Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating Middle School English Language Learners’ Science And Literacy Proficiency, Yasemin Ozkaya

Dissertations

The academic success and English proficiency of ELL students are receiving more attention as a result of the growing number of ELL students and the demand for accountability and assessment in education. It is widely accepted that ELL students struggle on state standardized tests because they lack the cognitive academic language abilities needed to succeed on extensive subject evaluations (Thakkar, 2013). According to Abedi and Dietel, ELLs' academic performance lags behind that of other segments of population, and the attainment gap reduces only slightly over time (2004).

The NWEA archival data of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who attended …

Softening Corners: How A Carefully Considered Hospitality Operation Impacted An Educational Institution, Jennie Moran

Dissertations

Enter quickly, as I am afraid of my happiness!

(Derrida, 2000, p.131)

This research project is an attempt to bridge the gap between the philosophical ideals of hospitality and the hospitality industry, by examining how a carefully considered hospitality operation impacted an educational institution over the course of eight years. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that the application of the philosophical ideals to a commercial hospitality setting yielded profoundly positive results. The primary research was compiled by the author conducting a case study of her own food business, Luncheonette which was located in the National College of …

Missed And Prior Diagnoses In Children Later Diagnosed With Autism, Maire Diemer

Dissertations

Awareness of autism is rising, yet social determinants of health continue to impact rates, ages of diagnosis, and diagnostic load. Different psychiatric labels carry stigmas; unequal rates of diagnoses may indicate biases in the healthcare system. This study investigates six prior diagnoses (ADHD, disorders of conduct, adjustment, anxiety, mood, and intellectual disability) assigned to children who are later diagnosed with autism. The study investigates how race, sex, and geographic factors were associated with age of diagnosis and diagnostic load. This study utilized a sample of 13,850 children aged 2-10 who were diagnosed with autism on Missouri Medicaid between 2015 and …

Deciphering Description: A Study Of The Works Of Joseph Conrad, Autumn Pearson

Dissertations

This project analyzes Conrad’s use of description in his narratives in light of the 1897 Preface to ‘Narcissus.’ Conrad’s elevation of description stands in contrast to Gérard Genette’s account of narrative theory but within the space Mieke Bal makes for the reconsideration of description within the theory. Narrative theory provides the terminology for specific narrative moments in which Conradian description can be analyzed—the narrative opening, the narrative pause, and various narrative levels. In addition to analyzing Conradian works, the project traces the evolution of Conrad’s thinking about description throughout the course of his career and invites the reader to rethink …

Improving Second Language Learning Through Performance-Based Assessment Practices, Maria Granados

Dissertations

From the time of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) to the present day, standardized testing has become the benchmark measure for student assessment and school accountability in the United States. Multilingual learners are a vulnerable population with more testing and accountability requirements than mainstream students. Not only are they required to learn a second language, but they are also assessed within the same standardized testing paradigms as their peers - native speakers of the English language. This study aimed to examine and evaluate the benefits of instructional practices and assessments that provide multilingual students and teachers prompt and …

Exploring The Strengths Within And Supports Needed For Women To Transition From Homelessness To Stability: A Strengths-Focused Mixed-Methods Study, Ann Smith

Dissertations

Homelessness is a real problem affecting many individuals with basic needs, and more than half of the people unhoused at any given time in the United States (US) are part of families with children. This mixed-method study examined the perspectives of mothers who experienced homelessness in the past in the US to understand the strength and support needed to transition back into a permanent home. The study then explored the perspectives of homeless service providers (HSPs) whose careers involve providing recommendations to unhoused individuals on how to balance their needs with supportive services. The qualitative narrative study consisted of a …

The Impact Of Culturally Responsive Teaching On The Achievement Of African American Students, Jessica Clark

Dissertations

Culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogical practice that incorporates cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of culturally responsive teaching on the academic achievement of African American students. The context of this inquiry is at a minority-majority Title I high school within a large urban school district. The district and evaluation school previously adopted a culturally responsive teaching initiative. My mixed-method study captures the quantitative performance of students within the school in teachers' classrooms using culturally responsive …

Racial Identity Within The Indo-Caribbean Community: A Proposed Model, Alyssa Ramdihal

Dissertations

Part of the South Asian diaspora, the Indo-Caribbean community is a particularly marginalized minority community as a result of colonialism. Indo-Caribbeans are only considered the majority ethnic group in the country of Guyana, where there is a high rate of suicide mostly among Indo-Caribbean men who view it as a behavioral expression of emotional distress. From the research available, the Indo-Caribbean experience of mental health access in the Caribbean is limited due to improper collection and reporting of demographic information. Indo-Caribbeans who were raised from a young age or born outside of the Caribbean community region, often experience discrimination and …

