Digital Commons Network^™

Respecting The Spectrum: Creating A Gender Inclusive Structured Diagnostic Intake Interview, Natalia Andino-Rivera

Dissertations

Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people, more than ever, are in need of and actively seeking out services in order to cope with the reality of being transgender in the United States. This includes requiring assistance from local and federal governmental systems that do not provide protections for equal housing, workplace discrimination, and healthcare provisions, much less hate crime investigation and prosecution. In 2011, 75% of transgender people were or had been in therapy in the past, with a further 14% intending to participate in therapy in the future. Recently, the newly elected President Joseph Biden issued an executive order (EO) …

An Evaluation Of One School's Reading Program To Support Struggling Readers Through The Use Of Data, Gabrielle Jones

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of one school’s reading intervention program, and its impact on struggling readers reading performance. Participants in this study included administrators, Grades 3 through 5instructional staff that directly impact student learning in reading through reading instruction. I collected survey data and analyzed it to determine teachers’ ability to instruct struggling readers with high expectations for student learning. As a result, this evaluation exhibit teachers require more quality planning time to prepare effective reading intervention lessons that includes strategies attained from strategically designed professional development structured to increase students’ reading ability. …

Closing The English Language Proficiency Gap In Post-Secondary Education In Canada, Priscilla Lothian-Hendrix

Dissertations

The proposed research employed a mixed-method approach to investigate why the linguistic standards of the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) (levels 5–8) are deemed satisfactory for English as a second language (ESL) learners at the college level. An examination of the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) identified why an ESL learner with a CLB level of 5–8 requires English support services in post-secondary education to achieve academic success in Canada. The CLB levels of six female participants were analyzed using a questionnaire in reading, writing, listening, and speaking to explore their English levels in articulating the language, pronouncing words, …

The Latino Achievement Gap: The Role Of Teachers In The Success Or Failure Of Latino Students, Sandra Gonzalez-Adamski

Dissertations

Understanding that the academic achievement of Latino students continues to lag behind their White peers, this study explored the role of the teacher in the success or failure of Latino school-age children. The methodology utilized for this research was qualitative. I used a narrative approach to discuss the thoughts, opinions, and insights of the six teachers interviewed for this study. The in-depth conversations with the participants suggested differences in how Latino and White teachers view their Latino students. Most of the White teachers suggested that academic achievement can be reached through explicit vocabulary instruction, reading a wide variety of books, …

A Case Study Of A Math Teacher Of Black Students: Examining Instruction That Addresses The Content Knowledge Gap Through Culturally Relevant Instruction, Theartris Childress Iii

Dissertations

This program evaluation focuses on the teaching practices of one Chicago Public School math teacher who has demonstrated success over time in the achievement of African American students. The primary research question explored how educators and leaders can learn from best practice research and case studies of exemplary math instruction the instructional and pedagogical skills needed to work effectively with African American students. Employing a qualitative research methodology, with data gathered from teacher interviews and other stakeholders, and observations, this study identified key components to improve mathematics instruction and culturally proficient practices. Policy recommendations and implications illustrate the need for …

Adapting Independent Reading For The Virtual Classroom, Ellen J. Foley

Dissertations

There is no doubt that the 2020-2021 school year was an unprecedented one. Around the world, COVID-19 school closures forced teachers to change their instructional practices with very little time, preparation, or guidance. While frustrating and challenging, experiences from this particular school year provide unique insight into pedagogical adaptations from in-person contexts to virtual ones.

This qualitative, grounded theory study examines the experiences of six secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and their adaptations of independent reading pedagogies for their virtual classrooms during the 2020-2021 COVID-19-impacted school year. Independent reading is a practice that depends on proximal classroom factors including …

Community Attitudes Toward Police In Benton Harbor And St. Joseph, Michigan, Brian Molina

Dissertations

The present study sought to help investigate which public safety interventions may be appropriate for improving the safety and quality of life of Benton Harbor community members. To begin answering this question, researchers collected baseline measures of community attitudes toward police (ATP). St. Joseph residents were sampled to allow for a direct comparison of two sister cities within the same county, with nearly opposite racial and economic characteristics.

To obtain these data, surveys were administered to both Benton Harbor and St. Joseph community members. There were nine demographic/predictor variables included in the community perception survey. The variables were (a) location, …

Investigating The Connection Between Teacher Professional Development And The Lesson Planning Process, Kyle B. Corlett

Dissertations

School districts across the country are facing increasing pressure to raise student achievement, specifically on state standardized tests (Buzick & Jones, 2015; Marsh & Farrell, 2015). Many states, including Michigan, connect teacher and administrator evaluations to student achievement (Revised School Code Act 451, 2003). The primary strategy school districts use to improve student achievement is professional development for its staff (Guskey, 2009). Professional development can consist of a variety of strategies to support educators in increasing their knowledge and skills, resulting in improved instruction and ultimately improved student achievement. This instrumental case study sought to explore how teachers experience the …

Teacher-Student Relationships And Their Effects On School Culture, Craig Curtis

Dissertations

Teacher-student relationships are an important part of every school’s culture. This study used surveys and interviews to find to what extent teacher-student relationships impact school culture. In the end, the research found that teacher-student relationships have a significant impact on school culture and an action plan and recommendations were suggested for the school’s continued growth and improvement in the area of school culture with a focus on teacher-student relationships.

