Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Role Of Mentor Teaching, Through A Co-Teaching Model, In Secondary Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, And Self-Efficacy Toward English Learners: A Multiple-Case Study, Terry E. Flora

Dissertations

This dissertation presents the findings of an exploratory, multiple-case study in which eight public secondary school teachers engaged in a professional development (PD) program centered on improving teacher instruction for English learners (ELs). The participants worked as co-teachers with teacher credential candidates, serving as both mentors and collaborators in professional development. The PD program focused on improving participants’ instructional practices with ELs as a way to support the high numbers of ELs enrolled in California public schools. The PD included cycles of inquiry, collaborative dialogue within a professional learning community, working with a university consultant, ongoing reflection, and collaborating with …

Rebranding Mediocrity: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Common Core Textbooks For College-Bound Writers, E. Suzanne Ehst

Dissertations

This project analyzes the quality of high school writing textbooks from major publishers, textbooks purported to align with The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for writing. I measure the textbooks against the promise of CCSS’s tagline, “college and career readiness,” focusing specifically on the former goal to discern how “college-ready writing” is constructed and to analyze the degree to which the textbooks align with relevant research and theory in the fields of English Education and Rhetoric and Writing Studies. I begin the project by situating this study in current U.S. educational policy and rhetoric. Specifically, I describe the politicized rhetoric …

Teacher Evaluation In An Urban Setting: A View From The Trenches, Fabiola Fadda-Ginski

Dissertations

This study utilizes a mixed-methods methodology to examine how a teacher evaluation system is influencing the instructional practices of bilingual teachers in a large urban district. An on-line survey was administered to examine the bilingual teachers’ perceptions of the evaluation system. A focus group of bilingual teachers was later conducted to further investigate the data gathered through the survey. The combined results of this study’s findings show that the bilingual teachers believe that the evaluation system is making a positive difference in improving their instructional practices, particularly in the areas of Planning and Preparation and Questioning. The study also …

The Lived Experience Of Registered Nurses Caring For Patient Living With Hiv/Aids In Broward County, Florida: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Archimore Alexander Wright

Dissertations

Vulnerability, opportunistic infections, and infection-related illnesses, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIF), progressively overwhelms the human immune system resulting in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to slowly and non-discriminately spread continentally with dramatic consequences on the life expectancy of anyone who develops this pervasive illness/disease. The virus, HIV, is well documented and is commonly transmitted through risky behaviors of human contact, and if left unattended and untreated, leaves a path of destruction an devastation of monumental proportions. HIV/AIDS dramatically leads to long struggles and concerns for human rights and end-of-life (EOL) care.

The purpose of this …

Development Of A Toolkit For Implementation And Evaluation Of The "Hug Your Baby" Program In A Non-Profit Community Setting, Kati Elizabeth Hughes

Dissertations

The use of an implementation Toolkit to reliably translate evidenced based programs into community health provides stability and reliability to the organizations that utilize them. This is important in the realm of implementation science, as reliability improves the chance of continued program sustainability. The HUG Workshop Toolkit provides community outreach organization with the needed materials to implement the HUG Your Baby program in the community. The toolkit developed increased organization volunteer's confidence to teach the HUG Your Baby programin the community and increased parental attendance in an evidenced based parenting program. The use of an implementation Toolkit to reliably …

Emerging Pathways: A Teacher/Researcher's Reflexive Journey Implementing Literacy-Based Science Interventions With Adolescent English Language Learners, Jeffrey Mihlon

Dissertations

This study explored the impact of instructional interventions with four Middle School English Language Learners in Science. The initial focus was to determine the impact of explicit academic vocabulary instruction, including cognates, and small-group guided discussions in order to facilitate the acquisition of cognates, academic vocabulary, and comprehension of scientific concepts. To accomplish this, various methods were implemented to gather data: observational and reflective field notes, a cognate-circling task, along with group and individual interviews. Upon the initial data analysis, an emerging question surfaced which added an additional dimension to the research, and shed light on the complexity of the …

History From The Middle: The Student Interpreters Corps And Imagined American Economic Imperialism In China, 1902-1941, Nathaniel Alexander Davis

Dissertations

The project of American economic imperialism in China during the first half of the twentieth century was first and foremost an imagined enterprise. This dissertation examines the role of the Student Interpreters Corps (SIC) in this endeavor. Studying language-trained intermediaries, this treatment is a first step towards studying history with an approach that is neither top-down nor bottom-up but rather middle-outward. Examining hitherto neglected personnel records and State Department correspondence, this study reveals the SIC as part of an imagined but unsuccessful program of economic imperialism. Although effective in garnering American business interest and support for Foreign Service reform and …

An Investigation Of English Learning Of A Sample Of Students Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing And English Learners And A Sample Of Students Who Are English Learners, Sharon J. Becker