Effect Of Collaborative Pre-Task Planning On The Writing Quality Of Intermediate Efl Learners Within The Task-Based Language Teaching Approach, Osama Naeem Alzoubi

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the collaborative pre-task planning taking place prior to writing within the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) framework. The primary aim of this dissertation is to examine how providing time for PTP, considered as a problemsolving activity, has the potential to more positively enhance L2 writers’ performance and motivation to write than writing tasks performed with no planning time. Through a mixed methods experimental design, intermediate school students were distributed into a control and experimental group and conducted a pre-test and post-test to enable the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data over a ten-week period. The actual writing …

Stream-Evolving Bot Detection Framework Using Graph-Based And Feature-Based Approaches For Identifying Social Bots On Twitter, Eiman Alothali

Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the problem of evolving social bots in online social networks, particularly Twitter. Such accounts spread misinformation and inflate social network content to mislead the masses. The main objective of this dissertation is to propose a stream-based evolving bot detection framework (SEBD), which was constructed using both graph- and feature-based models. It was built using Python, a real-time streaming engine (Apache Kafka version 3.2), and our pretrained model (bot multi-view graph attention network (Bot-MGAT)). The feature-based model was used to identify predictive features for bot detection and evaluate the SEBD predictions. The graph-based model was used to …

Focus On Form In Peer Collaborative Dialogues In An Omani Efl Context, Sheikha Ali Al-Buraiki

Dissertations

It is well established that classroom interaction and peer learning are essential aspects of the learning process. Thus, it is crucial to incorporate classroom peer interaction into second language learning situations. Drawing on sociocultural theory (SCT), the present study explored students’ focus on form while collaboratively completing pair/group activities and investigated the students’ and teacher’s perceptions of and attitudes towards focusing on the formal properties of the language during peer interaction in their regular English lessons. The research data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively using the following instruments: students’ recorded audio dialogues, a students’ survey, and a teacher’s interview. One …

التطور اللغوي في العربية المعاصرة من خلال باب الأدوات (تحقيقات في ضوء مقولة الخطأ والصواب ومقاربات في التفسير), خالد حسین دلكي

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Wiki-Enhanced Tblt Approach On High School Students’ Writing Skill In A Boys’ Public School In Al Ain, Uae, Abdullah Mahmoud Taha

Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of the wiki-enhanced task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach on students’ writing skill in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In addition, it explored the students’ and teacher’s views and perceptions toward the implementation of the wiki-enhanced TBLT approach. The study data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively from two classrooms in a public high school in the UAE, which consisted of 30 students. The quantitative data were collected via a pretest–posttest design from the two assigned groups of students: the control and experimental groups. The qualitative data …

Ai Approaches To Understand Human Deceptions, Perceptions, And Perspectives In Social Media, Chih-Yuan Li

Dissertations

Social media platforms have created virtual space for sharing user generated information, connecting, and interacting among users. However, there are research and societal challenges: 1) The users are generating and sharing the disinformation 2) It is difficult to understand citizens' perceptions or opinions expressed on wide variety of topics; and 3) There are overloaded information and echo chamber problems without overall understanding of the different perspectives taken by different people or groups.

This dissertation addresses these three research challenges with advanced AI and Machine Learning approaches. To address the fake news, as deceptions on the facts, this dissertation presents Machine …

Mapping Programs To Equations, Hessamaldin Mohammadi

Dissertations

Extracting the function of a program from a static analysis of its source code is a valuable capability in software engineering; at a time when there is increasing talk of using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to generate software from natural language specifications, it becomes increasingly important to determine the exact function of software as written, to figure out what AI has understood the natural language specification to mean. For all its criticality, the ability to derive the domain-to-range function of a program has proved to be an elusive goal, due primarily to the difficulty of deriving the function of iterative statements. …

Deep Hybrid Modeling Of Neuronal Dynamics Using Generative Adversarial Networks, Soheil Saghafi

Dissertations

Mechanistic modeling and machine learning methods are powerful techniques for approximating biological systems and making accurate predictions from data. However, when used in isolation these approaches suffer from distinct shortcomings: model and parameter uncertainty limit mechanistic modeling, whereas machine learning methods disregard the underlying biophysical mechanisms. This dissertation constructs Deep Hybrid Models that address these shortcomings by combining deep learning with mechanistic modeling. In particular, this dissertation uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to provide an inverse mapping of data to mechanistic models and identifies the distributions of mechanistic model parameters coherent to the data.

