana Okada

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study aims to investigate the foreign language anxieties Japanese international students at American universities have and the relationship between these anxieties and length of stay in the U.S. 151 Japanese international students answered a modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) followed by demographic questions. The findings from the questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS 21 software. Results indicated a statistically significant relationship between students’ level of anxieties and the length of stay in the U.S. Implications for teachers and government officials in Japan, as well as for teachers and university administrators in …

Prospects For Improving Bilingual Education: An Analysis Of Conditions Surrounding Bilingual Education Programs In U.S. Public Schools, Jennifer A. Gorman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bilingual education is a subject of debate in education. Some claim that bilingual education programs are detrimental to students, but decades of research supports the benefits of bilingualism and bilingual education for both English Language Learners and monolingual English speakers. The U.S. does not have bilingual education programs in proportion to the needs that these programs could meet for students in public schools. If bilingualism is beneficial, then why do we not have more bilingual education programs? Research extensively covers the internal components of bilingual education programs but only touches on the effect of the external conditions necessary for program …

Curriculum Based Measurement-Written Expression: Effects Of Choice And Interest On Third Graders’ Writing, Morgan L. Schrader

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) has many effective uses in the school system and its use is increasing. Most CBM research focuses on the area of reading and little on writing. Only one study was found that examined the effects of choice in story starters on students’ writing performance, and a few studies examined the effects of interest level of writing topics, although none using CBM as a measure. Past research has indicated girls score significantly higher on CBM measures of writing than boys. This study investigated if choice and interest level in a story starter topic have an effect on students’ …

Hearing Sensitivity And The Effect Of Sound Exposure On The Axolotl (Ambystoma Mexicanum), Amy K. Fehrenbach

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) has been used as a model organism for studying development, genetics, and regeneration. Although the sensory hair cells of the lateral line of this species have been shown to be able to regenerate, it is not known whether this also occurs in the inner ear. In fact, little is known about the hearing capabilities of the axolotl or other salamander species. I recorded auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) of six axolotls at eleven frequencies (0.1, 0.25, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, and 6 kHz) in order to produce baseline audiograms of underwater pressure sensitivity. …

Organizational Change In Volunteer-Based Organizations: Communication Change Strategies In Church Congregations, Daniela Viviana Fuentes Riffo

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study fills a gap in the communication and management literature by providing additional insight regarding the effective communication strategies used by church leaders during organizational change. The researcher sought to find out how beliefs held by church members predicted their receptivity to change and their intent to leave their organization. Participants from diverse church denominations (N = 208) completed an online survey questionnaire asking them to think about a particular change they had experienced in their current or former church. The results of statistical analysis showed: (a) Church members´ beliefs regarding discrepancy, efficacy, principal support, and valence, positively …

Ua45/6 Commencement Program, Wku Registrar

WKU Administration Documents

Commencement program listing graduates.

Further Evaluating The Effect Of Behavioral Observability And Overall Impressions On Rater Agreement: A Replication Study, Patrick Sizemore

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This replication study sought to analyze the effects of behavioral observability and overall impressions on rater agreement, as recently examined by Roch, Paquin, & Littlejohn (2009) and Scott (2012). Results from the study performed by Roch et al. indicated that raters are more likely to agree when items are either more difficult to rate or less observable. In the replication study conducted by Scott, the results did not support the relationship which Roch et al. found between observability and rater agreement, but did support the relationship previously found between item difficulty and rater agreement. The four objectives of this replication …

The Effects Of Anticipated Feedback Proximity On Performance: Exploring The Moderating Role Of Self-Efficacy And Task Type, Xingya Xu

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study investigated the effect of anticipated feedback proximity (immediately after completing the task or one week later) on performance and the moderating role of self-efficacy and task types (analytical or creative). I hypothesized that expecting rapid feedback should yield better performance than expecting delayed feedback, for people with high self-efficacy or those who receive analytical tasks. For those who receive creative tasks or have low self-efficacy, expecting rapid feedback may produce negative impact on performance. The results indicated a trend of main effect of anticipated feedback proximity. Specifically, participants performed better when they expected immediate feedback relative to …

The Influence Of Texting And Virtual Peers On Adolescent Alcohol Use, Eric Steven Gregory

Dissertations

The Social Development Theory has guided substance abuse prevention planning and programming for the past two decades. One of the key risk factors cited in and targeted by Social Development Model strategies is that of the influence of peers on adolescent substance use. With the advent of modern cellular technology, the manner in which adolescents currently interact has shifted in preference from that of traditional face-to-face to interaction through text messaging. Recent research has suggested a link between the frequency of adolescent texting behavior and adolescent substance use. This shift in interaction may influence the mechanisms of peer influence and …

The Assessment Of Organizational Culture And Servant Leadership Within An African American Church: A Descriptive Study Of Behavioral Norms And Expectations, Walter Malone Iii

Dissertations

The lack of success in nonprofit organizations often is due to challenges in management (Drucker, 2008). Faith-based organizations are not immune to these problems. The church struggles to live out its mission, often due to ineffective practices (Barna & Jackson, 2004). Chand (2011) asserted that it is the culture of an organization that builds or erodes its effectiveness. In the context of the church, servant leadership practices are considered to be a contributing factor to organizational effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine organizational culture and servant leadership as perceived by the leadership team of an African American …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 51, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Harney, Lashana. The Elephants in the Room – Politicians, Hal Heiner, James Comer, Matt Bevin
• Harney, Lahsana. A Look Back: Ransdell Hall Turns 4 Years Old
• Rogers, Shelby. Swimming Team Attorney, Gold Medalist Speak About Suspension – Brian Lowder, Hazing, Claire Donahue
• Ponder, Abby. WKU Elizabethtown / Fort Knox Campus Offers Military, Nontraditional Students Opportunities
• Profumo, Morgan. Truth Be Told: The Difference Between a Perfect Relationship or a Masked Dictatorship
• Parker, Jacob. A Tentative Student Syllabus for Fall 2015 Professors
• Lafser, Erica. Adjusting to Autism – Robert Dietle, Samuel …