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the English learning of a sample of students who are deaf or hard of hearing and English learners (DHH EL) and a sample of students who are English learners (EL). The English language learning of four students who were DHH EL and four students who were EL was explored through a multiple-case study using cross-case analysis. Additional participants who supported the language learning of the students included seven culturally and linguistically diverse teachers (CLD), two teachers of the deaf (TOD), and one audiologist. In this qualitative study, observations, interviews, and artifacts were …

Investigation Into The Application Of Personality Insights And Language Tone Analysis In Spam Classification, Colm Mcgetrick

Dissertations

Due to its persistence spam remains as one of the biggest problems facing users and suppliers of email communication services. Machine learning techniques have been very successful at preventing many spam mails from arriving in user mailboxes, however they still account for over 50% of all emails sent. Despite this relative success the economic cost of spam has been estimated as high as $50 billion in 2005 and more recently at $20 billion so spam can still be considered a considerable problem. In essence a spam email is a commercial communication trying to entice the receiver to take some positive …

“Their Whole World At School”: Portraits Of Students, Their Teacher, And Emerging Culture In A Middle School Newcomer Program, Megan Finney Edmiston

Dissertations

This dissertation utilizes ethnographic and portraiture as complementary methodologies to explore the individual and group cultures of emergent multilingual immigrant students in a public middle school newcomer program. Research questions focus on how these students negotiate their multiple identities individually and collectively. Postmodernism and a critical perspective form the conceptual framework to support the theoretical lenses of Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogy and Sociocultural Positioning Theory. Six newcomer students and the newcomer teacher are explored through individual portraits and through five emergent themes shared among the group in their constructed newcomer cohort culture. Results suggest greater recognition of the differences among newcomer …

Affective Domain Learning In High-Fidelity Simulation: Students’ Perspectives, Ketty M. Holt

Dissertations

Affective domain learning is an integral element to developing nursing students who can provide holistic, patient-centered nursing care. Often an invisible objective in nursing education, affective learning is rarely described beyond the first two levels of the domain: receiving and responding. In this phenomenological inquiry, the experiences of undergraduate nursing students, while participating in high-fidelity simulation, were examined and described for affective domain learning. In addition, this study compared the descriptions of third- and fourth-year students in an effort to understand the progressive nature of affective learning. Twenty-five third- and fourth-year students from the baccalaureate nursing programs of two universities, …

Identity Management Politics In Glocalized English Hegemony: Cultural Struggles, Facework Strategies, And Intercultural Relationships In Taiwanese English Education, Hsun-Yu Chuang

Dissertations

The globalization of the English language has rendered both positive and negative impacts to countries around the world. With the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the English language, many non-native-English-speaking (NNES hereafter) people and countries have shown growing interests in teaching and learning English. Some governments of these NNES countries have decided to implement “English” as a mandatory school subject into their compulsory curriculum in order to “connect with the world” and/or to increase their nation’s international image. However, in these NNES countries, English often does not hold official capacity and is taught as a foreign language (EFL). Although English (language) education …

Beijing Opera Elements In Qigang Chen’S Piano Concerto Er Huang, Funa Wang

Dissertations

Beijing opera (known as jingju in Chinese) dates back to 1790 and is the most famous traditional Chinese regional opera of some 335 different styles, combining music, vocal performance, dance, and acrobatics. Originally considered vulgar by the court, Beijing opera became especially popular with the Qing dynasty court in its later days (1884-1910), thus raising its status at the beginning of the twentieth century to a ‘national opera.’ Furthermore, it has become an important nationalistic and traditional element in Chinese contemporary music.

Qigang Chen studied and lived in Europe for long time and is proficient in Western compositional techniques. On …

Pragmatic Understanding Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Use Of A Two-Way Communication System, Pepper Reid Hanna

Dissertations

Pragmatics focuses on how a communication system is used to achieve a communicative goal, the social context of the communication, and the organizational structure of communications (Horn & Ward, 2004; McLaughlin, 1998). There is evidence of pragmatics within animal communication systems. For example, context appears to be an important component in both signal production and a receiver’s response in vervet monkeys (Seyfarth et al. 1980).

MA Thesis: http://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/170/

The current study used an underwater keyboard to establish a two-way communication system between humans and dolphins. The purpose of this study was to determine if, under these conditions, dolphins displayed pragmatic …

A Comparative Study Teaching Chemistry Using The 5e Learning Cycle And Traditional Teaching With A Large English Language Learner Population In A Middle School Setting, Cynthia Nicole Mcwright

Dissertations

For decades science educators and educational institutions have been concerned with the status of science content being taught in K-12 schools and the delivery of the content. Thus, educational reformers in the United States continue to strive to solve the problem on how to best teach science for optimal success in learning. The constructivist movement has been at the forefront of this effort. With mandatory testing nationwide and an increase in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs with little workforce to fulfill these needs, the question of what to teach and how to teach science remains a concern among …

The Idiosyncratic Language Of Brazilian Music: Strategies For Performing Villa-Lobos Choros No. 10, Dennis Paz Leoni

Dissertations

Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Choros No. 10 is a composition with many cultural and symbolic inclusions. This work seeks to support a conductor’s informed performance of the piece by providing historical and technical context from the conductor’s life and influences. The first section examines the ethnographic and sociopolitical factors in Brazil during the conductor’s life, and then the personal influences on Villa-Lobos’ career, in order to establish the foundation for a section-by-section analysis of the work which illuminates the idiosyncratic nature of the composer’s masterpiece.