Chapter 1 provides background information on …

The Lived Experience Of Patients With Clostridioides Difficile, Andrea Scherschel

Dissertations

Background: Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is the most common healthcare-acquired gastrointestinal infection in the United States. While there is a plethora of information on the treatment and diagnosis of C. difficile infection (CDI) in the literature, there is a paucity of research findings describing the lived experience of a person with the disease.

Objective: This study described the lived experience of patients who have had one or more CDIs.

Lines of Inquiry: There were two lines of inquiry for this study: (1) Describe the lived experience of having a CDI, and (2) determine if photo-elicitation as a research modality enhanced …

Nurse Practitioner's Perspectives On Human Trafficking In The Emergency Department; A Narrative Inquiry, Ann Gerhart

Dissertations

Background: Human trafficking (HT) is a global and domestic concern that impacts individuals, families, and communities. Over the last ten years, HT has become a significant public health concern intersecting with the health care community in various settings. HT abuse and oppression have both short- and long-term health consequences. Approximately 50 to 88% of trafficked individuals visit a health care provider, and 63% of those visits are evaluated in the emergency department (ED). Nurse practitioners (NPs) working in the ED interact with HT individuals but have not been represented in recent research scholarship.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative …

Audacious Corazón: A Nuanced Art Of Care, Dianne Bermudez Torres

Dissertations

Historically, the concept of care in higher education has focused on academic achievements, neglecting the significance of building meaningful relationships between faculty and students that engage both affective and cognitive dimensions (Noddings, 1994). Teaching with the heart, or corazón, embodies care in teaching. Employed in this study was a mixed-methods, exploratory case study approach that explored the intricate art of care and how faculty foster bilingual authorization credential teacher candidates to evolve into culturally responsive educators. Pearson et al.’s (2021) cariño pedagogy serves as a model that empowers faculty’s humanizing agency. Additionally, the study also reflected on the concept of …

Racism Without Race: The Racialization Of Middle Eastern And North African Students At U.S. Colleges, Hannah Mesouani

Dissertations

Although a growing body of literature covers the experiences of international students at U.S. colleges, the stories of those who do not fit into the U.S. racial schema remain untold. This study examined how Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) students understood their racial identities given the United States’ tense history with Islam and the MENA world. Using foundational texts on critical race theory, current scholarship on Arab Americans and foreign-born students, and facets of the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS), this study examined the experiences of MENA students who study amid a national backdrop of xenophobia and racialized Islamophobia. This …

Talking Back To The Elpac: Resilient Resistance And (Re)Imagining Through Ypart, Zulema Reynoso

Dissertations

Policies that label and track students based on language and race dismiss the voices and lived experiences of English learners (ELs) through forced fits and ideologies that devalue multiple languaging and ways of knowing. This qualitative study explores how an educator and 20 seventh-grade bi/multilingual Latinx students labeled long-term English learners (LTELs) reimagined how language is perceived, taught, and assessed across traditional schooling contexts and language policy landscapes. Drawing from LatCrit theory, Latina/Chicana feminisms, and dimensions of youth participatory action research (YPAR), this study centered both LTELs as jóvenes educados (dignified youth) and a conceptualized taller (studio space) to affirm …

Queering Healthcare Equity: Exploring How Two Community Health Centers That Specialize In Lgbtq Healthcare Frame Cultural Competence, Tommy Royston

Dissertations

Despite increased advocacy and funding, significant inequities in healthcare access, quality of care, and health outcomes have continued to persist for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ) communities. Intersecting marginalized identities such as race, gender, and disability compound health inequities faced by LGBTQ folx. These inequities are not random; rather, they result from deeply embedded homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and racism that pervade the U.S. healthcare system. An exploratory comparative case study was completed using qualitative data collection methods (i.e., key informant interviews, focus groups, and document analysis) to investigate how two California-based Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that specialize in …

Equalizing Postsecondary Transition For At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services: A Chance To Succeed, Karla R. Sanchez

Dissertations

Postsecondary transition can be difficult for At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services (APYRSES). Special educators supporting postsecondary transition often manifest traditional and institutionalized forms of oppressive education while dismissing collective values and beliefs.