Chemical And Biological Control Of Canker Disease Of Delonix Regia Caused By The Fungus Neoscytalidium Dimidiatum, Seham Mohammed Al Raish

Dissertations

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), royal poinciana (Delonix regia) trees suffer from stem canker disease. Symptoms of stem canker can be characterized by branch and leaf dryness, bark lesions, discoloration of xylem tissues, longitudinal wood necrosis and extensive gumming. General dieback signs were also observed leading to complete defoliation of leaves and ultimately death of trees in advanced stages. The fungus, Neoscytalidium dimidiatum DSM 109897, was consistently recovered from diseased royal poinciana tissues; this was confirmed by the molecular, structural and morphological studies. Phylogenetic analyses of the translation elongation factor 1-a (TEF1-α) of N. dimidiatum from the …

الإحالة وأثرھا في التماسك النصي: دراسة تطبیقیة في أشعار مانع سعید العتیبة, عائشة عبد لله عرار الظاھري

Dissertations

یركز ھذا البحث على ظاھرة الإحالة، وجاء بعنوان (الإحالة وأثرھا في التماسك النصي: دراسة تطبیقیة في أشعار مانع سعید العتیبة).

وتعُد (الإحالة) من أھم وسائل الترابط النصي، فالنصوص تعتمد علیھا بشكل كبیر في تماسكھا، فینتج عن ذلك نصوص ذات دقة دلالیة عالیة، وركزت الدراسة على إبراز سبل التماسك الإحالي في الأعمال الشعریة للشاعر، وإسھامھا بشكل كبیر في تشكیل النص وإبراز معانیھ، كما أن إحكامھا یؤدي إلى دقة التعبیر وتجنب اللبس، فقامت الدراسة على جزء نظري وجزء تطبیقي على دواوین مختارة من شعره.

وقد تناولت الدراسة تعریفات الإحالة وعناصرھا وأنماطھا، ومعاییر صحة الإحالة، كما بینت الوسائل والتقنیات التي تتحقق بھا الإحالة، …

Faith News In The Digital Age: New Muslim And Non-Muslim Residents Seeking Islamic Information In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Urwa Tariq

Dissertations

When non-Muslims become immersed in an Islamic way of life—a common occurrence in the UAE, a Muslim country where the overwhelming majority of the resident population is foreign-born—some become interested in learning more about the Islamic faith. This interest is also evident among new converts to Islam from other countries when they reside in the UAE. Little is known about how information about Islam is disseminated to non-Muslims and new Muslims in the UAE, how these expatriates search for the religious information they desire, and the challenges they encounter in their enquiries. This study applies the theory of the diffusion …

The Making Of The Man’S Man: Stardom And The Cultural Politics Of Neoliberalism In Hindutva India, Soumik Pal

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I trace the contours of state control and capital in India, starting from the 1970s and see how the state’s increasingly centralizing tendencies and authoritarianism, in the service of capital, creates cultures of violence, fatalism, desperation, and ultimately, even more desire for authoritarianism. I study male stardom in Bombay cinema, beginning withAmitabh Bachchan (who was the reigning star in the 1970s and 80s), and following up with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan (who have been successful stars from the early 90s), to understand how changing subjectivities, responding to changing socio-economic reality, were formulated and expressed through …

Methods For Extending Biomedical Reference Ontologies And Interface Terminologies For Ehrr Text Annotation, Vipina Kuttichi Keloth

Dissertations

Biomedical ontologies and terminologies are a cornerstone in various electronic health record systems (EHRs) for encoding information related to diseases, diagnoses, treatments, etc. Ontologies in general represent entities (concepts) and events along with all interdependent properties and relationships in an efficient way to facilitate easy access, retrieval and sharing. With the landscape of medicine rapidly changing, biomedical ontologies and terminologies need to rapidly evolve to support interoperability, medical coding, record keeping, and healthcare activities in general, and to facilitate interdisciplinary research. Extending ontologies by identifying new and missing concepts plays a vital role in the maintenance of ontologies to keep …

Impact Of User Traversal On Performance Of Stem Learners In Immersive Virtual Environments, Eric W. Nersesian

Dissertations

The emerging technologies of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) may have vast implications to societal communication and representation of information. AR/VR computer interfaces are unique in that they may be placed spatially around the user in three-dimensional (3D) space; this affords new methods of both presentation and user interaction with the target information.