Exploring The Rhizomatic Literacy Practices Of Uae High Schools, Mona Humaid Abdulrahim Aljanahi

Dissertations

New trends in literacy studies shifted their focus from looking at the consequences and gains of literacy to examining its uses by various cultural groups. These new trends try to situate literacy practices in different spheres and contexts as literacy varies across cultural, social, individuals, geographical, and historical timeframes. Wittingly, some scholars argue that the field of education seems to have downplayed the development of adolescents’ literacies since major literacy projects and initiatives seem to favor either child’s early and emergent literacy or remediated adults. This study tried to trace the myriad of literacy practices of high school students at …

(Re)Storying Ferguson: Youth Voices And Literate Lives, Katherine O'Daniels

Dissertations

This dissertation reports on a collaborative action research study conducted with Sioux Roslawski, a third-grade teacher in a Ferguson, Missouri elementary school. Sioux and I wondered how students might use words, images, and actions to shape a vision of their community space and its future in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting. Situated within a critical-spatial and sociocultural paradigm, placemaking stems from understandings of place as culturally produced and interpreted, and, thus, capable of being re-designed in the interest of equity and social justice. The research methodology was guided by a critical qualitative and ethnographic approach, coupled with critical …

Exploring The Use Of Technology To Support Literacy Of Sixth Grade Students With Reading Disabilities, Jaime R. Inman

Dissertations

University of Missouri-St. Louis

College of Education

Ed.D. Learning Community of Practice

Curriculum and Instruction

Exploring the Use of Technology to Support Literacy of Sixth Grade Students with Reading Disabilities

Jaime R. Ball-Inman

Abstract

The degree to which the utilization of technology supports the academic achievement of sixth grade students with reading disabilities was examined using a quantitative research design. The data analysis involved the results from the Educational Technology Assessment Program to measure achievement. The Standardized Test for the Assessment of Reading (STAR) provided 2015-2016 scores regarding academic accomplishment of middle school students with reading disabilities. The central research …

A Mixed-Methods Study Of English Language Learners' Academic Achievements In A Spanish Language Immersion School, Ibtihal Salman

Dissertations

English Language Learners (ELLs) represent the fastest growing population in the public-school community in the United States (U.S.), where their academic achievements lag behind their native English-speaking peers. English Language Learners’ academic achievement gap has raised a challenging issue for U.S. educators. A convergent parallel mixed-methods study was conducted to 1) compare English Language learners’ academic achievements (mathematics and English Language Arts [ELA] scores) to non-ELLs’ academic achievements (mathematics and ELA scores) in a one-way Spanish immersion school in the Midwestern United States; 2) examine the impact of using Spanish as an instructional tool on English Language Learners’ (ELLs) academic …

Right Hemisphere Capacities For Word-Finding: Bilateral Modulation Of Event-Related Potentials In Healthy Adults And Adults With Aphasia, Amanda C. Alton

Dissertations

Language tasks are typically lateralized to the language dominant left hemisphere in healthy right-handed adults. Additionally, lesions in left frontotemporal areas typically result in a variety of language impairments called aphasia. Interestingly, increased activation in right cerebral regions homologous to left side lesions has been observed in patients with aphasia during word-finding tasks. The neural mechanism and the impact on word-finding remain unclear. There are two competing theories concerning compensatory right hemisphere activation. One view is that the right hemisphere plays a supportive role, taking over functions of the damaged left hemisphere. The other perspective is that rightward laterality is …

Repercussive Discrimination: Racial Discrimination As An Explanation Of Prevalent Homophobia Among Racial Minorities, Timothy E. Lewis

Dissertations

Generally, attitudes in the United States towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons have become more favorable in recent years. Obviously, examining the politics of LGBTI persons and attitudes towards them is important considering that this demographic may account for 10% of the U.S. population; but a more inconspicuous reason it that examinations provide insight into the political landscape of how political minorities address various issues and interests. However, in studying public opinion towards gays and lesbians it is discovered that racial minorities, particularly African-Americans, generally possess negative attitudes to LGBTI persons and possess higher percentages of homophobic …