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs and attitudes shared by three special education teachers after being introduced to a justice-focused, humanizing intervention to facilitate postsecondary transition for APYRSES. The conceptualized intervention was grounded in liberatory educational frameworks and drew from critical, culturally affirming, sustaining, and humanizing theories that foster cultural reciprocity, self-determination skills, and antiracist social–emotional justice learning to afford opportunities for APYRSES to succeed. The …

Analysis Of One Secondary School's Support Systems For Aspiring First-Generation Latinx College Students: A Case Study, Tiffany Cunningham

Dissertations

U.S. Census Bureau Report (2020c) showed Hispanic students constituted 18.5% of the U.S. population, 36% attended higher education and only 14% completed postsecondary education. Research has shown Hispanic, specifically Latinx, students faced barriers in accessing higher education’s hidden curriculum, compounded by deficit beliefs about their language, culture, and lack of family involvement (Kiyama, 2018; C. Martinez & Mendoza, 2020). Additionally, first-generation college students require college readiness skills, including specialized knowledge about college and measurable and immeasurable skills shown to support student success in college (Chlup et al., 2018; Duncheon, 2021; Morley et al., 2021). Despite secondary school supports like college …

High Leverage Professional Development Topics That Support The Retention Of Special Educators, Meggan Lokken

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine how experienced special education teachers rate and describe the importance of professional development topics identified as high leverage practices in special education by Council for Exceptional Children and CEEDAR Center at helping them perform their teaching jobs, and to determine how the ratings of the different groups (preschool, elementary, middle, high school, and adult transition grade level ranges) compare to one another.

Methodology: The current study is a mixed-method descriptive comparative design, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative survey methodology. A quantitative approach will be used to rate experienced special educator’s …

The Speech-Language Pathologist & Emotional Labor, Stress, And Compassion Fatigue, Patricia Martin

Dissertations

Employees in service professions often utilize emotional labor strategies. The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) experiences regarding emotional labor and the extent to which emotional labor is possibly related to job stress, compassion satisfaction, and compassion fatigue. This study also considered the SLPs’ occupational settings in relationship to emotional labor.

A pilot study was conducted and minor revisions were made to the instrument prior to the final study. The researcher collected and analyzed data using an online survey comprised of three validated instruments, ELS, SLPSI, and ProQOL-5. The participants were 270 certified speech-language pathologists …

Haramed And Dangerous: A Thematic Examination Of Muslim Women’S Representation In We Are Lady Parts, Reham Bohamad

Dissertations

Since the early days of Western media, Muslim women have been portrayed in a negative way. From belly dancers to oil-rich horny sheikhs to voiceless passive wives of terrorists. This image has led the Western spectator to associate Islam and the Muslim women’s headscarf (Hijab) with backwardness, extremism, and oppression. In recent years, there has been a positive shift towards a more inclusive and authentic representation of Muslim women. This shift is the result of the post-network era which provides on-demand media outlets that challenge the dominant hegemonic production system and provide diverse and inclusive images that cater to niche …

A Critical Analysis Of Political And Media Discourse On Immigration During The Trump Era, Daleana Phillips

Dissertations

This research examines political and media discourse on Immigration through four studies: Trump’s immigration reform speech, newspaper coverage of DACA, a Saturday Night Live episode, and social media via #ColoradoBorderWall memes. Various critical cultural theoretical frameworks are used within critical discourse and textual analysis is to examine media and political rhetoric about immigrants and immigration policy during a period of drastic institutional political change evidenced by Trump’s administration. As a collective, these narratives examine how Trump’s rhetoric and populist style of communication demonstrate a return to restrictive immigration rhetoric not witnessed in a presidential administration since the 1920s. This research …

An Exploration Of Faculty-To-Faculty Bullying In Nursing Education: The Prevalence, Who Is Bullying Whom, And Intent To Leave, Pamela Kemp

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study, drawn from a nationwide sample with 1,407 responses, examines faculty-to-faculty bullying and incivility in nursing education. It assesses the prevalence of bullying and incivility within the organization, identifies the most commonly occurring bullying behaviors, and identifies and ranks the most frequently occurring uncivil workplace behaviors. The study also examines the relationship between bullying, incivility, and intent to leave the organization.

Research tools include the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R), the Workplace Incivility/Civility Scale (WICS), and the Turnover Intention Scale-6 (TIS 6). The analysis includes an evaluation of significant differences in which faculty members are targets of bullying or …

The Impact Of A Culturally Responsive Approach In Science Education On Kindergarten Students, Monique Hite-Patterson

Dissertations

Classrooms today are more ethnically and linguistically diverse. Unfortunately, students of color demonstrate a history of marginalized educational inequities (Williamson et al., 2007). These marginalized educational inequities impact academic achievement across all content areas especially literacy, math, and science. To improve the academic performance of students who are culturally, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse, methods of instruction and pedagogy that better facilitate learning among diverse student populations must be instituted (Ladson-Billings, 2005). A mixed methods study was conducted in response to the need to examine the impact of using culturally responsive strategies on kindergarten student’s attitudes towards science and their …