This may be especially impactful in the education of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Prior research has shown that simulations and visualizations improve the performance of STEM learners compared to live instruction and textbook reading. Yet, research into AR/VR as a learning environment for widespread …

An Investigation Of Success Factors In A High School Algebra I Program, Sherri Kulpa

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate a high school Algebra I program through an examination of potential relationships among teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics, teachers’ instructional styles, students’ academic self-concept in mathematics, and students’ mathematics achievement in an Algebra I course. While a significant amount of research has focused on individual components of the study (e.g., instructional practices, academic self-concept), little research has been done to identify potential relationships between factors. Additionally, much of the available research focused on the elementary level leaving a gap in understanding how various factors were related to the success of …

The Associations Of Chronic Stress, Social Support, Health Behaviors And Metabolic Syndrome Among Hispanic Women, Edna Esquer

Dissertations

The Associations of Chronic Stress, Social Support, Health Behaviors and Metabolic Syndrome Among Hispanic Women

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence is 25% among Mexican American women 30 – 49 years of age, compared to 22% among non-Hispanic Whites in the United States. Little is known about the additional contributions of chronic stress, social support and health behaviors to the development of MetS among this population.

Purpose: Describe the associations between chronic stress, social support, and health behaviors and the presence of MetS in Hispanic women living in an underserved community.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study design. The Adult Treatment Panel …

Strategies For The Improvement Of Healthcare Through Simulation, Roger Lankheet

Dissertations

Title:Strategies for the improvement of healthcare through simulation

Background: Medical errors continue to plague the healthcare industry. The annual rates of morbidity are approximately 2.69 million (AHRQ, 2019), while mortality rates exceed 400,000 per annum (Makary & Daniel, 2016). There may be no panacea to combat these egregious rates. However, simulation of patient care events may better prepare healthcare professionals to prevent medical errors as it has been proven to be an effective learning strategy (Kirkham, 2018), enhancing skills while gaining experiential knowledge, without risk to actual patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a …

Emergency Department Visits And Hospital Admissions For Adult Cancer Patients Post Outpatient Chemotherapy: Does The Oncology Nurse Navigator Make A Difference?, Sunny L. Stirling

Dissertations

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. Oncology related hospital visits account for over $88 billion annually; 35% of this cost is attributable to inpatient hospital stays even though most cancer treatments are given outpatient. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced the Chemotherapy Measure which tracks Emergency Department visits and hospitalization within 30 days of any outpatient chemotherapy treatment. The Oncology Nurse Navigator (ONN) has offered some benefit in cancer care, but its role in ED visits and hospital admissions is unknown for adult patients with cancer post outpatient …

Corporal Punishment In Eastern Nigeria, Gerald N. Nwafor

Dissertations

In Nigeria, corporal punishment is used widely in Nigeria’s judicial system, the home, and the classroom. The prevalent opinion in the education community is that corporal punishment helps students learn better and faster, keeps order in the classroom, and promotes a high student performance level. Reliance on corporal punishment is embedded in the religious, cultural, social, and moral beliefs and understanding of life. Corporal punishment takes many forms, but the most common in the school system is caning or flogging, which is the forceful and severe striking of the student’s body, using a stick of wood, usually on the back, …

When Asca And Mtss Merge: A Case Study On Counselor Capacity And The Implementation And Monitoring Of Tier Two Interventions, Tram "Nikki" Dang

Dissertations

The national average student-to-counselor ratio is currently 477 students to one counselor; almost nearly double the 250:1 ratio that the ASCA National Model (2005) recommends. With the existing ratios as high as 1000 students per counselor, counselors and their respective counseling programs provide minimal impact (Carrell, S. E. & Carrell, S. A., 2006). In the Silicon Valley High School District (a pseudonym), high schools with high student-to-counselor ratios may result in subpopulations of students whose needs are not being served and or met. Although counselors express wanting to incorporate additional Tier Two interventions, counselor participants feel they do not have …

The Effectiveness Of California's System Of Support: Dashboard And Differentiated Assistance, As Perceived By County Office Of Education, Court And Community School Administrators, Jennifer Izant Gonzales

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to: (1) describe the perceptions of County Office of Education Court and Community School administrators on the accuracy of the California Dashboard/Dashboard Alternative School Status; (2) describe the perceptions of County Office of Education Court and Community School administrators about the efficacy of California’s System of Support, specifically Differentiated Assistance, on impacting equity-focused change in California County Office of Education Court and Community Schools; and (2a) describe the most impactful actions taken by County Office of Education Court and Community Schools related to California’s System of Support. This study was conducted using an integrated …

Subaltern Leadership Epistemologies: A Phenomenological Study Of Filipinx Administrative Leaders In Higher Education, Tricia Ryan