The Effect Of Professional Learning Activities On Implementation Of California’S Quality Professional Learning Standards In Alignment With The Local Control Funding Formula Priority 2, Sadie Pinotti

Dissertations

The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the professional learning activities that experts perceive are necessary for local education agencies (LEAs) to effectively implement California’s Quality Professional Learning Standards (QPLS) in alignment with the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Priority 2. The study also examined the degree of importance that the identified professional learning activities will have and those most likely to be implemented. This study involved descriptive statistics using a Delphi study method. The Delphi panel consisted of 18 experts in the field of education and professional learning activities. The Delphi study consisted of 3 rounds of …

Statistical Learning Methods For Mining Marketing And Biological Data, Jie Zhang

Dissertations

Nowadays, the value of data has been broadly recognized and emphasized. More and more decisions are made based on data and analysis rather than solely on experience and intuition. With the fast development of networking, data storage, and data collection capacity, data have increased dramatically in industry, science and engineering domains, which brings both great opportunities and challenges. To take advantage of the data flood, new computational methods are in demand to process, analyze and understand these datasets.

This dissertation focuses on the development of statistical learning methods for online advertising and bioinformatics to model real world data with temporal …

Using Collaborative Discussions In College Classrooms, Komako Suzuki

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to investigate whether an open-format, small group discussion approach, Collaborative Reasoning (CR), positively affects the English language development of college English as Second Language (ESL) students. According to Zhang and Dougherty Stahl (2011), CR is an approach to discussion that makes use of small groups and is designed to encourage students to become more intellectually and personally engaged.

In order to measure the effectiveness of the CR approach in English classes with ESL students, data were collected from the six classrooms at an international English language institute at a university in the southeastern …

The Influence Of Culture On The Use Of Healthcare Services By Refugees In Southcentral Kentucky: A Mixed Study, Chika N. Ejike

Dissertations

The world as a global village has become a ubiquitous trope in the popular discourse, and Bowling Green, Kentucky, with its substantial immigrant population, may be considered an exemplar of this idealized community. It has become an ideal location for research regarding the challenges faced by immigrants. Due to the diverse cultural identities of the refugee/immigrant population, it is particularly well suited for studies into complex culturally dependent healthcare utilization patterns.

The central research question for the study was as follows: What are the healthcare-seeking behavioral patterns (as influenced by culture) among refugees at their nearest healthcare facilities? This mixed …

From Descendants Of Refugees To First-Generation College Students: The Untold Story Of Southeast Asian American College Students’ Lived Experience, Vunsin Hiew Doubblestein

Dissertations

Aggregate data on Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) may show APAs to have exceptionally high educational attainment and economic mobility compared to other racial groups (Museus & Buenavista, 2016). In reality, various APA sub-groups face significant obstacles to academic access and success and are found at both the highest and lowest levels of the achievement, as well as educational attainment and income spectrums. In spite of the growing awareness of and scholarship on the complexity of APA student experience in higher education, there is limited research on Southeast Asian Americans (SEAAs) who have come to the U.S. as refugees, the circumstances …

The Effect Of A Promotora-Guided Educational Intervention And Partner Presence In Improving Condom Use Self-Efficacy Amongst Partnered Latino Adults, Shirley Ann Levenson

Dissertations

This study examined the effect of a promotora guided educational intervention in order to improve condom use within the Latino community. Effective and culturally appropriate strategies for promoting condom use within the Hispanic/Latino community in the United States are needed urgently because of the high prevalence of infection with unwanted pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases in the Hispanic/Latino groups.

This was a quasi-experimental two-group pretest-posttest study. The treatment group received an educational intervention that was conducted in English and Spanish in a closed classroom setting. Data were compared among the women entered at the 10 …

Perceptions Of Missouri Public School Early Childhood Teachers And Administrators In Regard To Technology And Current Practices, Lara Jean Wilbur

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of Missouri public school early childhood teachers and administrators in regard to technology and current practices. If educators have not analyzed their current perceptions regarding technology, they may not use developmentally appropriate technology practices with students (Dietze & Kashin, 2013). According to Anderkin (2015), the position statement from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning offers guidance for developmentally appropriate technology practices in early childhood. Participants in this study were asked interview questions to determine their perceptions of technology in …

An Empirical Look At The Impact Of Course And Faculty Characteristics On Student Evaluations, Travis J. Degheri

Dissertations

Student evaluations of college instructors are anything but a new phenomenon, having been used since the early 1900s. Today, universities around the world continue to use student evaluations as a means for measuring instructor effectiveness. Despite concerns of student objectivity, at many institutions these evaluations have a sizable influence on decisions involving faculty promotion, tenure, and merit salary increases. While there is much literature examining student evaluations, few studies have provided a longitudinal, multi-discipline exploration of the impact course and faculty characteristics have on student evaluations.

To address this gap in the literature, this study used publically available data collected …