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of Filipinx American subaltern leadership epistemologies by unveiling participant life histories, alongside participant leadership approaches and practices carried-out in institutions of higher education in the Unites States. The unique experiences made available in this study provided for an emergence of critical examination into untapped narratives; valuable data from Filipinx voices who, in the research literature about Filipinx Americans, are cited as invisible in educational settings. In-depth qualitative phenomenological research utilizing a three-interview series approach was used to explore and charter the connections between lived experience and current leadership epistemologies for …

Exploring Food Traditions Within The Four Quarter Days Of The Irish Calendar Year, Caitríona Nic Philibín

Dissertations

This study explores food traditions in the four quarter days of the Irish calendar year. Imbolg or St. Brigid’s Day, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain mark significant moments in the agricultural calendar. Food traditions, customs and practices relating to these days are recorded in the abundant resources of the collections in the Folklore Department, University College Dublin. However, to date, with few exceptions, little food specific research has been carried out on these collections. This thesis aims to begin to fill that gap whilst highlighting many opportunities for further research. Throughout this process we witness the illumination of a rich food …

The Effects Of Academic Performance, Demographic Characteristics, Work, And Personal Experiences On Admissions To A Clinical Laboratory Science Training Program, Mara Williams

Dissertations

In this study, I sought to discover factors that contributed to candidate success in gaining admission to the San Jose State University Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) Training Program. Social Cognitive Career Theory suggests that the interplay between an individual’s personal characteristics and life experiences lead to self-efficacy expectations, learning experiences, and goal setting which crystalizes their choice of career. To understand these phenomena in the context of CLS candidates, I used quantitative methods to explore the influence of race, gender, age, work, and personal experience on the probability of a candidate gaining an interview or placing for clinical internship in …

Unresolved Issue In Education: Disproportionate Disciplining Of Hispanic Students In Education, Richard Ruiz

Dissertations

The disproportionate disciplining of Hispanic students has been a reoccurring issue that has persisted for decades. With the rising Hispanic populations nationwide and in the state of California, this issue must be addressed. Therefore, to contribute to the scholarship of this phenomenon, the author critically examined teacher and administrator perceptions and attitudes about students who embody a stereotypical urban street subculture. The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed-methods study was to examine the interplay of race, cultural capital, community, and communication, with the disproportionate disciplining of Hispanic students in schools where they are a minority population. The findings of this …

Perceptions Of The Influence Of Cell Phones And Social Media Usage On Students’ Academic Performance, Anne Tran

Dissertations

Cell phones, ubiquitous in many high schools, are often credited with helpingstudents connect with people and learn new concept. However, literature indicates that problematic cell phone and social media usage are negatively associated with student academic performance and mental well-being. As cell phone technologies continue to evolve, they become an integral part of today’s learning environment. Through the use of the documentary exploratory research method, this dissertation investigates stakeholders’ perceptions of the influence of cell phone and social media usage on high school students’ academic performance. Additionally, this study explores the current policies and practices regarding cell phone use in …

An Evaluation Of Timing Of Discharge Instruction And The Impact On Patient Satisfaction, Donald L. Tanner

Dissertations

Ambulatory surgical patients face unique challenges with discharge instruction comprehension and retention. The volume of information provided to patients, frequently combined with sedatives and narcotics, leads to failure to retain this crucial information needed for home care. At one healthcare facility, this failure to retain was reflected in the Outpatient Ambulatory Surgery- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS-CAHPS) survey scores which were below the facility goal of 75th percentile nationally. This project implemented a preoperative teaching intervention to provide written and verbal discharge instructions in the preoperative area prior to the administration of anesthetic agents to improve patient …

Leadership Development In Saudi Arabia’S Private Sector: A Mixed Methods Approach, Khaled Hanaky

Dissertations

There is currently a proliferation of business-focused leadership development programs in Saudi Arabia. These programs represent a reaction to the shortage of qualified leaders who can drive and sustain both recent and future advances introduced by Saudi Vision 2030, the national transformation program that is introducing social and economic reforms. Importantly, business leadership development has not been studied in this context of contemporary Saudi Arabia.

This study examined the state of Saudi leadership development programs by employing an explanatory sequential case study design that focused on a particular leadership development program. Through the use of surveys and participant interviews, results …

Impact Of Diabetes Self-Management Education On Adults With Diabetes And Mental Illness, Brooke Tullis

Dissertations

Approximately 9.4% of the population of the United States, or 30.3 million Americans, has diabetes mellitus. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death and places a significant financial strain on the healthcare system with approximately $327 billion in estimated expenditures. In Ohio, 13.5% of the population has diabetes, which represents a 4.1% increase above the national average. Additionally, individuals with mental illness are at an increased risk for diabetes due to lower self-efficacy and limited performance of self-care activities compared to the general population. This results in poor glycemic control and leads to an increased risk for diabetes complications. …